Author: Emil Lazarian

CATASTROPHE D’UN AIRBUS A SOTCHI: LES ARMENIENS JUGENT L’ENQUETE INCOMPLèTE
Agence France Presse
25 octobre 2006 mercredi 11:27 PM GMT
La direction de l’aviation civile armenienne (ACA) a juge mercredi
incomplets les resultats de l’enquete russe sur la catastrophe de
l’Airbus armenien qui s’est abîme en mer Noire au large de Sotchi
(Russie) le 3 mai faisant 113 morts.
Les conclusions de l’enquete, devoilees le 26 juillet, mettent en cause
le “facteur humain”, mais l’ACA estime que l’enquete doit egalement se
pencher sur un possible dysfonctionnement du radar meteorologique de
l’aeroport de Sotchi, ainsi que sur le travail de l’aiguilleur russe.
“De toute evidence, il y avait des conditions climatiques dangereuses
que le radar n’a pas detectees pour des raisons inexpliquees”,
affirme l’ACA dans un communique.
Les pilotes de l’A320 de la compagnie Armavia avaient renonce au
dernier moment a atterrir a l’aeroport de la grande station balneaire
russe et de retourner a Erevan a cause de la mauvaise visibilite.
Informes par l’aeroport d’une eclaircie, ils avaient ensuite tente une
deuxième approche avant de s’ecraser, avaient declare des representants
d’Armavia après la catastrophe.
L’ACA soutient egalement que l’enquete a omis d’evaluer le travail
de l’aiguilleur russe au moment de la deuxième approche.
“Nous demandons d’evaluer le travail de l’aiguilleur entre le moment
où l’avion a entame sa deuxième approche et la collision avec la
surface de l’eau”, ajoute le communique.
Les 113 passagers et membres de l’equipage de l’A320 qui effectuait
la liaison Erevan-Sotchi ont peri dans la catastrophe.
–Boundary_(ID_SWLaUkc+X40/DxKTxjxD6 g)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SCHOOL FOR PREPARING IT SPECIALISTS TO OPEN IN 2007
Armenpress
Oct 25 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, ARMENPRESS: During the past two years the
programming works of the Dutch “Metris” company, which is developing
programs for medical devices, are being carried out in Armenia.
“Metris IT Solution” company established here is particularly dealing
with the study of algorithmic issues and with their solution. The
orders are usually received from abroad, here Armenian specialists
are carrying them out, and afterwards they are being exported to the
international market. During the two years this company has developed
5 programs which were used by well-known pharmaceutical companies.
Technical manager of the Dutch “Metris” company Levon Baghdasarian
told today at a press conference in Armenpress that for consolidating
Armenia’s position in the international information technology market,
a school, where necessary specialists will be prepared, is expected
to be established in Armenia from January 2007. He said that with
that aim the Dutch government is ready to provide grant amounting to
half million euro.
Levon Baghdasarian said that the products of the “Metris” company are
not being consumed in Armenia as there are no such pharmaceutical
companies which may use such expensive devices. But according to
him, in case of demand the devices will be provided to the Armenian
companies by their prime cost. He said the Dutch government and the
company have reached preliminary agreement over it.
“Metris” company which is functioning in the European and USA markets
has branches in Russia, Japan, Hong Kong. The company is cooperating
with world-famous Phillipsmedical System, Siemens and other companies.
The company has also participated in the DigiTech 2006 international
exhibition conducted October 6-8 within the framework of Month of
Information Technology in Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KOCHARIAN RECEIVES OUTGOING FRENCH AMBASSADOR
Armenpress
Oct 26 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 26, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
received today the outgoing French ambassador Henry Cuny. Kocharian’s
press office said the president awarded the ambassador the Armenian
Medal of Mkhitar Gosh for his contribution to the development of
French-Armenian ties.
Kocharian thanked the ambassador for productive cooperation with
Armenian authorities saying that he was leaving behind dynamically
developing relations which registered significant progress during
his tenure in Armenia.
