10 HECTARES OF FOREST BURNT IN SYUNIK ON AUGUST 23
KAPAN, AUGUST 24, NOYAN TAPAN. A forest with surface of 10 hectares
was burnt in the forest territory from Ghubatlu to the village of
Nor Arajadzor of the marz of Syunik on August 23. As Noyan Tapan was
informed by the Resque Service of the RA Territorial Administration,
a territory with surface of 4 hectares was burnt in the pasture of
the village of Hartashen of the marz on the same day.

OVER 10 HEAD OF CATTLE INFECTED WITH FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE IN ARTIK
GYUMRI, AUGUST 24, NOYAN TAPAN. On August 22, 10-15 head of cattle had
symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease at the pasture “Artik Woodlands”
of Shirak marz. According to the veterinary of the city of Artik,
the symptoms were confirmed. NT was informed from the Rescue Service
of the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration that the infected
cattle was disinfected and isolated.
Measures were taken to prevent the spread of the disease.

ARMENIAN COMMUNIST PARTY TO GO TO NA ELECTIONS ALONE
YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, NOYAN TAPAN. The Communist Party of Armenia will
participate in the 2007 parliamentary elections alone, without making
an alliance with any political party. Ruben Tovmasian, the First
Secretary of the CPA Central Committee stated about it at the August
24 press conference. According to him, the party seriously analyzed
reasons of its fail in the 2003 elections and came to the conclusion
that it must participate in the coming elections exclusively by own
forces. “Those people, thouse groups which were able to tempt the
Communist Party in 2003 to protect them, we have nothing more to do
with those forces,” the CPA leader stated. R.Tovmasian stated that the
Communist Party has no hopes connected with any foreign force, whereas
90% of Armenian parties sets hopes on implementing in Armenia one of
variants of the colored revolutions worked out in the U.S. According
to R.Tovmasian, “the U.S. and Council of Europe have always cheated
and today cheat the Armenian people.”
Answering the question concerning stopping examination on Armenian
student Vigen Abrahamiants’ murder in Moscow, on April 22 of the
current year, the speaker mentioned that he condemns any crimes,
including ones committed on the basis of chauvinism. But, at the
same time, one may not ascribe displays of chauvinism, in general,
to the Russian people. In his words, during those recent 15 years,
a new, Fascism youth organization grew in Russia, and the reason
is that “in our days states are not engaged in issues of bringing
up of the youth.” Touching upon the competition on the new RA hymn,
R.Tovmasian stated that the CPA and he himself supports the variant
of the hymn with Aram Khachatrian’s music, but not protest against
changing Sarmen’s words.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT ALLOCATES 300 MLN DRAMS AS COMPENSATION TO FARMS
AFFLICTED BY DROUGHT IN NAGORNO KARABAKH
YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, NOYAN TAPAN. At the August 24 sitting, the
Armenian government made a decision to allocate 300 mln drams (about
750 thousand USD) from its 2006 reserve fund to the RA Ministry of
Finance and Economy for the purpose of paying compensations to farms
in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) that most suffered from drought
and fires in the summer of 2006. NT was informed about it from the
RA Government Information and PR Department.

“ARDARUTIUN” ELECTS GRIGOR HAROUTIUNIAN AS FACTION SECRETARY AND
DECIDES TO RECALL ITS SIGNATURE FROM DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO ELECTORAL CODE
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The “Ardarutiun” (Justice) faction
of the National Assembly will recall its signature from the draft
amendments to the Electoral Code jointly authored by the NA group
and factions. A decision was made on it at the August 25 sitting. As
Stepan Demirchian, the faction head, the Chairman of the People’s
Party of Armenia informed the Noyan Tapan correspondent, the mentioned
decision is provided by not accepting the party’s preservations, among
which the proposal on forming the Parliament by 100% proportional
electoral order is attached special importance. Grigor Haroutiunian,
the PPA Board Secretary was also unanimously elected the faction
secretary at the sitting. The secretary’s post has been vacant since
early August when former secretary of the faction, non-partizan
Victor Dallakian left the party according to his own application,
becoming an independent deputy. 13 deputies will be members of the
party from now on. Responding the “NT” question, S.Demirchian stated
that there was no other application on leaving the party. To recap,
according to romour being circulated, another non-partizan deputy,
Tatul Manaserian, has a similar intention. He, like V.Dallakian,
may join the “Bargavach Hayastan” (Prospering Armenia) newly created
party in future. The “Ardarutiun” head assured that the party intends
to actively work at the autumn session to start in September. He
also expressed his disagreement with some estimations made in the
address of the opposition’s passiveness, mentioning that the faction,
including the PPA, has always publicly stated its position concerning
process taking place in the country and issues of public sonority. As
for the PPA coming programs, S.Demirchian mentioned that the party
actively prepares for its regular congress to be convened in November.

PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN SENDS MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCE ON OCCASION OF SILVA
KAPUTIKIAN’S DEATH
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Robert Kocharian sent
a message of condolence on the occasion of famous poetess Silva
Kaputikian’s death.
The message submitted to Noyan Tapan by the RA President’s Press
Office particularly reads the following: “I got to know with great
pain about famous poetess Silva Kaputikian’s death. Silva Kaputikian
is one of the most prominent representatives of the Armenian newest
literature. Her fiction and publicizing works have accompanied for
dozens of years both Armenian and foreign readers.
She enjoyed great popularity both in Fatherland and in Diaspora as
an intellectual, anxious with her country’s and people’s fate. Silva
Kaputikian’s death is a great loss in our literary and public life. I
express my sincere sympathy to the poetess’ relatives and thousands
of admirers of her art.”

ARMENIA AND UKRAINE HAVE BOTH GENERALITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN RELATIONS
WITH EUROPEAN UNION AND CIS
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia and Ukraine have both
generalities and differences in relations with the European Union
and the CIS. Olexander Bozhko, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Armenia,
expressed such an opinion in his exclusive interview to the Noyan
Tapan correspondent. “Ukraine and Armenia today set similar tasks in
front of them in the sphere of foreign policy, that is integration
to European structures, future development of the dialogue with
the NATO,” the Ambassador said. He mentioned that in 2005, Kiev
started implementation of the Ukraine-EU actions plan, and the EU
gave Ukraine status of country having market economy already in late
2005. Negotiations are continued with Brussels in the direction of
simplifying visas, with a perspective of Ukrainian citizens’ entering,
in future, EU countries without visa.
“Negotiations with the European Union concerning signing a free trade
agreement are among the programs,”Mr.Bozhko continued. The Ambassador
stated that holding Armenian-Ukrainian constant consultations
concerning the issue of the EU relations is planned, as it is
expected that the Armenia-EU actions plan will soon be adopted. “We
see a good perspective for cooperation of Ukraine and Armenia in the
European direction,” he said. “The same may be said in the sense of
the Ukraine’s relations with the Euro-Atlatic Alliance as well. Kiev
started implementation of the Ukraine-NATO actions plan in 2002,
and today, it has a great experience in that direction,” O.Bozhko
said. At the same time, the Ambassador mentioned that Ukraine has
never had and does not have the issue of joining the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on the agenda of its foreign
policy. “It’s just here that approaches of Ukraine and Armenia differ
at some extent. Yerevan believes that it’s able to develop at the same
time relations in two directions: both with NATO and with CSTO, and
as we can understand, arising of the state existing in the region,
such a format is today the best for Armenia in the sense of the
national security,” O.Bozhko said.
As for the CIS, Mr.Bozhko mentioned that Ukraine has been and remains
a participant of that union, though it is not a CIS member as it
did not sign its charter. “I, as a diplomate who twice (in 1993-1996
and 2001-2005) headed the Russia and CIS Department of the Foreign
Ministry of Ukraine, must specially mention that Ukraine has always
presented initiatives in the CIS issue, which, and it’s a pity, were
not perceived by some other members of the CIS for some reasons,”
the Ambassador of Ukraine to the RA said.

RA NA SPEAKER SENDS TELEGRAMS OF CONDOLENCE TO RF PARLIAMENT
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, NOYAN TAPAN. RA NA Speaker Tigran Torosian sent
telegrams of condolence to Boris Gryzlov, the RF State Duma Speaker,
and to Sergey Mironov, the Chairman of the Council of Federation
of the Federal Assembly, on the occasion of the crash of the Tu-154
plane implementing the Anapa-Saint Petersburg flight. As Noyan Tapan
was informed by the NA Public Relations Department, on behalf of
the National Assembly and himself, T.Torosian expressed symthaphy to
families of the people died in the consequence of the plane crash.

ARMENIAN FAMOUS POETESS SILVA KAPUTIKIAN DIED AT AGE OF 87
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Silva Kaputikian, a famous Armenian
poetess, RA NAS academician, laureate of state prizes, died on August
25, at the age of 87. By RA Prime Minister Andranik Margarian’s
decree, a governmental commission headed by the RA Prime Minister was
created on the occasion of the poetess’ death. S.Kaputikian’s burial
procession will take place in the panthon of the Yerevan park after
Komitas. S.Kaputikian was born in January 20, 1919, in Yerevan. The
first book of her works was published in 1944. Kaputikian’s works were
translated into numerous languages, among them more than 20 collections
were published in the Russian language. Besides the USSR and RA state
prizes, she was also rewarded with the Nosside International Prize in
Rome in 1989. She was a deputy of the Supreme Council of the Armenian
SSR in 1975-1980. She had active participation in the public life of
the country in future as well. As a protest against violences committed
upon participants of the opposition mass meeting on the Baghramian
avenue of Yerevan, in April, 2004, the famous poetess returned the
Surb Mesrop Mashtots order rewarded to her by the RA President. RA
Prime Minister Andranik Margarian sent a telegram of condolence on
the occasion of the prominent poetess’ death, in which, on behalf
of the RA Government and himself, the Prime Minister expresses deep
symthaphy to her relatives, friends and all admirers of her poetry.

O.BOZHKO: “ANCIENT ARMENIAN-UKRAINIAN TIES BORN ANEW”
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian-Ukrainian cultural
ties have many old traditions. As Olexander Bozhko, the Ambassador
of Ukraine to Armenia said in the interview to the Noyan Tapan
correspondent, there are facts that prove that Armenians moved to
Ukraine developed thier national culture there even centuries ago. “We
have thousands of manuscripts which Armenians created on the Ukrainian
land. A performance of the first Armenian school theater took place
in Lviv still in the 16th century. Armenian books were published,
monasteries were built in Lviv, in the Crimea, in Kamenets-Podolskiy
and other Ukrainian cities,” the Ambassador continued. He mentioned
that the Ukrainian-Armenian cultural ties very actively developed in
the Soviet period as well.
Numerous translations were published. “I must mention with a pity that
the liveliness that existed in our peoples’ contacts during those
years, reduced at some extent, caused by some reasons,” Mr.Bozhko
said. At the same time, in his words, the situation in this sphere
is being improved. Legal bases are being created which will allow to
develop ties in the spheres of culture and education, An agreement
on cultural cooperation was signed still in 1996, agreements on
attestation of scietific and scientific-pedagogical personnel as
well as on cooperation in the medical and health care sphere were
also signed, Bozhko said. Ambassador Bozhko mentioned as an example
of estiblishing ties the fact of opening the Ternopol Academy branch
in Yerevan. As well, in his words, Armenian younth has possibility
to get education in Ukraine. The Ambassador stated that a document
is being prepared owing to which Armenian diplomates will be able to
be re-trained in the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine. “Just to say,
that for us, Ukrainians, the Armenian culture is very interesting,
would be very little. We consider that for the Ukrainian people,
treasures of the Armenian culture of many centuries must become an
indivisible element of the cultural life of our country,” O.Bozhko
stated. In his words, Grigor Narekatsi’s “Book of Tragedies,” the epic
“David of Sasun” and other works were in the Ukrainian published in
Ukraine during the recent years. Even more, Ukrainian publishing
houses publish Armenian authors’ books in the Armenian as well,
O.Bozhko said. The Ambassador stated that the Embassy attempts at
present to re-establish the old kind traditions when Armenian writers
participate in the “Taras Shevchenko” annual holiday.