Author: Kamalian Hagop

PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OBSERVED IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Mar 29 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 29, NOYAN TAPAN. A solar eclipse was observed from
Bratislava to Mongolia on March 29. The total solar eclipse was
possible to watch in Russia and Georgia. In Armenia, a partial solar
eclipse started at 3:02 pm and reached its maximum extent at about
4:20 pm, when 91.2% of the sun’s disc was covered. By 5:30 pm, the
eclipse was completed. To recap, a partial solar eclipse of about 90%
was also observed in Arnmenia in August 1999.

ALIYEV: ARMENIANS WERE MOVED TO AZERBAIJAN TERRITORY FROM IRAN AND TURKEY IN 20TH CENTURY

Regnum, Russia
March 29 2006

“Armenian nationalistic policy of genocide and aggression against
Azerbaijan people is 200 years old,” is said in President Ilham
Aliyev’s address to Azerbaijani people on the occasion of March
31 – Day of the Azeri Genocide, published by press office of the
presidential administration. Aliyev continues: “Such policy is aimed
at expatriating of Azerbaijanis and establishing Great Armenia in
their native territories, invented by Armenian ideologists”.

The president stresses, “history of Azeri people was boldly falsified,
and its historical and cultural sights, as well as place-names
became objects of open aggression of Armenian historians and so
called ideologists”. “To achieve the aim, they mobilized Armenian
lobby and Diaspora, founding ‘national-cultural’, political, and
even terrorist organizations. Resettlement of Armenians from Iran
and Ottoman Empire into native Azerbaijan territories – Karabakh and
Zangezur at the beginning of 20th century, followed by forced changing
of demographic situation, mass murders of Azerbaijanis in 1905 and
1918, aimed at threatening and expatriation of native population,
transfer of Zangezur to Armenia in 1920, granting to Nagorno Karabakh
status of Autonomous Region, resettlement of hundreds of thousands
of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, in accordance with decision of USSR
leadership, in 1948-1953, are bloody pages of Azeris’ deportation
from native territories. In 1988, Armenian nationalists, stirred up
by foreign forces, waged open actions, aimed at tearing away Nagorno
Karabakh from Azerbaijan and its further joining Armenia. The conflict
resulted in occupation of Nagorno Karabakh and neighboring areas. Over
one million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and forced migrants. Dozens
of thousands of people died,” is said in the presidential address.

Further, Aliyev stresses: “Armenian chauvinists’ aggression against
Azerbaijan has been continuing till now. And it is not completed
list of Armenian nationalists’ crimes. Policy of Armenia and its
protectors is doomed to failure, because the line sharply differs
from leading tendencies of international policy.” “We need solution
of Armenian-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict in accordance
with international law, in the framework of acceptable variants. We
demand to guarantee Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, and to create
conditions for returning home forced migrants. Aggressive policy
debars Armenia from all regional projects. We advocate restoration of
historical justice, calling to account persons, pursuing policy of
occupation and genocide, before international community. I am sure,
national unity and purposeful policy will result in indispensable
achievement of proclaimed aims, and denunciation of all those,
who dooms peoples to eternal hostility and isolation,” Ilham Aliyev
finishes his address to Azerbaijan people.

PRESENTATION OF THIRD EDITION OF STATISTICAL BROCHURE TITLED WOMEN AND MEN OF ARMENIA TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 27 2006

YEREVAN, March 27. /ARKA/. Presentation of the third edition of
statistical brochure titled Women and Men of Armenia is to be
held Tuesday in Yerevan. UNDP Yerevan Office told ARKA News Agency
that the book contains information about expected life interval,
average age of contracting a marriage, the number of abortions,
reproductive performance coefficient and the most widespread names
given to newborns.

GALUST SAHAKIAN: PARLIAMENTARIES DON’T INTEND TO CHANGE RULES OF PLAY
IN PRE-ELECTORAL YEAR

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, NOYAN TAPAN. No change will be made during the
current year in the NA regulations-law concerning broadcasting of
programs covering works of the Parliament. As Galust Sahakian, the
head of the “RPA” faction informed the Noyan Tapan correspodent, a
decision about this was made in the consultation of heads of the
factions and the group, where the proposal of Alexan Haroutiunian, the
Chairman of the Public Television and Radio Company Council was
discussed. To recap, the latter proposed to liquidate the demand fixed
by the NA regulations-law concerning broadcasting of programs and to
implement broadcasting based on an agreement to be signed between the
Parliament and Council. According to G.Sahakain, A.Haroutiunian’s
proposal is acceptable for himself, but not in the current
pre-electoral year. In his opinion, the Parliament of the next
convention may discuss the problem in future. It’s unequivocal for the
deputy that an independent, balanced covering of the Parliament must
be secured. It’s also obvious that “recently covering is made
one-sided political what isn’t just acceptable for any politician, and
there are gossips among the society as well.” According to the deputy,
the “Parliamentary Week” program prepared by skillful specialists of
the NA Public Relations Department “is censored.” According to him,
censorship existed in the past as well, but it’s “rather emphasized
recently. 25-40 minutes of the time envisaged for the program “have
some trend, thus, a party play takes place.” But even in these
conditions, G.Sahakian isn’t for changing the rules of the play now,
especially, as the opposition observes the proposal of the Chairman of
the Public Television and Radio Company Council as an initiative
addressed against it and possible limitation of the 3 minutes speeches
broadcast compulsory at present.

ALEXAN HAROUTIUNIAN EXCLUDES RECALL OF ANDRE’S SONG “WITHOUT YOU” FROM
“EUROVISION” MUSICAL CONTEST

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Alexan Haroutiunian,
Chairman of the Council of the Armenian Public TV and Radio Company,
excludes recall of Andre’s song “Without You” from the “Eurovision”
international musical contest. He explained in his interview to Noyan
Tapan correspondent that it’s the Public Television that has received
the invitation to take part in the contest. “The decisions are made by
those who have chosen the song, who have chosen the show. The opinions
of the others maybe are interesting but can have no impact on the
decision”. Alexan Haroutiunian emphasized that the song was composed
by the best composer of the sphere Armen Martirosian and the
instrumentation was made by Ara Torosian: “For me, they are the
standards. I think the European experts’ opinions and indices of
Internet voting from different countries at the moment show that the
choice of the song is right”.

A.Haroutiunian also mentioned that the public has seen only the clip
prepared for Armenia and hasn’t seen the show yet and doesn’t know
what there will be on the stage. “I have already seen what is prepared
for the stage. This work was done by a world-famous person whose name
will be made public later. All this was done beyond the limits of
Armenia, with participation of the best dancers. I think that
everything to be shown, in any case, won’t make us blush”, the Public
Television Chairman emphasized. He said that the song was also
positively estimated by such authoritative local musicians and experts
as Yervand Yerznkian, Artur Grigorian, as well as singers of the genre
Nune Yesayan, Hayko and others.

PanARMENIAN.Net

BBC: Turkey-EU Talks May Be Suspended in Autumn 2006

22.03.2006 21:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Turkey-EU talks may be suspended in autumn
2006. Unless Turkey opens its ports it will fail a review of its
compliance with the customs union and its bilateral relations with
other member states, due this autumn. Most EU diplomats and
politicians do not want talks with Turkey to collapse in acrimony.

They do want to see Turkey open its ports to Greek Cypriot vessels,
but they also want moves to resolve the Cyprus problem. But the
Cypriots have much more bargaining power vis-a-vis Turkey now they are
inside the EU, and the other EU member states much less leverage over
them. Some diplomats worry that the Cypriot strategy is to
“Europeanise” the Cyprus dispute, moving the dispute away from a UN
framework where compromise is inevitable. Meanwhile, diplomats are
searching for possible moves on northern Cyprus that could encourage
the Turks to open their ports, says BBC.

NO BIRD FLU PATHOGEN IN ARMENIA YET

Panorama.am
17:13 21/03/06

Today President Robert Kocharyan had a meeting with Minister of
Agriculture David Lokhyan. Firs of all, the President was interested
in questions concerning bird flu.

As it has been informed in President’s Press Service the Agriculture
Minister has introduces the final results of examinations of Armenian
as well as US experts according to which there is no bird flu pathogen
in Armenia yet. The question of establishing small and medium recycling
enterprises has also been discussed. The President ordered to pass
the process about that in the future. Robert Kocharyan also said that
they should support recycling enterprises giving them opportunity to
get credits at low interests.

The President was interested in planting works, irrigation system,
whether the fertilizers are enough as well as in questions of
importation of new agriculture technical equipment.

SAMTSKHE – JAVAKHK ROADS TO BE GERMAN

Panorama.am
12:22 21/03/06

Georgian organization “Millennium War calls Fund” has spread
information about the grant given to Georgia for repairing
Samtskhe-Javakhk roads in the scopes of US governmental program
“Millennium War Calls”.

As “A-info” informs on February 10, 2006 an agreement was signed
with German company “Kocks Consult” which is going to carry out the
preliminary examination of the roads to be rebuilt and prepare the
final project.

This preparatory stage is going to cost 3.196 million USD.

As it had been announced beforehand most part of the roads
to be repaired runs through Samtskhe-Javakhk and Kvemo Kartly
territories. The repair works of 245 km of road will begin in 2007. It
is expected that all the repair works will be finished by 2010. And
before that, temporary roads will be opened not to impede the traffic.

The parts to be built are: 1) Teletty – Koda and Manglisi – Tsalka
2) Tsalka – Ninotsminda 3) Akhalkalak – Ninitsminda and border with
Armenia 4) Akhalkalak – Turkish border 5) Khertvisi – Vardzia

The selection of the companied to carry out the repair works will be
held by an open, competitive, international tender.

RAISE OF GAS PRICE WILL CAUSE INSIGNIFICANT INCREASE OF ENERGY TARIFFS (ARMENIA)

Regnum, Russia
March 21 2006

Increase of natural gas price will cause insignificant increase of
energy tariffs for domestic users, only on $0.8 or 15%, stated Deputy
Head of Public Services Regulation committee of Armenia Nikolai
Grigoryan on March 21. He said that Armenian power plants produce
only 25% of the country’s energy, so raise of cost price will not
lead to serious increase of gas price for the population.

As a REGNUM correspondent informs, Grigoryan noted that Hrazdan power
plant already presented its application in the committee that must be
considered before June. And because Hrazdan and Yerevan power plants
will suffer losses, the committee will revise energy tariff in the
beginning of 2007.

In his turn, MP Manuk Gasparyan said that Hrazdan power plant is
Russian property, and Armenia must cease using its energy. “They
can export their energy to Georgia, Iran, but we don’t need such
expensive energy,” he said. According to Gasparyan, Russia must
modernize Hrazdan power plant to lower the price.

It should be notes, that Hrazdan power plant has been transferred to
Russia in the framework of an Armenian-Russian inter-governmental
agreement on Armenian debts repayment. Russia bought Hrazdan power
plant for $31. It is the only way to supply energy from Armenia
to Georgia.

DWELLING FOR NKR OFFICERS

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
March 21 2006

March 20 delivery in usage of two twelve-flat houses for the officers
of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Defense Army took place. The NKR
President Arkady Ghoukasyan, Prime Minister Anoushavan Danielyan, the
Republic Security Council Secretary Karen Baburyan, Minister of Defense
Seyran Ohanyan and other officials participated in the solemn ceremony.

Presenting the servicemen with the orders for the new flats Arkady
Ghoukasyan noted, in part: “I believe we must pursue the policy.

Civil authorities and army together try to settle the tasks,
the solution of which will enable our officers to fulfill their
professional duties under calmer conditions”.

Talking to journalists Arkady Ghoukasyan again mentioned the
necessity of improving social position of the NKR Defense Army Staff
Officers. “Providing an officer with normal living conditions we
resolve a strategic task as well”, stressed the Head of the Republic.

The NKR leadership goes on undertaking measures on providing the
families of the perished and invalids of the Karabakh war with
dwellings.

At present over 400 officers of the Karabakh army are provided with
new flats. For this purpose 1 milliard 200 million drams have been
allocated by the Republic state budget in 2006 versus 750 million
last year.