Author: Navasardian Karapet

SERZH SARGSYAN GIVES INSTRUCTION TO PRESENT PROPOSALS ON CONDITIONS AND LEGAL PROCEDURES OF AMNESTY BY JUNE 15

NOYAN TAPAN
JUNE 2, 2009
YEREVAN

On June 2, RA President Serzh Sargsyan held a consultation with the
participation of law enforcement system responsible figures on the
issue of granting an amnesty. Noyan Tapan was informed about it by
the President’s Press Office.

In addition to his May 28 address to all political forces, public
figures, Public Council on their presenting proposals on the necessity
of granting an amnesty, S. Sargsyan instructed proper departments to
present proposals on conditions and legal procedures of amnesty by
June 15.

President’s staff has been charged to sum up the proposals received
from political forces, figures and from Public Council in the
established term.

115 PEOPLE INFECTED SWINE FLU IN ARGENTINA

Panorama.am
13:47 01/06/2009

More 15 cases of H1N1 virus recorded in Argentina making the total
number of infection in the country 115.

According to Russian media a young man died in one of the regions in
Argentina and currently the Health Ministry tries to find out whether
the patient died because of the infection.

Argentinean official source says that the majority of people infected
in the country are children; hence some schools currently are closed
down to overcome tragic cases.

CROWD ENJOYS TASTE OF ARMENIAN CULTURE
By Jennifer Abel

New Britain Herald
09/05/31/news/doc4a233723f34b0096088372.txt
May 31 2009
CT

NEW BRITAIN — The stereotypical librarian loves silence and
runs through the library hissing "Hush!" or "Be quiet!" whenever
anyone dares make a sound. But New Britain librarian Linda McNair
completely defied this stereotype Saturday, and encouraged people
to make lots of noise. Armenian noise, to be exact, since Saturday
was the grand climax of the library’s month-long "World of Words"
festival celebrating Armenian culture.

Despite the beautiful sunny weather Saturday afternoon, around
100 people crowded into the library’s Community Room to enjoy the
"Armenian Cafe," featuring traditional Armenian food, needlework,
handicrafts and music.

"We’ve had a great turnout," McNair said. "Just amazing. And so many
people brought so much delicious food. We already had our own, but
people brought more."

Four musicians played traditional Armenian music. Jimmy "King"
Shahrigian played bass viol, while Harry Bedrossian played an unusual
stringed instrument. What’s that instrument called?

"If I told you, we’d have to break your legs," Bedrossian joked. "No,
it’s called an ‘oud.’ Think of the word ‘good,’ and then drop the
‘g.’ That’s how it’s pronounced."

Next to him sat Roger Derderian with an equally exotic stringed
instrument called a ‘kanoun.’ "It was invented in the ninth century
by a Persian mathematician named Faraby," he said.

"It’s the progenitor to today’s harpsichord or piano," he said. "See,
put keys on one side of it and that is a piano."

Rounding out the quartet was Gary Houhanessian, keeping the beat on
a small silver drum.

McNair manned the food table, and in addition to a variety of pastries
and other treats, there were two objects that looked like elaborately
carved wooden spoons. Little stickers on those spoons had the word
"Mamool."

"They use these as molds to make cookies," said reference librarian
Danielle Tapper. "But I can’t show you those. They’ve all been eaten."

McNair surveyed the scene with a satisfied smile. "This has been
a wonderful group of people supporting the program and celebrating
Armenian culture," she said.

GEORGIAN APPEALS COURT TO REVIEW CHAKHALYAN’S CASE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.06.2009 16:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Case against Vahan Chakhalyan, leader of "United
Javahk" movement, was sent to Tbilisi appeals court. Claims for
reviewing first instance court decision were made only by defense
lawyer. Prosecutor refused to appeal against the lower court’s
decision.

After considering Chakhalyan’s case, Georgian appeals court may either
mitigate the verdict or leave it unchanged.

Chairwoman of polling station 11/04 Hasmik Ghazaryan states that she
didn’t conflict with parliamentarian Naira Zohrabyan

2009-05-31 20:33:00

ArmInfo. Chairwoman of polling station 11/04 Hasmik Ghazaryan told the
police that she didn’t conflict with MP of Armenian National Assembly
Naira Zohrabyan. She added that Naira Zohrabyan didn’t hit her and, in
general, the whole electoral process is going on normally, the Armenian
Police press-service told ArmInfo.

To recall, earlier N. Zohrabyan told ArmInfo she was informed that
Hasmik Ghazaryan, who, in her words, is known to violate the Election
Code for many times, violated the voting process on May 31. ‘I arrived
at the polling station and demanded Hasmik Ghazaryan to act within the
frames of the law’, N. Zohrabyan said and added that she is unaware
which political force H. Ghazaryan supports. Afterwards, H. Ghazaryan
attacked N. Zohrabyan crying out that she is authorized to do
everything.

To note, Hasmik Ghazaryan said in her interview with mass media that
Naira Zohrabyan hit her on the head with a mobile telephone.

52,85% of voters participated in Yerevan Council voting
31.05.2009 21:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 407 thousand 745 voters have participated in Yerevan
Council elections.
The total number of voters in Yerevan is 771,477. There were 6
political parties and 1 political bloc running for elections for 65
mandates.

Central electoral commission of Armenia to report on voter activity in
Yerevan municipal elections every 3 hours

YEREVAN, May 31. /ARKA/. The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of
Armenia will be informing about how active voters are in the municipal
elections in Yerevan every three hours, CEC Press Secretary Tatev
Ohanyan reported.

The reports will be made starting from 12:00 local time, she said
adding that vote count information will be communicated during the
night.

Ohanyan said that electoral commissions started their work at 438
polling stations at 7:00 in the morning. The polling stations opened at
08:00.

Municipal council elections are held in Yerevan today with 771,500
electors eligible to vote.

This is the first municipal council elections in the history of
Yerevan. Under the new law about local government of Yerevan, the
Municipal Council is to have 65 members. Number one in the list of the
party that gained absolute majority in the council automatically
becomes Mayor of Yerevan.

Party-ticket voting is to be used for the election of the Municipal
Council. Six political parties participate in the election – 3
coalitional parties (Republican Party of Armenia, Prospering Armenia
and Orinats Yerkir), Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutiun,
People’s Party and Labor Socialist Party of Armenia and one political
block ` oppositional Armenian National Congress. `0–

SARKOZY CANCELS SWEDEN VISIT OVER TURKEY

ArmInfo
2009-05-29 14:21:00

ArmInfo. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has cancelled a visit
to Sweden scheduled for next Tuesday (2 June) in order to avoid a
clash on the question of Turkey’s EU membership just days before the
European elections and a month before Stockholm takes over the EU’s
rotating presidency.

As Euobserver reports, Mr Sarkozy’s office said the trip was cancelled
"for agenda reasons".

But the French president, who is an outspoken opponent of Turkey’s
entry to the European Union, did not want to highlight the strong
divergence of views on this topic with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik
Reinfeldt, Le Monde reported on Thursday (28 May).

For its part, Sweden favours further EU enlargement, including to
Turkey. On Monday this week, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt
told Le Figaro newspaper that the EU had "a strategic interest"
in Turkey’s EU integration and warned against "closing the door" to
Ankara. In the Figaro interview, Mr Bildt said: "My vision of Europe
is not as defensive as I observe it with other people".

"Nicolas Sarkozy cancelled his visit because of the Carl Bildt
interview," one minister told Le Monde. To recall, the president
of France, as well the German chancellor have multiply claimed of
inadmissibility of Turkey’s joining EU. ‘I want to say that Europe
has certain borders and not all the countries may become its full
members. This also concerns Turkey which has no place in EU. Unlimited
extension of the European Union may cause destruction of the European
political union, and I cannot admit that’, N. Sarkozy said even during
his election campaign in 2007.

VIGEN TCHITETCHIAN AND AVET ADONTS APPOINTED ARMENIA’S AMBASSADORS TO FRANCE AND BELGIUM

armradio.am
27.05.2009 12:06

President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree on releasing Vigen
Tchitetchian from the positions of the Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of Belgium
and the Head of the Representation of the Republic of Armenia in the
European Union.

According to another presidential decree, Vigen Tchitetchian was
appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic
of Armenia to the Republic of France (seat in Paris).

President Sargsyan signed a decree on appointing Avet Adonts Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the
Kingdom of Belgium (seat in Brussels).

According to another presidential decree, the Ambassador of the
Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of Belgium, Avet Adonts, was
appointed to the post of Head of the Representation of the Republic
of Armenia in the European Union (seat in Brussels).

ASHOT MELKONYAN: RATIFICATION OF THE KARS AGREEMENT WOULD BE A GROSS ERROR
Alisa Georgyan

"Radiolur"
27.05.2009 17:50

Centuries after losing statehood in 1045 in Motherland and in 1375
in Cilicia, we finally restored our independent statehood on May 28,
1918 and Armenia was declared an independent republic.

Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of
Sciences Ashot Melkonyan told a press conference today that this
important fact raised the discontent of Western Armenians, who were
constantly stating that it would be logical to call the state the
Republic of Eastern Armenia, Republic of Ararat or Republic of Yerevan,
since Western Armenia was excluded from that area. After the second
conference of Western Armenians expressed its discontent in 1919,
it called on the Armenian authorities to take care of Western Armenia.

As a result, on May 28, 1919, on the first anniversary of independence
Alexander Khatisyan declared Armenia a free, independent and united
state.

Although many assessed it as adventurism and the wording remained
on paper, the historian attaches great importance to adopting this
approach.

According to Ashot Melkonyan, the interests of Western Armenians should
be directly touched upon in the current processes of normalization
of the Armenian-Turkish relations. In this context the historian
spoke about the known and unknown "road map" and the possible
preconditions it may contain, particularly the ratification of the
Kars Agreement. Ashot Melkonyan considers that giving new breath to an
illegal agreement signed between Soviet Russia and Kemalist Turkey,
neither of which was considered a subject of international law,
would be a gross error.

Ashot Melkonyan is assured that it’s high time to establish
plenipotentiary bodies in the Diaspora, which will represent the
interests of Western Armenians in international structures.