Armenia’s president attending may 9 celebrations in Karabakh
STEPANAKERT, May 8. /ARKA/. Armenia’s President Serge Sargssyan left
for Stepanakert, capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, accompanied
by a group of Armenian ministers.
The delegation will attend May 9 celebrations in NKR.
People in Karabakh celebrate 3 holidays on the day ` Victory in the
Great Patriotic War, the 16th anniversary of the forming the NKR
Defence Army, and the liberation of the town of Shushi. `0–
Families of killed soldiers will get apartments in new apartment
building
08-05-2008 14:41:25 – KarabakhOpen
The issue of providing apartments in the new apartment building at 9
Azatamartikneri Street, Stepanakert, will be discussed soon by the
State Commission for Housing, stated Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan.
It is foreseen to provide apartments to families of killed
azatamartiks, parentless children who are already 18 years old.
In the next meeting the issue of providing apartments in the building
on Tigran Mets Street will also be discussed. These apartments are for
the families who are living at the dormitory of the former silk factory
of Stepanakert. However, according to the prime minister, all the
circumstances should be studied because there are a lot of people
registered at the dormitory who already have apartments.
25 apartments in the building at 11 Tumanyan Street will be provided to
the families of killed soldiers.
DESPITE PRIME MINISTER’S STATEMENTS ABOUT "OPEN WORK" OF GOVERNMENT,
REPORTERS COVERING ACTIVITIES OF EXECUTIVE BODY MEET NEW OBSTACLES
YEREVAN, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. Despite the assurances of the newly
elected prime minister Tigran Sargsian that the government should work
openly and transparently, while reporters should act freely, the latter
ones’ opportunity to work is increasingly being restricted. It turns
out that the reporters accredited to the government to follow its
sittings (by live broadcast, in a room allocated to reporters) have to
be in the building at 11 am – from the beginning of a sitting, and even
in case of arriving 5 minutes late, they are deprived of the right to
cover the sitting that sometimes lasts several hours.
The fact of being specially accredited to cover government sittings is
of no importance: the guards of the building allow to enter only those
on the lists of the given day. In addition, different lists are
required for coverage of sittings and briefings.
NT correspondent, who is accredited to the government and did not take
part in the live broadcast of the May 8 sitting, along with several
other reporters was not allowed to attend the briefing following the
sitting as, according to the security guards, "there was not yet" a
list of reporters permitted to briefings.
Thus, on the one hand, reporters are given the opportunity to follow
government sittings on the spot by watching a live broadcast, but on
the other hand, there is a strict time and "list" restriction, which in
its turn limits reporters’ freedom. Unlike these reporters, those
accredited to cover National Assembly sittings (by the way, not in a
separate room but immediately in the hall of sittings) are free -in
terms of time – to enter NA building.
Today.az, Azerbaijan
May 7 2008
Leader of Armenian Democratic Party: "Conduction of plebiscite to
define the status of Nagorno Karabakh is an anti-Armenian step"
07 May 2008 [16:18] – Today.Az
Holding a plebiscite on definition of the status of Nagorno Karabakh
is the most unlucky variant for Armenia, said leader of Armenian
Democratic Party Aram Sarkissyan.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan told previously that the
discussed document on the resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict
envisions plebiscite on definition of the status of the "Nagorno
Karabakh Republic".
"The principles, which are discussed at the moment are unacceptable
for Armenia. If we imagine that Azerbaijan agrees on plebiscite, this
means that we eliminate all steps beginning from 1988 until 1991",
said Sarkissyan on May 7.
According to leaders of the Armenian Democratic Party, in fact, the
Armenian side recognizes incompetence of creation of "Nagorno Karabakh
Republic" not speaking of the technical difficulties of conduction of
the plebiscite.
"Conduction of plebiscite is an anti-Armenian step, affecting
Armenia", said the leader of the Democratic party.
According to him, Armenia should primarily base on the fact that
independence of "Nagorno Karabakh Republic" from Azerbaijan has been
attained legally.
"The main demand of Armenia should be that "Nagorno Karabakh Republic"
is a developed unit and this is a dominant and other issues can be
settled only by way of compromise", said Sarkissyan.
At the same time, he noted that he does not have any expectations from
the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers, as
there is no political solution of the problem.
"The OSCE Minsk Group has only one mandate-resolution of the conflict
and elimination of its consequences, but when one side said that
Nagorno Karabakh conflict is his and the second states the same,
political compromise is impossible", said Sarkissyan.
According to him, Armenian diplomacy should offer to Azerbaijan to
conclude a peace agreement, as this way can lead to the issue
settlement. Sarkissyan added that international community would
realize that if Azerbaijan refuses to cooperate with the OSCE Minsk
Group, then direct talks of Azerbaijan with the Armenian side in the
person of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh are needed.
/Novosti-Armenia/
URL:
Evening Post, UK
May 5 2008
I’M BETTER OFF DEAD IF CHILDREN CAN STAY
BY DOMINIC HARRIS D.HARRIS
07:00 – 05 May 2008
Classmates and the heads of a Bristol academy and a primary school are
backing an Armenian family to stay in the city.
Anna Vardanyan and her children Mariam, 14, Norik, 11, and Gayana,
six, face being deported after living in Bristol for six years.
They were taken to an immigration centre at Gatwick airport after a
7am raid on their home in St George.
During their five-day detention, Mariam, a pupil at Bristol’s City
Academy, and her mother tried to commit suicide.
The family are currently back in Bristol awaiting instructions from
the Home Office.
A petition with more than 900 names has been collected from the City
Academy urging the Home Office to allow the family to stay.
Letters have also been sent from academy principal Ray Priest and
Mandy Milsom, head teacher at Summerhill primary school in St George
which Norik and Gayana attend.
The family, who have lived in Bristol since 2002, were due to be
deported to Azerbaijan – a country with which they have no connection
– on Tuesday, but were temporarily released after intervention from
the Armenian embassy.
Ms Vardanyan, 32, is terrified that if she is sent to Azerbaijan she
will be killed because of tensions between there and Armenia.
And she is worried they would be persecuted in Armenia because of her
family’s links with Turkey, two countries locked in conflict.
Ms Vardanyan said: "I will kill myself if I have to go back to Armenia
or to Azerbaijan.
"I am better off dead if it means that my children can have a good
life here.
"We are so happy in Bristol. Everyone is very friendly, and my
children go to school and are well-disciplined.
"Gayana was only two months old when she came here and Norik only
speaks English.
"This is our country now, and they can’t just take us away."
Ms Vardanyan told the Evening Post of the terrifying moment when eight
police officers came to take them away.
She said: "We were all asleep and suddenly there was a loud banging on
the door. Police came in carrying truncheons, gave us bags and told us
to pack our clothes up.
"Then they put us into a van with bars on it, like a cage for
animals. My children are not criminals – why treat them like that?"
Ms Vardanyan said the detention centre was "like a prison".
She said: "We were kept in one tiny room, but we couldn’t sleep and we
were frightened because we couldn’t lock the door.
"Norik cried for four days and said he would remember it all his
life. Mariam tried to cut her wrists with a pair of scissors and I
tried to stop the blood in my arm.
Since their return to Bristol the family has been championed by
Paulette North, a teacher at the City Academy and a member of Bristol
Defend The Asylum Seekers Campaign.
Ms North said: "This is an appalling case. We will be seeking to prove
that the family should stay here because they are part of our
community.
"They have been here for six years and should have the right to a
private and family life here.
"A solicitor is now making representations and a fresh application for
the family to stay."
A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: "We do not comment on
individual cases.
"The Government has made it clear that it will take a robust approach
to removing people from the country where they have no legal right to
be here."
yNode.jsp?nodeId=145365&command=displayContent &sourceNode=145191&contentPK546867&fol derPk=83726&pNodeId=144922
Ya Libnan, Lebanon
May 5 2008
Tashnag Party: We are not part of the Free Patriotic Movement
Published: Monday, 5 May, 2008 @ 9:46 PM in Beirut (GMT+2)
Beirut- Tashnag Party MP Hagop Pakradonian said the party plays a
"moderate role" within the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, but
is not part of the Free Patriotic Movement
Such a moderate role "helps in having relations with all the Lebanese
parties, especially the sides that wish to have relations with the
Tashnag," Pakradonian ( pictured ) added.
"But we cannot impose ourselves on sides that do not wish to meet us,"
he added, in an apparent reference to Saad Hariri’s Mustaqbal movement
that is allied with a rival Armenian group.
"We are not part of the Free Patriotic Movement. Our membership in the
Change and Reform Bloc and in the opposition reflects a moderate
role," he added.
Pakradonian made the remarks after meeting a delegation from the
Phalange Party which is headed by Lebanon’s former president Amin
Gemayel.
He said the talks with the Phalange party "fall in line with our call
for dialogue and moderation."
The Free Patriotic Movement is headed by former general Michel Aoun,
who also heads up the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, a key
member in the Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah-led opposition.
Aoun today called for overthrowing the government of Prime minister
Fouad Siniora and defended the spying of Hezbollah at the Beirut
International airport
Lebanon has three Armenian parties : Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Tashnag) and Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Henshak) and Armenian
Democratic Liberal Party – Ramgavar
5/tashnag_party_w.php
Reporters without borders (press release), France
May 5 2008
Freedom of expression still in danger in Turkey despite article 301 reform
Amendments to a law punishing insults to Turkish identity which the
Turkish parliament adopted on 30 April are `cosmetic and
insufficient,’ Reporters Without Borders said today. Dozens of writers
and journalists have been convicted under the law, article 301 of the
criminal code, since its introduction in 2005.
`It is wrong to regard this reform as good news,’ the press freedom
organisation said. `It is true the penalties have been reduced, but
insults to Turkish identity has simply been replaced by insults to the
Turkish nation, leaving judges a lot of leeway to prosecute anyone who
publicly broaches sensitive issues such as the Armenian genocide or
the Kurdish issue.’
Reporters Without Borders added: `Furthermore, this reform concerns
only article 301. Any real improvement in freedom of expression in
Turkey would have to include a thorough overhaul of all the laws and
regulations that restrict it. The limited nature of this reform
highlights the size of the problem that free speech poses to the
Turkish authorities.’
The national assembly approved the amendments to article 301 after a
stormy debate on 30 April by 250 votes to 65. Article 301, which took
effect in May 2005 replacing article 109 of the old criminal code,
made attacks on `Turkish identity’ punishable by up to three years in
prison and it was used to prosecute several thousand people.
According to justice minister Mehmet Ali Sahin, 1,189 people were
taken before a court in the first quarter of 2007 alone for article
301 violations. Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk and
Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor Hrant Dink, who was murdered by
ultranationalists in Istanbul on 19 January 2007, were among those
prosecuted under the article.
The reform replaces attacks on `Turkishness’ by attacks on the
`Turkish nation’ and reduces the maximum prison sentence from three
years to two. And most trials under article 301 will henceforth take
place before magistrate courts instead of criminal courts. Article 301
proceedings currently under way will be dropped, and the cases will be
reexamined in the light of the new provisions.
Article 301 is just one element of the legislative arsenal restricting
free expression in Turkey. Other laws punish attacks on fundamental
national interests (article 305), inciting hatred, hostility or
humiliation (article 216), attacking the memory of the Turkish
republic’s founder, Atatürk (law 5816 of 25 July 1951) and
discouraging the public from doing military service (article 318). In
many cases, the penalties increase by a half when the media are used
to break the law.
Do you happen to know what will be done in Shushi?
06-05-2008 12:55:28 – KarabakhOpen
Dear editorial board,
In late January the Shushi Rebirth Foundation held a pan-Armenian
telethon Yerevan-Bethlehem-Shushi, during which 5 million 800 thousand
dollars was raised, according to the Foundation.
I live in Stepanakert but I would like to move to Shushi. Frankly
speaking, when the telethon was held, I thought new enterprises would
be set up, jobs would be created, and I would be able to move there. I
am a programmer.
I visited the website of the Shushi Rebirth Foundation but I found no
information about how much money was raised, on what projects they will
be spent and when work will start.
There is only the following information:
CURRENT PROJECTS
Yerevan Cinema
Center of Art, Crafts and Travel Info
COMPLETED PROJECTS
General map of Shushi, creation of the concept of social and economic
development of the city
Christmas in Yerevan for the children of Shushi
Pan-Armenian premier of the video `Our Shushi’
Training and internship in Yerevan for unemployed and young inhabitants
of Shushi
Mobile exhibition `Shushi in Photographs’
I also read on your website that `in 2008 450 million drams (1.5
million dollars) will be allocated by the government for construction’.
Do you happen to know what will be done in Shushi?
Arsen Sargsyan
Stepanakert
Interfax News Agency, Russia
May 4 2008
Russian sentenced to 6 years for smuggling rocket system components
KRASNODAR May 4
Temryuk district court in Krasnodar territory has sentenced a Russian
citizen to six years in jail for illegally transporting components for
a missile system and a multiple launch rocket system to Armenia.
"He will be serving his sentence at a regular penitentiary. He was
charged with smuggling," a spokesman for the court told Interfax on
Sunday.
A batch of the components was discovered in summer 2007 at the customs
post in port Kavkaz in Krasnodar territory in a truck trailer en route
to Armenia hidden among officially declared iron radiators, cylinders
for liquefied gas and gas meters.
Panorama.am
16:36 02/05/2008
CB VICE PRESIDENT: `THIS EXHIBITION TENDS TO IMPROVE
FINANCE SYSTEM IN RA’
Today an international specialized exhibition opened
in Moscow House on `Finance, Loan, Insurance and Audit
EXPO 2008′ subject. The exhibition will last till May
4. The vice president of the Central Bank Arthur
Djavadyan, Government Staff chairman David Sargsyan,
the president of Industry and businessman union Arsen
Ghazaryan and the president of Banks Union Henrik
Soghomonyan and other officials were present at the
exhibition.
`This is the first time such exhibition takes place in
Yerevan and it is intended to inform people about the
finance system in Armenia;’ said the vice president
and added that a subdivision is created in CB covering
the problems of the consumers’ rights.
A. Ghazaryan said: `In the project of the government
it is stated that Armenia should become a financing
center in the region and I hope that we can carry that
idea out within few years.’
Source: Panorama.am