ARMENIA MUST GRANT CITIZENSHIP TO THOSE WHO SURVIVED THE GENOCIDE
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[04:07 pm] 20 October, 2006
The owners of Armenia are ordinary people
84-year-old Samvel Lazarian who is citizen of the USA is searching the
villages of Armenia for the sons and grandsons of his father’s uncle
who came to Armenia at the beginning of the previous century. Artin
of Mko’s house (that was the name of the uncle) is the pride of the
Lazarians from Sasoun who survived the Genocide. They say Artin
was so brave that even the Kurds of the village were afraid of him.
One day, as Samvel’s father told him, Gevorg Chaush came to their
house and took Artin away as a soldier. This is the only accurate
piece information they have; the rest are gossips that reached the
relatives of Artin and passed on to the other generations.
Samvel Lazarian was born in Tigranakert, and as he says with pride,
“I was born in historical Armenia”. Although he was born seven years
after the 1915 Genocide, he suffered the same feelings. He has been
to Syria, Lebanon, and has spent the last 17 years in the USA. He is
84 years old, but unusually hale and hearty for his age which is the
result of having played football for many years.
This is the first time 84-year-old Armenian writer Samvel Lazarian
has ever been to Armenia. “I have written exceptional articles about
the previous regime of the country”, he explained the reasons of his
not coming to Armenia during the Soviet years and opens the brackets,
“The structure which sponsored me knew that it was dangerous for me
to come here”. And the structure was the ARF Dashnaktsutyun.
During the 15 days spent in Armenia Samvel has realized that the ARF
is stronger abroad than in Armenia. Meeting different people he also
realized that it is not easy to live in Armenia.
“I have spoken to many people, learned different opinions, and
felt what they feel. That is why I can say that the first step the
Government has to take is to take care of the poor”, the 84-year-old
Armenian says. He is convinced that the owners of Armenia are the
ordinary people and not those who have power.

CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAVAKHQ
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[06:31 pm] 20 October, 2006
“Javakhq is not on sale”, “Freedom to Vahagn Chakhalyan” – these
were the posters with which members and confederates of union “United
Javakhq” went on a sit-down strike in the park opposite the RA National
Security Service, near the statue of Nalbandyan.
They demanded to set free one of their heads, Vahagn Chakhalyan, who
was arrested on October 11 for crossing the border of Armenia illegally
and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. The participants of the
strike think that arresting Chakhalyan, the RA authorities support the
Georgian authorities to suppress the movement of Armenians in Javakhq.
According to representative of “United Javakhq” Edgar Peleshyan, the
RA authorities accuse Vahagn Chakhalyan, “a patriotic boy who does
everything to make the situation in Javakhq more stable”, trying to
solve their political problems.
The participants of the strike consider the arrest of Chakhalyan the
result of “Armenian-Georgian conspiracy”. They announced that they
will go on with their strike until Vahagn Chakhalyan is set free.

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN WILL BE CANDIDATE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
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[04:42 pm] 20 October, 2006
“Levon Ter-Petrosyan will be nominated for the coming Presidential
elections”, announced president of the Armenian Pan-National Movement
administration Ararat Zourabyan in “Pastark” club today. His statement
cannot be considered official and final as the final decision must
be made by Levon Ter-Petrosyan himself.
But why does Mr. Zourabyan think that the first President of the
Republic of Armenia will return to politics?
“I am sure that a few words by Levon Ter-Petrosyan are more important
that the activities of whole political powers”, Mr. Zourabyan said. He
is sure that the present authorities have exhausted themselves; he
mentioned that at present the most urgent problem of the party is to
not allow the reproduction of the authorities, be it in the person
of Serge Sargsyan or Vardan Oskanyan.
Taking into account the experience of the previous elections,
Mr. Zourabyan claimed that the RA authorities never gather more than
10-15% of votes.
“The rest is the result of fabrications. We shall try to prevent
it”. The previous elections showed not only the presence of
fabrications, but also the impossibility of their prevention. The APNM
has the solution to this problem too, “It was possible to prevent
the fabrications in 2003 too if the opposition were a little more
decisive”.
According to Ararat Zourabyan, no political power in Armenia can have
significant success without cooperating with other powers. According
to him, they are ready to cooperate with the Republican party and
the RA Liberal-Progressive party.

OSKANYAN REPRESENTED THE EXPERIENCE OF THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA
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[04:50 pm] 20 October, 2006
RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan who is in Canada on a official
duty made a speech in the international conference titled “Peace and
Development: The Role of the Diaspora” organized by the UN and the
University for Peace in Toronto.
President of the 61st session of the UN General Assembly Sheikha Haya
Rashed Al Khalifa opened the conference.
The Minister represented the experience of the Diaspora and spoke about
the activity of the structures of the Diaspora in different countries.
Representing a historical outline of the creation and formation of
the Armenian Diaspora, he referred to the problem of originality of
the Diaspora.
A reference was made to the relations of Armenia with the Diaspora. The
Minister mentioned that the Diaspora supports Armenia economically
and politically.

GARBAGE NOT FAR FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING
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[05:54 pm] 20 October, 2006
At the center of Yerevan, not far from the Republic square, a new
garbage site is being created.
The crossroad of Buzand the Republican streets can be characterized
as a place for throwing away plastic bottles. The reason is that the
garbage has not been removed from here for a long time. Of course
there are garbage cans, but our compatriots have thrown away the
garbage in and around them.
According to the people working on the construction of the nearby
building, citizens often throw away their plastic bags around
the area. “We have removed the garbage with our cars several
times. Sometimes they blame us for polluting the area, but how can
we do it if we are the first ones to breathe the polluted air?”
the head of the construction said.
By the way, the crossroad is in the neighborhood of the RA Ministry
of Finance and the third building of the RA Government. The state
officials pass it by every day and fail to notice the situation. We
met an official walking along the street and tried to find out his
opinion. He agreed to answer anonymously.
“It is too bad we are careless about preserving our city clean. There
are very few garbage cans. For instance, I don’t know where to throw
my cigarette now”, he said.

DEFENSE MINISTERS MET
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[06:40 pm] 20 October, 2006
Defense Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Serge Sargsyan and Safar
Abiev met today on the border line of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The
meeting took place at the suggestion of personal representative of
the OSCE CiO Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, in order to raise mutual
trust between the sides.
During the meeting the sides discussed issues of mutual interest,
in particular about the control of the border line and preservation
of the ceasefire.

GETTING READY FOR THE MATCH WITH AZERBAIJAN
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[07:14 pm] 20 October, 2006
On October 21 the Armenian football junior team will leave for Cyprus
where the group phase of the qualifying round of the European junior
football championship will take place on October 27-November 2.
Armenia is included in the seventh group with Hungary, Cyprus and
Azerbaijan.
The first opponents of the Armenians will be the Azeris. The match
will take place on October 27. The second match will take place on
October 29 against Cyprus. The last game will be against Hungary,
on November 1.

THEY WILL TAKE FINGERPRINTS IN “ZVARTNOTS”
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[07:40 pm] 20 October, 2006
Since November 1, 2006, new security payment will be established in
airport “Zvartnots” which will be 2 Euros per passenger.
International aviation companies have offered the airports to
introduce new equipment for the security of passengers and airplanes in
connection with combat against terrorism. In particular, since November
1 airport “Zvartnots” will implement equipment taking fingerprints
for the identification of passengers, the official website of the RA
Civic Aviation Administration informs.

BAD WEATHER WAS CAUSE OF A-320 PLANE’S CRASH, NAU CHAIRMAN SAYS
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. The bad weather was the cause of
the crash of A-320 plane during a Yerevan-Sochi flight in May of
this year. Dmitry Adbashian, Chairman of the National Aviation Union
(NAU), expressed this opinion during the October 20 meeting with
reporters. According to him, the weather deteriorated near Sochi
Airport and the plane was caught in a “rising air flow” which caused
the crash. D. Adbashian reminded that Sochi Airport had no right to
receive planes of this type – due to the absence of the appropriate
devices, particularly the devices regsitering meteorological conditions
beforehand. He did not subscribe to the opinion that pilot Vladimir
Poghosian expressed during the October 19 press conference that an
explosion in A-320 plane was the cause of the crash. In D. Adbashin’s
words, if there had been a quarrel among plane passengers, the pilot
would have done everything possible to land the plane as quickly as
possible. Whereas, after an instruction of the Sochi ground controller,
the pilot “very quietly” attempted to make a second circle.

HMAYAK HOVHANNISIAN: CHIEF OF “YEREVAN” CRIMINAL-EXECUTIVE OFFICE
VIOLATES LAW
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. RA National Assembly Deputy Hmayak
Hovhannisian was twice refused to visit Vahagn Chakhalian, a member of
the “United Javakhk” democratic alliance, who is under arrest at the
“Yerevan” criminal-executive office, accused of illegally breaking the
RA border. And according to Article 22 of the RA Criminal-Executive
Code, as H.Hovhannisian mentioned at the October 19 press conference,
deputies have right to freely visit criminal-executive offices. In
the deputy’s words, before his visit of the previous day, NA Speaker
Tigran Torosian had a 20-minute phone conversation with isolation
chief Hamlet Khlghatian, but the deputy was refused even after it.
“That’s, the demand of the NA Speaker, the second man of the state,
to keep the law, was ignored by the “vertukha” chief prison officer,”
H.Hovhannisian said, explaining that the “vertukha” is the person
who establishes his own orders in the prison and agree those orders
with its “roof”, “in the given case, with Justice Minister Davit
Haroutiunian.” “D.Haroutiunian, presenting himself in Europes
as a democratic minister, in essence, is a zone supervisor” the
deputy stated. H.Hovhannisian believes that D.Haroutiunian “put NA
Speaker Tigran Torosian in a scandalous situation” so the latter must
demand the Minister’s resignation or “decide the issue connected with
him.” Responding the Noyan Tapan correspondent’s question, NA Speaker
T.Torosian stated that if anybody, including the deputy as well,
believes that his rights were violated, he may solve the problem by
the judicial order.