ACCORDING TO SPECIALIST, SALT-CELLAR FOUND IN 2005 DURING EXCAVATIONS OF HAYKADZOR NEEDS DETAILED STUDY
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
GYUMRI, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. During the 2005 excavations of Haykadzor,
one of suburbs of one-time Armenian capital Ani, a clay salt-cellar
made in the 14-15 the centuries was found under a huge ruined
rock. According to the specialist, the founded contains a secret
of a whole ritual and needs detailed study. This salt-cellar made
in the way of an expectant mother was kept from the joint corrosive
influence of salt and water. This salt-cellar had a small bowl in its
upper part. According to ethnographic evidences, salt-cellars were put
in tonratoons (the shed which houses a tonir used for baking bread),
at the fire. People acted in this way in the period of pre-Christian
times. Those were kept in the Christian times as well but were
hiden. As Larisa Yeganian, the head of the Shirak and Aragatsotn
Territorial Department of the Agency on Protecting Monuments, mentioned
there are pictures of people’s body on salt-cellars founded earlier
as well, but this salt-cellar is the first on which they are pictured
during a round dance. One of the figures is smaller compared with the
others, and “it is difficult to say if the figure was made smaller not
to cut the circle of the round dance, or they really ment a child,
as if it is on the upper part of bearing organ, it may be accepted
as a new-born.”
The dancers are pictured naked and have ring-shaped signs from their
back and overhead. According to Larisa Yeganian, those are not crowns
as the latters are characteristical only for icons. Larisa Yeganian
supposes that those rings may be horns. According to her, during the
bronze era there were hearths which were horseshoe-shaped by their
form, like a horn, and besides that, were ram-headed as well. Figures
pictured on the salt-cellar dance Armenian Gorani that is dedicated
to ancestors’ memory.

US DIPLOMAT EXPECTS GARABAGH AGREEMENT ‘IN COMING WEEKS’
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
May 18 2006
Baku, May 17, AssA-Irada
Washington believes Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents may sign a
peace agreement in the coming weeks to end the conflict over Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh, said Anne Derse, the nominated US ambassador
in Baku.
It is currently a crucial time for the negotiating process and
additional opportunities have emerged to resolve the dispute this year,
Russian ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the diplomat as saying.
Commenting on the possible use of military action to settle the
dispute, she said any use of force by either side at the moment could
have tragic ramifications.
The parties failed to agree upon the issues of principle during
the latest talks held by the two leaders in Rambouillet, France in
February, which was followed by Azerbaijan’s threats to resort to
military action.

HAYORDATS TUN OPENED IN ASHTARAK
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
ASHTARAK, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Hayordats Tun (Armenian-borns’ house)
acting under the patronage of the Armenian Apostolic Church was founded
in the city of Ashtarak, the marz center of Aragatsotn. This center
of religious, artistic and Armenian-type education of the younger
generation was founded on the initiative of Archimandarite Torgom
Tonikian, the primate of the Aragatsont diocese who is the spiritual
instructor of the Yerevan Hayordats school as well.
Pupils attending the Hayordats school, studying the centuries-old
history of the Armenian Church, at the same time become skilled
at different branches of art, enjoy pleasure of contact with
beautiful. The city art school passed under management of the Mother
See of Holy Etchmiadzin for the Hayordats school of Ashtarak. Programs
of fundamental restoration of the new educational institution are in
process at present.

ARMENIAN SPEAKER QUITS
By Rita Karapetian in Yerevan
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
May 18 2006
Resignation of parliamentary chairman may be a prelude to a bid for
the presidency.
A year before the next parliamentary election in Armenia, the speaker
of parliament has resigned, opening up a serious rift inside the
governing coalition.
Artur Baghdasarian made his shock announcement on May 12, declaring
at the same time that his Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) party was
going into opposition.
Orinats Yerkir was one of three pro-presidential parties that formed
the ruling coalition in 2003, along with the Republican Party of
Armenia and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (generally known as
Dashnaktsutiun). As the second largest party with 20 out of the 131
seats in parliament, Orinats Yerkir was awarded the post of speaker
and the ministries of town planning, education and science, as well
as culture and young people.
The coalition has been slowly breaking up, and prior to Baghdasarian’s
announcement, the three parties had already announced their intention
to run separately in next year’s parliamentary election.
Bagdasarian, 37, has indicated that he has ambitions for the next
presidential election, due in 2008. A lawyer by training, he speaks
good French and is identified with the policy of integrating Armenia
into European institutions, as well as with social justice for
the poor.
Tensions within the coalition reached crisis point in April when
Orinats Yerkir deputies voted against the government’s progress report
on its privatisation programme.
The party’s deputy leader Mher Shahgeldian told journalists that
Baghdasarian had informed the prosecutor general of specific cases
of abuse in the privatisation process.
In a later interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung on April 19, Baghdasarian said that if the next presidential
election involves the same level of fraud as the last one, “neither
domestic nor external forces will accept them”.
Baghdasarian also said that Armenia hoped to become part of NATO and
that Russia should not put obstacles in the way of that happening.
This provoked an irritated response from President Robert Kocharian,
who said, “Armenia does not intend to join NATO. Membership of the
[Commonwealth of Independent States] Collective Security Treaty and
the current high level of military technical cooperation with Russia
is sufficient to ensure the security of our country.”
Kocharian added that Armenia had no plans to aspire for European
Union membership, either.
The president said he met the parliamentary speaker every week, so that
“it was strange to learn what his point of view on this was from the
German press”.
However, Baghdasarian then reiterated his views in a speech to
parliament, saying that both he and his party supported stronger
relations with NATO and that they saw the country’s future within
the EU.
Baghdasarian’s coalition partners rejected his views, and said he
had no right to use parliament as a platform for them.
Kocharian’s press secretary Victor Soghomonian said the president was
convinced that the departure of Orinats Yerkir did not spell crisis
for the coalition.
“A change in the composition of the ruling coalition is a normal
event in any civilised country,” said Soghomonian. “Nothing unusual
has happened, particularly if you consider that there have been
differences of opinion inside the coalition and it’s only to be
expected that these would come to a head in the pre-election period,
as we have seen over the last month.”
Orinats Yerkir itself had already begun to split into pro- and
anti-government factions, so only nine members of its parliamentary
group followed their leader into opposition. That has allowed the
government to retain its parliamentary majority. Two of the ministers
holding posts awarded to the party are staying in their jobs.
Deputy speaker Tigran Torosian of the Republican Party is widely
expected to be elected as the new head of parliament.
David Petrosian, political commentator for the Noyan Tapan news agency,
thinks Baghdasarian has ambitions to become Armenia’s version of
Mikheil Saakashvili or Viktor Yushchenko – the leaders who emerged
from the Georgian and Ukrainian revolutions.
But his close association with the current regime makes that unlikely –
“People whose hands are clean don’t get involved in dirty business,”
remarked Petrosian.
Political analyst Stepan Grigorian said it was not yet clear how
Orinats Yerkir would position itself now.
“Time will tell whether Orinats Yerkir really becomse an opposition
party,” he said. “If it teams up with political forces that are really
in opposition to the authorities, then it is possible that there will
be a movement similar to those in Georgia and Ukraine.”
Veteran opposition leader Vazgen Manukian argues that the withdrawal
of Orinats Yerkir from government is a momentous event which shows
how the authorities both create and destroy political parties.
However, opposition deputy Shavarsh Kocharian speculated that the
apparent split was in reality coordinated with the authorities so as
to create a loyal “opposition” party.
Describing the ex-speaker as a politician driven by ambition, Kocharian
(no relation of the president) said, “It is obvious that in certain
circles in the West, there is a favourable view of Baghdasarian. But
if this trend is to last or strengthen, it will depend on whether
the people accept him.”
Rita Karapetian is a correspondent with Noyan Tapan news agency.

FRANCE POSTPONES CONTROVERSIAL ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
18 May 2006
Voice of America
May 18 2006
The French parliament has postponed a vote on a controversial bill
that would criminalize attempts to deny claims of an Armenian genocide
about 90 years ago in what is now Turkey.
Philippe Douste-Blazy Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told
lawmakers the government could not accept the bill, saying it would
offend the majority of the Turkish people. Lawmakers then put off
the issue until later this year.
Turkish officials had warned that adoption of the bill would cause
permanent damage to the relations between the two countries. Turkey
recalled its ambassador from France earlier this month amid the
rising tensions.
A number of countries, including France, have already officially
recognized the deaths of about 1.5 million Armenians as genocide. The
new Socialist Party-sponsored bill would go further and include a
prison sentence of up to five years and a $57,000 fine for those
denying that genocide took place.
Turkey acknowledges the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians,
but says they died in civil strife and a Russian-backed Armenian
uprising against Ottoman rule that killed at least as many Turks.

COLLECTION OF MATERIALS OF “BIBLICAL ARMENIA” FORUM PUBLISHED
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
ASHTARAK, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The collection of materials of the
“Biblical Armenia” forum taken place in 1999 in the Surb Mesrop
Mashtots Dpratun (scholars’ house) of Oshakan within the framework
of the 1700th anniversary of adopting the Christianity in Armenia,
was published recently. Publications found place in the voluminous
collection touch upon mentionings about Armenia in the Bible,
paculiarities of its Armenian translation, the huge influence of the
Holy Book on the Armenian Church, culture and public life. The book
was published by the decree of Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan, the primate
vicar of the Araratian Patriarchal Diocese and under the patronage
of RA Central Bank head Tigran Sargsian.

ISRAEL CHARNY SUGGESTS INCLUDING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN AN ISRAELI UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM
By Tamar Minasian
AZG Armenian Daily
18/05/2006
The third sitting of the Armenian Genocide experts’ group of the
World Armenian Congress with the participation of 21 members from 17
countries was held yesterday. The work of the experts group launched
after the meeting with foreign minister Vartan Oskanian in the morning
that was assessed very positively by WAC chairman Ara Abrahamian:
“This was the first time we had a very serious discussion on the
stance of the state and WAC in this issue.”
Head of the chair of Armenian Studies at the UCLA, Richard
Hovhannisian, said that at all previous meetings they tried to outline
the paths that would bring to international acknowledgement of the
Armenian Genocide as well as the steps that will follow recognition
and legal grounds for applying to international structures.
“I am one of those who are concerned over bringing the issue to
international courts,” Prof. Mihran Dabag of the Center for Armenian
Studies at the Bochum University, Germany, says. “The court means a
decision based on the materials provided by both sides, and in my view,
the historicity of the Genocide is over doubt and it is not up to the
courts to decide. For that reason we need to boost our fight against
denial standing firm on legal ground. My greatest wish is that our
focusing on Genocide’s recognition does not harm our future plans.”
Dr. Israel Charny from Israel suggests opening an Armenian chair
at one of the biggest Israeli universities and organize lectures on
the Genocide alongside with Holocaust classes and thus contribute to
Israeli state’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
It is planned to hold a large-scale conference on Armenian
Genocide in 2007 and invite representatives of the Armenian
government. Mr. Abrahamian suggested to hold 2 more sittings of the
WAC’s expert’s group to clarify their stances and the work ahead. The
range of questions is rather broad: when was the Armenian genocide
perpetrated, what was its continuation, what should be the steps
following Genocide recognition by foreign states, should we apply to
international courts or not, what are our demands from Turkey? Ara
Abrahamian said that there are 3-4 different answers to these questions
but they do not conflict with each other but rather supplement each
other. He said that they have agreed with the Foreign Affairs Ministry
to put forward their written proposals and views and begin joint work.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT ALLOCATES 598 MLN DRAMS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF VOSKEPAR-BAGHANIS ROAD SECTION
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. At the May 18 sitting, the Armenian
government made a decision to allocate 598 mln drams (about 1.3
mln USD) from the 2006 RA state budget-envisaged governmental
reserve fund to the RA Ministry of Transport and Communication for
construction of Voskepar-Baghanis section of Voskepar-Noyemberian
motorway of interstate significance. According to the RA Government
Information and PR Department, the Ministry of Transport and
Communication was allowed to choose a contractor organization by
means of tender negotiations. According to another decision, 110
mln drams was allocated to the State Water Industry Committee of
the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration to implement measures
on protection of the Arax River banks from spring floods in Janfida
and Ervandashat communities of Armavir marz, up to 68 mln drams was
allocated to the Ararat regional administration for repairs of the 1.2
km Dimitrov-Araxavan road section of Araxavan community, and 12 mln
drams – for providing a subsidy to Ayntap community of Ararat marz
in order to pay the community electricity debt for pumping ground
waters from two deep wells.

KUWAIT AMBASSADOR PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO KOCHARIAN
Armenpress
May 18 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS: The new ambassador of Kuwait to Armenia,
Majdi Ahmad Ebrahim al Dafiri (seated in Tehran, Iran) handed today
his credentials to president Robert Kocharian.
Kocharian’s press office said the president underlined the necessity
of expansion of cooperation with Arab countries emphasizing Kuwait’s
role in this context. While referring to bilateral relationships both
men stated there was a serious cooperation potential. They also agreed
to develop a legal framework to boost bilateral cooperation and hold
more exchange visits by businessmen.
The ambassador was said to give a detailed description of developments
in Kuwait and the Gulf region.

POST-SOVIET STATES, CHINA SET TO HOLD JOINT MILITARY EXERCISES
RIA Novosti
18/05/2006 15:03
MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti) – Two regional security organizations
comprising post-Soviet nations and China are planning joint military
exercises, the chief of Russia’s general staff said Thursday.
“We are currently discussing a joint exercise under the aegis of
the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organization],” Yury Baluyevsky said,
adding that the date of the exercise, which would also involve troops
from Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) nations, had yet
to be decided.
Baluyevsky said the exercises would practice joint counteraction
against terrorist threats.
The chiefs of the CSTO nations’ general staffs held a meeting in Moscow
Thursday to discuss ways to make the collective security system more
effective, including by improving control of the Collective Rapid
Reaction Force, which currently numbers 1,500 military personnel
deployed in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which comprises the former
Soviet republics in Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan – as well as Russia and China, was created in 2001 to
deal with security issues, including border conflicts, terrorism,
and militant Islam.
These countries, without China, also form the CSTO, which also
includes Belarus and Armenia. The CSTO is seen by some experts as a
counterbalance to NATO’s eastward expansion.
Unlike the CSTO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization does not have in
its charter a provision on collective defense of its member by others
in the event of an outside attack. It was created to counter attacks
by illegal armed groups if they cross the border of a member-country,
and its military activities are rather limited, although two of its
members, Russia and China, held major war games last fall.