CBC News, Canada
May 3 2006
No survivors after Armenian Airlines plane crashes into Black Sea
Last Updated Tue, 02 May 2006 23:06:22 EDT
CBC News
An Armenian Airlines plane carrying more than 100 people has crashed
into the Black Sea, just off the Russian coast. Emergency officials
say there are no survivors.
The accident happened near the resort city of Sochi in southern Russia.
Local media report that debris has been found in the water six
kilometres offshore. One report says the body of a woman – a passenger
on the plane – as well as lifejackets have been recovered from the sea.
The flight originated in Yerevan, Armenia and was to have landed
in Sochi.
But the Itar-Tass news agency reported that the aircraft, an Airbus
320, disappeared from radar screens as it was making its approach.
The plane was carrying 112 passengers and crew members.
Russian emergency officials said all of the people on board the plane
were killed in the accident.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTED 7 DRAFT LAWS
ArmRadio.am
02.05.2006 17:35
Today the regular four-day sittings started at the National
Assembly. The agenda includes more than 50 questions and 13
international agreement presented for ratification by RA President.
Before starting discussion of the agenda questions, the Parliament
adopted 7 draft laws discussed during the previous four-day
sitting. These envisage amendments in Laws in force.

AZERI PAPER SAYS KARABAKH LOW PRIORITY FOR US LEADER
Yeni Musavat, Baku
1 May 06
Text of Elsad Pasasoy report by the Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat
on 1 May headlined “Bush has forgotten about Karabakh” and subheaded
“Rasim Musabayov says that a peace deal may be signed at a G-8 summit”
The official publicity in the run-up to [Azerbaijani President]
Ilham Aliyev’s visit to the USA stressed that the visit was mainly
related to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. However, George Bush did
not mention the loss of a fifth of Azerbaijani territories at a news
briefing although he indicated Iran, energy and democracy among the
issues discussed. The leader of the super power, who mourned over
the fabricated “genocide” of the Armenians several days before that
meeting, could have at least touched on the Karabakh problem.
One should not think that Bush has forgotten about the Karabakh
problem. Making a special reference to the wedding of Aliyev’s daughter
and wishing happiness to the bride and groom, the US president did
not speak about the number one problem of Azerbaijan, which he sees
as a friendly country.
Political analyst Rasim Musabayov has no doubts that Aliyev informed
Bush of the Karabakh conflict though the latter did not talk about
Karabakh. The expert believes that Azerbaijan’s energy importance and
Iran are priorities for the USA, while the theme of Karabakh is also
a big issue.
“Bush spoke about the issues that are important to the USA,”
Musabayov said.
Musabayov stressed that as Azerbaijan’s position on energy projects
and Iran is important to the White House, it is natural for Baku to
request Washington to provide support for its number one problem –
the Karabakh conflict in return.
“I think Ilham Aliyev asked for US support in the Karabakh issue,”
he said.
Aliyev himself admitted earlier that the USA was putting pressure on
him in connection with the Karabakh issue. Can we expect this pressure
to fall after the visit? Musabayov recalled that the Armenian press is
also writing about pressure on [Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan.
“The Armenians want to retain control of [Azerbaijani districts of]
Kalbacar and Lacin together with Nagornyy Karabakh in order to legalize
their occupation at least temporarily. I think they will not manage
to do so. In any case, they understand in America that Azerbaijan
will not sign a defeatist peace deal.”
In the political analyst’s opinion, Washington understands that
Azerbaijan will spend the money it has gained to strengthen its army
some day and start liberating its lands. Economically weak Armenia
is incapable of maintaining the status quo.
“Then, the USA or Russia would have to cover all the expenses of
the Armenian army. I do not think that they want this. In this case,
they must either bring Armenia to reason or fight Azerbaijan instead
of its enemy.”
As for the reports saying that Aliyev and Kocharyan will meet in June
after the Washington tour, Musabayov does not think that any serious
deal will be signed.
“It is true that [Azerbaijani Foreign Minister] Elmar Mammadyarov
sounds optimistic. As far as I know, Kocharyan will be called to the
USA after Aliyev. Yerevan’s use against Iran cannot be in question
in view of the presence of Russian military bases in Armenia and its
membership of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. By inviting
Kocharyan to visit, Washington may want to get him out of isolation and
get rid of [the Armenian] lobby’s pressure. But Bush does not need the
Armenian lobby’s support very much because he will not be re-elected. I
think they [the USA] may want to bring Armenia to reason. It can
be felt that the State Department is more involved in this issue
rather than the White House. First, the issue was discussed at the
meeting between Mammadyarov and [Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan]
Oskanyan. Then they talked to Aliyev, while Oskanyan ran to Moscow
and Karabakh to have talks. The heads of states will meet again if
they manage to explain the existing situation to Kocharyan. If the
two are close to sign a deal, they may be called to the summit of
the G-8 in St Petersburg to sign a document.”

MICKAEL DOVLATYAN CONSIDERS THE ATTACK ON HIM IS A CHAUVINISTIC EXPRESSION
ArmRadio.am
02.05.2006 18:00
“Radiolur” has already informed that April 23 the Secretary of the
Union of Cinematographers of Armenia Mickael Dovlatyan was attacked
in a subway in Moscow.
The film director said today during the meeting with journalists
that he does not consider the accident a crime against Armenians; he
characterized it as a chauvinistic expression that has been largely
spread in Russia recently, against which no proper measures are being
undertaken by state authorities.
However, President of the Union of Cinematographers Ruben Gevorgyan
informed that several Russian female film directors refused to
participate in the film festival to be held in Yerevan, since they
are afraid.

FLORIDA GOVERNOR JEB BUSH RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Yerevan, May 2. ArmInfo. The brother of US President George Bush,
the Governor of Florida Jeb Bush has designated Apr 24 as Armenian
Martyrs Day, reports Hurriyet.
In his official proclamation Jeb Bush says that “the Ottoman Turks were
responsible for a mass extermination of an estimated one and a half
million Armenians that began Apr 24, 1915 and continued until 1923.”
The source also reminds that earlier the Governor of California Arnold
Schwarzenegger proclaimed Apr 24-29 as Week of Remembrance of the
Armenian Genocide.
Meanwhile, US President George Bush has not to date used the word
“genocide” in his statements despite huge pressure on him.

IN SOFIA, FM GUL DISCUSSES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MATTER WITH FRENCH FM 27-28 APRIL
Yerevan, May 2. ArmInfo. At an unofficial meeting of NATO ministers
last week in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul touched on the Armenian genocide matter in comments
to French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, reports Hurriyet
on-line.
Referring to the drafts of 5 different bills in the French Parliament
which propose jail sentences for people denying the Armenian genocide,
Gul said to Blazy: “You are planning on giving prison sentences to
those who deny the Armenian genocide. But let’s say that either I or
the President of Turkey make an official visit to France, and that at
a press conference there, upon questioning from reporters, we say ‘The
accusations of genocide are lies. They have no ties to reality.’ What
would you do, throw us in prison? Would this suit France, a country
which is one of the champions of freedom of expression and thought
in Europe? So you are essentially giving one side the right to do
whatever they want, while you deny the other side the right to express
its feelings about lies that are being told about it. This perspective
runs contrary to European values.”
It should be noted that Hurriyet says nothing about the French FM’s
answer to Gul’s rhetorical question.

PARLIAMENT SPEAKER: ARMENIA’S FUTURE IS EU AND NATO
Yerevan, May 2. ArmInfo. Armenia’s future is the EU and NATO, says
the speaker of the Armenian parliament Artur Bagdassaryan.
But this does not mean that tomorrow Armenia will officially say it
is joining these organizations, especially as the foreign policy of
the country is determined by the president. This is his personal view
as a politician and the leader of the Country of Law ruling coalition
party. Baghdassaryan says that he knows about the president’s position
that NATO membership is not on Armenia’s foreign political agenda. But
still he is sure that Armenia’s future is the EU and NATO rather
than Russia-Belarus. This will be a long process, says Baghdassaryan
noting that Armenia has been actively cooperating with NATO for many
years already. But by developing its relations with NATO and the EU
Armenia should not complicate its relations with Russia.

USA NOT YET FOR CONSTRUCTION OF SECOND NPP IN ARMENIA
Arka News Agency, Armenia
May 2 2006
YEREVAN, May 2. /ARKA/. The USA is currently not yet for the
construction of the second NPP in Armenia, US coordinator of support
programs for Europe and Eurasia Tom Adams told reporters upon the
completion of the 12th sitting of the Armenian-American working group
for economic cooperation.
According to him, there is a better alternative to the construction of
the second nuclear power plant in Armenia. “Considering the seismologic
zone of Armenia, geological problems and also security issues, it
would be wiser to find an alternative to the second NPP,” Adams said.
“The NPP problem is most serious both for the Armenian government
and the Armenian people. It is one of the most important decisions
Armenian has to make in the near few years,” he said.
“The point is about security issues both for Armenia and the
neighboring countries, economic and macroeconomic consequences in
Armenia, and strategic issues, related to energy security,” Adams said.
“The US government continues to take the same stand that consists in
readiness to help Armenia during the stage of studies and discussions
for making a right decision,” he pointed out that in order to make
the final decision very much information should be gathered.
In his turn, RA Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan
pointed out that the Armenian party presented its clear-cut stand
according to which the country’s strategy implies putting the second
NPP into operation right after the closure of the first power unit.
He also added that the American party raised “a very right problem”
that big funds will be needed to close the working plant, and these
funds should be saved from now on.
RA Minister of Energy Armen Movsisyan stated before that the project
for closing the Armenian NPP will be submitted to the government
in 2007.
According to him, the closure of the NPP will cost $300-400mln.
Movsisyan added that submission of the project does not mean the
NPP’s closure. “The NPP’s resource runs out in 2016. Nevertheless,
I do not say that the plant will be closed exactly in this year,” he
said. Construction of a new NPP with 1000 MWt capacity will require
$1bln.

AMERICAN, ARMENIAN STUDENTS REACH OUT IN ONLINE DEMOCRACY PROJECT
Source: U.S. Department of State
NewsBlaze, CA
May 2 2006
Eighth-grade students in two countries develop interactive community
What does independence mean, and can it represent something else in
a different country? How does my democracy compare with your democracy?
These are core questions in a collaborative project between
eighth-grade students in the United States and Armenia.
Ten students from the Maryland School for the Deaf (MSD) recently
visited Washington to show off their contribution to the project:
a virtual tour of famous monuments, statues and buildings in
Washington. The Americans made the online video especially for students
at Charants School #67 in Yerevan, Armenia.
In exchange, the Armenian students are compiling a video of interviews
with people in their country, including their family members,
about life under the former Soviet Union and after Armenia declared
independence in 1991.
The exchange of videos is part of an online interactive partnership
entitled Independence and Democracy: A Friendship of Cultural and
Historical Exchange.
Martin O’Brien, a social studies teacher at the MSD in Frederick,
Maryland – located about an hour from Washington – and Aida Eichibyan,
an English teacher at Charants School #67, developed the program to
familiarize students with each others’ cultures and national histories,
with a focus on issues related to freedom and democracy.
The program, which is part of the Armenia School Connectivity
Program (AmSCP), is sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It is carried out by Project
Harmony, an American nongovernmental organization that promotes
cross-cultural learning through international student exchanges and
online interaction.
Since October 2005, the Armenian and American students have been
communicating using an online Web forum to post information on a
variety of topics ranging from leisure activities and family life to
their views on freedom and democracy.
In addition to explaining their cultures via the Internet, students
also have been conducting research and preparing their online videos
to share with each other.
During a visit to the State Department April 26, the MSD students
unveiled their video of Washington. “My students produced this movie
over two busy days,” said O’Brien. “They wrote the script and filmed
each other as they signed information to the camera talking about
various places” using American Sign Language.
O’Brien, who participated in an exchange to Armenia in 2005,
interpreted for his students.
The eighth graders also are planning to make a video tour of the homes
of American Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
in the future, he said.
“I am so excited and I can’t wait to see their videotape and what
life is like in Armenia,” said MSD student Shayna Unger.
“Our students love the connection of learning from other students
overseas,” O’Brien said. “I can talk in the classroom about these
things, but when another student who is there [in Armenia] talks to
them about these topics, it is phenomenal.”
The Maryland School for the Deaf, which was established in 1868, is
one of 15 U.S. schools participating in the 2005-2006 Armenia School
Connectivity Program through Project Harmony. Through AmSCP, more than
320 schools in Armenia have been provided with computer classrooms
and Internet connections, giving students, educators and community
members free access to outside information and computer training.
49tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Story.html

A TANGLED WEB OF PIPELINES
By Paul Abelsky
Russia Profile, Russia
May 2 2006
Gas May Be Uniting or Dividing Issue
Russia’s energy relations with Belarus took center stage throughout
the month of April, with tensions escalating yet again at the end
of the month on the eve of a meeting between the presidents of the
two countries. Just prior to Friday talks in St. Petersburg between
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, Gazprom press
secretary Sergei Kupriyanov reiterated the company’s criticism
of its Belarussian partners. Starting next year, Gazprom intends
to shift toward market-based pricing of its gas exports. However,
according to the Gazprom spokesman, the Belarussian leadership has
yet to offer a new arrangement that will take the place of the current
setup. The discussions over how the economic relationship will change
are proceeding alongside the ongoing dialogue over the future of the
political ties between the two states.
With all international parties bemoaning the politicization of energy
supplies, the past two weeks have seen some of the most intense
efforts yet by major exporters and consumers of hydrocarbons to stake
out their economic and political interests in the face of Russian
energy dominance. After Great Britain appeared ready to erect legal
obstacles to Gazprom’s possible takeover of Centrica, the country’s
main gas supplier, and the European Union voiced fears about Gazprom’s
expansion, Russian officials threatened to direct their energy routes
to Asia and North America instead. Central to the intense volley
of accusations has been the anxiety over the Russian gas monopoly’s
dominant position in the European energy market, where it accounts
for over 25 percent of supply. Meanwhile, the company seems ever
more interested in acquiring a stake in the retail energy sector
and boosting its profit margins by selling directly to European
consumers at rates that occassionally exceed wholesale prices by a
factor of seven.
The tightening web of pipelines tying Europe with Russia has conjured
up fears of political influence of the kind ostensibly employed by
Russia during the gas crisis with Ukraine last December and January.
Indeed, the current tensions date back to Gazprom’s recalibration
of energy relations with other former Soviet republics. Ukraine was
recently threatened with yet another price hike in July, while Armenia,
Moldova and other states have recently had to negotiate revisions to
their contracts for Russia’s energy exports.
Nothing indicated Gazprom’s changing stance as much as its proposed
adjustment of tariffs with Belarus. Russia is supposedly working
toward the creation of a unified state with its neighbor to the west,
but the current conflict is the third major pricing dispute between
the two countries in the past four years. Parallel to the promised
price change, the Russian side has suggested that the adoption of
a single currency will simplify the existing arrangement. Applying
pressure on both fronts at once appears to be a form of a lightly
disguised economic ultimatum. Belarussian officials have long stated
that the creation of a joint monetary unit should become one of the
concluding acts of broader economic integration
“Using economic influence as levers of political pressure is a
dangerous strategy,” said Alexander Konovalov, director of the
Institute of Strategic Evaluations, a Moscow-based think tank. “As we
already saw with Ukraine, Russia’s reputation can be undermined in an
instant. Exploiting energy dominance to force economic integration
with neighboring states presents an inadequate approach, which is
likely to backfire.”
The political firestorm that erupted last December during Russia’s
heavy-handed effort to alter the price of its gas exports to Ukraine
stands in sharp contrast to the muted international reaction that
greeted the recent announcement promising a threefold spike in the
rates it charges Belarus. Indeed, this time, Russia appeared implicitly
to be acting in tandem with European countries who have launched
limited sanctions to punish the Belarussian government for improper
conduct during the country’s presidential elections in March. Russia
is likely pursuing its own agenda without any outright coordination
with European powers, but most observers were surprised when, during
a recent vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Russia abstained from casting a ballot against a resolution that
declared the election results in Belarus to be falsified.
“The European Union and Russia are following their own ambitions,
but there’s a sense of convergence with regard to Belarus,” Konovalov
said. “Russia is beginning to search for alternatives, aware of the
fact that Lukashenko won’t be there forever. And it’s clear that
all the discussion of a union state is empty talk. No one in Belarus
wants to compromise the country’s sovereignty.”
Russia’s energy relations with Ukraine and Belarus embody the
government’s differing approaches to two former Soviet republics,
which are both highly dependent on Russian exports. Weeks before the
crisis with Ukraine, Russia and Belarus signed a separate agreement
that guaranteed subsidized deliveries of gas for 2006. The price for
1,000 cubic meters was set at $46.68, less than Ukraine was paying
at the time, and almost a fifth of the average European rate.
On Dec. 10, Alexei Kudrin and Nikolai Korbut, the finance ministers
of Russia and Belarus, respectively, signed a deal that provided
the Belarussian government a credit of $146 million to cover the
expense of importing Russian gas. The sum was slightly less than the
$175 million provided by Russia the previous year, while the price
of gas remained virtually unchanged. On the eve of Lukashenko’s
inauguration on Apr. 8, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller announced that
Belarus would be offered a price hike to match “European levels,”
followed by his deputy chairman Alexander Ryazanov’s qualification
that the rate should be set at least three times higher than the
current arrangement of $46.68 for 1,000 cubic meters.
“The price hike will not pass unnoticed but, as far as energy
dependency on Russia, the Belarussian model is more sustainable
compared to the Ukrainian economy,” said Pavel Daneiko, director of the
Institute of Privatization and Management in Minsk. “The so-called
‘Belarussian economic miracle’ is largely based on reprocessing
Russian oil and exporting the secondary byproducts. The upward trend
on gas rates will put pressure on prices for electricity and will
have a clearly negative effect. But it will be far from catastrophic,
necessitating the much needed changes toward more efficient methods
of energy use.”
Another factor in Gazprom’s stance toward Belarus is the company’s
protracted effort to take over Beltransgaz, the state-owned pipeline
monopoly. The two sides have long differed in the appraisal of the
company’s value, and Beltransgaz has now offered to trade a stake
in the company for access to gas and oil reserves inside Russia. In
a segment aired on Belarussian television after the conclusion of a
presidential meeting on Friday, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister,
Vasily Dolgolev, explained that the discussions centered not on a
straightforward sale of Beltransgaz, but focused instead on a more
complex exchange of assets.
Kirill Frolov, an expert at the Institute for CIS States in Moscow,
believes a “liberal lobby” within the Russian government is pushing
Gazprom to take more confrontational steps. Belarus’s political elite
needs to be offered appropriate terms toward further integration
instead of economic blackmail.
“Energy relations between our countries should actually be the basis
for advancing the creation of a unified state, instead of becoming an
instrument for provocation,” Frolov said. “Economic ties must play a
role, but it’s just one of a number of important factors to a broader
integration of brotherly nations. Differences in socio-economic models
don’t have to be an obstacle in this process. There are known cases of
mergers between differing economic systems, such as the incorporation
of Hong Kong into China, when the former retained significant aspects
of its sovereignty. What Russia needs is Belarus, not Beltransgaz.”
The tensions in the two countries’ energy relationship are likely
related to the misgivings surrounding the future Russian-Belarussian
partnership. Despite the political support extended to the Lukashenko
regime in the wake of the controversial ballot in March, the broader
prospects for future integration remain mired in uncertainties.
“It’s hard to say whether economic or political considerations were
more important in the recent initiative,” Konovalov said. “Russia’s
political leaders are tiring of Lukashenko, who ditches and deceives
Russia, while none of his countless promises are realized. Gas prices
should be set at a level decided outside an expedient political
arrangement. Until now, Russia has been rewarding Belarus with a
blunt economic gift.”
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