Author: Madatian Greg

ARMENIAN CHESS-PLAYERS STRENGTHEN THEIR POSITIONS

Noyan Tapan
May 31 2006

TURIN, MAY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. In the 8th tour of the chess world olympiad
being held in Turin the Armenian men’s national team defeated the Cuba
national team with a score of 3 to 1 and strengthened its leading
positions. Vladimir Hakobian and Gabriel Sargsian defeated their
rivals and Levon Aronian and Karen Asrian drew their games. After this
victory the Armenian national team has gained 24 points and remains
in the lead. The national teams of Russia and the Ukraine take the
2-3rd places with 22 points each. In the 8th tour the Armenian women’s
national team defeated the team of India with a score of 2 to 1.

Lilit Mkrtchian and Elina Danielian defeated their rivals and Suranoush
Andreasian lost the game. The Armenian women chess-players share the
9-11th places with 15.5 points. The women’s national teams of Russia
(19 points), the Ukraine (18.5) and the U.S.(17) are in the lead.

YEREVAN BRANDY COMPANY RESUMED DELIVERIES OF BRANDY TO RUSSIA

Yerevan, May 29. ArmInfo. Started today, the Yerevan Brandy Company
(YBC) has resumed deliveries of brandy to Russia, which were stopped
since the beginning, 2006, because-of introduction of new excise marks
by Russia, ArmInfo was told in the YBC.

According to the source data, the first batches of brandy are already
dispatched to Russia. As the YBC Director General Herve Caroff told
ArmInfo, the Company did not suffer much financially from the
temporary delay of deliveries.

“We knew about the change of excise marks in Russia beforehand and
could prepare for it with our Russian partner. I don’t think there was
a deficit of Ararat brandy in Russia”, Caroff said. According to him,
the YBC increased sales volume in 2005 by 10% to 4,4 mln l of brandy
against 4 mln l in 2004. About 75% of sales falls on Russian
market. To be noted, the YBC is the biggest supplier of the alcohol
production to Russia.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Fascism and Xenophobia Issues More Acute in Russia, than Other CE
Countries

30.05.2006 14:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The issues of fascism and xenophobia are, of course,
more acute in Russia, than in other CE member countries, said Head of
the International Committee of the Russian State Duma Constantine
Kosachev. In his words, it is necessary to pay attention to
conclusions of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(ECRI) and «challenge it in no circumstances.» «It is hard to deny
that xenophobia, extremism and nationalism problems are urgent for
Russia. Solving nationalism and xenophobia problems is in our interest
first of all,» said Kosachev.

In his turn, Secretary General of the Union of Journalists of Russia
Igor Yakovekno supposes that European Commission calls should be
addressed to the executive and law-enforcement bodies first of all. In
his opinion, they are just those, who «do not implement laws or
implement them selectively.» Specifically, he noted «that in Russia
even a person, who committed murder on racial ground, is judged for
hooliganism, while for posting up transparencies one gets three
years,» BBC Russian Service writes.

VAHAN HOVHANNISIAN: ATMOSPHERE CREATED IN SOCIETY ALSO IMPORTANT IN
SOLUTION OF KARABAKH ISSUE

YEREVAN, MAY 29, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. RA National Assembly
Deputy Speaker Vahan Hovhannisian, receiving on May 26 the OSCE
delegation, in the staff of which Ambassadors Carlos Sanchez De Boado
(Spain), Mette Kongshem (Norway), Alex Berg (Germany) and Maria-Pin
Kotbauer (Liechtenstein) were, touched upon the events taking place in
the innerpolitical life of Armenia, forthcoming parliamentary and
presidential elections. The NA Deputy Speaker attached importance to
holding of the forthcoming elections in correspondence with free, just
and democratic standards. He touched upon also amendments being made
to the Electoral Code, expressing a hope that the amended variant of
the Electoral Code will already be adopted in early autumn. As Noyan
Tapan was informed by the NA Public Relations Department, Vahan
Hovhannisian aprreciated the OSCE mission’s activity in Armenia and
attached importance to implementation of different programs. Touching
upon the Karabakh conflict settlement and the Armenia-Turkey
relations, the Ambassadors mentioned that relations with Turkey will
become easier in the case when the conflict will be solved. Vahan
Hovhannisian responded that the Karabakh issue was not among the EU
membership conditions put in front of Turkey, and it would not be
normal, if the Turkey-EU relations were provided by relations of
third, forth countries which are not EU members. Presenting Armenia’s
position concerning the Karabakh problem and attaching importance to
role of international parliamentary organizations in the problem
settlement issue, the NA Deputy Speaker expressed a viewpoint that not
only the contents of proposed solutions but the atmosphere created in
the public to what extent the authorities prepare societies to mutual
compromises are important in the problem solution. The Armenian
authorities, unlike the Azerbaijani authorities, never make military
statements, do not propagate war and hatred. One can find no
publication in Armenian press that sows hatred towards Azeris, when
the Azerbaijani press, text-books are full of statements arising
hatred towards Armenians, even in children’s radio-TV programs
negative figures are always Armenians, what causes little hope that
the Azerbaijani society is being prepared for mutual compromises. As
the EU policy is open borders, open society, free trade, in Vahan
Hovhannisian’s opinion, the conflict settlement is possible in
conditions of mutual cooperation, regional economic cooperation what
Turkey and Azerbaijan obstacle by their policy. Implementation of the
EU New Neghborhood policy in the region becomes difficult in these
conditions as the EU programs are based on integration and
cooperation. V.Hovhannisian expressed a hope that solutions will be
found if the EU policy principles are used towards Turkey as well
which blockaded Armenia.

ARMECONOMBANK TO BECOME FIRST ARMENIAN BANK TO RECEIVE CONVERTABLE LOAN

YEREVAN, MAY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. Armeconombank and the International
Finance Corporation (IFC) on May 29 signed a memorandum of intentions
on implementation of two new programs. Armeconombank’s Chief Executive
Officer Ashot Osipyan told reporters that under the first program, the
bank will receive 2 mln USD for 8 years, 1 mln USD of which will be
used for small and medium business crediting, while another 1 mln USD
– for mortgage crediting. According to A. Osipyan, the second program
envisages that the IFC will allocate Armeconombank a so-called
convertable loan of 2 mln USD. This a a new instrument for Armenia: it
allows the creditor to have its stake in Armeconombank’s capital. The
bank may also give its shares to the IFC against all or any part of
this 2 mln-dollar loan. Armeconombank currently ranks 5th among the
Armenian banks by its assets amounting to 77 mln USD. The bank’s net
capital makes a sum equivalent to about 12 mln USD.

Washington Post
May 28 2006

Obituary

Berg Paraghamian, 93, a former Martin Marietta aerospace engineer who
worked on NASA’s Apollo program in the 1960s, died of a stroke May 6
in the nursing unit at Maplewood Park Place in Bethesda.

Mr. Paraghamian worked for Martin Marietta in Baltimore and Denver
before being lent to NASA in 1960 to help with the planning of the
Apollo moon-landing program.

He spent two years at NASA, helping formulate the agency’s long-range
plan for space exploration.

Mr. Paraghamian returned to Martin Marietta, where he continued to
specialize in the design and development of aircraft and missiles. In
the 1950s, he helped develop the Titan I intercontinental ballistic
missile.

In 1970, he switched disciplines and became director of research and
development for the U.S. Maritime Administration in Washington. He
worked on the agency’s establishment of the National Maritime
Research Centers in Kings Point, N.Y., and Galveston, Tex. He retired
in 1980.

Mr. Paraghamian, a Bethesda resident, was born in Erzerum, Armenia.
He was a small child when his family, fleeing the Armenian genocide,
immigrated to the United States in 1915. He grew up in Belmont,
Mass., and graduated from Harvard University, where he also received
master’s degrees in education and engineering.

He served as a meteorologist with the Army Air Forces during World
War II and was stationed in Normandy after the D-Day invasion.

He was a moderator at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of
Christ in Bethesda and a member of the Cosmos Club.

Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Mary Paraghamian of Bethesda;
a son, James Berg Paragamian; and two grandchildren.

FLIGHT RECORDERS FROM SOCHI CRASH TO BE DECIPHERED IN RUSSIA

Interfax, Russia
May 24 2006

SOCHI. May 24(Interfax-South) – The black box flight recorder of the
Armenian Airlines Airbus A320 which crashed off the Russian coast
near Sochi on May 3 is to be deciphered at the Interstate Aviation
Committee’s base in Russia.

“French experts and their equipment will probably be involved as well,”
Committee Chairperson Tatyana Anodina told the press on Wednesday.

RUSSIAN SEARCHERS RECOVER SECOND FLIGHT RECORDER FROM PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED 113

AP Worldstream
May 24, 2006

Russian searchers on Wednesday recovered the second flight recorder
from an Armenian airliner that crashed into the Black Sea three weeks
ago, killing all 113 people aboard, local media reported.

The flight data recorder was lifted by a diving apparatus from a
depth of about 1,640 feet (500 meters) after it was separated from
a thick layer of silt, said Transport Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana
Kryshtanovskaya, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency.

The so-called ‘black box” was discovered within 16 meters (50 feet)
from the spot where workers on Monday found the plane’s cockpit
voice recorder.

Russian television channels showed footage of a yellow,
remote-controlled apparatus lifting the red recorder from the sea
surface.

Investigators hope the two recorders will help answer why the Armavia
Airbus A-320 plane plunged into the sea on May 3 amid heavy rain and
poor visibility. The flight had been en route to the southern Russian
sea resort Sochi from the Armenian capital, Yerevan. All passengers
and crew members on board were killed.

Prosecutors almost immediately dismissed the possibility that
terrorists had brought the plane down, and officials point to rough
weather or pilot error as the likely cause. Armavia officials have
suggested, however, that air traffic controllers were at least partly
to blame.

IN MY SPEECHES I EXPRESS MI PERSONAL POINT OF VIEW: VLADIMIR KAZIMIROV

Yerevan, May 22. ArmInfo. I am retired diplomat and in my speeches
I express my personal point of view which has nothing to do with
the official position of Russia, the former Russian co-chair of the
OSCE MG Vladimir Kazimirov says in an interview to Radiolur while
commenting on Azerbaijan’s officially complaining of Kazimirov’s
recent statements about territorial integrity and self-determination
principles and Baku’s bellicose statements.

To remind, in response to Kazimirov’s statements, the head of the
foreign relations department of the Azeri president’s administration
Novruz Mamedov said that Kazimirov has lost his good sense and that
he has been bribed by Armenians. “I am for speaking to the point and
against vulgar statements,” Kazimirov says about Mamedov’s response.

He notes that the Armenian journalist who interviewed him misunderstood
much of what he said and he asked him to remove the interview from
the site right after it was published.

MP SUGGESTS REVIEWING OIL CONTRACTS

AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
May 18 2006

The contracts signed with foreign oil companies operating in Azerbaijan
must be reconsidered, the chairman of the opposition-leaning Whole
Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev has said.

“Azerbaijan had signed very unprofitable agreements with foreign oil
companies at the end of last century and the main objective pursued at
the time was to secure the assistance of these companies in resolving
the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict,” he said
in parliament on Friday.

In 1994, the Contract of the Century was signed with major oil
companies of the world to develop the country’s oil fields. The MP said
that over the years that have passed since the signing the companies
have not provided Azerbaijan with any assistance although billions of
dollars in additional profits have been earned in the Caspian basin
following a hike in the crude price. Hasanguliyev said oil companies in
the US were having to pay extra taxes due to the rising oil price and
suggested that the government apply a similar practice in Azerbaijan.