ACCORDING TO PRESS SERVICE OF GREAT VALLEY COMPANY, MASS MEDIA DISTORTS REAL FACTS OF INCIDENT WITH TIGRAN ARZAKANTSIAN IN MOSCOW
Noyan Tapan
May 03 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. In connection with the incident that
happened in Moscow wih Tigran Arzakantsian, RA National Assembly
deputy, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Great Valley company, the
company’s press service issued a statement “Deputy Tigran Arzakantsian
refutes fabrications”, which is presented below: “The Armenian mass
media covered in April the incident that happened in Moscow with
RA National Assembly deputy, Chairman of Board of Directors of the
Great Valley company Tigran Arzakantsian. The published information
completely distorts the reality, discrediting Mr T. Arzakantsian. In
this connection the press service of Great Valley company considers
it necessary to provide the following explanations. T. Arzakantsian
was in Moscow in March 2006. Late March 28, at the request of a
friend’s family members, he had to go to the Kutuzov Hall Casino in
order to keep a close acquaintance, who was capable of losing his
self-control in gambling excitement, from wasting a large amount
of money. Mr Arzakantsian himself did not participate in the game
but his actions aroused discontent of the casino management. They
invited Mr Arzakantsian to the office of one of the casino owners
under the nickname of Arik Grek to have a talk with him. In the office,
more than 20 armed bullyboys suddenly attacked T. Arzakantsian in the
presence of Grek, as a result of which Arzakantsian received serious
injuries, including brain injuries, and lost his consciousness. The
attackers also stole T. Arzakantsian’s valuable items. Their criminal
actions were stopped by the deputy’s friend who took him to hospital
where he received the necessary medical aid. When a few days later
T. ARzakantsian regained consciousness, Moscow law enforcers had
already opened a criminal case on the charges of inflicting severe
bodily injuries and robbery. The Russian colleagues of the deputy
– members of the Armenian-Russian interparliamentary cooperation
commission sent a letter to the RF Minister of Internal Affairs
R. Nurgaliev, Director of the Federal Service of Security N. Patrushev
and the Private Security Service of the RF Ministry of Internal
Affairs. “In connection with high status of the sufferer, we request
to give an assignment to check the process of investigation into the
criminal case,” the letter of a group of deputies reads. Mr Tigran
Arzakantsian is currently undergoing treatment in Moscow medical
institutions. He flatly refutes any discrediting information about
his debts and nonpayments, saying that he has no debt to any casinos
or their customers. Now he is only concerned with the problem of his
health, and the recovery will be a lasting one due to the serious
injuries he suffered. But Mr Tigran Arzakantsian intends to demand
printed refutation of the incorrect information spread by mass media,
while in case of refusal he is going to achieve restoration of his
honor and dignity by legal means. Deputy T. Arzakantsian is prepared
to provide explanations in person to the press after he returns
to Yerevan.”

CORPSES OF 53 VICTIMS OF A-320 CRASH FOUND
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2006 20:42 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Corpses of 53 out of the total of 113 victims
of the crash of A-320 airplane in the Black Sea. 20 of these are
identified. The grouping of forces and marine equipment of the Russian
Ministry of Extraordinary Situations (MES), Federal Frontier Service
and Ministry of Transport was increased during the previous day,
reported the Information Department of the Russian Ministry of
Extraordinary Situations.
“Operative headquarters are formed at Sochi port and Adler airport,
Russian MES operative groups work at the emergency site,” the MES
reported. 590 persons and 104 units of technical equipment (including
29 ships) participate in the search. These also include 177 persons and
43 machinery units (11 ships among them) of the Russian MES. Some 300
relatives of crash victims are hosted at Sochi hotels and boarding
houses, the Press Service of Sochi Administration said, Russian
media report.

US MOURNS VICTIMS IN ARMENIAN PLANE CRASH
Xinhua, China
May 4 2006
WASHINGTON, May 3 (Xinhua) — The United States said on Wednesday
that it expressed “sincere condolences” to those families of those who
lost lives in the Armenian plane crash that killed 113 people on board.
“We express our sincere condolences to the people of Armenia and
Russia as well as to the families of those who lost their lives in
the crash of the Armenian Airlines Armavia flight from Yerevan to
southern Russia,” the State Department said in a statement.
An Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline belonging to the air company
Armavia went down into the Black Sea near the southern Russian resort
town of Sochi early Wednesday morning, killing all 113 people on board,
including six children and eight crew.
Bad weather conditions were responsible for the air tragedy.

SECOND PLANE WITH RELATIVES OF THE VICTIMS SET OFF FOR SOCHI
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2006 02:07 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Second plane of Armavia air company having aboard
journalists and relatives of the victims of the crash of A-320 plane
set off for Sochi. First plane Yak-42, which departed for Sochi at
4:00 p.m.
has already returned to Yerevan safely. It had abroad Armenian
citizens, who were in Sochi during the crash.
We note that 20 psychologists from Armenia are at the tragedy venue
to assist relatives of the victims.

ARMENIAN CHURCHES WORLDWIDE TO OFFICIATE REQUIEMS ON AIR CRASH VICTIMS
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2006 02:21 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ May 5 Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) temples
worldwide will officiate requiems on victims of the air crash near
Sochi. We condole with relatives and friends of the victims. However,
we, the Christians, believe, that human soul does not die and we
will pray for the souls of the victims find their bliss in the Divine
Kingdom,” said head of the New Nakhichevan and Russian Dioceses of the
Armenian Apostolic Church, bishop Yezras Nersisyan, reports Interfax.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NKR PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER CONDOLES WITH FAMILIES AND RELATIVES OF VICTIMS
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2006 02:29 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ NKR Parliamentary Speaker Ashot Gulyan condoled
families and relatives of victims of the crash of Armavia air company’s
A-320 airbus performing Yerevan-Sochi flight. “We got the news on the
catastrophe with deep sorrow. On behalf of the NKR Parliament and me
in person I condole with the families of the victims, wishing patience
and stable spirit,” the message of the NKR Speaker says. By a decree
of NKR President Arkady Ghoukassian May 5 is declared a mourning day
in Nagorno Karabakh.

POPE CONDOLED WITH RELATIVES OF VICTIMS A-320 AIRPLANE CRASH
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2006 02:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Pope Benedict XVI condoled with relatives of the
victims of the crash of A-320 airplane, which resulted in death of
113 people.
Official Vatican sent a respective telegram to Armenia today. The
message says, “Benedict XVI prays for the souls of the victims of the
tragedy,” as well as “those, who lost their relatives and friends”
in the crash, reports the Associated Press.

ARINC: TURKEY IS READY FOR COOPERATION TO REVEAL 1915 INCIDENTS
Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 4 2006
ANKARA – “Turkey is ready to cooperate to reveal 1915 incidents. We
want historians to objectively research this tragedy which Anatolian
people lived together (during World War I) without prejudice,” said
Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc.
Inaugurating the 56th meeting of Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary
Commission (JPC) at Turkish Parliament on Wednesday, Arinc said,
“a new period has started with October 3rd, 2005, the date Turkey-EU
accession talks started. With its decision (to open talks), the EU
gave a positive message to the whole world that Europe is based on
common values and norms. Turkey-EU JPC had great contributions to
current level on Turkey-EU relations.”
“Turkey has been in an impressive transformation process in recent
years. We have extended the individual rights and freedoms of
our citizens. Reforms in economy area have brought stability and
prosperity. Turkey is now among the most attractive countries for
foreign investors,” he noted.
Arinc said, “Turkish Parliament is determined to pursue this reform
process. We will exert efforts to complete new legal arrangements
within the scope of 9th Adjustment Package before summer.”
Regarding globalization, Arinc said, “globalization has brought various
tests to the EU. Terrorism, human trafficking and organized crimes are
threatening us all. Such global problems can only be solved through
cooperation and solidarity.”
“We should reconstruct our economies in order to deal with
international competition on one hand, and make fundamental rights
and freedoms prevalent on the other. This is the deal target of the
EU’s enlargement process. The EU has strengthened its influence in
the surrounding geography, and protected its peace, security and
prosperity as a result of the enlargement process,” he said.
Stressing that the EU would have to make a comprehensive definition of
itself, Arinc said, “this definition will include a transformation from
a social and economic organization into a global force. We consider
the EU membership a strategic target. It will be a part of a great
reform movement bringing forth universal standards and practice in
every aspect of daily life in Turkey.”
Referring to the so-called Armenian genocide, Arinc said, “Turkey
has been accused of committing genocide against Armenians during the
World War I for a long time. Historians could not come to a conclusion
yet. While Armenian circles describe these saddening events of 1915 as
‘genocide’, a number of distinguished Turkish and foreign historian
say that the Ottoman Empire decided in 1915 to relocate Armenian
people due to security reasons, and that it could not be described as
‘genocide’. Countless documents in our archives also proved it. Turkey
is ready to cooperate with the relevant sides to enlighten the 1915
events which Anatolian people had to suffer altogether during the
World War I. We want historians to carry out an unbiased research
without any prejudice on this tragedy. Last year, we proposed that
Turkish and Armenian historians should come together to carry out
a detailed, unbiased research both in Turkish and Armenian archives
and share all their findings with the world public opinion.”
“However, some friendly countries, especially France, which says
disputed events in its own past should be left to historians for
evaluation, but cannot endure even the debates on 1915 events,
contradict themselves. Their efforts to make legal arrangements which
accept even questioning the baseless Armenian claims as a crime are
nothing, but serious mistakes that will seriously disappoint Turkey.”
“We expect all our friendly countries to support our historical
proposal instead of making parliamentary decisions for domestic
reasons on these claims as if they are indisputable historical facts,”
Arinc added.

TURKEY EXPECTS MODERATE APPROACH FROM FRENCH EXECUTIVES, TAN
Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 4 2006
ANKARA – “Turkey expects French executives to display a commonsensical
approach on issues related to groundless Armenian claims of so-called
genocide,” Turkish MFA Spokesman Namik Tan said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a weekly news conference, Tan said, “we have expressed
our uneasiness to French authorities as regards the bill submitted to
French parliament and making any rejection of the so-called Armenian
genocide a crime, since it risks to damage Turkish-French relations.”
Tan said “in discussions pertaining to their history Frenchmen say
‘politicians and parliamentarians should not say anything on issues
related to history, and that such issues should be assessed by
historians’.”
Tan said those expressions were in line with the thesis Turkey has
been defending for years. “We cannot accept double standards and
contradicting approaches on this issue,” Tan indicated.

AZERIS LOOK TO POLITICAL ISLAM
By Kathy Gannon
The Moscow Times, Russia
May 4 2006
ASTARA, Azerbaijan — After the Soviet Union collapsed and Azerbaijan
gained its independence, the oil-rich country was caught in a
tug-of-war for influence between the secular, democratic West
and Islamic Iran. Iran sent in preachers, built mosques and gave
scholarships to the poor. But Azerbaijan turned West.
Nowadays, however, the early rumblings of political Islam are being
heard in the world’s biggest Shiite Muslim republic outside Iran,
aroused by frustration with rampant corruption, intractable poverty
and a sense that, for the sake of oil, the Western democracies have
chosen to ignore the taint of corruption in its elections.
There are many signs that neighboring Iran is capitalizing on the
discontent with a “we-told-you-so” message and winning some support
in its confrontation with the West over its nuclear program.
Ilham Aliyev, who took over as president from his dying father
in 2003 in an election challenged by claims of widespread fraud,
visited the White House last week, underscoring his friendship with
the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. But many in
Azerbaijan are wondering how long his overwhelmingly Muslim nation
of 9 million people will stay in the U.S. orbit.
“Azerbaijan will not become an Islamic country overnight, but
the beginnings are here,” said Arif Yunusov, author of “Islam in
Azerbaijan” and chairman of the Institute of Peace and Democracy,
an independent think tank in the capital, Baku.
“People today in Azerbaijan don’t believe America. People believe
that the West does not want democracy in our country, it just wants
our oil.”
Whether an Islamic surge is coming is open to question. Azerbaijan
also has a strong Western-oriented camp, yearning for Europe’s model
of good governance and civil rights.
In the cosmopolitan capital, the overwhelming affinity is with Europe,
though attendance at mosque prayers is growing steadily and human
rights workers said they were surprised at how many young Azeris joined
the demonstrations that swept the Muslim world over the publication
of Danish cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad.
In the more conservative southern regions that border Iran, the return
to Islamic roots is more noticeable.
Azerbaijan is a “very complex country,” said Fariz Ismailzade,
a professor of political science in Baku. “We have modern girls,
but still there is a rise in Islamic fundamentalism. It is slow,
but it is happening.”
Secular opposition politician Eldar Namazov said Azeris were “the
most European of people in the Islamic world, even more than Turkey.
Yet I think you can say today that we see some Islamic renaissance
and the ground is ready for an Islamic revival here in Azerbaijan.
“Our society wants political change, but year after year people are
disappointed with democracy.”
More than a decade after signing a multibillion-dollar oil deal with
a U.S.- and British-dominated consortium, most of the country remains
miserably underdeveloped. Nearly half of the population earns less
than $1,000 per year. Unemployment hovers around 20 percent.
Azerbaijan anticipates oil revenues of $160 billion by 2025, and a $4
billion, 1,750-kilometer pipeline is pumping Caspian Sea oil from Baku
through Georgia to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Yet outside
Baku, gas supplies are erratic and the country runs on dilapidated
Soviet-era infrastructure.
All this, say critics, adds up to a new opening for Iran, the Shiite
giant to the south.
“Iran has always been active in Azerbaijan, but before they weren’t
getting the results they wanted,” Yunusov said. That’s changing,
however.
“Now, people think that Iran’s words make sense, that the claims
by Iran against the war in Iraq and against America are not so bad,
that the West just wants our resources,” he said.
Iran is reported to be financing Azerbaijan’s opposition Islamic
Party. Among Azeri refugees from the 1990s war with Armenia over
the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, Iran is the biggest provider of
humanitarian aid, and it is bolstered by a perception among refugees
that Azerbaijan was betrayed on all sides during the war and that
the West has forgotten the refugees.
Iranian television and radio, broadcasting in Azeri, are the leading
sources of information in the border town of Astara and elsewhere in
southern Azerbaijan. Azeri-language talk shows based in the nearby
Iranian city of Tabriz are clogged with callers from Azerbaijan.
“Everything we want to find out, we find out from Iranian radio,”
said Mammadov Mazjtajab, a former reporter with Radio Liberty in
Astara. Broadcast propaganda has increased, much of it directed at
the United States, he said.
Mazjtajab said propaganda had increased noticeably during the nuclear
standoff.
Tehran has threatened to strike back at any country that cooperates
with an attack on its nuclear facilities. The Azeri government has
pledged its territory will not be used for military action against
Iran, but people living along the border are nervous, pointing to a
U.S.-built radar facility just outside Astara and the upgrading of the
airport at Nakhchewan, also on the border with Iran, to accommodate
NATO jets. Both projects are U.S.-financed.
Iran’s perceived attractions come out in an encounter at the border
with Jamilya Shafyeov, an Azeri woman wearing three sweaters against
the cold and bemoaning her inability to find work.
“I think things are so much better over there,” she said, gesturing
through a small steel gate that opens into Iran. “What do we have
here? Nothing. No jobs. If I had a passport, I would go there.”
Nail Farziyev, a retailer in Astara, drew cheers from fellow
shopkeepers when he declared: “We can’t turn our back on Iran, and
we won’t turn our back on them.”