GAROYAN WRITES HISTORY
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22-05-2006
Marios Garoyan becomes the first Cypriot Armenian to be elected in
the Cyprus Parliament. Garoyan won a seat (Democratic Party (DIKO)
of President Tassos Papadopoulos) in the Nicosia district.
Unfortunately M.Sarkissian (communist AKEL) did not manage to win in
the Limassol disctrict.
Most of the parties comprising the ruling coalition administration
gained ground in Cyprus’ parliamentary elections Sunday, but the
island’s two main rival parties lost seats and a smaller party chief
resigned after he failed to enter the House of Representatives.
In all, 487 candidates challenged the 56 seats in parliament, a mainly
legislative and non-executive body, while the island-state’s president
is elected directly by the people.
The main coalition partner, the communist AKEL, shed 3.4 percentage
points from its voters and polled 31.2 per cent of the votes, entering
parliament with 18 deputies, two less than in the previous assembly,
while the opposition party Democratic Rally (DISY) won 30.3 per cent
of the votes, shedding 3.7 percentage points to lose a seat and will
now have 18 deputies in the House.
The clear winner in these elections is the Democratic Party (DIKO)
of President Tassos Papadopoulos that raised its voter strength
by three percentage points to 17.9 per cent and gained a new seat,
rising to 10 deputies.
Political analysts say that this outcome will also boost Papadopoulos
party which will have enough public support to seek a second term
in office in 2008, while coalition partner AKEL, though still the
biggest party, has now lesser chances of putting forward its own
candidate for president.
The social-democrat EDEK, which has two ministers in Papadopoulos’
present cabinet, also improved despite earlier predictions of a
loss, earning 8.9 per cent of the votes and five seats, gaining one
new deputy.
The European Party (Evroko) – created by four deputies who left DISY
two years ago and merged with the nationalist New Horizons and the
single-seat ADIK – recorded a marginal gain to 5.7 per cent with four
seats in the new parliament.
The Green Party/Ecologist Movement made no gains, ending the day with
1.9 per cent of the vote and just one seat, while the party had been
hopeful it would get a second deputy.
The United Democrats (EDI) of former president George Vassiliou was
the biggest loser of the day, failing to reach the threshold of 1.8
per cent in order to enter the House of Representatives.
The party’s present president, Michalis Papapetrou, handed in his
resignation and called for an early party congress in June to elect
a new leadership.
‘It’s a shame that our policies were not accepted by the public,’
Papapetrou said, referring to EDI’s open support of the United Nations
peace plan, dubbed the Annan Plan, that was rejected by the majority
of the Greek Cypriot community in April 2004.

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I WELCOMES THE ELECTION OF VARTKES MAHDESSIAN
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23-05-2006
Antelias, Lebanon – Parliamentary elections in Cyprus on May 21 led to
the election of a new representative of the Cypriot Armenian community
in the country’s parliament.
Archbishop Varoujan Hergelian, Catholicosal Vicar to Cyprus, held
a phone conversation with the Pontiff on the evening of May 21 and
informed him that Vartkes Mahdessian has been elected as the new
representative of the Armenian community in the Cypriot parliament.
The newly elected MP then called the Catholicos himself, assuring
him of his readiness to serve the Armenian community of Cyprus.
His Holiness welcomed the election of Mahdessian, granted his
pontifical blessings and advice to the MP. Aram I stressed the
importance of strengthening the integrity and unity of the Armenian
community of Cyprus, encouraging cooperation between its structures,
gathering Armenians around the church and pursuing the interests of
the community with the government.

ATHENS 2006: REACTIONS ON THE RESULTS
esctoday.com, Netherlands
May 23 2006
Apart from one winner, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest also ends
up with 36 countries that didn’t make it. While in some countries,
people are generally positive about the result of ‘their’ Eurovision
Song Contest entrant, others are searching for an explaination of
their falure.
Malta faces its worst Eurovision Song Contest result ever. The one
point from Albania couldn’t keep Fabrizio from its disappointing
last place. Current Maltasong head Robert Abela expressed his
disappointment, while former head Grace Abela fired her critics
towards the committee in favour of her own “ignored suggestions”.
Fabrizio himself blamed his last place to a failing in-ear of one
of his backing vocals. “He couldn’t use it in the last minute, so
sometimes his voice was higher than mine”, Fabrizio said. The young
singer described his result as “one of the most difficult moments”
of his carreer.
Daz, representing the United Kingdom, said that “one of the best acts
won the competition”. Though, to the Manchester Evening News he said
that he has not been able to prove that “politics isn’t in danger
of killing the greatest music competition on earth”, party blaming
political voting for his loss.
Greek representative Anna Vissi, who was tipped to bring Greece its
second victory, didn’t came further than a 9th place. The day after
the contest she could be seen crying in front of cameras while telling
about her loss. Greek top singer Anna Vissi received 128 points from
22 countries, which guarantuees Greece a place in next year’s final.
Norway’s entrant Christine Guldbrandsen came 14th with her ballad
Alvedansen, although the betting odds and fan polls generally predicted
better. “I am not disappointed”, Christine said, though she hoped
for a top-10 position to qualify the next Norwegian entrant for the
2007 final. “I feel good and along the way, the respons has been very
good (…). We gave the best possible performance, we couldn’t have
done better”.
The Armenian delegation was relieved after the final, as Andre brought
the debuting nation an 8th position in the final, therefor qualifying
for the 2007 final as well. “I was so happy when we qualified for
the final, so imagine how we felt when it became clear we made it to
the top-10 in the final”, Armenian delegation head Diana Mnatsakanyan
said to esctoday.com.
In Belgium and the Netherlands, two countries that didn’t make it
to the final, media and viewers are generally negative towards a
continuing involvement in the Eurovision Song Contest. “Sick of
Eurovision Song Contest”, the leading Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf
wrote as frontpage headline this weekend. In Belgium, some even suggest
that Kate Ryan should pay back the EUR 60,000,- she received from
the Flemish government to fund her participation and promotion tour.

ARMENIAN PREMIER: “ARMENIA MAY NOT CLOSE NPP WITHOUT ALTERNATIVE OF EQUAL VALUE”
Regnum, Russia
May 23 2006
“Armenia may not close Metsamorskaya NPP without an alternative of
equal value, because considerable finances are necessary for that,”
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan stated, answering questions
of Armenian Azg Newspaper’s readers.
According to him, Armenia does not have such possibilities now.
“Talks with interested international organizations are held with the
purpose,” the Armenian prime minister stated.
It is worth reminding that Armenian NPP was handed over under asset
management of Inter RAO UES for five years. RAO UES paid ANPP debts
to Russian providers of nuclear fuel worth $40 millions, which were
partially ($25 millions) compensated by Armenia through handing over
of Sevan-Hrazdan Coordinated Hydroelectric System. The Armenian NPP,
which consists of 2 energy unit (total capacity: 407.5 MWt), was
closed in 1988. Its second unit (407.5 MWt) recommenced functioning
in 1995. European Union insists on full closing of the ANPP. However,
the Armenian government states that it will do it only after the
country will have been provided with alternative energy supply
sources. Armenia estimates program of NPP’s whole closing at $1
billion, while European countries are offering only $100 millions.
Armenia wants to construct an NPP with capacity of 1000 MWt.

ARMENIAN CAA REPRESENTATIVE TO PARTICIPATE IN DECODING A 320 FLIGHT RECORDER IN PARIS
Regnum, Russia
May 23 2006
Security Department’s Inspector of Armenian Civil Aviation’s Main
Directorate (MDCA) Gagik Galstyan is going to visit Paris in order to
participate in Commission on Yerevan-Sochi A 320 Crash Investigation
and decoding of the black box, MDCA Spokesperson Gayane Davtyan
informed a REGNUM correspondent.
According to her, most likely Transport Minister Igor Levitin will
take part in the commission from the Russian side, Airbus Company
representatives – from the French side; Gagik Galstyan is expected
to depart for Paris on May 24.
It is worth reminding that one of two flight data and communication
recorders of Armenian Yerevan-Sochi A 320 plane, crashed on May 3, was
lifted from the Black Sea bed earlier. Armavia Company’s representative
did not confirm discovering of the second flight recorder.

ALIYEV CONSIDERS RELATIONS OF HIS COUNTRY WITH RUSSIA TO BE CONSTRUCTIVE
Regnum, Russia
May 23 2006
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that his country’s
relations with Russia have been developing constructive for the last
time; he made the statement on May 23 at a news conference of GUAM
leaders in Kiev, commenting on relations between the two countries,
a REGNUM correspondent informs.
“If we remember practically the whole period of the 90s, so perhaps
most strained relations in the whole post-Soviet space were developing
between our countries,” Aliyev reminded. “There were then both
blockades and illegal arms trafficking at the price of billions into
Armenia, which occupied the Azerbaijani territory. Now, when it is
time to reconsider these processes, we have been trying to focus on
positive things since 2000. The tactic has produced the result and
there are no questions now, which could cause mutual dissatisfaction
between Russia and Azerbaijan. Commodities turnover has increased
twofold during the last two years.”
Also, Aliyev stressed that for Azerbaijan the GUAM is not an
organization against anybody; it means constructive activity aimed
at promotion of mutually beneficial projects. “New realities and
situations appear in Caspian-Black Seas region and we should be ready
for them. We will initiate ourselves and head reformation processes,
and we consider GUAM as means of effective political and economic
cooperation, development of democratic processes in our region. It
is inevitable, that is why we will actively develop the approach,”
the Azerbaijani president stressed.

THE VISIT OF HEAD OF THE PACE MISSION FOR STUDY OF CULTURAL LEGACY POSTPONED
ArmRadio.am
24.05.2006 14:25
The visit of head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE) Mission for Study of Cultural Legacy, British MP Edward
O’Hara to the region, scheduled May 28, has been postponed.
The exact date of the visit is not determined yet. The aim of the visit
of the PACE missioner is to study the cultural heritage of Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia.

GUAM TRANSFORMATION: NEW “SANITARY CORDON” AGAINST RUSSIA
Sergey Shakaryants – expert of Caucasus analytical center
Regnum, Russia
May 23 2006
In order to understand what may be happening at the Kiev summit of GUAM
(Georgia-Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Moldova), any unbiased expert or observer
will have to look back at an earlier event attended by the presidents
of Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and the prime minister of Azerbaijan –
the “Common Vision of Common Neighborhood” conference in Vilnius. So
as not to quote some participants inspired by the anti-Russian
rhetoric of US Vice President Richard Cheney, let’s just say that,
once backing the founders of GUAM, in Vilnius the Americans had to
admit that the bloc has failed to do what it was supposed to do –
a mission severely slated by many Russian politicians in 2000-2001,
particularly, by then-Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
To remind, they in Moscow believed that GUAM and the US’ attempts to
enlarge it were something like “bringing a Trojan horse” into the
CIS and, even more, a plot to create a kind of “sanitary cordon”
around Russia – similar to the one existing around the USSR in the
20s-40s of XX.
In Vilnius in early May the US, in fact, “gave an order” to its
post-Soviet satellites – the Baltic states, Georgia, Ukraine
and Moldova – that, from now on, GUAM will be replaced by another
“sanitary cordon” formula – Democratic Choice Commonwealth (DCC). We
would like to remind you that the pseudo-initiators of the DCC –
a structure with yet seemingly illogical imperatives – are Georgian
and Ukrainian presidents Mikhail Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko,
who came out with the idea as early as last summer. The participants in
the Vilnius conference made it clear that they are going to “struggle
for democratization” of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan jointly (under
the patronage of the US and the EU).
And Latvia’s call – “democratization can’t stop at this, it’s time
for the international community to look towards the east – Eastern
Europe and the South Caucasus” – was meant as start to this struggle.
We would like to note that, for the Baltic states, Eastern Europe
is two “non-democrat”-countries – Belarus and Russia. And when
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus urged the West to create a
“European Democracy Fund,” everybody understood that this fund would be
a kind of account for “paying” for “revolutionary services” by certain
circles in Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan. As you may know
the “color revolutions” of the last years have “died out” in Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Central Asia, and the “children of the revolutions”
in Georgia and Ukraine have already fought with one another.
We believe that the US no longer needs local smaller-scope
sub-structure in a more global anti-Russian structure, even though
we can’t but agree with the first vice chairman of the CIS committee
of Russia’s State Duma Akhmed Bilalov that in their time many people,
even those in Western Europe, agreed that GUAM was a purely American
project that was supposed to give the US an advantage over France
and Germany in Europe. “In this light, Paris and Berlin will hardly
want this project to succeed, especially as the aspiration of the
GUAM members to join the EU can undermine the positions of the old
traditional European leaders,” Bilalov said on May 21. So, it is
obviously not without purpose that people are talking that during the
GUAM summit in Kiev this non-functional and inefficient alliance will
be renamed into “Organization for Democracy and Development GUAM” –
i.e. will be turned into a kind of “structural sub-division” of the
DCC in the region of Black Sea and Caucasus.
As we know, since 1999 American emissaries of different levels and
ranks have been actively persuading the Armenian authorities into,
at least, declaring their intention to join GUAM in some near future.
And so, today we don’t even doubt that the Americans will start an even
bigger fuss over Armenia. Now they will probably start to persuade us
that, unlike GUAM (which has proved no less amorphous than the CIS),
the “flagship of democracy” in the post-Soviet area – the DCC and its
branch, the Organization for Democracy and Development GUAM – will
have more clear goals and mechanisms and will get a big recompense
for joining in the new “Crusade” against Russia – from the selfsame
Adamkus- and his US patrons-proposed European Democracy Fund.
In fact, the point is not so much that the US and its satellites might
be doing this because of the “Iranian problem.” The actual point
is that they may well be growing anti-Russian because of Russia’s
unprecedented (for the whole post-WWII period) rapprochement with
China, including in the military. In fact, political pirates from
different countries are trying to come together into a single “front”
against the two biggest Eurasian states.
In this light, the whole row about the “Iranian dossier” looks quite
differently: not as a fight against theocratic rule in Iran or for
control over vast reserves of oil, gas, uranium and precious stones
in that country, but as an attempt to create a solid “circle” and,
simultaneously, to seize a key territory in the way of the so-called
Great Silk Road-2, a project by Sam Brownback, US congressman known for
his radical anti-Russian views. In other words, the world community is
dealing with the “declared” undeclared war of the West’s reactionary
circles against Russia and China. The bankrupt GUAM is just the
“fifth wheel in a cart” in this strategy.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIAN SEARCHERS RECOVER SECOND FLIGHT RECORDER FROM PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED 113
AP Worldstream
May 24, 2006
Russian searchers on Wednesday recovered the second flight recorder
from an Armenian airliner that crashed into the Black Sea three weeks
ago, killing all 113 people aboard, local media reported.
The flight data recorder was lifted by a diving apparatus from a
depth of about 1,640 feet (500 meters) after it was separated from
a thick layer of silt, said Transport Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana
Kryshtanovskaya, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency.
The so-called ‘black box” was discovered within 16 meters (50 feet)
from the spot where workers on Monday found the plane’s cockpit
voice recorder.
Russian television channels showed footage of a yellow,
remote-controlled apparatus lifting the red recorder from the sea
surface.
Investigators hope the two recorders will help answer why the Armavia
Airbus A-320 plane plunged into the sea on May 3 amid heavy rain and
poor visibility. The flight had been en route to the southern Russian
sea resort Sochi from the Armenian capital, Yerevan. All passengers
and crew members on board were killed.
Prosecutors almost immediately dismissed the possibility that
terrorists had brought the plane down, and officials point to rough
weather or pilot error as the likely cause. Armavia officials have
suggested, however, that air traffic controllers were at least partly
to blame.

ROBERT SIMMONS: “NATO DOESN’T OBJECT TO RUSSIAN BASE IN ARMENIA”
Today, Azerbaijan
May 23 2006
NATO has nothing against the Armenian wish to have a Russian military
base on its territory, special representative for the South Caucasus
and Central Asia Robert Simmons said on Tuesday.
He is finalizing a two-day visit to Armenia, Itar-Tass reports.
NATO does not insist on the Armenian affiliation, as well as limited
contacts with other states, he said. The alliance and Yerevan develop
cooperation on the basis of political and economic reforms, which do
not contradict Armenia’s relations with other countries, he said.
NATO wishes to have good relations with all partners, including
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) members, he said.
Six months have passed since the adoption of the Armenia-NATO
individual partnership plan, and an intermediate report on the plan
fulfillment will be made at the Brussels meeting of the Armenia-NATO
Council on June 14, Simmons said. A final report will be drafted in
a year, he added.
A NATO information center will open in Yerevan in accordance with
the Armenian government’s pledge, he said.
As for Karabakh settlement negotiations, Simmons said that NATO is
not taking part in the dialog but hopes that the conflicting parties –
Armenia and Azerbaijan – will find a mutually acceptable solution.
Simmons said they support the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group for
Nagorno Karabakh. It is important for the sides to reach an agreement,
and then decide which peacekeepers to invite, he said.
NATO is not going to send peacekeepers to the Karabakh conflict zone,
he remarked.
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