ARMENIA’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE STANDS AT 7.6 PER CENT
Arminfo
14 Aug 06
Yerevan, 14 August: A total of 7.6 per cent of Armenia’s workforce
was unemployed at the end of June 2006.
At the end of June 2006, 113,600 job seekers were registered with the
labour and employment agencies of Armenia, including 102,600 unemployed
citizens, the National Statistics Service reported. Of them, 90,100
have been officially registered as unemployed.
[Passage omitted: more details]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN INSURER PAYS COMPENSATION TO AIR CRASH VICTIMS
Arminfo
14 Aug 06
Yerevan, 14 August: The Grand insurance company has started paying
out compensation to the families of the people who died when an
A-320 aircraft crashed on a Yerevan-Sochi flight [on 3 May 2006],
the chief executive of the company, Artak Antonyan, told an Arminfo
correspondent.
To date, compensation has been paid to 15 such families, he
said. Speaking about the insurance company’s payments for the
aircraft itself, Antonyan said that the necessary documents were
being prepared. He added that the price of the aircraft would be paid
in full.
The company declined to specify how much each family had
received. According to Arminfo news agency’s information, each family
was paid 20,000 dollars.
Informed sources estimate the cost of the aircraft at 25m dollars.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SAYS CHEMICAL PLANT TO BE SOLD TO RUSSIAN COMPANY
Arminfo
11 Aug 06
Yerevan, 11 August: A Russian company has shown interest in the
Vanadzor chemical plant and negotiations have been going on for four
months already, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan told journalists
during his visit to Lori Region today.
“In my assessment, if an agreement is reached, this will open new
prospects for the plant,” the president pointed out, adding that he
is being careful, taking account of the unsuccessful experience of
the past. He said that this issue was discussed at today’s meeting
with the leadership of Lori Region. The president did not say which
Russian company he was talking about.
“The plant can operate,” the president pointed out, adding that the
interest shown in the plant confirms this conclusion. “However, the
plant should be updated as it needs new technologies,” the president
said, asking Vanadzor residents to be more patient.
At the request of the potential buyer, the plant suspended its
operation after the beginning of the talks.
[Passage omitted: The plant was sold to a Russian businessman of
Armenian origin in 1999, but could not get off the ground due to high
fuel prices]

SOCIAL INSURANCE FUND AND VTB-ARMENIA BANK DROVE BARGAIN WITH THE DEVIL
Yerevan, August 14. ArmInfo. The State Social Insurance Fund of
Armenia and VTB-Armenia Bank signed a contract shackling the Armenian
pensioners. The new agreement violates the rights of the pensioners
shortening the term of receiving pension payments in VTB-Armenia
bank branches.
Levon Nersesian, director of the ‘Armenian Center for Human
Rights Protection after A. Sakharov’ organization, said to ArmInfo
correspondent that according to the agreement, in case the pensioner
has not received the payment from one of the BTA-Armenia Bank
branches, he/she will not be able to received it sooner than the
next month. Mr. Nersisian said that the new conditions force the
pensioners to refuse ‘free’ bank services and receive their pension
payments through the mediation of social employees. The social
employees usually demand AMD 100-200 or even 500 illegal ‘tax’ per
each visit. ‘Thus the pensioners who avoided the dishonest social
employees became the victims of bank machinations,’ he said.
In its turn the Social Insurance Fund complains that in Armenia there
are more pensioners that economically active citizens. ArmInfo
correspondent found out that indeed Armenia has 539 thousand
pensioners, 105 thousand employers and 450 thousand employees,
regularly paying taxes. Thus, the complaints of the Social Insurance
Fund run contrary to the official statistics provided baby the fund
itself. Moreover, taking into consideration that each social employee
receives illegally AMD 500 from each tenth pensioner, the yearly
shadow circulation of the social sphere makes up $60 thousand.

INTERNATIONAL AVIATION CONTROLS OVER ITS ACTIVITY INDEPENDENTLY
Yerevan, August 14. ArmInfo. The crash of Armavia’s A-320 and the
investigation of its causes continue being the key topic of the
Armenian press, especially after the crash of Siberia’s A-310.
When A-320 crashed, the International Aviation Committee (IAC) said
semi-officially that the crash was caused by the fault of the pilots.
After the crash in Irkutsk, IAC also hurried to blame the crew, but
this time, unlike the A-320 case, it faced much stronger resistance
and later said it was caused by technical problems. The newspaper
cites a document adopted by Russia’s Federation Council in July:
“The recent chain of air accidents within a short period of time
has proved that there is an urgent need to improve the technical
control over airports and planes and to raise the qualification of
air personnel. In the last years Russia’s civil aviation sector has
got into serious crisis.” The Russian senators specially noted the
necessity of delimiting the powers of certification and air accident
investigation. The logic is that a crash may well happen through the
fault of the one who has issued the certificate. So, it is inadmissible
that IAC control its own self.
The last two big air crashes – A-320 and A-310 – have vividly shown
what negative consequences self-control may have, say Armenian experts.
Iravunk says it is not for the first time that the Kremlin questions
IAC’s efficiency. In 2003, after IAC’s ban on IL-86 flights, Vice
Speaker of Russia’s State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky said: “They have
put a ban on the safest air liner. 5 Boeings fall every year, and our
Transaero (company whose 45% belong to the family of IAC Chairwoman
Tatiana Anodina and 3.25% to her personally) is engaged in lobbying.
Why did they ban IL-86? Because Transaero buys only foreign planes.
This will only benefit them, while for our economy this will be a heavy
blow, and huge money will again start flowing out of the country.”
After the ban on IL-86, the State Duma asked the Russian President
to consider stopping IAC’s activities. They said: “The State Duma
believes that the International Aviation Committee, set up in 1991,
does not contribute to the strengthening of the aviation security as
IAC has undertaken functions it didn’t have initially: certification
of radio-technical equipment, engines and signal systems of Russian
planes. As a non-governmental organization IAC does not pay taxes
from the profits it gets from certification and spends colossal sums
to meet its own purposes rather than to raise the aviation security.
With both the certification and air crash investigation functions
in its hands, IAC prefers to say that all air crashes are caused by
“human factor” rather than by the state of air equipment.”
Such combination of functions permits the IAC not to be responsible for
air catastrophes and lay all the blame on the pilots. The deputies of
the Russian Parliament considered that certification of airplanes and
air crash investigations must be realized by structures, controlled by
the Government. They came to conclusion that the IAC activity on the
territory of the Russian Federation does not benefit the country. The
deputies found at last necessary to dismiss IAC and establish national
governmental structures for the supervision on civil aviation.
Those days the Russian press reported that the IAC gave permission
for “Il” flights and started active lobbying in order to prevent its
dismissal from Russia. Taking into account that the Committee exists
so far, it is clear that the lobbying was a success. The Committee
also managed to make use of its status of an international structure.
It was found in 1991 by the initiative of 12 states and has never
been reformed since then, although numerous constitutor countries
left it for different reasons. The officers of the IAC have immunity
and are not to be brought to any criminal responsibility even after
their resignation. Thus, the Committee can cause the state a damage
of many million dollars (by such groundless prohibition of “Il-86”
flights) and suffer no punishment for that. IAC will not be brought
to responsibility even in case it is found out that the ArmAvia A-320
air liner crashed at the fault of the Sochi airport, certified by
the IAC. It must also be noted that since 1991 head of IAC Tatiana
Anodina has had status of a Russian Federal Minister, although the
Committee has never been a part of the Federal system.
The Armenian ‘Iravukn’ newspaper calls upon the Civil Aviation
Department and the Government of Armenia to make certain obvious
conclusions of the A-320 crash investigation story. To the opinion
of ‘Iravaunk’ staff it is important that independent international
structures once again investigate the catastrophe. Their impartial
estimation would permit the Armenian aviators to decide whether the
activity of the IAC is welcome in Armenia or not. ‘Iravunk’ says it
is time for the Armenian aviation to take example of Russia and start
thinking of developing the aviation system of Armenia.

DOZENS KILLED IN BAGHDAD BLASTS, BUT U.S. IRAQ DISPUTE CAUSE
Qassim Abdul-Zahra
AP Worldstream
Aug 14, 2006
Residents dug through wrecked buildings Monday in a predominantly
Shiite neighborhood devastated by explosions that killed at least 47
people. Iraqis blamed bombs and rockets, but U.S. military experts
pointed to a gas explosion.
U.S. ordnance teams went to the Zafraniyah neighborhood and found
“no evidence” of anything other than a “significant gas explosion”
Sunday night followed by subsequent blasts related to a gas leak,
the U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said.
“If in fact there had been a hole in the ground, there would be some
residue from a Katyusha rocket if one had been fired there,” he told
reporters without elaborating.
Iraqi officials insisted the damage was caused by car bombs and a
rocket barrage fired from Dora, a mostly Sunni district _ evidence
that sectarian violence roiling the capital shows no sign of stopping
despite an additional 12,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops soldiers rushed
in to enforce peace.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office said in a statement that the
attack started with a number of Katyusha rockets falling on a building
followed by a car bomb, more rockets on a post office, a motorcycle
bomb near a public library and mortar rounds near an Armenian church.
The statement said 47 people were killed and 100 injured.
“The terrorists planned this ugly crime so that it would inflict
maximum harm on innocent civilians, and this is proof of their
deep-rooted hatred for Iraq and their attempt to incite sectarianism,”
al-Maliki said.
A Sunni extremist group, the al-Sahaba Soldiers, claimed responsibility
in a statement posted on the Internet Monday. It said its fighters
exploded two booby trapped cars and fired mortar shells, killing
“more than 50 malicious Shiites.”
The statement warned the Shiites “to stop killing unarmed Sunnis and
stop supporting the Crusaders,” a reference to Americans. “Or else,
wait for operations that will shatter your neighborhoods, God willing.”
The group had also claimed responsibility for a similar attack on
July 27 on Karradah, another mostly Shiite neighborhood, which had
killed 31 people.
In Zafraniyah, huge slabs of concrete that once were ceilings in an
apartment building lay atop each other in a heap at one spot.
A middle-aged man in a bloodstained disdasha, the traditional
Arab robe, wandered aimlessly, hitting his face with his hands in
grief. Residents said his six children were crushed to death when
his house collapsed.
“This is terrorism against the whole nation,” said Ali al-Sayedi,
a municipal council member.
A pedestrian bridge, ripped off its mooring, crushed a car
underneath. The roof of a house displayed a wide hole, exposing the
steel reinforcing rods bent inwards. The blackened wreckage of an
overturned car lay nearby.
The explosions Sunday night reinforced worries about the Sunni-Shiite
violence that American officials consider the greatest threat to
Iraq’s stability more than three years after the U.S.-led invasion
toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.
On Sunday, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers began searching more than 4,000
homes in the Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah in Baghdad while conducting
a similar operation simultaneously in the Shiite district of Shula,
the U.S. command said.
Much of the violence has been blamed on Sunni insurgents and Shiite
extremists, who have been waging retaliatory attacks since the bombing
of a Shiite mosque on Feb. 22. The United Nations estimates nearly
6,000 Iraqis were killed in May and June.
Caldwell, the U.S. spokesman, said Shiite extremists here are receiving
arms, munitions and training from Iran. But he added it is not clear
if Iran’s Shiite clergy-dominated government is involved.
“We know that some Shiite elements have been in Iran receiving
training …
We do know that weapons have been provided and IED technology been
made available to these extremist elements,” he said, referring to
“improvised explosive devices” _ the homemade bombs that are widely
used in the anti-U.S. insurgency and sectarian violence.
On Sunday, unidentified gunmen killed Col. Mahjoub Khalaf Ghulam,
a commander in the Iraqi oil protection force, in Tikrit, 80 miles
north of Baghdad, police said. More than 250 Oil Ministry officials,
workers and oil security personnel have been assassinated since the
fall of Saddam.
At least 10 other people were killed Monday in shootings and bombings
across Iraq, including three blacksmiths shot by gunmen in the northern
city of Mosul.

IRAN PRESS: DAILY SAYS CULTURAL ACTIVITIES LEADING TO VELVET REVOLUTION IN IRAN
Jomhuri-ye Eslami website, Tehran
12 Aug 06
One of the evening newspapers allocated one of its complete main
pages to praising Seyyed Hoseyn Nasr and said that a library has been
established at the Philosophy Society in his name.
A week later, a review was written on the same page on one of the
works of Seyyed Hasan Nasr. And a daily, which is financed by public
funds, issued a 16-page supplement praising this person… [ellipses
as published].
Consequently, Seyyed Hasan Nasr’s name started to be mentioned in the
country’s media circles and even provincial publications started to
carry his articles and …
[ellipses as published].
During his youth, Seyyed Hasan Nasr was a member of the intellectual
development organization, which was an organization similar to the
Freemasons Lions or Rotary. During his adulthood, he had links with
Farah Pahlavi and her office and after joining the Intellectuals Group,
he began to outline the ideology behind the [late Mohammad Reza]
Shah’s white revolution.
Following the victory of the [1979] Islamic revolution, Nasr
left the country and went to live in the US. He began writing the
[Encyclopaedia] Iranica alongside Yar Shater. He then joined the
editors group of the Iranian Studies Foundation, run by Mahnaz Afkhami
and Ashraf Pahlavi and … [ellipses as published].
Last week a book called looking for the celestial matter, which
contained a discussion between Ramin Jahanbeglu and Seyyed Hasan Nasr
was published by the Nashr-e Ney Publications and distributed in the
book market. It has been said that it has a lot of typos because it
was printed with haste.
Ramin Jahanbeglu is currently under arrest and accused of laying
the groundwork for a velvet revolution in the country. Velvet
revolutions are the modern version of coups which are costly and
have been successfully staged in eastern block countries recently
by deceived young people in order to change the governments which do
not move inline with the West’s interests. Considering that recently
many western cultural figures involved in the music, arts and even
caricature industries, have entered the country, it seems that the
Iranian velvet revolution branch is trying to arrange the ranks of
its so-called cultural force by using Seyyed Hasan Nasr’s name.
The names of people such as the Armenian, Loris Cheknavarian,
a prominent member of Pahlavi’s office involved in the music
industry, Parviz Tanavoli, a lousy sculptor whose most famous work
was a water-jug in a box, and even the Fardowsi magazine, which has
the duty of spreading modernity, couldn’t tolerate and called it
an exhibition of Charlatanism, Kambiz D. [initial as published],
a famous caricaturist on Shapur’s team whose books were recently
published and who held an exhibition with the support of foreign
embassies, and Aydin Aqdashlu, an element of Farah’s office whose
sabbatical to France was recently cancelled, have been mentioned in
state newspapers. Finally, Nader Mashayekhi has suspiciously become
the conductor of Tehran symphonic orchestra. And Radio America
and Radio Farda are supporting and following up this orchestra’s
performance in Germany under his baton. This is not the first time
that behind-the-curtain elements have appointed people from outside
the country to lead our most important national orchestra.
Despite all of these colourful games and the humiliating defeat of
the yellow revolution in Ukraine and the failed velvet revolutions in
Azarbaijan and Belarus, it seems that dreams are the only thing left
for the elements behind this coup. However, this is no reason for
[Iranian] officials to remain silent and ignore the issue.

AZERI ENVOY TO COUNCIL OF EUROPE RULES OUT ANTI-ARMENIAN RESOLUTION
Source: Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
14 Aug 06
Presenter] The report about fires on the occupied lands drawn
up by the personal representative of he OSCE chairman-in-office,
Andrzej Kasprzyk, will prevent the Council of Europe from adopting
an anti-Armenian resolution.
Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani envoy to the Council of Europe, Aqsin
Mehdiyev, believes that Azerbaijan must work in this direction.
[Mehdiyev] The state of affairs regarding the approval of the
resolution is as follows. As you know, the OSCE monitored the
area. According to Kasprzyk’s report, the fires are natural disaster
and not deliberate. An international organization will never go
against the OSCE or come up with a different opinion since monitoring
was carried out by the OSCE.

AZERI LEADER URGES “INFORMATION OFFENSIVE” AGAINST ARMENIAN LOBBY
ANS TV, Baku
14 Aug 06
[Presenter] We will not allow creating a second Armenian state in
Azerbaijan; the conflict should only be resolved within the framework
of international law and stage by stage, President Ilham Aliyev
said during today’s meeting with the diplomatic corps representing
Azerbaijan abroad. He said that Azerbaijan would never concede its
national interests and would not allow any power to turn Azerbaijan
into an arena for rivalry.
The head of state also said that some ambassadors were not actively
involved in informing the international public about the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict.
[Ilham Aliyev] In some countries this advice is being heeded,
but in some – I do not want to name them – they remain passive. I
demand that all embassies be active and realize this practice in
their daily activities. I have said it on many occasions and I want
to reiterate that we must start an information offensive. We must
unmask Armenia’s expansionist policy, especially since this is the
real state of affairs.
Armenia has occupied Azerbaijan’s land. As a result of Armenia’s
policy of aggression and ethnic cleansing, more than one million
of our compatriots have been displaced from their lands. However,
the propaganda by the Armenian lobby portrays a completely different
picture in some countries.
Although Armenia as a state has very limited resources for diplomacy,
even though the country lags far behind Azerbaijan in terms of its
economic potential and cannot afford opening embassies in various
countries, the Armenian lobby acts as its embassy. They act in concert
and they have one target, that is Azerbaijan.

SECOND ARMENIAN STATE NEVER TO BE ALLOWED ON AZERI LAND, LEADER SAYS
Lider TV, Baku
14 Aug 06
[Presenter] A conference attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, diplomats, consuls and representatives of the diplomatic
corps is under way at the Foreign Ministry. The biennial conference
will review work done, as well as tasks facing Azerbaijani diplomacy,
and define short-term and long-term priorities.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has addressed the conference and
given necessary instructions and tasks to diplomats.
[Aliyev] The Azerbaijani lands under occupation must be freed from
the occupying forces, and refugees and internally displaced people
must return to their homes, as well as to Nagornyy Karabakh. Once
this has happened, the status of Nagornyy Karabakh may be
discussed. International norms of law, as well as the existing
positive practice and experience, should be applied when the status
is discussed.
We know that many countries have ethnic minorities and
autonomies. Having an ethnic minority does not mean that by way of
separatism our country may be divided for an independent country to
be set up. They say that Karabakh Armenians must have the right to
self-determination. Given this, as I have said more than once, there
are also Armenians in other countries. Will they set up Armenian
states in Los Angeles, USA, in Marseille, France, in Krasnodar or
in Georgia? How many Armenian states will be established across the
world following this logic? This is impossible. Why should Azerbaijan
be an exception? Why should a second Armenian state be established
exactly on Azerbaijani territory? What is the logic here? I am not
mentioning all other issues.
I want to state once again that we shall never allow this to happen. We
are simply talking about the logic. Therefore, their legal positions
are very weak.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress