UNIDO TO ASSIST ARMENIA WITH INNOVATION ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENT
Noyan Tapan
Apr 25 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Ministry of Trade and
Economic Development is working out jointly with the UN Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO) Armenia Office a program on
financing of the measurus envisaged by the 2005-2010 Program on
Development of Innovation Activity in the Republic of Armenia. NT
correspondent was informed about it from Ashot Khandanian, Head of
the Science, Technologies and Innovation Policy Department of the
ministry. According to him, it is intended that the measures will be
financed from the RA state budget and with funds to be provided by
donor organizations and the private sector. The UNIDO has expressed a
willingness to assist with financial resources of donor organizations
for the purpose of financing the 2005-2010 Program on Development
of Innovation Activity in the RA. It was noted that the allocation
of budgetary resources was outlined in the RA draft law on state
assistance of innovation activity. The draft law is expected to be
passed in third reading by the RA National Assembly during the next
four-day session.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MINISTRY OF TRADE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND MINISTRY OF NATURE PROTECTION DEVELOP JOINT PROGRAMS CONTAINING INNOVATION COMPONENT
Noyan Tapan
Apr 25 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development and the RA Ministry of Nature Protection have started
developing some joint programs containing an innovation component. Head
of the Science, Technologies and Innovation Policy Department of the
Ministry of Trade and Economic Development Ashot Khandanian told NT
correspondent about it. According to him, the Ministry of Nature
Protection included innovation components, related in particular
to measures to reduce environmental pollution, in many programs
implemented with funds of international organizations. A. Khandanian
said that for the implementation of such programs, the two ministries
are particularly developing a program on creation of ecologically
pure fertilizers by using microorganisms, with this program to
be financed by the UNDP. Besides, programs aimed at reducing the
atmospheric pollution, are being worked out. These programs will
facilitate the implementation of measures outlined by the Kyoto
Protocol. A. Khandanian expressed a hope that the Ministry of Trade
and Economic Development and the Ministry of Nature Protection will
begin implementing a number of joint programs in 2007.

THE MARKET IS RISKY BOTH FOR PEOPLE’S HEALTH AND THEIR POCKETS, CHAIRMAN OF UNION OF ARMENIAN CONSUMERS STATES
Noyan Tapan
Apr 25 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia’s consumer market is risky
both for people’s health and their pockets. Chairman of the Union of
Consumers of Armenia Armen Poghosian expressed this opinion during
a debate at the Pastark Club on April 25. In his words, about 30%
of the consumer’s money is spent “to no avail” due to low quality of
goods and services. He said that since 2001, the Union of Consumers has
warned not to by goods made in Turkey. According to him, the Armenian
consumer should decline to buy such goods not because of their low
quality but because they are Turkish. He reminded that when the
French Senate recognized the fact of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey
imposed a ban on the import of French goods as protest. Calling on
Armenian consumers to give preference to local goods, A. Poghosian
noted at the same time that the local commodities are not perfect
either. Studies have revealed that 64% of information on labels is
not exact. Particularly, most labels do not contain information about
production and expiry date of foodstuffs, additives, in many cases
the exact contents are not indicated. Chairman of the Consumer Right
Protection NGO Abgar Eghoyan pointed out that the key problem is that
consumers are not aware of their rights. They may return and exchange
a low quality commodity in case they have a cash register check, which
is often not given to the purchaser. A. Eghoyan noted that a lot of
outdated, faked, improperly processed or labeled foodstuffs without
the appropriate certificates were discovered during a monitoring on
foodstuffs security, which has been conducted by the NGO over the
last 6 months. Laboratoty tests of 8 types of Turkish goods revealed
intestinal bacilluses harmful to human health in 4 of them. Among
these products were “Tofita” sweets and “Goldfresh” chocolate bars.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HISTORIANS TO HANDLE ‘ALGERIAN GENOCIDE’
By Ali Ihsan Aydin, Paris
Zaman Online, Turkey
April 25 2006
France, overlooking the suggestion to “resort to historians” when
it issued the so-called Armenian Genocide Law five years ago, now
seeks assistance from historians in the face of accusations of having
committed genocide.
“Memory study cannot be conducted by politicians; it is neither the
business of parliamentary representatives nor that of senators,”
the French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said.
Politicians should leave history to the historians, the minister added
last week. Algerian President Abdelaziz Buteflika accused France of
having committed genocide in Algeria.
Talking to a French radio, “Memory studies are conducted by historians
and researchers,” said Doust-Blazy in response to a comment suggesting
that “Buteflika insulted France by mentioning genocide.”
Before he came to France, Buteflika held the country responsible for
“conducting genocide against the Algerian identity” between 1830
and 1962.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEWLY CREATED STAFF OF NATIONAL INSPECTION ON EDUCATION COMPLETED WITH DISAPPOINTED SCHOOL DIRECTORS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 25 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Artashes Torosian, the acting Chief
of the newly created National Inspection on Education of the RA
Ministry of Education and Science neither disproved nor affirmed the
information, according to which, a part of 15 inspectors starting work
at the inspection are former directors of schools who were discharged
the work for financial and other type of violations. And according to
the same information, the Prosecutor’s Office undertook the case of one
of them. In the intervew to the Noyan Tapan correspondent Artashes
Torosian mentioned that all the inspectors started contractual
work. According to him, in future the inspection staff, including
the post of the Chief, will be formed based on the civil serviceman’s
competition. And in future just the competition order will show who
will be able to participate in it and who won’t. According to Norayr
Ghukasian, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science for Secondary
Education, he is not aware and did not participate in selection of
inspectors. He also mentioned that passports of the posts of the
inspection must yet be affirmed after what a competition will be
announced, and inspectors working by the contractual order, will
participate in that competition.

4TH ADDITION OF LETTER-AGREEMENT ON ARMENIAN-AMERICAN COOPERATION IN SPHERE OF DRUGS CONTROL AND LEGALITY SIGNED
Noyan Tapan
Apr 25 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. RA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepian
and U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary John Evans
signed on April 21 the 4th addition of the letter-agreement on
cooperation between the RA and U.S. Governments in the sphere of
Drugs Control and Legality. According to it, the U.S. Government will
allocate Armenia additional assistance of 2 166 039 U.S. dollars
for 5 programs. Those programs are creation of the RA Police state
computer network, the program of a constant legal advisor, assistance
in the struggle against the people trade, the program of creating
the criminal-experimental institute as well as continuation of the
“Project Harmony” program of legal sociology. By the agreement signed
on July 1, 2001, the sides envisage to found and implement a program
the goal of which is to make the RA legal sphere more productive,
to stimulate legality, with the means of consulting assistance,
technologies and mutual cooperation. Since having signed the initial
agreement on June 11, 2001, the U.S. Government has allocated Armenia
more than 7 mln U.S. dollars to assist the legal cooperation. The
program consists of sub-programs among which allocation of educational
and technical consultations is particularly envisaged by the legality
development program, which is called to strengthen productivity and
possibilities of activity of the police infrastructures. The program
of securing transparency of the judicial system has a goal to assist
widening of technical possibilities of the prosecutor’s office and
the judicial system and teaching the staff. The security development
programs envisage implementation of security means of the RA National
Assembly building and corresponding teaching. A.Hovsepian mentioned
with satisfaction that an independent experimental center attached to
the RA National Academy of Sciences was founded and functions within
the framework of the program. According to his estimation, the
center is already completed and implements experiments of 8 different
spheres. Computer rooms have been created in different legal bodies,
newest technologies have been used in bordering points, a great
assistance was shown for settlement of issues on struggle against
trafficking. The RA Prosecutor General informed that as a result of
Armenian and U.S. legal bodies’ cooperation, 5 people committed serious
crime and being reconnoitred by the U.S. legal bodies were arrested in
Armenia. J.Evans emphasized in his turn that owing to the agreement,
the legal bodies of Armenia have had “significant achievement” during
5 years. According to the Ambassador, by singing the 4th addition “we
start the new head in our succeeded joint work. It was a successful
program and deserves to be continued and widened even more.”

ARMENIAN, LITHUANIAN PRESIDENTS DISCUSS BILATERAL TIES
Mediamax news agency
25 Apr 06
Yerevan, 25 April: Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus has described
as “excellent” Armenian-Lithuanian ties and his personal relations
with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.
Addressing a joint briefing with the Armenian president in Yerevan
today, Adamkus spoke about the need to develop interregional
cooperation between the counties of the South Caucasus and Baltic
states on the basis of the 3+3 formula.
“The time is ripe for our regions to speak with one voice,” Adamkus
said, expressing the hope that the initiative of Vilnius to develop
interregional cooperation “will become a reality”.
Kocharyan said that “the political dialogue between Armenia and
Lithuania has considerably intensified over the past years”. The
Armenian president said that Vilnius was greatly helping Yerevan in
implementing reforms. Kocharyan also said that Armenia counted on this
support, especially within the framework of the EU’s Neighbourhood
Policy.
The Armenian president said that an agreement had been reached
on holding Armenian-Lithuanian business forums in Vilnius and
Yerevan. These forums will make it possible to establish personal
contacts between the entrepreneurs and boost bilateral trade and
economic relations which are still unsatisfactory, he said.
[Armenian Public TV, Yerevan, in Armenian 1200 gmt 25 Apr 06 said that
after an official reception, the Armenian and Lithuanian presidents
held a one-to-one meeting at the presidential residency followed by an
expanded meeting. Agreements on encouraging investment and improving
mutual defence were signed between the two countries.]

AZERBAIJAN, RUSSIA AGREE ON ARMS TRANSIT
Turan news agency, Baku
25 Apr 06
Moscow, 25 April: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin
met Azerbaijani ambassador Polad Bulbuloglu in Moscow today. They
agreed on the procedure for the transit of Russian military cargoes
from Georgia to Russia via Azerbaijan.
A report from the Russian Foreign Ministry’s information and press
department said that during the meeting the sides exchanged official
notes endorsing the bilateral agreement on the issue.
To recap, this is about the withdrawal of hundreds of pieces of
armoured hardware, artillery and other heavy weapons from the Russian
bases in Akhalkalaki and Batumi. Part of the weapons from the bases
will be transferred to the Russian base in Gyumri in Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT CALLS OTTOMAN EMPIRE KILLING OF ARMENIANS A “HOLOCAUST”
AP Worldstream
Apr 25, 2006
Former Czech President Vaclav Havel on Tuesday equated the mass
killings of Armenians by Turks 90 years ago to the slaughter of Jews
in World War II, calling both “holocausts.”
Havel made his comments at a conference of education ministers in
Prague, in which he told participants that modern civilization’s loss
of a moral code should be blamed for mass slaughters.
“In such a situation, a holocaust, be it the holocaust of Armenians
or Jews, … these big catastrophes in fact are monstrous but in a
way understandable products of this … civilization,” he said.
Armenia accuses Turkey of the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians
between 1915 and 1919. Turkey claims the figures are inflated and
says the Armenians were killed in civil unrest during the collapse
of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey has reacted angrily to decisions by lawmakers in some countries
to classify the killings as “genocide.” The Czech Republic, has not
made such a decision.
Havel told the Council of Europe conference that holocausts “are
not a problem of individual nations but of the whole of mankind,
of modern civilization. It’s a shame of this civilization.”
“It is like if this world … had a weakened conscience, because
conscience is something less rational, less describable by means of
modern science,” Havel said. “A firm and universal moral code which
everybody can understand is trailing away.”
Havel, a renowned writer and playwright, led Czechoslovakia from 1989
until its split in 1993, and then served as president of the Czech
Republic until 2003.
The two-day conference _ “Teaching remembrance: Cultural Heritage –
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” _ brought participants to the former
Jewish ghetto in Theresienstadt on its first day Monday.
Some 150,000 Jews from all over Europe were transported by Nazis
to the ghetto located some 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Prague
during World War II. About 35,000 of them died there and most of the
others were transported on to concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
The Czech Republic currently has only a tiny Jewish community of
several thousand. Nearly 120,000 Jews lived on Czech territory before
the war; 80,000 perished in the Holocaust.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY DENIES ZAMAN SPECULATIONS
Armenpress
Apr 25 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS: Armenian foreign ministry has denied
today media reports that president Kocharian is likely to visit the
United States of America.
A spokesman for foreign ministry, Hamlet Gasparian, said it was wrong
to conclude from an interview by Armenian deputy foreign minister
Arman Kirakosian to Turkish daily Zaman that Kocharian was going to
visit Washington after Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.
He said the conclusion was either a wrong translation of the interview
or a distortion of Kirakosian’s words.
Gasparian said in a last week interview with Zaman Arman Kirakosian
did not say Kocharian would visit Washington following Azeri president
Aliyev’s visit, but singling out good relations between Washington
and Yerevan did not exclude that Kocharian may visit the U.S.A. in
any time in future.
Meantime Azeri president Ilham Aliyev has left today for a four-day
official visit to Washington. In the USA he is scheduled to discuss
various issues with president George Bush, vice-president Dick Cheney,
defense secretary Rumsfeld and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. The
outgoing US Ambassador in Baku Reno Harnish was quoted by local media
last week as saying that the Karabakh problem will be high on Aliyev’s
Washington agenda.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress