Author: Emil Lazarian

BLACK BOXES FROM CRASHED A-320 TO BE HANDED OVER TO AIRBUS
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 16, 2006 Tuesday
When recovered from the Black Sea bottom, the cockpit voice and flight
data recorders from the crashed A-320 liner of the Armenian air
carrier Armavia will be handed over to the bureau of investigation
of the aircraft-building concern Airbus, the owner of the company
that operated the lost plane, Mikhail Bagdasarov, has told the media.
The voice and flight data recorders have special codes known only to
Airbus specialists, Bagdasarov said. There is a possibility Russian
and Armenian experts will be invited to participate in retrieving
and interpreting flight data.
The crew of the Armenian liner was a well-trained one, the plane
itself was in normal technical condition and it had enough fuel,
the air carrier’s owner said.
“True, the weather in the area of Sochi’s Adler airport was bad,
but not so bad to prevent an Airbus plane from landing safely,”
Bagdasarov said.
Representatives of the British insurance company are arriving in
Yerevan later on Tuesday.
“We have been conducting negotiations with them. It looks like the
insurer is prepared to pay compensations to the relatives of all 113
victims of the disaster,” Bagdasarov said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEW TRIAL OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH EDITOR BEGINS IN ISTANBUL
source:
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
May 17 2006
Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin, is accused of
“attempting to influence the judiciary” when his newspaper ran articles
criticizing a law that makes it a crime to “insults Turkishness.” The
law has been used to indict writers and intellectuals, including Dink
himself and novelist Orhan Pamuk, for commenting on the mass killings
of Armenians by Turks around World War I.
Turkey denies claims by Armenians and others that the killings amounted
to genocide.
The cases against Pamuk and Dink have raised concerns about freedom
of speech in the European Union, which Turkey aspires to join.
Three other writers from the “Agos” newspaper, including Dink’s son,
also went on trial today.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US OFFICIAL SAYS ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN AGREEMENT MAY BE NEAR
by Alexander Plakhov
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 17, 2006 Wednesday
A State Department official said on Tuesday they were optimistic
about the possibility of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and
Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The two sides are closer to an agreement than they have been in the
past,” said Matthew Bryza, State Department European affairs expert.
He spoke to a meeting of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus,
which was convened to examine humanitarian suffering in the region
a dozen years after the war over Nagorno-Karabakh ended.
Bryza said the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments will have to show
political courage to bridge the final gaps. “We look at these next
couple of months as a real window of opportunity,” he said.
Earlier, Anne Derse, who is nominated ambassador to Azerbaijan, said
Washington hopes that Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev and Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan will reach agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

VIC: GENOCIDE STATEMENT PART OF FREE SPEECH: BRACKS
Australian Associated Press Pty. Ltd.
AAP Newsfeed
May 16, 2006 Tuesday 11:18 AM AEST
A Victorian MP’s parliamentary speech accusing Turkish people of
ignoring acts of genocide more than 80 years ago is a sign of free
speech at work, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks says.
Jenny Mikakos, the parliamentary secretary for justice, whose ethnic
background is Greek, has accused Turkey of ignoring the killing of
hundreds of thousands of ethnic Greeks between 1916 and 1923.
In a short speech to the Victorian upper house during the last session
of parliament, Ms Mikakos reportedly said: “On May 19, the Pontian
community in Victoria and around the world will commemorate the 87th
anniversary of the Pontian genocide that occurred in present-day
Turkey.
“Between 1916 and 1923, over 353,000 Pontic Greeks living in Asia
Minor and in Pontus, which is near the Black Sea, died as a result of
the 20th Century’s first but less-known genocide,” Fairfax reported
her as saying.
“Over a million Pontic Greeks were forced into exile. In the preceding
years, 1.5 million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts
of Turkey also perished.”
Two Labor MPs of Turkish descent, Adem Somyurek and John Eren,
interjected but Ms Mikakos continued speaking.
“The Turkish government must begin the reconciliation process by
acknowledging these crimes against humanity. The suffering of the
victims of the Pontian genocide cannot and will not be forgotten,”
she said.
The comments, made under a system of 90-second free statements for
MPs established by the Bracks government, have outraged Turkish and
Jewish groups.
But Mr Bracks today said Ms Mikakos, one of two members for the safe
Jika Jika province in Melbourne’s north, was free to make the speech.
“Free speech is something that we uphold, and I understand that,
and the freedom to criticise someone who makes a statement is also
appropriate as well,” he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
“As to the interpretation of those events, that is a matter which,
really, other people can judge, but this is something she obviously
felt passionate about.
“It’s up to her. She is a member of parliament who can submit those
things to the parliament.
“But equally, people have the right to vigorously disagree with her
point of view.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HIGH-RANKING REPRESENTATIVES OF USA STATE DEPARTMENT CLAIM OF THEIR OPTIMISM CONCERNING AGREEMENT ACHIEVEMENT FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT
Yerevan, May 17. ArmInfo. High-ranking officials of the USA State
Department claim of their optimism concerning achievement of agreement
between Armenia and Azerbaijan for the Karabakh conflict settlement,
the “Svoboda” Radio Station informs with reference to the “Associated
Press”.
“The parties are close to the agreement achievement as never before”,
the USA deputy State Secretary on issues of Europe and Asia Matthew
Brise said during the meeting with the members of the Armenia’s
support group of the USA Congress. He noted that the governments of
Armenia and Azerbaijan have to show political courage to eliminate
the last disagreements. “We consider the coming months as a real
“window of possibilities””, Matthew Brise said.
According to another high-ranking representative of the State
Department, David Appleton, one of the evidences of progress is
the fact that Azerbaijan appealed to the UN Agency for Problems of
Refugees with a request to develop programs of return of the forced
migrants after the conflict settlement.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INCIDENTS LORS D’UN PROCèS CONTRE UN JOURNALISTE ARMENIEN DE TURQUIE
Agence France Presse
16 mai 2006 mardi 12:11 PM GMT
Un procès contre le journaliste turc d’origine armenienne, Hrant Dink,
accuse de “tentative d’influencer la justice” pour avoir commente ses
propres demeles judiciaires, a ete suspendu mardi a Istanbul après que
des nationalistes eurent provoque des incidents, a indique son avocate.
L’audience a ete fortement perturbee par un groupe de juristes
nationalistes a l’origine des poursuites, au point d’obliger la cour
a reporter le procès au 4 juillet, a affirme par telephone a l’AFP
Me Fethiye Cetin.
“Kemal Kerincsiz (president de l’Union des juristes nationalistes,
ndlr) et son equipe sont venus en nombre, ils nous ont agresse aussi
bien physiquement que verbalement”, a declare Mme Cetin, qui n’a
pas pu donner de plus amples details, expliquant qu’elle etait sous
protection policière.
“Quand je suis rentre, ils s’en sont pris a moi, ils ont crie ‘fiche
le camp de ce pays’ et m’ont crache dessus”, a explique a l’AFP M.
Dink, ajoutant qu’il avait du quitter le tribunal par la porte de
derrière et sous escorte policière.
La police a egalement dû intervenir a la demande de la cour pour
empecher des militants nationalistes d’entrer dans la salle d’audience.
A l’exterieur du tribunal, une cinquantaine de manifestants d’extreme
droite se sont battus avec une quinzaine de militants de gauche venus
soutenir M. Dink aux cris de “ce sont nos intellectuels, nos peuples
sont frères”, a constate un photographe de l’AFP.
M. Dink, redacteur en chef du quotidien bilingue turc-armenien Agos,
et trois autres membres de la redaction encourent jusqu’a trois ans
de prison pour s’etre interroges en octobre dans leurs colonnes sur
le fonctionnement de la justice turque.
L’article en question faisait suite a la condamnation de M. Dink a
six mois de prison avec sursis pour “insulte a l’identite turque”.
M. Dink etait poursuivi pour un article paru en 2004 dans son journal
consacre a la memoire collective des massacres d’Armeniens commis
entre 1915 et 1917 en Anatolie.
La question armenienne est très sensible en Turquie, qui estime
inapproprie l’emploi du terme genocide pour definir les evenements
qui se sont deroules dans les dernières annees de l’Empire ottoman.
Plusieurs pays ont qualifie les massacres de genocide.
–Boundary_(ID_oKX/Zk+Z6ETYeRO3fR1syg)- –

TURCHIA: GENOCIDIO ARMENO, ANKARA METTE IN GUARDIA PARIGI
ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
May 17, 2006
Domani Parlamento Francese Vota Su Progetto Di Legge
(ANSA) – ANKARA, 17 GIU – Il ministero degli esteri turco ha oggi
messo in guardia la Francia lasciando intendere chiaramente che
un’eventuale approvazione domani al Parlamento di Parigi di una legge
che prevede sanzioni contro chi negasse il genocidio degli armeni,
potrebbe inficiare le relazioni tra i due paesi.
“Noi ci aspettiamo che la Francia non consenta alcuna iniziativa che
possa danneggiare le nostre relazioni storiche.
Noi sappiamo che il governo ed il popolo francese condividono il nostro
punto di vista. Ci aspettiamo percio’ che il parlamento francese
respinga il progetto di legge che prevede sanzioni per coloro che
negano il cosidetto genocidio armeno”, ha dichiarato questo pomeriggio
il portavoce del ministero degli esteri, Namik Tan.
Nei giorni scorsi diversi esponenti del governo turco avevano
stigmatizzato il progetto di legge osservando tra l’altro che esso,
se approvato, introdurrebbe in Francia un reato di opinione.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

JIVAN GASPARYAN GAVE CONCERT IN COMMEMORATION OF KILLED IN A-320 CRASH
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.05.2006 17:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ May 16 famous Jivan Gasparyan gave a concert
in commemoration of those killed in A-320 crash. Gasparyan, the
masterly duduk player, is the co-author of music to “The Gladiator”,
Code Da Vinci”, “Doctor Zhivago” and others. The senior priest of
the Armenian-Grigorian Church of Krasnodar held a service before the
concert, reported Yuga.ru.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARA ABRAHAMYAN WILL PARTICIPATE BUT WON’T INTERFERE
A1+
[08:41 pm] 17 May, 2006
We are so far unsuccessful in uniting the Armenian Diaspora, and only
the Armenians of Russian keep working without disagreements. This
is the opinion of Ara Abrahamyan, head of the Union of Armenians of
Russia and President of the World Armenian Congress.
“In 1999 there were about 450Armenian NGOs. I applied to them in
connection with the elections the next year and it turned out that
they are not liked to each other and are not a political power. So
the idea to create the Union of Armenians of Russia was born.
Later on the NGOs either disappeared or joined us, and we were able to
do considerable work together and to keep up our interests in Russia,”
he said.
Speaking about his participation in the inner political events of
Armenia Ara Abrahamyan said that 500 thousand citizens of Armenia
live in Russia and he cannot but participate in the coming elections.
“We will participate but we will not interfere.
Armenia is an independent state,” Mr. Abrahamyan said.
Speaking about his relationships with the political parties
Mr. Abrahamyan noted that he has meet the representatives of all the
parties and discussed variants of efficient cooperation which have
nothing to do with politics.
As for the information about him supporting the newly created party
“Unity for the Sake of Armenia”, Mr. Abrahamyan did not refute it,
“We are ready to support them if it helps Armenia.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ANOTHER ILLEGAL CHAIRMAN? …AND THAT IS RADIK MARTIROSOVICH
Panorama.am
16:34 17/05/06
Today Radik MARTIROSYAN, YSU former rector, academician was elected as
the president of National Assembly with 46 of votes. 27 academicians
voted against and 6 ballot papers were considered invalid.
His rivals Lenser Aghalovyan received 35 votes and Eduard Ghazaryan
-36.
So, the talks that Radik Maritorisyan was promised this position
by the ruling authorities upon his resignation of the rector’s post
proved to be reality.
Once again an illegal president is going to rule the Academy
of Sciences. The point is that according to the Law on State Non
-commercial Organizations the presidents of such organizations should
not be above 65.
“There is no age limit in any country. The president of the academy
has another status,” closed the issue the newly elected president.
Yuri SARGSYAN, Rector of Engineering University does not see
any contradictions between the election procedures and academy
charter. Although it was clear that he himself did not put his
candidacy because he is above 65. Academician Anri NERSISYAN, on the
other hand, notices contradictions between the law and AS charter. “I
don’t know why they recall it only now,” he said.
Another academician Rafael GHAZARYAN said he would prefer either
Lenser Aghalovyan or Eduard Ghazaryan.
“They are young and have contributed a lot to the academy,” he said.
The newly elected president stated that there are going to be
reductions in the academy. He refuted the rumors that election bribes
were given out. “I don’t have money to give out,” he said. Lenser
Aghalovyan, on his own turn, doubted that academicians would take
bribes “no matter how hungry they are,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress