VARTAN OSKANYAN TO MAKE A SPEECH AT COUNCIL OF EUROPE FOREIGN MINISTERS’ COMMITTEE SESSION
Panorama.am
12:45 17/05/06
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan will make a speech May 19
at the Council of Europe FM Ministers’ Committee 116 session with
a launch tomorrow in Strasburg. Oskanyan will leave for Strasburg
tomorrow to participate in the event.
According to FM press services, Oskanyan will hold a non-official
meeting with Terry Davis, CE Secretary General together with other
foreign ministers. The meeting will be devoted to the status of
Kosovo. Our interest is whether there will be any reflections upon
Nagorno Karabakh conflict regulation. It is expected that Oskanyan
will meet Azeri foreign minister E.
Mamediarov and OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen in Strasburg.
Oskanyan will make two more trips to USA and Canada after
Strasburg. The head of the Armenian foreign agency will meet the
Armenian community there. They will discuss 3rd conference on
Armenia-Diaspora relations to be held in Yerevan September 18-20.
Oskanyan will fly back to Yerevan on May 24.

ARMENIA NUMBER 83 ACCORDING TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
Panorama.am
14:26 17/05/06
According UN research studies conducted on human development index,
Armenia is number 83 among 177 countries. According to the same
indicator, Azerbaijan and Georgia are in 101st and 100th places
respectively. Vladimir Priakhin, OSCE Yerevan Office Head, publicized
the information today during an international conference on Caucasus
without Terrorism and Conflicts.
In his words, at this moment Southern Caucasus is not a comfortable
place for people to live. “The low indicators are conditioned by
a number of reasons connected first of all with economic crisis,
transition period challenges as well as regional conflicts,” Priakhin
noted. In his words, 3 out of 5 biggest so-called “frozen” conflicts
in post-soviet area are on the territory of Southern Caucasus.

COURAGE NEEDED FOR SETTLING THE KARABAKH CONFLICT
A1+
[04:20 pm] 17 May, 2006
Two State Department officials said Tuesday they were optimistic
about the possibility of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and
Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabach. “The two
sides are closer to an agreement than they have been in the past,”
said Matthew Bryza, a State Department European affairs expert. He
spoke to a meeting of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which
was convened to examine humanitarian suffering in the region a dozen
years after the war over Nagorno-Karabach ended.
Bryza said the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments will have to show
political courage to bridge the final gaps. “We look at these next
couple of months as a real window of opportunity,” he said.
A second State Department official, David Appleton, said one sign
of progress is that the Azeri government is asking the U.N. refugee
agency to draw up plans for the return of the displaced to their
homes once a peace agreement is signed.
Baroness Caroline Cox, the British humanitarian and member of the
House of Lords, who has visited Nagorno-Karabach 60 times, criticized
the United Nations for refusing to provide relief to the people
of the enclave under its policy of not doing work in “unrecognized
territories.” She said the policy deprives the suffering people of
the region of much-needed aid.
“U.N. organizations working in Azerbaijan have been very vocal on
behalf of displaced Azeris but have been silent about Armenians
suffering at least as severely,” the baroness said. “This asymmetry
is unjustifiable,” she added. “The Karabach authorities have made
repeated requests for help to the U.N. for assistance, but these have
been unsuccessful.”

OSKANIAN TO DEPART FOR STRASBOURG TO PARTICIPATE IN COE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SESSION
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.05.2006 13:09 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ May 18 Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
will depart for Strasbourg to participate in the 166th Session of
the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, reported RA MFA press
office. Within the visit framework Vartan Oskanian and the Foreign
Ministers taking part in the session will meet with CoE Secretary
General Terry Davis to discuss the status of Kosovo. Special Envoy
of the U.N.
Secretary-General for the Future Status of Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari
will also be present at the meeting.
Vartan Oskanian is also scheduled to meet with Azeri Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov. May 19 the RA FM will address the session.
On the same day Vartan Oskanian will depart for the U.S. and Canada
to meet with the Armenian communities of Los Angeles, Boston and
Ottawa. He will discuss a wide scope of issues referring to the
Armenia-Diaspora third forum scheduled for September 18-20. The
Armenian Minister will return to Yerevan May 24.

VARDAN OSKANYAN: INTERNAL POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS WILL NOT AFFECT THE SETTLEMENT OF THE KARABAKH CONFLICT
ArmRadio.am
16.05.2006 13:45
In their statements the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have many times
noted that 2006 is a favorable year for resolution of the Karabakh
conflict, considering that no elections are expected in Armenia
and Azerbaijan.
Won’t the latest internal political developments affect the settlement
of the Karabakh conflict, especially in regard to terms? Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan noted that the political development cannot
have an impact, at least at this stage.

BAKU SAYS CEMETERY STILL INTACT
The Moscow Times, Russia
May 17 2006
BAKU, Azerbaijan — An aide to Azerbaijan’s president on Tuesday
denied a report that a centuries-old ethnic Armenian cemetery had
been destroyed.
The report by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting said the
medieval Djulfa cemetery in the exclave of Nakhichevan, which once
included thousands of intricately carved crosses, had vanished. The
report said its journalist was not allowed by accompanying security
forces to go to the cemetery site, but that the journalist was near
enough to see the cemetery was gone.
“This is an absolutely lying publication and statement,”
said Ali Khasanov, an aide to President Ilham Aliyev. “Not one
cultural-historical monument, not one Armenian cemetery in the
autonomous Nakhichevan republic has been destroyed.”
Accusations that Azerbaijan had destroyed the cemetery have raised
tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which are at odds over
Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been under control
of Armenian and local Karabakh forces since a separatist war ended
with a shaky cease-fire in 1994. The Djulfa cemetery site is generally
off-limits because it lies in a security zone along the Iranian border.
Khasanov said the government was ready to work with international
commissions to clarify the status of cultural and historical sites.(AP)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY INFORMATION, FROST CAUSES DAMAGE OF 635.5 MLN DRAMS TO AGRICULTURE OF LORI MARZ
Noyan Tapan
May 15 2006
VANADZOR, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 28, the temperature dropped
as low as 8 degrees below zero in some regions of Lori marz. Vazgen
Ohanian, Chief Expert of the Agriculture and Environmental Protection
Department of the Lori regional administration, told NT correspondent
that the agriculture of the marz suffered considerable damage as
a result of it. Thus, according to information as of May 12, the
frost caused damage to an area of a total of 202 ha sown with potato
(losses made 158.05 mln drams), fruit gardens of 549.5 ha (losses
of 461.78 mln drams) and vineyards (losses of 15.75 mln drams). The
regional agriculture sustained losses, which, according to preliminary
information, amount to 635.58 mln drams (about 1.4 mln USD).

FOUNTAINS AND GREEN ZONES OF NORTHERN AVENUE TO BE CHANGED
Noyan Tapan
May 15 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. A considerable reconstruction work
is necessary in order to put in operation again the fountrains of
Yerevan’s Northern Avenue currently under construction, because
the infrastructures supplying these fountains are too old. Chief
Architect of Yerevan Samvel Danielian told NT correspondent about
it. According to him, the Urban Development Council of Yerevan is
now examining a version of constructing Northern Avenue, by which the
upper level of the avenue is viewed as a green area, while fountains
will be installed below – at the “minus 1” level. Besides, a version
to build an underground car parking space at the “minus 2” level all
along Northern Avenue is being discussed. The car parking lots will
not be built only at the area limited by Eznik Koghbatsi and Abovian
Streets, where it is envisaged to construct the Old Yerevan historical
and architectural complex of 14 buildings.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

REACTIONS TO FRENCH DRAFT LAW ON SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE #2
Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 17 2006
ERZURUM/ELAZIG/BAKU – Dozens of reaction to the French draft law on
the so-called Armenian genocide came up in and out of Turkey on Monday.
“The French people are being manipulated by Armenians to recognize
the so-called Armenian genocide. France, which champions human rights,
should not listen to Armenians who want to establish enmity based on
history,” said Dr. Erol Kurkcuoglu, Chairman of Armenian Relations
Research Center at Erzurum’s Ataturk University.
Kurkcuoglu noted that the French Parliament will vote on a draft law
on May 18th making denials of the so-called Armenian genocide a crime
in France and punishable with a fine of 40,000 Euro or prison term
of one year. “The decision of the French Parliament to pass a law on
the so-called Armenian genocide is an insult on the Turkish people.
The French do not have any scientific information on the so-called
Armenian genocide,” told Kurkcuoglu.
Firat University’s Senate made a declaration on Monday that the draft
law in the French Parliament that bans all denials of the so-called
Armenian genocide is “shameful”. The declaration stressed that
Armenia’s first premier Ovanos Kacaznuni rejected all claims of an
“Armenian genocide”. According to the declaration, what happened to
the Armenians took place during a time of war and self-defense by
the Ottoman government.
Meanwhile, university students in Baku, Azerbaijan protested the French
Socialist Party’s draft law that punishes the denial of the so-called
Armenian genocide. The protestors, including Turkish students, read
a statement in front of the French Embassy in Baku.
The statement mentioned that the Turks treated all ethnic groups
with respect in history. “It is France that committed genocide in
Algeria and other locations throughout the world,” indicated the
Baku statement.

3741 NEW PENSIONERS REGISTERED IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2006 IN ARMENIA
Noyan Tapan
May 15 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. 3741 new pensioners with an average
pension of 8992 drams (about 20 USD) were registered in the first
quarter of the current year in Armenia. As Noyan Tapan correspondent
was informed by Ashot Abrahamian, Head of the Department of Social
Security and separate programs of RA State Fund of Social Insurance,
the number of new pensioners decreased by 1859 as compared with the
same period of 2005. According to him, this is conditioned by the
circumstance that this year the pension is fixed for those born in
1945-1946 and in those years the birth rate was low in the country.
A.Abrahamian said that as of April 1, 530521 people receive a pension
in the country.
150871 of them are aged 63 and below, 160322 are 63-70 years old,
35503 70-75 years old, 79228 75-80 years old and 44597 are aged 80
and above. The head of the department said that 6398 pensioners were
taken off the books in the first quarter for various reasons, 133 of
which were restored in the future.
According to A.Abrahamian, they stopped to pay pensions to 22 thousand
pensioners as the latters were abroad and and to 3600 as they had no
social cards.
A.Abrahamian said that within the framework of the interstate agreement
with CIS countries files of 171 pensioners have been sent to these
countries in the first quarter of 2006. And 59 citizens of other
countries (1 citizen of the Ukraine, 1 of Kazakhstan and the rest
of RF) receive a pension in Armenia. It was also mentioned that 1305
disability pensions have been fixed in the first quarter.