Author: Emil Lazarian

RUSSIAN ARMENIANS ASK RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT TO CONDEMN VANDALISM IN NAKHICHEVAN
13: 49 03/21/2006
On March 20, a round table conference “Armenian monuments in
Nakhichevan – objects of Azerbaijani vandalism” took place in
Moscow. As a REGNUM correspondent has been informed in the editorial
staff of Yerkamas Russian Armenian newspaper, leaders of most Armenian
organizations in Russia participated in the conference.
As a result of the conference, the participants issued a statement,
where they condemn barbarous destruction of the Armenian monuments
in Old Juga, Nakhichevan, conducted by the Azerbaijani authorities
in December 2005.
The statement says that these monuments (about 8,000 of unique
cross-stones called “khachkar”) were in the Nakhichevan province,
when it was Armenian territory. When in the Soviet times Nakhichevan
became a part of Azerbaijani territory, almost 4,000 of the monuments
were destroyed.
According to the statement, vandalism stopped only in 1998, because
of UNESCO efforts. But now, when OSCE Minsk Group tries to settle
Nagorno Karabakh problem, official Baku conducted another act of
vandalism in Nakhichevan.
Authors of the statement say, that Azerbaijan also tries to falsify
the history of Russia, Armenia and Caucasus region as a whole,
thus disorienting its own citizens and international communities,
which contradicts to common norms of cultural preservation, and is
classified by the UN Convention of 1948 as an act of genocide.
The statement addresses the Russian government, other authorities
and the Russian Orthodox Church to immediately condemn vandalism and
demand from the Azerbaijani government strict preservation of cultural
heritage of other nations according to international conventions.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE HOLIDAY OF FRANCOFONIA CELEBRATED THIS WEEK
ArmRadio
21.03.2006 18:13
This week the world celebrates the holiday of Francofonia. This
international organization includes 53 member countries, 10 observer
states, including Armenia, 175 million francofons and 900 thousand
francofon teachers.
Among the priorities of Francofonia are rromoting peace, democracy
and human rights.
“France will spare no effort for resolution of the Karabakh conflict,”
the ambassador of France to Armenia Anri Kyuni said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARF condemns Lyon demonstration and calls on French government to fulfill its responsibility
Yerkir
21.03.2006 17:30
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – As reported by the ARF Press service, the
ARF Western Europe Central Committee has condemned the Turkish
demonstration held in Lyon on March 18. The Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) calls on the French government to carefully watch
the cases of denying the Armenian genocide in France.
The ARF condemns the decision by the Rhone region governor to sanction
this hate and denial demonstration, though he was informed upfront
about the real goal of the demonstration and that Turkish government
had secretly contributed to this demonstration through the Turkish
embassy in Paris and Turkish consulate in Lyon.
He was also aware of the contribution the Grey Wolves, a fascist
organization.
The ARF notes that using the Grey Wolves threatens France and the
French people.
The Turkish government on the highest level has decided to organize
the Turkish communities in Europe. The March 18 demonstrations in
Lyon and Berlin were the first expressions of the Turkish government’s
involvement.
The Lyon demonstration had a clear characteristics of the Genocide
denial, something unacceptable to a country like France. France has
to immediately undertake adequate steps to end the development of
that damaging movement.
We demand that an investigation be launched to find the organizers
of the demonstration and to unveil the involvement of the Turkish
government in the demonstration, as well as to put an end to any
anti-Armenian expression against the French Armenians.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIANS NEEDN’T BE JEALOUS
Lragir/am
21 March 06
On March 14 and 15 the tenth sitting of the Russian-Armenian
Parliamentary Commitee took place in Moscow. On March 21 Vahan
Hovanisyan, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, the head of the
Armenian delegation, informed about the results of the sitting.
“The work of the Russian-Armenian Parliamentary Committee is becoming
more effective, this is the evaluation of the Russian party,”
reported Vahan Hovanisyan. The speaker did not say what standards of
effectiveness the Russians applied; however, he told what the Armenians
had explained to Russians rather than what had been discussed. “We
kindle tensions, problems are not a reason to be insulted.” For
instance, they said our bilateral relations do not depend on us only,
because there are two countries between our countries, one of these
has problems with Russia, the other is openly hostile towards Armenia.
They also explained that Armenians have never been happy about ferry
services across the Black Sea, because thus the hope for operating the
Abkhazian railroad fades away. Besides, the ferry is not efficient and
does not justify itself. “Goods are not transported from Armenia. The
prices are too high. The importance of cutting prices was set down
in the document adopted by the committee, which will be extended to
the Russian government. If only the political component is viewed
in the ferry, it will not work. The ferry services must be rendered
profitable.” And the hope for operation of the Abkhazian railroad fades
due to the initiative of the Russia-Iran communication via Azerbaijan.
Armenians are concerned publicly.
The Russians were informed that the Armenian businessmen working
in blockade for 15 years have found alternative ways. In general,
the Armenians have explained and proposed to the Russians not to
feel jealous when Armenia seeks for alternatives in communications,
energy sources and other sphere.
In Russian-Armenian relations Armenia is to blame for education
only. In Russian authoritative universities provide 50 scholarships
to Armenia, but these places remain empty.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

COMPACT RESIDENCE OF NATIONAL MINORITIES IN GEORGIA NOT TERM FOR AUTONOMY
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.03.2006 00:01 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The administrative-territorial division of
Georgia includes three autonomies: South Ossetia, Abkhazia and
Ajaria. We will not form more autonomies,” Georgian Ambassador to
Armenia Revaz Gachechiladze stated in Yerevan today. In his words,
the above-mentioned autonomies will have different status to be
determined later. “The compact residence of national minorities in
Georgia is not a term for formation of an Azeri or Armenian autonomy,
for example,” he said. At the same time he underscored that all the
Georgian citizens have equal rights and obligations. To remind, a
number of Armenian organizations of Javakhetia requested the Georgian
government for autonomy status.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NO DECISIONS AGAINST ARMENIA… YET!
A1+
04:48 pm 20 March, 2006
“If we receive decisions of the European Court of Human Rights against
Armenia, the situation will be changed completely,” the head of the
Court of Cassation Hovhannes Manoukyan thinks.
The Court of Cassation organized a seminar with the theme “The European
Court of Human Rights and Armenia: the Present Practice and the
Tendencies of Development”. The first reporter was the representative
of the American University in Armenia Emil Babayan who spoke about the
cases from Armenia in ECHR and represented statistics from the Court.
In 2005 ECHR had 81 thousand applications. They were mainly about the
delays of trials, inefficient trials and non-execution of the court
decisions. According to Emil Babayan, the first five countries by the
number of decisions against the state are Turkey, Ukraine, Greece,
Russia and Italy. Last year 290 decisions were made against Turkey
by the ECHR.
Up to now there have been no decisions against Armenia, but in
this respect Emil Babayan had bad news for the participants of the
seminar. Last year 240 applications have been sent to the Court. 110
of them have already been sent to the court body making decision,
62 have been rejected, 21 have been sent to the RA Government to get
an answer, and one more will be heard this year.
Mr. Babayan was worried about the last two facts as the 21 cases
will be heard together and the facts mentioned in them will not be
investigated thoroughly.
“This means that in 2006 we will have a number of decisions against
Armenia”, the reporter said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BUILDING TO BE BUILT ON HOUSE OF CINEMATOGRAPHY WILL PROBABLY BE 21-STOREYED
Panorama.am
14:26 20/03/06
“A multifunctional complex is expected to be built in the place
of House of Cinematography keeping the cultural centre,” announced
Yerevan chief architect Samvel Danielyan at the news briefing today.
The latter assures all favorable conditions will be offered for
Cinematography House further activity. At present the city government
only allowed to carry out only the destruction works. And what refers
to the height of the building to be built S. Danielyan informed that
the information published in the mass media about the number of storeys
doesn’t correspond to the reality: “The complex is going to have not
24 but 21 storeys.”
As S. Danielyan said the projects of building has been introduced to
the discussion of City Building Council.
Representatives of Public Organizations are also going to be involved
into the discussion.
But at least a number of questions arise in concern with what has been
said above. First, the Chief Architect doesn’t find the information
about the height of the building published in the press right, yet
he himself mentions that the number of storeys will be finally fixed
after the project of breaking down into zones is approved. Thus, one
can mention 21, the other 24, a third 16 for the number of storeys as
far as that number is not finally fixed. Moreover, it becomes clear
from S. Danielyan’s words that the building to be built simply has
no plan yet.

ARMENIAN AND TURKISH AMBASSADORS TO ITALY EXCHANGED VIEWS ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.03.2006 01:47 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ March 20, as planned before, Armenian and Turkish
Ambassadors to Italy Ruben Shugaryan and Ugur Ziyal exchanged views
on the Armenian Genocide on the air of RAI Italian TV Channel. The
dialogue continued for five minutes. The Turkish party had objected
to Italian TV broadcasts on the Armenian Genocide being one-sided,
as they only reflect the stance of the Armenian party.
Turkish Ambassador Ugur Ziyal initiated the TV discussion. He stated
that the Italian channel often carries broadcasts on the subject of
the Armenian issue, which are in general one-sided. “We want Turkey’s
stance to be presented as well,” Ziyal said.
He also remarked that they earlier exchanged letters with Armenian
Ambassador Ruben Shugaryan. Shugaryan agreed to participate.

REVAZ GACHECHILADZE: NATIONALITY COLUMN ABSENT IN GEORGIAN PASSPORTS
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.03.2006 23:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ All the problems in Javakhetia are social and
economic. They have no political ground, Georgian Ambassador to Armenia
Revaz Gachechiladze told journalist today. In his words, Georgia sets
no difference between the citizens. “If a Georgian language teacher
in Akhalkalaki gets a higher salary than his Armenian colleague,
it’s because he has to leave Tbilisi and rent a flat. Human rights
are not infringed over nationality in Georgia. Nationality column is
absent in Georgian passports,” he said. The Georgian diplomat also
noted that work places in Javakhetia as well as in other regions
cannot be created by an order from “above”. “Armenians are against
the building of the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway.
Nevertheless this projects will provide extra work places in
various fields including construction works and repair of stocks,”
Gachechiladze noted.
Revaz Gachechiladze also stressed that presently Georgia faces
another problem – honoring the commitment to the CoE on the return of
Meskhetian Muslims (Turks-Meskhetians) for the permanent residence. We
are facing a serious demographic problem but we should solve
it. Meskhetians should be admitted by Georgia till 2012,” he said.
Among the commitments the Georgian Ambassador noted the adoption
of the law “On Religion. “According to the Concordat signed by the
Georgian government and the Georgia Orthodox Church, all the regional
issues are solved by the Church. However with the adoption of the law
the state of other regional confessions in Georgia will not change,”
the Ambassador said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASHOT HOVAKIMIAN RELIEVED OF POST OF RA AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY AND PLENIPOTENTIARY TO LATVIA, LITHUANIA AND ESTONIA
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 20 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 20, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. By RA President
Robert Kocharian’s March 18 decree, Ashot Hovakimian was relieved of
the post of RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the
Republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Noyan Tapan was informed
about it by the President’s Press Service.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress