OPERATION TO RECOVER A-320 BLACK BOXES TO START MAY 16
by Galina Solodovnikova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 13, 2006 Saturday
An operation to recover flight recorders from the Armenian Airbus-320
passenger plane that crashed in the Black Sea off Sochi on May 3 will
begin on Tuesday, May 16, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin
said on Saturday.
He said equipment for the operation was being loaded in the port of
Novorossiisk. The equipment will be ready for use by Monday. “We plan
to start the operation on Tuesday,” the minister said.
According to experts, the operation may take two to three days.
Beyond that everything will depend on the weather, Levitin said.
In his words, it will take about a month or two to “read” the data
from the flight recorders. “We hope that the operation to lift [the
flight recorders] will go well,” he added.
The flight recorders are lying on the seabed 496 metres from the
surface and about five metres apart. “The visibility is sufficient
for the work to be done,” the minister said.
Of 113 people who were abroad the plane, 51 bodies have been found
so far.
The Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia plunged into the
Black Sea as it was making a landing manoeuvre in the early hours of
May 3. The accident claimed the lives of 113 people.

TURKEY THREATENS FRENCH WITH SANCTIONS OVER ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’ LAW
Agence France Presse — English
May 14, 2006 Sunday 1:30 PM GMT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France with
trade sanctions if it adopts a bill making it illegal to deny that the
1915-1917 massacre of Armenians in Turkey was “genocide”, a Turkish
newspaper said Sunday.
“Patience has its limits. We do not have hatred (towards France) but
we will impose our sanctions,” the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted
Erdogan as saying at a summit of Muslim countries on the Indonesian
island of Bali.
French lawmakers were due to consider next Thursday a bill from the
opposition Socialists which would make anyone denying the existence
of the “Armenian genocide” liable to a five-year jail term and a
45,000-euro (57,000-dollar) fine.
French MPs should be “particularly sensitive” to the issue of possible
sanctions since France is the number one investor in Turkey, Erdogan
said. “There will possibly be problems,” he added.
France has angered Ankara in the past over the Armenian question. In
2001 it adopted a law recognising the massacres as “genocide”. Turkey
acknowledges that massacres took place, but refuses to class them
as genocide.
Several French businesses were excluded from invitations to tender
in Turkey amid calls there for a boycott of French products following
the 2001 law.
French exports to Turkey in 2001 law plunged by 3.53 billion dollars,
according to Turkish figures. But analysts predict the latest law
could have a far greater impact on trade between the two countries
than the 2001 bill.
Turkey has reached record rates of growth in the past five years and
bilateral trade between the countries in 2005 was worth at least 9.6
billion dollars.
Armenians allege up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917, while the Ottoman Empire,
modern Turkey’s predecessor, was falling apart.
Turkey rejects the claim, saying 300,000 Armenians and at least as
many Turks died in civil strife when the Armenians started fighting
for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops
invading Ottoman soil.
The 430-member Turkish chamber of commerce has intensified appeals
to French leaders including a letter to President Jacques Chirac,
urging them to abandon Thursday’s vote.

LES ENTREPRISES FRANCAISES S’ALARMENT DES MENACES DE BOYCOTT DE LA TURQUIE
par Guillaume Perrier
Le Monde, France
12 mai 2006
Commerce Proposition De Loi Du Ps Sur Le Genocide Armenien
En dessous d’une caricature de Jacques Chirac, sont repertories les
produits francais a boycotter, secteur par secteur. Cette liste noire
de plus de 400 marques, qui circule sur Internet, a ete publiee en
reaction a la proposition de loi du Parti socialiste francais sur le
genocide armenien, qui devrait etre examinee a l’Assemblee nationale
le 18 mai.
En cas d’adoption, avertissent les milieux economiques franco-turcs,
les consequences pourraient etre catastrophiques. ” L’attitude
des hommes politiques francais est irresponsable, clame Guillaume
Rougier-Brière, president des conseillers du commerce exterieur en
Turquie. Cela pourrait nous conduire a l’une des crises les plus
graves entre la France et la Turquie. ”
A la tete d’une delegation de 22 representants d’entreprises
francaises, parmi lesquelles Renault, Peugeot, Total, Carrefour ou
Alstom, il a ete recu, mardi 9 mai, a Ankara, par le premier ministre
Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ” Il nous a avertis que nous pourrions etre des
victimes collaterales potentielles “, indique M. Rougier-Brière. Dans
une lettre envoyee a chaque president de groupe parlementaire a
l’Assemblee nationale, les hommes d’affaires francais ont explique
” qu’un tel vote viendrait immanquablement decourager – leurs –
efforts. (…) Les marques de defiance sont deja perceptibles dans
nos activites “.
Le week-end dernier, le president de la commission des affaires
etrangères au Parlement turc, Mehmet Dulger, a declare que les
importations francaises pourraient faire l’objet d’un boycott et
que les entreprises pourraient etre ecartees de procedures d’appel
d’offres.
AREVA, UNE CIBLE CERTAINE
Au premier rang des entreprises visees figure Areva, candidate a la
construction des premières centrales nucleaires turques. ” Il y aura
d’abord ceux qui traitent avec l’Etat ou avec l’armee, predit M.
Rougier-Brière. Et ensuite un boycott spontane des produits de grande
consommation “, a l’image de Danone ou L’Oreal. La Societe generale,
qui prospecte pour le rachat d’une banque turque, est aussi une
cible potentielle.
” Nous serons moins concernes mais nous prevoyons une petite baisse
du chiffre d’affaires, admet quant a lui Esref Hamamcioglu, directeur
de Sodexho. Nous avons un contrat de restauration collective en cours
de negociation avec l’armee et les choses traînent un peu. ”
Les retombees de cette nouvelle crise entre les deux pays seraient
sans doute plus importantes qu’en 2001, après la reconnaissance
officielle du genocide armenien par la France. Des contrats avec
Thomson et Alcatel avaient alors ete annules et les tracasseries
administratives s’etaient multipliees.
Mais le boycott avait ete decourage par la grave crise financière
survenue quelques jours plus tard. Aujourd’hui, la situation economique
de la Turquie est plus stable.
” Le marche turc est en pleine expansion et on y investit fortement
“, rappelle Malek Sarmini, directeur general de L’Oreal. La ministre
deleguee au commerce exterieur, Dominique Lagarde, doit se rendre en
Turquie le 14 juin, accompagnee de 40 chefs d’entreprise.
–Boundary_(ID_9PBPwyfKkQPZkqlBroQX fw)–

`MAYRIG’ MESHES TWO FILMS TO TELL AN EPIC STORY
by Richard Duckett, Telegram & Gazette Staff
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE (Massachusetts)
May 6, 2006 Saturday
ALL EDITIONS
WORCESTER – “Mayrig” is a remarkable film in many respects, not the
least for the way it has finally been put together as a compelling
family drama straddling 40-plus years.
Fourteen years ago the late French-Armenian filmmaker Henry
Verneuil made the original version of “Mayrig,” apparently a
semi-autobiographical account of a family’s efforts to start anew after
fleeing the Armenian genocide and settling in Marseilles, France, in
1920. Omar Sharif and Claudia Cardinale played the parents – Hagop
and Mayrig Zakarian – who invest much love and hope in their young
son, Azad. A couple of years later, Verneuil made a sequel in which
the adult Azad we had seen coming of age in “Mayrig” faces personal
questions about assimilation and his own identity now that he is a
successful playwright in France.
The two films have now been successfully melded into an interesting
whole, and the newly edited and English subtitled version of “Mayrig”
will be making what is being billed as its world premiere at 7 p.m.
tomorrow in Room 320 (Cinema 320) of the Jefferson Academic Center
at Clark University. The screening is presented by the Knights of
Vartan Arshavir Lodge No. 2 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the
founding of the Knights of Vartan. Tickets are $10, and proceeds will
go toward The Adopt-A-School Project in Armenia.
Given that Cardinale and Sharif are world-famous names, it is somewhat
surprising that no showing of this film with English subtitles has
occurred until now. But it is not they who provide the film’s real
dramatic heft. Rather, it is the obvious deep feeling that Verneuil
has for his story that infuses the film with a quiet strength.
The film is narrated by the adult Azad as we first see his family
undergoing some nervous moments waiting for the official stamp at
French immigration that will offer them a new life after escaping the
horrors of the genocide. While setting up its tale, “Mayrig” does not
shrink from showing a snapshot of those horrors as remembered by one
survivor. These scenes of a forced march in the desert are grim and
realistic, and establish what is at stake for the Zakarians.
As “Mayrig” unfolds, Azad endures the prejudice of French schoolmates,
but he has an inner capacity to understand what is going on and to
live with it. What must help matters considerably for Azad is that he
is totally doted on at home. There is no sacrifice his parents and
two aunts will not make for him. After a while the film sweetly but
almost inevitably slides into the direction of sentimentality. Dignity
saves the day, however, both in the director’s efforts and with the
performances of Cardinale and Sharif, who are at their strongest when
the film most needs them to be.
“Mayrig” shows Azad’s progress up to 1940, and then this new version
makes a sudden and huge leap. World War II is bypassed, as well
as Azad making a monumental career-change (in fact both could have
been very intriguing subjects as far as relating to the Zakarians,
although this already long movie can obviously depict only so much).
We meet Azad anew as a rather jaundiced middle-aged playwright. His
parents are still alive, but these kindly souls are strangely a source
of acute irritation to Azad’s non-Armenian wife.
The original music score won an Academy Award, but Verneuil again
may be in danger of over-cueing the violins at the end. Fortunately
to help counterbalance that, there are once again some saving graces.
The script develops quite a nice wit, and when Verneuil has something
profound to say his film communicates the thoughts and emotions with
unmistakable eloquence.
`Mayrig’ ***1/2 A Sony Pictures release Rating: Not rated Running time:
2 hours, 30 minutes.

BR ARMENIAN CHURCH TO HOLD SPECIAL SERVICE
The Advocate
May 13, 2006 Saturday
Main Edition
Advocate staff report
The state’s first Armenian house of worship, St. Garabed Armenian
Church, will hold consecration services Sunday.
The ceremony, which begins at 10:30 a.m. at the church, 6208 Florida
Blvd., will be led by Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, primate of the
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, headquartered in New
York City. The Armenian Church is thought to be one of the Apostolic
churches claiming descent from Christ’s original apostles. While the
local church has been operational for two years, it will now receive
the special blessings that will allow it to be used as a “sacred
sanctuary for the state’s Armenian Christians, many of whom are
first generation arrivals to America.” The traditional liturgy used
in services closely resembles those used in Orthodox churches. The
Armenian consecration service will include prayers, blessings and
symbolic acts. To learn more Information on the church history is
available at

ARMENIAN SHARES STORY OF FAITH, HOPE, SURVIVAL
by Shelby Young ([email protected] 348-4806)
Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
May 10, 2006, Wednesday
Singer will be performing at churches and civic groups
Now a beautiful, young woman, Olga Petrossian sings with beauty and
confidence — her voice a testament to the power of hope and faith
Recently, she sang for members of Putnam Rotary Club on her first
return visit to Putnam County since last May.
But there was a time in her life – far from peaceful Teays Valley –
when Olga feared to make as much as a single sound.
She still recalls a horrifying night when she was only 4 years old
in Azerbaijan, a part of the former Soviet Union which is bounded
by Iran on the south, by the Caspian Sea on the east, by Russia’s
Dagestan Republic on the north and by Armenia on the west.
During the late 1980s, ethnic Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region
of Azerbaijan had pressed for its unification with Armenia, leading
to a guerrilla war. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, a
large-scale conflict broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1992.
Even though they were Armenian by blood, the Petrossians had lived
in Azerbaijan and spoke only the native Azeri and Russian languages.
Olga remembers the terror in the night – the knock at the door. Azeri
extremists were going from house to house, searching out ethnic
Armenians for extermination.
Discovery would mean death, she told the Rotarians.
Her mother pleaded with the 4-year-old Olga: “Please don’t cry. If
they know we’re here, they’ll kill us.”
The family huddled in the darkness, scarcely daring to breathe.
Then, an Azeri neighbor spoke to the gunmen and rescued the family
from the prospect of imminent death.
“There’s no one there,” she told the soldiers. “They’ve all gone.”
Shortly thereafter, Olga’s family joined a flood of refugees crossing
the border into neighboring Armenia.
However, they soon realized they would never be accepted in Armenia.
So the family moved north to Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad,
where Olga’s grandparents had a home.
Her grandmother attended regularly the church services in a local
theater there, and in those circumstanced despair was transformed
into hope for the family.
Olga wanted to go to school at Bethel College in Indiana, but the
cost was far beyond the means of the $100 per month of family income.
Then a letter came, offering a $10,000 scholarship. But Olga would
have to match it for the $20,000 tuition.
And, in a story of spirit and faith triumphant over circumstances,
she succeeded.
Other families supported her with gifts totaling $8,000.
She paid the balance by work on campus and personal ministry in the
United States.
This spring, Olga finished her senior year at Bethel, completing a
major in vocal performance.
Sponsored in part by international author and motivational speaker
Chet Marshall of Hurricane, the pretty, young Armenian prodigy from
Volgograd plans to speak and sing at several church and civic groups
during her visit in the area.
Accompanied by her father on guitar, Olga performed a Russian song
during the noon luncheon meeting at Sleepy Hollow.
As for the future, Olga will be married in July.
She’s open to all the possibilities that lie before her, she said.
“I just pray about it, and I don’t worry too much.”

SENTENCING RESCHEDULED IN PONZI SCAM TARGETING ARMENIAN-AMERICANS
City News Service
May 1, 2006 Monday 11:46 AM PST
Los Angeles
Sentencing has been rescheduled to June 14 for a Van Nuys man who
ran an investment scam that primarily targeted Armenian-Americans and
took in nearly $20 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today.
Melkon Gharakhanian, who authorities say also used the name Mike
Garian, pleaded guilty in January to one count of mail fraud.
If U.S. District Judge George Schiavelli follows the recommendations
in a plea deal between Gharakhanian and prosecutors, the 43-year-old
defendant could be sentenced to two to four years behind bars.
Gharakhanian admitted that between 1999 and 2001, a Glendale investment
firm that he and others ran, National Investment Enterprises Inc.,
took money from people who believed they were investing in specific
stocks — including initial public offerings for Internet businesses
and other high-tech companies.
Contracts and other documentation seemed to back up that assertion,
the plea agreement states.
In reality, investor funds were used to buy non-liquid stocks that
were never listed on account statements, according to the court
document. Investor money was also being used to pay returns to other
investors in what is known as a Ponzi scheme.
Some of the investor money also went to pay salaries and other expenses
for National Investment Enterprises, the plea deal states.
Although some of the investors were paid more money than they invested,
Gharakhanian and prosecutors have agreed that the amount victims lost
in the scam was between $2.5 million and $10 million.
Beyond that range, the amount remains in dispute, and a judge must
make a finding on the issue. The total amount that victims lost in the
scam will be a major factor in how long a prison term is recommended
under advisory sentencing guidelines.
Under the law, the maximum term that could be imposed for the mail
fraud count would be five years.
In addition to the prison time, Gharakhanian will likely be ordered
to pay restitution to his victims. However, the lead prosecutor in
the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wilner, said a previous
$2.6 million judgment against Gharakhanian — stemming from a related
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil action — has so far
been unrecoverable.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS ON “KOLTSO” OPERATION TO BE HELD IN NKR
ArmRadio.am
15.05.2006 10:52
Parliamentary hearings on “Koltso operation: The violations of
Soviet Azerbaijan and Soviet Union authorities against the Armenian
population of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjunct territories” will be held
today in NKR. The hearings are dedicated to the 15th anniversary of
“Koltso” operation. It was in April-June 1991 that the Soviet troops
forcefully displaced the peaceful Armenian population.

THE OPERATION OF LIFTING THE BLACK BOXES OF THE CRASHED A-320 TO START ON MAY 16
ArmRadio.am
15.05.2006 11:45
The operation of lifting the black boxes of the crashed A-320 will
start on May 16, RF Minister of Transport Igor Levitin said.
In his words, the equipments will be brought from Novorosiysk, RIA
“Novosti” informs. According to the Minister, the operation may last
for 2-3 days.
“The rest will depend on weather,” the Minister added.
According to latest data, the recorders lay 496 meters deep in the
water; the visibility allows to carry out the woks. The distance
between the black boxes makes about five meters.

AGREEMENT ON ESTABLISHMENT OF A COUNTRYWIDE POLICE COMPUTER NETWORK TO BE SIGNED
ArmRadio.am
15.05.2006 12:51
May 16 agreement on establishment of a countrywide Police computer
network will be signed at US Embassy in Armenia.
The contract will be signed by AEAI Company and the USAID on behalf
of the Department on fight against trafficking and law-enforcement
cooperation.