HASMIK POGHOSAYN APPOINTED RA MINISTER OF CULTURE AND YOUTH ISSUES
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 10:27
According to RA President’s decree of May 22 Gevorg Gevorgyan was
dismissed from the position of RA Minister of Culture and Youth
Issues. According to another decree, Hasmik Poghosayn was appointed
to the position.

HOUSE FOREIGN AID PANEL REINSTATES US POLICY ON SECURITY PARITY
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 10:45
The Armenian Assembly praised members of a key foreign aid subcommittee
for reinstating US policy to maintain military aid parity between
Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Foreign Operations
bill. Earlier this year, the Administration submitted a request for
Azerbaijan that exceeded security assistance to Armenia by $1.095
million.
Lawmakers approved a symmetrical appropriation that amounts to $3.5
million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and an additional $790,000
in International Military Education and Training (IMET) assistance
to both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“We appreciate the efforts of the House Appropriations Committee and
credit its Foreign Operations Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Jim Kolbe
and Ranking Member Rep. Nita M. Lowey for maintaining equal security
assistance between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said Assembly Executive
Director Bryan Ardouny. “We especially appreciate the outstanding
leadership of Armenian Caucus Co-Chair and Committee Member, Rep. Joe
Knollenberg, for his efforts in restoring parity and protecting the
fragile cease-fire at a time when Azerbaijan continues to threaten
a resumption of war against Nagorno Karabakh.”
“Given the fact that relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan
continue to be tenuous, it is imperative that the US maintain a
balanced approach,” said Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone,
Jr. “Furthermore, I am pleased that the Committee called for a higher
allocation to Armenia than that requested by the Administration.”
The bill will be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee
this week. Once the House of Representatives and Senate complete
action on their versions of the bill, a joint House Senate Conference
Committee will reconcile the differences.

CONFERENCE ON “YOUTH, REALITY AND PROSPECTS” TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 10:55
June 13-15 a conference on “Youth, Reality and Prospects” will
be held in Yerevan. Youth NGOs from Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and
Javakhk, as well as representatives of international organizations
will participate in the event. ” Armenpress” was told at the Ministry
of Culture and Youth Affairs that the conference will consist of two
parts: a thematic discussion and an exhibition titled “Sale of Ideas.”
Public discussion of the national youth report, featuring experts from
the Council of Europe, will be held in the framework of the conference.

TAIQUANDO TEAM OF ARMENIA TO PARTICIPATE IN THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 11:25
Taiquando team of Armenia will participate in the European Championship
to be held May 26-28 in Bonn, Germany. The Armenian team will comprise
Suren Sargisov (58kg), Arkadi Hakobyan (62kg), Levon Pashabezyan
(67kg) and Arman Yeremayan.
The trainer of the Armenian Taiquando team is Varuzhan Arshakyan.

THE RUSSIAN SIDE WORKS VERY WELL, RA AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA CONSIDERS
ArmRadio.am
22.05.2006 15:22
The recent pessimistic statements from Russia about the search for
the black boxes of the crashed A-320 create the impression that there
isn’t the earlier interest in finding the recorders of the plane and
revealing the real reasons of the disaster. The opinion is not shared
by RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Russia Armen
Smbatyan, who said in his interview to ” Radiolur” correspondent Zara
Sargsyan, “The Russian side is working very well. They apply every
effort to extract the black boxes. I’m sure that at least one of the
boxes will be lifted.”
Commander in Chief of the Air Forces of Russia Vladimir Mikhailov
declared on May 16 that the Armenian A-320 crashed because the pilots
did not consider the weather conditions.
In his words, the captain of the plane took a completely correct
decision to return to Yerevan.
“They had to return,” Vladimir Mikhailov said.
He declared also that the expenses for extracting the black boxes of
the crashed plane are not justified.
It has been a week already that we know only the scarce information
that the recorders lie 496 meters deep in the water and the distance
between the black boxes is five meters.
According to the data provided by the operative staff, RT-1000 robot
was applied, which came across “fragments resembling those of the
black boxes of the crashed A-320.” Some fragments are suck into mud,
which slows down the search works. The search works are hindered also
because of weather conditions.
Besides, the devise cannot operate long under water. The specialists
have to extract the devise from the water to clear the camera and
the searchlights of mud.
It is not known how long the search works will last. 17 days have
passed since the disaster. In 13 more days it will be useless to
speak about the extraction of the black boxes and decoding of the
information, since in a month the radio beacons stop to produce
signals.

CITIZENS “ELECT” NA PRESIDENT
A1+
[06:38 pm] 22 May, 2006
The RA NA was deprived on its President today. The day of the election
of a new President is not known yet.
Neither are the candidates for the post known.
According to the Parliament regulations the deputies are to elect a
President. And whom do the citizens of the country prefer? We tried
to find out the answer to this question through a poll.
535 citizens participated in the poll. The majority (15%) voted
for leader of the National Unity Artashes Geghamyan. Present deputy
President of the NA Vahan Hovhannisyan received 12% of the votes. Head
of the United Labor Party faction Gourgen Arsenyan received 10%
of the votes.
The rest of the votes were distributed as follows: head of the Justice
bloc Stepan Demirchyan – 9%, NA deputy President Tigran Torosyan –
8%, Arthur Baghdasaryan – 5% and head of the group People’s Deputy
Karen Karapetyan 0 2%.
17% of the participants of the poll prefers a candidate different
from those mentioned, and 22% preferred to answer “None of them”.

IS THERE A COALITION CRISIS?
Lragir.am
23 May 06
In his speech on his resignation Arthur Baghdasaryan dwelled on a
number of questions. The following are extracts from this speech.
“We follow the path to Armenia of our dreams. We find that democratic
reforms must be promoted more determinedly, that protection of
human rights, battle against corruption and clannish economy should
be declared a political priority, a political struggle against
protectionism, the vicious “one hand washes the other” approach should
be launched.”
“We believe that the future of Armenia must be democracy and freedom,
not a society of fear.”
“We believe that it is wrong to build two Armenias: Yerevan and
the regions.”
“We find that the consistent promotion of relations with the EU must
become a political goal, that Euro-Atlantic partnership is an important
and correct approach, and that we must promote U.S.-Armenian political
and economic cooperation. We are not supposed to become an indicator
of Russian-American relations. We have two ways: either to join the
Russia-Belarus union and get on well with the EU, or to join the EU
and have good relations with Russia. We endorse the second.”
“We are going to criticize fundamentally every shortcoming, every
wrong step, it does not matter who will take it, the president,
the government, any political force and organization. Government or
opposition, it does not matter. If you do a good thing, we will be
beside you, if you do a good thing for the homeland, we will support
and back you.”

TATUL MANASERYAN SAYS AVIATION IS UNSATISFACTORY
Lragir.am
23 May 06
Member of Parliament Tatul Manaseryan, Ardarutiun Alliance, has piled
up reference material, proving that the state of aviation in Armenia
is below satisfactory.
According to Tatul Manaseryan, in Armavia “the money passengers pay
for the luggage is appropriated by marking a lower weight of luggage
in statements, manpower “massacres” continue: thousands of workers
were fired, including 3000 qualifies pilots, the social problems of
the fired personnel were not solved. The parity of flights was not
observed, 67 percent of flights are foreign companies, 33 percent the
Armenian party, which are owned by a foreigner as well, so Armavia does
not pay profit tax to the state budget of Armenia. 67 percent of shares
of Armavia, which is considered Armenian party, belong to S7 Airlines,
33 percent is owned by a citizen of another country. Consequently,
Armavia does not have a legal relation with Armenia.”
After presenting this series of shortcomings and gaps, the member of
parliament stated, “The citizens of Armenia as well as the Armenian
companies cannot carry out flights, in addition, the government of
Armenia cannot control the civil aviation.” And finally a conclusion
that is not less painful. “The profit from the flights of Armavia and
the other companies flow out of the country, undermining the economy
and the budget of Armenia, the national money, and the national and
economic security generally.”
“The exclusive role of the Armenian aviation may never become reality
unless it gets rid of the harmful developments and negative tendencies
existing in this sphere since the declaration of independence,”
alarms Tatul Manaseryan.

PARLIAMENT MAY NOT ELECT SPEAKER
Lragir.am
23 May 06
The Constitution provides for definite terms for election or
appointment of president or prime minister and government in case of
resignation, while there is not a similar provision for the speaker
of the National Assembly.
Hence, the National Assembly may not have a speaker till the end of
its term. This is not a purely theoretical suggestion, considering
that the majority tandem, the Republican Party and the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation together have 60 members of parliament. On
the other hand, we still remember the recent election of ombudsman,
when the coalition, which had three parties then, failed to elect an
ombudsman in the first round.
The former speaker may hand the powers of the speaker over to one
of the deputy speakers until the election of a new speaker. On the
other hand, the government must do everything to have the chair of
the speaker occupied as soon as possible. Because it is difficult
to bring the button-pushers to the hall of the National Assembly and
keep them there long. Besides, with autumn coming up, the members of
parliament are going to be busy preparing for the next election.

“YELLOW BIRD” APACHE DANCE GROUP TO GIVE CONCERTS IN ARMENIA
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 12:03
At the invitation of the US Embassy in Armenia, “Yellow bird” Apache
dance group will arrive in Armenia. The group will give concerts in
Ararat (May 26), Yerevan (May 27) and Gyumri (May 29).
The “Yellow bird” dance group has the fame of carrier of ancient
cultural traditions. They present the culture and art of American
settlers to contemporary and future generations.