Author: Nalbandian Albert

ARMENIAN KEEPS A LOW PROFILE

Standard, Kenya
March 21 2006

The man at the centre of the mercenary saga, Artur Margaryan, kept
a low profile on Monday.

He was not available at his Runda Estate for an interview and
neighbours said he had left early in the morning. He was spotted along
Mombasa Road in the company of businessman Raju Sanghani handling
electronic equipment.

Witnesses told The Standard that the two were offloading the equipment
at a warehouse with their employees.

“The work was done very fast and the loaders were paid promptly.

There were television sets and radios,” said a witness who said he
had been seeing the two at the premises since January.

The Armenian has claimed that he is a dealer in electronic equipment,
manufacturing and real estate.

Murage denies link to Armenian brothers

Standard Reporter

President Kibaki’s special advisor, Mr Stanley Murage, has denied
meeting the two Armenian brothers at the centre of the mercenary saga.

Murage on Monday said Press reports that he had met Mr Artur Sargasyan
and Artur Margaryan were untrue, and that he had not facilitated any
meeting at State House as reported.

It was on Monday reported that Murage was in trouble after First Lady
Lucy Kibaki believed that he had met the two last month.

“Indeed, State House did officially confirm last week that no such
meeting took place and termed the utterances as propaganda by sections
of politicians,” Murage said in a statement last evening.

TURKS’ PROTEST AGAINST CONSTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MEMORIAL IN LYON CAUSED FIGHTING WITH THE ARMENIANS

YEREVAN, MARCH 20. ARMINFO. Skirmish between Armenian and Turkish
immigrants took place in the town of Lyon, France.

The Turks of Lyon had organized a demonstration protesting against
the construction of a memorial devoted top the victims of the
Armenian genocide. Offensive expressions and defamatory banners of
the demonstrators caused fighting between the Armenians of Lyon
and the Turks. It should be reminded that by the decision of the
city administration the memorial will be built in the center of
Lyon and opened on April 24, on the day of 91-th anniversary of the
Genocide. According to certain sources, the authorities of France will
take measure against the violators, as the law about the Genocide,
adopted by the French Parliament, prohibits protesting against it.

Panorama.am

14:12 18/03/06

BUSINESS FACULTY IS NOT WALL STREET YET

Today the American University in Armenia (AUA) had announced open-door
day with the slogan “Choose a Profession and Start Creating Your
Future Today”.

In reply to Panorama.am question what the AUA education gives, the
head of University Department of Management of Industrial Polytechnics
and Systems Artak Hambaryan said: “The first thing in which the AUA
differs from the other Universities are the high standards.”

Specialists have brought forward statistical data based on the indices
of previous years according to which the faculty of Business is in
the greatest request among the faculties of the AUA. A. Hambaryan
explains this circumstance saying that the word “business” itself
contains some magical power. “As soon as one hears the word “business”
he imagines Wall Street, the skyscrapers, and one thinks he is already
a millionaire there,” AUA representative says.

A. Hambaryan expects the number of their students will grow year by
year. The AUA specialists bring mention several reasons to continue
one’s education in AUA. That is, one receives American education paying
1/10 of the money needed to get the same education in America. Besides
“today the 95% of AUA graduates have jobs.” /Panorama.am/

FOREIGN MINISTRY ANSWERS TO AZERI LIES

A1+
07:15 pm 17 March, 2006

The Azeri Mass Media have spread false information recently about
Armenian officers. According to them, an officer of the RA Police named
Gevorg Voskanyan participating in courses about Security issues in the
Center after George Marshal in the German town Garmisch-Partenkirchner
made an attempt to rape Natalya Kostroma from Ukraine and was expelled
from the courses.

In another piece of information representative of the RA Defense
Ministry mayor Artem Hakobyan is compromised. The Azeris claim that
he has received a warning from the heads of the Center because of
insults towards Georgia.

Asked a question by “Armenpress” agency how they will comment on the
information and if they correspond to reality or not the RA Foreign
Ministry press speaker Hamlet Gasparyan answered, “Of all the things
mentioned the only thing corresponding to reality was the names of the
Armenian officers. The rest is pure lie. Gevorg Voskanyan and Artem
Hakobyan participated in the courses since September 23, 2005. At
the beginning of the courses mayor Voskanyan had health problems and
was forced to return to Armenia on October 4 with the agreement of
the Center to get medical treatment. In answer to the lies from the
Azeri side the Center too claims in a written form that “All the
accusations of the Armenian mayor Gevorg Voskanyan are groundless
and do not correspond to reality, as he was never involved in any
unpleasant incident”.

In the same written answer it is mentioned that mayor Artem Hakobyan
successfully finished the courses on December 16 of the previous year
and returned to Armenia. “The authorities of the Security issues Center
after George Marshal have not given any warnings to any representative
of the RA Defense Ministry”, the announcement says .

The fact that the Azeri side is trying again to compensate the Armenian
officers participating in international courses proves once again
that the anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan is pursued on the state
level. And in these conditions the brutal murder of the Armenian
officer by the Azeri “national hero” in Budapest is not by chance”.

Audio and video files of Armenian entry online

Belgovision.com, Belgium
March 18 2006

Armenian broadcaster ARMTV has published audio- and video files of the
Armenian entry for Athens on its website. With the song Without your
love Armenian singer Andre will be the first Armenian representative
at the Eurovision Song Contest, in the semifinal on Thursday 18th May.

Andre will take the stage in Athens with the love song Without
your love, a sensitive and fascinating mixture of modern and ethnic
elements. Without your love was composed by the Conductor of Jazz
Orchestra of Armenia, Mr. Armen Martirosyan. The arrangement
and instrumentation is done by a miracle man, one of the best
representatives of the music field in Armenia, Mr. Ara Torosyan.

Through this link the Armenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest
2006 can be heard. On the same website, the video clip of Without
your love is available.

lgovision.com/en/index_f.php?id=867

TURKEY HAS LESS THAN TWO YEARS LEFT TO MEET EU’s POLITICAL ACCESSION
CRITERIA

BRUSSELS, MARCH 17, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Noting the slowing
pace of reform in Turkey, the European Parliament has called upon the
Turkish government to take immediate steps to ends its discriminatory
and repressive policies, the European Armenian Federation for Justice
and Democracy reported.

In its recently adopted resolution on the “Commission’s 2005
Enlargement Strategy Report,” the Parliament also called on the
European Commission to define the geographical boundaries of the
European Union.

In the section of the report dedicated to Turkey, the European
Parliament states that the priorities outlined in the Accession
Partnership […] have to be accomplished in the first phase of the
negotiations” and “notes with satisfaction that the Commission now
supports this view as well by stating that those criteria have to
be fulfilled within one or two years.”

Based on these considerations, the Parliament therefore called upon
Turkey “to present as soon as possible a plan, including a timetable
and specific measures, to meet these deadlines,” and urged the
Commission and the Council “to make the progress of the negotiations
conditional on the timely accomplishment of those priorities.”

This demand comes in reaction to the slowing down of Turkey’s reforms,
which were noted in the resolution. The Parliament also formally
asked Turkey “to remove all existing legislative and practical
obstacles to full enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms by all
Turkish citizens, notably freedom of expression, religious freedom,
cultural rights, rights of minorities.” The Resolution also urged
the Commission “to conduct a rigorous and thorough scrutiny of
developments on the ground.”

The adopted text – for the first time in European Union history – also
recalled that “the capacity for absorption of the Union […] remains
one of the conditions for the accession of new countries” and
stressed that “defining the nature of the European Union, including
its geographical borders, is fundamental to understanding the concept
of absorption capacity.”

Thus, the Parliament requested that that Commission ” submit a report
by 31st December 2006 setting out the principles which underpin this
concept” and invites it “to factor this element into the overall
negotiation timetable.”

“We welcome the adoption of this resolution as a true expression
of the growing will of the European Parliament to be involved in
the Union’s decision-making processes. This measure – like the many
previously adopted resolutions on this matter – urges the European
Commission and Council to not be satisfied with pledges and prolonged
delays, but rather to demand genuine reforms in Turkey,” said Hilda
Tchoboian, Chairperson of the European Armenian Federation.

“We are working with European democratic movements in order to
require that Turkey meet its criteria within the next two years –
including its full recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the
abandonment of its aggressive policies toward Armenia.”

Australian Associated Press Pty. Ltd.
AAP Newsfeed
March 17, 2006 Friday 8:54 PM AEST

Wght: Sarkisian retires after missing medal

by Sam Lienert

MELBOURNE March 17

Decorated Australian weightlifting veteran Yourik Sarkisian retired
from the sport in disappointment today, after failing to win a medal
at the Commonwealth Games.

Immediately after failing in his final attempt of the competition,
the 44-year-old removed his shoes and held them up to the crowd,
signalling the end to his illustrious career The Armenian immigrant
won a silver medal for the Soviet Union at the Moscow Olympics in
1980 and broke numerous world records during his years in the sport.

However, after the competition today finished he suggested that the
retirement might not be permanent.

“Today I am stopped, next year I don’t know,” Sarkisian said.

Sri Lankan Chinthana Vidanage won the gold medal, with a total weight
of 271kg.

India’s Arun Murugesan, the pre-event favourite, lifted the same
weight, but Vidanage won out because of his lighter bodyweight.

Malaysia’s Roswadi Bin Abdul Rashid took the bronze medal with a
261kg total.

Sarkisian finished in eighth position with 255kg.

He said he felt before the competition he had the ability to win gold,
but had faltered under pressure in front of his home crowd.

“Too much pressure, I never feel this pressure before,” he said.

“I feel nervous, that never happened before too.”

It could almost have been much worse, after he failed in his first
two attempts at the snatch, with 113kg on the bar, before making the
lift with his third attempt.

That put him in equal fifth place affter the snatch, 8kg behind
leader Murugesan.

It meant he had to do something special in the clean and jerk to win
a medal.

After lifting 142kg with his first attempt, he moved up to 149kg,
which would have been enough for the bronze medal.

However, on both of his attempts at that weight, he could not even
complete the “clean” part of the lift.

After his final failure, he went and thumped the back wall with his
hand, raised his palms upwards with a look of resignation, before
removing his shoes and holding them to the cheering crowd.

That preluded an exciting conclusion to the gold medal battle.

With the final lift of the competition, Vidanage had to lift 153kg,
after failing in his previous attempt at 150kg, when the jury
overturned an earlier majority decision of the judges, who had awarded
him the lift.

It made it all the sweeter for him when he then hoisted the 153kg
weight, giving him the gold medal, Sri Lanka’s first medal of the
weightlifting in these Games.

GREAT BRITAIN’S REPRESENTATIVE IN OSCE VISITS MILLI MAJLIS [March 17, 2006,
22:00:52]

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006

Great Britain’s permanent representative at OSCE Collin Monroe on 17
March met with Samad Seyidov, chairman of the Standing Committee on
International Relations and Inter-Parliamentary Links, head of the
Azerbaijan delegation at PACE.

Samad Seyidov said Azerbaijan closely cooperates with the Council of
Europe, NATO, Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, and the
Organization of Islamic Conference and other international
structures. The Country attaches special importance to cooperation
with OSCE and its Parliamentary Assembly, he said. “Because OSCE is
directly engaged in settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. We hope the Minsk Group will increase its efforts
for quick resolution to this conflict and the problem will find its
fair solution”, he emphasized.

Collin Monroe expressed pleasure with the ongoing development process
in Azerbaijan, in particular, the economic progress. Such intensive
development of economy may be an important factor and in settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the guest underlined.

The parties had comprehensive discussions on prospects of relations
between the Great Britain and Azerbaijan, the ongoing progresses in
region and other questions of mutual interest.

Ambassador of Great Britain in Azerbaijan Lawrence Bristow took part
in the meeting.

ARMENIA-COE COOPERATION PLAN FOR 2006-2007 RATIFIED

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.03.2006 00:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers ratified
the Armenia-CoE Cooperation Plan for 2006-2007. According to Armenia’s
Permanent Representative in the CoE Christian Ter-Stepanian, the
process of Armenia’s honoring the commitments to the CoE undertaken 5
years ago is taken into consideration. As RA MFA press office reported,
the constitutional reform that opens wide possibilities for the
human right protection, formation of independent juridical system and
consolidation of democratic reforms found its reflection in the plan.

The plan also calls for the development of civic society
by strengthening the local self-government bodies. Christian
Ter-Stepanian emphasized that the implementation of the plan is
conditioned by the fact that the Armenian government proceeding from
the outcomes of the referendum has fixed the terms of changes to be
introduced in to the legislation of the republic. “We understand that
this cooperation will help Armenia to bring the legislation up to
the European standards. This, for its part, will help to carry out
the policy of reforms essential for the integration in the European
community,” the Ambassador said.

IS THERE TIME TO THINK?

Panorama.am
16:18 14/03/06

In the talk with Panorama.am correspondent the leader of “National
Renaissance” party Albert Bazeyan informed that the party building
is in the active stage, they continue establishing territorial bodies
in different regions.

In reply to Panorama.am’s question, in what format they are going to
take part in the Parliamentary Elections in 2007, A. Bazeyan said:
“It is not distinct yet. Perhaps we shall try to take part alone
and check our abilities as a newly founded party. If we notice that
such a consolidation of the opposition which will be able to solve a
problem we shall leave apart our party interests and will take part
in the mentioned format. We have time to think; we shall consider
all the facts and be guided by them.”