BEST SOVIET TRADITIONS CONTINUE
Lragir.am
04 Sept 06
This is the impression of the speech of the counsel for prosecution
Janna Kotikyan in the trial of Arman Babajanyan, the Editor-in-Chief
of the Times Yerevan.
In the first instance court of Armenia, there is one justice on the
bench, whereas Ms. Kotikyan addressed “justices”, as it was accepted
in good old times, about 20 years ago. In the Republic of Armenia the
counsel for prosecution cannot prompt or propose the justice on the
sentence, whereas Ms. Kotikyan proposed sentencing Arman Babajanyan
to one year of imprisonment for avoiding military service and 4
years for forging documents, all in all, sentence him to 4.5 years
of imprisonment.
Another “Soviet manifestation”. Janna Kotikyan started her speech with
the words, “the trial was compliant with all the rules of trial.” But
is it one of the rules of the trial to be 30 minutes late for the
trial, like Janna Kotikyan did? Of course, in the Soviet years we had
seen a district attorney be more powerful than the judge. The counsel
for prosecution thinks the accusations for avoiding military service
and forging documents are grounded.
Whereas, Arman Babajanyan’s attorney thinks that the accusations for
stealing and forging documents are groundless. Vahe Abovyan and Armine
Arakelyan broke relations with Arman in 2002. Hence, the documents,
namely the certificate of marriage and the birth certificates should
have been stolen before 2002, whereas in 2005 the birth certificate
was used to take the child to school. Moreover, since 2002 they
had not announced that their documents could have been stolen from
their house or forged. Armine Arakelyan stated this only during the
interrogation. “The accusations against Arman Babajanyan are based
on suppositions, and the doubts are interpreted in favor of the
defendant,” stated Robert Grigoryan.
The counsel for prosecution announced that it is legal to sue a person
on the grounds of an anonymous letter, and the counsel for defense
listed a number of cases provided by the NKR laws when the anonymous
letter cannot be grounds for suing.
Arman Babajanyan confessed avoiding military service. His attorney
said, “I felt protected when Arman Babajanyan avoided military service,
and if he is imprisoned, I will not feel more protected. He repents
and he is his most rigid judge. He can be corrected without insulation
from the society.” Robert Grigoryan proposed dismissing the accusation
for forgery and sentence Arman Babajanyan to a punishment other than
imprisonment for avoiding military service. “Instead of sustaining
him at the expense of the government he could be helpful to the state.”
In the next sitting of the court Arman Babajanyan will make his final
speech and only the verdict of Justice Mnatsakan Martirosyan will
remain to hear.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BROADCASTS ON NAGORNO KARABAKH JEOPARDIZE RUSSIA’S RELATIONS WITH AZERBAIJAN
ArmRadio.am
04.09.2006 15:46
Screening of programs about Nagorno Karabakh on the occasion of
the 15th anniversary of NKR independence “jeopardizes Azerbaijan’s
relations with Russia, official Baku considers.
According to the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov,
“such programs contradict the statements Russia makes on the state
level, “Interfax” reports. “This kind of phenomena jeopardize both
Russia’s interests in the South Caucasus and Russia’s bilateral
relations with Azerbaijan,” Azimov underlines.

CHECHEN GIRL WINS MISS CAUCASUS-2006 TITLE IN YEREVAN
Armenpress
Sept 04 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS: Fatima Khazueva from Russian Chechen
Republic has won the title of Miss Caucasus-2006 in a beauty pageant
held in Yerevan on September 3.
Arman Antonian, head of the beauty contest steering committee, said
the Chechen girl has also won trips to Paris, Milan and Monaco. The
beauty contest was held under the motto of Peace to Caucasus. Nine
beauties from the vast region who had qualified for the semi-final
of a beauty show in the southern Russian Nalchik earlier contested
the title in Yerevan.
Arman Antonian said the sole goal of the contest was to encourage the
people of the region to push away their disagreements and unite for
peace and prosperity. Azerbaijan refused to send its beauty to Armenia.

ARMENIA-DIASPORA ECONOMIC FORUM TO OPEN SEPTEMBER 20
Armenpress
Sept 04 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS: Deputy trade and economic development
minister Tigran Davtian said the ministry has received 250 applications
from Armenian businessmen around the world who want to participate
in the second Armenia-Diaspora Economic Forum, slated for September
20 in Yerevan.
Davtian said they, however, expect this number to double. He said
the Forum is part of an extensive array of events to mark Armenia’s
15-th independence anniversary. It will held on the sidelines of the
third Armenia-Diaspora Conference.
The deputy minister said apart from ethnic Armenians also chief
officials of some leading international organizations and companies
are expected to attend the Forum, particularly, a large delegation
of IT specialists is expected.
As part of the Forum Yerevan will host also Armenian Economy in 15
Years exhibition on September 22.

LPUTYAN WAS DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL
A1+
[04:06 pm] 04 September, 2006
Armenian renowned chess grand master Smbat Lputyan was discharged
from hospital and will continue the treatment at home. About a week
ago Lputyan was caught in a car accident and was taken to hospital.
According to the official version, on August 26 at about 05:00
p.m. S. Hayrapetyan’s “Moskvich” crashed into the “Honda” driven by
Smbat Lputyan. As a result of the accident Smbat and Susanna Lputyans,
Gayane Zh. Lputyan and Hripsime S. Lputyan were taken to hospital.
A criminal case was initiated in connection with the accident.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CENTRAL BANK HOLDS EXHIBITION OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL CURRENCY IN IJEVAN
Panorama.am
13:53 04/09/06
The Central Bank (CB) of Armenia opened an exhibition of the national
currency of Armenia, dram, September 2 in Ijevan. The event aims
to introduce the public of Tavush to the history of the Armenian
dram and the activities of CB. CB press services told Panorama.am
that the exhibition will run for 10 days. Regional authorities
will help to organize visits of schoolchildren to the fair. CB
officials will also deliver lectures at Ijevan branch of Yerevan
State University. Such events were also organized in Lory region and
Nagorno Karabakh Republic. It is expected to include Gegharkunik in
the program.

MUNICIPALITY REMOVES TRADE HALLS NOT COMPLYING WITH NORMS
Panorama.am
13:58 04/09/06
Karen Gevorgyan, trade and service department head at Yerevan
municipality, told reporters today that 48 shops were removed from
the main avenues of Tigran Mets and Komitas in Yerevan and another
12 were dismantled on Acharyan street. The municipal authorities
required from 73 other shops to modernize.
Gevorgyan also said Yerevan is going to have cattle markets. “Cattle
may be sold in Yerevan but in proper places,” the department head
said. In his words, the municipal authorities have discussed the
issue with the ministry of agriculture. It is expected that four such
markets will be opened.

CONFERENCE ON BIO-ETHICS KICKS OFF IN YEREVAN
Panorama.am
14:05 04/09/06
An international conference on bio-ethical aspects of human rights
in the educational system has kicked off in Yerevan today, organized
by Armenian ombudsman office and National Institute of Bio-ethics
supported by Moscow office of UNESCO.
Armen Harutunyan, human right ombudsman, indicated that bio-ethical
issues have become significant in the light of developments in medical
and biological sciences. “The profession of a doctor is closely related
to ethical norms. All people should have medical treatment, in case
they need it, despite of the size of their purse,” Tatul Hakobyan,
deputy minister of health, stated. The participants said higher
educational establishments should have a course on medical ethics.
Gayane Makaryan, one of the organizers of the conference,
said Azeri experts in bio-ethics did not respond to their
invitation.

ROMANIAN MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENSE TO PAY AN OFFICIAL VISIT TO ARMENIA
ArmRadio.am
04.09.2006 17:10
September 6 the Minister of National Defense of Romania Teodor Atanasiu
will arrive in Armenia on a tree-day official visit.
September 7 the Minister is scheduled to meet with RA president Robert
Kocharyan, Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, Defense Minister Serge
Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan.
The same day the Romanian delegation will visit the Genocide museum
and will lay a wreath of flowers at the memorial to the victims of
the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
September 8 visits to the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin and Matenadaran
are expected. Later the Romanian delegation will meet with mass
media representatives.

ILLEGAL BUSINESS HARMS NATURE
A1+
[03:56 pm] 04 September, 2006
Armenia which has been importing wood for the last 70 years has
started to export it.
According to the data from the Customs service, Armenian wood is
exported to Iran, Turkey, Spain, France, Germany and even Tanzania. By
the way, in Soviet times Armenia never engaged in wood export.
The total area of forests in Armenia was last calculated in 1991.There
is no exact information about the forests at present. If 25% of the
territory of Armenia used to be covered with forests, now the index
is about 6-8%. In the CIS countries the average amount of forest
per person is 2.7 hectares, whereas in Armenia it makes 0.1 hectares
per person.
According to the order given to the Armenian forestries, the annual
volume of chopping does not exceed 71-75 thousand cubic meters. In
reality the volumes are much higher. According to the investigations
of independent experts, the annual volume of chopping in Armenia is
1 million 250 thousand cubic meters. And the total number of forest
resources in Armenia is about 42 million cubic meters.
By the way, this data was generated years ago. The main species of
trees chopped are oak and walnut.
Annual circulation of building wood is about 8 million USD, and that
of firewood is 10 million USD. “This sum does not even go to the state
budget as the majority comes from illegal chopping. At present only
chopping for sanitary aims are legally allowed. No businessman will
export that wood as it costs nothing. Only the most valuable wood
is exported, like oak, the stores of which are very little in the
whole world.
Factually, we export is almost for nothing, at the expense of the
environment,” says Nazeli Vardanyan, the head of the NGO “Armenian
Forests”.
It is noteworthy that the decision about amnesty in connection with the
15th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia says
that there are several crimes for which amnesty is not granted. Wood
chopping is one of them.