METSAMOR POWER PLANT TO REMAIN NATIONAL
Lragir.am
10 April 06
The government of Armenia introduced important changes into the Bill of
Amendments to the Law on Energy, including elimination of government
monopoly in nuclear energy, stated Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan on
April 10. According to Arthur Baghdasaryan, under the bill the nuclear
station remains national and cannot be privatized.
As another important point, Arthur Baghdasaryan mentioned the amendment
on regulating the construction of a new nuclear plant by a separate
law. “It is a serious political agreement,” stated the speaker of
the National Assembly.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

STARTING TODAY NEW GAS FEES ARE TO BE IMPLEMENTED
ArmRadio.am
10.04.2006 17:55
Starting today gas consumers will pay 65 drams per one cubic meter
of gas instead of the current 59 drams. Those who consume more than
10 000 cubic meters will pay US$94.5 instead of the current US$79.1.
Head of the Information Department of “Hayrusgazard” Company Shushan
Sardaryan informs that today and tomorrow the Company will make an
inventory of the volume of gas consumed to collect the corresponding
fees.
Starting April 1 the Company pays US$110 per 1 000 cubic meters of
gas imported to Armenia from Russia. According to Shushan Sardaryan,
the damage of the Company in the period between April 1-10 totaled
US$700 million.

COE TO CLOSELY OBSERVE THE TALKS BETWEEN ARMENIAN AND AZERI PRESIDENTS
ArmRadio.am
10.04.2006 18:05
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Rene
van der Linden declared today in Strasburg, “the Council of Europe
plays an active role in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and
it will continue to closely observe the talks between the Presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
“I do not think that the Council of Europe should replace the OSCE as
mediator. At the same time, we should activate relations with the OSCE
to reach the settlement of the conflict within the shortest possible
terms,” Rene van der Linden said.

AIR FRANCE TO LEAVE ROOM FOR ARMAVIA
Lragir.am
10 April 06
Air France representatives stated April 10 that their presence
in the Armenian market will not inflict losses on Armavia, the
national transporter of Armenia. Moreover, Air France and Armavia
signed an agreement, which needs to be ratified by the government,
on joint commercial activity. “We will leave some room for Armavia,”
joked French Ambassador Henry Cuny. The representative of Air France
gave a more serious explanation; the principle of their company is
to reach an arrangement with the national transporter of the country
when their planes start flying to a country. Hence, the French say
they will sign a mutually favorable agreement with Armavia. The
French declined to speak about other airlines operating in Armenia,
saying that the last word belongs to the Armenian passenger.

HEAD OF POLICE OF YEREVAN COMPLAINED OF PEOPLE
Lragir.am
10 April 06
>From January to March the rate of housebreaking in Yerevan doubled,
stated the head of the Police of Yerevan Nerses Nazaryan on April
10. According to him, informs the news agency ARKA, in the past three
years 110 cases of housebreaking were reported in the capital against
the 57 cases reported in the same period of 2005. Nerses Nazaryan
stated that at each police department there is a unit responsible
for security of houses. “Unfortunately, people hardly ever turn to
these units for help,” complained the head of the Police of Yerevan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AIR FRANCE: POLITICS TRAVELS BY PLANE
Lragir.am
10 April 06
Guarantee of France-Armenia ties. This is how the officials of Air
France and the French Embassy to Armenia describe the entrance of Air
France to the Armenian market. There will be Yerevan-Paris scheduled
flights three times a week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Flights are already carried out, and several days after the start, on
April 10 Ambassador Henry Cuny and the Air France officials assessed
their step at the French Embassy in Yerevan. Ambassador Henry Cuny
thinks that the presence of Air France in Armenia has a political
importance. The ambassador thinks that the entrance of the French
airlines implies enhancement of ties between two countries.
The ambassador points out the economic aspect of this event,
particularly the development of tourism. “Besides an evidence of
friendship, it is a call to other French investors,” says the French
ambassador to Armenia.
To mark the entrance of Air France, this time Charles Aznavour flew
to Armenia in the plane of the French company.
The price of the ticket Yerevan-Paris-Yerevan is 399 dollars, taxes
excluding. Besides Air France planes fly to Moscow, Sanct Petersburg
and Kiev. The representatives of the company say this provides a
circulation of 100 million euros. They are hopeful that Yerevan will
comprise one quarter or one third of this sum.

GLOBAL HIT
.shtml
Apr 03 2006
That’s the soulful sound of the duduk. The duduk is a kind of folk
oboe from Armenia. It’s played here by the Armenian master of the
duduk, Djivan Gasparyan. In Gasparyan’s homeland, the duduk embodies
Armenian culture and pervades folk music. But there’s no need to
leave the United States to hear it. There’s probably one playing at
a theater near you. The World’s Adeline Sire explains.
The duduk has become the stuff of Hollywood soundtracks. It’s about
2000 years old, so it’s probably the oldest and the hardest working
instrument in show business. Many blockbusters have featured it,
including The Crow, Dead Man Walking, The Siege, and even Hulk. The
trend started with the 1988 film “The last temptation of Christ.” That
soundtrack was composed by British rock musician Peter Gabriel.
Venezuelan-born musician Pedro Eustache was haunted by the sound of
this mysterious instrument.
Pedro: “I said what the heck is that? It sounded like a cello meets
a voice, meets a clarinet, meets a lot of pain, incredibly expressive
and it just rocked my world.”
Eustache took up the duduk in 1994 and studied with master Djivan
Gasparyan. He soon learned the secrets of this rudimentary instrument
made of Armenian apricot wood. It’s topped with a large reed that
sounds like this:
Eustache is a freelancer and in Hollywood, he’s very much in demand
by film composers. He plays dozens of woodwinds from around the
world. But he treasures the duduk. And likes to improvise on it.
Pedro: Duduk is such a difficult instrument, pfffff…..it kicks
my butt all the time, excuse my French–which is not French– but
duduk can express something very specific, peculiar, particular,
that nothing else can express. I would say evocative, I would say
extreme expression from sweetness to pain and they say in Armenia,
the sound of this instrument is a prayer.”
That quasi-holy sound has made the duduk a welcomed guest in religious
film epics. In 2004, 16 years after “the last temptation of Christ
” the duduk appeared in Mel Gibson’s film “the Passion of the
Christ.” And this time, Eustache was playing.
More than an instrument, the duduk is a dramatic device. John Debney
composed the score for “the Passion of the Christ.” He says he chose
the duduk because it sounds just like a human voice. But he says that
usually when film composers use it, they aim to refer to the distant
past and distant lands.
Debney: “It does evoke something ancient. I think that most westerners
are drawn to this instrument because it is a plaintive instrument that
is very exotic and very beautiful. And I think that’s very appealing.”
Filed under “ancient times” evoked by the duduk, you find the films
“Gladiator” and “Alexander.” And as for exotic, in 2005 alone, the
duduk evoked a fictitious land in “Chronicles of Narnia,” and the
middle east in “Syriana” and “Munich.”
Pedro Eustache is the featured duduk player in Munich’s soundtrack. And
he’s played many more gigs, even in settings beyond Hollywood. He
says the duduk is quite a chameleon.
Eustache: “I’ve played this in churches, in Hispanic churches, I have
played this in huge arenas all over the world, I have played this from
Dubai to India to Japan to Venezuela, I’ve used this in Iranian pop,
you know, it’s pretty amazing.”
Eustache also performs with classical Indian music master Ravi
Shankar. In 2002, Eustache performed with Shankar and his band
in London. It was a memorial concert for the Beatles’ George
Harrison. Shankar had written a duduk solo for Eustache. And that solo
didn’t fall on deaf ears. Paul McCartney was so impressed by the sound
of the instrument that he inquired about the musician who’d played it.
McCartney: “He said that he called Ravi Shankar….and said “Ravi,
I want to have that Indian musician that plays this mournful Indian
instrument…. voovoovoo…. and Ravi said “No no no, he’s not Indian,
he’s from Venezuela and the instrument is from Armenia.. hahaha…”
McCartney called Eustache and invited him to play a duet on his latest
album “Chaos and creation in the garden.” The song is “Jenny Wren.”
Pedro Eustache is convinced that this folk horn from Armenia has a
powerful and limitless reach. He says it will definitely outlive its
current fad. It’s just a hunch but it’s based on experience.
Eustache: “I’m from Venezuela, South America. My parents came from
Haiti and I am a whole multicultural weird thing. My point being,
there are things that go beyond geography and chronology an the sound
of the duduk is one of them. I have played this instrument anywhere
and everywhere and it affects people, it immediately capture’s
people’s sensibilities, it connects deeply with them, I think there
is something so incredibly universal about the sound, the strength,
the reality of this instrument.”
Its appeal is so universal that last November, UNESCO issued a
proclamation naming duduk music a “Masterpiece of the Oral and
Intangible Heritage of Humanity.”
As for Eustache, he’ll next play on a couple of songs Stevie Wonder
is writing for a documentary. Eustache says the R’N’B star loves the
instrument so much he’s getting one for himself. The duduk’s next
appearance will be brought to the silver screen by composer Hans
Zimmer. Zimmer asked master Djivan Gasparyan to the play for the
soundtrack of “The Da Vinci Code,” out this May.
For the World, I’m Adeline Sire.
Pedro Eustache is a woodwind player and a duduk specialist.
For information about Pedro Eustache and his latest solo CD, go to:
om

ARMENIA CEDES MORE ENERGY ASSETS FOR CHEAPER RUSSIAN GAS
Emil Danielyan
EurasiaNet, NY
April 10 2006
Armenia’s leadership has controversially agreed to hand over more
state energy assets to Russia in return for avoiding a doubling
of the price of Russian natural gas in the near future. Gazprom,
Russia’s state-run gas giant, is now set to assume control of a major
Armenian power plant, and may also obtain a controlling share of a
planned Armenian-Iranian gas pipeline.
Gazprom representatives announced both deals April 6 after four
months of confidential negotiations between the Armenian and Russian
governments. Armenian leaders, however, have only confirmed the power
plant transfer. On April 7, Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisian
asserted that pipeline rights could not be transferred, citing the
fact that construction on the energy route had not yet been completed.
If both deals go through as envisioned, the deals would give Moscow
a stranglehold on the Armenian energy sector, raising questions about
Yerevan’s recent pledges to ease its economic dependence on Russia.
Indeed, the chief strategic reason used initially by Armenian leaders
to justify construction of the Iran-Armenia pipeline was that it
would break Russia’s gas-supply monopoly.
The Armenian-Russian transfer talks were triggered by Gazprom’s late
2005 decision to drastically raise the price of gas exports to several
ex-Soviet states, including Armenia. [For background see the Eurasia
Insight archive]. Gazprom said it would charge Armenian customers
$110 per thousand cubic meters, up from the existing price of $56
per thousand cubic meters. Russian gas generates nearly 40 percent of
Armenia’s electricity and is also the main source of winter heating
for hundreds of thousands of Armenian households. Not surprisingly,
Armenian authorities scrambled to get the Russians to reconsider the
measure. Armenian President Robert Kocharian traveled to Russia twice
in less than two months to discuss the matter with Russian leader
Vladimir Putin.
Gazprom representatives made it clear that the gas price hike would
be scaled back only if the Armenian government ceded more of its key
energy assets. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. When
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markarian publicly ruled out such
a possibility in January, the price hike seemed inevitable. And on
March 10, Armenian state regulators allowed the Armenian national
gas operator to raise the retail price of gas by 52 percent for
households and 80 for industrial consumers. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. The subsequent Russian-Armenian agreement
thus came as a surprise.
According to an Armenian government statement, Gazprom will be granted
ownership of the large, but incomplete gas-fired power plant located
in the central town of Hrazdan in exchange for supplying Armenia with
almost $189 million worth of gas free of charge. Gazprom would also
pay an additional $60 million in cash, and would pledge to invest at
least $150 million to complete construction of the plant.
“This proposal [by the Russian side], which has been discussed for
so long, is quite attractive in both economic and energy terms,
and we could not have turned it down,” Movsisian told reporters.
Defending the controversial deal, Kocharian and Movsisian emphasized
the fact that Armenian families will be paying 65 drams (14 U.S.
cents) per cubic meter of gas, instead of the planned 90 drams,
until the end of 2008. Kocharian also suggested that the deal would
stimulate Armenia’s economy.
Attention now is centering on the pipeline issue. In its initial
April 6 statement, Gazprom said it would enjoy control of the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, which is expected to begin operation in
early 2007. When Armenian officials denied this, Gazprom promptly
edited its statement. The amended version contains no references to
the pipeline in question, speaking instead of unspecified “facilities
of Armenia’s gas sphere.”
Still, Russian media outlets consider Gazprom’s takeover of the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline to be an accomplished fact. The Kommersant
daily wrote on April 7 that Gazprom will now make sure that Iran
does not re-export its gas to Georgia and possibly other ex-Soviet
countries via Armenia.
In a further blow to Tehran, the Armenian government has reneged on its
pledge, reaffirmed by Movsisian as recently as last December, to let a
state-owned Iranian company complete the Hrazdan plant. The government
was due to repay the large-scale Iranian investments with electricity
to be generated at the facility. It presented the arrangement as proof
of its stated efforts to diversify Armenia’s sources of energy. Russian
energy companies already own the country’s largest thermal power plant,
also located in Hrazdan, several hydro-electric plants, as well as
its natural gas and electricity distribution networks. In addition,
Russia manages the finances at the Metsamor nuclear power station.
Armenian opposition leaders and independent observers say the
settlement of the Russian-Armenian gas dispute will make Armenia even
more dependent on Russia, both politically and economically. “This
deal will accelerate the process of Armenia’s transformation into
a Russian province,” Smbat Ayvazian of the pro-Western opposition
Hanrapetutiun (Republic) party charged in a newspaper interview.
Kocharian, however, brushed aside such criticism in weekend televised
remarks, arguing, among other things, that Western energy giants
continue to show little interest in the Armenian energy sector. “I
don’t know of any European or American proposals on our energy that
we have turned down,” he said.
Kocharian’s decision to essentially accept the terms offered by the
Russians was all the more unexpected given an unprecedented amount of
anti-Russian rhetoric publicly voiced by politicians and especially
the TV stations loyal to him earlier this year. They were particularly
angered by the fact that Armenia, one of Russia’s staunchest ex-Soviet
allies, is to pay the same price for Russian gas as neighboring
pro-Western Georgia. The Armenian leader is widely believed to have
orchestrated this PR campaign as part of his negotiating tactic. His
spokesman Victor Soghomonian pointed to growing anti-Russian sentiment
in Armenia on January 24, saying that “it is the Russian side that
has to think about doing something about that.”
Armenia’s “energy security,” meanwhile, appears to have been a high
priority for the United States of late. US Assistant Secretary of
State Daniel Fried and his deputy Matthew Bryza focused on the issue
during separate visits to Yerevan in early March. While stressing the
importance of diversifying the landlocked country’s energy supplies,
both men publicly expressed US unease over Armenian-Iranian energy
cooperation. Washington is therefore not necessarily unhappy with
the Kocharian administration’s deal with Gazprom. As Bryza put it,
“Armenia has a long and positive experience working with Russian gas
suppliers and that needs to continue.”
Editor’s Note: Emil Danielyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and
political analyst.

NATO KEEN ON DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONS WITH AZERBAIJAN
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
April 10 2006
Deputy Speaker of Azerbaijan Parliament, head of the Azerbaijan
delegation at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Ziyafet Askarov met
with the special envoy of the NATO Secretary General in the South
Caucasus and Central Asia Robert Simons.
Having noted, that after signing in 1994 between Azerbaijan and NATO
of the PfP program, the bilateral contacts dynamically develop, Z.
Askarov has stated, that today Azerbaijan as the present partner takes
part in many actions of NATO. Azerbaijan is interested in development
and strengthening of communications with the Euro-Atlantic alliance
and for this purpose carries out all the obligations assigned. We also,
he said, take active part in the antiterrorist coalition. Militaries of
Azerbaijan have joined the peacekeeping forces in Kosovo, Afghanistan
and Iraq. The relations between Milli Majlis and Parliamentary
Assembly of NATO have reached a desirable level. In 1997, Azerbaijan
was admitted to the Assembly with observer status, and in 2002 0 became
member of this Organization, which is evidence to development of links,
and that Azerbaijan is a reliable partner. Despite this, there are
problems impeding all-round development of these ties. Territorial
claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan are threat both for the country
and the entire South Caucasus, he emphasized.
Then, Ziyafet Askarov has in detail informed on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, emphasizing importance of activation of the role of NATO,
being the guarantor of peace and stability on the planet.
Mr. Robert Simons has told, that the NATO also is interested
in development of links with Azerbaijan and closely watches the
processes ongoing in the country, and that the Organization highly
estimates the progressive steps undertaken in the country after the
past parliamentary elections.
The sides had comprehensive exchange of views on other questions
representing mutual interest.

MISS IRAQ QUITS ‘CUZ OF DEATH THREATS
Sploid (satire)
April 10 2006
A young Iraqi-Armenian woman has relinquished her hard fought crown
as the sauciest lady in all of Iraq after only four days because of
numerous death threats.
When Tamar Goregian was crowned Iraqi Queen of Beauty on April 6 she
told the crowd, “Maybe beauty is the final step to end violence and
preach world peace after all.”
Nope.
On Friday, April 9, Goregian told pageant officials she could no
longer wear the crown. She was scared away by death threats from
religious zealots who called her “Queen of the Infidels.”
“I respect her decision. The country is undergoing rough times,
and we understand her desire to protect herself and her family,”
said the pageant’s director.
This was the first year that the Miss Iraq pageant had been held in
Iraq after four years in Kenya. It had been deemed far too dangerous
to hold the contest in Iraq. It appears it still is.
Inexplicably, Gorgian’s runner-up, Maiden of Beauty,” Mona Hilmi,
has agreed to take over the duties. She’s alleged to be “equally
intelligent and beautiful.”
Hilmi hopes to be the first Iraqi to represent her country at the
Miss Universe pageant since 1972, when Wijdan Sulyman attended the
cattle call in Puerto Rico.
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