Author: Nahapetian Boris

"ONLY STANDARD OF FREE AND NATIONAL MASS MEDIA IS INSPIRING PEOPLE
WITH HOPE AND BELIEF," NA DEPUTY SPEAKER VAHAN HOVHANNISIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The 4th two-day conference of the ARF
Dashnaktsutiun press bodies started its work in Yerevan on March
9. Its goal is establishment and strengthening of cooperation and ties
among Armenian and Diasporan mass media. More than two dozens of ARF
and other Armenian media representatives participate in the
conference. As Vahan Hovhannisian, a member of the ARF Bureau, RA
National Assembly Deputy Speaker mentioned at the solemn opening
ceremony of the conference, the only standard of free and national
mass media is to inspire people with hope and belief, by struggling
against defective phenomena. In his words, during the most difficult
years for the Armenian people, the ARF press was able to re-establish
feeling of national unity and self-consciousness in the Armenians
spread all over the world. In V.Hovhannisian’s words, the ARF press
created during those years a "net threads of which tied every Armenian
with the Armenian community, Armenian reality." In the opinion of
Vache Brutian, editor of the "Asbarez" daily of the U.S. Western Cast,
modern challenges arisen before the Armenian people, serious problems
may be solved only by all-Armenian efforts. He also mentioned that the
Fatherland is the basis of existence of the Diasporan Armenians, so
publications dedicated to Armenia occupy great place in the Diasporan
press. "I hope that such a situation will be created soon that
Diaspora has everyday presence in the Armenian press, V.Brutian
said. Boris Navasardian, the Yerevan Press Club Chairman noticed that
the Diasporan press, continuing its historic mission of keeping
Armenian traditions, must respond problems of new Diaspora being
formed during the recent years, help the latters to be integrated in
the local society.

IT IS BETTER THAT MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IS NON-PARTISAN, VARTAN
OSKANIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. "Until the President wants, I will work
as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vartan Oskanian, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Armenia stated about it at the March 9 press
conference. In his words, nobody proposed him to be involved in any
party list. At the same time, he emphasized that the Minister of
Foreign Affairs presents interests of the whole country and it is
better that he is non-partisan. "Yes, I am not involved in any of
proportional lists. I think that to be involved in a party list and
not go to the parliament, is end in itself." V.Oskanian mentioned that
it is very important for Armenia to be able to form "a day agenda for
the coming 5-10 years. "The National Assembly elections are soon here,
then the president’s elections will be. We must search out all our
resources: both economic and those which relate to Diaspora and use
all these for the good of the country’s future. We must be able to
struggle with negative phenomena and form a national agenda," Vartan
Oskanian stated.

"ARMENIAN LEADERSHIP SHOULD DO EVERYTHING FOR WEAKENING CONSEQUENCES OF BLOW OF U.S. UPON IRAN," POLITICAL SCIENTIST LEVON MELIK-SHAHNAZARIAN DECLARES

Noyan Tapan
Mar 06 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 6, NOYAN TAPAN. "Today a military blow of U.S. upon Iran
becomes inevitable and the Armenian leadership should do everything
for weakening the consequences of this blow for Armenia, at that, both
domestic and foreign resources should be used." Political scientist
Levon Melik-Shahnazarian, head of De Facto information agency,
declared this at the March 6 press conference. Among possible foreign
resources the political scientist mentioned Armenian lobbying in
U.S. In his words, under the influence of Armenian lobbying U.S. will
try to satisfy Azerbaijan’s possible demand on compensation for its
participation in operation against Iran at the expense of Iran and not
and the expense of Nagorno Karabakh. As regards the military operation
itself, L. Melik-Shahnazarian said that three possible variants of
delivering a blow upon Iran are considered in Washington. The first
two of them are much more real than the third. The first variant
supposes delivering point blows upon strategic entities of Iran,
the second introduction of split into the multi-national society of
Iran, at that, it is not excluded that the factor of Turkish-language
population making 12-16 mln people will be used. The third variant,
in L. Melik-Shahnazarian’s words, is implementation of land operation
against Iran, which is improbable. In the political scientist’s words,
the first variant supposes emerging of "a new Chernobyl" near Armenia
and the second will result in outcome of a great number of people
from Iran. At that, it will be impossible to receive and to accomodate
such a flow of refugees in Armenia being in blockade.

THERE ARE A LOT OF INTELLECTUALS IN IRAN WHO CAN LEAD AN EFFECTIVE AND INTELLIGENT WAR

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.03.2007 15:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "In case of military attack against Iran American
troops can suffer serious and irreplaceable loses. First of all,
we should take into account the large geographical area that Iran
occupies. It will be very difficult to keep under control these
territories," specialist in Persian philology Tadevos Charchyan told
in the interview to the PanARMENIAN.Net. He said, there are more
intellectuals in Iran who can lead an effective, intelligent and
organized war. Iran has a lot of experienced military leaders. "Iran
can put incomparably more means and armaments and of course, military
contingents in the war. And at last, we should not forget about many
Iranians who live in the United States, and, by the way, they are more
patriotic for their historical homeland. Perhaps, they do not agree
with the current regime in Iran. But they love their Iran both in the
context of culture and values, and in the context of nation, that’s why
they will not seat quietly and watch how their great country is being
destroyed, how are being destroyed the cultural values by analogy with
ancient Mesopotamia, where first civilizations were born. Also there
are other detail problems, and the U.S.A. understands it very good,"
he said.

As to the Iranian opposition, Charchyan said that it will try to
settle its problems relying on the United States, at the expense
of the country and its own security. "The opposition realizes the
situation very well and generally will try to solve its problems with
the help of domestic means. True, pro-American powers can make use of
it, and this must be taken into account," the specialist in Persian
philology stressed.

NGOS RAISE ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

Panorama.am
18:50 01/03/2007

Today 26 environmental NGOs announced about the formation of coalition
"SOS-Teghut" which aims to bring the implementation of Teghut mines
into the legal field. The NGOs told a press conference today that
several international treaties are violated in case Teghut mines
are processed.

The members of a coalition submitted an open letter to the president
of the Republic today. Nazeli Vardanyan, head of Armenian Forests NGO,
said they will wait for the president’s answer and after that they will
apply to Constitutional Court and international institutions. NGOs
say several ecological disasters are expected in case Teghut mines
are processed.

SERGE SARGSYAN VISITS SYUNIK

ArmRadio.am
02.03.2007 16:25

RA Defense Minister, President of the Republican Party Council Serge
Sargsyan is paying a two-day visit to Syunik Marz. He visited N
military unit deployed in Syunik district, where he granted state
awards to more than 10 servicemen on the occasion of the 15th
anniversary of formation of the Armenian Army, Armenpress reports.

The Minister next visited N military unit in Goris. According to RA
President Robert Kocharyan’s decree, this military unit was a warded
with "Vardan Mamikonyan" order.

The same day in Goris Culture House Serge Sargsyan met with parents
of servicemen from Goris and Sisian regions, families of wounded and
killed soldiers.

In the evening Serge Sargsyan visited Kapan and met with activists
of the regional structure of the Republican Party of Armenia. Today
the Minister visited one of the military units deployed in Kapan,
after which he handed house certificates to 25 Officers. In the
Culture Center of Kapan the Minister met with parents of servicemen
from Meghri and Kapan regions, families of wounded and killed soldiers.

According to Serge Sargsyan, Duch meetings pursue two objectives:
to get familiar with the problems families of servicemen face and to
learn how the privileges of servicemen’s families are realized.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT DO NOT WANT TO BRING BROADCASTING LEGISLATION IN CORRESPONDENCE WITH PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, YEREVAN PRESS CLUB FIXES

Noyan Tapan
Mar 01 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The Yerevan Press Club made a statement
on the occasion of the RA National Assembly’s adoption on February
26 the drafts "On Making Amendments to the RA Law "On Television
and Radio" and "On Making Amendments and Additions to the RA Law
"On Television and Radio National Committee Conception." According to
the Yerevan Press Club, adoption of those drafts proves that neither
the Armenian Government which prepared those drafts nor Parliament
are ready or want to improve the legislation on broadcasting, to
bring it in correspondence with modern principles of the liberty of
expression and international standards. "We again collide with secret,
"underground" preparation of drafts relating to the sphere of the
freedom of expression and their quick discussion and votion at the
National Assembly in the style of military levy," is mentioned in
the statement.

According to the statement authors, the argument, as if the
demand of brining the law in correspondence with the amended
Constitution dictated the quickened procedure, does not stand up to
any criticism. It is mentioned that more than a year passed after
making amendments to the RA Constitution, and both governmental
and parliamentary structures had enough time to hold discussions,
hearings, study the presented proposals, get experts’ estimations. And
as it is mentioned in the Yerevan Press Club statement, leading
the law-making process to simple stamping of legal acts serving to
political juncture of the moment does not at all speak about evidence
of their faithfulness to principles of democracy proclaimed by the
Armenian authorities and process of the European integration.

It is then said in the statement:

"The Yerevan Press Club and partner organizations many times
spread statements in 2005 that the principles of the draft to the
Constitutional amendments relating to the sphere of information,
particularly, to broadcast mass media do not create favourable
conditions for reformation of the legislation on the mass media sphere,
proposed alternative variants of amendments. But the parliamentary
majority pushed forward personal formulations with a obstinacy worth
being used on other occasions. The future development of events proved
our estimations’ being motivated: the amended Constitution essentially
limited prospects of the law-making process securing independence of
the body coordinating activity of television and radio.

At the same time, the amendments to the legislation on broadcasting
sphere adopted on February 26 do not use even that positive that exists
in the corresponding principles of the amended Constitution. First of
all, it is possible by these amendments to reach correlation of members
of the regulating body (of Television and Radio National Committee),
being appointed by the President and members being elected by the
Parliament, fixed by the Main Law only in 2011, after the fact when
the Television and Radio National Committee would have already held
a whole series of competitions for giving frequencies. The second,
the amendments do not secure the public-political variety of the
Television and Radio National Committee staff: the parliamentary
majority will make the decision on the National Assembly’s electing
Television and Radio National Committee members according to
the procedure being proposed. The parliamentary majority, as the
political practice of Armenia shows, is always in the same camp
with the President. In other words, the coordinating body, as it was
previously, will be formed exclusively from political forces being at
the wheel of power, and in this sense, amendment of the legislation
does not introduce anything new. The third, as it was previously,
the society’s participation in formation of the Television and Radio
National Committee and transparence of making decisions by it are
not secured. The forth, separation of the TRNC members into ones
being paid (constantly working TRNC Chairman and Deputy Chairman) and
ones not being paid, what causes big breach among their commisions
and violates the principle of collegiality of making decisions. The
fifth: widening of the sphere of TRNA commissions and involving public
broadcasting in it, what is envisaged by the amended Constitution,
is not followed by definition of mechanisms of regulating activity
of the Public Television and Radio Company by the National Committee.

The possibility was again lost to completely improve the law "On
Television and Radio," liquidate those numerous faults which existed
in it from the moment of adoption in October, 2000, and not only to
be limited by only those principles which contradicted the amended
Constitution.

The whole process of working out and adoption of the drafts "On
Making Amendments to the RA Law "On Television and Radio" and
"On Making amendments and Additions to the RA Law "On Television
and Radio National Committee Conception" showed obvious and cynic
ignoring of the journalist society’s opinion by the government and
parliamentary majority. No proposal of public organizations presented
to the expert’s conclusion in the way of final, ready draft to
the conception of reforms to the broadcasting legislation did not
deserve attention. Only separate observations, which pointed out
obvious technical mistakes of the official document, were taken into
consideration. It is a pity, the authorities’ demonstrative refusal
from discussing anything with interested sides becomes a tradition
in the Armenian legislative practice.

The call of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly addressed,
to the RA authorities, concerning holding consultations with EU experts
before making amendments to the law "On Television and Radio" as well
as instructions of the OSCE Representative’s Office on Freedom of Media
and the proposal to hold expert examination of draft amendments were
ignored by the February 26 vote at the National Assembly. Formation
of the legislation on broadcasting corresponding standards of the
Council of Europe was one of the obligations undertaken by Armenia
when becoming a Council of Europe member, and the necessity of its
improvement in future was mentioned in numerous documents of that
international organization. But that process remains the evidence of
standing up to democratic reforms in the country.

The position of the parliamentary factions representing the ruling
coalition in this issue is still possible to explain by mutual
political obligations: even if draft amendments were presented just
by the coalition government. And it is even shameful to comment upon
behaviour of separate deputies considering themselves as "opposing" or
"independent," but voted for the drafts and assisted their adoption
just by it. Just they continuously protest against control of the
authorities over mass media being broadcast, while they strengthen
the existed situation by their vote."

All these, as it is mentioned in the Yerevan Press Club statement,
arise anxiety not only because of adoption of the two drafts, but,
taking into consideration, in general, the country’s public-political
state on the threshold of the parliamentary elections. According
to the statement authors, there are too many signs of the fact that
instead of stating political forces’ faithfulness to some values, the
expected electoral campaign threatens with turning into demonstration
of cynism, regressive moods and cult worship of time-serving.

AZERI HACKER CRACKS AZERI PUBLIC TELEVISION’S WEB-SITE

Arminfo
2007-03-01 14:39:00

An Azeri hacker cracked the web-site of the Azeri Public Television
again.

The Azeri Day.az news agency reports that a message appeared on the
site of the Azeri Public Television addressed to Bacioglu, an Azeri
hacker, Thursday.

The message is as follows: "Dear Bacioglu, an e-war has recently
started between Armenian hackers and you. Certainly, this war is
inefficient. You crack our sites, and we crack yours. We wouldn’t like
to wage a new war. We are Caucasians, we should live in peace. The
Caucasus is our and your historic lands. We didn’t want to kill people
in Karabakh either. Everything that happened is in the past. Actually,
the war in Karabakh is politicians’ affair, let them address these
issues. And we, programmers, should respect each other. Dear Bacioglu,
we believe you’ll understand us. We believe you are a professional
hacker not only in Azerbaijan, but in the whole Caucasus. You’ve
already proved that you are the best of all. We think it is time to
make friends. Best regards, AXTEAM Group Yerevan, Armenia".

The content of the text made the Day.az think that the message wasn’t
written by Armenians. Probably, the web-site of the Public Television
was cracked by Bacioglu himself, who three days ago cracked another
Azeri site – the Azeri tricolor, the Day.az reports. The source
reminds that this hacker had promised to crack dozens of Armenian
sites on the day of the Khojaly tragedy, but he failed to do it and
decided to get himself noticed by cracking Azeri web-sites.

ARMENIA TO SOLVE MASS MIGRATION PROBLEM BY DUAL CITIZENSHIP

Democratic Azerbaijan
Feb 28 2007

New Law Will Also Allow Representatives of Armenian Diaspora to
Partake in Elections to be Held in Armenia In near future number of
Armenian citizens can be increased. However, it won’t occur due to
some abnormal "population explosion" in Armenia which faces serious
problems in the field of population growth. It can occur as result of
legal and administrative measures. Draft bill "On dual citizenship"
currently discussed by Armenian Parliament and expected to be adopted
during final reading will enable increasing population of the country
in several millions.

Accordingly to draft bill, any person of Armenian origin who reached 18
can obtain citizenship of Armenia (second citizenship) not depending on
the current place of residence, of course, if the law of the country
where he or she currently lives permits to do so. Two conditions
are also demanded from person of Armenian origin living in foreign
country to obtain citizenship of Armenia; he or she should know
Armenian language and should be aware of Constitution of Armenia.

Moreover, accordingly to draft bill the person married to citizen
of Armenia automatically can obtain citizenship of Armenia. Basing
on the document, if person who obtained citizenship of Armenia has
passed military service in the country he lived he shall be released
from the same service in Armenia. In this respect, persons who get
dual citizenship will be able to struggle for presidential office or
deputy seat at the parliament during elections.

However the matter that most of all attracts attention to the draft
bill concerns the fact that the persons who obtained citizenship
of Armenia can partake in voting. Documents reads that persons who
obtain citizenship of Armenia can partake in all elections to be held
in Armenia just like in the country they live. It should be pointed
out that this aspect of the draft bill caused discussions not only
in Armenia but in all foreign Armenian diaspora. Today number of
Armenians living in foreign countries exceeds twice as much the same
number in Armenia (5-6 millions). New law will give opportunity to
Armenian diaspora to influence election process in Armenia.

Theoretically, hundreds of Armenians having Armenian citizenship can
join elections to elect president or to form new parliament. But it
is far from being real. "It is possible just theoretically, as it is
impossible to imagine some Armenian living in Russia wastes 500-600
US dollars for one day trip to Armenia to join election", said,
Karen Galustyan, vice president of the Union of Armenians in Russia,
on commenting draft bill. As for opposition representatives they
are against draft bill on "dual citizenship" and they have boycotted
discussions. Accordingly to opposition representatives, taking this
step authors of the document – pro-governmental parties "Republic" and
"Dashnakzuzun" – are attempting to win additional points on the eve of
parliamentary elections to be held in May this year and Presidential
ones to be held in 2008. Accordingly to Armenian opposition Armenian
government also intends to provide opportunity for representatives of
foreign diaspora to join presidential campaign. But it would be too
naïve to think that with adoption of the draft bill its provisions
will come in force immediately, as availability of agreement (on
dual citizenship) concluded between Armenia and the country where
person of Armenian origin wising to get Armenian citizenship lives,
is necessary to make the law work.

As matter of fact, Armenian leadership has more actual matters as its
object respecting this draft bill. By adoption of the draft Armenian
leadership aims to facilitate coming of rich Armenians living in
foreign states to Armenia to actively partake in economic, political
life of the country and to stop migration of Armenians to foreign
countries. Thus, aggravating hard economic situation in Armenia
forces people to leave the country. They mainly prefer to leave for
"neighbor state" – Russia. However, it is very difficult to obtain
Russian citizenship and to start business activity there. That is
why majority of Armenians migrated to Russia has to refuse Armenian
citizenship to obtain the Russian one.

Referring to official statistics for the last 2 years only over 50000
Armenians have obtained Russian citizenship. The same data say that
currently there are about 500000 Armenians living in Russia. In
general over 2,5 mn. Armenians live in Russia, that is, 2 mn.

Millions have already obtained Russian citizenship. Considerable part
of this number is comprised of Armenians who migrated to Russia when
Armenia got independence.

Adopting of the law "On dual citizenship" Armenian leadership actually
allows thousands of Armenians migrating to foreign states to formally
retain Armenian citizenship. "Year by year we lose our citizens and
dual citizenship will stop this tendency", said Armenian President,
Robert Kocharyan.

We should remind here that right for dual citizenship was realized
when referendum was held in Armenia on November 27, 2005, as result
of amendments made to the Constitution. Tens of Armenian legislations
used to ban dual citizenship practice. To date Armenia failed to
conclude any agreement with any foreign state in this connection.

First of all Armenia attempted to conclude such agreement with
Russia. But President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, stressing that
dual citizenship is prohibited by legislation declined proposal of
Armenian part.

Population related data of Armenian Statistic Agency showed that
demographic situation in this country faces crisis. Accordingly to
statistics from January 1, 2007, population of Armenia in 2006 has
increased by only 3000 making up 3 million 222 thousands. On the
other hand it is official data, and Armenian officials indirectly
recognize that population of the country is 1,5-2 million as maximum.

Accordingly to forecast contained in report of UN Population Fund,
demographic aggravations in Armenia will reach their climax within
upcoming years. Report reads that within upcoming 15 years population
of Armenia can be reduced by 600,000.

–Boundary_(ID_yWikO5KcvHX+FMS6eoHLrw)–

AZERBAIJANI HACHERS "BREAK" RA OMBUDSMAN’S WEBSITE

Noyan Tapan
Feb 27 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Ombudsman’s official website
was attacked on early February 26. On the main page of the website
where Article 3 of the RA Constitution was stated, a quotation from
Heydar’s words is presented under the statement "The attack was waged
by Azeri hackers", and false imformation about the Khojalu events is
presented from the "Nash Vek" newspaper on the "Lurer" (news) page. As
Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Ombudsman’s Information and Public
Relations Department, the RA Ombudsman considers inadmissible and
condemns similar actions to be criminally prosecuted.