ARMENIAN SPEAKER READY TO SEND IN HIS RESIGNATION?
Regnum, Russia
May 11 2006
“It will be correct, if Artur Bagdassaryan (Speaker of the Armenian
Parliament, leader of the Orinats Yerkir Party – REGNUM) resigns,
and the party leaves the coalition,” Secretary of the Orinats Yerkir
faction Egine Bisharyan has told the press on Thursday.
According to her, members of the party and Bagdassaryan agree to this
position. At the same time, she noted that the party was prepared for
action, and no matter, whether the political force is represented
in the parliament by 13, 7 or 3 MPs, it will act in an efficient
and coordinated way. According to Bisharyan, leaving the party by
MPs-businessmen was a political action taken “from above.”
It is worth mentioning that for the recent five days five
MPs-businessmen left the Orinats Yerkir faction.

A FAMILY DYNASTY AT COLDWELL BANKER IN PASADENA
By Katina Dunn
Arcadia Weekly, CA
May 11 2006
Mabel Agojian Besides being a realtor and mom, Agojian is also a
new grandmother, or Medz Mama – which means Big Mama in the Armenian
language.
For Mother’s Day this weekend, Agojian will wait and hear what deal
her children have in mind for her. “I am expecting my kids to come
up with a great proposal,” she said.
It is the dream of many mothers to work alongside their children,
and Mabel Agojian is one lucky mom to work with her two. All three
are realtors in the same Coldwell Banker office. “It was so different
when we were home and I was the boss and they were the kids,” said
Agojian. “Now I have to accept that we are equals. I’ve learned if
parents work with their kids, the parents just have to listen to them
more,” she said.
“It’s a big switch,” said Agojian.
When her children were little they watched her work on the telephone
and make deals and became inspired. “I think they admired the
business,” she said. Her own mother, Angele, taught her to “never
give up” which she says is valuable advice for selling real estate,
and a message she imparts to her own kids. “Her name means angel and my
mother was really an angel. Everybody’s mother is their angel, right?”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BAGHDASARIAN POISED TO RESIGN, QUIT ARMENIAN COALITION
By Ruzanna Khachatrian and Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 11 2006
Artur Baghdasarian signaled on Thursday his intention to resign as
speaker of Armenia’s parliament and pull his Orinats Yerkir party out
of the governing coalition as its parliamentary faction continued to
shrink under apparent government pressure.
Three more wealthy lawmakers defected from Orinats Yerkir late
Wednesday and early Thursday, reducing to 11 the number of parliament
seats controlled by Baghdasarian. His party had 20 seats as recently
as last month, boasting the second largest faction in the 131-member
National Assembly.
The wave of defections, which began last week, is reportedly part
of President Robert Kocharian’s efforts to force Orinats Yerkir out
of the ruling coalition. Government sources have said Kocharian has
lost patience with its 37-year-old leader’s regular and embarrassing
attacks on his cabinet.
According to Heghine Bisharian, a senior Orinats Yerkir lawmaker
who remains loyal to Baghdasarian, the party’s continued presence in
government is becoming meaningless in such circumstances. “I personally
am in favor of his resignation and our departure from the coalition,”
she told a news conference.
“The entire Orinats Yerkir Party is of the same opinion,” said
Bisharian. Asked whether Baghdasarian shares that opinion, she replied:
“I think he will.”
Baghdasarian, who has been seen in the past as one of Kocharian’s
possible handpicked successors, has declined to publicly comment on
the situation.
Bisharian found it “a bit too early to speculate” about the possibility
of Orinats Yerkir joining the opposition ranks but made no secret of
its critical assessment of the state of affairs in Armenia. “Go to
the regions, enter villages and look at their plight.
You’ll see whether the [government] policies of the last 10-15 years
have changed anything in our life,” she said, echoing statements
regularly made by opposition leaders.
Bisharian also downplayed the damage inflicted on her party by the
defections. “Orinats Yerkir has more than 62,000 members and I think
the departure of a dozen of them won’t make any difference for the
party,” she claimed.
All of the defectors are wealthy businessmen with close government
connections, a necessary condition for engaging in large-scale
economic activity in Armenia. Yet another Orinats Yerkir deputy,
Tigran Yeganian, was expected to follow their example later on
Thursday. Yeganian, 28, is the youngest member of the National
Assembly. His father is the owner of a big and expensive restaurant
near Yerevan which is popular with senior government officials.
Bisharian stopped short of explicitly blaming the defections on
Kocharian. But she did deplore the strong dependence of Armenian
businessmen on the government. “Regardless of whether a businessman
is a member of Orinats Yerkir, a Republican or a Dashnak, they are
facing this danger [of losing their assets],” she said. “This could
happen to any political force and businessman.”
(Photolur photo: Oritanst Yerkir deputies attending a parliament
session.)

TEACHERS’ TRAINING CENTER OPENS IN GAVAR
Noyan Tapan
May 11 2006
GAVAR, MAY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. The teachers’ training center opened
in Gavar.
It will give possibility to teachers of the marz of Gegharkunik not
having passed training courses for more than ten years to improve their
pedagogical skills and deepen professional knowledge. Specialists of
the center will regularly pass training in Yerevan then to pass the
got knowlegde to teachers of secondary schools of the marz, during
the seminars organized in the center. The Education, Culture, Sports
and Youth Issues Department of the Gegharkunik Governor’s Office will
assist the center. The Center’s coordinators are appointed in the
cities of Sevan, Martuni, Vardenis and Chambarak to get acquainted
to porblems existing in schools and define works in the direction of
solving them.

ARMENIANS SEEK ANSWERS AFTER PLANE DISASTER
By Gayane Mkrtchian in Yerevan
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
May 11 2006
Air traffic controllers under the spotlight after Armenian Black Sea
air tragedy.
Relatives of the 113 passengers and crew who died in last week’s
Armenian air crash are seeking answers to what lay behind the tragedy.
As efforts are continuing to locate the black box of the A-320 aircraft
in the Black Sea, many different versions of what caused the disaster
are already circulating in Armenia.
The release of a transcript of conversations between the pilots and
Georgian traffic control has raised the question of whether Russian
controllers mistakenly advised the plane to try to make a landing in
Adler airport outside the Black Sea port of Sochi.
The Armavia aircraft crashed at around 02.15 local time on May 3. All
of those on board, including six children, died. So far 53 bodies have
been recovered and 47 identified. Armenia held two days of mourning
last week for the dead.
In the search for answers in Armenia, much attention has centred
on the issue of what advice the pilots were given by Georgian and
Russian traffic controllers.
The air-traffic control department of Georgia, in whose airspace the
plane spent most of its journey, has released the transcript of part
of the conversation between its staff and the pilots of the A-320.
It suggests that after the captain of the Armenian plane, Grisha
Grigorian, concerned about bad weather, had turned round and said
he was returning to Yerevan, Russian controllers had advised him to
attempt to land at Adler airport, but to circle it before making a
final approach.
The Armenian and Georgian controllers met on May 4 to discuss what
the Georgians had heard, but the Russians did not take part in the
meeting. Some say the Russian no-show was because of the political
strains between Moscow and Tbilisi.
Prior to the release of the tape, the Russians had denied that they
had advised the plane to turn around and fly on to Sochi.
In the transcript, Georgian controllers and the pilot discuss whether
the plane has enough fuel to return to Yerevan after being told that
there was poor weather in Sochi.
Tea Gadabadze, press secretary of Georgian air-traffic control, told
IWPR by telephone that all the transcripts have been handed over to
the Armenian side. She said that the Georgians had only made public
a small part of the tape “so as not to cause pain”.
Dmitry Adbashian, chairman of Armenia’s National Aviation Society,
said, “[In the Georgian transcripts] you cannot hear the conversation
between our pilots and the Russian controllers. I cannot exclude
the possibility that the Sochi controllers made mistakes but I can’t
confirm it as I have no facts.”
Artyom Movsesian, former head of civil aviation in Armenia, said he
had information that the pilot made the decision to turn back because
of bad weather but was persuaded by the Adler controllers that the
weather was good enough to continue.
“We have a whole series of questions,” said Mikael Bagdasarov, head
of Armavia airlines. “The plane was making a normal landing. The
question arises why was he sent to make a second circuit?”
On May 11 the Intergovernmental Aviation Commission of former Soviet
states, which is investigating the accident, issued a press release
saying that Adler air traffic control had advised the captain of the
plane to abort his landing and make a right turning shortly before
he was due to touch down.
Interviewed by IWPR, Oleg Yermolov, deputy chairman of the committee
rejected allegations that the controllers had acted irresponsibly.
He also said that he could “officially” deny reports in the Armenian
newspaper Aravot that the Russian controllers were rude and swore at
the pilots of the doomed aircraft.
Gayane Davtian, of the Armenian civil aviation authority, said that
a nine-person team had been sent to Sochi and was deciphering the
conversation between the control tower and the pilot.
The Armenian prosecutor’s office is also seeking to question the
Adler airport controller.
Enquiries about the mechanical state of the aircraft and the experience
of the pilot have uncovered little that is suspicious.
Colleagues of the pilot say that he was familiar with emergency
situations and an experienced flyer. Questions have been asked about
whether the A-320 was serviced in Armenia or Belgium – but, so far,
there’s been no suggestion that it was in a dangerous condition.
Movesian said the plane, which was 11 years old, had last undergone
checks in April and that it had been cleared for flight by the ground
staff at Zvarnots airport in Yerevan.
In addition, there are no suggestions that the aircraft ran out
of fuel.
The plane’s black boxes, which are at a depth of more than 400 metres,
could help solve the crash mystery. Adbashian said that the flight
recorders were strong enough to last for a month underwater, but he
feared they would not be found.
On May 8, French experts arrived on the scene with equipment which they
hope will be able to locate and lift the much-anticipated black boxes.
Gayane Mkrtchian is a reporter with in Yerevan. Seda
Muradyan, IWPR Armenia country director, also contributed to this
report.

BLACK BOXES LOCATED
Lragir.am
11 May 06
The experts searching for the Armenian A320, which crashed on May 3,
have located the black boxes of the plane, which is lying at the bottom
of the sea, at a depth of 600 meters. The news was reported by one
of the heads of the search team to Ria Novosti. The measurement of
the French apparatus was confirmed by the Russian apparatus Kalmar
designed for underwater work, said the head of the search team. On
May 12 Kalmar will be lowered to the bottom of the sea to confirm
the location of the black boxes.
Experts say the French are highly interested in finding the black
boxes. They hope that the records of the black boxes will refute the
suggestions that the equipment of the aircraft went out of order. At
the same time, the rescuers have only 20 days to take the black boxes
out of water, for these black boxes transmit radio signals within 30
days after a crash. Then the charge runs low. Hence, the search team
has only 22 days. “Our time is limited,” said Alexander Davidenko,
the head of the search team, in an interview with Interfax. The
experts need to decide how to lift the black boxes.
Robot-manipulators must be used, which presently are not available
because the Russian ships, equipped to locate and lift objects from
6000 meters, cannot be used for the search. “These ships are in
different parts of the ocean and cannot reach here in such a short
period of time,” said Davidenko to Interfax. In the meantime, the
airport of Adler refuted the information about the disappearance of
the dispatcher. The airport reported that the dispatcher is in service
and will be working on May 12. The officers of the Interstate Aviation
Committee have already interrogated the dispatcher. The head of the
Department of Investigation of Air Accidents Aleksey Morozov stated
May 11 that immediately before the crash the dispatcher instructed the
crew of A320 to stop landing and gain height, turning to the right. The
aircraft began gaining height, however, it soon began to go down and
plunged into the sea. The Interstate Aviation Committee reported that
the last communication between the aircraft and the dispatcher was
recorded at 2.12.34 Moscow time. At 2.13.2 the aircraft disappeared
from the screen of the radar.

ARMENIA ADOPTS 12-YEAR SECONDARY EDUCATION
Lragir.am
11 May 06
Since September 2006 Armenian schools will adopt 12-year secondary
education. The transition will be finally over in 2009, and in 2009
a three-grade secondary education will be declared. On May 11 the
government of Armenia approved provisions in the law on education on
transition to a 12-year school education. Under these provisions,
children will go to school at the age of six instead of the former
6.5. But in September 2006 both 6 and 6.5-year-old children will be
admitted. There will be two first grades, says Deputy Minister of
Education Norayr Ghukasyan. The six-year-old children will study for
12 years and the 6.5 year-old-children will study for 11 years. Since
2007 children will go to school at the age of 6. This transition
implies change of textbooks and syllabuses. The teaching staffs will
be retrained. Elementary school will include 1-4 grades instead of
the former 1-3, 5-9 grades will be considered middle school, 10-12
grades will be senior school.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DEFENSE MINISTRY OF GEORGIA DEPLOYED SQUAD OF 50 IN JAVAKHETI
Lragir.am
11 May 06
Akhalkalaki, 11 May, A-Info. The Ministry of Defense of Georgia has
stationed a squad of 50 soldiers in Javakheti for a secure withdrawal
of armament from the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki. The Georgian
soldiers are presently stationed in the building of the Police of
Ninotsminda. The withdrawal of weapons and equipment will start on
May 15.

TURKEY STANDS AGAINST ALLIES FOR SAYING TURKS COMMITTED GENOCIDE AGAINST ARMENIANS
PRAVDA, Russia
May 11 2006
The moves come in a week of tense diplomacy for the Turks, who briefly
recalled ambassadors to both France and Canada in protest against
recent statements in those countries on the killings of Armenians. The
ambassadors returned Thursday after four days in Ankara.
The diplomatic maneuvering shows how sensitive Turks are to the
issue. In recognizing the killings as genocide, other countries are
putting the Ottoman Turks in the same category as Nazi Germans, a
move intensely resisted in Turkey and not likely to make the Turks
any more popular in the European Union they hope to join.
Turkey vehemently denies that a genocide against Armenians took
place, and has made it government policy to fight such assertions with
diplomatic and economic sanctions if necessary. But it is unclear how
far Turks are willing to go to fight recognition abroad, especially
if it could mean harming the EU bid on which the government has staked
its reputation.
“Sometimes you talk, then you have to behave according to the way
you talk, and you get to a place you never wanted to go in the first
place,” said Ilter Turan, a political scientist at Istanbul Bilgi
University, of whether Turkey would carry through on its threats.
Combating recognition of genocide has long been a give and take battle
for Turkey, which is often outmuscled abroad by local constituencies
of Armenians, and then forced to rely on high-level diplomatic and
economic threats to keep them from achieving their aims.
The tactic Turkey is using now seems to be to ignore Canada – both
politically and economically – and engage France using a mix of
incentives and threats.
The Foreign Ministry released a statement saying Canada had learned
nothing from “the stagnation of relations between the two countries”
after the Canadian parliament voted to recognize the killings of
Armenians as genocide, which Canada’s prime minister recently said
he stood by.
On the other hand, Turkey sent a parliamentary delegation to Paris
this week, the Turkish chambers of commerce have sent letters to their
counterparts pleading for help and warning of a boycott, and Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday held a private meeting in
Ankara with representatives of large French firms with investments in
Turkey, where he warned of serious harm to relations if the genocide
measure was allowed to pass.

ORINATS YERKIR SECEDED FROM COALITION
Lragir.am
11 May 06
In an extraordinary meeting the political board of the Orinats Yerkir
Party decided on seceding from the coalition late in the evening
of May 11. At 12 o’clock on May 12 Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan, the
leader of the Orinats Yerkir Party, will give a news conference at
the National Assembly.