Author: Hambardsumian Paul

AHMADINEJAD’S COPTER UNABLE TO LAND IN ARMENIA, RETURNS TO IRAN DUE TO BAD WEATHER

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
March 19 2007

A helicopter carrying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a border town
in Armenia to inaugurate a newly constructed pipeline could not land
due to bad weather.

The Iranian president and his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharyan,
were scheduled to inaugurate today the landmark pipeline that is to
transfer Iranian gas to Armenia.

According to reports, the copter carrying President Ahmadinejad and
his retinue turned back to the Iranian border city of Marand, from
where they will travel to Armenia by land.

The Iranian president is accompanied by Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki, Minister of Energy Parviz Fattah and Oil Minister Kazem
Vaziri-Hamaneh in this trip.

President Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharyan,
are to preside over the inauguration ceremony shortly.

The 110-km pipeline, 70km of which is within Iranian territory,
is 40km from the Armenian border to the city of Kajaran.

Some 10 million cubic meters of Iranian gas will be delivered per
day through the 110-km gas pipeline to Armenia when the pipeline
starts operations.

The pipeline, which was due to be completed in 930 days, was finished
in 650 days due to its importance.

Test operations on the project have been conducted. The project is
to be delivered to Armenia within the next few months.

The pipeline has an approximate cost of USD 33 million, 85 percent
of which was financed by the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI)
with the remaining 15 percent put up by Yerevan.

TURKEY ORGANIZES YEREVAN-VAN CHARTER FLIGHTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.03.2007 14:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ For the first time ever, the Turkish government
has allowed direct charter flights from Yerevan to Van for guests
from Armenia who will attend inauguration of restored Akdamar
Church. Prior to inauguration a meeting was held at Turkish MFA with
the participation of representatives of Interior Ministry, Culture
& Tourism Ministry, General Staff, MIT and Gendarmerie General
Command. Representative of Turkish General Staff proposed routine
route Yerevan-Istanbul-Van, SABAH reported.

TIGRAN TOROSIAN: I CANNOT CONFIDENTLY AFFIRM THAT FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD WITHOUT VIOLATIONS

Noyan Tapan
Mar 15 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN. "The forthcoming parliamentary
elections are of exclusive importance for Armenia’s future and
depending on the fact whether all political forces will really realize
this, all participants will realize this, the elections will be such
or not." RA NA Speaker, RPA Vice-Chairman Tigran Torosian stated this
at the meeting organized on March 15 at the Urbat (Friday) club. He
also said that in all probability, during the coming week some steps
will be taken in the direction of forming a working group of "quick
response" consisting of representatives of NA groups and factions
for the purpose of preventing possible violations during the May 12
parliamentary elections.

In T. Torosian’s words, in spite of intention to hold free and fair
elections, nevertheless, there will be "separate violations." "But to
respond quickly and not to permit these attempts to have an impact on
election results – this is not only possible, but also necessary," NA
Speaker said. At the same time, T. Torosian did not exclude that some
out of dozens of thousands of RPA members can take part in violations.

Touching upon the rumors on collecting passports of people on behalf
of RPA and making them join RPA in Yerevan’s Kentron community and
some other communities, T. Torosian stated that RPA Board has never
given any instructions of the kind to anybody.

In connection with the statement of leading Armenian chess-players
about supporting RPA during the forthcoming parliamentary elections
T. Torosian said: "I have known the majority of them, especially
Smbat Lputian since 1970 and I am more than sure that there can be
no political purpose, no speculation here."

ARMENIAN LOBBYISTS MENTION NECESSITY OF MORE ACTIVE COOPERATION OF RA EMBASSIES WITH ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEES

Noyan Tapan
Mar 15 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN. "Certainly, Turks and Azeris have
no traditions of ethnic lobbying, but they are very active in a
number of countries and spend much money on counteracting to our
initiatives." Susan Khardalian, Head of Armenian National Committee
of Scandinavia, stated this at the March 15 press conference.

In her words, the large Turkish community of Germany has learnt to work
with both political organizations and with media. She expressed anxiety
with the growing activity of Turkish and Azerbaijani organizations,
including in Sweden where she works.

In the words of S. Khardalian and another participants of the press
conference representing Armenian National Committees of Cyprus,
Canada, Argentina and Russia, Azerbaijani-Turkish activity does not
causes panic of Armenian lobbyists. "We must not surrender, we must
struggle and work directing our activity to creation of new structures
for counteracting to the initiatives of Turks and Azeris. We must not
forget that the basis of their activity is only finances and of our
activity fair requests and ideas," Aris Papikian, Head of Armenian
National Committee of Ottawa, stated.

