Author: Emil Lazarian

KARABAKH OFFICIAL DENIES AZERI REPORT ON POWS
Mediamax news agency
4 May 06
Yerevan, 4 May: The chairman of the state commission for prisoners
of war and missing persons of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic, Viktor
Kocharyan, has flatly denied the report of the Azerbaijani state
commission for prisoners of war, hostages and missing people saying
that “4,600 Azerbaijani citizens are held captive in Armenia”.
Speaking to the Mediamax news agency, Kocharyan said that “such
groundless statements are part of propaganda and policies of the
Azerbaijan authorities aimed at discrediting Armenia and Nagornyy
Karabakh”. He said that there were no prisoners of war or hostages
in Nagornyy Karabakh and that representatives of international
organizations operating in Nagornyy Karabakh could also confirm this.
Kocharyan said that all issues related to prisoners of war in Nagornyy
Karabakh were within the remit of the state commission and ruled out
any chance of POWs being held in military units or private homes. He
said that the republic’s authorities had ensured free access to places
of detention for international organizations to carry out monitoring.
“Nagornyy Karabakh has unilaterally joined the Geneva Conventions,
in accordance with which prisoners of war are immediately handed over
to Azerbaijan with the assistance of the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC),” Kocharyan said. He pointed out that the ICRC
highly rated the openness of the Karabakh commission and effective
cooperation with this international organization.
Kocharyan said with regret that Azerbaijan had refused to cooperate
with Nagornyy Karabakh in the search for missing persons and release
of prisoners of war. He said that unlike Nagornyy Karabakh, the
Azerbaijani authorities did not allow international organizations
to enter places of detention, did not inform them on time about the
existence of prisoners of war from Nagornyy Karabakh, and in violation
of international law, delayed the release of prisoners of war by all
means. Kocharyan said that the released prisoners were handed over
to Armenia but not to Nagornyy Karabakh.
“The lack of contacts between the state commissions of Nagornyy
Karabakh and Azerbaijan, as well as the lack of constructive approach
on the part of Azerbaijan, make the resolution of such an important
humanitarian problem extremely difficult,” Kocharyan said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GEORGIAN PRESIDENT SAYS MOSCOW THREATENS NEW DEMOCRACIES IN EASTERN EUROPE
Karl Ritter
AP Worldstream
May 04, 2006
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Thursday accused Russia of
trying to undermine national sovereignty and economic growth in the
fledgling democracies emerging from the former Soviet empire.
Saakashvili warned that democratic advances in Georgia, Ukraine and
the Baltic countries since the collapse of communism were under threat
from Moscow, which he said suffered from “imperial nostalgia.”
“Freedom is under threat,” Saakashvili told a forum of Baltic and
Black Sea leaders in the Lithuanian capital. “Political forces in
Moscow actively work to undermine our economies, our sovereignty,
and even our system of governance.”
Georgia, is heavily reliant on imports of cheap Russian natural gas,
and Saakashivili accused Russia of using “new tools such as energy
dependence, state censorship and the power of national monopolies”
to bully its neighbors.
“We still have imperial nostalgia around us,” Saakashivili said,
also noting a recent Russian ban on imports of Georgian wine.
Ties between Moscow and Tbilisi have cooled markedly since
Saakashvili swept to power more than two years ago during Georgia’s
Rose Revolution.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accused Russia
of restricting the rights of its citizens, and said “no legitimate
interest is served” by turning energy resources into implements
of blackmail.
The presidents of Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland and Moldova also attended the summit, sharing their
experiences in democracy-building after the Soviet collapse.
The countries are in different stages of integration with the West
through membership in NATO and the European Union. The Baltic countries
and Poland are both NATO and EU members, while Ukraine and Georgia
are still looking for membership in both.
Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said NATO hopefuls should
not expect “any concrete invitations for accession” when her country
hosts an alliance summit in November.
Ministers from Azerbaijan and Armenia also attended the summit, and
used the occasion to accuse each other of aggression in the disputed
enclave of Nagorno-Karabach.
Nevertheless, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana proclaimed:
“Here we can see the elements of a possible breakthrough.”
The countries accuse each other of frequently violating the shaky
1994 cease-fire that ended fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian
forces over the enclave.
Solana said the EU was committed to “underpin an agreement” in
Nagorno-Karabach and other so-called “frozen conflicts” in the Black
Sea region, including Trans-Dniester, which broke away from Moldova
in 1992.
Delegates also expressed hope that the spread of freedom in the region
would reach Belarus, which Cheney called “Europe’s last dictatorship,”
and condemned the arrest of Bealrusian opposition leader Alexander
Milinkevich.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SPECIAL BANK ACCOUNTS
AZG Armenian Daily
05/05/2006
Upon request of foreign organizations and individuals, special bank
accounts are opened to support the families of the perished aboard
the flight Yerevan-Flight.
Inecobank (AMD) – 20 500 22 17 060 1003
Armsavingsbank (ruble) – 160 48 200 54 53
Armeconombank (USD) – 16 300 81 23 743
Armeconombank (euro) – 16 300 81 23 750
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARTSAKH IS MIGHTY WITH ITS FRIENDS
By Kim Gabrielian in Stepanakert
AZG Armenian Daily
05/05/2006
A considerable number of schools in Artsakh were built or repaired
on charity money in the recent years.
The new school building of Shekher village in Martuni region was built
on donations of Karpis Nikoghosian, French-Armenian benefactor and
chairman of the French Association for Artsakhi Relief, in 2002. These
days Karpis Nikoghosian was again in Shekher, villagers of which
consider him their countryman who lives in France. During each visit
the benefactor has a present with him. This time was no exception.
Mr. Nikoghosian arrived in Shekher accompanied by the city
construction minister of Nagorno Karabakh Republic and the head of
“Capital Construction” State Non-Commercial Organization. This time
Mr. Nikoghosian plans to build a gym for the school that will be 24
meters by 12 with an overall cost of $140 thousand.
The building expenses will be covered from donations of the
French-Armenian community. Construction works will kick off in
early summer.
The gym will not simply serve as a ground for physical culture classes
but will also serve the groups of amateur performances. In the Soviet
times theatrical groups of Shekher were famous not only in Martuni
region but also in other places of Nagorno Karabakh.
Besides helping Shekher in school construction, each year the
Nikoghosian family provides money for 3 students from the village to
pay tuition fees.
Residents of Shekher say: “Shekher has a prosperous future as it has
such a friend as Karpis Nikoghosian.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE SHAHUMYAN RESIDENTS WERE DISPLACED 15 YEARS AGO
A1+
[06:10 pm] 04 May, 2006
A large-scale military operation “Koltso” was implemented in April –
June, 1991, with the joint efforts of the USSR Interior Ministry and
special-purpose groups of the Azeri Interior Ministry in order to
evict Armenians from the Armenian villages Gatashen and Martunashen,
the region Shahumyan and Karabakh. At the same time, Armenia and
Nagorno – Karabakh appeared in economic blockade by Baku.
According to the NKR Foreign Ministry data, the increase of the
tension was determined by the above-mentioned “Koltso” operation as a
result of which the Karabakh conflict was taken to a new – military
level. According to the OSCE review, “the situation became more or
less tense from April to June, 1991, when the Soviet army displaced
Armenians from many rural areas of the region with the assistance of
the Azeri Interior Ministry. This act was realized very severely.”
“Unfortunately, neither the operative nor the military crimes carried
out within that period found their political and legal evaluation,
and this resulted in new vandalism from the Azeri side – ethnic
groups’ evictions.”
“The tragedy of Getashen, Martunashen and Shahumyan still continues
as the displaced Armenians haven’t got a right to return and they
haven’t been compensated.
These villages are left out in the reviews of international mediators
and in projects of the Karabakh conflict peaceful settlement,” this
is a quotation from the NKR Foreign Ministry statement.
By the way, there are many documents which testify to the fact that the
Azeri authorities find that the Karabakh conflict settlement is closely
connected with the residents’ displacement or their annihilation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TRAINING COURSES FOR ARMENIAN PROSECUTORS
A1+
[06:19 pm] 04 May, 2006
YEREVAN, 4 May 2006 – Preventing and prosecuting sexual crimes was the
focus of a training course for Armenian prosecutors and investigators
that ended today in Yerevan.
The two-day event was organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan, the
Warsaw-based OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
(ODIHR), and the Training Centre of the General Prosecutor’s Office.
ODIHR has been helping Armenian prosecutors since November 2004,
with funding from the United States.
“Emphasis should be placed on appropriate treatment of victims of
all types of crimes, including sexual violence,” said Cynthia Alkon,
Head of ODIHR’s Rule of Law programme.
Tatul Badasyan, Deputy Director of the Prosecutors’ Training Centre,
praised the close co-operation with the OSCE, adding that it was
important to share the best practices in the field, including
investigative techniques and prosecution of cases of sexual violence.
Around 25 participants and two experts from Austria and the United
States discussed various case studies, international legal provisions,
and the psychology of investigations , as well as issues connected
with domestic violence, child abuse and human trafficking.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA, RUSSIA AND GEORGIA JOIN EFFORTS TO FIND OUT THE CAUSE OF ARMENIAN JET CRASH
By Tamar Minasian
AZG Armenian Daily
05/05/2006
The investigation into the cause of the crash of A-320 Armenian
plane on May 3 is under way, Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Armenia
says. Another investigation was launched in Russia. According to Ria
Novosti, prosecutor of Sochi, Aleksei Perfilev, stated that “a great
number of all kinds of examinations need to be carried out.” In his
words, the main task for now is retrieving the bodies authentication by
the relatives. He assured that they have enough means for a full-scale
investigation. Mr. Perfilev also informed that currently they examine
technical papers at the flight control point.
The Chief prosecutor’s Office says that Armenian specialists on
their part will check whether the plane took off from Yerevan after
a careful servicing or not.
In the evening of May 3 Armenia’s chief prosecutor, Aghvan Hovsepian,
and his Georgian counterpart agreed on handing over the onboard
records 90 percent of which has the Georgian Navigation. The chief
prosecutor of Georgia expressed readiness to help in the process of
investigation, and our investigators are already working in Tbilisi.
The prosecutor’s Office continues active cooperation with the Russian
side, too. The investigation is expected to extend.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KEAN BACKS STEM-CELL RESEARCH ON AN ‘INTIMATE’ TRIP TO ISRAEL
by Gil Hoffman
NJJN Israel Correspondent
New Jersey Jewish News, NJ
May 4 2006
JERUSALEM – State Sen. Tom Kean Jr., who is running for the Republican
nomination for the United States Senate, expressed support for
controversial embryonic stem-cell research on a visit to Hadassah
Hospital in Jerusalem last week.
Kean, visiting Hadassah at the culmination of a weeklong trip to
Israel, told hospital officials that he supports such research and
reported about problems obtaining approval for state initiatives in
New Jersey. He also spoke to Hadassah director-general Professor
Shlomo Mor-Yosef about the hospital’s collaboration with Robert
Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick in preparing for
mega-terrorist attacks.
Mor-Yosef said the hospital’s stem-cell research had cured mice
with Parkinson’s disease and that testing on monkeys and then humans
would soon follow. He said Hadassah was an international pioneer in
stem-cell research and had even secured funding for the research from
the U.S. government.
Kean was visiting Israel for the first time on what he termed an
educational visit. He was following in the footsteps of his father,
former NJ Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who visited Israel three times. The
younger Kean viewed a plaque at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
honoring his grandfather, Robert Winthrop Kean, one of the earliest
members of Congress to warn the United States about the impending
Holocaust.
The visit’s first day coincided with Holocaust Memorial Day,
during which a two-minute siren sounded nationwide to memorialize
the victims. As Kean approached the luggage carousel at Ben-Gurion
International Airport, the siren went off, and Kean joined Israelis
standing in painful reflection.
“The most moving experience on the trip for me was seeing everyone
stop and pray during the siren,” Kean told NJJN in an interview at
his Jerusalem hotel. “It was extraordinarily memorable for me to
experience Holocaust Day so intimately, to be part of such a special
moment in time and then go to Yad Vashem that afternoon.”
Kean came with a delegation of NJ Republican pro-Israel activists,
including Short Hills publisher Steven Klinghoffer; Livingston
resident and Corporation for Public Broadcasting chair Cheyl Halpern;
Lakewood attorney Sean Gertner and his wife, Marla; and Johnson &
Johnson company group chair Gerald Ostrov of East Brunswick.
Also along were Teaneck attorney Martin Fineberg; Mark Levenson,
president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Clifton-Passaic, and his
daughter, Hadassah; and Justin Richards, an assistant to the senator.
Kean, hoping to unseat Sen. Robert Menendez in November, said he came
to Israel to get a feel for its terrain and geography.
“Starting next year in the U.S. Senate, I will be very involved with
issues that relate to Israel and the Mideast in a direct fashion,”
Kean said. “I have been a strong supporter of Israel throughout my
career. I am glad I got to meet with many Israelis, from members
of parliament to ordinary citizens. Coming with people who have had
strong and varied experiences with Israel was also an important part
of the trip.”
When Menendez came to Israel last year, as a member of the House
International Relations Committee, he led the last congressional
mission that met with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before his
career-ending stroke.
When Kean visited the Knesset, the highest-ranking official he met was
Meir Sheetrit of the Kadima Party, who was Education and Transportation
minister at the time and was named Construction and Housing minister
on Monday. He also met former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom of Likud
and Labor Member of Knesset Colette Avital.
Kean met with victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks and with
Jews who had been evacuated from Gaza Strip settlements. He toured a
military base outside the Gaza Strip with IDF commanders and viewed
land where Israeli settlements stood until recently and that is now
being used by Palestinians to fire rockets at the southern Israeli
city of Ashkelon.
As Kean looked out over Gaza, he saw black smoke emanating from Deir
El-Balah, south of Gaza City. He later found out it was the result
of what the Israeli army said was an Israeli aircraft attack on two
cars packed with rockets. Israel said the attack killed one Islamic
Jihad militant and critically wounded another.
“Seeing this made it very real and enabled me to understand with a
real perspective the threats Israeli citizens live with each and every
day of their lives,” Kean said. “I felt it was imperative for me to
come to Israel so that as a U.S. senator I will have that real-life
experience.”
Kean said he had always supported foreign aid allocations and he is
sure he would continue in the Senate.
In Jerusalem’s Old City, Kean toured the Western Wall tunnels, visited
Christian holy sites, and met the Armenian Christian patriarch of
Jerusalem. He also visited several communities that have partnered
with United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, including the Sha’ar
Hanegev Regional Council and Kibbutz Erez outside the Gaza Strip,
the Gush Etzion bloc of West Bank settlements, and the low-income
Ramat Eliyahu neighborhood of Rishon Letzion. Klinghoffer is a former
president of UJC MetroWest, although organizers emphasized the trip
was privately sponsored and not an official mission of any federation.
In Rishon, Kean met with people involved with Project Atzmaut, UJC
MetroWest’s pioneering program to help improve the lives of Ethiopian
immigrants. Perhaps the saddest part of the trip was a meeting with
American immigrants Seth and Sherri Mandell, whose young son Koby was
murdered by terrorists near their home in the West Bank community of
Tekoa in 2001.
The Israel activists who accompanied Kean on the trip said that during
the visit with the Mandells, they watched his facial expressions and
saw that he was deeply moved. They said they were glad that he proved
himself able to relate to people on a human level and not merely as
a politician.
“He is a real mensch,” Klinghoffer said. “This guy is the real deal.
He came with the right background, and having this personal experience
reinforces the senses and the feelings that he already had. I’ve
dealt with many candidates and elected officials. Tom stands out in
the way he relates to Israel.”
Ostrov said he was glad to expose the senator to Hadassah Hospital,
where he and his wife are major donors.
“I have been impressed with him the whole trip,” Ostrov said. “He’s
gotten a knowledge base that he can use to govern. He has asked good
questions that show that he understands.”
Kean faces Bergen County financial data analyst John Ginty in the June
Republican primary. A Quinnipiac University poll last week predicted
that Kean would win the primary by a landslide but it found that he
trailed Menendez by six points.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BODIES, FLIGHT RECORDERS SOUGHT IN BLACK SEA
By Mike Eckel / The Associated Press
Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
The Moscow Times, Russia
May 4 2006
Relatives grieving at an identification procedure at a Sochi morgue
Thursday.
SOCHI — Searchers combed the waters off the resort city of Sochi on
Thursday, looking for bodies and a flight recorder from an Armenian
passenger jet that slammed into the Black Sea in bad weather and
ripped apart, killing all 113 people on board.
Anguished relatives and friends gathered at a central hotel and at a
city morgue, where many stared ashen-faced at grotesquely disfigured
faces and bodies appearing in coroners’ photographs.
Transportation Minister Igor Levitin said just 28 bodies had been
identified so far, out of a total of 53 recovered.
Levitin told reporters that searchers had located a large part of
the plane’s fuselage that was emitting a radio signal believed to be
from a flight recorder. But he said the piece of debris lay in some
680 meters of water and that authorities did not have the equipment
to raise the wreckage.
“We will turn to other countries that have experience in raising
objects from the depths,” he said.
The Airbus A320 plunged into the sea in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday
in heavy rain and poor visibility as it was approaching the airport
in Adler, about 20 kilometers south of Sochi. Searchers found wreckage
spread over a wide area about 6 kilometers offshore.
“We are not considering any working theory until we get a better
understanding of the events that took place, and that will require
deciphering the black boxes,” Levitin said earlier.
Prosecutors dismissed the possibility of terrorism, and other officials
pointed to the rough weather or pilot error as the likely cause.
The head of the Georgian air control agency, which covered 90 percent
of the Armavia jet’s final flight, said the crew had begun to return
to the Armenian capital, Yerevan, because of weather conditions around
Sochi but that when it was over the Georgian city of Kutaisi, Russian
air controllers announced the weather at Adler airport had improved.
“And since they had enough fuel, the pilot decided to fly back to
Adler,” agency chief Georgy Karbelashvili said.
Interfax, citing a source in the Russian commission investigating
the disaster, said there was information indicating the crew was
informed just 5 to 6 kilometers from the runway, when the plane was
at an altitude of 300 meters, that landing was “not recommended.” The
source said the plane was turning back when it hit the water.
In televised comments, President Vladimir Putin told Prosecutor General
Vladimir Ustinov to work fast to determine the cause of the crash,
but acknowledged that it would be difficult without flight recorders.
At a Sochi morgue, grim-faced relatives — mostly men — peered at
a nearly 2-meter-high wooden board in the courtyard holding coroner
photographs, some showing barely recognizable corpses and faces.
Forensic authorities emerged from the building periodically, asking
if anyone had recognized a person in the photographs.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN MP LEAVE WORLD CONGRESS OF PATRIOTIC PARTIES
Author: J. Shakhverdiyev
TREND Info, Azerbaijan
May 4 2006
Armenian MPs and heads of parties left the third world congress of
patriotic parties in Moscow they were participating in, Trend reports
quoting Fuad Aliyev, head of Liberal-democratic party of Azerbaijan,
who was partaking in this congress.
He said the reason for Armenian’s leave was the speech on genocide
they committed on Azerbaijanis. Aliyev said also upon leaving the
first part of the congress, heads of Armenian parties and Armenian
MP then took part in the second part of the event.
Aliyev said Armenian MP Armen Ashotyan in his speech called Nizmai
Ganjevi non-Azeri poet, whose name was misappropriated by Azerbaijan.
In turn, Aliyev performed with a speech revealing Ashotyan’s
insinuations.
The congress gathers representatives of parties of liberal-democratic
orientation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress