Author: Emil Lazarian

AZERI DIPLOMAT ACCUSES WESTERN GROUP OF ILLEGAL MILITARY TRAINING
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 13 2006
Baku, April 12, AssA-Irada
The international Halo Trust organization is engaged in providing
military training and illegal mine clearance activities on occupied
Azerbaijani territory, an Azeri diplomat has said.
“Halo Trust, which is registered in the US and Great Britain, was set
up by retired officers and its members provide military training to
Garabagh Armenians,” the first secretary of the Azerbaijani embassy
to Belgium, Fuad Humbatov, said.
Humbatov said the organization has called Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity into question through its statements and activities.
The diplomat said Halo Trust was earlier driven out of Russia due to
its illegal activities, pledging that its operation in Upper Garabagh
would be suspended as well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJANI OFFICER JAILED IN HUNGARY FOR BRUTAL KILLING OF ARMENIAN
Agence France Presse — English
April 13, 2006 Thursday 4:08 PM GMT
An Azerbaijani military officer who hacked to death an Armenian
lieutenant while attending a NATO-sponsored training course in Budapest
was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Judge Andras Vaskuti of the Budapest district court ruled that Ramil
Safarov, now 29 and an Azerbaijani army lieutenant, killed Armenian
Lieutenant Gurgen Markarian, 26, in a “premeditated, malicious and
an unusually cruel” way by nearly decapitating him with axe while
the victim was sleeping.
Safarov was also found guilty of planning the murder of another
Armenian, which he did not carry out.
“The crime was convicted in a malicious way because (Safarov) murdered
the victim solely because of his Armenian origin,” Vaskuti said,
as he detailed how Safarov had also stubbed out a lit cigarette on
the victim’s body after committing the crime.
Safarov will be eligible for parole in 30 years, according to the
ruling. Defence lawyers launched an appeal immediately after the
verdict was read out.
The brutal killing, which took place on February 19, 2004, inflamed
simmering ethnic tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former
Soviet republics which are fighting over control of the disputed
region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia had attributed the murder to “anti-Armenian hysteria” fanned
by the Baku government, while Azerbaijani officials countered that
the killer was himself a refugee from the conflict with Armenia and
that the victim had taunted him over the conflict.
The two young officers had been studying on an English-language course
in the Hungarian capital as part of the NATO alliance’s Partnership
for Peace programme, of which both Armenia and Azerbaijan are members.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-year war over Karabakh that claimed
around 25,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
It ended in a tense ceasefire in 1994 with Armenian forces in control
of most of the enclave and seven surrounding regions, but Karabakh’s
status remains unresolved and tensions are still at boiling point.
Azeri authorities had said several of the defendant’s relatives were
killed and his family had to flee its home in the city of Jebrail when
it was taken by Armenian forces. They now live in squalid conditions
in a student dormitory in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
Since the end of military hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh, all ties
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbours in the volatile Caucasus
region, have been severed. The border is now a heavily-militarised
front line peppered with land mines.
For almost a decade, Western powers have been leading fruitless
efforts to tease out a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict,
but summits including the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents have
not led to progress.
Most recently, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in March that
talks over the disputed region, hosted by French President Jacques
Chirac earlier this year, were at a “dead end” and signaled that the
oil-rich state should prepare for war.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PACE URGES CE TO HELP AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA, GEORGIA WITH REFUGEES
by Yuri Ulyanovsky
ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 13, 2006 Thursday 01:06 PM EST
Deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
believe that problems of refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Georgia impede socio-economic and political development
of these countries. Besides humanitarian aid the international
community should also intensify assistance to them in fulfilling
development tasks, satisfying the local population needs so that to
give refugees hope for the future, the PACE believes. At the same time
the authorities of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan should maximally
use their internal potentials during periods when the volume of
international donations reduces.
The Assembly noted the appearance of a number of signs testifying to
the integration of refugees and displaced persons in the life of the
society of the three given republics and called on the authorities of
these countries to intensify policy in this sphere. In a resolution
adopted by the PACE deputies on Thursday they also urged member states
of the Council of Europe to render financial assistance to Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Georgia in their efforts to settle the problems of refugees
and displaced persons, as well as to continue supplying humanitarian
aid and assist them in conflict settlement.
The Assembly’s resolution contains an appeal to intensify the
interregional dialogue by taking measures of confidence building and
organising regular consultations between the state agencies responsible
for the solution of refugee problems. The PACE believes that the
legislations of the corresponding countries should be reconsidered
in order to guarantee refugees and displaced persons equal rights
with the local population.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN CUT DIAMOND OUTPUT PLUMMETS 60% IN Q1
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 13, 2006 Thursday 1:55 PM MSK
Armenia reduced cut diamond production 60.4% year-on-year in the
first quarter of 2006 to 17.471 billion dram ($38.8 million), Gagik
Mkrtchian, the Armenian Trade and Economic Development Ministry’s
official in charge of gemstones and jewelry, told Interfax.
Mkrtchian said sales fell 66.7% to 18.895 billion dram ($41.9 million)
and that exports were down 63% to 17.795 billion dram ($39.5 million).
Mkrtchian said disruptions at Shogakn, Armenia’s biggest diamond
cutting plant, were to blame for the drop. Shogakn, which produces 40%
of Armenia’s cut diamonds, will resolve what he described as internal
organizational problems soon.
Armenia produced 113.583 billion dram ($248.5 million) in cut diamond
sin 2005.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DEVELOPMENT ON OLD FARM BY GAITHERSBURG OPPOSED
by: Nancy Trejos, Washington Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post
April 13, 2006 Thursday
Final Edition
Just outside Gaithersburg, off Interstate 270, is a 182-acre parcel
filled with grass, broken-limbed trees and a few paint-chipped houses
and barns. Crown Farm, as it is known, is one of the last large pieces
of undeveloped land in central Montgomery County.
That could all change under a plan by Gaithersburg businessman Aris
Mardirossian to turn it into a bustling residential and commercial
center with up to 2,250 homes and 320,000 square feet for shops and
office buildings.
But with the County Council scheduled to begin considering the
proposal Tuesday, some residents and civic groups are gearing up
for a fight. They said the development — east of Sam Eig Highway,
south of Fields Road and west of Omega Drive — would cause school
overcrowding and too much traffic.
“These folks have been used to a 180-acre farm in that area,” said
Jim Humphrey, a Montgomery County Civic Federation official. “Let’s
make sure this project can be accommodated by the infrastructure
before we go approving it.”
If approved, the development would include condos, townhouses,
single-family homes and high-rises, some as tall as 20 stories. About
400 or 500 of those units would be above stores or offices, maximizing
space for parks and pedestrian walkways. Mardirossian, who leads a
development team that bought the property from the Crown family over
the summer, said he and the builders, who include Los Angeles-based
KB Home, plan to run buses from the homes to the nearest Metro
station. “It’ll be like Connecticut Avenue. A real urbanist design,”
Mardirossian said.
Mardirossian has asked the city of Gaithersburg, which has its own
council and mayor, to annex the property. Because his plan would
require rezoning, it must go to the County Council first. County
planners and city officials have been scrambling to hammer out the
details of what would be one of the city’s most significant projects
in years.
Last week, the County Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic
Development Committee — made up of Nancy Floreen (D-At Large),
Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County) and Steven A. Silverman (D-At
Large), who chairs the panel — voted to require that 12.5 percent
of the homes be set aside as affordable housing.
Because Crown Farm is in a location designated as a “receiving area”
— or a place where the county encourages development — Mardirossian
ordinarily would be required to pay transferable development rights
to a farmer in the agricultural reserve. But the council committee
recommended instead that he be exempted in lieu of a $1 million payment
to the county’s agricultural easement program, a fund for preserving
open space.
Because the donation would be much less than what he would probably
pay in development rights, Mardirossian has offered to donate 34
acres for a new high school.
“To let a developer off the hook is just what they don’t need to do,”
said Pamela Lindstrom, a Gaithersburg resident who has been vocal in
opposing the project.
Silverman estimated that the transferable development rights would
cost Mardirossian about $11 million, far below what it would cost
to buy land for a school. “If you have a developer who’s prepared to
give us a high school site for free and save the taxpayers 60 or 70
million dollars, we ought to take the deal,” he said.
Praisner said she did not agree with the exemption. “I’m not
necessarily opposed to the annexation,” she said. “My point is that I
think it’s moving too fast and there are certainly complexities that
need to be worked out.”
Opponents say Mardirossian’s deep pockets and political connections
are driving the project.
Since January 2003, Mardirossian has donated $750 to council member
Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring) and $500 to Floreen, Board of Elections
records show. One of his companies, Aris Mardirossian Inc., donated
$2,500 to council Chairman George L. Leventhal (D-At Large).
Farm Development Coop, a company Mardirossian manages, donated $4,000
to Silverman. The company gave $2,000 to Floreen and $2,000 to council
member Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty), records show.
Mardirossian acknowledged that he and his family have given money to
candidates. “They cannot see that I came from Armenia and I created
something wonderful from this country and I can express my ideas,”
he said of his critics.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FINAL PLANNING CONFERENCE OF “RESCUER-2006” EXERCISES TO BE HELD ON APRIL 19-21 IN YEREVAN
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 13 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The final planning
conference of the U.S. European Command’s “Rescuer-2006” exercises will
be held on April 19-21 in Yerevan. Noyan Tapan was informed about it
by Colonel Seyran Shahsuvarian, Spokesperson for RA Defence Minister.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PARLIAMENT IN FIRST READING DISCUSSES NEW BILL “ON CONSTITUTIONAL COURT”
Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 13, RA National Assembly in
the first reading discussed the new bill “On Constitutional Court”. It
will be voted at the next four-day session. The government motivates
adoption of the law in new edited variant by the necessity to bring
it in correspondence with the reformed Constitution. In particular,
the circle of Constitutional Court’s powers ans subjects applying to CC
was enlarged, the forms of judicial control were increased. The bill
also clarifies the order of applying to CC reducing the possibilities
of refusing to accept the application by formal bases. In connection
with the latter the bill stipulates that an application submitted to CC
is subject to obligatory registration. If it is obviously not within
the powers of the CC to examine the issue raised in the application
or the issue is presented by a body or person not having the right
to apply to the Constitutional Court, the Constitutional Court gives
back the application within a 5-day term. An application submitted
to the CC can be withdrawn by the claimant before the beginning of
the court examination.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

64 COMPANIES PRIVATIZED IN ARMENIA IN 2005
Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. At the April 13 sitting, the RA
government approved that the draft law on approval of the 2005 annual
report on implementation of the state property privatization program,
which will be submitted to the National Assembly in prescribed
order. It was noted that no new program on privatization was adopted
in 2005, so under the RA Law on State Property Privatization,
the RA Law on 2001-2003 State Property Privatization Program was
in force. Taking into account that the 2001, 2002 and 2003 annual
reports on implementation of this program, as well as reports on
the 2001-2003 state property privatization program were submitted
to the RA National Assembly for consideration, the above mentioned
report includes the process of privatization carried out in the
calender year of 2005. Deputy Head of the State Property Management
Department Ashot Markosian told reporters after the sitting that
64 companies were privatized in 2005, with 37 companies being sold
through investment-oriented direct sale, while the remaining ones –
through tender. According to A. Markosian, in 2005, the state budget
revenues from privatization made 75 mln 850 thousand 21 dollars and 1
bln 310,439 mln drams (about 2.9 mln dollars). Besides, the new owners
made investments of 20 mln USD and 20 mln Russian rubles and created
3,680 jobs. The State Property Management Department filed 14 claims to
law courts for nonfulfilment of investment obligations. A. Markosian
pointed out a number of obstacles to implementation of the state
property implementation process, particularly large debts of companies
subject to privatization, as well as the fact that some of the
companies included in the program are in the process of bankruptcy
and their property is being confiscated.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARTUR BAGHDASARIAN DOES NOT SUPPORT APPROACH THAT EVERYTHING WAS LEGAL DURING PRIVATIZATION PROCESS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. The presentation of the report on
implementation of the 2001-2003 state property privatization program
was completed at the RA National Assembly on April 12. The report,
which also includes the privatization process in 2004, will be voted
on April 13. RA NA Speaker Artur Baghdasarian noted in his speech that
he does not support the approach that everything was legal during the
privatization process. According to him, it is also evident from the
facts registered in the annual report of the Control Chamber (CC) to
be discussed in the parliament soon. He promised to send the materials
containing these facts to the Office of the RA Prosecutor General after
the discussion of the CC report. Particularly, the CC has revealed that
the 3 thousand sq.m construction at 67 Hanrapetutyan Str. Yerevan
was sold for $65 a square meter, whereas the market price is no
less than $1,200; the Nairi Cinema – for $40 a sq.m. (market price –
$1,000-1,200), while a 1,840 sq.m construction at the intersection
of Bagramian Avenue and Aygedzor Street was sold for only $50,000,
that is, for $30 a sq.m. (market price – $900-1,000). It was found
as a result of a monitoring of about 200 privatized companies that
only 27 such companies have assumed investment obligations. According
to A. Baghdasarian, most of the companies were privatized by direct
sale at a previosly known price. He also pointed out the absence
of necessary state control over investment obligations assumed
by enterprises. The monitoring of nearly 100 enterprises allowed
the Control Chamber to reveal that obligations of only 37 mln USD
were fulfiled out of a total of 140 mln USD. In his words, while
“selling buildings with one hand”, at the same time the state has to
rent other buildings to ensure the activities of some state bodies,
and the state budget envisages allocations for this purpose.

PRIVATIZATION OF “SMALL” OBJECTS ALMOST COMPLETED IN ARMENIA
Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. 1,925 companies, 7,266 “small”
objects and 80 incompleted construction objects were privatized in
Armenia in the period from 1994 to January 1, 2005. As a result, the
funds received from state property privatization made 142 bln drams
and 45 mln USD. Head of the State Property Management Department
adjunct to the RA government Karine Kirakosian stated this at the
April 11 sitting of the RA National Assembly, when presenting the
report on implementation of the 2001-2003 state property privatization
program. According to her, since 2004 the pace of the privatization
process has slowed down due to a number of objective reasons,
first of all, low attractiveness of some enterprises on the list of
companies subject to privatization. The maintenance, modernization and
operation of most of these enterprises require considerable investments
because of their deterioration and moral depreciation. Most of state
property was sold at 25% of its estimated value for the reason of
low attractiveness. However, there were cases when state property was
sold at a higher price than the estimated value. K. Kirakosian noted
that the privatization of “small” objects has almost been completed,
and one third of 1,000 companies included in the program have filed
for bankruptcy because of their “poor operation”. 300 companies have
not yet been privatized, so they were included in the 2005-2007 state
property privatization program sumitted to the NA for approval. The
privatization process was criticized by some representatives of
Justice, National Unity and Orinats Erkir factions and independent
deputy Manuk Gasparian who said that they will vote against the
report. The deputies brought examples of various companies that
were privatized at a lower price than the market value. According
to Secretary of Justice faction Victor Dallakian, Orbita company
assessed at 3 bln drams was privatized for 150 mln drams, the 45.7%
state stake of Luys Publishing House – for 10 mln 825 thousand drams,
while the construction complex, including the office of Orinats
Erkir Party, at 14 Koryun Str. – for 45 mln drams. According to the
deputy’s information, the compex was sold to the RA Minister of Trade
and Economic Development.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress