WORLD VISION’S KAPAN TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM CONTINUES
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
KAPAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Rather large work has been done during two
years under the World Vision organization’s Territorial Development
Program that has been implemented in the communities of Kapan region
since 2003 October. As Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed
by program head Sergei Arzumanian, water-pipes were repaired in
17 rural communities, as well as the needs of the population were
studied. Parallelly food was distributed among needy layers, summer
camps were organized, in which children registered in the Kapan
Territorial Development Program are involved. Within the framework of
program of primary health protection doctor-specialists render free
medical service in 18 remote rural communities. It was mentioned that
at present works of building a canal for Kapan Aram Manukian street,
as well as repairs of Garegin Nzhdeh street’s canal and roofes of 5
tenement-houses are underway.

VEDANTA SIGHTS GOLD, OPENS PURSE STRINGS
Suresh Nair
Economic Times, India
May 18 2006
Times News Network[ Thursday, May 18, 2006 02:00:58 Am]
MUMBAI: Vedanta Resources plans to enter the precious metals business
by investing in gold as the sky-rocketing prices of the commodity
tempt India’s leading non-ferrous metal producer.
The London-listed Vedanta may invest in Sterlite Gold, which is
now controlled by the Anil Agarwal family holding company – Volcan
Investments – and is out of the Vedanta fold. Sterlite Gold’s
Armenian operation currently require $70-80 m for expanding its
operation. Vedanta is likely to step in by investing the money and
thereby picking up a stake in the company.
The Armenian operations are controlled through Ararat Gold Recovery
Company (AGRC), a gold mining and processing company in Armenia,
and is fully owned by Sterlite Gold. Sources said the group is yet
to decide on the move and the route to be followed. “A decision on
whether to bring in funds through Vedanta or through the holding
company is being debated,” the source said.
Vedanta currently has a negligible presence in gold but is a major
player in copper, zinc and aluminium. The only downside of investing
in the gold , is that current prices of the metal are at an all-time
high. Entry into gold production will, however give it better
valuations as the future outlook for gold is very positive.
AGRC has two gold mines at Meghradzor and Zod and a processing plant
at Ararat in Armenia. It has plans of shifting and upgradation of
some facilities of t h e Ararat plant and to build a brand new plant
at Zod, which can treat gold ore.
The mine life, based upon proven reserves and proposed capacity
expansion, will be more than 10 years.The plans envisage shifting and
upgradation of some facilities of t h e Ararat plant and to build a
brand new plant at Zod, which can treat gold ores.AGRC is also trying
its luck with possible diamond deposits at Zod.

CITY OF TALIN TO ESTABLISH FRIENDLY TIES WITH SYRIAN CITY
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
TALIN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Makhlis Faraun, the Ambassador
Ectraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Syria
to Armenia visited the city of Talin, the Aragatsotn marz in late
December, 2005. The issue of establishing friendly ties with a city
of the Arab Republic of Syria was arisen both by Ambassador and
Talin Mayor. Delegates of the city of Talin visited recently the
Embassy of the Arab Republic of Syria in Yerevan at the Ambassador’s
invitation. As Volodya Khachatrian, the Talin Mayor’s Office staff
head informed the Noyan Tapan correspondent, an agreement was reached
during the meeting in the direction of establishing friendly ties
with Talin and strengthening them.
Frameworks of the cooperation were also mentioned.

ARMENIANS WIN FIRST ROUND IN HOME RENT PLEA
Story By Jillo Kadida
The Nation, Kenya
May 18 2006
The High court yesterday declined to order two Armenians to deposit
Sh782,460 in court as security for rent arrears.
Mr Justice Festus Azangalala said it was not necessary to give any
orders before the issue was heard fully.
“Having perused the application and heard the submissions, I’m
satisfied that the application is urgent,” said the judge.
“I am afraid I am not satisfied that any ex-parte orders are
necessary.”
Landlord Sammy Mutinda Musyoki had filed an application against the
brothers Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargasyan over failure to pay rent.
He listed Brotherlink International Limited, whose directors are the
two brothers, as defendants in the case.
And he sought a warrant of arrest against the two to tell court why
they should not furnish security.
He also wanted them stopped from removing their property from the
house on Glory Road in Nairobi’s Runda Estate.
Mr Musyoki’s lawyer said his client stood to suffer irreparable damage
if the court failed to grant the orders sought.
And in the interest of justice, he said, he was seeking that the
court order the brothers to deposit the sum due in court or provide
security for court attendance.
He said the two were not Kenyans.
Mr Musyoki said there was an allegation that the two might move to
Uganda, and he risked losing what was duly his.
In his suit papers, the landlord said he had entered into an agreement
with the brothers to occupy the premises for one year, starting
February 1, 2006 to January 31, 2007.
He said his search at the registry of companies regarding Brotherlink
had been futile as the file could not be traced.
And when he called Mr Margaryan to enquire about the rent that was
due for the May, June and July quarter, he was promised payment. Mr
Margaryan was to get Real Management Services to release it. But
instead, he said, he received a letter from Real Management Services
terminating the tenancy.
The termination, he believes was unlawful as it breached their earlier
agreement. The rent due for early termination was US$1,458 which
translated to Sh102,060, while the rent due amounted to US$4,860
(Sh340,200).
Hearing was set for May 25 when both parties will argue their case.

THE GREAT WAR FOR CIVILISATION; THE CONQUEST OF THE MIDDLE EAST / ROBERT FISK
By Tom Snyders
Georgia Straight, Canada
May 18 2006
Publish Date: 18-May-2006
By Robert Fisk. Fourth Estate, 1,366 pp, $65, hardcover.
For 30 years, Beirut-based Brit Robert Fisk has covered events
in the Middle East that have shaped the terror and wars of today,
and his latest monstrous volume-in size and content-is a necessary
antidote to the sound-bitten simplification by which much of the West
understands the region. “Governments like it that way,” he states.
“They want their people to see war as a drama of opposites, good and
evil, ‘them’ and ‘us’, victory or defeat. But war is primarily not
about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death.
It represents the total failure of the human spirit.” A journalist’s
job is “to challenge authority-all authority-especially so when
governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided
that they will kill and others will die.”
This book is not for those with weak stomachs or iron ideologies, as
myths and lies from all sides are exploded, revealing many shades of
grey and bloody red. Fisk travels the front lines of the Iran-Iraq war,
inside occupied Palestine and Algeria’s barbarous civil war, and (in
1996) to a remote Afghan cave to interview Osama bin Laden. Far more
than just a reporter’s memoir, Fisk’s historical analysis is blended
with stories of people we often know only as “collateral damage”,
drawing parallels between Soviet and U.S. invasions of Afghanistan,
detailing U.S. war crimes in both Gulf Wars, and linking the Armenian
genocide of World War I to Hitler’s later horrors.
The ghosts of World War I inhabit both region and writer; Fisk details
his father’s refusal to execute a fellow Allied soldier at war’s
end, and the medal he won proclaiming it the titular “Great War for
Civilisation”. “At the end of my father’s war, the victors divided up
the lands of their former enemies…[creating] the borders of Northern
Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my
entire career-in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad-watching
the peoples within these borders burn.” And he himself burns, too,
with all the moral outrage and authority of one who has risked his
life to tell what lies in this tome.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

17 PEOPLE DIED IN ARMENIA IN 2005 IN CONSEQUENCE OF BREAKING LABOUR SECURITY NORMS
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Because of breaking labour security
norms, in consequence of 73 labour accident in 2005, 75 people got
different types of body injuries and temporarily became invalid. The
last index reduced by 11.8% compared with 2004. According to data
of the RA National Statistical Service, specific weight of those
injuries made 0.7 on account of 1000 employees. 9 people or 12%
among those injured are women. In consequence of breaking the labour
security norms, 23.6% of those injured or 17 people died (1 of them
is a woman). The biggest number, 35 cases, of accident fixed in the
republic in 2005 was fixed in the marz of Syunik. In consequence
of injury connected with implementation of employees’ occupational
obligations, occupational diseases and other types of problems with
health in the republic in 2005, expenses of compensation of the done
damage made 124.7 mln drams (about 277.1 thousand U.S. dollars).

US STILL HOPES FOR AZERI-ARMENIAN ACCORD, ITS OFFICIAL SAYS
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
May 18 2006
Baku, May 17, AssA-Irada
The United States still hopes Azerbaijan and Armenia will reach an
accord to settle the long-standing conflict over Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs, Matthew Bryza, has said.
Speaking at the US Congress on Tuesday, he said a rapprochement
has been achieved in the positions of the sides owing to the talks
carried out of late, which provides greater opportunities to reach
an agreement compared to previous years.
The American official added that the two countries should display
political will to eliminate the outstanding differences.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ACCORDING TO SPECIALIST, SALT-CELLAR FOUND IN 2005 DURING EXCAVATIONS OF HAYKADZOR NEEDS DETAILED STUDY
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
GYUMRI, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. During the 2005 excavations of Haykadzor,
one of suburbs of one-time Armenian capital Ani, a clay salt-cellar
made in the 14-15 the centuries was found under a huge ruined
rock. According to the specialist, the founded contains a secret
of a whole ritual and needs detailed study. This salt-cellar made
in the way of an expectant mother was kept from the joint corrosive
influence of salt and water. This salt-cellar had a small bowl in its
upper part. According to ethnographic evidences, salt-cellars were put
in tonratoons (the shed which houses a tonir used for baking bread),
at the fire. People acted in this way in the period of pre-Christian
times. Those were kept in the Christian times as well but were
hiden. As Larisa Yeganian, the head of the Shirak and Aragatsotn
Territorial Department of the Agency on Protecting Monuments, mentioned
there are pictures of people’s body on salt-cellars founded earlier
as well, but this salt-cellar is the first on which they are pictured
during a round dance. One of the figures is smaller compared with the
others, and “it is difficult to say if the figure was made smaller not
to cut the circle of the round dance, or they really ment a child,
as if it is on the upper part of bearing organ, it may be accepted
as a new-born.”
The dancers are pictured naked and have ring-shaped signs from their
back and overhead. According to Larisa Yeganian, those are not crowns
as the latters are characteristical only for icons. Larisa Yeganian
supposes that those rings may be horns. According to her, during the
bronze era there were hearths which were horseshoe-shaped by their
form, like a horn, and besides that, were ram-headed as well. Figures
pictured on the salt-cellar dance Armenian Gorani that is dedicated
to ancestors’ memory.

US DIPLOMAT EXPECTS GARABAGH AGREEMENT ‘IN COMING WEEKS’
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
May 18 2006
Baku, May 17, AssA-Irada
Washington believes Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents may sign a
peace agreement in the coming weeks to end the conflict over Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh, said Anne Derse, the nominated US ambassador
in Baku.
It is currently a crucial time for the negotiating process and
additional opportunities have emerged to resolve the dispute this year,
Russian ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the diplomat as saying.
Commenting on the possible use of military action to settle the
dispute, she said any use of force by either side at the moment could
have tragic ramifications.
The parties failed to agree upon the issues of principle during
the latest talks held by the two leaders in Rambouillet, France in
February, which was followed by Azerbaijan’s threats to resort to
military action.

HAYORDATS TUN OPENED IN ASHTARAK
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
ASHTARAK, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Hayordats Tun (Armenian-borns’ house)
acting under the patronage of the Armenian Apostolic Church was founded
in the city of Ashtarak, the marz center of Aragatsotn. This center
of religious, artistic and Armenian-type education of the younger
generation was founded on the initiative of Archimandarite Torgom
Tonikian, the primate of the Aragatsont diocese who is the spiritual
instructor of the Yerevan Hayordats school as well.
Pupils attending the Hayordats school, studying the centuries-old
history of the Armenian Church, at the same time become skilled
at different branches of art, enjoy pleasure of contact with
beautiful. The city art school passed under management of the Mother
See of Holy Etchmiadzin for the Hayordats school of Ashtarak. Programs
of fundamental restoration of the new educational institution are in
process at present.