TAIQUANDO TEAM OF ARMENIA TO PARTICIPATE IN THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 11:25
Taiquando team of Armenia will participate in the European Championship
to be held May 26-28 in Bonn, Germany. The Armenian team will comprise
Suren Sargisov (58kg), Arkadi Hakobyan (62kg), Levon Pashabezyan
(67kg) and Arman Yeremayan.
The trainer of the Armenian Taiquando team is Varuzhan Arshakyan.

THE RUSSIAN SIDE WORKS VERY WELL, RA AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA CONSIDERS
ArmRadio.am
22.05.2006 15:22
The recent pessimistic statements from Russia about the search for
the black boxes of the crashed A-320 create the impression that there
isn’t the earlier interest in finding the recorders of the plane and
revealing the real reasons of the disaster. The opinion is not shared
by RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Russia Armen
Smbatyan, who said in his interview to ” Radiolur” correspondent Zara
Sargsyan, “The Russian side is working very well. They apply every
effort to extract the black boxes. I’m sure that at least one of the
boxes will be lifted.”
Commander in Chief of the Air Forces of Russia Vladimir Mikhailov
declared on May 16 that the Armenian A-320 crashed because the pilots
did not consider the weather conditions.
In his words, the captain of the plane took a completely correct
decision to return to Yerevan.
“They had to return,” Vladimir Mikhailov said.
He declared also that the expenses for extracting the black boxes of
the crashed plane are not justified.
It has been a week already that we know only the scarce information
that the recorders lie 496 meters deep in the water and the distance
between the black boxes is five meters.
According to the data provided by the operative staff, RT-1000 robot
was applied, which came across “fragments resembling those of the
black boxes of the crashed A-320.” Some fragments are suck into mud,
which slows down the search works. The search works are hindered also
because of weather conditions.
Besides, the devise cannot operate long under water. The specialists
have to extract the devise from the water to clear the camera and
the searchlights of mud.
It is not known how long the search works will last. 17 days have
passed since the disaster. In 13 more days it will be useless to
speak about the extraction of the black boxes and decoding of the
information, since in a month the radio beacons stop to produce
signals.

CITIZENS “ELECT” NA PRESIDENT
A1+
[06:38 pm] 22 May, 2006
The RA NA was deprived on its President today. The day of the election
of a new President is not known yet.
Neither are the candidates for the post known.
According to the Parliament regulations the deputies are to elect a
President. And whom do the citizens of the country prefer? We tried
to find out the answer to this question through a poll.
535 citizens participated in the poll. The majority (15%) voted
for leader of the National Unity Artashes Geghamyan. Present deputy
President of the NA Vahan Hovhannisyan received 12% of the votes. Head
of the United Labor Party faction Gourgen Arsenyan received 10%
of the votes.
The rest of the votes were distributed as follows: head of the Justice
bloc Stepan Demirchyan – 9%, NA deputy President Tigran Torosyan –
8%, Arthur Baghdasaryan – 5% and head of the group People’s Deputy
Karen Karapetyan 0 2%.
17% of the participants of the poll prefers a candidate different
from those mentioned, and 22% preferred to answer “None of them”.

IS THERE A COALITION CRISIS?
Lragir.am
23 May 06
In his speech on his resignation Arthur Baghdasaryan dwelled on a
number of questions. The following are extracts from this speech.
“We follow the path to Armenia of our dreams. We find that democratic
reforms must be promoted more determinedly, that protection of
human rights, battle against corruption and clannish economy should
be declared a political priority, a political struggle against
protectionism, the vicious “one hand washes the other” approach should
be launched.”
“We believe that the future of Armenia must be democracy and freedom,
not a society of fear.”
“We believe that it is wrong to build two Armenias: Yerevan and
the regions.”
“We find that the consistent promotion of relations with the EU must
become a political goal, that Euro-Atlantic partnership is an important
and correct approach, and that we must promote U.S.-Armenian political
and economic cooperation. We are not supposed to become an indicator
of Russian-American relations. We have two ways: either to join the
Russia-Belarus union and get on well with the EU, or to join the EU
and have good relations with Russia. We endorse the second.”
“We are going to criticize fundamentally every shortcoming, every
wrong step, it does not matter who will take it, the president,
the government, any political force and organization. Government or
opposition, it does not matter. If you do a good thing, we will be
beside you, if you do a good thing for the homeland, we will support
and back you.”

TATUL MANASERYAN SAYS AVIATION IS UNSATISFACTORY
Lragir.am
23 May 06
Member of Parliament Tatul Manaseryan, Ardarutiun Alliance, has piled
up reference material, proving that the state of aviation in Armenia
is below satisfactory.
According to Tatul Manaseryan, in Armavia “the money passengers pay
for the luggage is appropriated by marking a lower weight of luggage
in statements, manpower “massacres” continue: thousands of workers
were fired, including 3000 qualifies pilots, the social problems of
the fired personnel were not solved. The parity of flights was not
observed, 67 percent of flights are foreign companies, 33 percent the
Armenian party, which are owned by a foreigner as well, so Armavia does
not pay profit tax to the state budget of Armenia. 67 percent of shares
of Armavia, which is considered Armenian party, belong to S7 Airlines,
33 percent is owned by a citizen of another country. Consequently,
Armavia does not have a legal relation with Armenia.”
After presenting this series of shortcomings and gaps, the member of
parliament stated, “The citizens of Armenia as well as the Armenian
companies cannot carry out flights, in addition, the government of
Armenia cannot control the civil aviation.” And finally a conclusion
that is not less painful. “The profit from the flights of Armavia and
the other companies flow out of the country, undermining the economy
and the budget of Armenia, the national money, and the national and
economic security generally.”
“The exclusive role of the Armenian aviation may never become reality
unless it gets rid of the harmful developments and negative tendencies
existing in this sphere since the declaration of independence,”
alarms Tatul Manaseryan.

PARLIAMENT MAY NOT ELECT SPEAKER
Lragir.am
23 May 06
The Constitution provides for definite terms for election or
appointment of president or prime minister and government in case of
resignation, while there is not a similar provision for the speaker
of the National Assembly.
Hence, the National Assembly may not have a speaker till the end of
its term. This is not a purely theoretical suggestion, considering
that the majority tandem, the Republican Party and the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation together have 60 members of parliament. On
the other hand, we still remember the recent election of ombudsman,
when the coalition, which had three parties then, failed to elect an
ombudsman in the first round.
The former speaker may hand the powers of the speaker over to one
of the deputy speakers until the election of a new speaker. On the
other hand, the government must do everything to have the chair of
the speaker occupied as soon as possible. Because it is difficult
to bring the button-pushers to the hall of the National Assembly and
keep them there long. Besides, with autumn coming up, the members of
parliament are going to be busy preparing for the next election.

“YELLOW BIRD” APACHE DANCE GROUP TO GIVE CONCERTS IN ARMENIA
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 12:03
At the invitation of the US Embassy in Armenia, “Yellow bird” Apache
dance group will arrive in Armenia. The group will give concerts in
Ararat (May 26), Yerevan (May 27) and Gyumri (May 29).
The “Yellow bird” dance group has the fame of carrier of ancient
cultural traditions. They present the culture and art of American
settlers to contemporary and future generations.

ONE OF THE BLACK BOXES OF THE CRASHED A-320 EXTRACTED FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 12:24
The search for the second black box of the crashed A-320 has been
temporarily suspended because of bad weather conditions.
“Because of the strong wind in the evening the decision was taken
to stop the deepwater works, and up until now the robot has not been
lowered into the bottom of the sea,” the operative staff of technical
assistance informed.
Yesterday the specialists managed to lift one of the black boxes from
the depth of 496 meters. The commission investigating the crash of
the A-320 hopes to hear the voices of the pilots soon.
The exact location of the second recorder box is known. The second
box recorded the parameters of the flight: the height, the speed and
the angle degree for certain periods of time. It is no less important
than the other recorder lifted.
Specialists say the decoding of the black box will take 10-14 days.

DISCUSSION OF THE “LAW AND THEORY OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENCE” MANUAL TO BE HELD AT RA COURT OF APPEAL
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 12:35
On may 24 the presentation and discussion of the “Law and Theory of
Judicial Precedence” manual will be held at RA Court of Appeal.
The manual aims at introducing Armenian Judges to the major legal
principles, which lie in the basis of the legal systems in the United
States, United Kingdom and Continental Europe.
International experts from the US, Great Britain and representatives
of court system will participate in the discussion.

CENTRALIZATION OF PROPERTY A PROBLEM FOR THE BANKING SYSTEM OF ARMENIA
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 13:45
“Implementation of corporative governance will make the activity
of Armenian banks more transparent and effective,” declared Vache
Gabrielyan, member of the Board of Trustees of the Central Bank
of Armenia.
Speaking at the seminar titled “The corporative governance of the
Armenian banking system.” Vache Gabrielyan said there are no strict
terms of shifting to the corporative governance system. However,
starting July 1, 2006 some new norms will come into force, which
will allow to gradually implement the corporative governance
system. Mr. Gabrielyan noted that the banking system of Armenia is
adjusted to the implementation of corporative governance.
Expert of corporative governance of the International Financial
Corporation Panos Labrapolus noted that one of the problems the
Armenian banking system faces is the extreme centralization of
property. He referred to the results of the survey among 15 banks,
according to which only two of the banks have over 20 shareholders. The
survey revealed also that only two of the banks intend to place their
shares at the stock market. According to Panos Labrapolus’s assessment,
this is not a bad index at the current stage of development of the
banking system.