Author: Emil Lazarian

COMMITTEE TO PROTECT SAFAROV DEMANDS DELAY OF ANNOUNCING VERDICT

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.04.2006 01:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The Budapest city court is influenced by Armenian
lobby and therefore will not pass a fair verdict regarding the
Azerbaijani officer,” Head of the Committee to Protect Ramil Safarov’s
Rights Akif Naghi said in Baku. In his words, the Committee demands
that the trial scheduled April 13 be postponed and the court staff
be replaced.

The Committee also believes that Azerbaijan’s parliamentary group
for relations with the Hungarian Parliament should leave for Budapest
as soon as possible. In addition, the Azerbaijani parliament should
hold a debate on Safarov’s case at Hungarian Parliament, a large
media group should be sent to Budapest, and his extradition should
be achieved irrespective of the verdict on him, APA reports.

“THE FALSIFIERS ARE BETRAYERS”

A1+
[08:51 pm] 11 April, 2006

“Now the favourite moment of many deputies starts,” the NA vice-speaker
Vahan Hovhanessyan said these words in his speech the key issue of
which was the sale of the 5th block of the Hrazdan heat-electric
generating plant to the Russian side.

“Isn’t there anyone who can advise Robert Kocharyan not to estimate
criminal deals as a successful ones?”

said the member of the “Justice” party Grigor Harutyunyan. The
latter also spoke about other “successful deals,” such as “ArmenTel,”
Yerevan Brandy Company and “ArmFilm.” His oratory question was soon
answered in the same way by his partner, the Deputy of the “Justice”
Party Stepan Zakaryan, “Who has such a right?” he said and brought
the following example, when the Minister of Science who did not
approve of Andre’s song was offered to go on hunger-strike. And
the only reason was that “they did not approve of the things liked
by Robert Kocharyan’s team.” Judging from the above mentioned the
oppositional deputy concludes that our authorities are divided into
“the 1st, 2nd and 3rd categories.” In Stepan Zakaryan’s opinion the
tragedy of our country is not in the fact of having “Kadj Nazars,”
but in the fact of having “Lord Sakos who make Nazars brave.”

While enumerating the advantages of the possibility of giving Hrazdan
energy block to the Russian side or the possibility of its keeping
a state property Victor Dallakyan announced that they threaten the
security of the country.

The Deputy Manuk Gasparyan expressed his suspects on “our authorities’
putting money into their pockets” after the deal. By the way, while
the oppositional deputies spent their 3 minutes on the criticism of
the last bargain, the member of the Republican Party Sukias Avetisyan
thanked the Armenian officialdom in the name of all Armenians for
the decision on “gas price abate.”

The Deputy Shavarsh Kocharyan focused on the settlement of external and
internal problems of the country. He claims that we must provide real
economic growth and enlarge our army. “The latter is a more serious
task,” he says bringing the following datum; the 50% of women under 50
are not married and have no children. “Armenia must become a social
country as is written in the Constitution,” added Shavarsh Kocharyan
saying that people falsifying the 2007 elections are betrayers.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SEPARATE CALLS HAVE SPECIAL STRATEGY

A1+
[04:39 pm] 11 April, 2006

The OSCE Minsk group co-chairs will visit the region in May on the
issue of the Nagorno – Kharabakh conflict. According to the “Trend”
agency, the OSCE Minsk group French co-chair Bernard Fassie who
visited the region without his companions declared about the coming
call in Baku.

The French co-chair claimed that the separate calls of the Minsk group
co-chairs to the region will contribute to the new phase establishment
of the negotiation procedure between Armenia and Azerbaijan and
will help to reveal the positions of the sides towards the conflict
settlement. He also mentioned that the mediators “worked hard” last
year but there was no progress during the presidents’ meeting in
Rambouillet. He voiced hope that the “new possibilities” given by
the Minsk group co-chairs in the negotiating stage will pave a way
for the future meeting of the Armenian and Azeri presidents.

Bernard Fassie mentioned that he arrived in Azerbaijan with concrete
suggestions but he did not reveal their contents. He only assured
that there was nothing special in them. The OSCE Minsk group French
co-chair Bernard Fassie met the Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedjarov
today. It was a closed meeting and no announcements were made after it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE BOOKMAKERS DO NOT BELIEVE IN ANDRE

A1+
[05:25 pm] 11 April, 2006

The international bookmaking companies have already initiated to take
stakes on the results of the “Eurovision – 2006.”

The bookmakers estimated that the chances of the Armenian
representative Andre in the “Eurovision – 2006” are very low; the
index of his getting into the final phase is equal to 4.0. Thus,
they think that practically Andre cannot be involved in the list of
final participants.

Let us mention that the index of Dima Bilan presenting the Russian
Federation is1.22. The stake on Amdre’s not being involved in the
finals is 1.15 point.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TOTAL ROBBERY AND “ESTRANGEMNT”

A1+
[07:55 pm] 11 April, 2006

The bill on the “account establishment on the program implementation of
the 2001 – 2003 state property privatizations” was put on the agenda
of the NA session yesterday. Today the NA Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan
and other important figures criticized the “estrangement” policy
of the Government “as a result of which the RA budget had a loss of
milliards AMD.” Arthur Baghdasaryan inquired why the same territory
is sold for 1000 AMD in one case and for 100 000 AMD in another. The
Chief of the State Property Department Karine Kirakosyan answered that
the price is determined by a number of factors; the activity index,
actives and liabilities of the enterprise are taken into account.

Before answering Arthur Baghdasaryan’s questions Karine Kirakosyan
claimed that neither educational nor primary educational institutions
were alienated or privatized. The NA Speaker informed her that 535
nursery schools and 250 libraries were already privatized.

Today the Opposition was also very active. The vice-deputy of
the “Justice” party Victor Dallakyan divulged all the cases of
privatization which were realized directly and the buyer was known
beforehand; for instance, the company “Orbita” was estimated 150
million AMD whereas it was privatized with 150 million AMD. Let’s
bring another example, “Light” LTD was estimated 106 million AMD
whereas it was privatized with 10 million 825 thousand AMD.

The member of the party “Orinats Yerkir” (“Country of Law”) Hovhannes
Margaryan brought other examples of privatization and 6 examples of
companies alienated with lower price. The member of the party “National
Unity” Aghasy Arshakyan announced that the country is subjected to
total robbery, “the economy was destroyed and sold for nothing.”

NEW TARIFF FOR DRINKING WATER BEGINNING FROM JUNE 1
By Ara Martirosian

AZG Armenian Daily
12/04/2006

In the 4th Year of Lease the Price Will Go Down

Having won the tender for controlling Yerevan’s water and sewerage
system for 10 years, the French General Dez O Company offered putting
up the tariff for the first months of lease with a gradual decrease
in future. In a financial application to the Commission Regulating
Public Services of Yerevan Jur Company, the French Company offered to
make the price 172.8 drams for 1 cubic meter of drinking water. Gagik
Khachatrian, deputy chairman of Commission Regulating Public Services
of Yerevan Jur Company, gave explanation on this yesterday.

The main question to the deputy chairman was whether it is possible
that the Commission will turn down the French company’s request when
the Armenian government has already recognized General Dez O tender
winner approving of its tariff offer. Gagik Khachatrian said that
while announcing the tender the Commission Regulating Public Services
put forward its proposals and the Commission’s deputy chairman was
included in the jury. That is the tender jury took into consideration
this fact, and set a tariff in tender proposal. According to deputy
chairman, its is impossible that the authorities sign an agreement
with a winning company but then disagree with their own conditions.

Gagik Khachatrian informed that Yerevan Jur will begin functioning
on May 1 and probably on June 1 the new tariff will take effect. He
reminded that during the 10 years of lease the French company will
invest $20 million in accordance with the credit project of the World
Bank, 17.6 million euros from tariff-based sums and additional 6.4
million euros in the form of equipment and assets. Deputy chairman
stated that the size of the company’s benefits during the time of lease
will depend on decreasing water leakage. It is planned to reduce the
leak from 80 percent to 45 during 10 years. As the benefit of the
company holding natural monopoly may be greater than expected the
sides decided that once it exceeds 10 percent the profit should be
equally divided between the Armenian and French sides.

As to the tariff policy for the 10 ten years, Gagik Khachatrian
repeated that it will be gradually declining. Beginning from the 4th
year it will go down reaching the mark of 95 drams in the 10th year.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ZVARTNOTS AIRPORT TO RECEIVE FLIGHTS AT NIGHT TILL JUNE 30

Lragir.am
12 April 06

>From April 10 to June 30 Zvartnots International Airport will operate
at night. “Within these 80 days there will be no flights and landings
from 10.30 AM to 8.00 PM, because of repair of the 1.2 km middle
section of the runway,” stated Gevorg Abrahamyan, the press secretary
of Armenia International Airports CJSC. He said by July 1 works on
the runway will have been finished.

The press secretary of Armenia International Airports CJSC said
memos were sent to all the airlines cooperating with Zvartnost,
and the new schedule will cause no problems.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE MINSK GROUP FRENCH CO-CHAIR BERNARD FASSIER TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN

ArmRadio.am
12.04.2006 10:25

OSCE Minsk Group French Co-Chair Bernard Fassier will arrive today in
Armenia. Issues related to the negotiations process after the meeting
of Armenian and Azeri Presidents in Rambouillet will be discussed
during the visit.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MEMORANDUM ON MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING BETWWN CENTRAL BANKS OF ARMENIA AND CYPRUS

ArmRadio.am
12.04.2006 12:09

President of the Central Bank of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan will leave
today for Nicosia with his Cyprian counterpart.

During the visit it is envisaged to sign a memorandum on mutual
understanding between Central Banks of Armenia and Cyprus on
cooperation in the sphere of banking control.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN JUDO UNION MARIUS VIZER TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN

ArmRadio.am
12.04.2006 12:26

At the invitation of the Armenian Judo Federation President of the
European Judo Union Marius Vizer will arrive today in Armenia.

The major topic of discussions will refer to the European Judo
Championship to be held in 2009 or 2010 in Yerevan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress