Author: Zakarian Garnik

Council of Europe to host Summer University for Democracy

armradio.am
16.06.2007 15:20

Over 600 participants from Schools of political studies in 15 European
countries will gather in Strasbourg from 2 to 6 July for the second
Summer University for Democracy, organised by the Council of Europe.

Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis will open the Summer
University, whose theme is "Projects for Europe," and Serbian Boris
Tadic is expected to give an opening lecture. Council of Europe Human
Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg, Parliamentary Assembly Vice
President Goran Lindblad and Philippe Richert, Vice-Chairman of the
French Senate, count among speakers at the opening.

The five-day session will include a series of themed conferences and
workshops to be conducted by leading international personalities such
as George Soros, Chairman of the Open Society Foundation; and Ivan
Vejvoda, Executive Director of the Balkan Trust for Democracy.

Belarus opposition leader Alexandre Milinkevich will participate in the
closing session on Friday 6 July alongside Strasbourg Mayor Fabienne
Keller, as well as Oliver Dulic, Speaker of the Parliament of the
Republic of Serbia. A final declaration will be adopted at the end of
the ceremony.
A special round table on Thursday 5 July will examine the question 50
years after the Treaties of Rome: where is the European project?
Invited participants include Jean-Dominique Giuliani, president of the
Robert Schuman Foundation; Daniel Tarschys, former Secretary General of
the Council of Europe; Adrian Severin, European MEP; Deputy Prime
Minister Gabriela Konevska-Trajkovska of "the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia" and minister in charge of European affairs.

The four plenary sessions and thematic conferences are open to the
press, as opposed to the workshops.

A press briefing will be given by Jean-Louis Laurens, Council of Europe
political affairs Director General, on Tuesday 19 June at 11 a.m. (room
17, ground floor of the Palais de l’Europe).

POLICE DUCK MEDIA QUESTIONS ON RECENT HIGH-PROFILE CASES
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
June 15 2007

Senior police officials avoided talking about recent high-profile
cases on Friday as they gathered media to present details of a new
judicial reform.

Head of the Police Press Service Sayat Shirinian asked reporters in
advance to ask only questions related to the upcoming changes in the
prosecutorial system. He added that all unrelated questions would
not be answered or would be answered vaguely.

To RFE/RL’s question about the results of the internal police probe
into the death in custody of Levon Gulian last month, Shirinian said:
"The investigation has not ended yet. It is still in progress."

Police insist that Levon Gulian, 31, who died under unclear
circumstances while being interrogated as a murder witness on May 12,
tried to escape through the window of a second-floor interrogation
room and accidentally "fell down in the process." The victim’s family
and lawyers, however, do not trust the suicide version and fear a
cover-up attempt.

Another question about the dismissal of a senior police official
earlier this week was also answered vaguely.

"Let’s accept it as a fact. The police system is not stagnant and
appointments and dismissals happen," Shirinian said, adding that
Hovannes Varian is in reserve and keeps his rank as lieutenant-general.

Varian was relieved of his duties as deputy chief of police by
President Robert Kocharian’s decree on Tuesday. No official explanation
has been made since as for the reasons for firing the official regarded
as loyal to the regime.

An Armenian daily newspaper, "Hayk", claimed on Wednesday that
Varian was fired over a fistfight with his immediate chief, Hayk
Harutiunian. But the allegations have not been confirmed by any
official source.

In presenting the upcoming reform, Police Investigation Department
Chief Gagik Hambartsumian said that all investigation departments
will be removed from the prosecutorial system and transferred to
the police, the defense ministry, the customs committee and the tax
service. The three-stage reform commencing July 1 will be completed
by December of this year.

Hambartsumian hopes the reform will be successful as it will remove
the existing shortcomings in the system.

The reforms stem from the amendments introduced in Armenia’s
constitution in 2005, according to which the prosecutor’s office no
longer has powers to conduct investigations, while its functions will
be limited to oversight.

Hambartsumian said that Armenia has seen an increased number of
instituted criminal cases in the first quarter of the year. "Although
it is sad, this is a tendency currently observed everywhere in the
world," the major-general said. "Our approach is that if the number
of crimes grows, then we’ve had some omissions."

U.S. CONCERNED ABOUT BROADENING COOPERATION BETWEEN ARMENIA, IRAN – DIPLOMAT

Interfax News Agency, Russia
Central Asia General Newswire
June 15, 2007 Friday 3:02 PM MSK

U.S. Charge d’Affairs in Armenia Anthony Godfrey has expressed his
concern about the expanded cooperation between Yerevan and Tehran at
a press conference in Yerevan on Friday.

This concern has been expressed to the Armenian government at all
levels, he said.

While it appreciates Armenia’s openness about its plans for energy
cooperation with Iran, the U.S. calls on its government to join it
in convincing Iran to comply with its international obligations,
Godfrey said.

Speaking of energy programs in Armenia, Godfrey said that the
U.S. wants energy security for Armenia. Both the U.S. and Armenia
realize the problems in this area and agree that urgent steps are
needed to replace the current Armenian power station, Godfrey said.

The U.S. has provided serious assistance in strengthening the security
at the Armenian power station, however, the station is still not
secure, he said.

We are not against the current power station in Armenia being replaced
by a new one, but we believe that the best decision must be found,
which is why we have carried out a feasibility study, Godfrey said.

KOSOVO’S FUTURE IS BEING DETERMINED WITHOUT RUSSIA?

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.06.2007 12:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "On June 12 western participants of the Contact
Group held a session on Kosovo without Russia’s participation in
the so-called "fifth" format (Germany, Great Britain, Italy, USA
and France).

Russia was not invited to participate in that session.

This fact does not stick to declarative statements of our partners on
their readiness to continue the process of looking for compromise
resolutions. Secret discussions suggest the idea of preparing
unilateral scenarios for Kosovo’s independence," Russian MFA official
representative Mikhail Kaminin commented on the session of the western
"fifth" regarding Kosovo.

Kaminin is sure that at the meeting one more time the "fifth" has
expressed its support for the Ahtisaari Plan as a single possible way
out for the resolution on Kosovo in the UN Security Council. "Such an
approach is unacceptable for Russia. We strongly support the offer
to continue talks between Belgrade and Prishtina aimed at finding
a compromise on the status of the province. The UN Security Council
may approve only such a variant," the statement underlines, the RF
Press Office reports.

In his part Spokesman for the French MFA Jean-Baptiste Mattei stated
that the meeting between western five countries without Russia’s
participation does not mean to exclude Moscow from discussion over
Kosovo’s future in any account. "We really want to closely cooperate
with Russia," Mattei underlined. He said, the resolution of granting
Serbian Province Kosovo independence must be carried out in organized
manner with the participation of UN. "We fully support the Marti
Ahtisaari Plan. There must be no doubts in it," Mattei said, BBC
Russian Service reports.

ARMENIA ON THE EDGE OF DEMOGRAPHIC DISASTER
Shushan Matevosyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily – Armenia
13 June 07

The specialists often argue and raise an alarm regarding the fact that
the abrupt changes in Armenia’s demographic situation have turned into
a serious threat faced by the state and the national security. But
nothing more is done on this occasion besides raising the alarm.

We have what we have

The main flow of the emigration from Armenia has been registered from
1991-1994. According to the professional evaluation of the Ministry
of Labor and Social Security, if from 1991-2004 more than 900 thousand
people left Armenia, from 1991-1994, in the so called "cold and dark"
years, 600 thousand people emigrated from Armenia. And the worst
thing is that most of them were individuals of reproductive age.

This is the reason why today Armenia is facing the problem of
population aging and deterioration of gender-age proportion. The number
of the pensioners has been reduced from 2001-2003, but it is mainly
due to the fact that these are the people, who were born during the
years of the Great Patriotic War, that has been smaller in number.

If during the coming years immigration flows are not registered in
Armenia, the specific gravity of the pensioners won’t increase in
Armenia. But this will last only for some period of time. The situation
will take an abrupt change after 4-5 years, as those born in 1950-ies
and later those born in 1960-ies will come closer to the pension
age. Specialists say should we not register abrupt growth of birth
rate during these years the fact of population aging will deteriorate.

MALES 41% FEMALES 59%

In terms of demography the ratio of males and females is also not
favorable in Armenia at present. The specialists say gender-age problem
faced by the population is mainly conditioned by the activeness of
the males in emigration processes. That is why the drop of the males’
specific gravity is much more obvious.

The gender disproportion of the population is more emphasized in the
elder age groups. Among the population aged 60 and more the specific
gravity of the males is 41% and that of the females is 59%.

We should mention that according to international demographic norms if
the population aged 65 and more exceeds 12% this nation is considered
as already aged. In this context our society is decrepit.

By the way, specialists state that had the emigration not occurred,
in 2001 there would be 1031 male for 1000 female aged 30-34. Naturally
it is indispensable, if not correct then at least to avert the flow
of emigration during the coming years.

BIRTH RATE REDUCED

It is not a secret that for more then a decade birth rate has reduced
in our country. But the reason is not only emigration, because those
who are still living in this country are not very enthusiastic about
having many children. The tradition of having at least 2-3 children
no longer exists in our reality. The number of the children has
reduced to 1-2. If in the first case birth rate has reduced by 34%
and 47%. In case of three and more birth cases birth rate has reduced
three and even more than three times.

As regards this the problems still awaits us. Very soon we are going
to face the problem of scarcity of young people of military age;
a real problem for the national army.

But this is not the only problem. The main problem is that the
specialists, for a long period of time, have been recording the
process of a decay of national values and collapse of traditional
Armenian families, whereas not only birth rate is disappointing in
our reality, but also the high rate of divorces. And the conditions
bringing to the formation of this reality are far not optimistic.

According to the specialists in 2000 10986 marriage cases have been
registered in Armenia, and in 2005 this number has increased to 16624.

As for divorce cases, it is reducing in parallel with the reduction
of marriage cases. In 2000 it was 1,3 thousand and in 2005 it has
increased into 2,5 thousand. In 2005 from 1000 newly formed families
148 divorces have been registered, instead of 105 in 1980, and 154
in 1990.

To be continued.

ANRANIK MARGARIAN’S LIFE AND ACTIVITIES STILL NEED TO BE ANALYSED, SAYS TIGRAN TOROSIAN

Noyan Tapan
Jun 13 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 13, NOYAN TAPAN. On June 12, on the birthday of Andranik
Margarian, the RA ex-Prime Minister, the NA Speaker Tigran Torosian,
the Prime Minister Serge Sargsian, the members of the government, as
well as the relatives of Andranik Margarian visited the pantheon of
the Yerevan Komitas Garden. Then they took part in the launching of the
book "The Devoted" organized in the Chamber Music Hall. A. Margarain’s
life and activities, the memoirs of his relatives, friends, colleagues,
intellectuals, as well as those of ordinary citizens that present
A. Margarian as a person, politician and statesman, are included in
the book.

In Tigran Torosian’s opinion, the life and activities of Andranik
Margarian still need to be analysed as he was a unique high-ranking
official, the image of whom will become brighter and brighter in
the course of time. "We are the contemporaries of this national
hero, this great statesman who managed to lead our government and
achieve great progress during a difficult period for our country,"
T. Torosian mentioned.

"The whole conscious life of A. Margarian was dedicated to the idea
of creating powerful statehood. We, his friends, party members and
co-thinkers, will build the very temple of the statehood of which the
active participant was Andranik Margarian," Razmik Zohrabian said,
member of the RPA Board.

Armen Khandikian, a people’s artist of RA and the Art Director
of the Yerevan State Drama Theatre, confessed that he considered
that A. Margarian was a prime minister who was obliged to occupy
himself with the problems of the theatre. "Only now have I come to
understand that we have lost a great personality and Sevak’s words,
that the real thickness of the tree is seen only after cutting it,
are not written in vain," he said. Armen Khandikian declared that
the books of Vladimir Msrian and Artur Utmazian, "The 40-year-old
history of the Theatre of Drama", as well as the books dedicated
to his activities, will be published by the end of this year due to
financial assistance given by the late prime minister.

OVER 50 RF MILITARY HARDWARE TO BE BROUGHT TO RF FROM GEORGIA

ITAR-TASS, Russia
June 13 2007

MOSCOW, June 13 (Itar-Tass) – Another train, which will be carrying
weapons and military hardware of the 12th Russian military base in
Batumi, will go from Georgia to Russia on Thursday, Assistant Commander
of the Ground Troops Col. Igor Konashenkov told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

"The train will bring to Russia 51 motor vehicles and armored vehicles,
weapons and reserves of material and technical property of the Batumi
military base. The train will be carrying more than 900 tonnes of
cargoes," he emphasized.

The assistant commander recalled that another 12 trains and one motor
convoy with military hardware and property from Russian military bases,
which are deployed in Georgia, are to be dispatched from Georgia
to Russia and the 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri (Armenia)
by the end of 2007.

Under the Russian-Georgian agreement the Russian military base in
Akhalkalaki should be closed by the end of this year. The 12th Russian
base in Batumi is to be closed in the course of 2008.

FAMILY, FRIENDS REMEMBER LATE PRIME MINISTER
By Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 12 2007

The family and friends of Armenia’s tenth prime minister visited his
gravesite on Tuesday to pay their respects on his birthday.

Andranik Markarian, who died in March, would have turned 56 today. He
proved to be the longest-serving prime minister in independent
Armenia having been at the helm of the country’s government for nearly
seven years.

Among the visitors to the Pantheon, where Markarian is buried,
was Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, Vice-Premier Hovik Abrahamian,
Parliament Speaker Tigran Torosian, members of parliament and
government, Yerevan’s mayor, other officials.

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian approached Markarian’s widow and son
to express his sympathy. All officials laid wreaths at the prime
minister’s grave in a silent commemoration.

Also today, a presentation of a book telling about Andranik Markarian’s
life took place at Yerevan’s House of Chamber Music.

"This is the case when we can say with confidence that we were
contemporaries of a national hero and great statesman," Torosian said
at the event. "Today is a day of joy. Of course, we are all sad,
but we have to check our sadness the way Andranik managed to check
his feelings at many crucial moments. We must rejoice today that God
has bestowed such a great state, political, national figure on us."

Markarian’s friends and fellow partisans also remembered their late
colleague describing him in their speeches as a man of integrity who
had made a great contribution to the establishment of the Armenian
state.

RA Defense Minister to leave for Brussels

ArmRadio.am
11.06.2007 16:16

On June 12 the delegation headed by RA Defense Minister Michael
Harutyunyan will leave for Brussels to participate in the sitting of
the Defense Ministers of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, Defense
Minister’s Press Secretary, Colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan informs.
The delegation will be back to Yerevan on June 15.

FILM REVIEW: GENOCIDE PLUS PUNKS EQUALS BATHOS – SCREAMERS
Vanessa Farquharson, National Post

National Post, Canada
June 8 2007

This film’s title refers to those who witness or survive a genocide
and are so traumatized by it, they devote their lives to "screaming"
at anyone who will listen — politicians, media, the public — about
the importance of acknowledging and preventing such atrocities.

But the screamers in the film itself, somewhat less metaphorically
speaking, are all the fans who swarm the stage at a System of a Down
concert. The connection here is that all the members of this heavy
metal band are Armenian and make a point of speaking out — or,
when it comes to their lyrics, screaming out — about the tragedy
that befell their grandparents 92 years ago, and the tragedies that
continue today in regions like Darfur and, with the Kurds, in Iraq.

So it becomes an odd sort of hybrid between a rock-documentary and
a depressing history of genocide; think Hard Core Logo meets Ararat.

When director Carla Garapedian, a BBC World News anchor turned
filmmaker and herself of Armenian heritage, focuses on modern politics,
pointing out the so-called genocide jig that politicians will do in
order to avoid the term — hence phrases like "crimes against humanity"
or "a genocidal process" — she sets a tone of sombre urgency.

As well, the background provided on people such as Talat Pasha, head
of the Young Turks in the early 20th century, and the comprehensive
timeline of events in the Ottoman Empire help ground the film in
context.

But just when audiences start settling down into stats about the
Holocaust, Rwanda, Bosnia and so on, Screamers suddenly cuts to System
frontman Serj Tankian yelling something into his microphone about
breaking down the walls of hypocrisy and how "it’s time to make the
Turkish government pay for their f—in’ crimes!"

And suddenly we’re rocking out alongside hoards of punk kids waving
their black nail-polished hands in the air, snapping pictures with
their cellphone cameras.

Instead of commentary from Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and former
FBI translators, we now get fans stumbling out of the show offering
such erudite sound bites as, "Without System of a Down, no one would
be doing this" (referring, one guesses, to raising awareness about
the Armenian genocide, but perhaps he just meant rocking out).

Or there’s the guy who, when asked what he likes about the band,
replies, "They speak about, like, society and government and stuff."

Or, better yet, the British kid who at least has his diction more
intact and comments succinctly, "I quite like the new song Bring Your
Own Bombs–I was quite impressed by that."

While the band members might have been fine to listen to for a few
minutes, the concert footage is truly jarring, especially next to
the more gruesome images of genocide. It’s a case of genre mashing
that borders on offensive. Had Garapedian spent more time, say, on
the couch with the former FBI translator (and dead ringer for Audrey
Hepburn circa Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and less time on a dingy tour
bus, a considerably more interesting story might have emerged.

.html?id=ddceebcc-4ba6-409d-81d2-ec6e64285a95