CIA ACKNOWLEDGED EXISTENCE OF SECRET OVERSEAS JAILS
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.04.2006 21:13 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ CIA Director John Negroponte has for the first time
publicly acknowledged the existence of CIA ran secret jails where Al
Qaeda terrorist are kept. In an interview with Time Magazine Negroponte
said that three dozen or so of the worst al-Qaeda terrorists held in
secret CIA prisons are likely to remain in captivity as long as the
“war on terror continues.” He added, “These people are being held.
And they’re bad actors. And as long as this situation continues,
this war on terror continues, I’m not sure I can tell you what the
ultimate disposition of those detainees will be.”
To remind, the information on the existence of CIA secret overseas
jails appeared last September in the Washington Post. According
to the newspaper, the CIA keeps there the suspects in ties with
al-Qaeda. Later the European Parliament has formed a special commission
for investigating the fact. The commission concluded that the planes
conveying the suspects in terror have crossed Europe. They made
intermediate flight stops in the European airports, specifically in
the UK, Germany, Spain, Poland and Romania. Then the criminals were
taken to the third states where the jurisdiction of the U.S. and
Europe is invalid.
According to European Parliament representative, the number of the
CIA flying jails reaches hundreds or even thousands. However, it’s
very hard to fix them.
It should be noted that the conclusions of the commission coincide
with the data furnished by some legal organizations including Amnesty
International, reported Golos Rossii.

ARMENIANS WELCOME HUNGARIAN COURT’S RULING
Armenpress
Apr 14 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 14, ARMENPRESS: Armenian political parties have welcomed
today the ruling of an Hungarian court that sentenced Ramil Safarov, an
Azerbaijani army lieutenant to life imprisonment for killing Armenian
Lieutenant Gurgen Margarian, 26, in “premeditated, malicious and an
unusually cruel” way.
Gurgen Margarian was killed in February 2004 while he slept in a
dormitory used by participants in a NATO Partnership for Peace English
language course. The Hungarian court ruled that he will be eligible for
parole in 30 years. Levon Mkrtchian from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) said the court’s verdict ‘is of political and moral
significance’ for the Armenian side.
Alexan Karapetian from the opposition National Unity party said
Armenians hope that the murderer will serve his full term in an
Hungarian prison and will not be extradited to Azerbaijan where
he was declared the Man of the Year. Judge Andras Vaskuti of the
Budapest district court ruled that “Compassion and remorse were
completely missing from (Safarov’s) testimony,” Judge Vaskuti said
upon announcing the verdict. “During the whole case we waited for
him to be at least a bit sorry for the Armenian soldier he killed
brutally and for (Margarian’s) family.”
Safarov’s lawyer, Gyorgy Magyar, said they would immediately appeal
the verdict, adding that it was yet unclear whether his client would
serve his sentence in Hungary or be extradited to Azerbaijan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE FACTS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ON THE CANADIAN TV CHANNEL
A1+
[01:07 pm] 14 April, 2006
The documentary by Andrew Goldberg titled “Armenian Genocide” was
shown on the Canadian TVO-2 channel for the first time in Canada.
The Turkish organizations of Canada organized a campaign to hold a
one-hour discussion in the TC channel studio before the broadcasting
with the participation of Turkish “historians”. But the TV Company
organized a 5-7 minute impartial talk with the participation of three
representatives of the local Mass Media.
The documentary “Armenian Genocide” will be shown on the same TV
Channel on April 16 and twice on April 24.
The American TV Channel WNED Buffalo will also show it on April 17 and
21. A number of cities in Canada will have the possibility to watch it.

THEY TRY TO PRESERVE THE ARMENIAN CHURCH IN AKHALTSKHA
A1+
[02:07 pm] 14 April, 2006
The doors of the Armenian Church “Surb Nshan” were closed during Soviet
times. After the collapse of the Soviet regime the Georgian Orthodox
Church tried to get hold of the Church which caused serious conflict.
Perhaps because of this the question was frozen and the church was
ignored.
Today the Armenian Youth Union “Zori Zoryan” has started to improve
the condition of the church on their own initiative. According to
the representative of the union, the Church is a sacrament for them,
irrespective of the position of the Georgian Government and the
Orthodox Church, “A-Info” reports.

THE ARMENIAN AND AZERI PRESIDENTS WERE GIVEN A DEADLINE
A1+
[03:16 pm] 14 April, 2006
Politician Stepan Safaryan, head of the Armenian Center for National
and International Studies commented on the words of the OSCE Minsk
group French co-chair Bernard Fassier. The latter represented the
events in Rambouillet as a half-full cup and highly appreciated the
fact that the cup was not broken.
Safaryan said, “This means that the previous arrangements are still
in power. After the Rambouillet meeting it was announced that they
sides agreed upon seven principles of nine, and the Armenian side
mentioned that the sides disagreed only upon one point”.
During the press conference Mr. Fassier also mentioned that if the
co-chairs manage to organize meeting of the two Presidents during June
or July, it will mean that the process has not exhausted itself. Stepan
Safaryan is convinced that the negotiation process with this format
has already failed and the co-chairs realize it well enough.
“The process of failing must be represented to the international
community, after which the serious conclusions will be made about the
fate of the two Presidents. The international community feels that the
Presidents do not mean to settle the conflict but are merely making
statements. The co-chairs are just trying to give another chance
to the sides. The stipulation of the issue of settlement within the
framework of the EU Neighborhood Program means that the sides cannot
avoid the settlement of the conflict wherever they go”.
Mr. Safaryan thinks that the year 2006 is not the deadline of the
settlement of the conflict but that of the Presidents of the two
countries.

AZERBAIJAN DOES NOT MEET MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CRITERIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.04.2006 02:54 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ When choosing candidate countries for being included
in the Millennium Challenge Account, most attention was paid to
“quality of administration in the country” and corruption level on
the basis of data of international organizations, Jim Kolbe stated
at news conference in Baku. The congressman said that corresponding
steps are being taken in Azerbaijan presently.
Kolbe also remarked that the cancellation of amendment 907 can be
discussed during the forthcoming visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev to the United States however the final decision should be taken
by the Committee on Appropriations. According to Kolbe, the amendment
907 may be cancelled before the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement,
reported Trend.

GOVERNMENT HAD NO RIGHT TO SELL 5TH POWER-ENGINEERING UNIT OF “HRAZDAN” THERMAL POWER STATION
Panorama.am
13:56 13/04/06
The head of “Human Rights – 96” party Rouben Torosyan has decided
to appeal to the Court demanding to invalidate the Government’s
resolution about selling the 5th power-engineering unit of Hrazdan
thermal power station. Rouben Torosyan addressed RA Defence Minister
Serge Sargsyan with an “Open suggestion”. In the above mentioned
note it was particularly stated: “Dear Minister, if you list the
Government members among those who have the right to possess state
property, then we advise you not to forget about law substantiation
while talking about that. According to the latter the Government has no
right to pass a resolution about sale of the 5th power unit of Hrazdan
thermal power station. While passing that resolution the Government
has ignored the RA citizen’s constitutional right to participate in
state government. We inform you and other coalitional Ministers that we
are going to take certain measures to call you to responsibility and
liquidate the results of the above mentioned violation. Best regards,
president of the party Rouben Torosyan.”
The latter also represents the list of the first measures taken. In
addition Rouben Torosyan has presented information to RF Ambassador
N. Pavlov about their initiatives to liquidate the Government’s above
mentioned resolution. And he has also presented information about
“just the usual kind of corruptive processes” to US Ambassador John
Evans and executive manager of “War-calls of Millennium” corporation,
Ambassador J. Danilovich.

TURKEY WILL WATCH TODAY ATOM EGOYAN’S “ARARAT” FILM
ArmRadio.am
13.04.2006 16:53
Today Turkey will watch Atom Egoyan’s “Ararat” film. Last year an
attempt was made to screen this film telling about the Armenian
Genocide in one of the cinemas of Istanbul.
However, its screening was canceled because of the protests raised
by nationalist groups. This evening the film will be aired by private
KanalTurk TV Channel.
How has the film found itself in Turkey? A Turk engaged in the sale of
films brought it to Turkey, and corresponding bodies did not prohibit
this. One of the Turkish Companies acquired the permission to screen
the film and attempted in 2005 to present it to the attention of
the public. Neither last year, nor this time the Turkish government
prohibited the screening of the film. The heads of the above-mentioned
companies were just afraid of the threats of the nationalists to set
the cinemas on fire.
Editor-in-chief of the Armenian “Agos” newspaper of Istanbul Hrant Dink
told “Radiolur” correspondent Maria Papyan that he watched the film at
the Kahn festival, after which he tried to bring it to Turkey. However,
he did not manage this again because of Turk nationalists.
“These days Turks raised a noise that Hrant Dink does not like the
film,” the editor noted.
KanalTurk will air the film without cuts and censorship.
According to Hrant Dink, the Spokesman of the above-mentioned TV
Company said that the decision to screen the film was taken after the
survey revealed 72 percent of the citizens willing to see Egoyan’s
film on the Armenian Genocide.
How did it happen that a private TV Company is airing a film
contradicting to Turkish history? Doesn’t Turkey, knocking the doors
of the European Union, try to present itself to the international
community in the most advantageous way?
At least for us, Armenians, the reasons of screening the film are
clear.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT URGES CRACKDOWN ON SMUGGLING
Mediamax news agency
12 Apr 06
Yerevan, 12 April: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan held a meeting
today with the head of State Customs Committee, Armen Avetisyan. They
discussed the committee’s activity in last three months and the fight
against smuggling.
Armen Avetisyan told the president that customs duties collected in
the first quarter of 2006 had totalled 31.5bn drams which was 400m
drams more than planned.
The two men also discussed the recent agreement with Georgia on the
closure of the Bagratashen border market.
In this connection, Kocharyan instructed to draw a map of all transit
routes used by smugglers and establish full control over these routes
as soon as possible till the establishment of a relevant border zone.

OSCE MG RECURRENT MEETING TO BE HELD IN MOSCOW
Yerkir
13.04.2006 11:52
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group dealing with
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement are going to meet in Moscow,
Russian mediator Yuri Merzlyakov said.
He said the outcomes of the co-chairs’ April visits to the region
will be discussed at the meeting. Besides, they will discuss the
agenda of the regular visit to the region scheduled for early May.
According to Yuri Merzlyakov, the precise date and plan of the visit
have not been decided yet but most probablythe mediators will first
pay a visit to Baku, then Yerevan and Stepanakert. The co-chairs
will also discuss the possibility of the meeting of the Armenian
and Azerbaijani FMs in May. Yuri Merzlyakov refuted reports on his
separate visit to the conflict region.