Author: Khondkarian Raffi

The place of holding matches between national football teams of
Armenia and Azerbaijan to be determined today

ArmRadio.am
12.05.2006 10:30
At a special meeting in Nion, Switzerland, Heads of Football
Federations of Armenia and Azerbaijan will decide today the place of
holding qualification matches of the 2008 European Championship
between national teams of the two countries.
The Armenian delegation comprises President of the Football Federation
of Armenia Ruben Hayrapetyan, Executive Director Armen Minasyan and
Plenipotentiary Representative of RA President and Government,
President of the Public Radio and Television Council Alexan
Harutyunyan.

COE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SESSION’S AGENDA ANNOUNCED
Today, Azerbaijan
May 11 2006
Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and
Vardan Oskanyan will attend the 116th session of the Council of
Europe Committee of Foreign Ministers scheduled for 18 and 19 May
in Strasbourg.
Human rights and cooperation between the Council of Europe and the
European Union will be priority on the agenda. The Russian Federation
will take over the presidency of the Committee of Ministers from
Romania, for a period of six months.
At the invitation of Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis,
the Ministers will hold an informal meeting with Martti Ahtisaari,
the United Nations Special Envoy for the future status of Kosovo.
The Ministers will also discuss other major priorities resulting
from the Council of Europe’s Third Summit in Warsaw, namely: the
reinforcement of the Council’s action in support of democracy and
good governance, the development of intercultural dialogue and the
Organisations process of internal reform.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will present the priorities
for his presidency at the end of the session.
Within the session, Elmar Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanyan will hold
next round of negotiating process for the settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict in the framework of the Prague process.
The Ministers will exchange views on new opinions OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs presented to the conflicting sides in early May. It will be
determined after the meeting of the two Ministers whether there will
be a need for the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents,
APA reports.
URL:

“ORINATS YERKIR” PARTY WITHDRAWS FROM RULING COALITION OF ARMENIA
Yerevan, May 12. ArmInfo. Thursday, 10:30 PM, “Orinats Yerkir”
Party Board resolved to withdraw from the country’s ruling political
coalition.
In addition, the “OY” Board adopted a decision on resignation of “OY”
Leader, Parliamentary Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan from his post.
Arthur Baghdasaryan intends to made public the party’s decision today
at 2:00 PM. Sources close to the party report that approximately an
hour before the party meeting yesterday, A. Baghdasaryan met with
President Robert Kocharyan and then convened immediate meeting of
the party Board.
To recap, 10 big businessman-members of the “OY” parliamentary faction
have recently left the party. The party representatives connected the
developments around the party with a certain pressure by the ruling
circles that are dissatisfied with the recent harsh statements by
Arthur Baghdasaryan as well as with his criticism of the privatization
program 2001-2003. At present the most probable nominees to the
post of the parliamentary speaker are considered Karen Karapetyan,
the head of deputy group “People’s Deputy,” Vahan Hovhannissyan, Vice
Speaker a member of ARFD Bureau, Tigran Torosyan, Vice Speaker, Vice
Chairman of RPA. To note, the ruling coalition of Armenia comprises
the Republican Party of Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and “OY.” It
was formed immediately after the parliamentary election in 2003.

TRANSFERS OF SYUNIK CUSTOMS-HOUSE TO STATE BUDGET INCREASE BY 207 MLN DRAMS IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2006 ON SAME PERIOD OF LAST YEAR
Noyan Tapan
May 11 2006
KAPAN, MAY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Considerable work was done both at the
Syunik regional customs-house and the Agarak customs point in recent
months. Borik Sargsian, Head of Syunik regional customs-house of
the State Customs Committee adjunct to the RA government, said this
during an interview to the newspaper “Syunats Erkir”. According
to him, particularly the customs-house in Agarak underwent major
repairs, including the putting into operation a 5 thousand sq.m
area of examination zone, as well as the separation of passenger
and cargo spaces and rooms of frontier guards and passport service
employees. Besides, 100-ton capacity electronic scales were
installed. B. Sargsian said that in the first quarter of 2006,
VAT and customs duties of 2 bln 40 thousand drams (about 4.4 mln
USD) were transferred to the state budget, which exceeds by 207 mln
drams the index of the same period of last year. At the same time,
a growth in exports was registered. In the first quarter of 2005,
goods of the total amount of 4 bln 895 drams were exported, while in
the same period of this year, exports amounted to 6 bln 910 mln drams.

NUMBER OF BIRTHS INCREASES IN HRAZDAN REGION
Noyan Tapan
May 10 2006
HRAZDAN, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. According to data of the Hrazdan
Territorial Department on Civil Status Acts Registration, 755 births,
473 cases of death, 293 marriages and 42 divorces were registered
in 2005 in city communities of Hranzdan, Tsaghkadzor and rural
communities of the region. 207 births, 64 marriages and 9 divorces
were registered in the above-mentioned settlements during the first
quarter of 2006. Those indexes made correspondingly 178 births,
80 marriages and 4 divorces during the same period of time of the
previous year. 140 certificates were given by the Hrazdan Territorial
Department for Civil Status Acts Registration during four months of
the last year. 120 of those were given to young people to register
their marriage in other countries.

AAA TO ARMENIA IN DEMINING WORK
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
May 10 2006
YEREVAN, May 10. /ARKA/. Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) intends
to render assistance in mine-clearance in Armenia. With this end
in view, the AAA initiates an action to raise $100,000 to purchase
sniffer dogs to be involved in US Department of State’s mine-clearance
program in Armenia.
At the organization’s annual meeting in Washington, Annie Totah,
a member of the Board of Directors, “Marshall Legacy Institute”
(MLI) said that everything possible will be done to clear Armenia’s
soil of explosives that kill people and animals every year.
MLI is a non-profit organization training mine-detector dogs and
providing information on mines. The MLI implements programs in two
directions: Children Against Mines Programand 9 Demining Corps.

MINUTE OF SILENCE TO BE PROCLAIMED AT 6 P.M.
ArmRadio.am
06.05.2006 10:33
The state flags in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh will stay lowered
today. At 18.00 sharp a minute of silence will be proclaimed in the
Republic, following which a memorial service, leaded by the Catholicos
of All Armenians Garegin II, will be held in the Mother Church of
St. Grigor Lusavorich.

MATERIALS ON CRASHED AIRLINER TO BE EXAMINED FIRST BEFORE THINKING ON FURTHER ACTIONS PM SAYS
Panorama.am
14:27 05/05/06
Armenian Prosecutor’s Office is in charge of 95 % of information
possessed by Georgian ground controllers.
However, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan refused to make
early judgments. “Let’s wait a few days to come to right conclusions,”
he said. According to him the technical examination will unveil
everything.
Earlier reports say that the Defense Minister, Armenian-Russian
intergovernmental committee co-chairman, rescue service head
and several other officials are still in Sochi. Present are also
representatives of our prosecutor’s office who are there to investigate
the case.
According to Andranik Margaryan, Georgian side is willing to provide
the necessary information and have done so for about 95%. At this
moment, the prosecutor’s office needs to examine the materials before
taking any other steps, he said.
Both Russian and Georgian sides are effectively responding to our
needs, Andranik Margaryan said.
Interested is also the French side willing to prove that its airliner
was technically equipped.

THE FIRST BODIES WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO ARMENIA TONIGHT
A1+
[03:47 pm] 04 May, 2006
20 – 30 bodies will be transported from Sochi to Armenia at 22:00
tonight. According to the latest data, 20 bodies have already been
recognized by the relatives.
Today the RA Government decided to allocate 1.5 million AMD to the
families of each victim. Foreigners will not receive any help,
as the RF Government decided to show assistance to the families
of their citizens. After the governmental session Minister of
Regional Government Hovik Abrahamyan announced they are ready to give
transportation and material support to those Armenia citizens who would
like to transport their relatives’ bodies and bury them in Armenia,
regardless of the Russian humanity.
There are already good coffins at the airport, and people can take them
out of charge. Soon the Government will open a bank account to help the
families of innocent victims. Hovik Abrahamyan who is also the head
of the committee engaged in eliminating the air crash consequences,
informed the journalists that many businessmen already expressed their
readiness to shoulder the victims’ families. According to their data,
there are 300 Armenian citizens in Sochi who arrived from Armenia,
10 rescuers are involved in searching and so far they have countered
no technical problems. The Minister didn’t comment on the possible
causes of the air crash.

GEORGIA TO GIVE ARMENIA RECORDING OF CONVERSATIONS WITH CREW OF CRASHED PLANE
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 04 2006
TBILISI, MAY 4, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On May 4, the
Georgaeronavigation company will give the Armenian side the recording
of the conversation between the crew of the Armenian plane crashed in
the Black Sea and Georgian flying control officers. Company Director
Georgi Karbelashvili reported this to radio Liberty. “In essence,
the Georgian flying control officers have the whole recording of
the plane’s flight with the exception of the last 5-10 minutes when
the plane disappeared from the radars’ screens. But until 4:00 pm
by Yerevan’s time no one had applied to the Georgian side with the
request to get this recording,” the company director said. “We did
not publicize any information. But when the Russian media started to
give some information, we got in touch with the Armenian Ambassador
to Georgia, Armenian Deputy of Georgian Parliament Van Bayburd,
convened a press conference. We are guided by international laws
and rules. According to them, all countries that take part in the
implementation of the flight give the information they have. The
Russian side cannot carry on an investigation without Georgia and
Armenia,” Karbelashvili emphasized. The company director was especially
surprised at the circumstance that Russia has formed an investigation
group but has not taken any step in the direction of receiving this
important imformation from the Georgian side. “We do not say who is to
blame. It is not our business. We only say that we have an important
information: the recording of 90% of the flight that can be useful
for finding out the reasons of the crash,” Karbelashvili declared.
“If you listen to the recording, the flying control officers of Rostov
make very unpleasant expressions there, but now I do not want to speak
about it, let your ambassador decide whether it is worth publishing
them,” Georgi Karbelashvili said without going into the details of
what he meant.