Author: Jilavian Emma

ARMENIAN MP URGES STATE CONTROL OVER NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS

Arminfo
20 Mar 06

Yerevan, 18 March: Energy security is an integral and very important
component of the complex of Armenia’s national security, proof of
which is a statement by US Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried about the need to diversify energy
sources, Mger Shakhgeldyan, deputy chairman of the Orinats Yerkir
[Law-Governed Country] party and chairman of the parliamentary
commission on defence, national security and internal affairs, told
a news conference today.

He stressed that because of this, the Orinats Yerkir party believes
that the construction of a new nuclear power plant where the
controlling block of shares will not belong to the state cannot be
allowed. “We believe that both during the operation of the Metsamor
Nuclear Power Plant and the construction and operation of a new nuclear
power station, the controlling block of shares must belong to the
state, and the right to make decisions must remain with the state. The
state must also supervise the process of the nuclear power plant being
operated as required by Armenia’s energy security,” Shakhgeldyan said.

The construction of alternative pipelines with Iran also plays an
important role in ensuring Armenia’s energy security, Shakhgeldyan
said. At the same time, he stressed that Armenia should in parallel
deepen its relations with the USA, which proceeds from the republic’s
strategic interests, and preserve the current level of Armenian-Russian
relations.

Speaking about the increase in the price for Russian gas imported into
Armenia, Shakhgeldyan said: “Nobody has the right to put pressure on
Armenia. When establishing relations with foreign countries, Armenia
will proceed exclusively from its strategic interests.” At the same
time, he stressed that one should not draw hasty conclusions until
the price for Russian gas for Armenia is set definitively.

369 kinds of ammunition to be moved from Akhalkalak to Armenia by this year’s end

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 18 2006

[ 18 Mar. 2006 13:26 ]

Russian military base #62 in Samtse-Javakhati region will be moved
from Georgia by this year’s end. Georgian defense minister, Mamuka
Kudava told journalists, APA bureau in Georgia reports.

Mr. Kudava stated that Russia has already submitted the withdrawal
schedule of the military bases to official Tbilisi. The schedule
intends to move 358 kinds of ammunitions and military equipment as
well as 113 tanks and other equipment from Georgia to Russia by sea.
369 kinds of heavy military equipment as well as 35 tanks and other
equipment will be taken to Russian base #102 in Gumru, Armenia. /APA/

RISE IN GAS PRICES TO BE COMPENSATED FOR IN ARMENIA

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 15, 2006

YEREVAN, March 15. /ARKA/. The rise in the price for Russian gas
supplied to Armenia will be compensated for, Chairman of the National
Civil Council for International Affairs, Director of the Institute of
political Research Sergey Markov told reporters in Moscow. According
to him, compensations will be paid in any cases independently of the
rise in gas prices.

“We have a lost of means of compensation. For example, Armenian
students can receive free educations in Russian higher schools, and
Armenian businessmen will have certain tax privileges in Russia,”
Markov said.

He also reported that in discussing the gas prices the sides should
consider the fact that the rise will tell on all the consumers,
including Russian ones. “The task of raising the gas prices is bringing
gas prices to the international level, and no discrimination should
be seen in this,” Markov said.

>>From April 1, 2006, the Russian “Gasprom” company plans to raise the
price for gas supplied to Armenia up to $110 for 1,000 cubic meters.

The negotiations over the “gas issue” with the participation of
Director General of the Armenian-Russian “ArmRosgasprom” CJSC JV
Karen Karapetyan are still under way in Moscow.

FIRST CERTIFICATION IN SHUSHI
A.Gabrielian

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
16 March 2006

On March 10, 2006 the certification of 4 junior officials of the
regional administration of Shushi took place. The certification
was held in two stages: a test and an interview. One of the junior
officials did not pass the test.

The chairman of the certification commission Karine Harutiunian
said this is the first certification of civil servants in Shushi,
which was held in compliance with the NKR Law on Civil Service. The
aim of the certification is to upgrade the professional skills and
knowledge of civil servants.

DEFENDER PUTS THE FINAL TOUCHES TO ANNUAL REPORT

Panorama.am
15:10 16/03/06

Former Human Rights Defender Larissa Alaverdyan doesn’t hurry
to publish her report of 2005. “The law gives me opportunity to
wait until March 31. And I’m going to wait for the developments,”
informed President of “Against Legal Whims” Public Organization
Larissa Alaverdyan.

And what is her opinion towards the NA Law saying the Human Rights’
Defender must be resent during the representation of the report and
have a 5-minute speech? “In fact, the article of the law saying that
the Defender reports about his/her activity has been accepted by the
NA in this way.”

Panorama.am wondered whether the first Defender is going to be present
in the NA during her annual reporting. “I cannot see my role in the NA,
what am going to do there,” noticed manager executive of the Public
Organization.

MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR WWI DEATHS AT ISTANBUL U. CONFERENCE

Hurriyet, Turkey
March 16 2006

The “New Approaches in Turkish-Armenian Relations” conference which
opened yesterday at Istanbul University began with a moment of silence
for all the lives lost during World War I. Following on the this,
the Turkish national anthem was read by Ferikoy Armenian primary
school student Katya Hallacoglu, who came in third place in a citywide
competition for the memorization and reading of the anthem.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Istanbul University Rector
Mesut Parlak said “Let us use this conference to examine the events
of 1915 without falling into political fanaticism.”

A CAR, TWO GUYS AND A BAG OF BULLETS
Joe Fiorito

Toronto Star, Canada
March 15 2006

There is a 1992 Lincoln Town Car on a hoist in a garage up on Sheppard
near Kennedy. There are two guys standing around, talking.

The car is British racing green. The tires have been kicked. The
mileage is low. The seats are white leather and the car is fully
loaded; power this and that.

The one guy has good hair, nice manners and some dummy bullets in
a baggy. He wants to buy the car. The bullets in the baggy are a
red herring.

The other guy has a Goodyear vest and a trim moustache. He wants to
sell the car. The bullets in the baggy make no difference to him.

The bullets are .22 calibre, with plastic-covered, cotton-wadded
tips. They do not figure in the story, except as an aside.

The car does not get sold, not today. But the guy with the good hair
wants to buy, and the Goodyear guy wants to sell, and it’s a pretty
good deal, all things considered.

What’s the holdup?

A bit about Roland: He is a man of a certain age. He was in the London
cast of Cats a long time ago. He doesn’t dance any more. He writes
music instead. It’s easier on the knees.

It’s also why he is short of cash. Nobody in the arts is money-rich.

If you are money-rich in the arts, you are in some other kind of
business.

Roland needed wheels six years or so ago. He was on a tight budget,
so he went to the city auction. The car he liked had been used hard
– it was an old cop car, a ’92 Lumina – but he figured it had been
well-maintained. For twelve-hundred bucks he got himself a deal
on wheels.

You buy a used car, you have to get it certified. Roland asked around
and somebody said he should go see Sarko Ghazarian, who was reckoned
to be an honest garage man and a good guy; also vice versa.

A bit about Sarko: He is an Armenian from Lebanon who studied political
science at university in Beirut. If you know anything about Armenia,
you know why he grew up in Beirut. If you know anything about Beirut,
you know why he came here.

It’s all political science.

The old cop car checked out fine, and this was the start of the
friendship. Roland took to dropping in on Sarko now and then, whenever
he was in the neighbourhood. He’d bring coffee. The bullets?

They are irrelevant. Roland is a shooter of the breeze, and nothing but
the breeze. And Sarko? I never met an Armenian who didn’t like talk.

Roland drove that old cop car for a year or so.

One summer day he took his father for a ride in the country. His
father was 92 at the time. Roland figured a drive in the country
would be nice, because you know what this town is like in the summer.

Somewhere around Milton in the middle of the day, the air conditioning
gave out. The old cop car got hot. Roland’s father felt a tightness
in his chest. He rolled down the window. He had trouble getting air.

Roland took him to a hospital.

After his father died, Roland got rid of the old cop car for scrap.

That’s when he found the bullets; training rounds, a couple of them
in the trunk. He put them in a baggy. He kept them as a souvenir.

He got around town for a time in his mother’s car. But his mother
is getting on in years and she no longer drives, and her car is nice
and new.

She told Roland to sell it recently.

He can’t afford to buy it from his mum, so now he needs another set
of wheels. There was a time when he walked horses at the track. You
can’t get a racehorse as a loaner and ride it around town while you
raise enough cash to do a deal.

Roland dropped in to see Sarko a while ago. He said if you ever hear
of a good used car for a price …

Sarko said it was funny you should say that. He’d had a call from a
woman in the neighbourhood. She wanted to get rid of her car, a 1992
Lincoln Town Car, in good shape.

Roland said great, that would be really great, but he had no money
at the moment.

Sarko said the money was not a problem. He said he’d buy the car from
the lady and Roland could buy it from him whenever he got the cash.

Sarko feels good when he does good things.

The Lincoln is still on the hoist. Roland hasn’t raised the money
yet. The bullets are still in the baggy. They are a conversation piece.

I never heard of such a thing in a garage.

AZERBAIJAN SAYS ARMENIANS BREACH CEASEFIRE

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
March 9 2006

On March 8 and 9 the cease-fire regime on the Azerbaijani-Armenian
frontline was violated, the Azerbaijan Defense Ministry told Trend.

On 8 March the units of the Armenian armed forces dislocated in
0.8km north of Serakpikas village of Ijevan District fired from
10:40am to 10:45am the positions of the Azerbaijan National Army in
Jafarli village of Gazakh district, from the positions located in
Boganis Ayrim village of Gazakh district from 12.26pm the Azerbaijani
positions in the opposite; from the positions in 1.6km northeast of
Berdavan village of Noyamberian District from 18.50pm the Azerbaijani
positions in Kamarli village of Gazakh district.

On 9 March the units of the Armenian armed forces fired dislocated
in 1km of northeast northeast of Berkaber village of Ijevan District
fired the positions of the Azerbaijan National Army in Gizil Hajili
and Ashagi Askipara villages of Gazakh district at 02.00am.

The enemy was kept silence by a reply fire. No causalities.

ANCHOR:

Armenians around the world are calling for legal proceedings against the
instigators and perpetrators of the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait and Baku.
They say that those responsible for a wave of crimes against humanity were
released after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Armenia TV’s Paul
Chaderjian reports.

REPORTER:

Thousands gathered in Yerevan to protest the anti-Armenian hysteria being
promoted by officials in the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the center of
Azerbaijan’s malice is a border dispute with Armenia over a sliver of land
where Armenians have lived for centuries.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan can be traced back to Joseph
Stalin, who in an attempt to control the ethnic communities in the Soviet
Empire, placed the centuries-old Armenian region of Mountainous or Nagorno
Kharapagh under Azeri rule.

In reaction to talks of Armenian autonomy in Kharapagh, Azeris attacked
Armenians with the approval and support of local authorities.

What resulted were massacres of native Azerbaijanis of Armenian decent.
Hundreds were killed, tortured, burnt alive, stabbed with crude and barbaric
weapons, children were held over the open flames of stoves. More than 300
thousand Armenians were forced to flee Azerbaijan, but the world didn’t take
notice.

STAND UP: Rally organizers say the Sumgait massacres were never fully
acknowledged and addressed by Soviet authorities. Further, they say, those
who orchestrated and carried out these brutal and barbaric attacks were
never punished by the courts.

It took the Red Army three days to march into Sumgait and put a stop to the
violence, but violence broke out in other Azerbaijani cities and forced
Armenians in Kharapagh to defend themselves.

For 18 years now, Armenia’s government has been trying to find a diplomatic
solution to the Armenian Republic of Nagorno Kharapagh’s referendum to break
away from Azerbaijan and be part of Armenia. As recent as a few weeks ago,
another meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, failed to
achieve any results.

Adding insult to injury, an Azerbaijani political party awarded its man of
the year award to an Azeri solider who hacked to death and decapitated an
Armenian officer attending a NATO peace conference in Hungary.

Armenians are asking Azerbaijanis to stop the desecration, destruction and
vandalism of ancient Armenian holy sites, cross stones and cemeteries.

For the CNN World Report, Paul Chaderjian, Armenia TV

# #

Following is the rundown for this weekend’s CNN World Report, scheduled to
air on Saturday, March 11 and Sunday, March 12:

– Africa, Europe, & the Middle East:

Saturday:
06:30A CET/12:30A Eastern Time – Program A
15:30P CET/09:30A Eastern Time – Program A
05:30A CET/11:30P Eastern Time- Program A

Sunday:
05:30A CET/11:30P Eastern Time – Program A

– Latin America:

Saturday:
02:30A Buenos Aires/12:30A Eastern Time – Program A
11:30A Buenos Aires/09:30A Eastern Time – Program A
01:30A Buenos Aires (Sunday)/11:30P Eastern Time (Saturday) – Program A

Sunday:
01:30A Buenos Aires (Monday)/11:30P (Sunday) Eastern Time – Program A

– East & South Asia:

Saturday:
13:30P HK, 11:00A New Delhi/12:30A Eastern Time – Program A
12:30P HK, 10:00A New Delhi (Sunday)/11:30P Eastern Time (Saturday) –
Program A

Sunday:
12:30P HK, 10:00 New Delhi (Monday)/11:30P Eastern Time (Sunday) – Program A

– North America & The US:

Saturday:
06:30A CET/12:30A Eastern Time – Program A
15:30P CET/09:30A Eastern Time – Program A
05:30A CET (Sunday)/11:30P Eastern Time (Saturday) – Program A

Sunday:
05:30 CET (Monday)/11:30P Eastern Time (Sunday) – Program A

PROGRAM A

EUTV, EUROPEAN UNION Row at the European Union Over Services Debate
ARMENIA TV, ARMENIA Rally Marking the 18-th Anniversary of the Sumgait Massacre
FUTURE TV, LEBANON Rug Made by Armenian Orphans in Lebanon Adores White House
IRIB, IRAN Iranian Artist Paints a Noble Portrait of Virgin Mary
UNTV, UNITED NATIONS UN Helps Indian Fishermen & India’s Rural Development
UGANDAN TV, UGANDA Uganda Masters Farming of the Deadly Tse Tse Fly
CCTV, CHINA China Helps Neighboring Laos Curb Its Opium Cultivation
TIANJIN TV, CHINA Destination: Shi’s Residence in Tianjin

Civil Georgia, Georgia
March 11 2006

Protesters Raid Court, University in Akhalkalaki

Couple of hundred protesters in Akhalkalaki, a town in
predominately ethnic Armenian populated Samtskhe-Javakheti region,
stormed a local court chamber and a building of the Tbilisi State
University’s Akhalkalaki branch on March 11.

Initial reason of a protest rally of about couple of hundred people
in the center of Akhalkalaki was to demand an immediate and unbiased
investigation of a murder of 24-year-old Gevork Gevorkian in Tsalka,
Shida Kartli region on March 11. Gevorkian died in a clash, which the
local population and some ethnic minority advocacy groups claim was
triggered by ethnic reasons. But the Georgian Public Defender
strongly denied that ethnic reasons were behind this clash in Tsalka
and said on March 11 that it was `an ordinary hooliganism.’

Later, the protesters voiced demands related with the right to
conduct the proceedings in courts and in the state structures in
Armenian language. Protesters dispersed shortly after the court
building and a local branch of the Tbilisi State University were
raided.

Khacatur Stepanian, one of the organizers of the protest rally said
that storming of the court and university could have been a
provocation.

`I can say for sure that nothing of this kind was planned by us. I
think it was a provocation, provoked by someone,’ Khacatur Stepanian
told Imedi television.

A group of non-governmental organizations based in Samtskhe-Javakheti
region requested the Georgian leadership to consider possibility of
granting the region autonomy with `broad authority for
self-governance, including the right to hold elections for all bodies
of governance.’