The participants of press conference positively estimated traditions
of cooperation between Embassies of Armenia abroad and Armenian
National Committees.

At the same time, lobbyists referring to exclusively active support
Embassies of Turkey and Azerbaijan render to their compatriots living
abroad, mentioned the necessity to activize cooperation between
Armenian Embassies and Armenian National Committees.

PRESS RELEASE
AGBU London
Contacts: Armine Afrikian (07866064156)
Armen: 0732024631
email [email protected]
13/03/07

ARMENIANS INSIDE EUROPE : A DIASPORA CONNECTS WITH ITS INSTITUTIONS.

A conference and debate hosted on March 22 by the AGBU Young
Professionals in London

The European Union is increasingly shaping the lives of Armenians: it is
promoting multilingualism, cultural diversity, human rights and much
more through legislation, budgets and campaigns. It is helping shape the
future of Armenia; and may one day accept Turkey as a member.

How can contact be established with Brussels? Speakers will outline and
debate selected EU policies from the point of view of Armenians in
Europe, and share experiences of dealing with the European institutions.

Panelists:
– Dr Charles Tannock, MEP for London
– Dr Susan Pattie, Senior Research fellow, UCL, Director, Armenian Institute
– Dr Armine Ishkanian, lecturer, London School of Economics
– Jonathan Fryer, Chairman, Liberal International British Group
– Ara Sarafian, Director of the Gomidas Institute, London
– Hratch Koundardjian, political consultant and parliamentary
advisor, Aegis Trust
– Nicolas Tavitian, director, Inside Europe, Brussels

On 22 March 2007 at 7.30 pm at the Armenian House: 25 Cheniston Gardens,
London, W8 6TG
Drinks & snacks to be served
Participation: free

This event is supported by the European Commission and the AGBU and is
part of a project run jointly by Orer (Prague), Les Nouvelles
d’Arménie (Paris) and Inside Europe (Brussels).

MINISTER OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO PROCESS OF ACCREDITATION OF INSTITUTES OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Noyan Tapan
Mar 14 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, NOYAN TAPAN. About one dozen of branches
of institutions of higher education of the Russian Federation
functions today in Armenia, but not all of them correspond to adopted
standards. Levon Mkrtchian, the RA Minister of Education and Science
expressed such anxiety at the March 13 meeting with students of
the Yerevan branch of the Moscow State University of Service. The
Minister emphasized in this sense the importance of the process of
accreditation of institutions of higher education, what, in his
words, is the most important and primary stage. "Institutions of
higher education must work out their educational, methodological and
organization programs with the help of well-founded self-examination,"
L.Mkrtchian emphasized.

The Moscow State University of Service Yerevan Branch has functioned
from 2001 and has 5 faculties and more than 800 students at present. As
institution Rector Mushegh Asoyan mentioned all conditions are created
at the institution of higher education to organize the educational
process corresponding to modern standards. He also stated that their
branch was honoured in 2005 in Geneva with a gold medal of the "High
Quality in Business Practice" international fund.

Levon Mkrtchian touched upon introduction of three-degree and credit
system, presented importance of unification of inner-republican
institutions of higher education, creation of institutional consortiums
what creates possibility of students’ free move among local and
foreign institutions of higher education to gather credits in the
direction of this or that speciality.

In the Minister’s words, the next important step to move concomitant
with international educational processes is introduction of continual
educational mechanisms. "Today scientific and economic processes
develop in the world so quickly that specialties proposed two years ago
can already have no demand for the present moment, so it is necessary
to found new structures for re-training and re-qualification,"
L.Mkrtchian mentioned.

eadrelease&releaseid=518988&ez_search=1

14 March 2007

500,000 Years of Climate History Stored Year by Year

The bottom of Turkey’s Lake Van is covered by a layer of mud several
hundreds of metres deep. For climatologists this unprepossessing slime
is worth its weight in gold: summer by summer pollen has been
deposited from times long past. From it they can detect right down to
a specific year what climatic conditions prevailed at the time of the
Neanderthals, for example. These archives may go back as much as half
a million years. An international team of researchers headed by the
University of Bonn now wants to tap this treasure. Preliminary
investigations have been a complete success: the researchers were able
to prove that the climate has occasionally changed quite suddenly –
sometimes within ten or twenty years.

Every summer an inch-thick layer of lime – calcium carbonate –
trickles down to find its final resting place at the bottom of Lake
Van. Day by day during this period millions and millions of pollen
grains float down to the depths. Together with lime they form a
light-coloured layer of sediment, what is known as the summer
sediment.

In winter the continual ‘snowdrift’ beneath the surface changes its
colour: now clay is the main ingredient in the sediment, which is
deposited as a dark brown winter sediment on top of the pollen-lime
mix. At a depth of 400 metres no storm or waves disturb this
process. These ‘annual rings’ in the sediment can be traced back for
hundreds of thousands of years. ‘In some places the layer of sediment
is up to 400 metres thick,’ the Bonn palaeontologist Professor Thomas
Litt explains. ‘There are about 20,000 annual strata to every 10
metres,’ he calculates. ‘We presume that the bottom of Lake Van stores
the climate history of the last 800,000 years – an incomparable
treasure house of data which we want to tap for at least the last
500,000 years.’

250 metres of sediment = 500,000 years’ worth of climate archives

Professor Litt is the spokesman of an international consortium of
scientists that wants to get stuck into a thorny problem: using high
tech equipment they want to cut drill cores as thick as a man’s arm
out of the lakebed sediment from a big floating platform – not an easy
task at depths of 380 metres. The researchers want to drill down to a
sediment depth of 250 metres. For this they have applied for funding
by the International Continental Drilling Programme (ICDP). This would
be the first time that an ICDP drilling was headed by a German. The
prospects of this happening are not bad. A preliminary application was
assessed as very good by the ICDP Executive Committee – above all
thanks to a successful preliminary investigation which the researchers
had carried out at Lake Van in 2004. The German Research Council
(Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) financed this. It has just
extended the project for two more years.

The sediment promises to deliver a host of exciting results. For
example vulcanologists can determine exactly when volcanoes near the
lake erupted. In this case there will suddenly be a black layer of ash
between the annual layers. ‘With our test drill we counted 15
outbreaks in the past 20,000 years,’ Prof. Litt says. ‘The composition
of the ash even reveals which nearby volcano it originates from.’

Chubby-cheeked pollen

Even earthquakes in this area of high geological activity are
painstakingly stored in these archives. What is the most interesting
aspect for Thomas Litt, however, is the biological filling contained
in the summer layers, especially. The microscopically small pollen
tells the palaeobotanist what sorts of things used to flourish on the
shores of the lake. In a piece of sediment the size of a sugar cube up
to 200,000 grains of pollen can be trapped. Under the microscope the
fine dust reveals a very special kind of beauty. The pollen of yarrow
is as prickly as a hedgehog, the pollen of pine with its air sacs
resembles the chubby-cheeked face of a hamster, ‘and look at the olive
tree,’ Professor Litt enthuses, ‘it’s also got a very nice pollen
grain.’

The researcher normally recognises at once what genus or species the
finds belong to – even when they are several thousands of years old,
since the exine, the outer coat of the grain, successfully resists the
ravages of time. ‘The material is extremely resistant to environmental
influences and even withstands strong acids or bases,’ Professor Litt
explains. Using hydrofluoric acid or potassium hydroxide he dissolves
the pollen grains from the sediment samples; the grains prove to be
completely impervious to such rough treatment. Under the microscope
the botanists then assess how much pollen of which species is present
in the layer in question. ‘At interesting points we take every
centimetre of material from the drill cores; in this way we achieve a
chronological resolution of a few years.’

The pollen permits pretty precise statements to be made about
temperature and average amount of precipitation for the period covered
by the finds, as every species makes different demands on its
environment. ‘If we find pollen in a specimen from different species,
whose demands on its habitat are known, we can make a plausibility
statement about the nature of the climate of the time,’ he adds. ‘Lake
Van promises to provide unique insights into the development of the
climate in Eurasia – and thus for assessing the current warm period.’

© AlphaGalileo Foundation 2003

3 MILLION NEEDED FOR REPAIR OF THEATER

KarabakhOpen
13-03-2007 14:54:14

2.5-3 million dollars is needed to reconstruct the Dramatic Theater
of Stepanakert, NKR President Arkady Ghukasyan stated a few days
ago. He said decoration is also possible but undesirable, however,
there is not enough money for the reconstruction of the theater. The
president said they are looking for sponsors. "There are some pledges,
and I hope that next year we will be able to solve the problem. If we
raise the necessary funds, we can add the rest from the state budget,"
said the head of state.

By the way, the only theater in Stepanakert is in a miserable
state. Pledges have been made over the past few years, even definite
dates had been set.

The theater was not included in the program of reconstruction of the
cultural sites in Armenia funded by LINCY Foundation either. Things
are right where they started.

PRECIPITATIONS FORECAST IN COMING WEEK IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Mar 12 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 12, NOYAN TAPAN. From time to time precipitations are
forecast on March 13-16 in some regions of Armenia. Due to cloudiness,
air temperature will rise by 3-5 degrees at night and will fall by
2-4 degrees in the daytime. As Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed
from Haypethydromet Department’s Meteorological Forecasts Unit,
in the coming days air temperature in the daytime in mountainous
regions will be 0 +5, at night -10, in Ararat valley, +9 +13 and -2
+3, respectively.

200 PEOPLE FOR TIBET INDEPENDENCE IN MARSELLE (FRANCE)
By Mathieu Vernerey

Phayul, Tibet
March 12 2007

We were nearly two hundred people gathered in Marseille (France)
to commemorate the Tibetan Uprising of March 10th 1959. These last
years, it was very difficult to mobilize people since the conjecture
of 2002 when the Tibetan Government in Exile requested to refrain
demonstrations, what created some confusion among Tibet supporters
in France and all over the world. This year in Marseille, we were
not many more people, maybe some few more, but there were old faces
and new ones.

This year in Marseille, people came back with a new spirit, with a
new hope and with a new determination. We shouted slogans for two
hours non-stop. We shouted slogans at the top our voice and from the
bottom of our heart : "Freedom for Tibet, Independence for Tibet,
Selfdetermination for Tibetan People, Last Chance for Negociations,
Decolonization of Tibet, No Olympics in China".

We walked during two hours from the Justice Palace to the Chinese
Consulate. We walked during two hours across the city over seven
miles. We walked and we shouted for the Tibetan Freedom.

After these two hours of walk and of so inspiring shouts, we arrived
in front of the Chinese Consulate. There were security policemen
waiting for us and protecting Chinese Consulate and French interests.

Of course, our protest was a peaceful one, but an energic one. But
more important, there were also French elected people waiting for us
protecting Tibetan sovereignty and French dignity.

Facing the Chinese Consulate, we unfurled gigantic banderoles
and large Tibetan flags. Then we started the solemn introduction
(Tibetan National Hymn and few minutes of silence) before reading
the Message of His Holliness the Dalai Lama. His appeal to unity was
very inspiring. His appeal to support TGIE’s Middle Way Approach was
legitimate and of course we listened to him.

We red some main parts of a last article of Jamyang Norbu (Looking
Back From Nangpa-La)also. By keeping in mind the words of Jamyang
Norbu, we remembered March 10th 1959. And so, on March 10th 1959,
Tibetan people may have surrounded the Norbulingka not only because
of fear that the Dalai Lama was about to be captured, but because
that he would make more concessions to Chinese demands, essentialy on
matters of sovereignty. What the Tibetan people basically did on that
March day in 1959 was declare : "We want the Dalai Lama back". And
they took him back.

After this, French elected people addressed to the meeting :
the Socialist MP (PS) Mr Christophe Masse, a representative of the
Republican MP (UMP) Mr Dominique Tian and the Green Regional Councillor
(Les Verts) Ms Catherine Levraud. They all expressed their strong
support to the peaceful struggle of the Tibetan people. They also
supported the Dalai Lama appeal for dialogue with China. But at the
same time, they acknowledged that there was no positive answer from
China and that there was no improvement in Tibet. So, after expressing
their support to the Middle Way Approach as a good and peaceful stand,
they said : "We support Tibetan Sovereignty. We support Tibetan right
to independence. Tibetans are not Chinese.

Tibetans are Tibetans. We support Tibetan Freedom".

A representative of the FRA Nor Seround (Socialist Armenian Youth)
expressed the support of her organization and of her community to
the just cause of Tibet. Being very optimistic, she feels that one
day Tibetan people will also get justice.

This demonstration in Marseille was held by the Marseillian TSG Tibet
Destination Rangzen which supports Tibetan Independence for more than
fifteen years. During all that journey, Tibet Destination Rangzen
collected some medical material for the Guchusum to bring help to
former political prisoners who are now refugees in exile. This is
why we all together remembered the Nangpa-La tragedy : "Remember
Nangpa-La ! Never give up Freedom!"

We were very happy to join this global revival of the Tibetan struggle
all over the world on this day. We were happy to believe again with
all our friends around the world that next time Tibet will restore
its sovereignty and its complete independence. We were happy to walk
and shout for a Free and Independent Tibet.

ticle=200+people+for+Tibet+Independence+in+Marsell e(France)&id=15932