FRANCE POSTPONES CONTROVERSIAL ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
18 May 2006
Voice of America
May 18 2006
The French parliament has postponed a vote on a controversial bill
that would criminalize attempts to deny claims of an Armenian genocide
about 90 years ago in what is now Turkey.
Philippe Douste-Blazy Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told
lawmakers the government could not accept the bill, saying it would
offend the majority of the Turkish people. Lawmakers then put off
the issue until later this year.
Turkish officials had warned that adoption of the bill would cause
permanent damage to the relations between the two countries. Turkey
recalled its ambassador from France earlier this month amid the
rising tensions.
A number of countries, including France, have already officially
recognized the deaths of about 1.5 million Armenians as genocide. The
new Socialist Party-sponsored bill would go further and include a
prison sentence of up to five years and a $57,000 fine for those
denying that genocide took place.
Turkey acknowledges the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians,
but says they died in civil strife and a Russian-backed Armenian
uprising against Ottoman rule that killed at least as many Turks.

COLLECTION OF MATERIALS OF “BIBLICAL ARMENIA” FORUM PUBLISHED
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
ASHTARAK, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The collection of materials of the
“Biblical Armenia” forum taken place in 1999 in the Surb Mesrop
Mashtots Dpratun (scholars’ house) of Oshakan within the framework
of the 1700th anniversary of adopting the Christianity in Armenia,
was published recently. Publications found place in the voluminous
collection touch upon mentionings about Armenia in the Bible,
paculiarities of its Armenian translation, the huge influence of the
Holy Book on the Armenian Church, culture and public life. The book
was published by the decree of Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan, the primate
vicar of the Araratian Patriarchal Diocese and under the patronage
of RA Central Bank head Tigran Sargsian.

ISRAEL CHARNY SUGGESTS INCLUDING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN AN ISRAELI UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM
By Tamar Minasian
AZG Armenian Daily
18/05/2006
The third sitting of the Armenian Genocide experts’ group of the
World Armenian Congress with the participation of 21 members from 17
countries was held yesterday. The work of the experts group launched
after the meeting with foreign minister Vartan Oskanian in the morning
that was assessed very positively by WAC chairman Ara Abrahamian:
“This was the first time we had a very serious discussion on the
stance of the state and WAC in this issue.”
Head of the chair of Armenian Studies at the UCLA, Richard
Hovhannisian, said that at all previous meetings they tried to outline
the paths that would bring to international acknowledgement of the
Armenian Genocide as well as the steps that will follow recognition
and legal grounds for applying to international structures.
“I am one of those who are concerned over bringing the issue to
international courts,” Prof. Mihran Dabag of the Center for Armenian
Studies at the Bochum University, Germany, says. “The court means a
decision based on the materials provided by both sides, and in my view,
the historicity of the Genocide is over doubt and it is not up to the
courts to decide. For that reason we need to boost our fight against
denial standing firm on legal ground. My greatest wish is that our
focusing on Genocide’s recognition does not harm our future plans.”
Dr. Israel Charny from Israel suggests opening an Armenian chair
at one of the biggest Israeli universities and organize lectures on
the Genocide alongside with Holocaust classes and thus contribute to
Israeli state’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
It is planned to hold a large-scale conference on Armenian
Genocide in 2007 and invite representatives of the Armenian
government. Mr. Abrahamian suggested to hold 2 more sittings of the
WAC’s expert’s group to clarify their stances and the work ahead. The
range of questions is rather broad: when was the Armenian genocide
perpetrated, what was its continuation, what should be the steps
following Genocide recognition by foreign states, should we apply to
international courts or not, what are our demands from Turkey? Ara
Abrahamian said that there are 3-4 different answers to these questions
but they do not conflict with each other but rather supplement each
other. He said that they have agreed with the Foreign Affairs Ministry
to put forward their written proposals and views and begin joint work.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT ALLOCATES 598 MLN DRAMS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF VOSKEPAR-BAGHANIS ROAD SECTION
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. At the May 18 sitting, the Armenian
government made a decision to allocate 598 mln drams (about 1.3
mln USD) from the 2006 RA state budget-envisaged governmental
reserve fund to the RA Ministry of Transport and Communication for
construction of Voskepar-Baghanis section of Voskepar-Noyemberian
motorway of interstate significance. According to the RA Government
Information and PR Department, the Ministry of Transport and
Communication was allowed to choose a contractor organization by
means of tender negotiations. According to another decision, 110
mln drams was allocated to the State Water Industry Committee of
the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration to implement measures
on protection of the Arax River banks from spring floods in Janfida
and Ervandashat communities of Armavir marz, up to 68 mln drams was
allocated to the Ararat regional administration for repairs of the 1.2
km Dimitrov-Araxavan road section of Araxavan community, and 12 mln
drams – for providing a subsidy to Ayntap community of Ararat marz
in order to pay the community electricity debt for pumping ground
waters from two deep wells.

KUWAIT AMBASSADOR PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO KOCHARIAN
Armenpress
May 18 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS: The new ambassador of Kuwait to Armenia,
Majdi Ahmad Ebrahim al Dafiri (seated in Tehran, Iran) handed today
his credentials to president Robert Kocharian.
Kocharian’s press office said the president underlined the necessity
of expansion of cooperation with Arab countries emphasizing Kuwait’s
role in this context. While referring to bilateral relationships both
men stated there was a serious cooperation potential. They also agreed
to develop a legal framework to boost bilateral cooperation and hold
more exchange visits by businessmen.
The ambassador was said to give a detailed description of developments
in Kuwait and the Gulf region.

POST-SOVIET STATES, CHINA SET TO HOLD JOINT MILITARY EXERCISES
RIA Novosti
18/05/2006 15:03
MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti) – Two regional security organizations
comprising post-Soviet nations and China are planning joint military
exercises, the chief of Russia’s general staff said Thursday.
“We are currently discussing a joint exercise under the aegis of
the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organization],” Yury Baluyevsky said,
adding that the date of the exercise, which would also involve troops
from Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) nations, had yet
to be decided.
Baluyevsky said the exercises would practice joint counteraction
against terrorist threats.
The chiefs of the CSTO nations’ general staffs held a meeting in Moscow
Thursday to discuss ways to make the collective security system more
effective, including by improving control of the Collective Rapid
Reaction Force, which currently numbers 1,500 military personnel
deployed in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which comprises the former
Soviet republics in Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan – as well as Russia and China, was created in 2001 to
deal with security issues, including border conflicts, terrorism,
and militant Islam.
These countries, without China, also form the CSTO, which also
includes Belarus and Armenia. The CSTO is seen by some experts as a
counterbalance to NATO’s eastward expansion.
Unlike the CSTO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization does not have in
its charter a provision on collective defense of its member by others
in the event of an outside attack. It was created to counter attacks
by illegal armed groups if they cross the border of a member-country,
and its military activities are rather limited, although two of its
members, Russia and China, held major war games last fall.

AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA LAUNCH RAIL PROJECT
By Dmitry Avaliani in Tbilisi, Nurlana Gulieva in Baku and Diana Markosian in Tbilisi
Institute for War & Peace Reporting, UK
May 18 2006
As Azerbaijan hails a new railway project for the Caucasus, the mood
in Georgia is less enthusiastic, and the Armenians are openly hostile.
An ambitious new project to create a rail link between the Azerbaijani
capital Baku and Turkey has had a lukewarm welcome in Georgia, through
whose territory the line would run, while Armenia has expressed
opposition to the scheme.
“Construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway may start in 2006,”
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliev told a cabinet meeting on May 10.
“This railway is badly needed – it will connect Europe with Asia.”
The project envisages construction of a new railway between Kars in
eastern Turkey and the town of Akhalkalaki in southern Georgia, and
an upgrade to the existing Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi line. The Tbilisi-Baku
section already exists.
The project’s backers say it will create greater integration in the
south Caucasus, which is divided politically as well as economically,
and boost trade.
“Launching of this line will guarantee Azerbaijan’s national
interests,” said Aliev. “We are prepared to assume financial
obligations immediately.”
Turkey has been actively promoting the project and has played host
to the negotiations. However, the verdict on the economic rationale
for the plan has been cooler in Georgia, while Armenia’s reaction
has been extremely negative.
With the conflict over Nagorny Karabakh unresolved, major projects
undertaken in the region have bypassed Armenia. These include the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline inaugurated last year, and the
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline which has almost been completed.
Armenia objects that there is already a railway line in existence from
Kars via the Armenian city of Gyumri to Tbilisi. The line has been
closed since 1993, when Turkey formally closed its border with Armenia
because of the Karabakh conflict. But experts say that the railway
is in quite a good state of repair, despite the many years it has
stood idle, and that it could be refurbished with little difficulty.
“If there’s a railway which serves the same aim, building a new one
and spending so much money is simply pointless”, Armenian foreign
minister Vardan Oskanian said in January.
“If Turkey, guided by some political considerations, does not want
Armenia to earn profits from the operation of the existing railway,
we are prepared not to use it. But the service would promote trade
between the two countries.”
According to preliminary calculations, the new project is likely to
cost between 360 and 400 million US dollars, but many believe these
estimates will grow. One Georgian section of track, between Marabda
and Akhalkalaki, is in very poor condition and will probably need to
be replaced entirely.
Finance for the project has yet to be found, with only the Asian
Development Bank pledging funds so far.
Matthew Westfall, head of the bank’s Baku branch, recently told
journalists that “Azerbaijan has the highest rating among the South
Caucasus countries, and if the government applies to us for help,
the Asian Development Bank is prepared to provide a credit for
construction of this thoroughfare”.
After the latest round of talks about financing, held in Ankara on May
4-5, Georgian officials said several questions remained unanswered. “We
were interested in the Turkish side’s calculations about transporting
freight other than that belonging to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey,”
Irakli Ezugbaia, head of Georgian Railways, told IWPR. “It’s still
premature to say what Georgian railways will get out of the project.”
Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a declaration on creating an
international transport corridor last May, pledging that the new
railway would be put into commission in 2008.
“Technical work will continue until the end of 2006, and during that
period the financing issue will be resolved as well,” Nazim Kasumov,
a senior official in Azerbaijan’s transport ministry, told IWPR.
Armenian opposition politician Hovhannes Igitian said it was only
to be expected that his country was not involved in the project, as
“other states cannot afford to wait for Armenia to solve its problems
and start acting as a transit country”.
But others in Armenia highlight the dangers of drawing a new dividing
line across the Caucasus.
“If it’s a priority for the international community not to create
dividing lines in the region, but to ensure harmonious development,
it cannot agree to a railway being built that detours Armenia,”
said Gagik Minasian, who chairs the Armenian parliament’s finance
and budget committee.
There have also been vocal protests against the new railway in
Armenian-majority areas of the Georgian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti,
through which the line will run.
Many locals say they fear for their security if there is a growing
Turkish presence here. Another concern, voiced by Akhalkalaki mayor
Nair Iritsian, is that “people are afraid the Turks will buy up all the
land here, leaving the locals no other option but to work for them”.
Georgian economic expert Gia Khukhashvili is concerned that the new
railway could damage rather than benefit his country.
“The route cannot be profitable if the annual volume of freight carried
is less than ten million tons,” said Khukhashvili. “But I doubt that
ten million tons of dry cargo to meet that capacity can be found in
this region.
“If it’s a question of oil and petroleum products going to Europe
[from Azerbaijan], Georgia would make more of a profit by using its
Black Sea ports rather than building a new railway,” he said.
Khukhashvili said the railway would provide Georgia with a healthy
income only if Turkey shouldered all the construction and running
costs.
Turkish investments in Georgia have risen strongly over the past
year. Last June, the two countries signed an agreement to share use
of Batumi airport, which is now being rebuilt by the Turks.
Negotiations are also under way to hand over management of Batumi’s
port facilities to Turkish companies.
Some analysts argue that even if Armenia is not involved in the
project, it will still benefit indirectly.
Yerevan-based political analyst Alexander Iskandarian said he is sure
the Kars-Baku railway will at worst have no impact on the Armenian
economy, and could even have a positive effect.
“Roads between Armenia and Turkey are currently closed, and will
remain so for the next two to four years,” Iskandarian told IWPR.
“The new project will facilitate transportation of freight from Turkey
to Armenia and vice versa, as the highways [now in use] from Turkey
via Georgia are in a poor state”.
Iskandarian disagrees with those who say Armenia will find itself
totally isolated as an “island-state” once the railway comes into
use. “If the second railway works, that doesn’t mean the first one
can’t as well,” he said, referring to the now idle Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi
line.
Georgian political analyst Paata Zakareishvili agreed, saying, “The
projects that are already under way cannot be stopped or changed even
if Armenia and Azerbaijan become reconciled with one another.
“But their success will beneficial to the entire region including
Armenia”.
Dimitry Avaliani is a correspondent with 24 Hours newspaper in
Tbilisi. Nurlana Gulieva is an independent journalist in Baku. Diana
Markosian is a correspondent for the A1+ television company in Yerevan.

CARPET MAKING DEVELOPS IN HRAZDAN
Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006
HRAZDAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Carpet making has become a developing
branch in Hrazdan, previously an industrial center. The local
subsidiary of the Armenian-US joint venture Armen-Carpet OJSC has
been operating since 2002 and currently employs about 70 people. The
subsidiary director Arayik Melkonian told NT correspondent that the
company is prepared to give jobs to everybody who has an intention to
work there. According to him, the problem consists in high requirements
to carpet-makers’ skills and production. The Armenian President Robert
Kocharian expressed a high opinion and made a purchase during a visit
to the company’s show-room last year: he chose a “Karabakh” carpet made
at Hrazdan subsidiary for Presidential Palace. A. Melkonian said that
the company is trying to deal with personnel-related problems on its
own. For this purpose, courses for young women aged 18-25 are run at
the Hrazdan subsidiary with the assistance of the Terrritorial Center
of Labor and Employment and Hrazdan Mayor’s Office. Armen-Carpet
founded by Megerian Holding in 1917 is a company operating in more
than 10 countries. It has 20 subsidiaries in various marzes of Armenia
and in Artsakh.

THERE WERE NO SHOTS PRIOR TO A320 CRASH
Mikhael Baghdasarov Says
AZG Armenian Daily
18/05/2006
The owner of Armavia carrier whose plane had plunged into the Black
Sea on May 3 morning killing all 113 people aboard, told journalists
yesterday that the flight recorders of the A-320 airliner would be
given, if recovered, to French Airbus company’s experts who are also
involved in the crash investigation.
Mikhael Baghdasarov, a Russia-based Armenian businessman, who owns
the biggest air company, said flight recorders have to be decoded
which only Airbus’ experts can do, since only the company has the
special clue. He said the company has no information about exactly
when the flight recorders could be retrieved from the depth of about
495 meters. Baghdasarov then described rumors that the wrecked A320
carried huge sums of money, that there were shots before it fell into
the sea and that the pilot might have died of a heart stroke or a
shot as ‘nonsense.”
He said if part of these rumors were true the captain would have
reported it to ground controllers, while the recording of their
conversation has no indication of it. He likewise dismissed lack of
fuel or unprofessional crew as a likely cause of the accident.
Meantime Russian emergency officials said they continued efforts to
recover the flight recorders of the Armenian airliner throughout the
night and early morning today. The Armenian aircraft had fallen into
the Black sea near Russian resort town of Sochi on May 3 killing all
105 passengers and eight crew members.
Russian officials said rescuers worked in three shifts each eight
hour-long. The strong side wind that impeded the operation subsided
at about midnight to Wednesday, they said. The deep-water robotic
device sank to the seabed between 01:00 till 06:00 am on Wednesday to
search for the airliner recorders. Silt on the bottom complicates the
work. The video camera and the searchlights get dirty, and the team
has to raise the robotic device to clean them. Its sinking takes 40
minutes, and it takes the same time to raise it.
The search groups had a break in the work for some time on Wednesday
morning. If the weather does not worsen, the search will continue,
they said. The device is capable of lifting fragments of the plane
weighing up to 12 kilograms, while the two flight recorders each weighs
seven kilograms. According to reports, the flight recorders are at the
depth of 496 meters. The distance between them is about five meters.

WAC HAS ENOUGH MATERIAL TO TURN TO INTERNAT COURT OVER GENOCIDE
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 17, 2006 Wednesday 03:52 PM EST
The World Armenian Congress (WAC) has enough documented material to
turn to the International Court over the Armenian genocide in the
Ottoman empire, Ara Abramyan, the president of the WAC and of the
Union of Armenians of Russia, told a news conference here on Wednesday
evening. He recalled that WAC experts had worked in the archives of
more than 30 countries.
Abramyan said WAC experts must specify Armenia’s stand as to how to
pose the question – whether to demand the compensation for moral,
material or territorial damage from the genocide. “It is necessary
to make it clear what we aim to receive and in what order,” the
president of the congress said. A forum with the participation of
representatives of the Armenian authorities and WAC experts is to be
held next year to formulate the uniform stand on the matter.
Abramyan said the WAC would assist the establishment of the Armenian
chair in a large university in Israel so that alongside lectures
about the Holocaust there should be the presentation of facts about
the Armenian genocide in the Ottooman Turkey in the late 19th –
early 20th centuries.
International recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide
is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy.