THE VISIONARY
by Brandon Walters
Richmond Style Weekly, VA
April 5 2006
Some people say he’s disconnected from reality. Others think he’s a
creative genius.
Imagine Richmond years from now with five new buildings that appear
to outline the city as points of a star, twisting, turning and
defining the skyline like none you’ve seen before. Imagine, too,
a church with only two elements: a foundation and a roof that opens
toward heaven. Richmond’s maverick architect, Haigh Jamgochian, is
dusting off plans for them all. Jamgochian (pronounced “Jam-Goshen”)
is 81. And in the twilight of a career fraught with ups and downs
that has spanned half a century, Jamgochian hopes to ensure a legacy
or at least a place in history.
“He does what he wants and it’s kind of crazy,” says Vincent Brooks,
senior archivist for architectural records with the Library of
Virginia. “But he’s never given up and he’s never compromised.”
Jamgochian’s big ideas, most of which stem from the ’60s, are
preternaturally far-fetched. It’s what differentiates his designs,
or as he calls them, his “gimmicks,” from more traditional forms
of architecture. They’ve earned him acclaim as the designer of the
“flying-saucer” Markel Building just off West Broad Street near Willow
Lawn and the so-called Moon House overlooking the James River that
was demolished last year. The two are the only buildings Jamgochian’s
ever managed to build.
Stories about them are legendary. Jamgochian’s inspiration for the
aluminum-covered Markel Building, for instance, came from an actual
foil-wrapped baked potato. He conceived the Moon House – topped with
a crescent shape made of Styrofoam – from popular influences such
as Star Trek and, more directly, man’s race to the moon. Jamgochian
ordered the aluminum for the Markel Building – parts of which today
are held together by duct tape – from the nearby Reynolds plant, then
dented the upper ring himself with a sledgehammer in just four hours.
He outfitted the Moon House with bulletproof glass because of death
threats made against its owner, the late used-car salesman known as
Mad Man Dapper Dan.
But Jamgochian’s radical ideas extend beyond hometown trivia. His
designs for bold, sleek skyscrapers and cantilevered towers garnered
more attention on paper than actual nods from investors.
In May 1962, the former Central Richmond Association published a
picture of Jamgochian’s “tree house” model of a 15-story apartment
building proposed for East Franklin and Foushee streets. The
accompanying article extoled it as “a completely new concept in
downtown apartment living.”
While City Council eventually nixed the project, its bold, modern
design created buzz overnight. “Up until I did that I was a nobody,”
Jamgochian says.
Ironically, buildings Jamgochian designed that were never
built appeared worldwide in trade publications, textbooks and
advertisements. One ad for the now defunct Larus & Bros. tobacco,
which ran in the New Yorker, depicts Jamgochian – who detests smoke –
smoking a pipe in a boardroom where a group of men gaze thoughtfully
at the model of his “tree-house” apartment building.
“Many of his models were used to illustrate his forward thinking,”
archivist Brooks says, “but nobody wanted to build them.”
Jamgochian earned a reputation as a rebel. But his designs, or else the
motivations behind them, often left him out of touch with conventional
mores of the time and relegated to the margins of a Richmond community
that didn’t quite share his vision for a city of the future.
“I started talking about futuristic architecture and what could make
Richmond a futuristic city, but in the ’60s it was just like today,” he
says. “I couldn’t get anyone to listen and the city was going nowhere.”
There is the “tree house,” an ultra-narrow, 15-story apartment
building with 50-foot, cantilevered floors extending as branches
from a trunklike shaft. Next is the “futuristic tree house,” a kind
of double-helix, wavy version but with two 25-story apartment towers
parallel to one another. There is a twin hotel complex that would
rotate 360 degrees on its axis daily, which would include a marina.
Next is a mushroom, podlike office and entertainment complex. Last
is his spiral skyscraper.
In recent months Jamgochian has pressed historic preservationist and
millionaire Ivor Massey Jr. and Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder to
support his five-building design for downtown. So far, no takers.
At least, not in his hometown. In the years since Jamgochian designed
them, all five have cropped up in Japan, Brazil, South Africa and
most recently, Chicago.
Jamgochian works his land constantly. If he’s not building walls out
of huge rocks that he hauls with a front-end loader from his quarry,
he’s pouring concrete, shuffling pipes, digging tunnels or basking
in his “secret” garden.
