PRE-ELECTION PROJECT ENTITLED LABOR PARTY
Lragir.am
09 June 06
The United Labor Party is becoming engaged in power at such an
incredible speed that it is sure to hit and damage the other forces in
power. Except for Robert Kocharyan, of course. Gurgen Arsenyan, the
founder and leader of the United Labor Party, who calculates
everything, has surely calculated this too.
And simple logic suggests that the United Labor Party is part of the
government by a simple calculation too. The ULP is becoming part of
the executive just like it became a parliamentary force.
The leader of the ULP Gurgen Arsenyan first became an oligarch, then a
statesman, a member of parliament. In Armenia there are a number of
peoplewho set out from the other end, first a post, then oligarch
through the post. Gurgen Arsenyan’s way defines his type of
calculating everything. Calculation is good. But it is bad when the
calculations of a statesman are aimed to fillhis pocket as much as
possible.
A recent projection of ULP calculations was the reduction of the
lump-sum tax on the imports of cigars by the National Assembly. And
the main importer of cigars in Armenia is Gurgen Arsenyan. And since
over the upcoming 1-1.5 year the members of parliament will be busy
attending to pre-election, election and post-election problems, it is
certain that Gurgen Arsenyan will be enjoying privileges for at least
another 1-1.5 year.
Now about the executive. The National Assembly will be working for
another year. If we extract the pre-election period that the law
provides for and a little more, which is out of law, evidently this
government will be working normally for 6-7 months. The ULP will
hardly manage to achieve significant results. It is said that victory
has many parents, defeat is an orphan. Gurgen Arsenyan entered the
executive by a calculation to use the administrative resource. For
elections are drawing nearer. Unlike civilized – normal – countries,
where voters decide the place of one force or another in the
government, in Armenia there are three ways that lead to power: money,
the mob of skinheads and the administrative resource. The ULP had the
first. The second is not so popular nowadays. And now perfect
happiness is guaranteed, for they already have the third. Here is a
simple calculation: if you possess two out of three factors that
guarantee victory, the chance to win is great. But most probably it
is not foreseen by the calculations of the ULP what victory itis going
to be and against who. For, to repeat again, voters in our country
still do not decide the place of one force or another in the
government, otherwise the ULP would not have appeared in the
parliament with a rating of zero point something.
ARAM ZAKARYAN
P.S. This calculation-plot of Gurgen Arsenyan does not appear to have
foreseen a role for either the voter or the public. It will work if
nothing happens. However, nothing is impossible in Armenia. Who would
have thought, for instance, that Robert Kocharyan will not run a third
time and will not tryto become prime minister?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THIS SIDE OF BARS
Lragir.am
09 June 06
There is not a single government agency or office which attends to the
social problems of former inmates, therefore former prisoners have set
up This Side of Bars NGO. The chair of this organization Gevorg
Koshkaryan met news reporters June 9.
Film director Armen Mazmanyan was with Mr. Koshkaryan. The chair of
the NGO said their key purpose is to create jobs for former prisoners,
help them find jobs and earn a living. And creative people understand
their problems more quickly and deeply. It turned out that the NGO had
achieved a lot, and all thanks to good will of some people and
willingness to share their problems. It also became known that
fortunately not only Armen Mazmanyan is such. Sos Sargsyan helps
them. Nadezhda Sargsyan admits children of former prisonersto her
school free of charge. There are other benefactors too, and there is
a small production unit under the NGO, they publish a newspaper
entitled Return and discuss their problems. The newspaper is free of
charge. About 50 former prisoners were accommodated in a
dormitory. There were marriages too. But the road to the dormitory is
in a hopeless state. `If we get the materials,we have good masters and
we can do it ourselves,’ states Gevorg Koshkaryan.
Armen Mazmanyan says it is necessary to help these people to integrate
with the society. `These are people who made a mistake and served
theirsentence. Integration should be a strategic government
policy. By rejecting these people and labeling them as convicts we
make them repeat their mistake. And failure of integration is a bomb
behind our backs, which is going to go off one day.
‘And Gevorg Koshkaryan believes that the members of their organization
will not commit another crime.

SUPPORT HELPS IF THERE IS QUALITY
Lragir.am
09 June 06
The parliamentary election 2007 may become a serious breakthrough from
the point of view of activity of public life in Armenia, stated
Khostrov Harutiunyan, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party of
Armenia June 9 at the National Press Club. He stresses the activity of
the public for the enhancement of the role of the National Assembly.
According to Khosrov Harutiunyan, as long as the society thinks that
all its problems are determined by a person, the parliament will have
a secondary role, and the public will remain outside political
processes like it is today. This reality is the reason why the
political party with 62 thousand members separated from the coalition
without an adequate reaction in the political sphere, thinks the
leader of the Christian Democratic Party.
`Therefore we should speak about the role of political parties in
political processes rather than unification of numbers, such as a
party of 100 thousand members joined a party of 62 thousand,’ says
Khosrov Harutiunyan. According to him, there is not a political party
today, which can fulfill effective governance alone, because it does
not have the necessary resource. Khosrov Harutiunyan thinks that the
society should focus on the political quality of a force before giving
its support to this force. If a political party has political quality,
giving support to it might lead to success, if it does not have a
political quality, support will not lead to anything good.

PRIME MINISTER’S IS A MATTER OF VOTING
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian
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Lragir.am
09 June 06
An opportunity of transition from personal to institutional governance
has occurred in Armenia, stated Member of Parliament Shavarsh
Kocharyan June 9. According to him, this opportunity emanates from
the new constitution. However it is just a half-step, says Shavarsh
Kocharyan. According to him, first it is necessary to use this
opportunity.
`Surprisingly we have become pessimistic in a time when we need tomake
efforts instead of waiting until the government, which was made to
take this half-set, the Constitutional reform, to do it,’ says
Shavarsh Kocharyan. He says the public, NGOs and the opposition should
seek for using this opportunity.
Shavarsh Kocharyan says the increasing influence of the office of the
prime minister on the levers of the executive is an expression of this
opportunity. The member of parliament thinks it is better if the
prime minister possesses the majority of levers than the president.
`Several cases of impeachment have been reported in the world. It is
impossible, impossible to impeach the president constitutionally. And
the question of the prime minister is a matter of voting.’

TIME WILL COME THEY WILL SAY
Lragir.am
09 June 06
On June 9 Aram Manukyan, All Armenian Movement, commended the
secession of the Orinats Yerkir Party from the coalition. At the
National Press Club Aram Manukyan said it speeded up the collapse of
the coalition, and the collapse of the coalition speeds up change of
power. However, the member of the All Armenian Movement is amazed by
the political process that followed the move of Orinats Yerkir.
`Within a few hours the coalition shrunk, became minority, and within
a few hours the minority became majority. Why? Because our members of
parliament are tools, not actors. The Armenian parliament is a group
of people set upby personal files,’ says Aram Manukyan.
The developments connected with Orinats Yerkir attracted Aram
Manukyan’s attention from the human aspect, or as he says, people at
the bottom. He meant those who betrayed the political party for the
sake of office. `Vano Siradeghyan used to say, never trust people
below 5 feet. You remember, Levon Ter-Petrosyan said dear Sergo, you
will not be fine. Sergo is not going tobe fine because he does not
dare and does not have the right to look in the eye of anybody. He
will not be fine in this country. Tamariks are not going to befine,
and all the other guys who let down are not going to be fine, because
their sons’ friends are going to say your father is a betrayer,’says
Aram Manukyan, adding that time will come when they will say, because
the generation is improving.

DASHNAKTSUTIUN AND REPUBLICAN WILL SWEAR AT ROBERT KOCHARYAN
Lragir.am
09 June 06
In two years time Dashnaktsutiun and the Republican will be swearing
at Robert Kocharyan, predicted Aram Manukyan, All Armenian Movement,
on June 9. For a lack of an ideological relation, he said. `I, for
example, will never swear at Levon Ter-Petrosyan, because accept him
or not, we were in the same ideological team. Whereas, the ARF and the
Republican Party, being in the same government with Robert Kocharyan,
do not have any ideological relations,=80=9D said Aram Manukyan.

Armenia-San Marino match to be held in Yerevan

ArmRadio.am
09.06.2006 11:00
Armenia-San Marino response match of the qualification round of under 21
European Championship will be held at the Republican stadium after Vazgen
Sargsyan.
To advance to the next round the Armenian team has to win with the vantage
of four goals, since after the match in San Marino UEFA registered 3:0
technical defeat for bringing to the field a disqualified player.

Ago Group to be in Armenia June 9-10

ArmRadio.am
09.06.2006 11:17
June 9-10 Ago Group of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe will be in Armenia. The group is headed by Permanent
Representative Germany to the Council of Europe Roland Vegener.
Members of the group will have meetings with RA Presidnet Robert
Kocharyan, NA Chairman Tigran Torosyan, Minister of Justice David
Harutyunyan, Human Rights Defender Armen Harutyunyan, as well as with
the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe, representatives of political parties and NGOs.
June 10 members of the Ago Group will meet RA Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan, following which Roland Vegener and Vardan Oskanyan will give
a joint press conference.

Voice recorder of the crashed A-320 decoded

ArmRadio.am
09.06.2006 11:47
The International Aviation Committee has completed decoding of the
voice recorder of the crashed A-320 of Armavia Company. The Russian
Ministry of Transport informs that the box recorded information for
the last 33 minutes, including the start and the last stage of the
emergency situation. Most of the conversations were in Armenian;
therefore representative of the Armenian Embassy in Russia
participated in the decoding. According to the rules of the
International Civil Aviation Organization, the data of the recorders
cannot be made public. Other parameters of the plane are still being
corrected.

Armenian Assembly meets with Massachussets Legislators and Staff

ArmRadio.am
09.06.2006 12:46
In a major push to further educate Massachusetts legislators about the
Armenian Genocide, Armenian Assembly representatives met with nearly
200 State lawmakers or their assistants at the historic Massachusetts
State House. During those meetings, the Assembly distributed Peter
Balakian’s bestseller The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and
America’s Response, as well as a DVD on the subject of the Armenian
Genocide.
The Armenian Assembly and its affiliate organization, the KNOW
GENOCIDE Coalition, have been at the forefront of generating awareness
on the Armenian Genocide and combating genocide denial in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond. These efforts have proven
critical given the recent attempts by the Assembly of Turkish American
Associations (ATAA) to deny and rewrite history with respect to the
genocide. Last year the ATAA along with two Massachusetts high school
teachers and a student brought a lawsuit in US District Court against
the Massachusetts Board of Education and its Commissioner, David P.
Driscoll, to insert materials in the State Curriculum Guide that deny
the Armenian Genocide.
The Burning Tigris, a New York Times bestseller published by
HarperCollins, explores America’s attempts to save Armenians from
extinction by the Ottoman Turks. Balakian, using eyewitness accounts,
survivor narratives and documents from the U.S. State Department,
chronicles how Americans responded to the first modern genocide of the
20th Century.
The DVD, entitled 1915 Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, was launched
this year by the Genocide Archive Project and its Executive Producer
David Davidian, specifically to educate students, teachers, and
lawmakers. It contains a powerful documentary segment on the genocide
as well as important survivor testimonies that forcefully document the
tragedy that befell the Armenian nation beginning in 1915.
The materials will allow State Representatives and Senators to better
understand and identify with this great tragedy that befell humanity
nearly a century ago.