ARMENIA HAS COME LONG WAY IN SHORT YEARS
PanARMENIAN.Net
27.09.2006 16:17 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As Mr Sean Oblack, the spokesman for Senator Adam
Schiff told PanARMENIAN.Net, the members of the U.S. Senate and
House joined with Armenian Americans last week in marking the 15th
anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia. “Today we
mark the 15th anniversary of the reestablishment of the independence of
the Republic of Armenia. On behalf of the tens of thousands of Armenian
Americans in my district, the largest Armenia community outside of
Armenia I congratulate the Armenian people on a decade and a half of
freedom. Armenia has come a long way in 15 short years, and I look
forward to much more progress in the years ahead,” said Senator Schiff.
“We join with Armenian Americans throughout the United States in
thanking our Congressional friends for marking this proud milestone
in our nation’s history – the reestablishment in 1991 of the Armenia’s
independence,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SPEECH OF ARMENIAN FM IN UN ASSEMBLY GENERAL TAKES BLACKMAIL CHARACTER – DEP. CHIEF OF AZERI PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE
Author: A.Ismaylova
TREND, Azerbaijan
Sept 27 2006
The speech of Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan at the 61st
session of the U.N. Assembly General takes a blackmail character,
the Head of the International Relations Department of Azerbaijani
President’s Office Novruz Mammadov told Trend.
He considers that the speech of Oskanyan made an impression not only
in Azerbaijan, but also in the whole world public that the Armenian
minister was very nervous and emotional during the speech. His speech
went away from the diplomacy. “Oskanyan wanted to misinform the
international community. Armenians have a habit to deceive. He spoke
about thousands of pomp stones as though destroyed by Azerbaijanis.
It is a new falsehood,” Mammadov emphasized.
Touching on the statement of Oskanyan that Armenia agrees with all
conditions of OSCE regarding the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, Mammadov spelled out that “if it is so, then who did
Armenian president and foreign minister immediately left Paris after
Rambue meeting, by not respecting to his friend – French President
Jacque Chirac”.

THE RUSSIANS BOUGHT THE “ELECTRIC POWER NETWORK”
A1+
[01:20 pm] 27 September, 2006
The “Electric power network of Armenia” has a new owner. Russian
company “Inter RAO EES” paid 73 million USD for it. British company
“Midland Resources” handed the stock to the Russians yesterday. The
representatives of “Inter RAO EES” arrived in Armenia in order to be
present at the ceremony.
It is noteworthy that the new owner of the “Electric power network
of Armenia” intends to invest 20 million USD in the company till the
end of the next year.

THE PARLIAMENT TURNED DOWN THE “DANGEROUS” LAW
A1+
[01:04 pm] 27 September, 2006
Today the RA draft law on “Alienation of property for the needs of
state and society”. By the way, the law was put to the vote twice.
During the first vote 62 deputies voted for the draft.
But when Arshak Sadoyan put together the number of the votes and the
number of the deputies present in the hall and expressed doubts about
the results of the vote, the draft was put to vote a second time.
The second vote has the same results. Once again the necessary
amount of votes was not gathered in order to adopt the draft. So,
the Parliament turned down the draft law which had caused much hubbub.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS NEGATIVE REPORT ON TURKEY
Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
Sept 27 2006
The European Parliament adopted Wednesday a report which is critical
of the slow reform process, religious discrimination and free speech
and the role of the army in Turkey.
The report adopted by 429 votes in favor 71 against with 125
abstentions reiterates the EP’s position that membership negotiations
with Turkey are an ‘open-ended process, and do not lead a priori and
automatically to accession’.
The EP report comes a day after the EU announced that Bulgaria and
Romania will join the European bloc on January 1, 2007.
MEPs called on Turkey to recognize the Republic of Cyprus, withdraw
its forces from the island and lift its embargo on Cypriot vessels
and aircraft.
The report warns Turkey that a lack of progress in implementing the
Ankara protocol ‘will have serious implications for the negotiation
process, and could even bring it to a halt’.
The EP, however, rejected a para in the report that called the
acknowledgement of the ‘Armenian genocide’ a ‘precondition’ for
Turkey’s EU accession.
The report noted that, although the recognition of the Armenian
genocide as such is formally not one of the criteria for EU membership,
it is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come
to terms with and recognize its past.
MEPs urge Turkey to take the necessary steps, without any
preconditions, to establish diplomatic and good neighbourly relations
with Armenia, to withdraw the economic blockade and to open the land
border at an early date.
MEPs urged Turkish authorities to ‘fulfill their commitments regarding
freedom of religion’, since they noted an ‘absence of progress’
in this area.
It notes that an important discussion on headscarves is going on
within Turkish society; points out that there are no European rules
in this matter, but expresses its hope that a compromise will be found
in Turkey on the wearing of headscarves by students at universities.
The House welcomed ‘the opening of broadcasting in Kurdish’ while
nevertheless noting the continued intimidation of civil society
representatives in the southeast of the country.
The report ‘strongly condemns the resurgence of terrorist violence
on the part of the PKK’ and ‘calls on the PKK to declare and respect
an immediate ceasefire’.
It also pleads for ‘a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue’.
The Parliament also expressed its ‘serious concern’ about the
‘non-respect for women’s rights’ and the high role of the military
in Turkish public life.

DEPUTIES REVOLT
A1+
[02:00 pm] 27 September, 2006
The National Assembly finished the discussion of the drafts about
“Amendments to the RA Law on Television and Radio and Amendments to
the RA Regulations of the National Commission on Television and Radio”
which was represented by the RA Government.
During the discussions which lasted two days the oppositional deputies
called on everyone to vote down the draft. According to Viktor
Dallakyan, the law gives punitive functions to the National Committee
of TV and Radio against private TV Companies. And Arshak Sadoyan
announced that the draft is “anti constitutional, wrong and criminal”.
Gegham Manoukyan spoke on behalf of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun faction. He
introduced himself as a person who has worked in the television field
and called on all the deputies to reject the draft. He wondered why
they try to make amendments in such a rush, taking into account the
fact that Constitution demanded to change the staff of the National
Committee of TV and Radio and not the law itself. The ARF deputy
also assumed the draft gives the monopoly of TV commercials to the
Public Television.
NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan was perhaps the only one who called on
everyone to vote for the draft saying “Let’s adopt it, and amend
it later”.
By the way, in his final speech Minister of Justice David Haroutyunyan
too asked to vote for the draft claiming that there was no rush. “If
we tried to adopt it in a rush, we would organize the second hearing
in the special session at once”.

“A LITTLE PRESSURE, AND THE TARIFFS WON’T BE RAISED”
A1+
[02:38 pm] 27 September, 2006
“The daughter of RF President Vladimir Putin might become the owner of
“ArmenTel””. This supposition is not grounded, but RA deputy Arshak
Sadoyan has suspicions in this respect. He thinks that the tariffs
are being raised not for “ArmenTel” but for the next potential owner
of our telecommunication network.
Arshak Sadoyan has no doubts that “ArmenTel” will be sold to a Russian
company and not to an Arabic one which offers a larger sum. According
to Sadoyan, in order for a Russian company to offer more money they
must have guarantees for high income in Armenia. The deputy thinks that
“the millions resulting from the raise of tariffs will be earned by
the next owner”.
In a press conference rendered today Sadoyan called on the journalists
to join him and to organize a protest action on October 6 near the
Matenadaran against the offered tariffs. Sadoyan advised everyone
to phone about 15-20 friends and relatives a day and to invite them
to the action. “A little pressure”, and the tariffs won’t be raised,
Sadoyan claimed.

SWITZERLAND AND ARMENIA MEET IN FRANCE
Planet Rugby, UK
Sept 27 2006
FIRA Championship starts
The FIRA-AER Championship starts with a Division 3A match between
Armenia and Switzerland in Vienne, France.
It is actually an Armenian home match, but because most of their
players are Armenians of the diaspora and play in France the match
is just down the Rhône in the ancient town of Vienne.
Armenia was part of the USSR and then rugby flourished because of
government functions, such as the army and the police. Since Armenia
has obtained independence from Russia rugby has declined to a degree
but the Federation has gone to lengths to find players of Armenian
origin to play for the national side, and the plan has worked.
In 2004, Armenia played its first Tests – in FIRA’s Division 3C and
easily beat Norway and Israel to gain promotion, by beating Luxembourg
easily, to Division 3B where, in 2005, Armenia easily beat Bulgaria,
Hungary, Slovenia and Lithuania. Now it is kin Division 3 A along
with Switzerland, Serbia & Montenegro, Denmark and Sweden.
The competition will again be played over two years. The team ending
top will go to Division 2B, the team ending fifth to Division 3B.
Both Armenia and Switzerland would have ambitions. The first part of
the competition will run till the first week of November after which
there will be a break till March while rugby hibernates.
Switzerland’s coach Patrice Philippe has named his 23-strong squad
to play Armenia. He has included 20 of the squad which lost 40-10 to
Germany a fortnight ago, brining in three players who play their rugby
in France – Pierre Dubost, Mathieu Guyou-Kreis and Nicolas Guyou. The
flyhalf against Germany, Ian Mowat, is away at the European Under-20
tournament in Poland.
Switzerland have prepared well but they know Armenia will not be easy
pickings at all.
Swiss squad:
Forwards: Schelte Betten (Zurich), Alfredo Burgener (Nyon), David Da
Silva (Neuchâtel), Pierre Dubost (Champery), Yohann Mazza (Hermance),
Pedro Dubois (Nyon), Steven Lazarus (Basel), Sergio Hosel (Zurich),
Nicholas Guyou (Rumilly), Urs Zimmerli (Zurich), Gareth Jones (Nyon),
David Mossiere (Geneva), Arnaud Vincent (La Seyne)
Backs: Geoff Johnson (Hermance), Anthony Carriere (Geneva), Iain Wise
(Hermence), Jean-Claude Porte (Nyon), Mathieu Guyou-Kreis (Racing),
Celien Mundler (Geneve), Arnaud Blaszczyk (Geneve), Alberto Giuliani
(Ticino), Benjamin Faudot, Olivier Dumerliat (Hermance)
Kick-off: 15.00 Referee: Akim Hadj Bachir (France).
–Boundary_(ID_MAlehmHmVT5IES0cRDj+FQ)- –

VENICE COMMISSION STARTED DISCUSSING THE ELECTORAL CODE
A1+
[05:06 pm] 27 September, 2006
The discussions of the amendments to the RA Electoral Code started
in the NA today with the participation of the representatives of
the NA political powers, and experts from the Venice Commission,
the OSCE/ODIHR, international organizations and the Central Electoral
Committee.
Opening the works of the session NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan thanked
the experts for participating in the discussions. He mentioned that
the joint conclusion of the Venice Commission and the representatives
of the OSCE/ODIHR lies in the basis of the draft amendment to the
Electoral Code which has been introduced into circulation by several
political powers.
During the discussion the sides agreed to include the joint conclusion
of the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR into the draft except
for provisions N 28, 42-45 and 56. In the joint conclusion there were
questions about the order of voting and appeal. These two issues plus
the above mentioned six provisions will be the subject for discussion.
Mr. Torosyan mentioned that the draft which takes into account all
the offers was sent to the experts a week ago. He voiced hope that
the discussions will take place in an atmosphere of mutual agreement.

AMENDED BILL CALLS FOR GREATER COMPENSATION TO OWNERS OF ALIENATED PRIVATE PROPERTY
Armenpress
Sept 27 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: By a vote of 62 to 0 the parliament
has turned down today a government-designed bill on alienation of
private property for the needs of the state and society that was put
on the third and final reading.
The bill was presented yesterday by justice minister David Harutunian
who said the bill has incorporated a set of proposals suggested by
the United Labor Party, the human rights defender’s office and a
parliament committee.
The Republican Party and the United Labor Party have suggested that the
amount of compensation to the owners of private property alienated for
the needs of the state must be 15 percent higher than the property’s
market price.
The bill was supported by lawmakers from the Republican Party, United
Labor Party and the ARF, all making the ruling coalition, but MPs
from the opposition Ardarutyun (Justice) block, Orinats Yerkir and
the National Unity did not participate in the vote.
Under a Constitutional Court ruling the bill must be passed before
October 1. It is likely to be put on the vote again.