On a cold and rainy morning in early spring, Jamgochian, who likes
to be called “Jam,” surveys his 8½-acre compound on Rockfalls Drive
near the James River Pony Pasture. Jamgochian’s wearing sweats, duck
boots and a Marine Corps hat. He carries a miniature Yorkshire terrier,
Anish, tucked inside his jacket. He holds a leash tethered to his mutt,
Blondie, with one hand; he grips an umbrella with the other.
Wet and pink-knuckled from the cold, his large hands are smooth and
appear to have assimilated the scars from burns that nearly killed
him two decades ago.
“You have plans and you’re going to do something, but outside forces
come and change your life,” he says. He recalls the time when he
abruptly stopped his “amoeba” house project in Westover Hills 40 years
ago to purchase the Rockfalls estate. The wavy cinderblock foundation
for the planned Westover house, which Jamgochian describes as his
“life encircled with a line,” remains today, deep in the woods and
tagged with graffiti. The Rockfalls estate had been the weekend chalet
of investor W. T. Holt. Jamgochian purchased land and the buildings
on it for $80,000.
Today, the art-deco house appears uninhabitable. A Civil-War-era
cottage also in disrepair lies on the far side of the property near
Chellowe Road. It’s where Jamgochian says he lives. The land itself
is tangled and treacherous. Paths and rivulets abound. Trees that
have toppled have been propped up – all by Jamgochian. Some, with
low-hanging branches, have what look like rubber tires around their
canopies to support them. There is a tiny, man-made island at the
foot of a sharply rising cliff. From above, standing on the edge of
the cliff, the island appears heart-shaped. A huge sculpted arrow
made from scrap aluminum is driven through its middle. Jamgochian
fashioned it as a tribute to his alma mater, Virginia Tech. A small
boat rests in water but not enough to make it float. And if all this
isn’t enough, a 10- to 20-foot berm of rock, earth and stray fencing
encloses the compound. Jamgochian built it to keep people out and keep
the curious from seeing what he says he’ll someday reveal as paradise.
For now, Jamgochian basks in his private Eden. “I come out of my front
door every day and say, Thank you, God, for I’ve got everything I’ve
ever dreamed of having,” he says. Mostly, it appears, what he has
is solitude.
As Richmond’s iconoclastic architect, he’s managed to keep his private
life shuttered. Yet in doing so, he’s been called everything from a
maverick to a misanthrope.
“There’s a reason I hate kids: They’re destructive,” he says flatly.
Even as a child, he says, he would build things like a new clothesline
for his mother only to have other kids tear it apart. He doesn’t post
“no trespassing” signs about his property but he locks the gate with
a padlock and it is clear that uninvited guests aren’t welcome –
unless they want to volunteer to help construct the church he says
he’s building in place of his dream house.
While it’s difficult to conjure the sound of playful screams and
giggles filling this quiet enclave, children once roamed the place.
That was 30 years ago, when the grounds were neatly landscaped and
the art-deco house that overlooks the quarry had striped awnings.
At 40, Jamgochian says, he married a woman named Revonda and they
quickly had a child. His name is Haigh, and as a young boy, people
called him “Hikey.” In the mid-’70s when busing in the city took
effect, Jamgochian and his wife opened a small private school –
the precursor to the Montessori movement in Richmond, he notes –
which had at its peak about 50 students. “Hikey” is shown pictured
in an old yearbook.
Jamgochian and Revonda were divorced sometime in the late ’70s, he
says. He is estranged from her now and from his son, he says, and he
doesn’t consider the relationship further. According to Jamgochian’s
second ex-wife and close friend, Betty Cunningham, the last they’d
heard, Revonda and Haigh were living somewhere in Arizona. Neither
could be located for comment.
Throughout his life, personal relationships have tested Jamgochian.
He is the first to admit it. When asked whether he ever entertains,
he shakes his head from side to side in no. “I always say the wrong
things,” he offers. Like his aversion for children, he says, his
unsocial – or unconventional – manner is rooted in his childhood.
Jamgochian’s parents immigrated to the United States from Armenia
during World War I amid the genocide Armenians suffered at the hands
of the Turks. Young Haigh – pronounced “Hague” in English, “Hike” in
Armenian – was born Aug. 29, 1924. He’s the youngest of three siblings.
His older brother, John, was a fighter pilot in World War II who is
credited with designing technology that led to the black-box data
retrieval system in planes. After the war, he worked for Lockheed
Aircraft Corp., the precursor to Lockheed Martin, in Marietta, Ga.
John Jamgochian died in 1997 when the small-engine plane he was flying
went down in Cobb County, Ga. He was the only person on board.
An Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution article recognizing
his accomplishment in aviation history called him dashing and a
maverick and full of verve that sometimes got him into trouble. Haigh
Jamgochian’s older sister, Victoria, is a retired interior designer
who shuns the spotlight and lives in the West End.
When Jamgochian was 8 or 9, he recalls, he excavated the basement of
his Jackson Ward home, brick by brick, in order to have the space to
build a miniature town around a train set. He attended Thomas Jefferson
High School, where academics escaped him. Then he spent four years
stationed in the South Pacific with the U. S. Marine Corps. “The
war saved my life and was the best thing that ever happened to me,”
he says.
When he got out, he used the G.I. bill to go to college. Because all
the Virginia schools were full, he took an opening at the only school
where there was an opening for him. He’d never heard of the school
that people called Dartmouth. Jamgochian played end on the college’s
football team. His crowning moment there, he says, was when he caught
the football for a winning touchdown against Yale.
Jamgochian transferred to Virginia Tech after his sophomore year
in order to enroll in its nascent architecture program. During his
senior year, he was one of 12 finalists among 2,500 entrants in a
contest to study architecture at the L’Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris.
While he didn’t win, the distinction caught the attention of
Princeton. He was offered a full scholarship, he says, to earn his
master’s degree in architecture.
After attending Princeton, he moved back to Richmond and worked for
several small architecture firms, none for more than a few months. He
was headstrong, eager to make a name for himself.
One of Jamgochian’s former colleagues spoke to Style on the condition
that his name was withheld. The associate calls Jamgochian “extremely
talented,” but also extremely erratic. He says Jamgochian, who
was widely regarded as dashing, also earned a reputation as being
uncomfortably chummy with female architecture students, whom he had
taught at area colleges.
Meantime at work, the colleague recalls, Jamgochian showed promise
and dedication, but invariably left out some crucial element of an
assignment. He speculates that’s what cut Jamgochian out of serious
architectural negotiations.
“He had one failing: He never could get it all together. His drawings
would be beautiful but something would be missing,” he says.
Jamgochian and the colleague eventually parted ways amicably, he
says. Still, he calls Jamgochian the most tragic and troubled man he’s
ever known. “He had the greatest of opportunities, but the realities
of life were not real to him and he didn’t live on an earth with some
order to it.”
Jamgochian sees it differently. He shrugs off now what must have been
disappointments in the past. “Everything is happenstance,” he says.
“Everything I do, it’s in my DNA.”
Since 1980, Betty Lou Cunningham has been the closest thing to an
anchor Jamgochian has had. The two met at a cooking class for meatless
foods held at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. They quickly
became friends and realized they shared much in common – an affinity
for Glen Miller and the sounds of big-band swing and dancing to go
along with it.
The couple lived together for four years. They were married in 1985
and chose to reside in the Civil-War cottage. “It was our honeymoon
cottage,” Cunningham says.
“He really is a genius and people don’t realize it,” says Cunningham,
a retired businesswoman who started Executive Suites nearly 40 years
ago. “He’s so full of life and God and country. No one’s a stranger to
Haigh.” But in time, the couple drifted apart. Cunningham says she’s
a social person, whereas Jamgochian isn’t. After 12 years together,
they split, although they’re closer now, Cunningham says.
For his part, Jamgochian today uses “Betty Lou” and “girlfriend”
interchangeably. She lives in house a stone’s throw from Jamgochian.
“He’s just a maverick who loves his freedom,” she says.
But Jamgochian’s freedom has had its costs. Two years before he and
Cunningham were married, he nearly burned to death in a midday blaze
that erupted inside the art-deco house.
The fire made front-page news in March 1983 when it caused $20,000
worth of damage to his increasingly notorious estate. From the outside,
the house had deteriorated dramatically. In 1979, a special grand
jury had indicted Jamgochian for maintaining a nuisance property
after 100 of his South Side neighbors signed a petition stating his
land had become a breeding ground for rats and snakes.
The case was dropped when Jamgochian agreed to clean up his “art
supplies” – the heaps of scrap metals, wood and stone that dotted
the site.
The fire four years later occurred when the pilot in his gas stove
misfired while he was using kerosene to rid his dogs of fleas.
Without dialing 911, an article reports, Jamgochian went through half
a dozen fire extinguishers fighting the blaze himself before driving
four miles to a fire station on Forest Hill Avenue to ask for more.
Firefighters stared agape, Jamgochian recalls, to see an ash-covered
man before them with his clothes burned off and his hands “melting.”
Jamgochian suffered life-threatening burns to his face, neck and
hands. He was hospitalized for three months, two of them doped up on
morphine for the pain. While recuperating, he conceived his design
for a spiraled skyscraper. The spirals are functional: in the event
of a fire, they become fire escapes serving as slides to safety.
Jamgochian has spent a lifetime trying to prove he can do what others
say can’t be done. He made headlines in the Richmond News Leader –
the first of many – in 1948 when, at 24, he built a handless clock and
legless furniture for a now-defunct delicatessen his parents opened
in the Fan. The clock told time by two transparent discs with marks
on them that moved around the clock mechanism. Booths in the deli
were supported by a 33-foot-long beam in the wall that held up the
booths like the span in a suspension bridge.
As an architecture student at Virginia Tech in 1951, the title of
his senior thesis was, “A neighborhood for Richmond, Virginia.” It
contained 101 drawings of scenarios for Richmond neighborhoods and
business districts. He designed a futuristic, self-contained community
similar to what Chesterfield County’s Brandermill subdivision became in
the 1970s. In his thesis, Jamgochian proffers his idea of an evolving
neighborhood. He includes drawings of flying-saucerlike houses floating
in air above a rechargeable utility station. One drawing even depicts
a kind of modular home in outer space.
Get Jamgochian on a roll about what’s considered admirable Virginia
architecture and he lashes out that Thomas Jefferson’s designs of
the Virginia Capitol are “dead architecture” and hardly original.
He writes of the architect’s predilection for authenticity in a 1962
essay about the evolution of the Markel Building design: “People who
copy the buildings of the past are expressing their satisfaction with
the past – for which they can take no credit – and admitting their
fear of the future.”
To Jamgochian, good architecture – meaning compelling not necessarily
completed – should challenge convention and catch people’s attention.
And the gimmickry he employs is a necessary byproduct.
Last summer Jamgochian learned of a project that will put a spiral
tower, similar to his design but without the fire-escape-enabling
chutes, in the heart of Chicago. He learned it from Brooks at the
Library of Virginia.
To hear Jamgochian speak of Brooks, a Pennsylvania native in his 30s,
is to hear how a man speaks of his son. Brooks contacted Jamgochian
in early 2005 when he learned of plans to tear down the Moon House.
Builder and developer B. K. Katherman had recently purchased the Moon
House for its prime location on the James with plans to build a huge
new home there. The Moon House appeared beyond repair. It stood vacant
for years, having been ransacked, vandalized and stripped before it
was demolished. But Brooks recognized the building as important. And
he hoped Jamgochian would have materials that would help preserve
its history.
To Brooks’ surprise, Jamgochian turned over to the state library what
now amounts to an entire collection of his original drawings, models,
publications and notes. In it, you can see sketches of Jamgochian’s
first and only sculpture – a commissioned bust of then-Gov. Albertus
Harrison Jr. The likeness is indisputable. There are what appear
to be hundreds of photos Jamgochian has taken over the years of
various projects he’s stopped and started on his property. One shows
Jamgochian in his underwear and boots whacking a 6-foot-wide pipe with
a sledgehammer. In many, it’s clear from the angle that Jamgochian
is taking the photo of himself. Perhaps most poignant, the collection
contains a beautifully written and illustrated children’s book. It’s
titled, “Little and Big: comparisons and associations.”
Brooks says the library is processing all the contents of the
collection with plans for an “un-built” exhibit of Jamgochian’s work
next year. It’s already spent $7,000 to clean the original model of
the Markel Building. The real building, now owned by Pettus LeCompe,
will be recognized in June as a Henrico County historic landmark,
“because of its uniqueness as a modern building,” says Chris Gregson,
supervisor for historic preservation with the county’s division of
parks and recreation.
Jamgochian appears giddy by recent attention, as if drudging up the
past isn’t such a bad thing. And while Spanish architect Santiago
Calatrava constructs the world’s tallest building, a 115-story,
2,000-foot-tall, spiraled skyscraper called “Fordham Spire” in Chicago,
Jamgochian is retracing steps.
Sure, they are steps he’s made again and again. He stops to point to
the side of a makeshift barn he constructed some years ago. It masks
the neighbors’ view of rotting horse stables. Like a puzzle, he fit
and hammered the scraps of wood together on the ground then lifted
the wall into place. The amalgamation of white, brown and grey wood,
one slab with a doorknob still attached, slopes diagonally to the
ground as if enclosing a triangle. The facade creates the illusion
of something whole or something intended to look that way. It is,
rather, unfinished, crude and mostly accidental – and why Jamgochian
calls it beautiful.
?idarticle=12079
–Boundary_(ID_CpduOtT2qi+QjRi+k boLuA)–

EU SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR S CAUCASUS: IT IS NOT PROFITABLE FOR THE CONFLICT PARTIES TO DRAG OUT NK CONFLICT SETTLEMENT
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
April 5 2006
“Despite contradictory comments on failure of the talks in Rambouillet,
according to our estimation, the negotiation process on the Karabakh
settlement is alive, there are still possibilities to continue the
process and achieve progress”, stated RA FM Vardan Oskanyan today in
the course of a joint press conference with the newly appointed EU
Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby.
According to RA FM, during the meeting with Peter Semneby, who has
for the first time visited the South Caucasus as the European Union
Special Representative for the South Caucasus, the key subject of
the discussions was the Karabakh conflict settlement process. The
parties discussed the latest events and the situation created after
the talks in Rambouillet.
The EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby
noted the Special Representative’s mandate had become wider, which
allowed him more actively participate in the settlement process. In
Peter Semneby’s words, change of the mandate is explained by the
European Union’s interest in settlement of the frozen conflicts in
the South Caucasus. “The European Union wishes to be more actively
involved in the settlement process”, stated Peter Semneby. The EU
Special Representative for the South Caucasus noted that after RA
and AR Presidents’ talks in Rambouillet efforts were being made to
achieve some progress in the conflict settlement process.
According to the Special Representative, it is not profitable for
the conflict parties to drag out the problem’s solution. He believes
for Armenia the settlement’s protraction is fraught with continuation
of isolation and blockade of its borders. In its turn in Azerbaijan
delaying may result in strengthening aspiration for the conflict’s
military settlement. In this connection Peter Semneby said he
disapproved militarist statements periodically voiced in Azerbaijan.
In his turn, RA FM stressed the military solution of the Karabakh
issue was inadmissible. “The only way of settlement is a way of
mutual compromises”, stressed RA FM. Without going into detail of the
issues being discussed in the course of the talks, Vardan Oskanyan
noted Armenian party had nothing to concede. In Oskanyan’s words,
the Azeri party should display political will, and then the talks on
search for the problem’s solution may be continued.
While speaking about the European Union’s role in the Karabakh conflict
settlement, the Special Representative stressed the matter did not
concern change of the negotiations’ format. The talks proceed within
the frames of the OSCE Minsk group, which, in Semneby’s opinion,
discharges its duties well.
Touching upon Armenia-the EU relations Vardan Oskanyan noted he had
assured Peter Semneby of Armenia’s adherence to the Euro integration
process. RA FM informed that the current stage of Armenia-the EU
talks was likely to be held late April – early May, in the course
of which the parties would finish the works on the program’s final
elaboration. In Vardan Oskanyan’s opinion, realization of the Action
Program will open up new perspectives for the development of bilateral
relations.
RA FM noted the issues of the Armenian-Turkish relations had also
been discussed at the meeting with the EU Special Representative for
the South Caucasus. The possibility of the Special Representative’s
involvement in the process of establishing relations between Armenia
and Turkey was considered as well.
In this connection Peter Semneby stated the issue of the
Armenian-Turkish relations was directly connected with the Karabakh
problem. He emphasized establishment of the Armenian-Turkish relations
proceeded from the European Union’s interests, especially in the
context of the talks on Turkey’s entry into the EU.

GEORGIAN EPARCHY OF ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH DECIDED TO INCREASE NUMBER OF ARMENIAN SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS IN JAVAKHETI
15:49 04/05/2006
Head of the Georgian Eparchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan presented to the Supreme Religious
Council a necessity to appoint spiritual directors in Javakheti
(Armenian-populated area in Georgia).
According to him, lack of clergymen is the main problem in spiritual
life of Javakheti.
Reverend Vazgen also informed that the eparchy finally got an
opportunity to refurbish two Armenian churches in Tbilisi that were in
alert condition. The reconstruction works will be finished this year,
reports A-Info.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER EXPRESSES OPTIMISM FOR PROGRESS ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Avet Demourian
AP Worldstream
Apr 05, 2006
Armenia expressed optimism Wednesday that progress could be made
toward a settlement of its dispute with Azerbaijan over the status of
the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave despite the breakdown in talks between
the two countries’ presidents earlier this year.
“The negotiations must be continued and what we have on the table
today must be used as the basis,” Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
said at a meeting with Peter Semneby, the European Union’s special
representative in the South Caucasus region.
He said there could be no military solution to the dispute, which
sparked a six-year war that ended with a shaky cease-fire in 1994,
and urged Azerbaijan to accept that mutual compromise was necessary.
“Armenia has already made all possible compromises, there is no place
left to step back,” he said. “The time has come for Azerbaijan to
take steps so that we can get this (negotiation) process moving and
bring it to completion.” Semneby urged the two sides to act soon to
get talks under way again. “Indeed, there is a window of opportunity,
which we need to take advantage of,” he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan but populated mostly by ethnic
Armenians, whose troops face Azerbaijani forces across a half-mile-wide
(kilometer-wide) no man’s land. Clashes break out sporadically and
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliev have traded increasingly bellicose statements since talks to
resolve the enclave’s status broke down in February.
At least 30,000 people have been killed and 1 million made refugees in
the 18-year-old dispute. The hostilities have also hindered investment
in the strategic, oil-rich Caucasus region.
A decade of international mediation has failed to end the conflict.
The dispute has dominated both countries’ foreign policy since they
became independent with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Foreign mediators have been pushing for a resolution of the conflict
this year. Since neither country will have elections, their leaders
should be free of domestic pressure to stand tough on Karabakh,
the mediators have said.

CONCEPT OF DUAL CITIZENSHIP LAW PRESENTED AT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Yerkir
05.04.2006 17:15
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Levon Mkrtchian, National Assembly’s Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) faction leader and Armen Rustamian
introduced on Wednesday the concept of a draft law, which would grant
a dual citizenship right to foreign Armenians.
“During the Constitutional referendum, the ARF presented its view on
this issue and our support of the constitutional amendments stemmed
from this stance,” Armen Rustamian said. “The ARF has prepared a
concept that could become the base for further discussions.”
He said three key issues would be resolved: organizing of worldwide
Armenians to contribute in national goals; new possibilities for
Armenia’s strengthening; and protection of rights of Armenians around
the world.
He noted that while working on the concept the international practices
were studied to make the law compliant with international laws also
put in balance the rights and obligations.
Levon Mkrtchian, in turn, said a group of professionals, including
Constitutional Court Chairman Gagik Harutiunian, worked on the
draft law.
The concept consists of 15 sections each of which is to become a
chapter in the future law.
“The dual citizenship for Armenians stems from the unique situation the
Armenians have found themselves after the Genocide,” Mkrtchian said.
Rustamian and Mkrtchian spoke of the necessity to clearly define the
rights and obligations, including the right to elect and be elected.
The concept will be submitted to the National Assembly as a draft
law in the fall.

AZERI LAWYER FAILED TO UNDERSTAND HUNGARIAN PROSECUTOR
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.04.2006 19:27 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The prosecutor demanded 30-year imprisonment
for Ramil Safarov accused of the murder of Armenian officer Gurgen
Margaryan,” Safarov’s defender Adil Ismaylov said. Meanwhile as
PanARMENIAN.Net agency reported earlier, actually the Hungarian
prosecutor demanded life imprisonment at that 30 years without
the right of amnesty. The prosecutor said the murder was committed
with extreme cruelty and is a threat for the national security of
Hungary. He also underscored that when committing the crime Safarov
was sane.
Adil Ismaylov said that Safarov’s lawyers submitted a petition for
one more medical-forensic examination, since the results of the
previous ones differ. However the judge declined the petition and
said the decision will base on the examinations conducted. Lawyers
representing both sides addressed the court April 4.
Ismaylov also informed Safarov will make his last statement April 13.
It should be noted that Hungarian lawyer Gabriela Kaspar stated that
Margaryan’s murder should be classified as genocide since it was
committed through national hatred.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU: TESTED MODEL CANNOT BE APPLIED FOR ALL OTHER CONFLICTS
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.04.2006 19:40 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Each conflict has its peculiarities and the Kosovo
model cannot be applied to all the “frozen” conflicts in the post
soviet space,” EU Envoy for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby stated
in a conversation with PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. “Once tested model
cannot be applied to all the other conflicts,” he said.
According to Mr. Semneby, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is very
specific and its settlement should be based on the negotiations
exclusively. “The parties to conflict are likely to complete the
talks and I think a decision will be found. As for compromise,
in my opinion it should be elaborated through long and delicate
negotiations,” Semneby emphasized. To note, March 1, 2006 Swedish
diplomat Peter Semneby replaced Heikki Talvitie at the post of EU
Special Representative for the South Caucasus.

EU NOT GOING TO CHANGE KARABAKH TALKS FORMAT
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.04.2006 20:08 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Former EU Envoy for the South Caucasus Heikki
Talvitie has created a good basis for further work in the region. But
now we will build our activities in a more expanded format,” EU Envoy
for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby stated at a news conference
in Yerevan today. In his words, the present mandate provides wider
possibilities. “At present the EU lays emphasis on its participation
in the conflict settlement processes in the South Caucasus. We are also
working within the European Neighborhood Policy, some clauses of which
bear political nature,” he remarked. At the same time he underscored
that there are many ways for the EU engagement in the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict settlement but the EU is by no means going to change the
format of the talks. “The OSCE Minsk Group work well and France in
the person of Co-chair Fassier defends the EU’s interests,” Mr.
Semneby said. According to him, European structures can play
a decisive role in the establishment of peace in the region and
further integration.

PETER SEMNEBY: ARMENIA AND TURKEY EQUALLY IMPORTANT FOR EU
/PanARMENIAN.Net
05.04.2006 20:31 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The normalization of the Armenia-Turkey relations
is bound with the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, EU Envoy
for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby stated at a press conference
in Yerevan today. In his words, Europe is interested in the opening
of the Armenian-Turkish border. “Armenia and Turkey are equally
important for the European Union. We hold membership talks with Turkey;
Armenia participates in the European Neighborhood Policy. It’s not
good that these two states do not enjoy diplomatic relations.” The
EU Envoy also emphasized that Armenia’s economy and the development
of regional economic projects suffer from the closed borders.

EU: BAKU MADE HAZARDOUS STEP BY STATING READINESS FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT MILITARY RESOLUTION
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.04.2006 20:43 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Karabakh conflict has no military
resolution. Azerbaijani waged the war and lost it, this time the
story will repeat, Armenia Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated at
a joint press conference with EU Envoy for the South Caucasus Peter
Semneby. In his words, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be settled
peacefully. “If the Azerbaijani government demonstrates political
will the negotiation process can advance within next several months,”
he remarked.
For his part Peter Semneby noted that during his visit to Azerbaijan
he has many times said he “dislikes the statements on readiness for
a war.” “Any attempt to settle the problem by force is pregnant with
negative consequences for all the parties to conflict and for the
whole region,” the diplomat underscored.
Peter Semneby reiterated that Azerbaijan has made a hazardous step
by stating of the readiness to settle the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
by force. At the same time he noted that protraction of the conflict
will result in Armenia’s complete isolation what will impede the
economy development.
According to Vartan Oskanian, neither of the sides benefits from
the protraction of the process. The Minister considers that the
negotiations should be continued even after the failure of the
Rambouillet talks. “Everything depends on the outcomes of Azerbaijani
FM Elmar Mammadyarov’s visit to the U.S.
His meetings in the State Department will determine the date of
our meeting. Bit it’s premature to speak of the rendezvous of the
Presidents yet,” he said.