LOVE IS GOLDEN
Blacktown Advocate (Australia)
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
IT was love at first sight for Khorand Zeinali.
Fifty years ago the then goldsmith met his future wife Salbi at a
market in Tehran, Iran. The next day he visited her hairdressing
salon and asked her hand in marriage.
The couple, Christian Armenians, were married 18 days later.
“I felt in my heart she was right for me,” Mr Zeinali, now 75, said.
Though Salbi was at first coy demanding that her suitor ask her
parents for permission first the sentiments were mutual.
“I knew his family, I knew they were nice people . . . and he was
such a handsome man,” Mrs Zeinali, 66, said.
The couple spoke to the Advocate in Farsi as their daughter translated.
While Mrs Zeinali moved to their Marayong home eight years ago,
her husband could not make arrangements to follow from Tehran for
another three years.
They say the separation was tempered by a constant exchange of love
letters and international phone calls.
“It was like I had the world again when I saw her again,” Mr Zeinali
said.
They have five children three living in Sydney and 14 grandchildren.

RF-ARMENIAN COOP CAN HELP ENSURE SECURITY IN TRANSCAUCASIA-FM
by Natalya Simorova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 19, 2006 Wednesday 08:30 AM EST
Russian-Armenian cooperation is a remarkable factor, which can help
ensure security and stability in Transcaucasia, Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Grigory Karasin said.
Karasin took part in a regional meeting that involved Russian
ambassadors to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, the Foreign
Ministry reported on Wednesday.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan stressed, “It is important to
strengthen strategic partnership between the two countries.” “The
recent agreements on cooperation in the gas sector opens new prospects
for economic cooperation,” the president said.
Both sides “showed interest in carrying out economic projects,
primarily in the energy sector and transport, to create conditions
for improving all-Caucasian cooperation,” the ministry said.
“Moscow and Yerevan confirmed that they sought to improve cooperation
within the CIS and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. It
is necessary to strengthen humanitarian relations in the CIS,” the
ministry noted.
Russian and Armenian officials also exchanged views on the
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and stability in the region.

ALCATEL TO PLACE ORDERS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF IT PROGRAMS IN ARMENIA
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 19, 2006 Wednesday 3:15 PM MSK
France’s Alcatel plans to place large orders for the development of
information technologies programs in Armenia in 2006, Edgar Grigorian,
head of Alcatel’s representative office in Armenia, told Interfax.
Local IT companies plan to place orders for the development of programs
in mobile and stationary communications, he said. The placement of the
orders will contribute to the development of information technologies
in Armenia and the creation of new jobs in this sphere, he said.
Alcatel is currently studying the necessary amount of investment and
forms of cooperation with local companies. The company could set up
a joint venture or fully acquire an Armenian IT company, he said.
Alcatel has delivered more than $10 million worth of equipment to
Armenia. The bulk of the equipment was delivered in 2005, when Alcatel
signed a large contract on the construction of a network for the
Armenian mobile communications operator K-Telecom (trademark VivaCell).
The network was launched on July 1, 2005.

TAJIKS COMMITTED MORE CRIMES IN RUSSIA THAN OTHER CIS CITIZENS IN 2005
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
Tajik citizens committed 7,717 crimes in Russia in 2005, which is
9.7% more than in 2004 and more than the number of crimes committed
by citizens of any other CIS country last year, according to the
Interior Ministry’s Main Information and Analysis Center, a police
source told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
Ukrainians committed the second largest number of crimes in Russia
among CIS citizens in 2005, the source said. “They committed 6,680
crimes, down 1,500 from 2004 when the citizens of that country led
the pack,” he said.
The number of registered crimes committed by Uzbek citizens in 2005 was
6,679; Azeri citizens, 4,893; Moldovans, 3,334; and Armenians, 2,564.
The number of crimes committed by Kyrgyz citizens increased by more
than 50 percent as compared to 2004, namely from 1,699 to 2,539. The
number of crimes committed by Georgian citizens remained nearly the
same as compared to 2004 and amounted to 2,047. As many as 1,789
crimes were committed by citizens of Belarus and 1,537 by citizens
of Kazakhstan.
Citizens of Turkmenistan turned out the most law-abiding ones, as
they only committed 185 crimes in Russia, the source said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BEEFING UP MILITARY MIGHT IS AZERBAIJAN’S SOVEREIGN RIGHT – DEFENSE MINISTRY
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
Azerbaijan’s increasing defense expenditures up to $1 billion is its
sovereign right, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry’s press-service said.
This statement was made in connection with the interview of Armenian
Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian with the Russian Krasnaya Zvezda
newspaper, in which he describes Baku’s intention to beef up its
defense budget to $1 billion as blackmail.
“Azerbajani President Ilkham Aliyev ordered the defense budget to
be increased up to the level of the Armenian state budget. Part of
the Azerbaijani territory is occupied, and given this fact, the task
specified by the president is Azerbaijan’s sovereign right,” the press-
service told Interfax.
“Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan complies with the Treaty on the
Conventional Forces in Europe. Armenia illegally deploys its weapons
on occupied Azerbaijani soil,” the press-service said.
It expressed its hope that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict would be
settled by peaceful means.
“At the same time President Ilkham Aliyev has repeatedly said that if
there is no hope for a peaceful solution to the problem, Azerbaijan
will resort to other measures to restore its territorial integrity,”
a press service official emphasized.

PEACEKEEPING OPERATION IN NAGORNO KARABAKH PREMATURE – ARMENIAN MINISTER
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian believes that it is premature
to consider a peacekeeping operation in Nagorno Karabakh and considers
Azerbaijan’s decision to increase the military budget as blackmail.
“Unfortunately there is no agreement between us and Azerbaijan
so far. That is why it is too early to speak about peacekeepers,”
Sarkisian said in an interview with Russia’s Krasnaya Zvezda daily,
published on Wednesday.
A peacekeeping operation requires the consent of all parties to the
conflict, he said. “This matter can only be discuss when the parties
come to an agreement,” he noted.
Speaking about the increase of Azerbaijan’s military budget and Baku’s
promises to bring it up to $1 dillion, the minister said that this
“looks like blackmail.”
“Billions of dollars will not help in this case. If large military
budgets had determined combat capabilities and combat readiness
of troops, all oil-exporting countries would have had the most
combat-ready armies long ago. But this is not the case,” Sarkisian
said.
According to him, “any unresolved conflict in the Caucasus may work
as a detonator.”
“The South Caucasus is a very small region, and all countries depend
on each other here. Thus, resumption of hostilities may have extremely
negative consequences,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NAGORNO-KARABAKH MILITARY LEADER: NO NEED FOR PEACEKEEPERS
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
STEPANAKERT April 19
The commander of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army said on Tuesday
he did not see any need to station a peacekeeping force in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
“The Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh is the best peacekeeper and
guarantor of peace in the conflict zone,” Seiran Oganian told a news
conference in Stepanakert.
He also said proposals by the Azerbaijani leadership for resolving the
conflict in a military way were designed to strengthen the Azerbaijani
leaders’ domestic positions.
“However, there may arise a situation where we will be forced to take
preventive measures. I don’t want to speak about the possibility of
a pre-emptive attack, but I can speak about some measures to prevent
a possible threat,” he said.
He expressed skepticism about the reported enlargement of Azerbaijan’s
military budget. “It’s one thing to increase the military budget but a
completely different thing to make effective use of available funds,”
he said.
“Our borders are safely equipped, which includes provision with
engineering and landmine systems. In addition, not only regular
but also irregular rapid reaction units are in their third year of
existence,” Oganian said.
“Nagorno-Karabakh will fight for every centimeter of its land. And we
are sure that the process of conflict settlement must result either in
the recognition of the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
or, which is the dream of every Armenian, the recognition of Nagorno-
Karabakh as part of Armenia,” he said.
Oganian said the Defense Army would hold the final stage of a command
post exercise on Wednesday and Thursday whose main purpose is “to
improve the ability of the leadership to command the organization
and implementation of military operations.”

FRANCE. PLAINTE CONTRE LA PROFANATION DU MEMORIAL ARMENIEN
La Croix , France
19 avril 2006
L’association pour le Memorial lyonnais du genocide armenien (MLGA)
a porte plainte contre X hier, afin de connaître les auteurs de la
profanation du monument, a quelques jours de son inauguration, fixee
au 24 avril. Cinq stèles blanches sur 26 ont ete taguees au marqueur
noir d’inscriptions telles que “Il n’y a pas eu de genocide” ou “Il
est bon d’etre turc”. Des slogans identiques a ceux brandis lors de
la manifestation de nationalistes turcs organisee le 18 mars a Lyon,
contre la construction de ce memorial. Le monument doit etre inaugure
lundi, date du 91e anniversaire du genocide armenien perpetre par
les Turcs en 1915.
–Boundary_(ID_ebpiRqGBt17F+YwZSQw5tg)–

INSCRIPTIONS NIANT LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN SUR LE MEMORIAL DE LYON
Agence France Presse
18 avril 2006 mardi 8:41 AM GMT
Des inscriptions en francais et en turc niant le genocide armenien
de 1915 ont ete decouvertes sur des stèles du memorial qui lui est
dedie a Lyon, alors que ce monument doit etre inaugure lundi prochain,
a constate mardi un journaliste de l’AFP.
Des phrases telles que +Il n’y a pas eu de genocide+ ou encore
+Heureux celui qui est turc+, ont ete inscrites au feutre noir sur 5
des 26 stèles de ce monument dont la construction a fait l’objet d’une
manifestation hostile de la part de la communaute turque le 18 mars.
L’association pour le Memorial lyonnais du genocide armenien (MLGA)
a depose plainte après ces degradations. La loi du 29 janvier 2001
par laquelle la France a reconnu le genocide armenien ne prevoit
aucune sanction en cas de negationnisme.
Dans un communique, le Conseil de coordination des organisations
armeniennes de France (CCAF) a condamne ces actes et fait le lien
avec “des pratiques inaugurees par les groupuscules neo-nazis sur
les monuments dedies a la Shoah”.
“Le CCAF demande aux autorites politiques et judiciaires de reagir
avec la plus extreme fermete a ces actes qui, au-dela de la communaute
armenienne, portent atteinte a la Republique et aux droits fondamentaux
de tous les Francais, comme a leurs valeurs de memoire, de verite et
de justice”, poursuit-il.
Le Comite de defense de la cause armenienne (CDCA) a egalement exprime
“sa très vive indignation”, rappelant qu’une “stèle dediee au genocide
armenien avait ete profanee le 11 avril 2005 a Marseille”.
Le 24 avril, la communaute armenienne commemorera le 91e anniversaire
du genocide armenien par les Turcs en 1915, et des memoriaux seront
inaugures notamment a Lyon et a Marseille.
Le projet lyonnais est aussi conteste par une association de riverains
de la place où il a ete erige, appuyee par une elue locale UMP.
–Boundary_(ID_JPy6QMHuUU2l5Ju2bnW6vA)–

UN MEMORIAL ARMENIEN PROFANE A LYON
Le Figaro
18 avril 2006
Des inscriptions niant le genocide armenien de 1915 redigees en
francais et en turc ont ete decouvertes sur des stèles du memorial qui
lui est dedie a Lyon. Ce monument devait etre inaugure lundi prochain.
–Boundary_(ID_U1YJavmC0sXa8g+Aa3E53Q)- –