Author: Emil Lazarian

DEADLY BAGHDAD EXPLOSION WAS ACCIDENTAL GAS BLAST: US

Agence France Presse — English
August 14, 2006 Monday 12:27 PM GMT

A deadly explosion which demolished a building in a Baghdad market
was an accidental gas blast, a US military spokesman said Monday,
differing sharply from the Iraqi government’s version of events.

Iraqi officials — including the office of Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki — had earlier blamed a series of insurgent car bombs and
missile strikes for Sunday’s explosions, which killed at least 57
people as night fell.

But Major General William Caldwell, the chief spokesman for the US-led
military coalition in Iraq, told reporters that American explosives
experts believed that a major gas explosion had triggered a series
of blasts.

"Our explosives specialists reported today that it was a very
significant gas explosion on the first floor of the building," he said.

"The secondary explosions were the result of that. There is no evidence
substantiating that something else was involved. Everything now points
out that it was an internal gas explosion that set off a series of
other explosions."

Earlier, a statement from Maliki’s media office had blamed the
explosions on insurgent bombers, a version supported by Iraqi security
officials.

"Terrorist groups carried out a dirty and criminal operation, firing
a number of Katyusha rockets on a building in Al-Qubyasi, followed
by a car bomb explosion and a Katyusha near the Al-Barid area,"
the premier’s office said.

"This was followed by exploding a motorcycle near a public library
and the fall of a mortar shell near the Armenian Church," it added.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PASSENGERS OF YEREVAN-BATUMI TRAIN TO TRAVEL BY BUS

Panorama.am
16:30 12/08/06

Yerevan-Batumi train has stopped nearby Airum station due to an
accident on the railways of Georgia. Ararat Khrimyan, head of Armenian
Railways, said several carriages of a Georgian train have slipped
off the railways. The communication between Armenia and Georgia will
recover shortly after the accident will be eliminated. Khrimyan said
buses have set off to Airum to take the passengers to Batumi. The
train had 272 passengers, among them children.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TWO DEAD IN CAR ACCIDENT

ArmRadio.am
15.08.2006 11:54

On the 12th of August at 14:42 on the 5th kilometer of the highway
Dilijan-Vanadzor, a "Maz" brand, 36 OU 347 state- numbered car with
trailer filled with natural gas Propane has turned over. This brought
to an explosion and fire on the road. The following nearby cars
"Vaz 2106" brand 110SO 61 state-numbered, "Vaz 2107" brand 68 OU
108 state-numbered and Peugeot brand 505 LL 05 state-numbered cars
were inflamed with fire and their passengers got thermal injuries of
different degrees.

Samvel Hovsepian, born in 1953, Gohar Assatrian, born in 1955,
Sona Hovssepian, born in 1986, Ara Ochinian, born in 1968, Aramaiss
Mejloumian, born in 1962, Minass Ghazarian, born in 1973 and Peotor
Martirossian, born in 1951 were transferred to the Reanimation
Department of the Republician Burn Center.

On the 13th of August at 02:00 Samvel Hovssepian died because of burn
injuries in the Republician Burn Center. At 17:00 Ara Ochinian also
died because of burn injuries.The other injured status remains severe.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KAPAN-MEGHRI ROAD CONSTRUCTION TO BE FINISHED SOON

ArmRadio.am
14.08.2006 20:35

Construction of Kapan-Tsav-Shvanidzor-Meghri inter-state road is
expected to be finished by the end of the year. The road, which
is of strategic impor tance, will serve as an alternative to the
Kapan-Kajaran-Meghri inter-state highway and will be 94 km long.

Armenian Transport and Communication Ministry public relations
department official informed Armenpress that the reconstruction
launched in 2005 and is being carried out by 4 contractor companies.

Overall, 230 km-long roads of inter-state, republic and
provincial importance will be reconstructed, 36 road sectors, 25
bridges. Martuni-Vardenis 38 km road is also going to be repaired.

The Armenian government has released 14.3 billion drams from the 2006
state budget for the restoration and development of the country’s
road network.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A-320 CRUSH KEY TOPIC OF ARMENIA’S PRESS

ArmRadio.am
14.08.2006 21:05

The crash of Armavia’s A-320 and the investigation of its causes
continue being the key topic of the Armenian press, especially after
the crash of Siberia’s A-310, Arminfo reported.

When A-320 crashed, the International Aviation Committee (IAC)
said semi-officially that the crash was caused by the fault of the
pilots. After the crash in Irkutsk, IAC also hurried to blame the
crew, but this time, unlike the A-320 case, it faced much stronger
resistance and later said it was caused by technical problems.

The newspaper cites a document adopted by Russia’s Federation Council
in July: "The recent chain of air accidents within a short period of
time has proved that there is an urgent need to improve the technical
control over airports and planes and to raise the qualification of
air personnel. In the last years Russia’s civil aviation sector has
got into serious crisis." The Russian senators specially noted the
necessity of delimiting the powers of certification and air accident
investigation. The logic is that a crash may well happen through the
fault of the one who has issued the certificate. So, it is inadmissible
that IAC control its own self.

The last two big air crashes – A-320 and A-310 – have vividly shown
what negative consequences self-control may have, say Armenian experts.

Iravunk says it is not for the first time that the Kremlin questions
IAC’s efficiency. In 2003, after IAC’s ban on IL-86 flights, Vice
Speaker of Russia’s State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky said: "They
have put a ban on the safest air liner. 5 Boeings fall every year,
and our Transaero (company whose 45% belong to the family of IAC
Chairwoman Tatiana Anodina and 3.25% to her personally) is engaged
in lobbying. Why did they ban IL-86? Because Transaero buys only
foreign planes. This will only benefit them, while for our economy
this will be a heavy blow, and huge money will again start flowing
out of the country."

After the ban on IL-86, the State Duma asked the Russian President
to consider stopping IAC’s activities. They said: "The State Duma
believes that the International Aviation Committee, set up in 1991,
does not contribute to the strengthening of the aviation security as
IAC has undertaken functions it didn’t have initially: certification
of radio-technical equipment, engines and signal systems of Russian
planes. As a non-governmental organization IAC does not pay taxes from
the profits it gets from certification and spends colossal sums to meet
its own purposes rather than to raise the aviation security. With both
the certification and air crash investigation functions in its hands,
IAC prefers to say that all air crashes are caused by "human factor"
rather than by the state of air equipment."

Such combination of functions permits the IAC not to be responsible for
air catastrophes and lay all the blame on the pilots. The deputies of
the Russian Parliament considered that certification of airplanes and
air crash investigations must be realized by structures, controlled by
the Government. They came to conclusion that the IAC activity on the
territory of the Russian Federation does not benefit the country. The
deputies found at last necessary to dismiss IAC and establish national
governmental structures for the supervision on civil aviation.

Those days the Russian press reported that the IAC gave permission
for "Il" flights and started active lobbying in order to prevent its
dismissal from Russia. Taking into account that the Committee exists so
far, it is clear that the lobbying was a success. The Committee also
managed to make use of its status of an international structure. It
was found in 1991 by the initiative of 12 states and has never been
reformed since then, although numerous constitutor countries left
it for different reasons. The officers of the IAC have immunity
and are not to be brought to any criminal responsibility even after
their resignation.

Thus, the Committee can cause the state a damage of many million
dollars (by such groundless prohibition of "Il-86" flights) and suffer
no punishment for that. IAC will not be brought to responsibility even
in case it is found out that the ArmAvia A-320 air liner crashed at
the fault of the Sochi airport, certified by the IAC. It must also
be noted that since 1991 head of IAC Tatiana Anodina has had status
of a Russian Federal Minister, although the Committee has never been
a part of the Federal system.

The Armenian ‘Iravukn’ newspaper calls upon the Civil Aviation
Department and the Government of Armenia to make certain obvious
conclusions of the A-320 crash investigation story. To the opinion
of ‘Iravaunk’ staff it is important that independent international
structures once again investigate the catastrophe. Their impartial
estimation would permit the Armenian aviators to decide whether the
activity of the IAC is welcome in Armenia or not. ‘Iravunk’ says it
is time for the Armenian aviation to take example of Russia and start
thinking of developing the aviation system of Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARTUR BAGHDASARIAN: "WHEN THE CRIMINALS AND THE OLIGARCHES UNITE, HONEST PEOPLE MUST UNITE AS WELL"

Noyan Tapan
Aug 14 2006

YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Unification of money, boorishness,
force, falsification is taking place armenia. Artur Baghdasarian,
the Chairman of the "Orinats Yerkir" (Country of Law) party made
such a statement at the August 12 meeting with young active members
of the party, having rest in Aghavnadzor. "All those are addressed
against the Republic of Armenia," A.Baghdasarian said, expressing an
opinion that as a result of the U.S. dollar – RA dram exchange rate
fluctuations of the recent days, a group of people gains millions of
dollars when ordinary citizens incur serious financial losses. "The
people gave way to despair, and the political field is day by day
completed by criminal elements and upstarts. When the criminals and
the oligarches unite, honest people must unite as well," he said. At
the event dedicated to the International Youth day, A.Baghdasarian
stated that in the created situation many parties see their future
"in grabbing and robbing," and "Orinats Yerkir" ties the future
of Armenia with young people who "must struggle for having a good
country." The OYP Chairman is sure that the time for struggle has
ripened, as "today 95% of the people demands changes." A.Baghdasarian
mentioned that young families difficultly form in Armenia, mainly
because of the dwelling problem. Banks provide mortgage credits at
too high rate, and Armenian young people are not able to accept those
conditions. A.Baghdasarian assured that the OYP envisages to implement
serious programs in this direction, presenting them in the way of laws,
and then struggling for implementation of those laws. The former NA
Speaker mentioned that during the pre-electoral period of time of the
2007 parliamentary elections, the OYP is ready to cooperate and form
a bloc "with all healthy political forces which will support increase
of the proportional electoral order, increase of confidants’ role,
a quick and transparent process of summing up results at electoral
commissions." But, A.Baghdasarian assured that the OYP has not started
yet negotiations with any party in the direction of forming a bloc.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

"PYUNIK" PRESERVES ITS POSITIONS OF LEADER

Noyan Tapan
Aug 14 2006

YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Last 2 meetings of the 16th stage
of the football highest group championship of Armenia took place on
August 12 and 13.

They had the following results: "Cilicia" – "Ararat" 0:6, and "Ulis" –
"Gandzasar" 1:2. Multiple champion of Armenia "Pyunik" continues to
head the tournament table with 46 points. Games of the 17th stage
will take place on August 19 and 20.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BOOKS: CAIRO PLAYS HOST TO SCHEMES AND SECRETS
By John Freeman For The Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 13, 2006 Sunday
Main Edition

FICTION

The Yacoubian Building. By Alaa Al Aswany, translated by Humphrey
Davies. HarperPerennial. $13.95 paperback. 253 pages.

Verdict: An Egyptian Dickens.

All novels contain imaginary places, even those set in actual cities.

"Ulysses" does not unfold in the Republic of Ireland but in James
Joyce’s mind. The same goes for the sprawling, heaving Cairo depicted
in Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany’s tremendously likable new novel,
"The Yacoubian Building."

At the heart of the novel is a once-glamorous apartment complex built
by an Armenian millionaire. Unlike most American cities, where higher
floors come at a premium, the opposite is true in this building. The
Yacoubian rooftop bows under the weight of makeshift shanties that
house the poor.

"The children run around all over the roof barefoot and half naked,"
Al Aswany writes, "and the women spend the day cooking, holding gossip
sessions in the sun, and, frequently, quarreling."

The men return home from work "exhausted and in a hurry to partake of
their small pleasures — tasty hot food and a few pipes of tobacco
(or hashish if they have the money)."

The third pleasure, of course, is sex, and the vibrations from it
rattle through the rafters to the floorboards, from the poor down
to the rich. There is Zaki Bey, a 65-year-old cosmopolitan playboy,
and Taha el Shazli, an ambitious businessman who takes on a second
wife to slake his lust. The women get by, too, if only by using men’s
weakness for sex against them.

Everyone is scheming in "The Yacoubian Building," giving this novel
the shape and feel of a soap opera set to an Arabic beat. Zaki’s
sister tries to get him declared incompetent so that she will have
their large apartment all to herself. Malak, a partially crippled
shirt tailor, uses his customers’ pity against them. Hatim Rasheed,
the desiccated aristocrat editor of a French Cairo weekly, goes to
the gay bar downstairs and lures men to his room with promises of
riches. When one of his lovers leaves him, he shouts: "You’re just a
barefoot, ignorant Sa’idi. I picked you up from the street, cleaned
you up, and I made you a human being."

This struggle to be human is constant in "The Yacoubian Building."

Ranging widely around his Cairo, Al Aswany describes the many ways
that his characters scrabble against one another in this fight. Some
renounce the living world, like a young man who is tortured for
participating in a political protest. The experience drives him into
the hands of radical Islamic sheiks, whose Wahhabi interpretation of
Islam is especially unkind to urges of the flesh.

If the book makes any political point, it is that the restrictions
such religious and cultural police put on residents are just one
more slight against their humanity. For all the compromises some of
them make, Al Aswany argues that — for poor women, especially —
sex gives them a chance to be alive.

"They do not love it simply as a way of quenching lust," Al Aswany
writes, "but because sex, and their husbands’ greed for it, makes them
feel that despite all the misery they suffer they are still women,
beautiful and desired by their menfolk."

Occasionally it feels like a very indiscreet superintendent, jangling
keys and all, is taking us around the Yacoubian Building, whispering
about secrets long hushed over. This vision of life connects high and
low, rich with poor, through shared vices and needs. The clandestine
bars of Cairo attract the powerful and the downtrodden alike, for
both desire the available women who serve the drinks.

Cairo — at least the one imagined by Al Aswany — has a choice:
to pay homage to its cosmopolitan roots and respect its diversity,
or close down, and become restrictive of its already suffering
populations.

Happily, this book does not attempt to fix these odds by closing
neatly. Some plotlines end abruptly, in tragedy, while others simply
vanish into the noise of the street. As in so many Jane Austen novels,
there is a wedding and a funeral, which bring with them an appropriate
mix of hope and despair. The difference here is, this book has shown
us everything that has led up to the wedding night.

John Freeman is president of the National Book Critics Circle.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Senator Reid "Extremely Concerned" over Hoagland’s Reluctance to Acknowledge
Genocide

ArmRadio.am
12.08.2006 14:38

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), in a
letter to the Armenian National Committee of Nevada (ANC-NV),
reported that he is "extremely concerned" by the reluctance of
Richard Hoagland, the Administration’s nominee to serve as the next
ambassador to Armenia, to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
Senator Reid’s public stand follows the August 2nd announcement by
Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) that he will vote against the Hoagland
nomination because of the nominee’s refusal to properly recognize
the Armenian Genocide as a "genocide." Sen. Coleman serves on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"The opposition of Senator Norm Coleman and concerns raised by
Harry Reid – the Senate’s Democratic Leader – reflect the growing
bipartisan opposition to the approval of a U.S. envoy to Yerevan
who refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide," said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We continue to work in
communities around the nation to explain to Senators the damage to
U.S-Armenia relations – and, more broadly, to America’s standing on
genocide prevention efforts worldwide – that will be done by
approving a nominee that has actually denied the genocidal intent
of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide."

Responding to grassroots concerns raised by Nevada’s growing and
increasingly active Armenian American community, Senator Reid noted
that this refusal is "particularly troubling in light of the State
Department’s dismissal of the last Ambassador to Armenia, John M.
Evans following comments he made during a February 2005 tour of
Armenian-American communities in which he recognized the Armenian
Genocide. As you may know, the State Department has offered no
explanation for Evans’ dismissal."

As reported by the Associated Press, Senator Coleman has explained,
"As someone of the Jewish faith, I bring a heightened sensitivity
to the reality of genocide and mass murder, and the importance of
recognizing it for what it is. I was brought up believing you
never forget the Holocaust, never forget what happened. And I could
not imagine how our ambassador to Israel could have any
effectiveness if he couldn’t recognize the Holocaust."

On August 1st, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed
consideration of Ambassador Hoagland’s nomination, following a
request by the Committee’s Ranking Democrat Joseph Biden (D-DE) and
Senator John Kerry (D-MA). Also voicing support for the delay were
Senators George Allen (R-VA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). The
Committee is set to consider the matter during its regular business
meeting on September 7th.

To date, more than half of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
including Senators George Allen, Joseph Biden, Barbara Boxer,
Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Christopher Dodd (D-
CT), Russell Feingold (D-WI), John Kerry and Paul Sarbanes (D-MD),
have contacted Secretary Rice or questioned Ambassador-designate
Hoagland directly regarding the Armenian Genocide. Senators Edward
Kennedy (D-MA) and Jack Reed (D-RI), along with over sixty members
of the U.S. House have also expressed serious concerns to the State
Department on this matter.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HAKOB SIRUNI’S "AUTOBIOGRAPHIC NOTES" BOOK PUBLISHED IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Hakob Sirunu’s memories and memory
sketches collected under the title "Autobiographic Notes" contain the
history of life of an intellectual who had seen the Genocide and
exile, his literary, scientific and public stormy activity. Henrik
Bakhchinian, the Art and Literature Museum Director presented the
collection in this way at the presentation taken place on August
11. According to him, Siruni was gifted with a special talent of
writing memories. During different periods of time he wrote
autobiographic notes, memories about a number of his
contemporaries. But, as the museum director mentioned, with his
numerous literary and scientific works, a part of his memories as well
were lost. H.Bakhchinian mentioned that H.Siruni came to the literary
and scientific arena in 1905-1907s, presenting himself as a poet,
historian, playwright, prose-writer, philologist, translator,
orientalist. He edited dozens of periodicals, correspond with more
than 100 titles of Armenian, French, Romanian newspapers and
journals. First in Turkey where he was born, and from 1922 to his
death in Romania, H.Siruni promoted a wide national-public activity as
well, presented himself as a publicist, lecturer, orator. It was also
mentioned that the Art and Literature Museum published the
"Autobiographic Notes" book under the patronage of Siruni’s brother
Grigor Jololian’s sons, Patrice, Claude and Eddie Jololians.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress