Author: Kalantarian Kevo

41 BODIES OF BLACK SEA PLANE CRASH VICTIMS IDENTIFIED AS RUSSIA, ARMENIA MARK DAY OF MOURNING

AP Worldstream
May 05, 2006

Forty-one of the 53 bodies pulled from the Black Sea after an Armenian
airliner crash have been identified, Russian Transport Minister Igor
Levitin said Friday, as Russia and Armenia observed a day of mourning
for the 113 victims of the disaster.

A special diving vehicle was sent to the site of the crash, about six
kilometers (four miles) off the southern Russian resort of Sochi, to
try to pinpoint the remains of the plane’s fuselage on the sea floor.

Levitin said authorities were searching both in Russia and abroad
for equipment to raise the fuselage, where some bodies are thought
to be trapped.

“I want to say, for us the most important thing now is raising the
bodies, because we understand that for the victims’ relatives not
raising the bodies or fragments would be an even bigger tragedy,”
Levitin told reporters.

He had said Thursday that searchers had located a large part of the
plane’s fuselage that was emitting a radio signal believed to be from
a flight recorder, and he later said a signal from the plane’s other
“black box” had been detected.

Relatives gathered at the port of Sochi on Friday morning and boarded
a ship that was to sail to the crash site for a ceremony in which
mourners were to throw flowers into the sea. Flags were at half-staff
across Russia and Armenia, and churches were holding memorial services.

The Airbus A-320 plunged into the sea in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday
in heavy rain and poor visibility as it was approaching the airport in
Adler, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Sochi, a city wedged
between the sea and soaring, snowcapped mountains. Searchers found
wreckage spread over a wide area about six kilometers (3.5 miles)
offshore.

PRESS RELEASE
Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art
2919 Maxwell St.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Contact: Alex Kalognomos
Phone/Fax (323) 663-1882
e-mail: [email protected]

ARPA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES CALL FOR ENTRIES

Los Angeles, CA – The 2006 Arpa International Film Festival is
accepting Armenian films for their 9th annual festival in Hollywood,
California.

The Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art (AFFMA) stages its festival
in October for filmmakers exploring diaspora, war, exile, genocide,
dual-identity and Armenian culture.

AFFMA founder Sylvia Minassian says, “Arpa celebrates artistic vision
and cultural diversity in cinema while illuminating the Armenian
experience. We’re so pleased that people in both the U.S.

and abroad are becoming aware of the opportunities Arpa gives
filmmakers to share our unique history through cinema.”

While Armenians live all over the globe, the largest population of
Armenians outside of Armenia is in Southern California. “Los Angeles
is a city of unlimited cultural power and Armenians contribute to that
richness immensely,” Minassian says. With that in mind, Arpa honors
those filmmakers who address the common circumstances of diasporan
people, redefining what Los Angeles stands for as a global city,
through the presentation of Armenian films.

The Arpa International Film Festival accepts films for competition
in the following categories:

Feature Length (more than 41 minutes) Short Film (less than 40 minutes)
Documentary Animation

Entries must be received no later than June 30, 2006.

Submission rules and entry form are available online at
or

For sponsorships and ad book opportunities, please contact Arpa at
(323) 663-1882 or via e-mail at [email protected]

For additional information, please contact the Arpa Foundation for
Film, Music and Art at (323) 663-1882.

[email protected]

THERE IS NO MILITARY OPTION

Lragir.am
5 May 06

Addressing the conference “Council of Europe and Armenia Five Years
of Membership,” Foreign Minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan said the
peace settlement of the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh is a commitment
to the CoE. Vardan Oskanyan said the word “peace” is the most important
word, and there can be no military settlement.

At the same time, Vardan Oskanyan said the Azerbaijani party is making
more and more militaristic statements, which causes deep concern not
only in Armenia but also in Europe. “If Azerbaijan has such intentions,
it would be difficult to suggest that it is likely to compromise.”

The Secretary General of the PACE Terry Davis addressed a message
to the conference. The message touches upon the issue of Nagorno
Karabakh. “The simultaneous accession of Armenia and Azerbaijan to
the Council of Europe in 2001 raised the expectation that these two
countries would, by coming together in the European family, be able
to find a resolution to the bitter conflict between them.

Unfortunately, no break-through has yet been reached. 2006 is a year of
hope. However, hope is not enough. Sustained effort from both sides is
needed. Under the European roof there is no place for enmities. Peace
and co-operation with neighbours will not only increase security,
but also increase prosperity. This is the lesson Europe has learned.”

Vardan Oskanyan announced that in Europe they think the meeting of the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan would not hinder the resolution
of the issue, and suggest holding such a meeting in June.

However, the place and the time have not been decided yet. Vardan
Oskanyan thinks they openly told Ilham Aliev in Washington that there
can be no military settlement of the Karabakh issue, and Armenia
commends this.

DELIVERY OF CORPSES OF A-320 CRASH VICTIMS TO YEREVAN TO START TONIGHT

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2006 19:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Delivery of corpses of victims of the air crash in
Sochi to Yerevan will start tonight.

Relatives of the victims are at Yerevan airport since yesterday. These
are those, who could not fly to the catastrophe location, as only one
relative or friend were allowed to fly there. The air gates function,
in fact all regular flights are executed. Yerevan Administration
has arranged ambulance presence at Yerevan airport around the
clock. Preparation work is held for funerals, that will be covered
by the state.

Armenian Government today introduced the question of financial
assistance to families of the victims at its today’s meeting,
reports Itar-Tass.

ARMENIA DECLARES MAY 5, MAY 6 DAYS OF MOURNING

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 3 2006

YEREVAN, May 3 (Itar-Tass) – Armenia has declared May 5 and May 6 a
national day of mourning to commemorate those were killed in the air
crash near Sochi.

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan signed a decree to this effect
on Wednesday, the presidential press service reported.

Twenty-eight Russian citizens were aboard the crashed Airbus belonging
to the air company Armavia. The list of passengers placed in the hall
of the Yerevan international airport Zvartnots showed it.

These are mainly people of Armenian origin.

Well-known aviator, former director general of the Armenian Airlines
Vyacheslav Yaralov, chief of the hall for official delegations of
the Yerevan airport Albert Azaryan, Aram Petrosyan, the son of
Lieutenant-General Karlos Petrosyan, the former director of the
Armenian governmental security service, are among those killed.

Rescuers have found 16 bodies of those killed as a result of the crash
of the airplane A-320 in the Black Sea so far, Deputy Emergencies
Minister Yevgeny Serebrennikov told Itar-Tass.

He noted, “An active stage of the search operation in which more than
ten vessels are involved is underway at the incident site.” More than
40 specialists, including divers, are working in the catastrophe area.

The airplane was carrying 113 people, including the crew. Sixty-three
men, 36 women, six children, including a newborn and eight crewmembers
were aboard the airplane, the information department of the Emergencies
Ministry told Itar-Tass.

The airplane A-320 was en route Yerevan-Sochi. During another attempt
at an emergency landing the airplane disappeared from the radars and
crashed in the sea at the depth of 300 meters, five kilometres off
the shore where the Adler airport is situated.

AIRBUS EXPERTS DEPART FROM FRANCE TO SOCHI

Regnum, Russia
May 3 2006

Airbus experts will participate in investigating the aircraft crash
in Krasnodar Region. The A-320 plane that crashed near Sochi was
produced by the Airbus Company, report Vesti.ru.

The A-320 airbus was delivered to Armenia in 2004 and has had about
14,000 flights. A crash of a plane of the A-320 type was the first
one in Russia. However, in the world planes of this type have had
several crashes in recent years.

The first group of relatives of the A-320 passengers, who were flying
from Yerevan to Sochi, has started identification of the victims.

According to Head of the Russian Transport Ministry Igor levitin,
the relatives were brought to Sochi Hospital No 4 for identification
procedure. 46 bodies of the ill-fated flight passengers have been
taken out from the Black Sea.

ROUND TABLE CONCERNING IMPLEMENTATION OF OBLIGATIONS UNDERTAKEN WITHIN FRAMEWORK OF AARHUS CONVENTION BY ARMENIA ON ISSUE OF DALMA GARDENS TO BE ORGANIZED IN MAY

Noyan Tapan
May 02 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. A round table concerning implementation of
obligations undertaken within the framework of the Aarhus convention
by Armenia in the process of building of Dalma gardens will be held
in Yerevan on May 10. Representatives of the “Center for Regional
Development” (“Transparency International-Armenia”), “Human Rights
Protection Armenian Center after Sakharov” and “Armenian Botanical
Society” public organizations informed about it at the April 28
press-conference. Representatives of the RA Government and the Yerevan
Mayor’s Office are invited to the round table being organized by the
above-mentioned NGOs. Participants of the press-conference informed
that by its April 7, 2006 expert’s conclusion, the Aarhus Convention
Compliance Committee recongized the Armenian authorities’ actions
relating to the request concerning Dalma gardens not corresponding to
a number of articles of the Aarhus Convention. At the same time the
committee presented proposals to the RA Government on the occasion
of stimulating usage of principles of the Aarhus Convention. The
committee, at the same time, proposes to undertake practical and
legislative events in the direction of solving existing problems of
accessibility of information relating to environment, to secure the
practical usage of processes of society’s participation in all levels
of making decisions, to undertake corresponding practical events in the
direction of securing accesibility of justice, etc. The conclusion was
made in responce to 3 NGOs’ application sent in 2004. The application
touches upon problems of accesibility of information and public
participation in processes of making decision by the RA Government on
the occasion of change of purposeful meaning of lands and tenancy of
some plots of Dalma gardens of Yerevan. According to conclusion of the
committee, by not giving corresponding information to applicants by
bodies implementing functions of public management, Armenia violated
principles of Article 4 of the convention, and by not securing
complete participation of the society in the process of concrete
decisions concerning building, it partly violated principles of
a number of other articles of the convention. The RA Government
violated principles of the convention as well, not securing the right
of interested representatives of the society to apply for court
examination. To recap, before addressing to the Aarhus Convention
Compliance Committee, the Yerevan Court of First Instance of Kentron
and Nork-Marash communities refused to accept the claim of NGOs to
recognize the RA Government’s decisions invalid because of their
not corresponding to the Aarhus Convention, and the RA Court of
Cassations Chamber on Economic and Civil Cases left the complaint of
the organizations concerning overturning the above-mentioned decision
without upholding.

THE MAIN HYPOTHESIS IS BAD WEATHER

A1+
[12:50 pm] 03 May, 2006

Artyom Movsisyan, the head of the Chief Administration of Civic
Aviation announced that the plane A-320 has been examined fully and
completely and the version of its being out of order is excluded. The
state of the plane had also been checked before the flight.

The connection with the plane was lost six minutes before the supposed
landing in the Sochi airport, at about 02:15 AM. As it was revealed,
the plane crushed five kilometers away from the seashore where 300
meters under the water the remains of the crashed plane have been
found.

Artyom Movsisyan has announced that the crew of the plane consisted of
professionals. The head of the Chief Administration of Civic Aviation
also excluded the version of the lack of fuel. According to him,
the plane had 10 tons of fuel whereas only 3.5 tons would suffice
for the flight from Yerevan to Adler.

“The preliminary hypothesis is about the weather”, he said. 77 of the
passengers of the plane were citizens of Armenia, 26 – of Russia, one
of Georgia, and one of Ukraine. The majority of them were Armenians
living in Russia.

Armenian National Committee of Canada

130 Albert St., Suite 1007
Ottawa, ON
KIP 5G4

Tel. (613) 235-2622 Fax (613) 238-2622

Armenian National Committee of Canada
Opens National office in Ottawa

Ottawa – The dream of thousands of dedicated Hai Tad members and supporters
became reality on April 25 when the Armenian National Committee of Canada
(ANCC) opened its national office in Ottawa.

Over 200 supporters, led by Dr. Vagharch Ehramdjian, ANCC Chairman; Hagop
Der Khachadourian, ANC International; Archbishop Khajak Hagopian, Prelate;
ANCC board and regional chapters members, and representatives of the
Armenian Relief Society, Hamazkaine Cultural Association and Homenetmen came
from Montreal, Laval, Toronto, and Ottawa to witness the historic event.

After the official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 130 Albert Street office,
guests headed to the nearby National Press Club for a cocktail reception.

In his welcoming address, Dr. Ehramdjian said: `The opening of the Armenian
National Committee office in Ottawa will complement a chain of other offices
in Washington, Brussels’, Moscow and Beirut.’

The ANCC chairman thanked the Right Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of
Canada; Peter McKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and the Canadian
Government for their historic announcement-statement in reaffirming the
Canadian Senate’s and the House of Commons’ motions recognizing the Armenian
Genocide. He also thanked the leaders of the other three parties – the
Liberal, the Bloc Québecois, and the New Democratic Party for their support
of the motions, and to all members of Parliament `Who observed a one-minute
of silence in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.’ Dr.
Ehramdjian said: ` The Armenian community of Canada is grateful and proud of
its governing bodies for placing justice and human rights above economic and
political considerations.’

Archbishop Khajak Hagopian congratulated the Canadian-Armenian community for
its decades-long campaign to obtain government’s recognition for the
Armenian Genocide. He said the opening of the ANCC office would advance the
interests of the Canadian-Armenian community in the circles of power.

Afterwards, master of ceremonies Tina Soulahian invited ANCC excutive
director Aris Babikian to introduce David Warner. The former MPP and Speaker
of the Ontario Legislative Assembly was honoured for his commitment and
outstanding contribution to the Armenian cause. Mr. Babikian then invited
Jean Meguerditchian, co-president of ANCC to present Mr. David Warner with
ANCC’s Outstanding Contribution citation.

Mr. Babikian then invited the gathering to observe one minute of silence in
honour of the four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

In his remarks, Mr. Babikian paid tribute to the Prime Minister’s
Parliamentary Secretary Jason Kenney, who `played a pivotal role in
securing Canadian Government’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.’ Mr.
Babikian said that the ANCC worked very closely with Mr. Kenney to win the
government’s recognition. Furthermore, during the 2004 Armenian Genocide
recognition in the House of Commons, Mr. Kenney was instrumental in securing
Conservative Party’s support for Motion M-380, said Mr. Babikian

Members of the Canadian Parliament, the Senate, the diplomatic corps, the
media and leaders of numerous ethnic communities joined the Armenian
community to celebrate the Genocide recognition milestone and the opening of
the national office. Other guests at the gathering included Bloc Québecois
leader Gilles Duceppe, former federal ministers Irwin Cotler, Stéphane Dion,
Jim Peterson, and MPs Vivian Barbot, Nicole Demers, Raymonde Folco, Gary
Goodyear, Jim Karygiannis, Derek Lee, Yasmin Ratansi, and Bill Siksay.

-30-

The ANCC is the largest and the most influential Canadian-Armenian
grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network of
offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Canada and affiliated
organizations around the world, the ANCC actively advances the concerns of
the Canadian-Armenian community on a broad range of issues.

Regional Chapters
Montréal- Toronto – Laval – Vancouver – Ottawa – Hamilton – Cambridge – St.
Catharines – Windsor

AZERBAIJAN’S MILITARY PREVALENCE IS MYTH

Yerevan, April 28. ArmInfo. In the last years Azerbaijan has been
selling its military prevalence over Armenia – but it is a myth, the
senior research worker of the Institute of World Economy and
International Relations of the Russian Academy of Science Alexander
Krylov said during the international conference Caucasus 2005 in
Yerevan today.

In his report on Azerbaijan Krylov said that in fact Azerbaijan can’t
have such a prevalence as long as Armenia is member of Collective
Security Treaty Organization. Besides, Azerbaijan can’t start a war
because foreign investors don’t want it.

Despite its declared integration into NATO mostly because of the US’
great role in the building of the Azeri navy and the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Azerbaijan is not in the fairway of
the US’ policy. In 2004 Baku and Tehran drastically improved their
relations, the Iranian capital is involved in dozens of joint
projects. In 2005 Azerbaijan’s commodity turnover with Russia exceeded
$1 bln. Turkey is trying to attain this level too but Turkish-Azeri
relations are less profitable economically as Turkey pays for Azeri
fuel in light industry products mostly.

Given the bitter experience of the Kyiv events of late 2004 Russia
refrains from expressing political sympathies in Azerbaijan but
obviously they in the Kremlin consider the Azeri opposition as the
successor of the adventurous policy of Abulfaz Elchibey.