Henry Cuny thanked for the high award saying it was very dear
to him. He commended Armenia for its warm attitude towards his
country. Cuny wished prosperity to Armenia and its people and success
to its president.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEXT “WELL-ORGANISED” CONCERT WAS DOOMED TO FAILURE
A1+
[02:35 pm] 26 October, 2006
Armenian audience could not enjoy the Georgian singer Dato Xujadze’s
concert. This gives us a ground to conclude that the organisers lack
orginasational skills. This phenomenon has already become common
among us.
The concert was to begin at 7:00 p.m. in Concert Complex after Karen
Demirchyan but it was scheduled for certain reasons. We have already
faced such failure in connection with the concerts of Russian star
Glukoza.
The organisers (who were also the presenters of the concert) were busy
with equipment checking for an hour. The outcome was far from being
pleasant. Then, they kept announcing that “Dato would soon appear on
the stage” for nearly 30 minutes. Finally, seeing that Dato is not
ready yet, they offered the audience to stand and commemorate the death
of Armenian singer Vardouhy Vardanyan because of unexpected car crash.
In answer to their request, the people gathered in the hall (over
350 people were present), started to shout;
What a disgrace!
Hearing the shouts, the “presenters” turned on music, and belly-dancers
appeared on the stage…
At last, after 1.5 delay, at about 8:30 p.m., Dato appeared and
the concert started. By the way, the singer complained of the poor
equipment, begged pardon for the technical part and said, “I think
everything will be fixed soon.”
Nevertheless, his wish was not to come true. The audience began to
leave the hall without waiting the end of the concert.
Reminder; people paid 2000 – 4500 AMD for the concert.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PACKAGE OF AMENDMENTS TO ELECTORAL CODE ADOPTED IN FIRST READING
Noyan Tapan
Oct 26 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA National Assembly adopted
in the first reading on October 26 the package of amendments
and additions to the Electoral Code with 84 for, 6 against and 2
abstaining votes. To recap, the EC acting from February, 1999 was
subject to amendment already for 5 times. The draft consisting of
100 articles, particularly, fixes decision on voting with envelops
and clerifying electoral commissions, orders of appealing actions and
inaction, commissions of authorized persons are widened. The latters
have a right not to interfere in works of a commission member, being
phisically present near commission members implementing registration
of voters, giving ballot-papers and votion envelops, sealing and
guarding the ballot-box and watching their works. The order of
summing up results of votion at district electoral commissions is
also changed: particularly, the report concerning results must be
formed based on intermediate reports concerning results of votion
in intermediate bundles formed each of 250 envelops. At present the
upmost number of voters involved in every polling station, 2000, is
reduced to 1600, as a result of what the number of polling statiions
will add 20-30%. Usage of moveable ballot-boxes to implement the
constitutional right of invalids, people having no possibility to come
to the district center on the votion day and undergoing stationary
treatment at medical institutions is among the innovations.
The right of video recording the process of summing up the votion
results is also defined. Transitional threshold of alliances as
a result of NA proportional electoral system elections was also
reviewed. If it makes 7% at present, the draft envisages this threshold
for alliance of 2 parties, and 10% for 3 and more parties. By the way,
a provision was additionally fixed in the draft according to which
journalists of the Public Radio and Television, other radio companies
and TV companies, members of editorial staffs who are registered as
candidates, are prohibited to cover the elections and hold radio and
TV programs.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN CULTURAL TIES TO OPEN IN MOSCOW
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Oct 26 2006
MOSCOW, OCTOBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Opening of the
exhibition entitled “Dialogue of Two Cultures: Russian-Armenian
Cultural Ties of XIX-XX Centuries” will take place on October 26, in
the Central Exhibition Complex of the Moscow Polytechnical Museum,
within the framework of the Year of Armenia in Russia. As the
“Yerkramas” (country) newspaper states quoting the Press Service of
the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the Russian Federation,
the exhibition was addressed to the wide society. Rare documentary
materials of art, science and public figures will be presented at
the exhibition.
Their life and works are closely tied with Armenia and Russia, among
them Hovhannes Aivazovski, Konstantin Halabian, Martiros Sarian, Aram
Khachatrian, Viktor Hambardzumian, Eduard Asadov, Yevgeni Vakhtangov,
Armen Dzhigarkhanian, Zaruhi Dolukhanian, Leonid Yengibarian, Lev
Kulijanov, Pavel Lisitsian, Sergey Parajanov, Marieta Shahinian and
many others are. There are original manuscripts of literary works and
writing of notes, paintings and drawings, models of photos and books
with autographs, portraits, personal things, biographic documents,
materials relating to history of Armenian church of Russia, etc. among
more than hundred of exhibits (majority of them is for the first
time presented to attention of wide audience). The Central Archive of
Armenia and some archives of Russia gave the exhibits. The exhibition
will function till December 10.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BREAD ABRUPTLY RISES IN PRICE IN JAVAKHK
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Oct 26 2006
AKHALKALAK, OCTOBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The price for
bread was abruptly added in Javakhk from October 24. Bread immediately
became 30% more expensive in shops of Akhalkalak. The price for flour
became 30% more expensive in the market as well. According to the
“A-Info” agency, ones importing flour to Javakhk and ones engaged
in production of bread at place tie this rise in price with the
circumstance of the border’s being close between Russia and Georgia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Fernando Gasparian
Publisher and industrialist
The Independent
26 October 2006
Fernando Gasparian, industrialist and publisher: born São Paulo,
Brazil 27 January 1930; married (three sons, one daughter); died São
Paulo 7 October 2006.
The industrialist Fernando Gasparian was a defender of democracy and
the most distinguished publisher Brazil produced in the late 20th
century.
He was born in 1930 to parents of Armenian extraction and to the
considerable prosperity the family textile business ensured. After
studying engineering, he and his friends Rubens Paiva (who became a
federal deputy and was later assassinated by the military), Almino
Afonso and Marcos Pereira took over the periodical Jornal de Debates
in 1953. It pursued a Brazil-centred line opposing much foreign
investment and the privatisation of the state oil company Petrobras.
Early in 1964 Gasparian bought America Textil, a substantial Rio de
Janeiro textile company, which had got into difficulties and was being
supported by the Banco do Brasil. After the US-supported military
putsch against the civilian government of President João Goulart later
that year, he was a target for the new dictatorship as a founder of
the opposition Brazilian Democratic Movement, the MDB. The military
cut off bank funding for his company. After the dictatorship lurched
further to the right in 1969 Gasparian found it politic to leave
Brazil, for exile, eventually finding a teaching post at St Antony’s
College, Oxford.
He returned to Brazil in 1972 to found Opinião, a hard-hitting
magazine which upset the dictatorship, also acquiring the publishing
house Paz e Terra. Over the years this became a powerhouse of
political and social thought and liberation theology. Alceu Amoroso
Lima, Celso Furtado, Helio Jaguaribe, Fernando Henrique Cardoso,
Octavio Paz, Torcuato di Tella, Alain Touraine, Brian Van Arkadie,
Dudley Seers and Paulo Freire were among the imprint’s authors.
Gasparian returned to Oxford for a few months in 1973 before going
home to launch the monthly Cadernos de Opinião. Its second number
enraged the military by carrying the text of a lecture by Hélder
Cmara, the irrepressible archbishop of Olinda and Recife. Gasparian
was charged with offences against “national security” by a regime
which was obsessed by that slippery concept. In the event he was
acquitted. Unabashed, the dictatorship had a bomb placed in his
editorial offices in 1976.
When dictatorship gave way to constitutional government Gasparian
devoted more time to politics, in 1985 becoming treasurer for the
campaign of his friend Fernando Henrique Cardoso for the mayoralty of
São Paulo. In 1986 he was elected to the constituent assembly framing
a new constitution, on which he served until 1988. There he pushed for
a limit of 12 per cent on bank lending rates, financial support for
agrarian reform, limitations on foreign investment in mining and a ban
on capital punishment.
>From 1993 to 1995 he was active in the Latin American Parliament. He
was increasingly at odds with Cardoso after the latter won the
presidency and in 1995 publicly criticised what he saw as Cardoso’s
excessive reliance on foreign banks attracted to Brazil by high
interest rates.
Talking to Fernando Gasparian last month, I found him as eager for new
projects and ideas as when I first met him in 1970. With his death,
comments Bernardo Kucinski, “it can be said that a generation of
patriotic businessmen committed to a scheme of national development
has become extinct”.
Hugh O’Shaughnessy
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WINNERS OF EIF AND CRDF GRANT TENDER ASNNOUNCED
Noyan Tapan
Oct 25 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, NOYAN TAPAN. At the venture conference of the US
Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) and its Armenian
partner Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF) in Yerevan on October 24,
the scientific research organizations – winners of the grant tender
held by CRDF and EIF – were announced. The tender was held under the
CRDF Science and Technologies Entrepreneurship Program (STEP). For
their developments with Armenian production enterpise-partners,
5 thousand dollars will be given to the Institute of Mathematics
(for design and creation of prototype of a new piston pump), to
the scientific group led by Ruben Vardanian of State Engineering
University of Armenia (SEUA) (for development of new cost-effective
photovoltaic solar energy concentrator system), and the group led
by Gagik Aivazian (SEUA) (for design, fabrication and marketing of
photovoltaic systems based on silicon vertical multi-junction solar
cells). The scientific group led by N. Vardanian, laboratory head of
the Institute of Microbiology, will receive a grant for developing a
new integrated biometallurgical process for gold production, the same
institute’s group led by Hrachia Hovhannisian – for intensification
of probiotics production by means of burdock’s raw inulin, while
the group headed by Mikael Hovhannisian of the Institute of Botany
– for TPS technology used in elite seed-potato production. During
the conference, another four reports on applied developments were
made. EIF Director Bagrat Yengibarian said that the work on assistance
of their authors will continue separately. Natalia Pipia, Manager
of SRDF Industrial Programs, underlined the importance of the fact
that the scientific groups – tender participants found production
enterprises as partners. Jim Butterworth, jury member, expressed a
high opinion about the applied developments presented by 10 Armenian
scientific groups. The jury was also composed of Hovhannes Avoyan,
Director of Sorsio company (Armenia), Chairman of the Union of IT
Enterprises, Ara Hamazaspian, Director of the Izmirlian Foundation,
and Hayk Papian, Director of Venture Management Advisors company.
B. Yengibarian reminded that the above mentioned 10 developments
were selected out of 30 bids. According to him, it is envisaged to
spend 20 thousand dollars to assist the scientific groups which won
the tender. He expressed a hope that such a tender will be held in
2007 as well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJANI DIASPORA IN TURKEY MADE STATEMENT AGAINST FRANCE
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 25 2006
Azerbaijani Diaspora organizations in Turkey made statement against
France, State Committee for Azerbaijanis Abroad told the APA.
Azerbaijani Diaspora organizations in Izmit, Izmir, Mughla, Antalya,
Balikesir, Ankara, Manisa, Edirne, Adana and Istanbul held press
conference and objected to France Parliament National Assembly
decision, which will punish those who deny false Armenian genocide.
Their statement says that Armenians occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan
territories and perpetrated genocide in Khojali in the result of which
hundreds of Azerbaijanis were killed, over thousand were missing and
became invalids and about one million became refugees.
They also said that the decision of France Parliament is groundless
and was not proved historically.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress