PanARMENIAN.Net
Monument to Victims of Pontic Greek Genocide Opened in
Thessaloniki

29.05.2006 19:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ There was an unveiling ceremony on
Sunday for a monument dedicated to the victims of the
Pontic Greek genocide in Thessaloniki. The bronze
monument erected by Kordelio Municipality on Elefteriu
Kordelio Avenue represents a woman holding a baby in
her arms. Among those present were Kordelio Mayor
Stathis Lafazanidis, Thessaloniki Governor Panayotis
Psomiadis, Deputy Culture Minister responsible for
sport George Orfanos and opposition deputies and
representatives of associations which defend the
rights of Pontic Greeks. Another Pontic Greek genocide
monument was erected there early May, a move which
increased diplomatic tension between Turkey and
Greece. Greek Parliament took a decision in 1994 that
every May 15 would be a commemoration of the Pontic
Greek genocide.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Young Armenian Brutally Killed in Moscow

30.05.2006 13:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ethnic Armenian Artur Sardaryan, 19, is killed in
Moscow. He was attacked in a Moscow electric train near Klyazma
station on May 25. However, it was known about the incident only
now. Two persons, who attacked him, stabbed him with a knife in his
neck from behind, cutting carotid artery, then stabbed 5 times in his
chest in the heart area. Then they stopped the train by means of the
emergency brake and fled. In the words of lawyer Simon Tsaturyan,
those attacking were crying out `Long live Russia!’. With the help of
witnesses law-enforcement bodies composed photofits of those, who
attacked.
Artur Sardaryan was born in Baku. He moved to Moscow in 1989 – after
mass pogroms of Armenians in Azerbaijan. Lawyer Simon Tsaturyan is
dealing with another case of murder of an Armenian in a Moscow
metro. Skinheads had slaughtered Armenian Vigen Abrahamyans in the
vestibule of Pushkinskaya metro station.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Work to Decode A-320 Flight Recorders Began

30.05.2006 13:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Works started in Moscow to decode the content of
flight recorders of A-320 Armavia air company plane, which had crashed
in the Black Sea. Containers of airborne recorders of the plane were
opened today. The media were extracted and are ready to
processing. Media with sound and parameter information are in a
satisfactory condition for processing.
In compliance with technological norms and legal procedure, Armenian,
Russian and French specialists will engage in decoding the flight
recorders. The decoding of the data is expected to take a month, RIA
Novosti reports.
On the night of May 3 a Yerevan-Sochi flight of Armavia national
carrier crashed in the Black Sea 6 km away from Adler airport killing
all of 113 people aboard, including 6 children and 8
crewmembers. Among them were 26 Russian citizens, one Ukrainian and
one Georgian citizen, while all the rest of the passengers were
Armenian citizens.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Lavrov: `We Observe Progress in Karabakh Talks’
30.05.2006 13:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Head of Azeri parliamentary delegation to the PACE
Samed Seidov asked a question to Russian FM Sergey Lavrov on the way
Russia was going to use CE experience in settlement of the Karabakh
conflict, taking into account Russia being a co-chair of the OSCE
Minsk Group, a respective CE resolution is adopted over the NK and
there is a subcommittee on the conflict. Lavrov diplomatically
answered, `Of course any experience is important to us. The OSCE Minsk
Group deals with settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. It is
pleasant to me to note we observe progress in the talks.’
In Seidov’s opinion, at this phase the EU does not conceal it wants to
engage in Karabakh conflict settlement, however it is the OSCE MG,
which has the mandate for that. In his words, non-productiveness and
even sometimes idleness of the OSCE MG sometimes results in containing
the settlement process, reports Trend.
Russia will preside the CE in the coming 6 months.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Fascism and Xenophobia Issues More Acute in Russia, than Other CE
Countries
30.05.2006 14:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The issues of fascism and xenophobia are, of course,
more acute in Russia, than in other CE member countries, said Head of
the International Committee of the Russian State Duma Constantine
Kosachev. In his words, it is necessary to pay attention to
conclusions of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(ECRI) and «challenge it in no circumstances.» «It is hard to deny
that xenophobia, extremism and nationalism problems are urgent for
Russia. Solving nationalism and xenophobia problems is in our interest
first of all,» said Kosachev.
In his turn, Secretary General of the Union of Journalists of Russia
Igor Yakovekno supposes that European Commission calls should be
addressed to the executive and law-enforcement bodies first of all. In
his opinion, they are just those, who «do not implement laws or
implement them selectively.» Specifically, he noted «that in Russia
even a person, who committed murder on racial ground, is judged for
hooliganism, while for posting up transparencies one gets three
years,» BBC Russian Service writes.

Armenpress
ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY DELEGATION AVOIDS VISIT TO
BAKU
YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS; The Armenian defense
ministry has decided against sending a delegation of
top officers to Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan
that is to host a regular meeting of the CIS Defense
Ministers Council.
A spokesman for Armenian defense ministry, Seyran
Shahsuvarian, said the decision was made after the
secretariat of the CIS Defense Ministers Council
failed to receive Azerbaijani authorities guarantees
that they will ensure the safety of the Armenian
delegation.
A press release disseminated today by Armenian
defense ministry said this was another evidence of
Azerbaijan’s failure to respect its international
commitments-in this case to ensure the security of
participants of an international event held in its
territory.
The press release also said the CIS Council of
Defense Ministers should be able to provide equal
conditions for all participants of the meeting. ‘We
expect the official explanation of the CIS Defense
Ministers Council,” the Armenian pres release said.

