Author: Emil Lazarian

ISMAYILOV: I AM SURE THE COURT OF APPEAL WILL COMMUTE VERDICT ON RAMIL SAFAROV AND WE’LL WIN
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 18 2006
Lawyer Adil Ismayilov-legal family representative of Azerbaijani
army officer Ramil Safarov, who was jailed to life in prison for
murdering Armenian army officer Gurgen Markarian in Hungary, held a
press conference today (APA).
The lawyer said it is early to say that Azerbaijani side loosed
the trial.
“Regrettably, there is a spirit of failure in Azerbaijan. We have
not loosed. We filed an appeal against the verdict. I am sure the
Court of Appeal will commute verdict and we’ll win the trial,”
Ismayilov underlined.
The lawyer also said that the judge of the trial took a biased stance
from the very beginning, but they did not react to this as the trial
was on.
“I can say a lot of examples proving biased stance of the judge. Even
in the second court session, three translators were involved into
the trial. The judge explained that the Hungarian government ensured
all opportunities for the sides as a life sentence was expected. An
Armenian officer gave testimony later on. His statements to the
final court session were contrary to his testimony to the primary
investigation. The judge had to announce a break as a way out of the
situation. After the break the Armenian officer said his testimony to
the preliminary investigation was not translated clearly. The judge
ignoring expert opinions on three forensic medical examinations shows
his biased stance. As you know, the first forensic medical examination
was done in Russian which Ramil Safarov does not know well. Therefore,
the experts concluded that he was conscious when he committed the
crime. After the next two medial examinations experts concluded
that he was unconscious while committing the crime. In this case,
the judge could commute his punishment without any limits.
However, the judge illegally did not accept the expert opinions and
got the opinion he wanted in the end,” the lawyer said.
Ismayilov also said the judge interrupted Safarov during his latest
testimony, which is unacceptable according to Hungarian laws. The
lawyer thinks the Court of Appeal will investigate law violations
committed during the preliminary investigation and court proceedings.
And Safarov will receive punishment for his deed and personality. The
Court of Appeal can review the appeal within a year.
“We hope, there will be no need to appeal to the European Court.
Otherwise, the defendant might appeal to the European instances,”
the lawyer concluded.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LEGISALTION ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE SYSTEM IN NEED OF AMENDMENTS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The legislation on introduction of a
corporate governance system in the RA banking system is in need of
amendments and additions. Chairman of Ardshininvestbank Board Aram
Andreasian expressed this opinion at the April 18 press conference. In
his words, the banking system is a sector that operates in the most
transparent way, while the introduction of corporate governance is
aimed at reducing the shadow sector of the economy.
This means that it would be more expedient to introduce the corporate
governance principles first of all in other sectors of the economy. At
the same time, A. Andreasian noted that as a whole the introduction
of a corporate governance system is to be welcomed, and the Central
Bank of Armenia (CBA) and commercial banks have reached a mutual
agreement on a number of isssue.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SPRING AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES START IN LORI MARZ
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
VANADZOR, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The cultivation of gardens, tree
pruning and sowing of early potato and vegetables has begun in
Tumanian region of Lori marz. The RA Ministry of Agriculture has
allocated 1,700 tons of nitrate at reduced prices (3,700 drams for a
50-kg bag), 250 tons of which has already been provided to the local
peasants. Volodya Buniatian, head of the Agriculture and Environmental
Protection Department of the Lori regional administration, told NT
correspondent that 1,000 ha was sown with spring grain, 3,000 ha –
with vegetables, and 6,000 ha is under fodder crops.
–Boundary_(ID_BREimxNjKZcKrnrFmd8q3g)
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SPRING AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES START IN LORI MARZ

VANADZOR, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The cultivation of gardens, tree pruning
and sowing of early potato and vegetables has begun in Tumanian region of Lori
marz. The RA Ministry of Agriculture has allocated 1,700 tons of nitrate at
reduced prices (3,700 drams for a 50-kg bag), 250 tons of which has already
been provided to the local peasants. Volodya Buniatian, head of the Agriculture
and Environmental Protection Department of the Lori regional administration,
told NT correspondent that 1,000 ha was sown with spring grain, 3,000 ha –
with vegetables, and 6,000 ha is under fodder crops.
–Boundary_(ID_BREimxNjKZcKrnrFmd8q3g)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

VOTING FOR THE BNP IS ABOUT RAGE RATHER THAN RACE
by Rachel Sylvester
The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
April 18, 2006 Tuesday
Racism is no longer a black-and-white issue. A taxi driver told me
the other day that he was worried about the influx of “people with
a European complexion” coming into this country. With immigrants
arriving in Britain from Kosovo and Poland, as well as Somalia and
Bangladesh, newcomers these days are as likely to have a pink skin as
a brown one. And yet fear of change (whatever the colour of its face)
remains a powerful force.
A report from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, publicised yesterday,
claims that a quarter of voters in London are considering supporting
the British National Party in next month’s local elections. Margaret
Hodge, the employment minister, warned at the weekend that white,
working-class families in her Barking constituency were deserting
Labour for the far Right. Searchlight, the anti-fascist campaign group,
said recently that the BNP needs a swing of only five per cent to
win as many as 70 council seats on May 4.
There is, of course, a danger in talking up the threat from the BNP.
Nick Griffin, who likes to claim that he leads Britain’s fourth-largest
political party, must be basking in his 15 minutes of front-page
fame. I find it hard to believe that a sixth of people in this
tolerant, decent and middle-of-the-road country really will – as
the Rowntree report also claims – put an X in the far-Right box when
they fill in their ballot papers in two weeks’ time. A few may feel
emboldened to do so by the recent coverage.
The BNP deserves scorn rather than scare-mongering. Not only is it
utterly pernicious (a leaflet distributed by the party after the July
7 bombings said, “If only they had listened to the BNP”), it is also
useless if faced with the reality of power. When a handful of BNP
councillors were elected in Burnley in 2003, they failed to turn up
to the first budget debate, one of the most crucial moments in the
local government year. In Barking, a BNP councillor stood down after
eight months, telling his local paper: “Those meetings go right over
my head and there’s little point in me being there.” Another elected
representative left the party, claiming she had not realised it
propagated extremist views – in fact, she said, she had cited Nelson
Mandela as her political hero at her selection interview. Meanwhile,
Punch and Judy politics appear to be too timid for the BNP. One of its
councillors was forced to resign after smashing a bottle in the face
of a colleague and another has been convicted, since his election,
of attacking his wife and a police officer.
And yet the BNP cannot be completely laughed off. There is a new
professionalism to its campaigns that is beginning to worry the
mainstream parties. It has recently for the first time started to
send out carefully targeted direct mailshots.
Mr Griffin, the Cambridge-educated son of a farmer, has toned down
the extremist rhetoric and prefers to surround himself with pretty,
long-haired women, rather than tattooed, skinheaded men. Campaign
leaflets in white working-class areas describe the BNP as “the Labour
Party your grandfathers voted for”. Other literature says the party
is “people just like you making a difference”. To the irritation
of some members, the BNP has recently selected an ethnic minority
candidate – Sharif Abdel Bawad, who is described by the party as a
“totally assimilated Greek-Armenian”.
The BNP’s website now sells Make Poverty History-style wristbands
(printed with the slogan “English and proud”) and T-shirts emblazoned
with the words “cool to be white”. The party even has a fund-raising
campaign that urges supporters to donate the price of a pot of Earl
Grey tea – which is, its advertisement says, when combined with a
Garibaldi biscuit, the “perfectly British way to warm up a winter’s
afternoon”. The aim is to make the BNP unthreatening in a Coronation
Street sort of way.
There may be some exaggeration of the BNP’s appeal, but it is likely
that the far-Right party will win at least some extra seats in next
month’s council elections. And there is a danger that any victory,
however small, will be used to try to force the mainstream parties
away from the centre ground. Right-wingers will urge David Cameron
to blow the immigration dog whistle, used to such disastrous effect
by his predecessor Michael Howard; Left-wingers will tell Tony Blair
to do more to appeal to Labour’s white working-class core voters, who
feel neglected by their public school-educated leader’s love of Middle
England. It would be a mistake for either of them to follow the advice.
The truth is that support for the BNP is not really a protest vote
against a racially mixed society: it is a cry of rage about the
quality of life in some of the poorest areas in the country. There
is not much cheerleading for the far Right in the streets of Chelsea.
The BNP is exploiting a growing sense of frustration with genuine
problems: the lack of affordable housing, the increase in low-level
crime, the failure of inner-city schools, the loss of a sense of
identity among white working-class men following the collapse of
traditional industries. These failures are not really anything to
do with race – although, of course, the more people come to live in
an area, the more stretched local resources will be – but the BNP
has diverted a general sense of grievance into a specific feeling
of unfairness based on a perception that there is “us and them”. It
is true, for example, that asylum seekers in a way “jump the queue”
for council houses because they are destitute when they arrive in an
area, whereas those on a waiting list for a bigger home are not. The
solution is not to try to recreate a homogeneous white population but
to find more affordable housing, and speed up the way in which homes
are allocated to local people. The Government, and the Opposition
parties, should not try to ramp up the rhetoric on race, they need
to deal with the often appalling way in which too many people have
to live their lives.
In some white working-class areas, Labour has, as one Downing Street
adviser admitted to me yesterday, effectively run a “one-party state”
for too long. With no effective challenge from the Conservatives or the
Liberal Democrats, it has become complacent and its councillors have
resisted public service reform. The rise of the BNP should shock the
mainstream political parties out of their torpor. But it must not be
allowed to change the direction or the tone of British politics. That
really would be a victory for the extremists.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN WOMEN PREFER TO BE INVOLVED IN SOCIAL RATHER THAN POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Trafficking and family vilence are
unusual phenomena in sharp contrast to Armenian traditions and make up
an insignificant percentage in the country. Head of the RA National
Assembly’s delegation in the PACE, Vice Speaker of the National
Assembly Tigran Torosian stated this on April 17 during a meeting
with Rapporteur of the PACE commission on issues of equality of the
rights of man and women Vera Oskina, who is on a working visit to
Armenia. Speaking about participation of women in political processes,
T. Torosian noted that the Armenian women prefer to be engaged in
social rather than political activities: women constitute about 99%
of heads of NGOs.
As regards the allocation of 25% in ballot papers to women, the NA
Vice Speaker expressed an opinion that such positive discrimination is
unacceptable: women’s involvement in politics should not be encouraged
in an unnatural way.
According to the RA National Assembly PR Department, V. Oskina informed
T. Torosian that she is preparing a report on the state of women in
Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN SAMBISTS WIN TWO MEDALS IN EUROPE CHAMPIONSHIP
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
BELGRADE, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The representatives of Armenia
performed successfully in the sambo Europe championship held in
the capital of Serbia-Chernogoria Belgrade. Two of them became
prize-winners. In the 74 kg weight category Ashot Danielian took second
place and won a silver medal. Davit Khachatrian (68 kg weight category)
took third place and won a bronze medal.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIA AGAINST HASTE IN RESOLVING GEORGIAN-OSSETIAN CONFLICT
RIA Novosti, Moscow
18 Apr 06
Tbilisi, 18 April: Hastening the process of settlement in South Ossetia
and Abkhazia could lead to the situation deteriorating, Russian Deputy
Foreign Minister and Foreign Ministry’s State Secretary Grigoriy
Karasin told RIA-Novosti today.
Karasin was in Georgia on a one-day working visit, during which he
held talks with representatives of the Georgian Foreign Ministry,
the leaders of the republic of South Ossetia and the command of the
Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone.
“I think the theory of rushing and acceleration is unjustifiable. The
main condition for progressing in such conflicts is to nurture mutual
trust between conflicting sides. This should be done not through
intimidating but persuading that the situation must be resolved by
predictable peaceful means,” Karasin believes.
He noted that during the consultations they “discussed the whole
range of bilateral relations, including the most difficult aspects,
which have accumulated in the last months and years”.
“I would described the consultations in Tbilisi as not easy but
useful. They have given us good food for thought and let us compare
out attitudes towards the problems. First of all, we discussed the
atmosphere of bilateral relations, because it is very difficult and
causes anxiety. Both sides clearly see that they need to continue
contacts on various levels, exchange opinions in a frankly and
business-like manner and try to make them closer wherever possible,”
he said.
Karasin said that in South Ossetia he had been able “to see what
a conflict zone is, what Tkhinvali is, how people live”. “This is
very important for understanding what happens around South Ossetia,”
he said.
“We have once again confirmed our view that our peacekeepers are a
very important and necessary part of a settlement, as they prevent
escalation and bloodshed. We have seen once again that the format of
the Joint Control Commission is the most efficient and unique method
of moving forward and there is no point in breaking it under various
pretexts,” Karasin said.
He believes that “one has to fully honour the agreements which have
already been reached and try to find new ways to move forward”.
Earlier this morning Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin
left Tbilisi for Yerevan, where a regional conference of Russian
ambassadors to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey will take place.
In addition, Karasin said, meetings with Armenian leaders are planned
in Yerevan.

GREECE COMMEMORATES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.04.2006 23:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Embassy in Greece along with
the Armenian community hold a series of events, marking the
91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in
1915-1923. April 15 a mourning liturgy was offered in Nea Smirna
Athenian region, where a monument to Armenian Genocide victims is
established.
Armenian Ambassador to Greece Vahram Kazhoyan, Athens Municipality
representatives and other officials addressed the ceremony. Cadets from
Armenia, who study in Greece, also laid flowers to the monument. After
the ceremony a procession headed to the Turkish Embassy in Athens.
April 16 in Atikon Hall a session with participation of the authorities
of the Greek capital, ARFD and Ramkavar Azatakan Party was held. Public
representatives, Greek MPs, as well as Ambassador Kazhoyan addressed
those present. The event then continued into a procession to the
Sinagma Square and laying flowers to the grave of the unknown soldier,
reports the Press Service of the Armenian MFA.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KURDS GO SAME WAY, AS ARMENIANS IN OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN 1915
PanARMENIAN.Net
19.04.2006 00:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At present Kurds follow the same way as Armenians in
Ottoman Empire in 1915, Agos Istanbul-based newspaper editor-in-chief
Hrant Dink stated at a forum in Malatya Turkish town. The conference
was organized by Malatya Businessmen Association (MIAD). “Armenians
made a mistake by believing the UK, Germany, France and Russia
that the superpowers will save them from deportation. And now Kurds
believe the US that they will get independence in North Iraq. That is
America. It will come, do what it needs to and will go away. And after
that you will fight with each other,” he said, reminding that after
WWI European powers did the same, the Zaman Turkish newspaper reports.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSKANIAN AND RUSSIAN DEPUTY FM DISCUSSED CONFLICT SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH CAUCASUS
PanARMENIAN.Net
19.04.2006 01:11 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian met with Russian
Deputy FM Grigory Karasin, who is in Armenia within a regional
visit. According to the Armenian MFA Press Service, during the meeting
matters of dynamically developing relations between Armenia and Russia,
urgent regional issues were discussed. The interlocutors exchanged
views on ways of settlement of conflicts in the South Caucasus,
restoration of the transport system. Events around Iran, as well as
Armenian-Turkish relations were discussed at the meeting.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress