AZG Armenian Daily #117, 24/06/2006
Karabakh issue
VARTAN OSKANIAN: TO SUGGEST AUTONOMY TO NAGORNO
KARABAKH IS SELF-DECEPTION
Armenia has supported and still supports all the international measures
directed to aversion and condemnation of genocides, ethnic purges
of people in their historical lands and the attempts to deny these
events. Vartan Oskanian, RA Foreign Minister, said this in the course
of the sitting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, on June 21.
In his speech, Oskanian touched upon the destruction of 2000 Middle
Aged Armenian cross stones in Nor Jugha, Nakhijevan, when the Armenians
had nothing to do but to watch how the Azeris were destroying their
cultural and spiritual heritage. Oskanian stated that this brutal
attitude to the Armenian spirit and culture lasts for already centuries
and is very cynical and dangerous. “2000 marvelous medieval cross
stones were totally destroyed few months ago,” he said. Mr. Oskanian
stated that the Armenians and the international community are quite
concerned that the intentions of the Azeri authorities to settle
the peace are not serious. He emphasized that the cross stones
were destroyed in a place where not a single Armenian lives at
present. Mr. Oskanian said that this factor testifies to the real
intentions and methods of Azerbaijan. He stated that such a brutal
annihilation of a nation’s culture and history leads to mistrust and
loss of peace.
As for the current stage of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
process, he said that Azerbaijan’s approach “one step forward, one step
back” applied in the negotiations was concerning, while the suggestion
of autonomy to NKR testify to Azerbaijan’s retreat and decline from the
essence of the negotiations and from the international trends. “It’s
a mere self-deception to suggest autonomy to people who manage their
life in their own historical land for about two decades already,”
Mr. Oskanian said.
Anyway, Mr. Oskanian expressed hope that the negotiations will be
held in the direction that will lead to long lasting peace for all
sides in conflict.
By Aghavni Harutyunian

AZG Armenian Daily #117, 24/06/2006
Home
‘WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO SAY IN USA THE THINGS THAT YOU SAY HERE’
With these words the US Embassy to Armenia rejected Armen Avetisian,
head of the Aryan Union of Armenia, entry to the USA on June 20. On
this occasion the Union disseminated a press release expressing its
indignation over this fact, labeling the Embassy’s rejection of a
political character adding that such an approach is not do credit to
the authorities of a country that views itself as a world power.
According to the release, Armen Avetisian and a member of the Union’s
student and youth wing were to leave for the USA at the invitation of
the Armenian Genealogy Association to meet the Armenian community and
lecture on national ideology and history. Avetisian who was permitted
to visit United States last year, was told: “We do not want you to say
in USA the things that you say here.” To his retort that the US State
Department viewed his arrest as suppression of freedom of speech,
Avetisian got: “Not everything said in the State Department report
was in your favor.”

AZG Armenian Daily #117, 24/06/2006
Culture
FESTIVAL OF YOUTH THEATRE TO LAUNCH IN YEREVAN
Yesterday, the festival of Young Theatre Workers
launched in Yerevan. The festival will last till July
1. David Harutyunian, young director, opened the
festival. He represented a performance staged on “The
Feast of Beasts” by Vahe Kacha.
It is envisaged that 22 performances will be held in
Yerevan theatres and in the theatres in the regions of
Armenia, including the Artsakh based V. Papazian
Theatre and the Tbilisi based Petros Adamian Theatre.
Within the framework of the festival, discussions and
round tables will be held. The organizers of the
festival assure that this arrangement will help the
young generation of theatre workers to get
familiarized and cooperate with the theatre leaders
and participants of international festivals.
The organizers of the festival also represented
“Theatre” periodical issued by the young theatre
workers of Armenia.
By Tamar Minasian

ARMENIAN SAILORS SCORE IN ANOTHER VICTORY
By Tamar Minasian
AZG Armenian Daily #117, 24/06/2006
Moushegh Barseghian and Vahagn Matevosian, sailors of “Cilicia” sailing
vessel, were awarded with “steersman of long lasting expedition”
title. Zori Balayan, writer and member of the crew, informed that
the young sailors passed quite a difficult exam at one of the German
ports and received the abovementioned certificate. The sailors of
“Cilicia” celebrated the victory by drinking toast of Artsakh vodka.

A1+
ONLY NKR HAS THE RIGHT TO SPEAK ABOUT COMPROMISE
[04:54 pm] 23 June, 2006
The coming elections will be another opportunity for the politicians
to make use of the Karabakh conflict for their interests, announced
Shavarsh Kocharyan, the head of the National Democratic Party
administration.
According to him, despite anything the Karabakh conflict must not be
treated that primitively.
Considering the change of the foreign policy of the country in
connection with the Karabakh conflict urgent, Kocharyan said,
«Azerbaijan is trying to prove to the world that Armenia is an
aggressor and the RA authorities cannot introduce changes to their
foreign policy». In this respect Shavarsh Kocharyan considers
the organization of the coming elections in compliance with the
international standards extremely important.
As for the RA authorities speaking about giving territories, Shavarsh
Kocharyan considers it ridiculous. «Only NKR has the right to speak
about compromise».
–Boundary_(ID_F85SBA+Ps8Cq9pzx dcLpjw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NDP REPRESENTS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE AMENDMENTS OF THE ELECTORAL CODE
A1+
[04:05 pm] 23 June, 2006
“The amendments to the Electoral Code are meant to contribute to the
reduction of the number of electoral fabrications”, announced Shavarsh
Kocharyan, the head of the National Democratic Party administration
in club “Pastark”.
Before referring to the conclusion of the Venice Commission about the
EC amendments, Mr. Kocharyan reminded that the electoral process in
conditioned not only by the Electoral Code by also by the will of the
authorities as well as of the opposition. According to Kocharyan, the
draft that the NDP represented to the Venice Commission was something
exclusive as both the RA authorities and the opposition signed under
it. Besides, “It also showed the absence of will of the authorities
and the opposition in the electoral process”.
According to Shavarsh Kocharyan, one of the most importance omissions
of the draft Electoral Code is the correlation of the proportional and
majority electoral systems. “If we want to have stable executive branch
of power the Parliament must be more politicized. Those individuals
who are elected by the majority system are the floating votes which
tend from here to there and do not contribute to stability. We must
have a 100% proportional system”.
Mr. Kocharyan is also worried about the way of forming the electoral
committees. He thinks that the authorities and the opposition must have
equal quantity of members in the committees, the members must not be
appointed by the President of the country and they must not be judges.
Mr. Kocharyan also said that the NDP does not have ambitions and
their version is open for broad discussions.

ALIEV IS NOT AS PATIENT AS THE EUROPEANS
A1+
[04:27 pm] 23 June, 2006
We are already hopeless about the international mechanisms of
settlement. We cannot put up with this situation. We will never put
up with the loss of the territories. We will never allow Nagorno
Karabakh to separate from Azerbaijan and that is not an issue of
negotiations. The only issue of negotiations can be the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan and the security of all the nations living
in the region», announced President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev today
during the school-leaving ceremony of the High Military School after
Heydar Aliev, agency «Trend» reports.
Till when do we have to participate in negotiations?
How long can we wait? Our patience is not endless.
Today Azerbaijan is developing rapidly. Armenia cannot catch up with
us in the economic, political and military field. Let them think in
Armenia where the two countries will be in one, three, or five years.
Armenia does not have any way of development. They are isolated from
all the international and regional programs, the possibilities of
economic development are restricted, and half of the population has
left the country. According to our information, they have difficulty
in protecting the borders due to the lack of human resources», the
Azeri President announced.
We don’t have any other problems except Nagorno Karabakh, that’s why
we must spend all the resources on the formation of the army», Aliev
said mentioning that Azerbaijan is at was and must pay attention to the
army. «We try to strengthen the army in every way we can. We must add
financing which we do. The military expenses have increased fourfold
for the last three years. In 2003 135 million USD were spent in the
military field, whereas in 2006 700 million», Ilham Aliev announced.
–Boundary_(ID_e25RHGO/Tn5NB2t0b7u2Dw) —

DUAL CITIZENSHIP MUST BE A MEANS AND NOT AN AIM
A1+
[05:34 pm] 23 June, 2006
“The adoption of dual citizenship is not an aim in itself and it must
not be looked upon as an aim. It is a means to reach our aim. And
the aims must be clearly formulated in the conception”, announced
President of the Constitutional Court Gagik Haroutyunyan during the
Parliamentary hearings today.
He represented the international experience and informed that only 54
of the 191 member-countries of the UN have adopted dual citizenship,
and half of them did it with reservations. Why does the 2/3 if the
countries avoid dual citizenship? And why was a convention adopted
in 1963 about reducing multiple citizenship. Gagik Haroutyunyan
announced that the law can’t be adopted till the end of the years
as it was previously told as Armenia has not joined a number of
international conventions. He has fears that if the law contradicts
international norms, the norms will be stronger. In order to avoid
possible contradictions, Gagik Haroutyunyan offered to join the
conventions first, to clear out the aims of cooperation of Armenia
and the Diaspora and then to adopt the law.
Gagik Haroutyunyan also put forward the problem of those people lost
their citizenship and those who have not had it at all. Besides,
there is no statistics about how many people there are abroad, and
how many people have lost their citizenship because of living abroad
for seven years.
Leader of the Union for National Self-Determination Paruyr Hayrikyan
announced that the discussion is a bit late. It ought to have taken
place 15 years ago when Armenia was restoring its statehood and was
to do everything to gather together its citizens.
Nevertheless, Hayrikyan is against the law on dual citizenship. He
thinks that we can eliminate the first article of the RA Law on
citizenship which says that the RA citizen cannot be citizen of
another country and live peacefully.
Member of the Communist Party central committee Frunze Kharatyan
called on the authorities to create a national state.

“PYUNIK” WILL PLAY WITH THE CHAMPION OF MOLDOVA
A1+
[05:43 pm] 23 June, 2006
The casting of lots for the first qualifying phase of the 2006-2007
Champions League took place in the Swiss city of Nion. According tot
he selection champion of Armenia “Pyunik” will play with “Sheriff”,
the champion of Moldova. The latter was the strongest of all the
possible opponents of “Pyunik”.
The first match will take place in Yerevan on July 12.
The second one will take place a week later in Moldova.
The Armenian team has played with “Sheriff” only once and lost the
game 3:0. The winner of this pair will play with “Spartak”, the vice
champion of Russia.

CATHOLICOS VISITED THE HISTORICAL ISLAND OF THE SEA OF MARMARA
A1+
[06:45 pm] 23 June, 2006
During the visit to Turkey Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II paid
a visit to the island Heypel together with Patriarch of Constantinople
Bartholomew I and Patriarch of Armenians of Constantinople Archbishop
Mesrop Mutafyan. They visited the Greek Orthodox church of Holy
Trinity and the famous theological seminary.
The Catholicos of All Armenians prayed for the re-opening of the
seminary which was closed down by the Turkish authorities in 1970s. His
Holiness mentioned that the Armenian Church always supports his sister
churches in their misfortunes.
The Armenian and Greek delegations visited the historical library of
the island and got acquainted with the monastery complex.