Second flight recorder of the crashed A-320 to be decoded in 2-3 weeks

ArmRadio.am
10.06.2006 14:15
The reason of May 3 crash of the A-320 of Armavia Company will be
known in two or three weeks. Different versions are suggested, varying
from terrorism to shortage of fuel. However, the real reasons will be
known only after the information of the flight recorders is decoded.
One of the black boxes ` the voice recorder has been already decoded,
but these are not made public. The decoding was carried out at the
Interstate Aviation Committee of Moscow. The conversations were in
Armenian. These were translated by RA Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary to Russia Armen Smbatyan. In his interview with
`Radiolur’ the Ambassador did not mention the reason of the crash; he
assured, however, that it was not terrorism. The Russian Ministry of
Transport informs that the recorder registered 33 minutes of voice
information, including the start and development of the emergency
situation.
It is expected that the decoding of the second black box will be
completed in 2-3 weeks, after which it will be possible to draw
conclusions about the technical state of the plane, RA Ambassador
Armen Smbatyan told `Radiolur.’
The Ambassador urges to wait a little to escape disseminating false
information.

From: Sebouh Z Tashjian
Subject: Kocharian Met with Ago Monitoring Group of CE Committee of Ministers
PanARMENIAN.Net
Kocharian Met with Ago Monitoring Group of CE Committee of Ministers
10.06.2006 13:51 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met with
the Ago Monitoring Group of CE Committee of Ministers, lead by
Germany’s Permanent Representative to the CE Roland Wegener, reports
the Press Service of the Armenian leader. During the meeting Kocharian
said that during the period after Ago Group’s visit to Armenia, the
republic has passed a long way, specifically the package of changes in
the Constitution were adopted. Serious work is being done today to
make the legislation comply with constitutional changes. According to
Roland Wegener, the goal of the Ago Group visit is to monitor the
process, provided for by article 67 of the Constitution of Armenia.
Besides, matters referring to freedom of expression, amendments to the
Electoral Code were also discussed. The parties specially stressed the
importance of holding fair and transparent parliamentary elections in
2007. The interlocutors also discussed the process of settlement of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Turkish Military Base Served as Staging Point for Launching CIA Renditions
09.06.2006 15:55 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The United States has progressively woven a
clandestine `spider’s web’ of disappearances, secret detentions and
unlawful inter-state transfers – spun with the collaboration or
tolerance of Council of Europe member states, the Legal Affairs
Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) said
today.
In a draft resolution adopted at a meeting in Paris, based on a report
by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), the committee said hundreds of
persons had become entrapped in this web – in some cases when they
were merely suspected of sympathizing with a presumed terrorist
organization. The parliamentarians said this knowing collusion of
member states took several different forms, including secretly
detaining a person on European territory, capturing a person and
handing them over to the US or permitting unlawful `renditions’
through their airspace or across their territory. Among “staging
points” for launching CIA renditions, Marty identified Adana-Incirlik
in Turkey, and Baku, Azerbaijan.
`It has now been demonstrated incontestably, by numerous
well-documented and convergent facts, that secret detentions and
unlawful inter-state transfers involving European countries have taken
place, such as to require in-depth inquiries and urgent responses by
the executive and legislative branches of all the countries
concerned,’ the committee said. The committee called on Council of
Europe member states to review bilateral agreements signed with the
United States, particularly those on the status of US forces stationed
in Europe, to ensure they conformed fully to international human
rights norms. The report is due for debate by the plenary Assembly –
which brings together 630 parliamentarians from the 46 Council of
Europe member states – in Strasbourg on 27 June 2006.
For his part, Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis stated
that Senator Marty has carried out a great deal of work under
complicated conditions. `He has brought serious accusations as regards
several European states. I would like to note that governments of some
states have refuted the accusations immediately. However I consider
that before refuting the governments had to clear up whether an
investigation was carried out. I intend to prepare a number of
proposals targeted at prevention of such violations of human rights in
Europe.’

AZG Armenian Daily #107, 10/06/2006
Karabakh issue
DELAYS IN TALKS ARE NOT BENEFICIAL FOR BOTH SIDES
Peace Is Priority in Karabakh regulation
Yesterday, Seyran Avagian, Armenian president’s counselor, and
Aleksandr Manasian, export at the Academy of Political Analysis,
discussed at the “Hayeli” club the situation over Nagorno Karabakh
conflict after the Bucharest meeting. Manasian set apart the
Rambouillet and Bucharest meetings as in both cases there seemed to be
a document put forward for signing and this is evidence that the
mediators have entered a new stage. Azerbaijan’s stance is also
undergoing certain alteration but, Manasian said, some resolutions
that can work in our interests are used by Azerbaijan.
The expert thinks that the initiative now is on Azerbaijan’s
side. Turning to the arrival of Azerbaijani deputies to Yerevan on the
sidelines of Black Sea Economic Cooperation session, Manasian
indicated journalist their shortcomings in the interview with the
Azerbaijani delegate. In particular, Manasian says, the journalists
should be prepared for the interview to retort to Azeri delegate’s
argument that there are 30.000 Armenians in Azerbaijan with questions
like these: do these 30.000 Armenians have non-profit organizations,
schools a church or do they live concealing their identity?
As to the delays in the talks, Manasian said that it’s more important
that during these delays the portrait of Karabakh conflict is changing
in Azerbaijan’s favor. Seyran Avagian, on his part, thinks that delays
are not doing any good to the sides. In the latter’s words, the last
meeting showed that Armenia really tends for peace. Meanwhile, by
militant statements and by delaying the negotiation process Azerbaijan
is making a futile attempt to conceal its incapability to go for
political solutions.
Touching upon resolutions and approaches within the framework of
Karabakh regulation, Aleksandr Manasian stated that we have a number
of issues that need to be settled; particularly if we proceed from the
Kars Treaty then it’s Armenia who territories are occupied, for
instance Nakhijevan.
By Aghavni Harutyunian

AZG Armenian Daily #107, 10/06/2006

Armenia-Russia
ENTERPRISES HANDED OVER TO RUSSIA WILL PROBABLY BE PRIVATIZED
Armenian enterprises that were handed over to Russia according to the
Asset-for-Debt project will be probably privatized, Regnum agency
reports.
Vahan Hovhannisian, chairman of the interparliamentary committee on
Armenian-Russian cooperation and parliament vice-speaker, stated that
in the event that the state is unable to run these enterprises they
will pass to private owners.

AZG Armenian Daily #107, 10/06/2006

UN
DIPLOMATIC ROW BETWEEN UN AND USA
John Bolton, USA permanent representative to UN, criticized the
statement by Malloch Brown, assistant of the UN Secretary general, who
said that the US administration doesn’t protect UN from criticism and
uses this international organization as a diplomatic tool.
Bolton called this statement “a very serious mistake” and demanded
from the UN Secretary General to restrain his assistant. This
diplomatic dispute reflects the tension that emerged between USA and
UN long ago. Reuters reported that the disputes were caused by the
current financial problems of the UN.
Already in late June, the UN sources will be ran out, while USA stops
to make the budget payments, if no considerable progress is achieved
in the USA-UN relations.
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, supported the statement of his
assistant in the course of the New York Press conference. Then, Brown
held speech and called for the American people to support the
international organization. At the same time, he expressed
bewilderment how they could comment his statement as “an anti-American
speech.”
By Petros Keshishian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #107, 10/06/2006

Europe
PIERRE LELLOUCHE: IN 1997, MOSCOW PROMISED NOT TO HINDER NEW STATES TO
BECOME NATO MEMBERS
Pierre Lellouche, Chairman of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, has
stated recently that the negative statements about Ukraine’s probable
membership to NATO made by RF foreign minister and deputies of Russian
State Duma break the NATO-Russia agreement signed in 1997.
Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists that if Ukraine and
Georgia become NATO members, “a great geopolitical change will take
place.” He added that Russia will consider that membership from the
viewpoint of its security, its economic interests and the relations of
its beneficial partners.
Commenting on the statement of Sergey Lavrov, Mr. Lellouche said in
the interview with the Ukrainian BBC that he isn’t surprised at
all. “But I will point out one contradiction. The Russia-NATO
agreement signed in 1997 envisages the right of all the European
countries to chose allies, become members of other organizations quite
independently,” he said.
Lellouche stated that the Western states are aware that Russia doesn’t
like enlargement of NATO. “But I don’t understand how can Russia
hinder Ukraine’s membership to NATO without applying the approaches of
the “cold war,” he said.
By Petros Keshishian

AZG Armenian Daily #107, 10/06/2006
Event
SEISMIC ISOLATION TO BE APPLIED IN HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS
PR Department of the American University of Armenia informs that at
the initiative of the International Association for Anti-seismic
Technologies and by the support of Elite Group CJSC, UN’s Yerevan
office and Retine Noruyt Ltd the American University of Armenia and
the Armenian Association for Aseismic Construction will hold an
international workshop “Seismic Isolation of High-Rise Buildings” on
June 15-17. It is scheduled to hold 5 scientific sessions,
international exhibitions as well as technical visits to the sites of
high-rise buildings’ construction in Yerevan.
It was professor Mikael Melkumian who came with an offer to hold a
workshop in Armenia when participating in the 9th international
conference on seismic isolation in Kobe, Japan. Armenia is the first
developing country where the seismic isolation was applied. First time
in the world the foundations and roofs of buildings seismically
isolated without evicting inhabitants. Having assessed Armenia’s work
in the sphere of seismic isolation the International Association for
Anti-seismic Technologies agreed to Melkumian’s offer.
40 scientists, engineers and planners from 9 countries (USA, Italy,
Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Russia, Romania, Slovakia and Armenia) will
take part in the Yerevan workshop.
By Ruzan Poghosian

NEW STAGE IN PARTNERSHIP

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
09 June 2006
On June 7 Speaker Ashot Ghulian met with the delegation of the Audit
Chamber of the National Assembly of Armenia, headed by Chair Gagik
Voskanian. During the meeting the prospects of development and
upgrading of cooperation between the audit chambers of the parliaments
of NKR and Armenia were discussed. In this context, Speaker Ghulian
appreciated the development of partnership between the chambers, and
emphasized the likelihood to sign an agreement and place cooperation
on a legal basis. The agreement on partnership, he said, will enable
to enhance partnership and fulfill consistently the principles set
down in this document. According to the speaker, signing the agreement
will mark a new stage in partnership. The Chair of the Audit Chamber
of the National Assembly of Armenia said though significant efforts
have been made, there is still much more to do, which means that the
cooperation of the Audit Chambers of Armenia and NKR is going to be
active, especially that the agreement will provide for vast legal
opportunities. After the talk the ceremony of signing the partnership
agreement between the Audit Chambers of the National Assembly of NKR
and the National Assembly of Armenia took place. The agreement was
signed by the Chairs of the Audit Chambers Edward Barseghian and Gagik
Voskanian.
AA.
09-06-2006

AZG Armenian Daily #107, 10/06/2006

Event
APRICOT FESTIVAL TO BE HELD IN MOSCOW
The opening of the Apricot Festival will be held in the “Hermitage”
park in Moscow within the framework of the arrangements of Armenia’s
Year in Russia. The Russians can taste Armenian apricots and listen to
duduk. It is envisaged that a number of exhibitions will be held at
the Pushkin Museum, theatre performances will be staged, the Armenian
musicians and dancers will hold concerts within the framework of
“Beliye Nochi” festival in St. Petersburg till the end of
2006. “Churches of Armenia” exhibition will be held at the Shchustev
Architectural State Museum on June 1-30.
By Aghavni Harutyunian