THE BODY OF THE RF CITIZEN WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO ARMENIA
A1+
[02:52 pm] 11 May, 2006
IN THE GOVERNMENT SESSION
In order to render state assistance to the RF citizen Seyran Hakobyan’s
funeral who was killed during the crash of the “A – 320” airplane and
in accordance with the RA law “on the RA budget system” the Government
decided to allocate 1 million 500 thousand AMD from the reserve fund
to the RA Ministry of Social Welfare for the funeral and gravestone
expenditure. Minister of Social Welfare Seiran Hakobyan is allowed
to give the above mentioned money to the people realizing the funeral
on hand.
ASSISTANCE TO THE UNIONS OF THE BLIND
The executive body decided to render financial assistance to the unions
of the NGO “Armenian Union of the Blind” in accord with the RA law
“on the RA budget system.” According to their decision the VAT and
obligatory social insurance payments of at least 50 % of the above
mentioned union members will be compensated.
The RA Government allocated to the Ministry of Social Welfare more than
62 million 772 thousand AMD from the 2006 reserve fund on this score.
BOTH INCOME AND EXPENDITURE INCREASED
The Government decided to add the income and expenditure sum by 856
million 781.1 thousand AMD in accord with the RA law on “RA 2006
state budget.”
There were amendments in the RA law on “RA 2005 state budget” in
this connection.
RUSSIAN BORDER-GUARDS WILL BE FINANCED FOR THEIR WORK
The Government decided to allocate 3 million 587 thousand and 982 AMD
to the RA Ministry of Defense to compensate the expenses of the RF
border-guards for their services and the military intergovernmental
transportation realized in the territory of the RA.

IS IT TIME TO HAVE A NEW ARCHITECT?
A1+
[04:36 pm] 11 May, 2006
Three architects sat side by side in the club “Mirror” and criticized
the “bustle” of the capital’s construction works. The two former chief
architects of the capital and the recent one were among them. All
of them confessed that 6 years ago the capital wasn’t ready for the
constructive works, that’s why they couldn’t avoid mistakes.
One of the participants was the chairman of the architects’ union
Mkrtich Minasyan who opposed others.
The other was the head of the Yerevan project institute Gurgen
Musheghyan. The latter mainly supported his counterpart, the chief
of the municipality architecture and urban development department
and the chief architect of Yerevan Samvel Danielyan. Mkrtich Minasyan
claimed that the sore point of the capital is not the ugliness resulted
by the construction works. “The point is that we were to preserve
certain normative claims which existed earlier,” he urged. Asked the
question whether he liked the view of the capital from the heaven,
he answered negatively. We tried to find out whether he liked the
Yerevan of his period. “It wasn’t that good either,” said the chairman
of the architects’ union.
He also focused on the fact that constructors break “the red line;”
they want to use public territories as commercial objects. Architect
Musheghyan brought the example of Hrazdan gorge where multiple
entertainment objects were built and according to his words the
visibility of the gorge became obscure.
Samvel Danielyan also confessed that the gorge is a serious
environmental problem for the RA capital as the country doesn’t have
seas and lakes and claimed that all the new objects legalized their
buildings through the court system. As a proper way to avoid further
wilderness he suggested making the roofs of the buildings green.
The most interesting point was the chief architect’s contemplation over
his actions when he claimed that they were immature and unprepared
during the constructions of Northern Avenue and they will not repeat
their mistakes later on as they have already become mature and learned
a lot of new things.

TWO POSSIBLE REASONS OF THE AIR CRASH EXCLUDED
ArmRadio.am
11.05.2006 16:10
“Inquiry Group of RA General Prosecutor’s Office, investigating
the criminal case launched on the fact of the crash of the Armenian
A-320 plane, has excluded two versions of the disaster – terrorism
and shortage of fuel,” Head of the Public Relations Office of General
Prosecutor’s Office Gurgen Ambaryan told RIA “Novosti.”
According to him, RA General Prosecutor’s Office continues
investigation of the criminal case, launched according to Part 3 of
the Article 241 of RA Criminal Code. Ambaryan noted he will provide
more detailed information after the end of the investigation.

ROBERT KOCHARYAN WISHED SUCCESS TO CREWMEMBERS OF “KILIKIA”
ArmRadio.am
11.05.2006 15:31
President Robert Kocharyan received today members of crew of the
“Kilikia” sailing ship, who are leaving for London on May 14 to prepare
“Kilikia,” resting at the shores of South England, for the last stage
of the navigation.
Robert Kocharyan wished successful journey and homecoming to seafarers,
saying that he anticipates cautiousness and will on the part of them.
The crewmembers assured that the experience achieved during the
previous sailings will suffice for securing successful navigation.
Robert Kocharyan told the “Kilikians” that the negotiations with
foreign specialized companies over construction of a quay in Lake
Sevan are under way.
The crewmembers spoke with the President about the prospects of
development of sailing sports in Armenia and promised to provide
their assistance.

TO EXTRACT BLACK BOXES OF THE CRASHED A-320 ROBOTS WILL BE BROUGHT FROM ANY SITE OF THE WORLD
ArmRadio.am
11.05.2006 15:55
The rescuers will decide the type of robot that is necessary to
extract the black boxes of the crashed A-320 plane.
“The second stage of the search works includes determination of
the type of robot-manipulator necessary to extract the fragments of
the sunk ship,” said Alexander Davidenko, Head of the Sea and River
Transport Agency of the RF Ministry of Transport, coordinator of the
extraction works of the crashed airplane.
Davidenko assured that the robot-manipulator will be brought from
any site of the world.

IN YEREVAN THEY DEMOLISH WITHOUT ANY PLAN
Lragir.am
11 May 06
Samvel Danielyan, the architect of Yerevan, reports cases when a
building in the center of Yerevan is pulled down without envisioning
what to build in its place. Such as, for instance, the Sevan Hotel and
the House of Cinematography. There are no fixed projects yet, but there
are proposals, assures Samvel Danielyan. An investor proposes to build
a multifunction high-rise in the place of the House of Cinematography
which will be located on the 3rd and 4th floors of the building. “The
present facilities of the House of Cinematography no longer satisfy
modern requirements. Studios and the administration will be based
on these two floors,” informed the architect of Yerevan. The rest
will be rent as office space. “Although this project was approved by
Yerevan City Planning Board last year, there is an important question,
which makes us delay a final decision on this project. This problem
allows the City Hall not to accept the project with regard to the
height of the building and parking facilities. I have no doubt that
it has a city planning accent. The central avenue of Yerevan starts
from the high-rise of the Central Post Office on Saryan Street and
does not have an accentuated ending.
Debates on building a high-rise to mark the end of the avenue somewhere
near the House of Cinematography were going on.”
It has been foreseen to build another multifunction building in the
place of the Sevan Hotel. Samvel Danielyan says the project was put
out to tender. The project of a designer was chosen, which “resembles
the former Sevan Hotel with its volume and space, floors, tower, but
in terms of architecture the projects needs further elaboration. They
were offered to review the project. I think there is not going to be
a skyscraper there,” announced Samvel Danielyan.

HRANT DINK AWARDED HENRI NANNEN PRIZE FOR PROMOTING PRESS FREEDOM
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.05.2006 12:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Hrant Dink, editor of the Armenian-language weekly
Agos published in Turkey, is awarded Henri Nannen Prize for promotion
of press freedom and courage. Gruner+Jahr German edition and Stern
Weekly sponsor the award. “He gives his vote to his people” was the
slogan. Hrant Dink is awarded the prize for “breaking the wall of
silence and fear in Turkey, behind which Turkish Armenians live.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH PRESS 11 MAY 06
BBC Monitoring
11 May 06
Armenian genocide issue
Posta (tabloid) “With every passing day, the Armenians are adding
new moves to their actions over the genocide claims The noose around
our country is tightening and we are just watching We are gradually
becoming isolated and still we are not taking any steps to influence
events We have missed the train. From now we must take steps which
are much more significant, much more influential, and require much
more political courage.” (Commentary by Mehmet Ali Birand)
Hurriyet (centre-right) “How can French people explain away the dirty
events in their own recent past? When it is about them, they consider
it reasonable to ‘leave history to the historians’, but when the
target is Turkey, they do not hesitate to apply contradictory double
standards and declare: ‘Saying there was no genocide of Armenians is a
crime requiring a five-year sentence.’ Moreover, they ignore the fact
that what they are doing is totally against ‘freedom of expression’,
the mother of all liberties.” (Commentary by Oktay Eksi)
Milliyet (centrist) “We can see what ‘genocide’ means from what Hitler
did to the Jews. The comparison that France wants to establish now
is unfair and an assault against Turkey.” (Commentary by Derya Sazak)
“Humiliating Turkishness Armenian genocide France It is not easy
for concepts to establish themselves properly in Turkey or France
Unfortunately it takes time to learn the lessons of democracy.”
(Commentary by Hasan Cemal)
Radikal (centre-left) “There must be people in Ankara who really have
the knowledge, the conscience and virtue to see there is no end to
this issue. Sooner or later we need to find another way to deal with
the Armenian issue.” (Commentary by Murat Yetkin)
Zaman (moderate, pro-Islamic) “Such a ban [on Armenian genocide
denial in France] tramples on one of the most fundamental principles
of liberal democracy which the EU and the European Council want to
prevail in all their members. There is no doubt that criminalizing
‘saying there was no Armenian genocide’ violates freedom of
expression just as much as describing ‘saying genocide has been
inflicted on the Ottoman Armenians’ in Turkey as a crime of ‘assault
on Turkishness’.” (Commentary by Sahin Alpay)
Kurdish issue
Yeni Safak (liberal, pro-Islamic) “US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice has not promised Turkey anything about the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’
Party] issue, nor will she. But she did feel able to guarantee Jalal
Talabani [president of Iraq and an ethnic Kurd] that they will not
allow Turkey to mount a cross-border operation. Even if nothing else
happens, does this not confirm the US-PKK relationship?”
(Commentary by Ibrahim Karagul)

TURKEY PULLS OUT FROM MILITARY EXERCISE IN CANADA TO PROTEST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STATEMENT
Benjamin Harvey
AP Worldstream
May 11, 2006
Turkey pulled out of a military exercise in Canada, a Foreign Ministry
official said Thursday, further expressing Turkey’s displeasure with
its NATO ally for saying Turks committed genocide against Armenians
during World War I.
The refusal to send Turkish F-16s and officers comes in a week of
tense diplomacy for the Turks, who recalled ambassadors to both France
and Canada in protest against recent statements on the killings of
Armenians in those countries.
Turkey vehemently denies that a genocide took place, and has made it
government policy to fight such allegations.
The Foreign Ministry official spoke on condition of anonymity, in
keeping with government rules. He said the military exercise in Canada
was not a NATO exercise, but was open to other allied countries and
that Turkey had planned to send six or seven F-16s and pilots.
An earlier statement from the Foreign Ministry criticized Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper for saying he stood by the Canadian
parliament when it voted to recognize that Armenians were victims of
a genocide. The Turkish statement said a freeze in Turkish-Canadian
relations was evidence of Canada’s unhelpful stance on the issue.
The decision to pull out of the military exercise was “to tell them
we are upset about their attitude, about their policies,” the Foreign
Ministry official said.

TURKEY SHOULD BE CALLED ON THE MAT, CANADIAN NEWSPAPER WRITES
ArmRadio.am
11.05.2006 17:09
“Turkey should be called on the mat,” writes the Canadian “Globe and
Mail” electronic newspaper.
According to the source, the faint attempts of Turkish authorities
to tear the diplomatic relations with Canada because of Stephan
Harper’s bold statements about the Armenian Genocide speak about the
self-destroying nature of the Republic of Turkey.
“Such activity does not correspond to European norms, morally stable
countries should not demonstrate tolerance towards the actions of
Turkish authorities,” the newspaper writes.
To remind, Turkish Ambassadors to France and Canada Osman Koruturk and
Aydemir Erman have been temporarily recalled for holding consultations
on the probable adoption of the law penalizing Armenian Genocide
deniers by the French Parliament. The Ambassador of Turkey to Canada
was recalled, since Canada intends to recognize the 1915 events
as genocide.