WHAT WE WANT FROM BRAYZA
Aram Abrahamian
Aravot.am
28 July 06

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairman Matthew Brayza is leaving for Armenia on
July 29. He will meet with the leadership and diplomats of Armenia on
NK conflict settlement theme. But according to lragir.am, our public
organizations also want to meet M. Brayza on domestic
issues. According to that same source, those PO-s are going to hold a
meeting on the day of Brayza’s visit. `PO-s want
to remind the American diplomat those declarations which the American
officials have often made that the problem of constituting democracy
and lawfulness is the problem of the public. PO-s tries to express
public position on democratic processes by holding meetings of
protest. The U.S., which speaks about importance of the public
position prefer to work with the representatives of administrative
criminal system instead of working with the public. PO-s intend to
show Brayza that the public has its clear position both in democratic
and legal issues’, – Lragir.am informs.

Irrespective of the influence and number of public organizations, that
position causes a lot of questions. PO-s think that the Americans
right declaring that legality and democracy are the problem of our
society. If they aren’t right, the PO-s should say whose problem it
is. Brayza’s or U.S, Department of State? How does the PO-s imagine
U.S. state officials’ work with the public? Whom do they mean, saying
public? And the most important: does the Armenian public have a clear
position in democratic and legal issues. I myself have doubts: it is
just the opposite, our public opinion is sure at least during last 30
days that those who don’t steal and cheat, they are fool. But if I’m
wrong and our public can’t live without democracy and legality, we
should show that position not to Brayza but to our authorities.

In this case the Americans will have to contact honest and generous
persons.

REFUGEES FROM MIDDLE EAST NOT TO SETTLE IN NAGORNO KARABAKH
Panorama.am
15:40 27/07/06
The Armenian government has not intent to settle the refugees
from Lebanon and Israel in Nagorno Karabakh, Vladimir Karapetyan,
press spokesperson of the Armenian ministry of foreign affairs told
Panorama.am. The Armenian foreign policy agency does not pursue such
policy, he said. In his words, the refugees settle at their relatives’
houses or rent flats on their own. Up to today, 584 Armenians evacuated
to Armenia, including 530 from Lebanon and 54 from Israel.
Note: The Azeri media sources claim that the Armenian government
intends to settle the refugees from Lebanon and Israel in Nagorno
Karabakh. /Panorama.am/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CORRUPTION WENT UP IN ARMENIA
Lragir.am
27 July 06
The experts of the World Bank gave a rather interesting evaluation
of the state of corruption in Armenia, publishing the third report
of the World Bank on fight against corruption in the former Soviet
Union. The news agency ARKA reports that according to this report the
level of corruption in Armenia exceeded that of 2002. According to
the experts of the World Bank, the Armenian companies went on giving
bribes with the same rate as in 2002.
The World Bank reports a higher level of corruption especially in
tax agencies, customs offices and courts of law, although according
to the outcome of the poll these cases were extremely low in 2002.
The authors of the report of the World Bank say bribery in law making
is also corruption, when the rules of the game are basically and
constantly distorted for the benefit of the privileged minority. The
World Bank experts say the state of corruption in Armenia became
even worse.
The World Bank report points to the increase of the level of corruption
in tax administration against the former “low level”.
The World Bank experts report that although an anti-corruption strategy
was worked out in 2003 in Armenia, and in 2004 an anti-corruption
council was set up in 2004 led by the prime minister, the survey
conducted in 2005 shows that the level of corruption in Armenia went
higher against 2002.

MAYBE IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO SAVE THE PLANE
Lragir.am
27 July 06
The cause of the crash of the Armenian plane announced officially is
supposed to put an end to three months of uncertainty and waiting,
when almost entire Armenia wanted to know what was the real cause of
the crash. The Interstate Aviation Committee announced that the cause
of the crash was the human factor, more exactly the insufficient
action of the crew. In other words, it was the fault of the pilot.
This is the conclusion of the task force, which conducted different
types of investigations, simulated the flight, deciphered the black
boxes, and so on. In other words, they did everything, because the
head of the IAC Tatyana Anodina announced two weeks ago in Yerevan
that they possess all the important facts to state the cause of the
crash “absolutely” definitely.
Therefore, it should be supposed that the fault of the pilot is the
cause of the crash. However, similarly it can be supposed that it was
not the real cause of the crash. The point is that there are no clear
and irrefutable facts about the fault of the pilot and the dishonesty
of the task force which carried out the investigation. The task force
says they possess all the necessary facts and data. But the public
did not see these facts, therefore they have the right to doubt that
the cause of the crash could be another factor than the human factor.
The point is that in order to trust the conclusion of the IAC the
public needs to become convinced that the crew could find a more
correct way out. And maybe it was impossible to save the plane, and
it appeared in a state when the actions of the pilot were formal and
merely “supported” his fault. In other words, either he had to do
something or not to do anything. Having two option, to be accused
posthumously of “doing wrongly” or not doing anything. After all,
was it the guilt of the pilot that the plane appeared in an extremely
difficult state? The answer to this question is very important,
in fact. Why did the pilot switch off the autopilot and conduct the
plane himself? Maybe the autopilot went out of order. By the way,
the Moskovski Komsomolets published information from an anonymous
source about the deciphering of the black boxes that the autopilot
went off, and the pilot had to conduct the plane himself.
In other words, the conclusion of the IAC is not reliable for the
public, and to say “we have grounds” does not mean it is true. It
is also possible that the IAC experts have grounds but of another
cause. And it is not known whether the cause stemming from these
grounds is published or whether the grounds of the published cause
are meant.
HAKOB BADALYAN

THEY WILL SHOW TO BRYZA WHERE THE PROBLEM IS
Lragir.am
27 July 06
Mathew Bryza who is visiting Armenia on July 29 will be given a
surprise. Certain NGOs in Armenia are going to hold a protest meeting
on the days of his visit. Thereby these NGOs want to remind the U.S.
diplomat the statements often voiced by the American diplomats that
establishment of democracy and rule of law in Armenia is the problem
of the society. Thereby the NGOs planning the protest meeting want to
present the standpoint of the society on democratization and rule of
law in the context that in reality the United States prefers to work
with the administrative criminal system rather than the society in
Armenia. According to the NGOs, the activity of the U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia John Evans was marked by close connections with some Armenian
officials. Proceeding from this reality, the NGOs are likely to show
to Bryza that the society has a clear-cut standpoint in terms of both
democracy and lawfulness.

BUSINESSMEN WERE MISLEAD
Lragir.am
27 July 06
The public wonders why President Robert Kocharyan, nevertheless,
did not go to the CIS informal summit in Moscow. Nobody believes
the official excuse. The source standing close to the president
administration says Robert Kocharyan’s demarche towards Moscow is
connected with a definite factor of enlargement of the Republican
Party. The president of Armenia did not like businessmen running
businesses is in Russia to become members of the Republican Party.
The Armenian president doubts that the membership of these businessmen
to the Republican Party might have been encouraged by the Russian
government which thereby tried to support Serge Sargsyan. Our source
states that this concern pushed the president to make a demarche
towards Moscow. The evidence to this is the news from Russia that
the Russian partners of certain businessmen, who became members of
the Republican Party, advised them to leave the Republican Party as
soon as possible.

PROPERTY FOR TAX MAY BE RECONSIDERED
Lragir.am
27 July 06
The former Russian co-chair of the Russian-Armenian intergovernmental
committee can sleep quietly to promote the Russian-Armenian strategic
partnership. Klebanov was the person who participated in the
implementation of the deal Property for Debt. There is information
that the Russian authorities are likely to audit the companies that
were transferred to Russia in return for the debt. This idea occurred
a year and a half ago, however it was definitely frozen. The Lragir has
learned that the idea of auditing Property for Debt is again generated
among the Russian authorities. In this context there is other important
information that some Russian government officials, including officials
of the defense ministry, who were informally engaged in bringing into
being the deal of Property for Debt, were dismissed.

TOP FOR REPUBLICAN PARTY IS BOTTOM LEVEL FOR BARGAVACH HAYASTAN
Lragir.am
27 July 06
During the July 24 meeting of the activists of Bargavach Hayastan
Party (Prosperous Armenia) the leader of the political party Gagik
Tsarukyan announced that the party has 200 thousand members. It means
that if the Republicans say 25 percent in the election would be an
excellent result, for Bargavach Hayastan it would be a little more
than the minimum, in other words, a satisfactory result. The official
data of the Central Election Committee allow drawing such conclusions.
Bargavach Hayastan Party was registered three years ago. Over the
past year, when Gagik Tsarukyan became member of Bargavach Hayastan,
it became the party which has the most members in Armenia. If this
pace of membership continues, the political party will have about
400 thousand members, if the rate slows down twice, the party will
have 300 thousand members.
According to the data of the Central Election Committee, 1 184 724
people voted in the previous parliamentary election. Although it is
said that in the constitutional referendum in 2005 about 1.5 million
people voted, even the prime minister confessed that “they had overdone
it”. At any rate, relying on the information of the government body,
the Central Election Committee, even if turnout in the parliamentary
election mounts to 1.7 million in 2007, getting the votes of all its
300 thousand members, Bargavach Hayastan will have 20 percent. And
if it has several thousand or several tens of thousand supporters,
it will easily outdo the Republican Party.
By the way, today the Republican Party has 30 thousand members,
and during the previous elections it “got” 280 thousand votes.
Presuming that the present administrative criminal resource has about
250 thousand supporters, why should Bargavach Hayastan not have half
as many? So, considering that in terms of finance Bargavach Hayastan
and the Republican Party are equal, in terms of the number of their
members they cannot be compared. The problem is how real the official
numbers published by the CEC after the voting in 2007 will be.
The political party which has most members in Armenia announced that
they will not falsify the results of the election and will not allow
others to falsify them. Other influential political parties have made
the same statement. It seems that in the absence of a multipolar
political sphere and a power pyramid electoral fraud will not be
easy. In this case 20-25 percent of the Republican Party forecast
by its leaders is becoming rather arguable. First, the criminal
will hardly have 250 thousand supporters in Armenia, plus the low
public approval rating of the republican. Second, the Republican
Party disagrees with this 20 percent and demands 40-50 percent,
which would push the most experienced falsifier into a rage.
ARAM ZAKARYAN

LIBERATION SOLDIERS CALL AMBASSADORS
Lragir.am
27 July 06
The civic action group of the veterans of Karabakh liberation war
addressed an open letter July 27 to the ambassadors of the countries
mediating the talks over Karabakh, and the countries, which are
engaged in regional developments. The letter was presented at the
Pastark Club by Mikael Apresyan, the commander of the squad Artsakh,
and Arkady Karapetyan, the leader of Yerkrapah Union of liberation
soldiers of Karabakh.
“The beginning of the 21st century is not the end of the 20th
century for the winner country to surrender its territories,
its historical territories,” runs the letter addressed to the
ambassadors. The liberation soldiers disagree with the standpoint of
the government of Armenia and announce that they are against concession
of territories. According to him, none of the points of the proposal
on settlement favors Armenia.
“We think you know the Armenian history and the Turkish-Armenian
relations over the past few centuries, and we are hopeful that you
will have your contribution to the recognition of the righteous
claim of the Armenian people to its historical homeland by the
international community in the framework of the agreement signed in
Sevres accepted internationally,” the veterans of Artsakh war call
the ambassadors. They even emphasize in the letter that “the opinion
of the present government on this question does not correspond with
the opinion of the Armenian people.”
Besides, Arkady Karapetyan explains why the ambassadors remind
about the agreement of Sevres. “Why did we emphasize the agreement
of Sevres, because the agreement of Sevres is legitimate and
was signed in accordance with all the international rules,” says
Arkady Karapetyan. They must return everything they took from us,
under the international law, he says. According to him, the cause
of this situation is that Armenia does not have diplomacy. “There
are principles in the world, we are the winner and we must speak
differently than they. If we had diplomacy, these questions would
not occur. We do not have [a diplomacy], therefore such problems
occur,” Arkady Karapetyan says. The veterans of the liberation war
say they did not choose the time of this statement accidentally.
Soon vacations start, and they wanted to provide the government and
the mediators with a topic to think about.

400 FAMILIES RETURNED TO ARMENIA IN 2005
Lragir.am
27 July 06
The Armenian Consul General to the Southern District of Russia Ararat
Gomtsyan announced that 400 families, citizens of Armenia, living in
the Southern District of Russia returned to Armenia in 2005, reports
ARKA News Agency.
According to Ararat Gomtsyan, the families, who returned to Armenia,
lived in the South of Russia for 3-7 years. Presently there are
about 2 million Armenians in Russia, who mainly live in Moscow,
Saint Petersburg, the region of Moscow and the region of Krasnodar.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress