Author: Emil Lazarian

ARMENIAN CIVIL AVIATION GENERAL DEPARTMENT TO LEAVE FOR SOCHI
Panorama.am
12:54 23/05/06
The Armenian Civil Aviation General Department representative will
leave for Sochi today to participate in the committee work studying
the reasons of A-320 airliner crash on May 3 costing 113 lives.
The group will study the “black box” recorder information which was
discovered recently, Gaiane Davtian CAGD Head press secretary told
Panorama.am.
The department authorized Gagik Galstyan, flight security inspection
department inspector to participate in the committee work. Igor
Levitin, Russian Transport Minister, heads the committee.
Yesterday, 1 of “black box” recorders of A-320 airliner was discovered
from Black Sea, under 296 m depth. The device has recorded talks
between the airliner personnel and the dispatcher as well as talks
in the pilot’s cabin.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEW FACTORY IN AKHOURYAN
A1+
[02:38 pm] 24 May, 2006
A new factory processing sugar beet is to be built in Akhouryan. The
preliminary works of the construction are already under way.
The area meant for the factory has been investigated and steps are
taken for its allotment. Artsroun Igityan, the head of the village
community hopes that the problem of allotment will be solved within
the coming 10-15 days.
The construction of the factory will be financed by businessman
Samvel Asatryan.
TV Company “Tsayg” of Gyumri
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN POLICEMEN TAKE PART IN 10TH INTERNATIONAL ALL ROUND EVENTS “ANTI-CRIMINAL 2006” IN ST.PETERSBURG
Yerevan, May 23. ArmInfo. Armenian policemen are taking part in the
two-day 10th international all-round events “Anti-Criminal 2006”
in St.Petersburg.
The press service of the Armenian police reports that attending the
event are Byelorussian special purpose militiamen, Finnish air rangers,
Russian policemen. The participants are competing in shooting, running,
driving, hand-to-hand fighting and are showing their knowledge of
police rules. The key prize is 100,000 RUR.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS MIGHT MEET WITHIN SUMMIT IN BUCHAREST ON 4-6 JUNE
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 23 2006
“We had many discussions on the Nagorno Garabagh conflict during
Romanian presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Foreign
Minister.
We also discussed mutual steps taken by Azerbaijani and Armenian
authorities in the framework of the Committee of Ministers,” Romanian
Foreign Minister Mikhai-Razvan Ungureanu, who turned over presidency to
Russia, told APA’s Europe bureau while responding to the question “What
improvements have been achieved in settlement of the Nagorno Garabagh
conflict during Romanian presidency of the Committee of Ministers?”
Stating that there are hopes for achieving common result that will
satisfy both parties, Romanian Foreign Minister stressed that there
is good chance for the next meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian
Presidents.
“Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will have a chance to meet in
the summit-“Black Sea for dialogue and partnership” scheduled for
June 4-6 this year in Bucharest. I hope the heads of state will
have an opportunity to have talks within the summit. It is very
important now from the aspect of political dialogue. On the other
hand, this meeting can be important in removing the existing tension
and can demonstrate possibility of next political dialogue capacity,”
Mr.Ungureanu said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SOME 20 AZERBAIJANIS KILLED IN RALLY IN TABRIZ
PanARMENIAN.Net
24.05.2006 13:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ May 22, in Tabriz, Azerbaijanis organized a rally
and tried to seize the former premises of Milli Mejlis, presently
the government House of Tabriz. The rally participants were crying
out slogans like “Azeri people will not tolerate sufferings”,
“Chehraganly, the hero of Azerbaijan”, “Karabakh is ours and will
be ours”. The police dispersed the rally. As result, some 20 people
were killed and 100 were injured. The hospital where the injured were
taken is surrounded by the police. To prevent a repetition guardsmen
assaulted a hostel and detained some 100 people, reported Day.az.
It should be noted that the rallies in Tabriz and other town of
northern Iran were held in protest against offensive caricatures
of Azeris posted in Iran daily. According to Lenta.ru, the Iranian
government closed Iran daily and accused the journalists of publishing
provocative materials.

GUAM TRANSFORMATION: NEW “SANITARY CORDON” AGAINST RUSSIA
Sergey Shakaryants – expert of Caucasus analytical center
Regnum, Russia
May 23 2006
In order to understand what may be happening at the Kiev summit of GUAM
(Georgia-Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Moldova), any unbiased expert or observer
will have to look back at an earlier event attended by the presidents
of Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and the prime minister of Azerbaijan –
the “Common Vision of Common Neighborhood” conference in Vilnius. So
as not to quote some participants inspired by the anti-Russian
rhetoric of US Vice President Richard Cheney, let’s just say that,
once backing the founders of GUAM, in Vilnius the Americans had to
admit that the bloc has failed to do what it was supposed to do –
a mission severely slated by many Russian politicians in 2000-2001,
particularly, by then-Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
To remind, they in Moscow believed that GUAM and the US’ attempts to
enlarge it were something like “bringing a Trojan horse” into the
CIS and, even more, a plot to create a kind of “sanitary cordon”
around Russia – similar to the one existing around the USSR in the
20s-40s of XX.
In Vilnius in early May the US, in fact, “gave an order” to its
post-Soviet satellites – the Baltic states, Georgia, Ukraine
and Moldova – that, from now on, GUAM will be replaced by another
“sanitary cordon” formula – Democratic Choice Commonwealth (DCC). We
would like to remind you that the pseudo-initiators of the DCC –
a structure with yet seemingly illogical imperatives – are Georgian
and Ukrainian presidents Mikhail Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko,
who came out with the idea as early as last summer. The participants in
the Vilnius conference made it clear that they are going to “struggle
for democratization” of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan jointly (under
the patronage of the US and the EU).
And Latvia’s call – “democratization can’t stop at this, it’s time
for the international community to look towards the east – Eastern
Europe and the South Caucasus” – was meant as start to this struggle.
We would like to note that, for the Baltic states, Eastern Europe
is two “non-democrat”-countries – Belarus and Russia. And when
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus urged the West to create a
“European Democracy Fund,” everybody understood that this fund would be
a kind of account for “paying” for “revolutionary services” by certain
circles in Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan. As you may know
the “color revolutions” of the last years have “died out” in Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Central Asia, and the “children of the revolutions”
in Georgia and Ukraine have already fought with one another.
We believe that the US no longer needs local smaller-scope
sub-structure in a more global anti-Russian structure, even though
we can’t but agree with the first vice chairman of the CIS committee
of Russia’s State Duma Akhmed Bilalov that in their time many people,
even those in Western Europe, agreed that GUAM was a purely American
project that was supposed to give the US an advantage over France
and Germany in Europe. “In this light, Paris and Berlin will hardly
want this project to succeed, especially as the aspiration of the
GUAM members to join the EU can undermine the positions of the old
traditional European leaders,” Bilalov said on May 21. So, it is
obviously not without purpose that people are talking that during the
GUAM summit in Kiev this non-functional and inefficient alliance will
be renamed into “Organization for Democracy and Development GUAM” –
i.e. will be turned into a kind of “structural sub-division” of the
DCC in the region of Black Sea and Caucasus.
As we know, since 1999 American emissaries of different levels and
ranks have been actively persuading the Armenian authorities into,
at least, declaring their intention to join GUAM in some near future.
And so, today we don’t even doubt that the Americans will start an even
bigger fuss over Armenia. Now they will probably start to persuade us
that, unlike GUAM (which has proved no less amorphous than the CIS),
the “flagship of democracy” in the post-Soviet area – the DCC and its
branch, the Organization for Democracy and Development GUAM – will
have more clear goals and mechanisms and will get a big recompense
for joining in the new “Crusade” against Russia – from the selfsame
Adamkus- and his US patrons-proposed European Democracy Fund.
In fact, the point is not so much that the US and its satellites might
be doing this because of the “Iranian problem.” The actual point
is that they may well be growing anti-Russian because of Russia’s
unprecedented (for the whole post-WWII period) rapprochement with
China, including in the military. In fact, political pirates from
different countries are trying to come together into a single “front”
against the two biggest Eurasian states.
In this light, the whole row about the “Iranian dossier” looks quite
differently: not as a fight against theocratic rule in Iran or for
control over vast reserves of oil, gas, uranium and precious stones
in that country, but as an attempt to create a solid “circle” and,
simultaneously, to seize a key territory in the way of the so-called
Great Silk Road-2, a project by Sam Brownback, US congressman known for
his radical anti-Russian views. In other words, the world community is
dealing with the “declared” undeclared war of the West’s reactionary
circles against Russia and China. The bankrupt GUAM is just the
“fifth wheel in a cart” in this strategy.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA, NATO DISCUSS COOPERATION PROSPECTS
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 23 2006
YEREVAN, May 23 (Itar-Tass) – Armenian President Robert Kocharian and
the NATO Secretary-General’s Representative for the North Caucasus and
Central Asia, Robert Simmons, have discussed Armenia-NATO cooperation,
the Armenian presidential press service told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Relations with NATO are discussed in the context of Armenia’s European
integration, Kocharian said.
The interdepartmental commission was set up to coordinate work with
different European institutions, he said.
“Our goal is not to lag behind the schedule, but to move by leaps
and bounds and translate into reality joint programs,” Kocharian said.
Simmons hailed the implementation of the plan for Armenia-NATO
partnership. It is necessary to launch defence reform and strengthen
democracy in Armenia, he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN DEPUTY OUSTED AFTER JUST EIGHT MONTHS
By Jean Christou
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
May 23 2006
TWO of the three religious minority incumbents were re-elected
on Sunday as observers in parliament, while the third Armenian
representative Dr Vahakn Atamyan, only elected last October in a
by-election, was ousted by newcomer Vartkes Mahdessian.
Atamyan, who was not available for comment yesterday, lost his seat
by only 89 votes. He garnered 47.3 per cent of the Armenian vote,
which translated into 810 voters compared to 52.6 per cent, or 899
votes, for Mahdessian.
The Armenian community is split on a number of issues, not least the
closure of the Melkonian Educational Institute.
Prior to the election, Atamyan had admitted he was not too happy about
having to through another election so soon. He told the Cyprus Mail
that he only had eight months to show some progress, and that time
was too short.
Along with the Armenians, Maronites and Latins voted on Sunday.
Maronite incumbent Antonis Hadjiroussos beat out three other candidates
to hold on to his seat with 43.7 per cent of the vote.
His nearest rival was Ioannis Poyadjis who secured 29.6 per cent.
Poyadjis was the Maronite representative in the House from 1991
to 1996.
Hadjiroussos said yesterday he owed a debt of thanks to those who
supported him. “I will now work to bring together the Maronite people
so that they can be united,” he said. “There is a lot of work to
be done.”
Just over 3,000 Maronites voted, around half of their number on the
island, although many live in the north.
The Latin community, which had two candidates to choose from, voted
for incumbent Benito Mantovani, who secured 61.8 per cent compared
to 38.1 for rival Maria Markou. Mantovani and Markou fought it out
for a total of 372 votes.
“I am happy that the Latin community has approved of my work and
approved of what I said in my campaign,” Mantovani told the Cyprus
Mail yesterday. One of the big issues for the Latin community was
the creation of a cemetery in Nicosia.
Mantovani said he had already persuaded the government prior to the
election, to give land for the cemetery, and also a grant of £5,000
from the £20,000 he asked for. He said he kept pressing for the other
£15,000. “Today they sent us the other £15,000,” he said.
The three minority candidates do not have a vote in the House,
although all three said before the election that it was something
they would consider pushing for.
–Boundary_(ID_IeOIabqfkXzG82uyYw0j2Q)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK: “US SHOULD SEEK NEGOTIATED NK SETTLEMENT”
Today, Azerbaijan
May 23 2006
The Bush administration’s new strategy on the Caspian region is known,
said US Senator Sam Brownback, who authored the draft law on supporting
the South Caucasus and Central Asian states in the US Senate.
Brownback said pipelines of critical importance for the transit of oil
and gas pass through these countries. “The United States should also
beat Iran to its nuclear ambitions as well as station new military
bases in the region.”
The bill also cited the US aspiration to forge closer relations with
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, AssA-Irada informs.
As for the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, the
Senator said the USA should work to achieve a solution through peace
talks. It should also counter what he called Russia’s geo-political
ambitions in the region.
URL:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ROBERT KOCHARIAN NOT TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT POST IN 2007
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 23 2006
Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian will not nominate his candidacy
for presidential elections in 2007, President’s councilor for national
security affairs Garnik Isagulyan stated (APA). He said that Robert
Kocharian’s being a presidential nominee again is an exception.
“A person, who has been dealing with serious state problems for
20 years, including settlement of the Nagorno Garabagh conflict,
cannot possibly take such a step which can cause reproach,” the
councilor stressed.
Isagulyan ruled out that President Kocharian might be Prime Minister.
“I think Robert Kocharian will have stronger influence on state
processes even if he is not a President. I do not mean he will hold
any other state post,” he said.
The President’s councilor also said that he sees Defense Minister
Serj Sarkisyan as possible successor of Kocharian, “Serj Sarkisyan
can continue the current state course worthily. However, he has not
yet announced that he will be a presidential nominee.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress