Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

OSCE OFFICE CO-HOSTS CONFERENCE ON RETURN AND REINTEGRATION OF MIGRANTS IN ARMENIA
A1+
[05:20 pm] 03 April, 2006
YEREVAN, 3 April 2006 – Support for sustainable return and
reintegration through economic development will be the focus of a
conference that opens tomorrow in Yerevan.
The two-day event, “Return and Reintegration: Meeting the Economic
Challenges of Displacement,” is organized by the OSCE Office in
Yerevan and the Danish Refugee Council, in partnership with the United
Nations. It will bring together over 150 participants, including
government officials, representatives of the micro-finance sector,
the international community, as well as NGOs.
“There is much to be done to ensure the sustainable return of migrants
and help them integrate into society,” said Blanka Hancilova, the
Office’s Democratization Officer.
“The economic factor plays a key role in this respect.
That is why we will be discussing opportunities that the micro-finance
sector may create for returnees.
This conference should help better co-ordinate the efforts of the
international community, civil society and the national authorities
to address the needs of returnees and migration-related issues in
general.”
From: Baghdasarian

MONEY LAUNDERING IN ACADEMY
Lragir.am
03 April 06
Academician Henry Nersisyan, the director of the Fundamental Scientific
Library of the National Acаdemy of Sciences, gave the first news
conference in his life on April 3 to state that his 13 accusations
against the president of the National Academy of Sciences Fadey
Sargsyan are still there, and he continues the struggle for the sake of
the academy: “We need fundamental changes. We cannot go on like this.”
Henry Nersisyan had prepared for the news conference as a scientist
would do. The speaker had 8 thick folders at hand, he distributed
30 pages of information and facts to news reporters, spoke for over
an hour, and as a scientist, only in the end did he conclude that
“the policy conducted by Fadey Sargsyan has led to a terrible
situation.” Henry Nersisyan divides his accusations into four
groups. Each accusations is based on facts.
The worst violation of the bylaws of the National Academy. The
election to the members of the Academy must be held every years, but
the elections are not held regularly. There has been no election since
2000. A general meeting should be held twice or three times a year,
but it is held only once a year. Fadey Sargsyan has set up a bureau,
which makes decisions, and these are applied without being ratified
by the presidency. Henry Nersisyan goes farther. According to him, on
March 12, 2004 Fadey Sargsyan was not reelected, because no election
was held on that day. “There were three questions on the agenda of the
annual general meeting of the National Academy of Sciences on March
12, 2004: the report of the President of the NAS Fadey Sargsyan, the
report of the Vice President Vladimir Barkhudaryan, and discussion
of the report. Later the academicians were invited to another hall
to vote. And they elected Fadey Sargsyan. The academicians were not
aware of this.”
Financial breaches are greater in number. Henry Nersisyan says about
40-50 million drams out of the sum provided for the honorariums of
academicians is saved. “The government allocates for 137 people,
about 90 receive it.” Fadey Sargsyan declines to say what happens to
this 50 million, although Henry Nersisyan has inquired for a number
of times. Not having the consent and awareness of Henry Nersisyan, the
presidency of the Academy of Sciences has leased the space, belonging
to the library. It does not have such a right, for the library is
a state non-profit organization. Moreover, Henry Nersisyan does not
know where the rent for the space belonging to the organization he
heads goes. He does not know because Fadey Sargsyan would not tell him.
There are also problems connected with government funding. The
institutes with a staff of 130-135 people annually receive 40 million
drams. And the presidency of the Academy of Sciences, which is a
“managing body and does not do scientific research,” annually gets 130
million drams and additionally 40-50 million drams. Fadey Sargsyan
would not say where these additional millions go. He does not say
either where the means of the fund of the president of the Academy
of Sciences – 17.5 million drams – goes. It is obvious that these
sums are not spent for the academy. Only 30 million is allocated
for equipment and apparatus. Not a cent was added to these from the
additional funds. What is more, the library headed by Henry Nersisyan
will get less funding this year than last year. Instead, the sums
that arrive under the name “special projects” go to Fadey Sargsyan’s
friends and relatives: Vice President of the NAS Yuri Shukuryan
gets 18 million, the medical genetic center with only 16 workers,
headed by Fadey Sargsyan’s daughter Tamara, receives 35 million. All
the construction in the academy over the past 10 years was carried
out by the same company Akunkshin, no tenders were held. “Expensive
and low-quality building is carried out. There is enough ground to
suggest that money is laundered.”
–Boundary_(ID_GIf2dsmcNuCVp3UAyR1T8Q )–
From: Baghdasarian

GAME OF MUSICAL CHAIRS IN ARMENIANS SAGA
Plainly speaking MWANGI Muiruri
Kenya Times, Kenya
April 1 2006
Unless pigs have wings, all of our political parties are a big joke,
disappointing and outrightly undeserving to form any decent government
for the good of this country.
Consequently, we neither have a distinct governing party nor an agenda
driven Opposition. What we have is a distorted breed of parties in
Government and Opposition. The way it is now is that President Mwai
Kibaki is absurdly and ruling us with his whimsical appointments
in total disregard of who was given the majority mandate to be in
Government. In turn, he needlessly faces opposition from a majority
of those who were elected to be with him in Government.
Our political parties are only good at mutating like amoeba.
Evidence? President Kibaki’s men have just abandoned Narc and formed
a new outfit they have baptised Narc-Kenya. The father and mother of
all parties, Kanu, has just given birth to New Kanu. Narc is dead
and has left many orphans, while the Orange Democratic Movement,
a forum formed to crusade for the rejection of the ill-fated Draft
Constitution, has been registered as a political party in Meru. Where
does this leave the real owners and luminaries of original ODM? My
guess is that perhaps they will opt to register ODM-Party-Kenya.
While these parties are launched with a lot of fanfare, they soon
begin to fade out and get hit by wrangles before mutating. And when
an amoeba mutates in a human body, a litany of health complications
attack. One being your physique expressing that fitness characteristic
of a sickly cow.
It is sad that Kenyans are dreaming of these fragmented parties that
they so support are adequate to make their idolised men and women
ascend to state power. Raw reality is; we are helplessly sinking into
a political quagmire courtesy of the comical nature of our political
parties run by political clowns.
Kanu, Liberal Democratic Party, Ford-Kenya, Ford-P and Democratic
Party-the fair major parties in our political horizons are built on
ethnic concepts and are facing uncontrollable internal turmoil. What
their officials are currently doing is to litter the political arena
with a lot of verbal noise, pretending how united they are, yet they
are mutating amoebas.
If it is Kanu, what segment do we support? Uhuru Kenyatta’s, Nicholas
Biwott’s or the Government affiliated Njenga Karume’s faction?
LDP? Raila Odinga’s segment or that subset which pledges loyalty to
President Mwai Kibaki?
Ford-Kenya? Musikari Kombo’s segment or the Mukhisa Kituyi/Newton
Kulundu/ Moses Akaranga rebellious wing?
DP? Is it chairman-Mwai Kibaki- insisting that the party is dead while
his Secretary-General George Nyamweya insisting that it is alive,
healthy and roaring to go?
Yet, talk is rife of alliances to form formidable coalitions. Which
segment merges with which to carry the day? There are suggestions
that the taxpayer should be funding political parties. How will the
splinter groups agree on what wing of the fragments will retain the
signatory rights to the funds?
That is why most of our politicians-Kibaki among them- have resorted
to discern political parties politics in favour of ethnic politics.
The strength of this form of politics is that; while it is impossible
to impose decisions on enlightened party officials, it is very easy
to amass ethnic backing. Instead of political parties merging to
incorporate diversity of Kenyans and their diverse opinions on the
ideological realm, ethnic chiefs simply negotiate with fellow tribal
chiefs to form alliances.
The scenario now forming is Kenya investing on governments built
on tribal strengths. Woe unto you if your tribe is small! One can
argue-as a counter attack- that it is not sheep, cows and goats that
forms these ethnic groups. That at the end of the day we are talking
of people coming together in those tribal alliances that are flattered
to be a coalition. True.
But when you find these people being grouped together through
inter-tribal negotiations, we are talking of ethnicity not the core
doctrines of building ideological political parties. Since these
outfits cannot use a name of a local resident, they assume all those
funny names that hide the tribal factor in which they are founded on.
That is how they escape their real identities are supposed to be
LDP Raila or Tuju, Ford-K Musikari/Kituyi or Kulundu, Kanu Uhuru,
Kanu Biwott, DP Nyamweya and Narc-K Kibaki.
In the face of Kenyans who are notorious for grabbing the newest
and militantly presented political brand in town, these “astute”
politicians resort to sharing our political power behind our backs-in
boardrooms or restaurants where they craft mischievous Memorandums
of Understandings (MoU) they never intend to honour. They base their
sharing on the big tribes getting the lion’s share while the crumbs
go to the smaller communities. Eventually, they come out holding hands
and belting those sweet sounding tosha slogans to the gullible voters.
It is when those power deals start turning sour that you hear our
leaders tearing at each other in public. It then degenerates to
politics of deceit, hypocrisy and confrontations-like what we are
witnessing now. Unfortunately, this is the status quo that our tribal
chiefs will keep taking us through each time we near an election. The
era of un-honoured MoUs and the government of the day being under
siege from a coalition partner have just begun and not in a hurry to
leave us until when a flash of wisdom assaults voters. The amoebic
characteristics of our political parties sadly underlies the fallacy
that is our fledgling multiparty democracy.
From: Baghdasarian

PanARMENIAN.Net
NKR MFA: Karabakh Citizens Have Never Been and Will
Never Be Azerbaijani Citizens
31.03.2006 21:51 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Nagorno Karabakh authorities always supported
NKR participation in the negotiations without preconditions, NKR
MFA information and analytical department told PanARMENIAN.Net. when
commenting on the latest statement by the Azerbaijani FM. “Karabakh
citizens have never been and will never be citizens of Azerbaijan. The
statements by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry are made for home
and do not reflect the real process on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement,” the NR MFA said.
To remind, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated that
“official Baku is ready to hold talks with the Armenian community of
Karabakh if they admit Azerbaijani citizenship and if Armenia comes
out of the negotiation process.”
From: Baghdasarian

LEVON ARONIAN IN 10th PLACE BEFORE LAST TOUR IN “AMBER” TOURNAMENT
Noyan Tapan
Mar 30 2006
MONTE CARLO, MARCH 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The games of the penultimate,
10th tour are over in the “Amber” chess tournament being held in
Monte Carlo.
Representative of Armenia Levon Aronian competed with Indian
chess-player Vishvantan Anand and was defeated with a score of 0.5
to 1.5. The first game by the rules of “blind” chess ended with
Anand’s victory, and the second game by the rules of quick chess was
drawn. Vishvantan Anand is the only leader of the tournament. He
gained 13.5 points out of 20 possible ones. Alexander Morozevich
(Russia, 13 points) is in second place, Francisco Valekho (Spain,
11.5 points) in third palce. L.Aronian gained 8.5 points and takes
tenth place among 12 participants. In the last, 11th tour Aronian
will compete with Pyotr Svidler (Russia).
From: Baghdasarian

AZERBAIJAN SAYS SOLDIER KILLED ON ARMENIAN BORDER
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
March 30 2006
Azerbaijan accused Armenia Thursday of breaking a ceasefire and
responsibility for the death of one of its soldiers on their common
border.
“An Azeri soldier was killed during the habitual violations of the
ceasefire by the Armenian side,” the defence ministry said in Baku.
“Azerbaijan’s positions in the Tovuz region were targeted by Armenian
military units from the Berd area,” it said.
The two neighbours, which fought a war in the early 1990s over
Azerbaijan’s mostly Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh,
regularly charge each other with ceasefire violations.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia on March 7 of causing the death of an
Azeri soldier in the Karabakh region. Armenia quickly denied the
charge and responded with counter-accusations that Azeri troops had
killed an Armenian soldier the previous week.
From: Baghdasarian

MINISTER OF ECOLOGY IS ILL
Panorama.am
14:32 29/03/06
At the moment the Minister of Ecology Vardan Ayvazyan is in “Nairi”
medical centre with pneumonia. Today the Deputy of the Minister Hakob
Manoukyan was present at the ceremony dedicated to the 20th anniversary
of the foundation of the Ministry. As the latter informed: “The
minister is in room N403. You may visit him,” he advised.
From: Baghdasarian

SCHOLAR DISCUSSES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT U. UTAH
By Jay Logan Rogers, Daily Utah Chronicle; SOURCE: U. Utah
Daily Utah Chronicle via U-Wire
University Wire
March 27, 2006 Monday
Salt Lake City
The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the genocide committed
against the Armenians, said Richard Hovannisian, professor of
Armenian and near-eastern history at the University of California at
Los Angeles.
Hovannisian commented on the contemporary interpretations of the
Armenian genocide at the University of Utah Hinckley Institute of
Politics on March 23.
Between 1915 and 1918, actions of the government of the Ottoman Empire
(present-day Turkey) resulted in the elimination of a substantial
portion of its Armenian minority population.
While the exact numbers are in dispute, most scholars agree that more
than one million Armenians were killed through outright massacres and
mass deportations to barren deserts, where they were left to starve.
Hovannisian’s talk focused on the scholarly debate over whether
the genocide was premeditated or a “crime of passion” that occurred
suddenly during the tense conditions of war.
He expressed his opinion that the elimination of the Armenians had
been contemplated by the Ottoman government before the outbreak of
war, but that it was wartime conditions that allowed it to turn a
“final solution into an accomplished fact.”
The Ottoman Empire distrusted the Armenians, in part because they
were a tight-knit Christian ethnic group in the middle of a mostly
Muslim empire, Hovannisian said.
While some Armenians were agitating for self-government and autonomy,
most were not involved in any politically dissident activities,
he said.
“They were an ethnic group seen as potentially troublesome to an
authoritarian state at war,” he said.
No official government document specifically outlining the Ottoman plan
to eliminate Armenians has been found, although there is overwhelming
evidence that the massacres occurred, he said.
There may be a “smoking gun” somewhere in Turkish archives proving that
the Ottomans premeditated the Armenian genocide, Hovannisian said,
but the nation’s government does not provide Western historians with
access to those materials.
He said there are psychological reasons that Turkey refuses to admit
the genocide occurred.
“They don’t want to believe that their grandparents could’ve been
murderers,” Hovannisian explained. “They also don’t want to deal with
the consequences of recognition, including contrition and restitution.”
Jonathan Cates, a senior in history and Middle East studies, said he
thought it was a fair explanation of the historical event. “He gave
a broad overview of all the current interpretations and put them in
good context,” he said.
Mariya Mamaeva, a senior in political science and Russian, agreed. “I
think he has very good points and is very insightful,” she said.
From: Baghdasarian

ARARAT COGNAC NOT DELIVERED TO RUSSIA
Kommersant, Russia
March 28 2006
Yerevan Cognac Distillery has terminated Russia’s deliveries of its
product on failure of Central Excise Customs to provide new excise
stamps to alcohol importers. According to the analysts, the alcohol
import will be paralyzed for two months from April 1 even if the
stamps are given already tomorrow.
Yerevan Cognac Distillery (owned by French Pernod Ricard) was forced
to terminate shipment of product to Russia, as all new stamps had
ended and no new stamps were provided, said Zara Nazaryan, who heads
the foreign ties department at the distillery. Armenia exported to
Russia 9.78 million liters of cognac worth $250 million in 2005;
Yerevan Cognac Distillery covered over a half of the exports.
The problem faced by Yerevan producers is common to all importers
of alcohol. The Central Excise Customs set to accepting excise
applications and payments only past week and no one knows for sure
when the first stamps will be given. Pursuant to the revised act on
government’s control over the alcohol production and sales, which took
effect January 1, 2006, all import of alcohol with old excise stamps
is banned from April 1 and no alcohol product with such stamps could
be sold from July 1.
The imported product covers 10 percent of Russia’s market of alcohol,
which overall turnover was roughly 200 million decalitres, or $19.7
billion, in 2005.
From: Baghdasarian

AZERI, ARMENIAN LEADERS MAY MEET THIS YEAR
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 28 2006
Baku, March 27, AssA-Irada
Presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Armenia Robert Kocharian
may meet by the end of 2006 for another round of talks on settling
the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, officials have said.
“The meeting may take place on the level of international forums and
summits,” the head of the President’s Office international relations
department, Novruz Mammadov, told journalists on Sunday. He added that
a meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers is not ruled out.
From: Baghdasarian