Author: Emil Lazarian

ARMENIAN CONSUMER MARKET VOLUME GROWS BY 20.4% IN JANUARY-MARCH 2006
ON SAME MONTHS OF LAST YEAR

YEREVAN, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. In January-March 2006, the volume of the
Armenian consumer market made 289 bln 629.5 mln drams (about 644 mln
USD), exceeding by 20.4% the respective index of last year. According
to the RA National Statistical Service, the trade turnover amounted to
193 bln 565 mln drams or by 18.3% more than in the same period of
2005, including the retail trade turnover that made 148 bln 281.9 mln
drams in current prices, exceeding by 13.6% the respective index of
the same period of last year in comparable prices, the trade in cars
that made 13 bln 804.8 mln drams (a 77% increase), and services of 96
bln 64.5 mln drams (a 22.1% increase). In January-March 2006, trade
conducted in shops and consumer commodity markets accounted for the
largest share of retail trade in Armenia – 76.6% (113 bln 626.3 mln
drams). This tendency is typical of almost all Armenian marzes. Retail
trade facilities of Yerevan accounted for 86.6% of the RA retail trade
turnover (128 bln 369.4 mln drams). This is explained by the above
mentioned factors and the fact that the population of a number of
marzes (mainly those near Yerevan) tend to purchase goods in Yerevan
trade facilities.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LEVEL OF SEVAN LAKE RISES BY 25 SM IN APRIL

SEVAN, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The level of the Sevan Lake rose by 25 sm
in April and made 1898.42 metres what is higher by 42 sm compared with
the 2005 same month index. As the Noyan Tapan correspondent was
informed by the “Hayhidromet” Gegharkunik marz department, the reason
of such a great index is the fixed heavy rains and snows and partly
overflows of rivers streaming into Sevan. Taking into account, that
overflows of rivers streaming into Sevan are expected in May as well
as the size of the water moving to the lake from the Arpa-Sevan
tunnel, it is supposed that the level of Sevan will significantly rise
up to the first half of June. In parallel to rising the level of water
in the lake, a problem arose connected with coastal territories and
constructions: in consequence of rise of the lake level, they remain
under water and start to putrefy. As a result, lack of oxygen is felt
in the lake, what has a negative influence on vital activity flora and
fauna existing in it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJAN: FOUR PEOPLE MORE ARE JUDGED FOR BETRAYAL OF MOTHERLAND

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
May 3, 2006 Wednesday

In the grave crimes Court under the chairmanship of Gadim Babaev
private session of the court on the case of four military people
accused on the basis of Article 274 (Motherland betrayal) and 338.1
(infringement of action post rules) has taken place. All the four
military are accused of giving Armenia secret information. Soldiers
of military service for a regular term Binali Mamedaliev (arrested in
October 2005), Shakhriar Ismailov, Shamkhal Agadzhamaliev and Parviz
Khabibov (arrested in 2006) served in Fizulinskiy region. During
their service time they were hooked by Armenians and worked for them.
The hearing of the case will take place on May, 4. As there it concerns
secret information, the case will be closed, and no information
is given about any mentioned facts. It is not the first case when
Azerbaijan soldiers are judged for cooperation with Armenians. Armed
Forces command has not yet given any explanation to the facts.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkey warns France ties could be hit by Armenian genocide bill

Agence France Presse — English
May 3, 2006 Wednesday 11:08 AM GMT

Turkey warned France Wednesday that bilateral ties could suffer if
the French parliament adopts a bill that would criminalize any denial
that Armenians massacred during World War I were victims of genocide.

“In our meetings (with French officials), we stress that adoption
of the bill could lead to irreparable damage in long-standing
Turkish-French ties and that this should not be allowed,” foreign
ministry spokesman Namik Tan told a press conference here.

Tan said Ankara is doing everything it can to block the bill, adding
that the French government is doing the same.

The bill, expected to be voted later this month, provides for one
year’s imprisonment and a 45,000 euro (57,000 dollar) fine for denying
that Armenians were victims of genocide, according to Turkish press
reports.

If adopted, it will follow a 2001 French decision that infuriated
Turkey by acknowledging that the mass killings in the dying days of
the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 by Turks, as the Ottoman
Empire, modern Turkey’s predecessor, was falling apart.

Turkey categorically rejects the claims, saying 300,000 Armenians and
at least as many Turks died in civil strife when the Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian
troops invading Ottoman soil.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Genocide armenien: l’ambassadeur turc au Canada rappele pour consultations

Agence France Presse
6 mai 2006 samedi 2:13 PM GMT

Ankara a rappele son ambassadeur au Canada “pour consultations”,
après des declarations du Premier ministre canadien Stephen Harper
sur le “genocide armenien”, rapporte vendredi le quotidien
montrealais The Gazette.

L’ambassadeur Aydemir Erman s’est rendu a Ankara pour discuter avec
les responsables turcs des mesures a adopter pour exprimer leur
mecontentement face a l’attitude d’Ottawa, selon un diplomate turc
cite par le journal.

Le retrait officiel de l’ambassadeur pourrait etre envisage, selon la
meme source.

Le ministère turc des Affaires etrangères s’etait dit “consterne par
les declarations du Premier ministre qui soutiennent (…) les
allegations armeniennes sans fondement”.

Il avait souligne que cette prise de position allait “affecter de
manière negative les liens turco-canadiens”.

Le chef du gouvernement canadien avait salue le 21 avril tous ceux
qui commemoraient le genocide armenien.

Les Armeniens estiment que jusqu’a 1,5 million des leurs ont peri
dans un genocide orchestre par l’empire ottoman entre 1915 et 1917.

Ankara soutient que 300.000 Armeniens et au moins autant de Turcs ont
ete tues au cours de troubles suscites par des soulèvements
d’Armeniens et leur ralliement aux armees russes en guerre contre
l’empire ottoman et lors des deportations qui ont suivi.

–Boundary_(ID_Sz62teWyLUcBYFqUvmotoA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Crashed plane passed all planned checks, repairs in April
by Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday

An airplane A-320 belonging to the Armenian air company Armavia that
crashed in the Black Sea on Wednesday has passed all planned checks
and the repairs in April, chief of the main civil aviation department
in the Armenian government Artyom Movsesian said at a briefing in
the Armenian presidential staff after a meeting with the Armenian
president over the air crash.

This Airbus was produced in 1995 and passed all planned checks and
the repairs in April 2006, Movsesian emphasized.

He noted that before the flight the technical staff of the Belgian
aviation maintenance company Sabena Technics conducted a check and
drew conclusions about a full technical serviceability of the airliner.

The airplane was fueled with ten tonnes of good aviation kerosene
and had enough fuel to fly back to Yerevan, Movsesian pointed out.

Spokesman of the air company Sibir Yevgeny Filyanin, this air company
did not service the crashed airplane.

The airplane was carrying 113 people. According to the Russian Foreign
Ministry and the Emergencies Ministry, 26 Russian citizens mainly of
Armenian origin were aboard the plane.

The bad weather conditions near the Sochi airport are the main version
of the crash. All details of the crash will be clarified after the
investigating committee has completed its work and deciphered the
flight recorders.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanARMENIAN.Net

Sand and Sea Water to Be Buried Instead of
Undiscovered Corpses

06.05.2006 15:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Symbolic funerals of victims, whose corpses are
not found yet, can be held in Armenia, stated Armenian Ambassador to
Russia Armen Smbatyan. “Yesterday we talked with relatives and they
wished to take sand and sea-water in small jugs. These peculiar urns
will be buried in Armenia,” he said. Armen Smbatyan also reported
that some 180 relatives and friends of the victims remain in Sochi
at present, 108 of these live in the town hotels.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE chairman: Upper Garabagh ‘not a state’

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
May 5 2006

Baku, May 4, AssA-Irada — Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, an Azeri region
under Armenian occupation, Georgia’s breakaway republic of South
Ossetia and Moldova’s Dnestr “are not separate states, although they
are geographic entities”, the OSCE chairman-in-office and Belgian
Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht has told the Armenian press.

Asked why representatives of the separatist republics were not invited
to a summit of the Baltic and Black Sea littoral states dedicated
to “frozen conflicts” flaring in the former Soviet Union states,
De Gucht disappointed Armenians, saying invitations to attend the
event had been sent only to recognized countries and their presidents.

“The summit is attended by the presidents of Moldova and Georgia,
as well as Azerbaijani and Armenian government officials,” he said,
indicating that Upper Garabagh could not be involved in the talks as
a party.

De Gucht added that one of the priorities for any given state is its
recognition by other countries.*

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

More bodies of air crash victims airlifted to Armenia

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 6 2006

YEREVAN, May 6 (Itar-Tass) -Bodies of eight people who died in the
air crash near Sochi were airlifted to the Armenian capital Yerevan
last night, an official of Armenia’s company Armavia, to which the
A-320 plane was registered, has said.

He told ITAR-TASS that seven other bodies would be brought to Yerevan
by air on Saturday.

He expressed doubt that “bodies of all passengers and crewmembers
can be found”.

The scheduled flight of Armavia also took on the board 26 relatives
of the dead who were staying in Sochi for identifying the bodies.

Armenian National Security Service former director Lieutenant-General
Karlos Petrosyan, who is at present an advisor to the administration of
Russia’s company Transneft, returned to Yerevan from Sochi last night.

His 21-year-old son Aram was on the ill-fated flight. His body has
not been found so far.

The A-320 passenger plane that was en route from Yerevan to Russia’s
sea resort of Sochi crashed into the Black Sea during a landing
approach to Sochi on May 3 night.

The crash claimed 113 lives.

According to the latest information, 53 bodies have been recovered
from the sea, 42 of which have been identified.

A plane of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry ferried remains
of 26 crash victims to Yerevan on Friday.

Saturday is the second day of mourning announced in Armenia in
connection with the tragedy.

Flags are flying half-mast, all culture functions have been cancelled,
and television and radio programmes changed.

Airbus fuselage believed found in Black Sea rescue operation
10:44 | 06/ 05/ 2006

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 6 2006

SOCHI, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – Rescuers said Saturday they thought they
had found the fuselage of an Armenian Airbus that crashed off Russia’s
Black Sea coast three days ago, killing all 113 people onboard.

“An object measuring 20m x 30m has been found in the search area,”
rescue worker Sergei Biryukov said, adding that the object had yet
to be identified, as it could be also a part of an undersea cliff.

Rescuers are continuing efforts to identify the object and would use
an Obzor-600 remotely controlled device to give a more precise visual
picture of the object Saturday, Biryukov said, adding that the device
could not be used to recover the object.

He said the sea floor was rugged, which complicated the efforts.

Earlier reports said the recovery operation involved more than 700
rescue workers, 40 boats, deep-sea vehicles, an amphibious aircraft
and a helicopter, an experimental Katran rescue boat and a new Kalmar
deep-sea search vehicle were also working at the scene to locate
parts of the wreckage and flight recorders, which are seen as the
key to explaining the cause of the tragedy.

Fifty-one bodies have been recovered at the site, and 42 of them have
been identified, the ministry said Friday.

The Airbus A-320 operated by Armenia’s Armavia was flying from the
Armenian capital, Yerevan, to Adler airport, which services the
popular Russian resort at Sochi, when it crashed six kilometers off
the Russian coast early Wednesday morning.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress