“GAZPROM” REFUSES FROM IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE
Yerevan, April 7. ArmInfo. “Gazprom” has refused from the gas pipeline
Iran- Armenia.
Within several hours, OJSC “Gazprom” has made corrections to the
information already published by the OJSC “Gazprom” Department for
Mass Media telling about an agreement with the Armenian Government
which determines the strategic principles of cooperation in the gas
and energy projects in the territory of the country for 25 years. The
new edition of the press release published by “Gazprom” official web
site contains no provisions on Iran-Armenian gas pipeline. The initial
press release submitted to Mass Media on April 6 was announcing that
the agreement provides for the CJSC “ArmRosgazprom” buying the
constructed 40 km section of Iran-Armenian gas pipeline and the fifth
power unit of Hrazdan TPP (Hrazdan-5) from the Armenian Government.
Besides, the initial press release was indicating that the CJSC
“ArmRosgazprom” is charged with the functions of the customer of the
second 197 km section of Iran-Armenian gas pipeline. Whereas, the new
edition tells only about the purchase of “Hrazdan-5.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian president, EU envoy discuss expanding ties
Mediamax news agency
7 Apr 06
Yerevan, 7 April: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and the EU envoy
for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, discussed issues “related to
the organization and holding the elections in 2007-2008 in line with
international standards”, the presidential press service has told
Mediamax.
The Armenian president hailed the establishment of institution of the
EU special representative for the South Caucasus “which made it
possible to make relations with European structures more coordinated”.
Semneby pointed that relations between the South Caucasus and European
Union have entered a qualitatively new level and the establishment of
peace and stability in the region is at the centre of the EU’s
attention.
At the meeting, the parties also discussed issues related to drawing
up Armenia’s action plan within the framework of the European
Neighbourhood Policy. Kocharyan noted the importance of implementing
the document as soon as possible.
At Semneby’s request, Kocharyan briefed him about the latest
developments in the Nagornyy Karabakh peace talks and outlined the
Armenian approach to the issue.

Armenian energy minister denies deal to hand Russia control of gas
pipeline from Iran
AP Worldstream; Apr 07, 2006

Armenia’s energy minister denied Friday that the impoverished Caucasus
Mountain nation had struck a deal with Russia’s state-run gas monopoly
to hand it control of part of a new Armenian-Iranian gas pipeline.
OAO Gazprom a day earlier announced that it had struck a 25-year-deal
giving Gazprom’s Armenian joint venture ownership rights to the
Armenian segment of a planned pipeline bringing Iranian gas to the
country and an electricity power generating unit.
Energy Minister Armen Movsisian, said that the pipeline was still
under construction and therefore “it cannot be sold.”
He insisted that Armenia had only agreed to transfer control of the
country’s Razdan-5 gas-fired power plant for almost US$250 million
(A205 million).
The deal was expected to draw fire from Armenia’s opposition, which
has expressed concern over Russia’s already heavy control over the
small, landlocked country’s energy infrastructure.
But Movsisian said the proceeds from the deal _ which will give
Gazprom the right to export electricity from the power plant unit _
were needed to soften the effect for the population of a doubling in
the price of Russian natural gas supplies.
The agreement sets a price for Armenia of US$110 (A90) per thousand
cubic meters of gas up to Jan. 1, 2009, according to a Gazprom
statement _ roughly twice what Armenia has paid in recent years.
Armenia earlier had turned over control for its national gas transport
system to a Russia-Armenian joint venture, ArmRosGaz, in which Gazprom
and an affiliated company control 55 percent.
Gazprom has sharply raised prices recently for Ukraine, Georgia and
Moldova, arguing that it is merely ending subsidies to ex-Soviet
republics and bringing the rates closer to market prices. The gas
giant is the dominant energy supplier in the former Soviet Union, and
has sought to take over pipeline networks, power grids and other
energy infrastructure in neighboring states.
Critics, including some Western countries, say the Kremlin is using
Russia’s energy wealth as a political and economic weapon.
Armenia is Russia’s chief ally in the poor, but strategic Caucasus
Mountain region and hosts a Russian military base.
Russia already largely controls the Razdan-5 plant, the country’s main
electricity producer, and Armenia is wholly dependent on Moscow for
gas supplies.

Man sought for 1994 Los Angeles murders arrested in Armenia
AP Worldstream; Apr 07, 2006

A man accused of killing two gang rivals in Los Angeles more than a
decade ago was arrested in his native Armenia, the FBI announced.
Vahagn Akopyan, 33, was arrested by Armenian authorities in the
capital of Yerevan on Wednesday, said J. Stephen Tidwell, assistant
director in charge of the FBI office in Los Angeles.
Akopyan was being held until it was determined whether he will be
deported to the United States or charged in Armenia, Tidwell announced
Thursday.
Akopyan had been sought in connection with the May 1994 murder of two
reputed gang rivals and the attempted murder of a third on Hollywood
Boulevard.
He was living in California but was believed to have returned to
Armenia shortly after the killings.

From: [email protected]
Subject: US aid chief faces challenge of tight funds
US aid chief faces challenge of tight funds
FT.com site; Apr 07, 2006
By Andrew Bounds in Brussels

The man in charge of doling out US development aid is facing
challenges on two fronts. At home, John Danilovich, chief executive of
the Millennium Challenge Corporation, is vying with other departments
for funding from cash-strapped Washington. Abroad, he wants poor
countries to compete against each other for the funds he has to offer.
Last month, Mr Danilovich asked Congress for $3bn (€2.4bn,
£1.7bn) for 2007. The indications are he will be lucky to get
much more than the $1.7bn the MCC received for this year.
“We have a complicated budget process because of the demands of Iraq
and Hurricane Katrina [which devastated New Orleans this year]. The
defence department needs the money first,” he admits.
It is a personal blow since the former ambassador to Brazil and Costa
Rica has reformed the MCC, established by President George W. Bush in
2004, to please Congress. Almost his first act after getting the job
in November was to suspend aid to Yemen for backsliding on its
commitments. “This communicated a strong message to other countries
that we do have the will and courage to take steps to ensure the money
comes to a screeching halt,” he said.
The MCC is now talking to Yemen about what it must do to have the aid
tap turned on again. It is also in deadlock with Bolivia. It agreed a
record $598m grant for infrastructure and export assistance weeks
before populist ex-coca farmer Evo Morales won a December election in
the Latin American state. Yet the plan is gathering dust. “We have had
no sign of engagement from the Morales government and we are dependent
on them to take this to the next stage.”
Mr Danilovich’s next act was to produce a “how to” manual for
countries seeking aid.
The MCC is set up more
as a company than a federal agency and gives out money in quarterly
instalments over five years, expecting business plans from its client
countries. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, is chairman, and Rob
Portman, trade representative, John Snow, Treasury sec-retary, and
Randall Tobias, USAID chief, are also members. Two seats are unfilled.
Mr Danilovich has been praised for his work. Bono, the rock star and
anti-poverty campaigner who helped to conceive the MCC idea, visited
its headquarters last month. “It has had its problems getting off the
ground but it is getting a lot better under Danilovich,” said Jamie
Drummond, director of Data, Bono’s organisation.
Some 23 countries have qualified for assistance by hitting the
indicators, drawn up by institutions such as the World Bank and the
rightwing Heritage Foundation. They measure indicators such as
standards of governance, economic liberalism, democracy and women’s
rights.
“The aim is to incentivise countries. The ones that move fastest can
jump from the back of the queue to the front,” said Mr
Danilovich. They are competing for the “honey pot” at the end. He
cites the west African state of Benin as a success story –
it completed a $307m deal in February in near-record time and has just
had a democratic transfer of power.
Seven other countries have agreed programmes totalling $1.2bn:
Madagascar, Honduras, Nicaragua, Georgia, Armenia, Cape Verde and
Vanuatu. Five more have concluded smaller so-called threshold
agreements to help them qualify for further funding. Mr Danilovich
expects to sign a deal with Ghana in the next few months, and El
Salvador, Sri Lanka, Mali and Mongolia by the end of the year.
This month he will accompany Jim Kolbe, the House of Representatives
foreign appropriations committee chairman, to Armenia and Georgia to
show what a difference US money is making.

BNP in turmoil as members row about ‘ethnic’ candidate: Selection of
Sharif Gawad provokes uproar among ‘whites-only’ hardcore
The Guardian – United Kingdom; Apr 08, 2006
MICHAEL WHITE MARTIN WAINWRIGHT

The British National party was riven last night over its decision to
select the grandson of an asylum seeker to fight a seat in next
month’s local elections.
Sharif Abdel Gawad, whom the BNP describes as a “totally assimilated
Greek-Armenian”, was chosen to stand in a Bradford ward as part of the
party’s biggest ever electoral push.
The decision has provoked a backlash among BNP hardliners who
described Mr Gawad as an “ethnic” who should be barred from the party
on race grounds. One regional organiser responsible for the
candidate’s selection is thought to be under pressure to
resign. Another regional organiser is leading the dissent against the
party leadership, saying it had betrayed the members and would confuse
voters.
On online noticeboards used by BNP supporters, scores of contributors
denounced Mr Gawad’s selection. They said the BNP should remain an
all-white party and the decision to appoint him was taken over the
heads of rank and file members.
Yesterday the BNP admitted it had received a number of calls from
angry members and that a hardcore had refused to accept Mr Gawad’s
candidacy on race grounds “even when it was explained that he was not
a Pakistani Muslim”.
BNP spokesman Phil Edwards said those members who refused to accept
the candidacy had no place in the party.
The rift follows a dispute in 2004 when the party leader, Nick
Griffin, tried to force through rule changes allowing non-white people
to join the BNP. After widespread opposition from members, the
leadership was forced to abandon the proposals.
The BNP says Mr Gawad was named after the actor Omar Sharif because
his mother was a fan, and that his grandfather was an Armenian
Christian who fled to Britain as a refugee.
But opposition to his selection has filled extremist websites. “It
won’t deter me from doing what’s needed for the election, but we have
been let down,” read a posting on the Stormfront bulletin board.
“The BNP is the last bastion of hope for our people, they too have
been let down if just anyone is allowed to join. Ethnics have every
single opportunity afforded them, and now they even get to join the
BNP. Just like immigration into this country, we were not
consulted. When an ethnic wants to join, it should go to a membership
vote. We’re the ones who do all the work, we should have a say.”
Another read: “No one is listening, and the worst calls I’ve had today
are demanding a leadership challenge.”
Several postings said a senior Yorkshire figure had been forced to
resign over the issue, a claim the BNP denied last night.
Nick Lowles, from the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, said the
row, which came as the BNP announced it is to field a record 357
candidates on May 4, went way beyond the usual opposition within the
party. “The modernisers are trying to make the party seem more
acceptable, more mainstream but for most BNP members race is the
bottom line, it is a party for white people and that’s that.”
In 2004 the BNP fielded 313 candidates and received around 800,000
votes. Next month it aims to double its current tally of 20 elected
councillors and four parish councillors.
MPs and activists say it is posing a serious threat in up to 80 wards,
many of them in five areas in Yorkshire, the Midlands and east London
where immigration issues mingle with those of industrial decline.
According to Dagenham’s Labour MP, Jon Cruddas – a former adviser to
Tony Blair – the BNP is trying to appeal to working-class Labour
voters who who feel disenfranchised by New Labour’s “middle Britain”
strategy, as well as rightwingers.
In industrial areas where coal, steel, textiles or pottery jobs have
gone – or shrunk in the case of Dagenham’s once-mighty Ford car plant
in which 3,000 now work instead of 25,000 – the BNP issues leaflets
with slogans such as “Shut Down by the Tories, Abandoned by Labour,
Only the BNP Will Stand Up for British Workers”. The leaflets depict
the BNP as untainted by old, rotten political ways, willing to stand
up for ordinary people and say what they think.
Nick Cass, a former Yorkshire and England squash player who is now the
BNP’s full-time Yorkshire organiser, echoed the theme: “We need a few
scallies on the council who’ll say, ‘I’m not having this.'”
But opponents say the BNP’s record as effective councillors is poor,
although another form of record has tarnished some prominent
members. In each of the last two years, a candidate in the Kirklees
area has been convicted of drug offences.
Labour says it is taking the BNP threat seriously. Dudley North MP Ian
Austin, who faces BNP candidates in five of his seven constituency
wards, has started organising trips to Auschwitz for students. An
anti-racist festival is planned for April 30.
Counter-measures including heavy leafleting and canvassing have also
proved effective in Dagenham. Here the BNP won a ward from Labour in a
byelection in 2004 with 52% of the vote, campaigning on the shortage
of affordable housing and an “Africans for Essex” claim – part of what
Searchlight calls the Big Lie technique – that foreigners were being
subsidised to move in. Labour later regained the seat.
Keighley, where Mr Griffin did badly at the general election, saw a
further BNP setback last month when it lost the safest of its four
seats on Bradford council to an outraged local mother, Angela
Sinfield. She stood for Labour after her campaign against the grooming
of young girls for prostitution, including her own daughter, was
hijacked by the BNP, which portrayed the pimping, wrongly, as
organised by Asian gangs.
Sharif Abdel Gawad, a ‘totally assimilated Greek-Armenian’ and ‘not a
Pakistani Muslim’, the BNP insists

Armenpress
CHINESE AMBASSADOR SAYS RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA GOOD

YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS: In an interview to
Armenpress news agency Chinese ambassador to Yerevan,
Tzu Siolian, said Armenian-Chinese political contacts
were on high level with mutual exchange visits and
other contacts. He said Armenia and China have no
political problems.
“Our relations are developing based on reciprocal
respect and equality. Both countries support one
another at international organizations,” he said. The
ambassador lamented a low trade between the two
countries which last year made only $8 million. But he
said it was significantly bigger over the previous
years.
Last year the government of China gave Armenia 15
million Yuan assistance which Armenia wants to spend
on buying agricultural machines. The ambassador also
mentioned cooperation in education area. Now around 30
Chinese students major in different areas at Yerevan
universities.
Send instant messages to your online friends

Thursday, April 06, 2006
************************************
There is an unspoken Armenian theory (to which I subscribed for many years) that says: “The angrier you get, the more you raise your voice in outrage, the closer to the truth you are.” It took me many years to see the wisdom in the old Chinese proverb: “He who loses temper has wrong on his side.”
*
In NEWSEEK magazine today an American politician running for office is quoted as having said: “It’s hard to have a debate when you have to debate a bunch of morons!” I can’t imagine an Armenian saying that about fellow Armenians, can you?
*
Since not all of nature is comprehensible to us, we tend to call phenomena that we can’t explain miracles, Aldous Huxley writes in one of his essays after witnessing a “miracle” (a weeping statue) in an Armenian church in Beirut. As a child I remember someone telling me that Jesus did not change water to wine, which would amount to legitimizing alcoholism. He just had water added to the remaining wine and the guests were by then too drunk to notice the difference in taste. And in our paper today I read that according to an Israeli scientist Jesus did not walk on water but on a patch of ice. If you are interested in this subject I suggest you read Thomas Mann’s THE TABLES OF THE LAW where many other Biblical miracles are explained scientifically.
*
If I had a say in the matter, I would make tolerance (beginning with tolerance of Turks and their side of the story) the most important subject for study in our schools. One benefit of tolerance: it may lower the barriers that divide us thus enhancing our chances of survival as a nation.
*
The very same people who have been blabbering endlessly about massacres demand that I change my tune and say something new.
#
Friday, April 07, 2006
************************************
On more than one occasion I have been told to Armenianize my surname. To what end? To cover up 600 years of Ottoman subjection? Can it be done? I think of Malcolm X who changed his name but was murdered by his own kind anyway. Besides, the root of my surname is not Ottoman but Venetian. “Bailo” in Venetian dialect means ambassador. Among other words that the Turks borrowed from the Venetians are “piazza” and “maranga” (carpenter).
*
Was one of my ancestors an ambassador? I don’t know and I care even less. Unlike some of my fellow Armenians who trace their ancestry all the way back to Vartan Mamikonian (of Chinese descent) or the Bagratunis (Jewish), on a good day I can trace mine all the way back to my father, who was born in Sivrihisar, a town famous only as the birthplace of Nasreddin Hodja – a detail that I discovered only very recently on the Internet.
*
Some of my readers may not be aware of the fact that for several centuries Venice and Constantinople were in constant touch as allies, competitors, and more often as rivals.
*
When Sultan Mehmet II (1429-1481) wanted his portrait painted, he asked the Doge of Venice to send him a good painter. The Doge chose Gentile Bellini. The Sultan approved Bellini’s portrait and he commissioned him to paint the head of John the Baptist, who it seems is venerated as a prophet by the Muslims. When the work was done the Sultan had one minor objection. The neck of the prophet was too long, he said, and explained that when a man is beheaded the muscles in the neck contract and the neck shrinks. When Bellini seemed unconvinced, the Sultan had one of his slaves beheaded in Bellini’s presence to prove his point. Bellini was so horrified and scared that something similar might happen to him if he displeased His Majesty that he hastened his return to Venice under cover of darkness.
*
It is to be noted that some of these superpatriots who urge me to change my name are so proud of their own that they write under assumed names that are anything but Armenian. As Zarian says somewhere, “even their filth has not been picked up from our own streets but from alien gutters.”
#
Saturday, April 08, 2006
***********************************
Whenever told he repeats himself, Saroyan would recount the story of the cellist who played the same note over and over again. When asked why he did that, he would reply, “Other cellists play different notes because they are looking for the right one. I have found it.”
*
To the untrained ear all Bach’s fugues (and he wrote hundreds of them) sound alike. One could also say that all of literature, from THE ILIAD and THE SONG OF SONGS to MADAME BOVARY, ANNA KARENINA, and LOLITA, is about women.
*
A few years ago when a Holocaust denier by the name of Zundel was jailed in Canada, one of our elder statesmen wrote me an angry letter saying it was wrong to jail a decent man for exercising his fundamental human right of free speech. And now, he and his kind are doing exactly the same thing when they refuse to listen to the Turkish side of the story on the grounds that the Turks are denialists.
*
To verbally abuse someone on the Internet from a safe distance and anonymously is to compound insolence with cowardice. The question to be asked at this point is: What kind of idiot would make himself vulnerable to these charges? If I have said this before, it bears repeating.
#

RUMORS ON SKIRMISHES ARE FALSE BUT KARABAKH NEEDS TO THINK ABOUT SECURITY
Lragir.am
07 April 06
The situation at the front line is calm. It is true that there has
been certain activity there as it usually happens in spring, `when
theydo engineering on the positions after the snow melts,’ said Seyran
Ohanyan, NKR Minister of Defense, to news reporters. According to him,
there are gunshots from the Azerbaijani side, and it would be at least
unserious not to shoot back. The minister assures that no Karabakh
soldiers were killed during this violation of the ceasefire.
This is an official opinion. The unofficial one does not differ. In
tiny Karabakh where everyone knows one other, there are no rumors
about border incidents and casualties. Here they think that the
information spread by Azerbaijan pursues political aims. We can only
guess at these aims. It is clear, however, that in the future
Azerbaijan will use this information to acquire political
dividends. Armenia will be presented as an aggressor, and Azerbaijan
as a victim.
Huzeyr Jafarov, an independent military expert, told the Zerkalo
Newspaper that skirmishes occur often. `When I was an army officer, we
received information from the officers on sentry, reported to the
minister of defense, who decided to publish that information or not.
Now, apparently, the ministry publishes all the information, having
the approval of the country’s leadership.’
According to the Azerbaijani expert, he does not know how it happens
that every day a person is killed at the positions, which are highly
protected.The commanders are to blame, says Jafarov. He is also
surprised that the Armenian side reports no casualties. The expert
starts thinking that there are no casualties from the Armenian side.
Nevertheless, tensions at the front line, artificial or real, worries
the public. Major-General Vitaly Balasanyan, MP, chairman of the Havat
NGO, is going to introduce a bill on the security and defense of
Nagorno-Karabakh people.
According to V. Balasanyan, the increasingly aggressive militaristic
statements of Azerbaijan, and the frequent violations of the ceasefire
by the enemy at the front line make us focus on the security of the
NKR population and the effectiveness of the Defense Army, and
centralize all our military potential to be ready for a resumption of
military actions.
Under this bill the NKR National Assembly will request the National
Assembly of Armenia to adopt a decision, reflecting the urgency of
stationing troops of the Republic of Armenia in NKR.
The recent statement of the president of Armenia that under threat of
war the Republic of Armenia will assume responsibility for the
security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh, i.e. any encroachment on
Karabakh will be viewed as an encroachment on Armenia, may act a
signal for such a decision. The General is convinced that in the
decision of the NKR National Assembly the Republic of Azerbaijan must
be presented as an aggressor, a state claiming to the territories of a
neighbor people.
Considering this reality, the NKR Parliament must draw up a document
on the consequences of possible military actions, and extend it to the
international community and the international organizations, engaged
in the peace settlement of the conflict.

Armenia decides against extending coach’s contract

AP Worldstream; Apr 06, 2006
Armenia’s soccer federation said Thursday it would not extend coach
Henk Wisman’s contract and would appoint a replacement to lead the
team in qualifying for the 2008 European Championship.
“The soccer federation of Armenia refused to extend its contract with
Henk Wisman, head coach of the national team,” Araik Manukian,
spokesman for the federation, told The Associated Press.
Wisman, of the Netherlands, took over in May 2005 and was contracted
until the end of the World Cup qualifying last October, with an option
to extend his term for another two years.
Wisman replaced France’s Bernard Casoni and was Armenia’s fourth
foreign coach in three years, but Armenia lost five matches under him
and finished next-to-last-last in its World Cup qualifying group.