Author: Khoyetsian Rose

SYSTEM OF A DOWN PRESS FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION DURING
THREE-DAY WASHINGTON, DC ADVOCACY TOUR

WASHINGTON, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Serj Tankian and
John Dolmayan of the Grammy Award-winning band System of a Down raised
awareness, garnered national press attention on the Armenian Genocide
and pressed legislators for action on legislation condemning this
crime during their three-day advocacy tour of the nation’s capital,
reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). Among the
highlights of the visit were the following: – An unscheduled meeting
with Speaker Dennis Hastert, during which Serj reminded the Speaker
about the band’s past attempts to arrange a meeting to discuss the
Armenian Genocide, briefed him about their ongoing positive meetings
with legislators, and pointed out that the fate of Armenian Genocide
legislation rested in the Speaker’s hands. The Speaker noted that he
hadn’t looked at the band’s letter yet, but promised to read it. – A
series of strategy meetings with legislators on both the House and
Senate sides of the Capitol. Among those they met with concerning the
adoption of Armenian Genocide legislation were Chief Deputy Whip Eric
Cantor (R-VA), Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO); Congressmen George
Radanovich (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead authors of Armenian
Genocide legislation before the U.S. House; Congressman Frank Pallone
(D-NJ), the Co-Chairman of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, and;
Representatives Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA). – The
opportunity to meet dozens of legislators, including House Rules
Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA), at the ANCA’s annual Armenian
Genocide observance on Capitol Hill on April 26th. This remembrance,
which drew 40 Senators and Representatives, featured the presentation
of the ANCA’s ‘Voice of Justice’ Award to System of a Down. The band
members were joined at this event by David Alpay, the star of Atom
Egoyan’s groundbreaking film on the Armenian Genocide, “Ararat.” – The
first-ever screening, on April 25th, of excerpts from “Screamers,” a
powerful and innovative new film by Carla Garapedian about the band’s
efforts to secure justice for the Armenian Genocide. The film, which
was enthusiastically received by the Capitol Hill audience, was
followed by an extensive question and answer session. – A series of
media interviews, including an April 25th hour-long on-air discussion
about the Armenian Genocide on DC-101’s “Elliot in the Morning” show,
Washington, DC’s leading morning radio program. – Stories about their
advocacy tour appeared in influential publications across Capitol Hill
and around the country, including the Los Angeles Times and the
Gannett News Service. Congressional Quarterly, the highly regarded
weekly publication, ran a story quoting Serj Tankian stressing that,
“for the government to still deny this historical truth is an absolute
travesty.” The Hill, an influential Congressional publication, quoted
John Dolmayan as saying that he would continue his work until Congress
recognizes the genocide: “Even a blade of grass can break through
concrete, and I’d rather be the grass than the concrete.” – Serj and
John both took part in an April 24th anti-denial rally outside the
Turkish Embassy organized by the ANCA and Armenian Youth Federation.
Prominent among the more than 1,000 participants in the rally was
Alecko Eskandarian, star forward of the DC United soccer team.

Ukraine Interested in Building Iran-Armenia Gas Pipeline
EASTBUSINESS.ORG
May 5, 2006 Friday 8:51 AM (Central European Time)
Ukraine is interested in participation in construction of the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, Ukrainian Ambassador to Armenia Alexander
Bozhko told a news conference. According to him, it is important for
Ukraine to have alternative sources of electric power; that is why
Ukraine s interest in the project was shown from the start.
However, for implementing its plans in this sphere Ukraine needs
billions: without financing by European banks participation of our
country in construction of the pipeline is impossible, stressed
the diplomat.
Talking on the issue of gas tariffs, Bozhko noted that the gas issue
is of serious concern both in Armenia and Ukraine. However, I cannot
understand the logic of determining tariffs for Ukraine and Moldova,
which is much farther from Russia than our country is, noted Bozhko.
According to him, decision of the Armenian government on transferring
the fifth energy unit of the Hrazdan TPP was a forced measure, and
the government should be held accountable for it, reports Panorama.am.

DO THEY WANT TO HIDE REASONS FOR A-320 CRASH
Panorama.am
14:43 06/05/06
Renown pilot, the former head of the Armenian Civil Aviation Dmitry
Adbashyan is sure that “black box” recorders will be taken out of the
sea today because many parties are interested in that, particularly
the French Airbus is willing to prove that A-320 is not to be blamed
in the accident. Adbashyan says this uncertain situation is in the
interest of Georgians who try to politicize the issue.
The former head thinks those who say that black boxes may be damaged
in the sea only try to close the case.
“The recorders are made of very firm metal. They record all the
information in the airplane. They also provide data on the speed level,
height, etc. They are not damaged even under 1100 Celsius heat and
can stay under water for one month,” he said.

A320 BROKE TO PIECES
Lragir.am
5 May 06
On Friday the first funerals of the victims of A320 took place in
Yerevan and Sochi. On May 5 200 relatives of victims went to the sea
and laid 113 wreaths in the place where the plane had plunged into
the sea. By May 5 53 bodies of 113 passengers of the plane have been
found, only 41 have been identified. There are bodies that cannot
be identified. The parts of bodies will be taken to Rostov for a
histological study. The operational headquarter says it is possible
that the Armenian plane broke to small pieces, because so far the
rescuers have found small parts only. Another fact, supporting this
assumption is that the rescuers have found a lot of seats. “These are
in the fuselage of the plane, and if it remained whole, the seats would
not get dispersed,” said an officer of the operational headquarters
to the reporter of RIA Novosti. This anonymous officer also reported
that numerous small parts of the plane were found near the place where
the black boxes are supposed to lie at a depth of 680 meters. So far,
only 10 percent of the plane has been taken out of water. The search
for the bodies of victims is continuing. The rescuers are working
close to the coast, for the waves may carry the bodies close to the
coast. Parts of bodies and the plane were found 250 meters from the
coast. Although the French and Russian experts promised to go all the
way to find the bodies of victims, they say the bodies decay more
quickly at great depths and in a carbohydrate environment, and day
by day it is becoming impossible to find and identify the bodies.

REGIONAL OIL SUMMIT OPENS IN SERBIA’S NOVI SAD
Radio B92 text website, Belgrade
4 May 06
Novi Sad, 4 May: A two-day summit of international oil companies has
begun in Vojvodina. The fuel companies make up the Scout Group for
East and Central Europe. According to a statement from the Serbian
Oil Industry (NIS), companies from 21 countries will be participating
in the summit, including Shell, [Hungary’s] MOL, [Austria’s] OMV
and others.
NIS has announced that some of the most important projects which are
currently being realized by the companies would be presented at the
summit, adding that these meetings would enable Serbia to establish
greater business contacts and more direct forms of cooperation with
these companies.
The Scout Group for East and Central Europe encourages cooperation
and the voluntary exchange of correct and timely information regarding
the research and production of oil in regional countries, and offers
business-related cooperation between members of the group.
The group was founded in 1993 and includes oil companies from Albania,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic,
Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland,
Romania, Russia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine and
Serbia-Montenegro.

KIN ON HAND TO ID RUSSIAN CRASH VICTIMS
By Mike Eckel
phillyBurbs.com, PA
May 4 2006
SOCHI, Russia – Searchers combed the waters off a Russian resort city
Thursday, looking for bodies and a flight recorder from an Armenian
passenger jet that slammed into the Black Sea in bad weather and
disintegrated, killing all 113 people on board.
Anguished relatives and friends gathered at a central hotel and a
city morgue, where many stared ashen-faced at grotesquely disfigured
faces and bodies appearing in coroners’ photographs.
The photos were posted on a nearly 6-foot-high wooden board in the
courtyard. Forensic authorities emerged from the building periodically
asking if anyone had recognized a person in the photographs.
Fifty-three bodies had been recovered so far, of which just 28 were
identified, Transport Minister Igor Levitin said. The plane was
traveling to Sochi from the Armenian capital, Yerevan, and most of
the passengers were Armenian.
President Vladimir Putin told chief prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov in
televised comments to work fast to determine the cause of the crash,
but acknowledged it would be difficult without flight recorders.
Levitin told reporters 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 Russian news agencies later quoted
an emergency official as saying signals from a second “black box”
were detected nearby.
But Levitin said the debris lay in some 2,230 feet of water, and that
Russian authorities did not have the equipment to raise the wreckage.
“We will turn to other countries that have the experience in raising
objects from the depths,” he said.
The Airbus A-320 plunged into the sea in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday
in heavy rain and poor visibility as it approached the airport in
Adler, about 12 miles south of Sochi, a city wedged between the sea
and soaring, snowcapped mountains. Searchers found wreckage spread
over a wide area about 3 1/2 miles offshore.
Federal prosecutors dismissed the possibility of terrorism, and
other officials pointed to the rough weather or pilot error as the
likely cause.
The head of the Georgian air control agency, which covered 90 percent
of the Armavia jet’s final flight, said the crew had begun to return
to Yerevan because of weather conditions around Sochi. But when it
was over the western Georgian city of Kutaisi, Russian air controllers
announced that the weather at the Adler airport had improved.
“And since they had enough fuel, the pilot decided to fly back
to Adler,” Georgian agency chief Georgy Karbelashvili told The
Associated Press.
The Interfax news agency, citing an unidentified official in
the Russian commission investigating the disaster, said there was
information indicating the crew was informed just three to four miles
from the runway, when the plane was at an altitude of about 1,000 feet,
that landing was “not recommended.” The official said the plane was
turning back when it hit the water.
The president of the Armenian Aviation Association, former pilot Dmitry
Adbashian, said in Yerevan that Sochi’s airport is difficult because
of limited approaches and fickle weather, and that rules established
in the Soviet era prohibited inexperienced pilots from landing there.
He told the AP it is impossible for a plane that is less than 2
1/2 miles out and lower than 650 feet to pull back and start a new
approach.

SOCHI’S ARMENIAN DIASPORA WEEPS
By Carl Schreck
Staff Writer
The Moscow Times, Russia
May 4 2006
Pavel Yeremyan, left, Vram Cholokyan, center, and an unidentified
man lamenting the crash Thursday near Sochi.
SOCHI — Pavel Yeremyan had been drinking and smoking cheap Yava
cigarettes for hours.
“This is a terrible tragedy for us,” Yeremyan, a subsistence farmer,
said Thursday of the Armenian airliner that went down a day earlier
off the coast of this Black Sea town.
The crash killed all 113 people on board and has left the local
Armenian community stunned. With 125,000 ethnic Armenians in Sochi,
out of a total of 400,000 people, the community is one of the largest
in the country.
In Yeremyan’s village of Baranovka, like many of the 20 mostly
Armenian villages in the hills above Sochi, you don’t have to look
far to find people who knew someone, or knew someone who knew someone,
on the late-night flight from Yerevan.
“The young woman who lived in that house was on the plane,” said
Yeremyan’s friend, 69-year-old Vram Cholokyan, who wheezed as he
pointed to a two-story, white concrete house. “She was about 22 and
had a young child. I saw them walking around here just before Easter.”
Both Yeremyan and Cholokyan have lived in the village their entire
lives. Their families came here in the early part of the last century
to flee the Turks. Today, they live off the fruits and vegetables
they grow on small plots of land. Whatever they don’t eat is sold at
market, Cholokyan explained in a raspy, almost inaudible voice.
Grach Makeyan, deputy head of the Sochi branch of the Union of
Armenians in Russia, said only 26 of those who died in the plane
crash were permanent Sochi Armenians. Most of the victims, he said,
were among the seasonal workers who come to Sochi from Armenia for
the vacation season, which lasts until November.
“But we’re all Armenians, even if we’re not relatives,” Makeyan said
in his office at the Kamelia Hotel. “There aren’t that many of us, so
almost everybody knows somebody who died, even if indirectly through
friends or neighbors. We are all in mourning. This will be a very,
very difficult time.”
A priest from Sochi’s Holy Cross Armenian Church, known to all
simply as Father Komitas, said all the Armenians in the community
felt personally affected by the crash.
“Around 70 of the victims were citizens of Armenia and didn’t have
relatives here,” Father Komitas, 38, said Thursday in his cramped
office decorated with his own sculptures and drawings. “But this
terrible tragedy is all of ours.”
Makeyan noted that a close friend of his had invited several of the
people on Wednesday’s flight for a birthday celebration.
“Genocide, the war in Karabakh, the earthquake, and now this,”
Makeyan said. “Every time we get our heads just above the water,
something like this happens. But we will stick together. Armenians
are the people most capable of enduring tragedy after tragedy.”
Because of their heavy smoking and poor diet, Armenian men tend to
age rapidly. Many in their thirties look twenty years older.
Lev Dashchyan, 28, a cab driver from Sochi’s Adler district, home to
about 80,000 ethnic Armenians, said war, natural disaster — and now
the plane crash — had exacerbated local Armenians’ plight.
“My father-in-law’s friend lost his wife and children in the
earthquake,” Dashchyan said, referring to the 1998 Spitak disaster.
“They never even found the bodies. Then he remarried, and his new wife
and child died in the plane crash. He has suffered a lot. He’s 55,
but looks like he’s 70.”
Dashchyan belongs to the Hamshen Armenian community. His ancestors,
Makeyan said, fled across the Black Sea from Turkey to settle in
the Krasnodar region and Abkhazia in the early 19th century. Hamshen
Armenians comprise most of Sochi’s Armenian population; while they
speak an old dialect featuring many Turkish words, they are close to
other Armenians.
Komitas looking at a photo album.
“Sometimes we have a difficult time understanding each other because of
our different dialects,” Karina Mardvitskaya, 37, a Hamshen Armenian
and a florist, said of her friend, non-Hamshen Armenian Violeta
Muratyan, who tends the bar at an outdoor cafe on Kurortny Prospekt,
Sochi’s main drag.
Mardvitskaya, a Sochi native, and Muratyan, who came to Sochi from
Stavropol three years ago to find work, said Wednesday evening that
they had been frantically calling friends to find out if anyone they
knew had been killed in the plane crash.
“I was on the phone all day,” Muratyan said. “Everyone was calling
trying to figure out who had heard what. Luckily, no one close to me
was on the plane.”
But Muratyan said a young Armenian woman who frequented the cafe had
apparently died in the crash.
“Some customers came in today and told me she was on the plane,”
Muratyan said. “I remember her face clearly. She must have been
around 21.”
Other Armenians spent the better part of Thursday finding out that
people who had been a part of their lives for years were now gone.
Flipping through a photo album, Father Komitas turned to a group
picture of several of his congregants, pointing to a middle-aged
blonde woman.
“She came to church regularly,” he said of the woman, who had been
on the flight. “It’s important now that we find the bodies so they
can be put to rest, hopefully in Armenia, in their homeland.”

ARMENIAN CIVIL AVIATION AGENCY GIVES DETAILS OF A-320 AIRBUS CRASH NEAR SOCHI
Regnum, Russia
May 3 2006
105 passengers and 8 crew members, including 77 Armenian citizens and
28 Russian citizens, were aboard the A-320 plane belonging to Armavia
that crashed in the Black Sea, Head of the Armenian Civil Aviation
Department Artyom Movsisyan has announce while speaking on May 3 after
an extraordinary session with the Armenian president on the crash.
Movsisyan is quoted as saying by a REGNUM correspondent that the airbus
departed from Yerevan at 01:47 a.m. local time. Because of bad weather
conditions the captain decided to fly back to Zvartnots Airport
in Yerevan, however air traffic control of Adler Airport through
Georgian colleagues conveyed information that weather conditions
permitted landing. The airbus tried to land again, but because of low
visibility the captain decided to start a missed approach procedure. At
03:35 a.m. Yerevan time the aircraft disappeared from radar screens,
some time later alarm was announced.
Russian navy and coastal guard found out that the crash occurred in
a 5 km distance from Sochi coast, the information was submitted to
the Armenian authorities.
As Movsisyan said, the airbus (hull No 32009, 1995) was subjected
to renewal and examination. The plane was insured. Right before
departure from Yerevan experts from Sabina Technics Company gave a
positive conclusion about technical conditions of the airbus.
According to Movsisyan, the plane was filled up with 10 tons of fuel,
and for a flight to Sochi only 3.5 tons were enough. At present
moment, the Armenian Civil Aviation Department and Armavia have
established operative headquarters to investigate details of the
crash. As Movsisyan noted, the investigation will be carried out by
Russian agencies in charge.

113 KILLED IN BLACK SEA PLANE CRASH
Guardian Unlimited
Press Association
Wednesday May 3, 2006 6:28 AM
An Armenian passenger jet crashed in bad weather off the Black Sea
coast while trying to make an emergency landing in Russia, killing
all 113 people aboard.
The Airbus A-320, which belonged to the Armenian airline Armavia,
disappeared from radar screens late on Tuesday night, about 3.7 miles
from the shore, and crashed after making a turn and heading toward
Adler airport, near the city of Sochi, Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman
for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, said.
The ministry’s southern regional branch said all 113 people aboard
the plane, including five children, were killed.
Wreckage from the plane was found not far from the shoreline,
Beltsov said. Search and rescue teams have pulled 11 bodies from
the water. Boats and divers were involved in the search, which was
hampered by rough seas and driving rain.
The plane disappeared from radar screens during a flight from
Yerevan to Sochi, a resort city on the Black Sea in southern Russia,
Beltsov said.
He said the plane went down while trying to make a repeat attempt at
an emergency landing.
The Armavia representative said the crew had communicated with Sochi
ground controllers while the plane was flying over the Georgian
capital, Tbilisi.
The controllers said there were poor weather conditions but the plane
could still land, according to the representative.
But just before the landing, they told the crew to make another circle
in the air before approaching the airport. Then the plane crashed.
He said weather conditions were “certainly” the cause.

THIRD ROUND OF EU-ARMENIA NEGOTIATIONS TO START MAY 3 IN YEREVAN
ArmRadio.am
02.05.2006 16:06
May 3 the third round of negotiations on elaboration of the EU-Armenia
Actions Plan in the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy
will be held in Yerevan.
Representatives of interested agencies of the Republic of Armenia
and the European Commission will participate in the negotiations. RA
delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Armen Bayburdyan, the
European delegation is leaded by European Commission Director on Issues
of Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia Hugues Mingarelly.
The points not agreed upon during the previous round are going to
be discussed.