RUSSIAN STATE DUMA MEMBER OFFERS TO FORM STRUCTURE SIMILAR TO ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.05.2006 13:26 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Former leader of Rodina (Fatherland) party, Russian
State Duma member Dmitry Rogozin offered to form in Russia a structure
similar to ARF Dashnaktsutyun, he stated in an interview with Russkaya
Liniya Internet edition. In Rogozin’s words, the success of the future
Russian patriotic movement will be conditioned by the experience
of “other persecuted nations”. “Let us take Dashnaktsutyun Party
as an example, whose name is translated as Armenian Revolutionary
Federation. It was the major anti-Turkish force already during the
Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. Armenians were
dispersed, but they had Dashnaktsutyun party, which had its branches
in different countries, the International Bureau. The center guided
various initiatives: political and women’s organizations, youth unions,
journalists’ associations. We should form a similar structure,” the
Russian MP said, reports the Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians
of Russia.

TURKISH AMBASSADORS TO FRANCE AND CANADA RETURN TO THEIR POSTS
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.05.2006 13:48 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Ambassadors to France and Canada Osman
Koruturk and Aydemir Erman, recalled to Ankara for a short term for
consultations, returned to their posts. “The return of Ambassador to
France Osman Koruturk after a few days of consultations in Ankara
is Ankara’s hint to Paris that it wants to mitigate the diplomatic
tension with France,” writes the Turkish Daily News.
At the same time well-known Turkish journalists Mehmet Ali Birand
believes that “each day Armenians advance more in their statements
over the Armenian Genocide.”
“The ring gradually tightens around Turkey and we only have an observer
status. We become gradually isolated and we do not take any measures
to influence the situation. We missed the train. From this moment on
we should take steps that are most important, most influential and
demand much political courage,” he emphasized.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ANNE DERSE: RETURN TO VIOLENCE IN KARABAKH ISSUE WOULD BE TRAGEDY
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.05.2006 15:05 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During her Senate confirmation hearing
today, Ambassador-designate Anne Derse reiterated U.S. policy
for a peaceful, mutually acceptable resolution to the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, stating that “a return to violence would be a
tragedy.” Ambassador-designate Anne Derse responded that if confirmed,
she will work toward expanding and strengthening U.S.-Azerbaijan
security cooperation and help promote democracy and governance. She
said a peaceful settlement to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is critical
to achieving this goal and expressed hope that President of Armenia
Robert Kocharian and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will work
together on this issue. She further stated that as Co-Chair of the
OSCE Minsk Group, the U.S. will also urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to
remain engaged in the process and demonstrate political courage. Derse
also expressed her commitment to work with both countries towards a
peaceful resolution, reports the Armenian Assembly of America.

ARMENIAN AND AZERI FMS TO MEET IN STRASBOURG
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.05.2006 15:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ May 18-19 Armenian and Azeri FMs will meet with OSCE
MG co-chairs in Strasbourg. In the words of Azeri FM Elmar Mammadyarov,
the co-chairs have new ideas on Karabakh settlement. “After discussions
at the meeting it will be clear whether talks between the Presidents
are necessary. There are some new, really interesting ideas that we
are working over, analyze, however some of these we cannot accept,”
he remarked. In his turn former acting President of Azerbaijan Yagub
Mammadov believe the meeting and attaining a specific practical peace
accord between Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev before the summer
depends on the decision that the Ministers will take first of all,
writes Ekho newspaper.

ABRAHAM RETAINED HIS TITLE
A1+
[12:46 pm] 15 May, 2006
Middleweight professional Armenian boxer Arthur Abraham (20-0, 17
KOs) representing Germany celebrated another win in the professional
ring retaining his title of IBF World Champion. In the fight against
Kofi Jantuah (30-2, 19 KOs) from Ghana at the Stadthalle in Zwickau,
Germany Arthur celebrating a convincing win.
Scores of the last three rounds were 115-112, 116-111, 117-109.
By the way, Referee Robert Byrd took a point from Abraham by mistake
at the end of the seventh for a punch that clearly landed on Jantuah’s
ear, not behind the head.
This was the second time this year that Arthur Abraham retained his
title. Let us remind you that on Marc 4 Arthur beat Shannon Taylor.

AZERBAIJAN HAS GOT THE RIGHT TO ASSESS DEMOCRACY IN ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
12.05.2006 GMT+04:00
International remedial organizations suppose that the membership
of Azerbaijan in the UN Human Rights Council is discrediting for
that organ.
The UN Human Rights Council consisting of 47 states was formed by the
results of three-round elections held in New York. As it is known,
Armenia was among those 18 states, which did not collect enough
scores, whereas Azerbaijan was elected, though with difficulty. This
means that from now on Baku leaders will have the right to evaluate
democracy level in countries where things with human rights are much
better than in Azerbaijan itself.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan did not pass in the first round. In
the second round 103 states out of 198 voted for that country. Thus,
Azerbaijan received three votes more than the required minimum. Armenia
lacked just a few votes. According to the ballot, held after the
end of elections, Azerbaijan will be present in the Council for 3
years whereas other countries, like Poland or the Check Republic –
for only a year. Did Armenia lose much failing in the elections
and not getting in the Human Rights Council? It is worth mentioning
that the UN Council for Human Rights has inherited almost all of the
authority, which the Geneva Commission for Human Rights had before
being liquidated on June 16, 2005 at the insistence of the United
States and other Western countries. The main complaint against the
Commission consisted in the fact that its member countries where
far away from democracy. The “cosmetic” reform, which simply changed
the name of the organ, did not however solve the main problem. And
now, countries that have a very vague idea about human rights, will
watch for the protection of human rights in the whole world. The
newly created council will regularly analyze human rights reports in
certain countries and present its summary to the UN Security Council.
Armenia has twice been elected to the Human Rights Commission. It is
noteworthy that membership in the commission allowed to use certain
diplomatic mechanisms which sometimes were very useful. Countries
against which the world community has claims concerning human rights
protection, had to show special attention to Armenia in order to win
our support. Very often that support turned to be useful to such great
powers as China and Russia. Yerevan in its turn enjoyed Moscow’s and
Beijing’s favors. In this sense membership in the commission was really
very important. However the fact that this time Armenia was not elected
to the reformed UN organ is not a tragedy at all. Moreover, Yerevan was
actually ready for possible undesirable results. Finally, it would be
really unfair if Armenia was included in the organ three times in a row
especially because from now on elections are held by the principle of
regional representation. In the Western European region there are many
countries, which have never been in the Commission. Everything would
be normal if not the news about Azerbaijan’s election to the Council…
The membership of Azerbaijan in the Human Rights Council is of course
undesirable for Armenia. Though decisions of that organ are not
obligatory, the very fact that Azerbaijan will be assessing state of
affairs in Armenia is annoying. It is quite clear that Azerbaijan will
not be objective. But in this case more important is the question –
do Baku leaders have the moral right to evaluate democracy in other
countries when in Azerbaijan the situation with human rights is just
deplorable? International remedial organizations give an unambiguously
negative answer.
Yet before voting the respectable international “Human Rights Watch”
organization published the list of countries whose membership in the
Council was fully inadmissible. In that list Azerbaijan was the first
not only because of the alphabetic order. Azerbaijan is followed by
China, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Armenia is of
course not included in the list. Thought the leaders of “Human Rights
Watch” do not think that in our country things with democracy are
ideal, they saw Armenia as a member state of the Human Rights Council.
Displeasure with election results has been expressed also
by another influential remedial organization, called “Amnesty
International”. Leaders of this organization underlined that among
member states of the Council there are those where the situation of
human rights is simply catastrophic. Leaders of Moscow Helsinki group
announced that in the current composition the Council loses its sense
since it is initially discredited by the membership of Russia, China,
Azerbaijan and Pakistan. The United States are also indignant at the
election results and have even refused to support the Council since the
mechanism of its formation has allowed involvement of such countries
like Azerbaijan. At the same time, the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan Elmira
Suleymanova dares to say that election of Azerbaijan to the Council
is the appreciation of high level of democracy in Azerbaijan by the
UN. Can we call this anything else but complete nonsense?
“PanARMENIAN.Net” analytical department

“EUROVISION” BECAME REASON FOR ANGER
A1+
[12:09 pm] 15 May, 2006
The website has been created to support
Andre, the representative of Armenia in the music competition
“Eurovision-2006”. Let us remind you that the previous website of
Andre was subjected to the attack of Azeri hackers.
The website will make it possible to get acquainted with the activity
of the singer and with the materials concerning the competition,
as well as to vote for Andre.
In the meantime, problems have arisen in Greece where Andre represented
his song.
“A1+” received a letter from the Greek information agency “Hayastan”
which on behalf of part of the Armenian community living in
Greece complains of the activity of Vahram Kazhoyan, RA Ambassador
extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Greece. According to the agency,
“because of him the Armenians in Greece live in a tense atmosphere.”
The letter explains that the reason of the tense atmosphere is
that with the support of Ambassador Kazhoyan Andre participates
only in events held for the members of the Dashnaktsutyun (Armenian
Revolutionary Federation) party.
“The singer is practically isolated from the local Armenian community
and all its cultural and educational centers with the exception of
those which operate under the sponsorship of the Dashnaktsutyun,”
the letter says. “The two cases which caused much indignation were
the following. On May 14 the Armenian Embassy organized a concert for
the Armenian community with the participation of Andre and a number of
singers from Armenia at which only the members of the Dashnaktsutyun
party were allowed to be present. The second case was that Andre did
not visit the ‘Galpaqyan’ college of the AGBU, whereas he visited the
schools operating under the sponsorship of the Dashnaktsutyun party.”
According to several sources the staff of the Armenian Embassy in
Greece is also displeased with the attitude of Ambassador Kazhoyan
which causes problems in the Armenian community.

A-320 RECORD BOXES WILL BE RAISED TOMORROW
A1+
[02:53 pm] 15 May, 2006
The works of raising the record boxes of the Armenian plane A-320
will start tomorrow, on May 16. Today the whole equipment necessary
for the work is being prepared in Sochi. The process will last about
2-3 days. The rest will depend on the weather conditions.
It is presumed that the record boxes are 496 meters deep under the
water, five meters far from each other.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NO ARMENIANS THIS TIME
A1+
[03:30 pm] 15 May, 2006
For the last few years human trafficking has been developing
in Sweden. This time fortunately there are not Armenian
victims. Journalist Stephen Lisinski who highlights juridical issues
informed the correspondent of “A1+” in Kalmar that during his yearlong
activity he has not come across crimes connected with Armenians.
His last investigations were connected with the murder of Anna Link,
the Swedish Foreign Minister and the disappearance of 104 Chinese
children. “These children were victims of trafficking. They arrived
in Sweden from Beijing, with false passports. This is organized crime
and the organizers took into account the fact the in contrast to
other European countries Sweden has a more relaxed attitude towards
teenagers. They are not locked, and if they have a Schengen visa,
they can travel freely.”
Two Chinese citizens of Sweden have been arrested with the accusation
of selling the children, but only seven of the 104 children have been
found by now. Stephen Lisinski is convinced that the children have
either been forced to engage in prostitution or killed in order to
sell their organs. He did not give further details as the preliminary
investigation is still under way and the facts cannot be considered
official.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BILL ON SUPPORT TO SOUTH CAUCASUS STATES INTRODUCED BEFORE US SENATE
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.05.2006 14:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A bill on support to states of the South Caucasus and
Central Asia for ensuring US national security interests, containing
Russia’s geopolitical ambition, as well as creation and support to a
network of US military bases is introduced before the US Senate. Bill
co-sponsor, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) stated that US vital interests
in the Caspian region include ensuring independence and security of
Azerbaijan and Georgia. Extremely important pipelines of oil and gas
transit pass through those countries.
US also has to restrain Iran, provide access to oil and gas reserves,
secure good relations with Kazakhstan, promote peaceful settlement
of conflict and contain Russia’s geopolitical ambition,” Brownback
believes. The bill concerns Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Armenia,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress