ARMAVIA OBTAINS PLANES
Lragir.am
06 May 06
Armavia, the national airlines of Armenia, is likely to increase
its plane pool, having lost two of its A320 aircrafts in the passing
week. One of the planes crashed May 3 near Sochi, the other burned
in Belgium the next day. Next week Armavia is likely to lease an
A319, produced in 1994 or in 1995. This was reported by Gazeta.ru,
referring to the press service of Armavia. The same source reports
that the company will get two more airbuses later. Before losing the
two planes Armavia had 5 airbuses, an IL86, two YAK42 and one YAK40.

MINUTE OF SILENCE TO BE PROCLAIMED AT 6 P.M.
ArmRadio.am
06.05.2006 10:33
The state flags in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh will stay lowered
today. At 18.00 sharp a minute of silence will be proclaimed in the
Republic, following which a memorial service, leaded by the Catholicos
of All Armenians Garegin II, will be held in the Mother Church of
St. Grigor Lusavorich.

REED AMENDMENT REAFFIRMS PARITY IN DEFENSE DEPARTMENT ASSISTANCE TO ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN
ArmRadio.am
06.05.2006 11:02
In a legislative reaffirmation of the 2001 agreement between the
Congress and the White House to maintain military aid parity to Armenia
and Azerbaijan, Senator Jack Reed this week secured the adoption of an
amendment adding Armenia to the list of nation’s receiving Department
of Defense counter-drug assistance, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America.
Commenting to the ANCA following the adoption of his amendment, Senator
Reed said, “I am pleased that the Senate Armed Services Committee
recognized the importance of providing military aid to Armenia for
training and equipment in light of its decision to provide funding
to Azerbaijan. It is essential that we maintain parity between the
two nations, and I am happy that my amendment was accepted.”

GETTING BLACK BOXES WILL BE UNPRECEDENTED IF IT HAPPENS
Lragir.am
5 May 06
In the place of the crash of A320 of Armavia Airlines the Kalmar
Complex devised by Russian specialists for the Army Navy of Russia.
The complex is designed to carry out search and research at a depth
of 600 meters. Nevertheless, the minister of transport of Russia,
the head of the operational headquarters Igor Levitin stated May 5
he could not assess the possibility of getting the black boxes from
water. Levitin said statistics has not seen a fact when the black box
was lifted from a depth of 680 meters. The black boxes of Armenian
plane that crashed in the Black Sea on May 2 and 3 are at such a
depth. So far the experts have only managed to receive the radio
signal of the black boxes. Levitin said this is an unprecedented
attempt to get the black boxes from such a depth.

CE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS WILL MAKE REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS PROBLEMS IN AFTERMATH OF ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJAN CONFLICT
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 4 2006
“During my visit to Azerbaijan, I intend to acquaint myself with
firsthand the plight in human rights caused by Armenian-Azerbaijan
conflict,” CE Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg told
APA Europe Bureau exclusively in his statement.
He said that he isn’t aware of missing people as a result of conflict
and so, he will leave Azerbaijan for Armenia in order to get large
information about the matter.
Saying he has been familiar with the report of, Leo Platvoeti, PACE
reporter on missing people, Mr. Hammarberg noted that he is sensitive
about any information concerning this problem.
He said that he will work on the problem personally’ “I want to make
a report on the problem at the end”.

ARMAVIA HEAD: A-320 WAS TO RETURN TO YEREVAN
Regnum, Russia
May 4 2006
Head of Armavia Airlines Mikhail Bagdasarov insists that the A-320
plane that was flying from Yerevan to Sochi, was in perfect state.
According to him, in April the airbus was subjected to a major overhaul
in Belgium and was filled in with 10 tons of fuel before the flight.
“The crew consisted of professionals. If the first command to come
back had been fulfilled, there were no problems,” Bagdasarov said.
“The plane and passengers were insured by an Armenian company, which,
in turn, reinsured risks in London. About $20,000 will be paid to
family of every victim. Of course, I understand, that this loss
cannot be made up for by money,” Bagdasarov is quoted as saying by
Radio Liberty.
The Armenian Grand Insurance Company, which insured passengers of the
A-320 flight, earlier denied reports on its intention to pay $20,000
worth compensations to the relatives. Head of Grand Artak Antonyan
announced that passengers and the crew of the A-320 airbus belonging
to Armavia and the passengers were reinsured by an insurance company in
London. The sum of compensation to the relatives will determined after
representatives of the London company visit Armenia and familiarize
themselves with all the details.

BULGARIAN NATIONAL UNITY PARTY URGES PARLIAMENT TO RECOGNIZE “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 4 2006
Bulgarian National Unity Party called on parliament to recognize bogus
“Armenian Genocide”.
APA Europe Bureau reports that this party has prepared a declaration
which urges the government to recognize Armenians’ counterfeited
ideas. Party chief Boyko Vatev claims that his country is one of the
modern countries not recognizing killing of Armenians by Turks.
In reality Armenians killed Turks and the genocide invented by
Armenians is therefore called “false Armenian Genocide”.

TWO PLANES BELONGING TO ARMENIAN COMPANIES COMPLETELY BURNT IN BELGIUM
ArmRadio.am
05.05.2006 14:14
Few minutes ago “Radiolur” was told that last night four “A-320”
planes were completely burnt in an air base in Belgium as a result
of a conflagration.
Two of the planes belonged to Armenian air companies.
One of the jets belonged to “Armavia” Company. According to our
information, the other Armenian plane belonged to “International
Armenian Airlines” owned by businessmen Versant Hakobyan.
The planes, manufactured in 1996, had left for Belgium for recurrent
technical examination. According to our information, there are no
human victims.

TURKEY EXTENDS CONDOLENCES TO ARMENIA OVER ACCIDENT
New Anatolian, Turkey
May 4 2006
Ankara yesterday set aside its deep political differences with
neighboring Armenia to extend sympathy over the tragic death of
Armenian citizens in a jet crash.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul sent a message to his Armenian
counterpart Vartan Oskanian and expressed sincere condolences to
relatives of Armenian citizens killed in the crash, The New Anatolian
learned.
Turkey and Armenia do not have diplomatic relations and the two
countries are at odds over the Armenian claims of genocide. The
Armenian diaspora accuses the Ottoman Empire of deliberately massacring
up to 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1919. Turkey stresses
that these figures are inflated and says that far fewer Armenians
died, due to civil unrest under the conditions of World War I and
the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Ankara suspended its diplomatic
relations with Yerevan a decade ago due to Armenian occupation of
the Azeri territories of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkish sources confirmed to The New Anatolian yesterday that Gul’s
message of condolence to Oskanian would be sent to Yerevan through
diplomatic channels. They didn’t provide any more details.
Last year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to
Armenian President Robert Kocharian suggesting putting an end to
the dispute over genocide claims through a joint study of Turkish
and Armenian scholars. But the Armenian president turned down the
suggestion, asking first that Ankara revive diplomatic relations and
discuss all issues of concern on an intergovernmental platform. At
that time, the messages were sent through the embassies of both
countries in neighboring Georgia.
Clash leaves 113 dead
A total of 113 people are dead after an Armenian-owned Airbus plunged
into the Black Sea in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
According to the report by RIA Novosti news agency, the A-320
passenger jet, which was flying from Yerevan to an airport servicing
the popular Russian resort of Sochi, disappeared from radar screens
at 2:15 a.m. local time (Tuesday, 10:15 p.m. GMT).
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said that the most likely
cause of the crash was bad weather — the Armavia Airlines plane
had reportedly been trying to make its second landing attempt in
heavy rain — and an expert with Russia’s Air Traffic Organization
concurred that poor visibility may have caused the accident.
“These were the actual weather conditions at the moment of the crash:
the lowest level of cloud lay at 100 meters, visibility was at four
kilometers, and it was raining heavily,” the expert said.
Prosecutors ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack and a
representative of the Interior Ministry in the southern Krasnodar
Territory said investigators were considering three possibilities.
“We are considering several versions: a mistake made by the pilot,
a technical malfunction or a mistake by air traffic controllers,”
Igor Zhukov of the North Caucasus transport police said.
However, Artyom Movsisyan, the head of Armenia’s main civil aviation
department, ruled out the possibility of a technical error. He said
the A-320 had undergone a complete technical overhaul last month
and experts from Sabina Technics had given a positive report on its
technical condition shortly before takeoff.
Movsisyan said the plane had been filled with 10 metric tons of fuel
and a flight to Sochi lasting less than an hour needed only 3.5 tons.

SECOND RADIO BEACON DETECTED AT BLACK SEA CRASH SITE
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 4 2006
SOCHI, May 4 (RIA Novosti) – A second radio beacon is believed to have
been discovered at the site where an Armenian Airbus A-320 airliner
crashed off Russia’s Black Sea coast, an emergencies ministry official
said Thursday.
He said a radio signal had been detected near the point where another
signal had been detected earlier in the day.
The plane, belonging to Armenia’s Armavia Airlines, crashed while
flying from the country’s capital Yerevan to an airport in Adler,
which services the Russian resort of Sochi. The A-320 plummeted into
the sea about six kilometers from the Russian coast. All 113 passengers
and crew were killed.
An Emergency Situations Ministry official in Moscow said the
first radio signal, picked up by Airbus specialists, had yet to
be identified.
“It is premature to say that the signal picked up from the seabed
near Sochi is from the flight recorder,” Andrei Legoshin said.
Experts from European aircraft producer Airbus are using special
equipment to search for flight data recorders from the plane. Two
emergencies ministry teams are also working at the site, using radars
to pick up signals.
Transportation Minister Igor Levitin said earlier on Thursday that
parts of the plane had been found at a depth of 680 meters (2,230
feet).