ARMENIA STOPS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT FOR PLANNED REPAIRS
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
Yerevan, October 1
The Armenian nuclear power plant was stopped on Saturday for planned
repairs and fuel reloading that will last a month and a half.
The plant, commissioned in 1979, was stopped in 1989 after a
devastating earthquake. After modernisation in 1996 with the help of
Russian specialists, its unit No. 2 resumed operation.
The plant generates about 40 percent of all electricity in Armenia.
The European Union insists that the plant, located 40 kilometres
west of Yerevan, be closed down. However Armenian authorities say
this can be possible only if there is alternative source of energy.
The plant has been under the financial management of the United Energy
System of Russia since 2003.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS PROPOSE TO CREMATE DEADS
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, October 3. /ARKA/. The RA National Assembly adopted in
the first reading Law “On Organization of Burial and Operation of
Cemeteries and Crematorium”. The author of the bill is parliamentarian
Vladimir Badalyan. This law envisage alternative right for burial
through cremation. He said that alternative variant of burial is
necessary for Armenia due to the shortage of lands for cemeteries
available.
RA NA Vice-Speaker Vahan Hovhannisyan said that crematorium existed
in 3rd Millennium B.C. and their existence does not contradict with
Christian traditions.
RA NA Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Healthcare and Environment
gave positive resolution to this bill. A.A. -0–

DELEGATION HEADED BY GREEK DM TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA ON OCT. 4
Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The delegation headed by Greece’s
Defence Minister Spilios Spiliotopulos will come on a two-day official
visit to Armenia on October 4.
According to the RA Defence Minister’s spokesman Colonel Sayran
Shahsuvarian, meetings with the RA President Robert Kocharian, Prime
Minister Andranik Margarian and Defence Minister Serge Sargsian are
scheduled within the framework of the visit.
The Greek delegation will attend the Museum Institute of the Armenian
Genocide, lay a wreath at the Memorial to the 1915 Genocide Victims,
and visit the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin to meet with Catholicos
of All Armenians Karekin II.

KOCHARIAN CONGRATULATES ARMEN JIGARKHANYAN ON 79TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, October 3. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharyan has addressed
a congratulatory message to Artistic Director of the Moscow Drama Armen
Jigarkhanyan on his 70th birthday anniversary. In his message the RA
President pointed out that due to his great talent and devotion Armen
Jigarkhanyan enjoys great popularity. “Your art has become a kind of
criterion of mutual enrichment of Armenian and Russian cultures,”
the message says. The RA President wished Armen Jigarkhanyan good
health and success in life and in creative activities.
Armen Jigarkhanyan is a People’s Artist of Armenia and Russia. He
played roles in over 200 films and his name in included in the Guinness
Books of Records P.T. -0–

FIFTEEN MEMBERS OF OPPOSITION BLOC ARRESTED DURING RALLY
Turan news agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 3 2005
Baku, 3 October: Fifteen activists of the Azadliq election bloc were
attested during the 1 October protests. They were sentenced to from two
to 15 day’s imprisonment as administrative punishment, the secretary
of the bloc’s election headquarters, Fahmin Haciyev, has told Turan.
Ten of them are members of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party
[PFAP], five from the Democratic Party and the Musavat Party. Among
them are the PFAP chairman, Ali Karimli’s, chief bodyguard, Karim
Mehdiyev, a member of the PFAP executive board, Vaqif Panahov, the
chairman of the PFAP branch in Imisli [central Azerbaijan], Suleyman
Xanmammadov, and the chairman of the branch of the Musavat Party
in Lacin [western Azerbaijan, currently under Armenian occupation],
Faiq Suleymanov.

DESCENDANTS OF OTTOMAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS TO RECEIVE COMPENSATION
By Vitaly Makarchev
ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
PARIS, October 3
France’ Axa insurance company is beginning to pay compensations
to Armenians – the descendants of victims of the Ottoman genocide
of 1915-1924.
The relevant agreement was signed by the Axa leadership and a
California-based firm representing the interests of millions of
Armenians whose relatives died during persecution by the Ottoman
empire.

1,928 TO VOTE FOR ARMENIAN HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE
Financial Mirror, Cyprus
Oct 3 2005
There are 1928 individuals registered in the special voting list of
the Armenian Religious Group, with the right to vote in the by-election
on October 9 for the Armenian Representative at the House.
The number of Armenian voters is 1,218 in Nicosia, 305 in Limassol,
404 in Larnaca and one in Paphos.
Four voting centres will operate, two at the Armenian elementary school
“Narek” in Nicosia for the voters from Nicosia, one at the Larnaca
District Administration for the voters from Larnaca and another at
the Limassol District Administration for the voters from Limassol
and Paphos.
Vahakn Atamyan, Antranig Ashdjian and Parsegh Zartarian are the
candidates for the post.
The new representative will succeed Bedros Kalaydjian, who passed
away on the 1st of September at the age of 71.
The three religious groups — the Latins, Armenians and Maronites
— that belong to the Greek Cypriot community, elect a non-voting
representative each to the House, beyond the 56 parliamentary seats
for Greek Cypriots.

BULGARIAN DELEGATION HEADED BY PRESIDENT’S WIFE TO TAKE PART IN INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR IN MOSCOW
Focus News, Bulgaria
Oct 3 2005
Moscow/Sofia. A three-day International Book Fair opens today in
Moscow under the auspices of Russia’s first lay Lyudmila Putina,
sources from Moscow told FOCUS News Agency.
Bulgarian President’s wife Zorka Parvanova heads the Bulgarian
delegation. The event will also be attended by the first ladies of
Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Armenia, Kyrgyzia. The fair aims to
promote different ways of arousing the interest of schoolchildren
from primary and secondary schools in books. Many discussions are
envisaged to be held on the topics of children’s books, contemporary
tendencies and Harry Potter phenomenon.

ARMENIA’S GDP UP 11.7% IN JAN-AUG 2005
RIA Novosti, Russia
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, October 3 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) – Armenia’s GDP in
January-August grew 11.7% year on year to $2.5 billion, a government
official said Monday.
According to the National Statistics Service, per capita GDP for the
period was $784.
Armenia’s H1 industrial output grew 6.2% to $906.5 million and
agricultural output increased by 11.8% to $550.5 million.
Estimated GDP annual growth rate is 8% and inflation, 3%.
The country’s H1 trade turnover was almost $1.7 billion, a 31.4%
increase year on year.
The average monthly salary in January-August was $109, up 23.6%
compared with the same period last year.
Unemployment fell by 1.1% to 124,300 jobless.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA SIGNS DEAL TO UPGRADE NUCLEAR WASTE FACILITY
RIA Novosti, Russia
Oct 3 2005
YEREVAN, October 3 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) – An agreement
to upgrade the radioactive waste management facility at the Armenian
Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was signed Monday, a senior official said.
Gagik Markosyan, the plant’s general director, said the agreement
had been signed by the Armenian NPP and France’s Ñogema Logistic.
“The French company will provide the technology to build a nuclear
waste storage facility using the dry-burial method, along with
consulting services,” he said, adding that the agreement stipulated
the construction of 24 additional modules, each containing 56 cassettes
of spent nuclear fuel.
Markosyan said the project would be funded by the Armenian
government but did not reveal the overall cost, citing the deal’s
confidentiality. He said $1.89 million had been allocated to the
project this year.
The first additional storage facility is scheduled to be operational
in 2007.
The Armenian NPP produces 40% of the country’s electricity and will
remain operational until 2016, according to experts.
In September 2003, the plant came under the five-year trust management
of INTER RAO UES, a subsidiary of Rosenergoatom and Russia’s RAO UES
electricity monopoly.
The European Union has insisted that Armenia shut down the nuclear
power plant, offering 100 million euros in aid. But Armenian experts
have said the construction of alternative power generating facilities
would cost the country about a billion euros.
–Boundary_(ID_NJ9gjyPly5mFEjyRlSA0PA)–