Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

OPERATION OF LIFTING THE BLACK BOXES OF THE CRASHED A-320 CONTINUED THE WHOLE NIGHT
ArmRadio.am
17.05.2006 14:10
The operation of lifting the black boxes of the crashed A-320 continued
the whole night, RF Minister of Transport Igor Levitin said, ITAR-TASS
informs.
According to him, on May 16 the works were temporarily suspended
because of bad weather. Therefore, a decision was taken to continue
the work at night, when the wind was milder.
The Interstate Aviation Committee clarifies that decoding and
analysis of the black boxes is an important component of an air
crash investigation, since it reveals the reasons and circumstances
of the disaster. At the same time the UN Commission investigating
the case considers that it is immoral and impermissible to make any
statements about the possible reasons of the crash before the end of
the inquiry, since it contradicts the international practice of air
crash investigations.

AMBASSADOR CHITECHIAN PRESENTS TO BELGIAN BUSINESSMEN OF ARMENIAN ORIGIN POSSIBILITIES OF PROMOTING ACTIVITY IN ARMENIA
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 16 2006
BRUSSELS, MAY 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On the initiative of
the Belgium-Armenia Trade Chamber, Ambassador of Armenia to Belgium
Vigen Chitechian met with big businessmen of Belgium of the Armenian
origin. As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Foreign Ministry’s
Press and Information Department, the meeting, in which businessmen
representing the spheres of advertising, insurance, transport,
internet, jewelry and sweet production of Belgium participated,
had a goal to establish a direct tie among businessmen of Armenian
origin presenting different spheres of the economy as well as to
present them possibilities of promoting activity in Armenia. The
meeting participants discussed issues connected with participation
of representatives of the Belgium-Armenia Trade Chamber in the
Armenia-Diaspora third conference.

SERGE SARGSYAN’S PLANS WERE DISTORTED
Lragir.am
16 May 06
Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan announced several days ago that
the home political developments in Armenia favor his plans. Using
the opportunity, the news reporter of the Lragir asked the defense
minister if the secession of Orinats Yerkir from the coalition
also favored his plans. “No,” Serge Sargsyan’s answer was brief and
unambiguous. However, the minister of defense knows what he is going;
first of all is going to “adjust” his plans. “A plan cannot be a
dogma. Any plan changes, and we will try to adjust the plan to the
Armenian reality,” said Serge Sargsyan to our news reporter.

WORLD ARMENIAN CONGRESS SUGGESTS APPLYING THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
ArmRadio.am
16.05.2006 17:55
The World Armenian Congress suggests submitting an application on
recognition of the Armenian Genocide to the European Court of Human
Rights. For this purpose a three-day conference will be held May
17-19 in Yerevan.
RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan noted today at the sitting of
the World Armenian Congress that it is necessary to wait for the
suggestions of historians and lawyers in this direction.

ARF SUPREME BODY OF ARMENIA REPRESENTATIVE MEETS WITH EUROPEAN DIPLOMAT
Yerkir
16.05.2006 12:07
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – ARF Supreme Body of Armenia representative Armen
Rustamian met on May 16 with Henrik H. Kroner, Secretary General of
the International European Movement, at the Simon Vratsian Center
in Yerevan.
This was the second visit of Mr. Kroner to Armenia.
Mr. Kroner briefed on his organization’s programs in assisting
Armenia’s European integration. Armen Rustamian, in turn, briefed
him on the efforts of the Armenian authorities and the ARF aimed at
political reforms.
ARF Bureau’s Political Affairs Office Director Kiro Manoyan also was
present at the meeting.

UNION OF ARMENIANS OF RUSSIA TO TAKE PART IN NEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.05.2006 15:06 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Union of Armenians of Russia (UAR) will take
part in the next parliamentary elections in Armenia scheduled in 2007,
UAR President Ara Abrahamyan told journalists in Armenia. “Some half
a million Armenians, who are citizens of Armenia, live in Russia,
so we cannot miss the parliamentary elections,” said Abrahamyan,
who arrived in Yerevan in the connection with the session of the
General Council of the World Armenian Congress (WAC) that he heads.
“The matter specifically concerns financial support, as we did during
the elections in 2003,” Ara Abrahamyan said. At that the UAR President
did not say which party the Union of Armenians is going to fund.
He emphasized that the mechanism of support to the party at the
elections is being specified at present, reports Novosti-Armenia.

ARMENIAN SHARES STORY OF FAITH, HOPE, SURVIVAL
by Shelby Young ([email protected] 348-4806)
Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
May 10, 2006, Wednesday
Singer will be performing at churches and civic groups
Now a beautiful, young woman, Olga Petrossian sings with beauty and
confidence — her voice a testament to the power of hope and faith
Recently, she sang for members of Putnam Rotary Club on her first
return visit to Putnam County since last May.
But there was a time in her life – far from peaceful Teays Valley –
when Olga feared to make as much as a single sound.
She still recalls a horrifying night when she was only 4 years old
in Azerbaijan, a part of the former Soviet Union which is bounded
by Iran on the south, by the Caspian Sea on the east, by Russia’s
Dagestan Republic on the north and by Armenia on the west.
During the late 1980s, ethnic Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region
of Azerbaijan had pressed for its unification with Armenia, leading
to a guerrilla war. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, a
large-scale conflict broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1992.
Even though they were Armenian by blood, the Petrossians had lived
in Azerbaijan and spoke only the native Azeri and Russian languages.
Olga remembers the terror in the night – the knock at the door. Azeri
extremists were going from house to house, searching out ethnic
Armenians for extermination.
Discovery would mean death, she told the Rotarians.
Her mother pleaded with the 4-year-old Olga: “Please don’t cry. If
they know we’re here, they’ll kill us.”
The family huddled in the darkness, scarcely daring to breathe.
Then, an Azeri neighbor spoke to the gunmen and rescued the family
from the prospect of imminent death.
“There’s no one there,” she told the soldiers. “They’ve all gone.”
Shortly thereafter, Olga’s family joined a flood of refugees crossing
the border into neighboring Armenia.
However, they soon realized they would never be accepted in Armenia.
So the family moved north to Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad,
where Olga’s grandparents had a home.
Her grandmother attended regularly the church services in a local
theater there, and in those circumstanced despair was transformed
into hope for the family.
Olga wanted to go to school at Bethel College in Indiana, but the
cost was far beyond the means of the $100 per month of family income.
Then a letter came, offering a $10,000 scholarship. But Olga would
have to match it for the $20,000 tuition.
And, in a story of spirit and faith triumphant over circumstances,
she succeeded.
Other families supported her with gifts totaling $8,000.
She paid the balance by work on campus and personal ministry in the
United States.
This spring, Olga finished her senior year at Bethel, completing a
major in vocal performance.
Sponsored in part by international author and motivational speaker
Chet Marshall of Hurricane, the pretty, young Armenian prodigy from
Volgograd plans to speak and sing at several church and civic groups
during her visit in the area.
Accompanied by her father on guitar, Olga performed a Russian song
during the noon luncheon meeting at Sleepy Hollow.
As for the future, Olga will be married in July.
She’s open to all the possibilities that lie before her, she said.
“I just pray about it, and I don’t worry too much.”

DEVELOPMENTS IN ARAB WORLD IMPORTANT TO ARMENIA
Yerkir
15.05.2006 16:58
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Armenian-Arab relations have historical
roots. Armenia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are in the same region
and developments in the Middle East and the Arab world are important
to Armenia, UAE Ambassador to Armenia Khalifa Shagin al Mrr (residence
in Teheran) stated in Yerevan.
In his words, it would be normal if Armenia got observer status at
the League of Arab States (LAS). “It would allow it better understand
relations in the League,” he said.
LAS statute provides for changes, that would allow providing observer
status to Armenia, which will convey a new impulse for Armenian-Arab
mutually beneficial ties. In January 2005 the Armenian MFA and LAS
signed a memorandum on mutual understanding in Cairo. The agreement
provides for holding consultations with the LAS, cultural and education
cooperation.

FINAL DECISION ON TURNING CONVERSE BANK INTO OJSC TO BE MADE BY AUGUST
YEREVAN, MAY 12, NOYAN TAPAN. The Converse Bank will make a final
decision on turning Converse Bank CJSC (Closed Joint Stock Company)
into an open joint stock company (OJSC) by August 2006. The bank’s
director general Artak Hanesian stated this at the May 12 press
conference. According to him, work on introduction of corporate
governance is currently underway at the bank. In this connection, some
changes were made in the bank’s regulations, in its council and
executive body. Particularly, former director general of the bank
Smbat Nasibian who owns 15% of shares has become a member of the
council. The remaining stake of Converse Bank belongs to a
non-resident legal entity and a non-resident natural person. It was
noted that Converse Bank is conducting negotiations with the USAID on
the issue of guaranteeing 50% of the bond issue.

THE COST OF STRUGGLE AGAINST CORRUPTION
Lragir.am
11 May 06
Several businessmen members of parliament, members of the Orinats
Yerkir faction of the National Assembly submitted applications
on seceding from this political party. This step followed the
parliamentary debates on the government policy on privatization.
Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan, the leader of the Orinats Yerkir,
criticized the privatization policy. Then the famous interview of
Arthur Baghdasaryan with the German newspaper Frankfurt Algemeine
followed, in which he expressed his standpoint on the internal and
external policies of Armenia.
These two events stirred up the political life of Armenia. Incessant
discussions involving politicians and press thought resembled a
performance of a rather unskilled band directed by a conductor, tending
to make biased propagandist stresses. Naturally, the status quo that
has recently formed in Armenia and its outstanding representatives
would not tolerate any political standpoint that could appear as
a threat against the status quo, which suggests preventing even
the smallest sparks of change. The opinion of status quo agents is
approximately the following: we do not need changes, let it remain
the way it is. Besides, they announce that they have nothing to do
with what is going on these days, in particular the resignation of
the businessmen members of parliament and the attempts at dissolving
the Orinats Yerkir faction.
The recent “outflow” of businessmen is rather typical and displays
the peculiarities of the political and economic system in Armenia. It
is hard to tell if these businessmen joined the Orinats Yerkir out
of an ideological urge and left the Orinats Yerkir again out of an
ideological compulsion. Their behavior is clear: they fear losing
their property and business if their party appears in a difficult
state. This shows that in a system that Armenia has business and
property is not protected, while the businessmen in the parliament
could have tried to create a new environment where they would not
have to be driven by an “ideological compulsion.”
This is something to be handled by politicians as well, to establish
healthy and free competition in economy. This is something that the
speaker of the National Assembly has been trying to do, not absolutely,
of course. What has taken up supposes reduction of black economy,
corruption, a normal policy on privatization, etc. Only in this
case would business be protected. On the other hand, the personal
interests and the property, mostly obtained illegally and unfairly,
of the status quo agents is endangered.
It is interesting to know, however, what the status quo and
particularly the businessman rely on? The same status quo is capable
of devouring its children, more exactly, it regularly devours its
children, for every now and then new lackeys emerge who offer a better
and higher-level service to the system and in return they must get
a share from the property. And Armenia is too small and nothing is
left to share. Hence, this sharing will be carried out at the expense
of the former “followers of the ideology.” And this will last until
people come to realize that the meaning of life is living dignifiedly.
For the standpoint of some mass media, the publications on
the developments related with the Orinats Yerkir Party confirm,
unfortunately, the assessments of the local and international experts
that the clan mechanisms have been established in this sphere, with
press turning an instrument of the system. What a pity!