Armenpress
“KOHAR” TO PARTICIPATE IN “ONE NATION, ONE CULTURE”
ALL-ARMENIAN FESTIVAL
YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS: “KOHAR” Symphony
Orchestra and Choir of Gyumri with artistic director
and conductor Sebouh Apkarian will be participating in
the context of “One Nation, One Culture” All-Armenian
Festival which will kick off in Armenia on June 23 and
last till June 30.
The official closing of the festival, which will take
place at the Republic Square of Yerevan, is entrusted
to “KOHAR”.
At the end of last April, Kremlin State Theatre
witnessed KOHAR’s latest accomplishment during two
consecutive concert days. Almost 12,000 audiences were
present during these concerts, whereby KOHAR presented
its trademark “All Time Armenian Favourites” program
with 150 performing artists, musicians, choir members,
soloists, dancers and a pantomime. The two-day events
were labeled by Armenian Muscovites as an
unprecedented Armenian festivity of genuine music and
performance.
KOHAR Symphony Orchestra and Choir has performed in
Nicosia, Beirut and Istanbul. Its “All Time Armenian
Favoutires” DVD and CD is the first Armenian musical
DVD through its rendition and recording of Armenian
music with interactive and state-of-the-art features
including subtitles of the songs, which has won the
International Intermedia Silver Award in Hamburg,
Germany and the “Anoush” Achievement Award during the
7th Armenian International Awards in Hollywood, USA.
The second DVD of KOHAR’s “All Time Armenian
Favoutires” new program will be released by end of
this year, and will include live recordings from
Istanbul and Moscow concerts.

Reasons of the A-320 crash may be known in a few days

ArmRadio.am
30.05.2006 16:22
There is hope that in 7-10 days certain information will be known
about the reasons of crash of the Armenian plane in the Balack
Sea. This suggestion comes from the statement of the head of the
technical commission to investigate the crash Leonid Kashevski. He
stated that the flight recorders are in a sufficient condition and are
fit for decoding. Last evening the Interstate Aviation Committee
started decoding the two black boxes of the crashed plane.
To remind, one of the black boxes was lifted on May 22, the other was
extracted from the bottom of the sea two days later. First these were
transported to Moscow, to the International Aviation Committee, later
to Paris for technical examination. After passing technical
examination in Paris the information microchips were conveyed to
Moscow.
On May 4 an account was opened at RA Ministry of Finance and Economy
to provide assistance to the families of the A-320 crash victims.
`Grand’ Company, responsible for paying insurance for the air crash
victims, told our correspondent that the compensation sum has not been
set so far.
To remind, on May 24 `Grand’ Insurance Company started reception of
documents. Up to now the Company has received 79 applications.

Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan to pay an official visit to Kazakhstan

ArmRadio.am
30.05.2006 15:36
May 31 RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan will pay a two-day official
visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In Astana Minister Oskanyan is scheduled to meet the President of
Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev and Foreign Minister Kasimzhomart
Tokaev.
On June the 1st the Foreign Minister will deliver a speech at the
Diplomatic Academy of Kazakhstan. The same day Vardan Oskanyan will
leave for Almati, where he meet representatives of the Armenian
community on June 2.
RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan will return to Armenia on June 2.

A1+
`STOP SMOKING AND YOU WILL WIN’
[03:49 pm] 30 May, 2006
The number of smokers in Armenia has `terribly’ increased. `A1+’ was
informed about it from the anti smoking program centre of the RA
Ministry of Health. Currently 90% of men smoke, as for Armenian women
they tend `to put away their gauze,’ that’s to say they are not
inclined to conceal the fact of smoking any longer.
By the way, the number of smoking women is about 4 – 5% in the whole
territory of the country. Their number may seem insignificant but if
we take into consideration the fact that Armenian women of many
regions don’t smoke at all their number is rather significant in
Yerevan. We can counter the same problem among children. The number of
smokers is comparatively larger among children of 13 – 16.
Though a law combating smoking was adopted in Armenia the society is
not ready yet to obey it. For instance, if it is forbidden to smoke
when in a public, and there are special rooms for smokers in many
establishments and buildings, the atmosphere of a café gives a
perfect ground for smoking, claim the specialists. But smoking in
cafes is not a breach of a law as the law prescribes such cases when
smokers `may’ make use of separate special places intended for
smokers. By the way, if the USA and Great Britain initiated the
smoking combat in 60 – 70s and only in 90s they registered positive
result; curtail of deaths caused by smoking, Armenia has much to do on
this score.
Armenia became a member of an international program titled `Stop
smoking and you will win’ in 2004. The program has about 100 member
countries. The essence of the program is that smoking people becoming
engaged in the program are liable to quit smoking for a month. The
contest is held with two years interval, and the winners are awarded
with 10 thousand and 2 500 USD. Many of the program participants
cannot withstand the temptation of smoking and give in. Those who
overcome the desire to smoke systematically undergo medical
examination in laboratories in order to prove the fact that they
finally stopped smoking. On May 31, after the medical examination, on
the international day `One day without smoking’ a competition is held
in all 100 member countries between the participants of the last phase
for the first and second places. Their names are later sent to the
capital of Finland, Helsinki, where the winners finally are made
public.
By the way, Armenia participates in the program for the second
time. Out of 450 participants of the program in 2004 only 35 stopped
smoking so far. This year 125 people from 588 will participate in the
finals.