ILHAM ALIEV: ALL POSSIBLE WAYS OF RESOLUTION OF THE KARABAKH CONFLICT HAVE ALREADY BEEN STUDIED
ArmRadio.am
06.05.2006 13:06
“All possible ways of resolution of the Karabakh conflict have already
been studied,” Azeri President Ilham Aliev declared.
“Currently the Co-Chairs are consulting intensively, different ways
of resolution are being discussed. Possibly, there will be some
novelties,” the Azeri President said, adding that a principally new
suggestion for resolution of the question may be presented.
“Possibly, some amendments will be applied to suggestions in the
process of elaboration. I do not exclude it. In this case we’ll come
closer to the resolution of the question,” Ilham Aliev noted.

DEBTS OF CONSUMERS WERE PARDONED
Lragir.am
5 May 06
The Public Utilities Commission adopted a notable decision on May 5.
The commission, which usually adopts decisions on increasing the
tariffs of one service or another, pardoned the debts of Armentel
subscribers who received incredible bills. Their bills contained
expensive foreign calls due to a mistake of providers of dial-up
Internet. Armentel must inform its subscribers about pardoning their
debts and report on this to the Public Utilities Commission within
14 days.
After the meeting of the Commission the leadership of Armentel
described this decision as corresponding with their good will.
Vasilios Fetsis, the executive direction of the company, described
this decision as “reasonable.” He also said Armentel is working out
a new regime of bills for those subscribers whom the decision of the
commission will not affect. Armentel is willing to prolong the time of
payment of bill of those subscribers who are facing financial problems.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMAVIA TO TAKE THREE AIRBUSES ON LEASE
ArmRadio.am
06.05.2006 13:30
In the nearest future Armavia Company intends to lease three airbuses,
Press Service of the Company told “Arminfo.”
According to the source, next week the stock of the Company will
be supplemented with two A320 airplanes manufactured in 1994 or
1995. Later another two airbuses will be taken on lease.
Armavia possessed five airbuses, one of which crashed near Sochi on
May 3; another one was completely burnt as a result of combustion at
” Sabana-Techniques” repair base in Brussels. Currently Armavia holds
one A-320 and two A-319 airbuses. Besides, the company possesses IL-86,
Yak-42 and Yak-40 planes.

A320 BROKE TO PIECES
Lragir.am
5 May 06
On Friday the first funerals of the victims of A320 took place in
Yerevan and Sochi. On May 5 200 relatives of victims went to the sea
and laid 113 wreaths in the place where the plane had plunged into
the sea. By May 5 53 bodies of 113 passengers of the plane have been
found, only 41 have been identified. There are bodies that cannot
be identified. The parts of bodies will be taken to Rostov for a
histological study. The operational headquarter says it is possible
that the Armenian plane broke to small pieces, because so far the
rescuers have found small parts only. Another fact, supporting this
assumption is that the rescuers have found a lot of seats. “These are
in the fuselage of the plane, and if it remained whole, the seats would
not get dispersed,” said an officer of the operational headquarters
to the reporter of RIA Novosti. This anonymous officer also reported
that numerous small parts of the plane were found near the place where
the black boxes are supposed to lie at a depth of 680 meters. So far,
only 10 percent of the plane has been taken out of water. The search
for the bodies of victims is continuing. The rescuers are working
close to the coast, for the waves may carry the bodies close to the
coast. Parts of bodies and the plane were found 250 meters from the
coast. Although the French and Russian experts promised to go all the
way to find the bodies of victims, they say the bodies decay more
quickly at great depths and in a carbohydrate environment, and day
by day it is becoming impossible to find and identify the bodies.

FOUR AIRPLANES BURNT IN BELGIUM
ArmRadio.am
05.05.2006 17:55
Last night four “A-320″ planes were completely burnt in an air
base of ” Saberatechniques” Company in Belgium as a result of a
conflagration. Two of the planes belonged to Armenian air companies.
By the way, one of the jets belonged to “Armavia” Company. According
to our information, the other Armenian plane belonged to “Armenian
International Airlines” owned by businessmen Versant Hakobyan.
In the talk with “Radiolur” correspondent Tatul Hakobyan Third
Secretary of RA Embassy in Belgium Tigran Balayan said that the
airplanes were at the base for the purpose of renovation. According
to him, the four planes suffered from the fire, one was completely
burnt. Tigran Balayan could not say exactly which plane was burnt,
the air base was completely destroyed. Everything will be clear after
the conclusion of the firemen. In response to the question about
possible versions of terrorist act or fire, Tigran Balayan said, “No
versions are being suggested so far, we cannot say anything distinct,
until the firemen issue a report.”
Tigran Balayan informed that the air-base area was insured, bur did
not manage to provide details about this, either. Four firemen got
injured when trying to liquidate the fire.

BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY JACK STRAW CONVEYS HIS CONDOLENCES
ArmRadio.am
05.05.2006 17:26
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sent a letter of condolences on
the occasion of the tragic Armavia aircraft accident, “On behalf of the
British government and people, may I express my sincere condolences
at the tragic loss of life resulting from the Armavia plane crash
that occurred in the early hours of 3 May.
My sympathies and thoughts are with you and with the families and
friends of all those who died in the crash.”

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT HANDS OVER PRIZE TO GERMAN AUTHOR
Yerkir
05.05.2006 15:22
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – President Robert Kocharian on Friday handed
over a prize to German author Edgar Hilsenrat for his significant
contribution to the process of the Armenian Genocide recognition,
the president’s press service said.
The prize was awarded by a presidential decree of April 15 for the
novel ” The Tale of the Last Thought.”

ARMENIAN FOUNDATION RAISING FUNDS FOR KARABAKH’S RECONSTRUCTION
Mediamax news agency
5 May 06
Yerevan, 5 May: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said in Yerevan
today that the Ayastan All-Armenian Foundation is “a well-established
organization”.
Speaking at a session of the board of trustees of the foundation,
Robert Kocharyan suggested honouring the memory of the victims of
the ArmAvia plane that crashed over the sea near Sochi on 3 May,
Mediamax reported.
The Armenian president noted that the foundation celebrates its 14th
anniversary this year. The organization has implemented many programmes
“of vital importance to the country”.
Naira Melkumyan, executive director of the Ayastan All-Armenian
Foundation, said that the organization gathered 12.7m dollars in 2005
and has received 7.5 m dollars in four months of 2006.
The Ayastan All-Armenian Foundation implemented about 100 programmes
in Armenia and Artsakh [Nagornyy Karabakh] in 2005. In 2006, it
will focus on the Revival of Artsakh programme and 7.7m dollars have
already been collected for its implementation.

RPT BRUSSELS AIRPORT FIRE DESTROYS THREE A-320 AIRCRAFT – SABENA TECHNICS CEO
AFX Europe (Focus)
May 05, 2006
BRUSSELS (AFX) – A fire that ravaged a maintenance shed at Brussels
airport last night destroyed three planes, two of which belong to
Armenian operator Armavia, said the chief executive of Sabena Technics.
The other plane belonged to Greek charter airline Hellas. All of them
were A-320 aircraft.
Also destroyed was an aircraft used in the Belgian military.

MOURNERS THROW WREATHS INTO BLACK SEA TO COMMEMORATE PLANE CRASH VICTIMS
Mike Eckel
AP Worldstream
May 05, 2006
Hundreds of relatives and friends of the victims of the Armenian
airliner crash sailed into the Black Sea on Friday and watched somberly
as wreaths of blue, white and red flowers were lowered into the waters
to commemorate the 113 people killed in the disaster.
Some, weeping and clutching photos of their loved ones, tossed their
own carnations, roses and chrysanthemums into the waters at the site
of Wednesday’s crash some six kilometers (four miles) off the southern
Russian resort of Sochi.
Hope dimmed that searchers would recover the bodies of more than half
of the victims as authorities tried to pinpoint the precise location
of the plane’s flight recorders under nearly 700 meters (2,300 feet)
of water.
Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin, head of the emergency
commission formed in the wake of the crash, said 53 bodies have
been pulled from the water and 41 of them identified. He also said
authorities were beginning to collect DNA samples from relatives
of the dead, indicating three was little hope of finding easily
identifiable remains.
Searchers have located radio signals from the Airbus A-380’s two “black
box” flight recorders, but Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu
said difficult conditions were hampering efforts to precisely locate
the boxes and the large part of the fuselage where many victims are
believed to be trapped.
A special diving vehicle was sent to the site to try to pinpoint the
remains of the plane’s fuselage on the sea floor and Levitin said
authorities were searching both in Russia and abroad for equipment
to raise the fuselage.
“I want to say, for us the main element is raising the bodies, because
we understand that for the victims’ relatives not raising the bodies
or fragments would be an even bigger tragedy,” Levitin told reporters.
The plane plunged into the sea in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday in
heavy rain and poor visibility as it was approaching the airport in
Adler, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Sochi, a city wedged
between the sea and soaring, snowcapped mountains.
At one of Sochi’s city morgues, relatives _ mainly men _ paced
nervously, voicing frustration at the recovery effort. Some peered
stone-faced at photographs of mutilated and mangled victims, posted
by the coroner to help in identifying them.
“We don’t care about any black boxes. Finding them changes nothing.
OK, maybe the pilot made a mistake. He’s dead now. And so is everyone
else. They’re all dead. That’s not going to change” said Misha, 39,
who like many Armenians in Sochi, did not give his name fearing police
harassment. “We just want them to give us something of our relatives.”
Lernik Aryuntyan, 52, said he lost his entire family in the 1988
earthquake that devastated Armenia. Then, he was able to find his
family’s remains within three days; now he knows nothing of an elderly
neighbor who died in the crash.
“Give us anything, something small _ a coat, a shoe _ just so we have
something,” Aryuntyan said.
In Adler, along a seaside promenade lying almost directly in the flight
approach to the airport, black-robed Armenian priests and monks led
mourners in a procession. Later, a musician stood outside the town’s
Armenian church, playing traditional Armenian mourning dirges on a
duduk, a clarinet-like instrument. Most of the victims were Armenians.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress