Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

AZERI SPEAKER MEETS AUSTRIAN OFFICIALS IN BAKU
AUSTRIA TODAY
April 24, 2006 Monday 7:47 PM (Central European Time)
Speaker of Azeri Parliament Oktay Asadov met with a delegation
headed by the State Secretary of Austrian Foreign Ministry Hans
Winklerin, Trend reports with reference to press service of the Azeri
Parliament. Speaker said at the meeting Azerbaijan’s priority-driven
politics is the integration in Europe.
“Azerbaijan intends to extend relationships within Europe’s new
neighbourhood programme. In this respect, the republic officials are
leading conversations on development of an action plan. We should
note also that in some political issues, in particular Armenian-Azeri
conflict, the European Commission is not taking Azerbaijan’s concerns
in consideration,” he said. Speaker also said that staring 1992
European commission has provided our country over USD 400 million and
highly appraised cooperation under such programs as TACIS, TRASECA,
INOGATE and Food programme. The speaker informed the guests about
the development of interparliamentary relationships, preliminary work
performed in conjunction with re-elections of May 13.

TURKS IN NY CITY MARCH AGAINST ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS
STAR
Turkish Press
April 24 2006
Press Review
After years of being the scene of Armenian demonstrations, over
the weekend New York’s famous Times Square played host to Turkish
counter-demonstrations. In response to Armenians’ demonstrations for
today, April 24, which they call the anniversary of the so-called
genocide, Turks living in the US organized a rally entitled “End to
Armenian Lies.” Many Turks including Turkey’s Consul General to New
York Omer Onhon and Turkish Americans attended the demonstration
held by the Federation of Turkish-American Associations (FTAA) and
Association of Young Turks. “This march is Turkish society’s reaction
to the constant repetition of the Armenians’ baseless allegations,”
said Onhon.

HOPES REMAIN DESPITE LATEST FRUITLESS TALKS, ARMENIAN MINISTER SAYS
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 19 2006
Baku, April 18, AssA-Irada
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian has said that the latest
fruitless round of talks between Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert
Kocharian in Rambouillet, France in February should not be considered
as the overall failure of talks to settle the long-standing Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh conflict.
“Although the two leaders were unable to reach agreement at
Rambouillet, we do not consider the negotiating process unsuccessful
as a whole,” Oskanian said in a recent meeting of the EU-Armenian
inter-parliamentary commission. He said that based on the progress
achieved prior to the meeting, hopes remain for the future.
Oskanian said that earlier Yerevan had refused to table any other
issues prior to the determination of Upper Garabagh’s status.
“However, in the course of the talks, it backed away from the previous
stance by making a serious compromise,” he maintained.
“If Azerbaijan admits to the right of Upper Garabagh Armenians to
self-determination, if not immediately, then a little later, the
Armenian side will be ready to solve other matters, including the
withdrawal from [Azeri] territories, return of refugees and security
issues,” the Armenian minister said.
Oskanian said the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering
settlement to the conflict are currently working to arrange for the
next meeting of the Azeri and Armenian presidents, but “real grounds”
should be created for this. He added that the date of such meeting
is unknown at this point.

BEEFING UP MILITARY MIGHT IS AZERBAIJAN’S SOVEREIGN RIGHT – DEFENSE MINISTRY
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
Azerbaijan’s increasing defense expenditures up to $1 billion is its
sovereign right, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry’s press-service said.
This statement was made in connection with the interview of Armenian
Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian with the Russian Krasnaya Zvezda
newspaper, in which he describes Baku’s intention to beef up its
defense budget to $1 billion as blackmail.
“Azerbajani President Ilkham Aliyev ordered the defense budget to
be increased up to the level of the Armenian state budget. Part of
the Azerbaijani territory is occupied, and given this fact, the task
specified by the president is Azerbaijan’s sovereign right,” the press-
service told Interfax.
“Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan complies with the Treaty on the
Conventional Forces in Europe. Armenia illegally deploys its weapons
on occupied Azerbaijani soil,” the press-service said.
It expressed its hope that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict would be
settled by peaceful means.
“At the same time President Ilkham Aliyev has repeatedly said that if
there is no hope for a peaceful solution to the problem, Azerbaijan
will resort to other measures to restore its territorial integrity,”
a press service official emphasized.

OSCE AMBASSADORS EMPHASIZE UPCOMING ELECTIONS
Lragir.am
19 April 06
On April 19 Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan met with the ambassadors of
OSCE members and representatives of international organizations to
Armenia, informs the Department of Public Relations of the National
Assembly of Armenia.
Noting that for the first time an agreement was reached among all
the political forces on the Electoral Code, the speaker of the
National Assembly presented all the major changes, informing that
the project had been extended to the Commission of Venice and the
OSCE. Answering the questions of ambassadors, Arthur Baghdasaryan
said the group of experts of the OSCE and the Commission of Venice
are visiting Armenia in June to discuss the renewed Electoral Code
and administrative problems. During the meeting advisory and technical
issues were discussed.
In their speeches U.S. Ambassador John Evans, the head of the OSCE
Yerevan Office Vladimir Pryakhin, Italian Ambassador Marco Clemente,
UN Resident Coordinator Consuelo Vidal pointed to the engagement
of proposals of international organizations in the Electoral Code,
emphasized the establishment of a legislative basis and political will
to conduct elections in 2007-2008 in compliance with international
standards, and asserted their willingness to support.
By the end of the meeting an arrangement was reached to carry on
discussions on the Electoral Code.

FRENCH ARMENIANS CONDEMN DESECRATING OF MEMORIAL TO VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN LYON
AZG Armenian Daily
20/04/2006
The Coordination Board of the France based Armenian Organizations
strictly condemned the act of desecration of the memorial to the
Victims of the Armenian Genocide in Lyon that was due to be unveiled
on April 24.
Earlier, by the order of the Turkish government, the Turkish consulate
in Lyon tried to hinder the construction of the memorial. On April 17,
the Turkish vandals wrote statements denying the genocide and praising
the Turks on the columns of the memorial.
“By taking such steps the Turkish nationalists living in France join
the neo-Nazi scoundrels that desecrate the Holocaust memorials,”
the statements of the France based Armenian organizations reads. The
organizations demand that the French political and the judiciary powers
should response this act with strictness, “as such vandalism cases
violate not only the rights of the Armenian community but also those
of all the French citizens and the republic, as well as violate such
values as memory, truth and justice.” The authors of the statement
demand that the vandals should undergo criminal prosecution.

ARDSHININVESTBANK TO REPLENISH ITS AUTHORIZED CAPITAL BY ABOUT 10 MLN DOLLARS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The shareholders of Ardshininvestbank
made a decision to allocate the undistributed profit of 4.5 bln
drams (about 10 mln USD) for replenishment of the bank’s authorized
capital. Chairman of Ardshininvestbank Board Aram Andreasian stated at
the April 18 press conference that as a result of it, the bank will
take first place in the banking system of the Republic of Armenia in
terms of the amount of its authorized capital. The bank’s authorized
capital currently makes 3 bln 20 mln drams, while its overall capital
– about 20 mln dollars. According to A. Andreasian, although thanks
to the policy of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), there are no
“unhealthy” bank in the RA banking system, their capitals ans assets
continue to be small. It was noted that the banking system of the
country is undergoing a dynamic development.

IT IS ENVISAGED TO TRANSFORM ARDSHININVESTBANK INTO OPEN JOINT STOCK COMPANY
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. It is envisaged to transform
Ardshininvestbank CJSC (closed joint stock company) into an open joint
stock company (OJSC) in the future. Chairman of Ardshininvestbank
Board Aram Andreasian stated at the April 18 press conference
that the bank management also intends to attract an institutional
investor. According to him, by the results of the first quarter of this
year, Ardshininvestbank took first place in the RA banking system by
the amount of its undistributed profit, which made about 4.9 bln drams
(about 10.9 mln USD). The bank was in second place by the amount of its
assets, capital and credit invetsments, which made 53.1 bln drams, 9.4
bln drams and 22.8 bln drams respectively. There was an unprecedented
growth in the number of ArCa and MasterCard plastic cards issued by
the bank in the first quarter of 2006 (15 thousand cards). It was
noted that this year the bank will continue participating in a number
of international programs. Particularly, Ardshininvestbank plans to
take part in the mortgage crediting market development program, which
is being implemented by KfW Bank (Germany). A. Andreasian assured
that this market will develop in Armenia and mortgage crediting will
become accessible for many sections of the country’s population.

ASSEMBLY POSITION ON GENOCIDE DENIAL CASE REINFORCED BY SIXTH CIRCUIT COURT RULING
ArmrRadio.am
18.04.2006 11:53
A recent US Sixth Circuit Court decision virtually echoed the language
used by the Armenian Assembly in its amicus curiae (“friend of the
court”) brief in the Massachusetts Genocide Denial Case, when it
ruled that a state, has in effect, broad discretion in determining
the appropriate framework on policy issues of public interest.
Ruling that the state of Tennessee can put on its license plates any
message it chooses, the Court said that the tags are “government
speech” and “not a public forum,” and that nothing in the First
Amendment prohibits it.
It went on to say: “Although this exercise of government one-sidedness
with respect to a very contentious political issue may be ill-advised,
we are unable to conclude that the Tennessee statute contravenes the
First Amendment,” Judge John M. Rogers said in his ruling.
To remind, last month, the Assembly filed an amicus brief in response
to a lawsuit brought by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations
(ATAA) and others who are attempting to rewrite history with respect
to the Armenian Genocide. The brief states in part: “There is no
First Amendment basis for objecting to the government’s choice in a
curricular guide simply because it expresses a viewpoint with which
the plaintiffs disagree. Indeed, the fundamental flaw in plaintiffs
suit, and the reason why it must be dismissed, is that the Curricular
Guide is government speech and there is no First Amendment basis for
objecting when the government chooses to speak.”

Top Manager Jailed for Heading Wrong Company
Created: 12.04.2006 14:20 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 10:01 MSK
MosNews.Com
Becoming an executive vice president of a major Russian oil company may
seem an attractive career move for any ambitious man, but in Russia the
consequences of such appointment may prove harmful. Vasily Aleksanyan was
arrested just week after becoming the top manager of the embattled oil
company Yukos and, as the man himself said shortly before his detention,
this was done after repeated warnings from law enforcers to stay away from
the wrong company.
Aleksanyan’s arrest was sanctioned by the Basmanny district court of Moscow
(which deals with most cases connected with the embattled Yukos company) on
April 7, less than one week after being appointed executive vice president
by Chief Executive Officer Steven Theede on April 1. The appointment was
unanimously ratified by the Board of Directors on April 4.
The authorities reacted quickly. On April 5 Aleksanyan’s apartment and
country house were searched and he himself was questioned by prosecutors. On
Thursday he was arrested after the move was approved by the court.
Prosecutors accuse Aleskanyan of embezzlement and money laundering. If found
guilty he may face 10 to 15 years in jail.
Under Russian law a person may be detained pending trial only after a court
of law sanctions the move.
This bought Aleksanyan some time during which he talked to journalists about
the developments in his case. Several hours before he was detained, he told
the Kommersant newspaper that he had been under surveillance and the agents
engaged in it were not even disguising themselves, but acting quite openly,
which could be seen as an act of intimidation.
He also said that law enforcers had warned him to “stay away” from Yukos.
“In an interview on March 22, the investigator told me to stay away from
this company and she said so quite openly, in the presence of my lawyer.
After I said I was not going to leave Yukos, she smiled and said it was the
first time she had seen a man who was voluntary asking to be put in jail,”
the newspaper quoted Aleksanyan as saying. “Before that, the investigators
had said I should worry about my child and about my health. They said that
my health was already not strong”.
In an official statement released the day after Aleksanyan’s detention,
prosecutors said they feared he would flee the country, and that he had
attempted to do so already. However, over the past two years Aleksanyan has
headed the legal department in Yukos, and he always turned up for
questioning at the same time as he was working in the defense team of former
Yukos CEO and key shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky as well as Vasily
Shakhnovsky, the head of the managing company Yukos-Moscow.
Aleksanyan denied any wrongdoing and went on a hunger strike in protest at
his detention. “Starting today I am on a hunger strike, and will only drink
water until I am released,” he has been quoted as saying by his lawyer,
Gevorg Dangyan. Dangyan has filed an appeal over his client’s arrest, saying
that it was illegal and unfounded. “None of the documents showed that I had
committed a crime and all the accusations were absolutely unsubstantiated,”
he said.
Prison authorities reacted to Aleksanyan’s hunger strike by putting him in a
punishment cell.
Gevorg Dangyan said that his client had been in the punishment cell since
April 8 for refusing to undergo a medical check-up to be carried out by the
detention centre doctors. The lawyer again said that Aleksanyan had been
refusing food and had only been drinking water.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Mr Amsterdam, who has been expelled from
Russia, said that Western nations must share the blame for what is happening
to the Yukos managers.
“I condemn the arrest in the strongest possible terms. Western nations have
no right to wring their hands over this latest assault on the rule of law
because it is they who have tacitly legitimized it. It is the Western banks
who made a pact with the devil to force Yukos into bankruptcy and then be
first in line for the spoils,” Amsterdam told the Australian edition
Tax-News.com.