CANADIAN PARLIAMENT KEEPS MINUTE OF SILENCE IN MEMORY OF VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 27 2006
Yerevan, April 27. /ARKA/. The Canadian Parliament kept a minute
of silence in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915. The pres and information department,
RA Foreign Office, reports that an Armenian delegation was invited
to the Parliament’s sitting on April 24, 2006.
The minute of silence was announced by Speaker Peter Milliken with
the parliamentarians’ consent at the end of the Government’s hour.
Hundreds of representatives of Armenian communities in Canada arrived
in Ottawa from Montreal and Toronto. The Armenian delegation visited
the RA Embassy in Canada and laid a wreath to the monument “Eternal
Armenia” in front of the Embassy. The same day, Armenian organizations
held a procession of protest in front of the Turkish Embassy in Canada.
On April 23, a large-scale function in memory of the Genocide victims
was held at the Armenian center in Toronto. Speaking were Chairman
of the New Democratic Party Jack Leyton, the leader of the official
opposition John Torin, candidate for the post of chairman of Liberal
Party Joe Volpen, representatives of the Greek and Armenian communities
of Canada, members of the Canadian Parliament. Premier of Ontario
Delton Mcguiny addressed a message to the participants.
Executive Director of the Canadian Institute of Genocide Research
Rich Hinges was a keynoter at the function.
Similar arrangements were held in Montreal on the initiative of the
Hay Dad Montreal Commission and the Armenian Congress in Canada.
On April 23-24, Canadian TV channels marked the 91st anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide. Liturgies were offered in Saint Grigor
Lusavorich and Saint Hakob churches in Montreal and in Saint Mesrob
church in Ottawa.

INSULTING ANY PROPHET, ANY RELIGION WRONG: CLERIC
By Ashwin Honawar
Peninsula On-line, Qatar
April 27 2006
Photo: Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian
DOHA: Christians have also been victims of blasphemous caricatures
long before their Muslim brethren: A leading Iranian daily published
caricatures insulting Jesus Christ and the 12 Apostles about a
year and half before cartoons blaspheming Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)
appeared in a Danish daily, Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, Primate of
the Armenian Prelacy of Tehran, said here yesterday.
In an interview with The Peninsula yesterday, Archbishop Sarkissian who
heads the 150,000-strong Armenian Christian community of Iran, said,
a Tehran-based Farsi-language daily, Hamshami, had published about a
year-and-half before the Danish daily, a caricature of Jesus Christ
and the 12 apostles. The caricature showed Jesus and the apostles at
the Last Supper, feasting on pizzas and Pepsi. It showed Jesus Christ
passing a hamburger sandwich to one of the apostles,” he said.
The Christian community in Iran, he said was deeply saddened by this
blasphemous act but the reaction was peaceful. “We did not take it
as seriously. I personally told the government that what was done
by that daily was wrong. I pointed out, how can there be amity among
Iranian citizens of different faith if their prophets were blasphemed
by the media. I declined to participate in a dialogue of religions
and refused an interview on the state-run TV to vent the feelings of
the community,” he disclosed. “In so many Islamic countries, Jesus
Christ has been blasphemed. Why Christians do not demonstrate? In the
Christian world, there is no media censorship while there are a few
Muslim countries that do not have press censorship,” he added. When
told that Islam strictly forbids any form of imagery, Archbishop
Sarkissian pointed out, Muslims also indulge in photography.
He said, there was an urgent need to educate the media against
insulting holy icons of all faiths since they only tend to create
animosity among the public while dealing serious setbacks to the
dialogue of religions, which was crucial. The media should be made
fully aware of the consequences that result from such blaspheming of
any community’s holy figures and prophets. Sarkissian, at the Doha
4th Conference for Religious Dialogue yesterday gave a presentation
on the problems faced by religious leaders in approaching the media
to respect prophets held sacred by believers of different religions.
The outcry and violent reaction in some countries caused by the
publication of cartoons by a section of the Danish press, he said,
were the fallout of exaggeration of the issue by the media in the
Muslim world.
Despite such incidences, the archbishop said, the Armenian Christian
community lives in amity with people of other faiths in Iran, a
majority of whom are Muslims, about 20,000 Jew and another 20,000,
followers of the Zoroastrian faith, among others. ” Before the Islamic
revolution in Iran, there were no religious restrictions.
After the revolution too, there are no restrictions and the right to
religious freedom was added to the constitution,” he said.
Asked about Iran’s nuclear controversy, the religious head, said, all
Iranian citizens were worried about the propaganda that the programme
was to build weapons, being churned by some segments of the Western
press. ” We usually do not include political and other issues in our
sermons at the mass but due to the seriousness of the issue, we did
speak about it a couple of times,” he added. The negative propaganda,
he noted, affects all Iranians, regardless of their faith.
ews.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+Ne ws&month=April2006&file=Local_News20060427 83059.xml

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT MAKES DECISION TO PROVIDE STATE PERPETUAL COUPON BONDS TO CBA
Noyan Tapan
Apr 27 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, NOYAN TAPAN. Pursuant to provisions of the RA
Law on the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), the Armenian governmnt
on April 27 made a decision to provide, for the purpose of making
investments in the CBA capital, the CBA with RA state (treasury)
perpetual coupon bonds of 12 bln 734 mln 237 thousand 325 drams in
the amount exceeding the total of the bank’s reserves in order to
compensate for the losses in the CBA balance in 2005. NT was informed
about it from the RA Government Information and PR Department. The
RA Ministry of Finance and Economy was assigned to ensure the issue
of the RA state (treasury) perpetual coupon bonds by the indicated
decision and to provide these bonds to the CBA. Under the law, in case
the total of reserves is exceeded in the financial year, with the
aim of compensating for the losses in the CBA balance, the Armenian
government provides the CBA with state perpetual bonds in the amount
of exceeded sum at the market interest rate, as an investment in the
CBA capital, within 30 days after the balance has been published.

REPS OF LITHUANIA’S IT SECTOR INVITED TO ARMENIA
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006
YEREVAN, April 26. /ARKA/. Representatives of Lithuania’s IT-sector
have been invited to Armenia to take part in a Month of information
technologies, RA Premier Andranik Margaryan stated at his meeting
with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus.
The RA Premier informed the Lithuanian President that a Month of
Information Technologies is to be held in Yerevan in September-October
2006. A number of conferences, as well as an annual international
exhibition “DIGITEC 2006”, will be organized as part of the Month. A
programming competition, an international e-content contest,
an international conference as part of the Armenia-Diaspora forum,
as well as exhibitions and special IT training courses in Armenia’s
schools, are expected to be organized.

DOUBLING OF NKR’S GDP EVIDENCE OF ACHIEVEMENT OF GOALS, NKR PM STATES
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006
STEPANAKERT, April 27. /ARKA/. The doubling of the GDP of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) over the last four years, a more
than 43% increase in internal revenues, as well as the creation of
new jobs testify that the set goals have been achieved, NKR Premier
Anushavan Danielyan stated at meeting of the NKR Government.
According to him, a steady GDP growth and stable economy are obvious
now. Danielyan pointed out the importance of analyzing the recorded
indices for further formation of a more balanced budged with minimal
risks.
The NKR Premier spoke of further plans of developing the country’s
industry, agriculture, irrigation system and municipal economy. In
2005, the NKR’s GDP totaled AMD 51.4bln against AMD 42.830bln in
2004. ($1 – AMD 446.53).

REGULAR JOINT SITTING OF COMMISSION FOR NKR-ARMENIA INTERPARLIAMENTARY COOPERATION HELD EFFECTIVELY: VICE-SPEAKER
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006
STEPANAKERT, April 27. /ARKA/. A regular joint sitting of the
Commission for interparliamentary cooperation between the NKR and
Armenia was held very effectively, Chairman of the Commission for
interparliamentary cooperation, Armenian Vice-Speaker Tigran Torosyan
told reporters in Stepanakert.
According to him, during two days a few questions were discussed
concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, drafting of the
NKR constitution, bringing the NKR legislation in conformity with
the European standards and increase of effectiveness of cooperation
between the two country’s parliaments.
He also reported that the Commission’s sittings will be held twice
a year, and extraordinary sittings will be convened in case of
necessity.

ARMENIAN CHERNOBYL VICTIMS STILL SUFFERING
By Marianna Grigorian and Gayane Mkrtchian in Yerevan
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
April 27 2006
Twenty years on, a new generation of children is not getting the
treatment it needs for Chernobyl-related sickness.
The skin of Sennik Alexanian has a strange yellow hue to it, his
bones stick out and his eyes bulge. Alexanian is only 49 but his
immune system has collapsed. Like thousands of his compatriots he
divides his life into two periods – before and after Chernobyl.
Along with 3,000 Armenians – and tens of thousands of people from
across the Soviet Union – Alexanian was sent to help clear up the
aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine twenty years
ago. Half of the Armenians sent there have severe health problems
caused by the radiation they suffered and 350 of them have died.
On April 25, a group of Armenian rescuers were presented with awards
by the prime minister Andranik Margarian. He promised them greater
support, but many say the government of independent Armenia has let
them down.
“I went to work and they did not let me in,” recalled Alexanian, who
worked as a driver in 1986. “They put us in a train and didn’t tell
me or my family where they were sending me. If I hadn’t gone and I’d
run away, they’d have put me on trial as an enemy of the people.”
The rescuers were not told about the invisible dangers of the zone
they were entering.
“Radiation does not have a smell or a colour, you can’t define it,”
said Alexanian. “We just started feeling unwell and had constant
headaches and dizziness and everyone had constant nose bleeds.”
Gevorg Vardanian, now chairman of the Armenian Chernobyl Association,
spent eleven months in Chernobyl in total and suffers from serious
radiation sickness.
“In Ukraine, the public didn’t know what had happened and during the
May Day parade radioactive rain fell on people,” he recalled. “The
most terrible thing was that there were students amongst those who
brought people out of Chernobyl. They had no idea they had been
brought into a disaster zone.”
Six years after the Chernobyl accident, the Soviet Union broke up and
the rescuers became the responsibility of the new independent states
such as Armenia. But unlike many other countries, Armenia has not
allocated substantial funds for the medical treatment of Chernobyl
survivors. Although entitled to free medical check-ups twice a year,
the sufferers say they generally do not get even these.
Alexanian says his health is deteriorating every day but he has
not been given the money to treat his illnesses. His family has sold
everything they could, including their apartment. He receives a pension
of 21,000 drams, equivalent to 46 US dollars, every month, but says he
needs far more than that to pay for even one of the medicines he needs.
“When we apply to the appropriate offices hoping for help, they tell
us sarcastically ‘You shouldn’t have gone’, but it wasn’t up to us,”
said Alexanian. “No one went knowingly to a slow death.”
Six years ago he and his wife had a son, but the effects of Chernobyl
left their mark on the baby too. Little Vachagan was born with chronic
health problems and suffers from epilepsy and nervous fits.
Gevorg Vardanian says that most of the Armenian rescuers are no longer
fit for work. They live in poor conditions and lack the money for
their basic needs.
“We thought the troubles that began for us in Chernobyl would end in
Armenia, but it seems there is no end to them,” said Vardanian.
“Not just the rescuers, but more than thirty per cent of their
children suffer from a whole host of defects and have serious health
problems. Many don’t even have the chance to take their children to
the doctor.”
Vardanian says that the Armenian government has been particularly lax
in its responsibilities, “We have no special law which defends the
rights of those who took part in the Chernobyl emergency and gives
them the benefits that others from all over the former Soviet Union
are receiving.”
According to Vardanian, the Armenian government ratified a treaty
undertaking to pass a special law to protect Chernobyl survivors,
but since then no such law has been adopted.
Only at the beginning of this year did the parliamentary commission
on social issues, health and the environment draw up a draft law
that would guarantee the welfare of the Chernobyl victims and their
children.
“The draft law is being discussed,” said Gagik Mkheyan, head of
the commission.
However, the bill is already being criticised by government ministries.
“In our opinion, Armenia does not need a law like this,” Jemma
Baghdasarian, head of the department for the problems of invalids
and the elderly at the labour ministry, told IWPR, arguing that the
Chernobyl survivors are sufficiently well looked after by current
welfare legislation.
Nikolai Hovhannissian, head of Armenia’s Centre for Radioactive
Medicine and Burns, says he understands the concerns of the Chernobyl
rescuers, but that Armenia simply cannot afford to look after them.
“The state envisages spending 100,000 drams (222 dollars) on each
sick person, which includes the cost of the electricity used by the
hospital, the salaries of the medical staff, medicine, food,” said
Hovhannissian. “What can you say? This amount is not enough to solve
even a part of the problems of the sufferers.”
The survivors themselves say they have pinned hopes on the new law
and that existing social provision is woefully inadequate.
“We have the impression that everyone is against us, we are like
walking corpses, whom no one needs,” said Vazgen Gyurjinian, a
Chernobyl survivor.
Gyurjinian, an electrician, was 28 when he was sent to the Chernobyl
disaster zone. Now 46, he talks in a hoarse voice and is short of
breath. He has had three heart attacks. His third daughter Lusine,
born on his return, was an invalid at birth and gets just 3,600 drams
(around eight dollars) a month in state benefit.
“It’s not just us, who are unsuited for life by now, who need this
law, but our children and grandchildren,” said Gyurjinian. “Maybe
some of us have healthy children but that does not guarantee us from
sick grandchildren. Our genes have been damaged.”
Marianna Grigorian and Gayane Mkrtchian are reporters fro
Armenianow.com in Yerevan.

ARMENIA: ALARM AT RUSSIAN GAS DEAL
By Rita Karapetian in Yerevan
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
April 27 2006
Gas prices to stay low – but the opposition says the political cost
is too high.
Politicians from various parts of the Armenian political landscape
are voicing concern over a deal which hands over an important part
of the country’s energy sector to the Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Opposition member of parliament Arshak Sadoyan last week called on
the government to annul the deal agreed on April 6 to sell Gazprom
the fifth as yet unfinished generating unit of the Hrazdan gas-fired
power station. The unit was the only part of the plant not already
in Russian ownership.
In a sign of how controversial the deal is, the speaker of parliament,
Artur Baghdasarian, a leading member of the pro-government coalition,
has also expressed concern that the sale places too much control of
the energy sector in Russian hands.
Baghdasarian, who heads the Orinats Yerkir party, said the deal was
a good one from an economic point of view but “politically, it’s
worrying that Armenian energy capacities are being concentrated in
Russia’s hands”.
The Armenian government has justified the deal on the grounds that
it will guarantee low prices for consumers.
Russia, currently the sole supplier of gas to Armenia, announced
a price rise at the end of last year. Although Armenia is regarded
as a strategic partner of Moscow, it was offered the same price as
Georgia – 110 US dollars per 1,000 cubic meters instead of the earlier
56 dollars.
The Armenian authorities immediately said they were negotiating with
the Russians to find ways of compensating for the price hike and
mitigating the potentially damaging social and economic repercussions.
These negotiations led to the 249-million dollar Hrazdan deal with
Gazprom. Of the total sum, 188 million will go towards subsidising
retail gas prices over the next three years, according to Energy
Minister Armen Movsesian. The rest will be taken as government revenue.
Gazprom has pledged not to alter the cost of its wholesale gas supplies
to Armenia until 2009. Movsesian said the price controls would also
have the side effect of holding down electricity charges.
Ahead of the agreement, President Robert Kocharian’s office released
a videotaped speech in which he said the price Armenian consumers
pay for gas would not increase by more than 10-15 per cent.
Gazprom has undertaken to invest 150-160 million dollars to complete
the fifth generating unit at the Hrazdan plant over the next two years.
The Hrazdan thermal station is the most productive power station in
Armenia, generating around 20 per cent of the country’s electricity.
Russia acquired the four current units in 2003 in return for writing
off Armenian government debt. Construction of the fifth unit began
in the 1980s but has never been finished.
Russian companies now have a firm grip on the entire Armenian energy
sector.
The electricity giant UES owns Armenia’s electricity-distribution
networks too, having bought them last year from the British-registered
offshore company Midland Resources.
In 2002, UES acquired the Sevan-Hrazdan hydroelectric cascade,
consisting of six linked power stations – the country’s largest –
in exchange for clearing debts for the Russian-supplied nuclear fuel
on which the Metsamor nuclear station runs.
Metsamor, which supplies a significant part of Armenia’s energy,
is due to close in 2016 at the latest.
The latest deal with Gazprom has met with mixed reactions even within
the governing coalition.
Prime minister and Republican Party leader Andranik Margarian said
the sale was a very successful transaction which had been handled
with skill.
“This does not threaten our energy security; on the contrary, it
strengthens it,” said Margarian.
Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisian said it would take a minimum of
180 million dollars to complete the unit, and the costs could not be
recovered for a decade. “I mean, we would have an enterprise working
to profit by 2017 at best,” he explained. “But how big would those
profits be? How much will gas rise in price? These are questions to
which only Nostradamus knows the answer.”
But the leader of the pro-government faction in parliament, United
Labour Party leader Gurgen Arsenian said gas was “a new Russian energy
weapon that could potentially be used against Armenia”.
The opposition has been more outspoken, with Viktor Dallakian of the
Justice parliamentary group warning that handing over Armenian energy
resources to the Russians was a threat to national security.
Dallakian also disputed the economic benefits of the deal, saying
it undermined efforts to boost energy cooperation with neighbouring
Iran. If an agreement had been concluded with Tehran, he said the
Hrazdan power plant would be running on Iranian gas and selling the
electricity generated back to Iran. As a result, he went on, Armenia
would have enjoyed annual profits of 100 million dollars for the next
20 years, while retaining ownership of the Hrazdan plant.
Instead, said Dallakian, the government had simply given the power
plant as a “present” to the Russians.
Initially, there were reports, including on Gazprom’s own website,
that the Russian firm had bought a 40-kilometre section of the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline which is currently under construction,
and that the Russians would also help build a new stretch, which is
due to be finished by the end of this year.
Several hours later, the information was corrected on the Gazprom site,
with the parts regarding the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline struck out.
However, many people in Yerevan do not believe this is the end of the
matter. Independent deputy Manuk Gasparian predicted that the Armenian
section of the gas pipeline would be sold off by the end of the year.
Rita Karapetian works for Noyan Tapan news agency in Yerevan.

ARMENIAN AND NKR MPS MET IN STEPANAKERT
PanARMENIAN.Net
27.04.2006 22:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The session of the NKR-Armenia Interparliamentary
Cooperation Commission in Stepanakert was held in a business
atmosphere, Armenian NA Vice-Speaker, Commission Co-Chair Tigran
Torosyan stated at a news conference in Stepanakert today. In his
words, matters of enhancing economic integration of Armenia and NK,
effective interparliamentary cooperation, as well as settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict, working out the NKR Constitution, making
it comply with the European standards were discussed at the meeting.
Commenting on discussion of the NK issue in European structures, the
Armenian NA Vice-Speaker remarked the PACE members always underscore
that within the process of settlement the principle of people’s right
to self-determination should be taken into consideration without
fail. In his words, the CE sees its task not in finding a solution,
but forming a favorable atmosphere for conflict settlement. The
PACE Interim Commission on NK is scheduled to visit NKR in October,
Torosyan also reported.
Answering journalists’ questions, the Armenian Parliament Vice-Speaker
said that including NKR NA representatives in Armenian parliamentary
delegations to European structures is impossible. At the same time
he emphasized, “we will try to find ways to attain better efficiency
for our joint activities.”
Touching upon the stand of official Baku, which insists on settlement
of the conflict based on the principle of territorial integrity of
states exclusively, T. Torosyan emphasized that the NKR and the
Karabakh issue have nothing to do with territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. “I think I. Aliyev will keep speaking about territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan even after international recognition of NKR
independence,” the Armenian NA Vice-Speaker said. In his opinion,
it is necessary to respect both principles, however in case of NK,
which determined itself in compliance with the international law,
exactly that principle prevails, reports Mediamax.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OTE DOES NOT DISCLOSE DETAILS OF TALKS ON SELLING ARMENTEL
PanARMENIAN.Net
27.04.2006 22:01 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ OTE Greek telecommunication corporation does not
disclose the details of the talks on selling the 90% of shares of
ArmenTel Armenian company, owned by OTE. The Corporation’s Press
Service stated they have nothing to add to the press release of April
4. We remind that the OTE press release of April 4 said that after
consultations with the Armenian Government OTE is considering the
opportunity to sell the package of ArmenTel shares it holds.
The OTE Press Service did not answer the question who may be the
potential buyers and the terms of implementation of the deal. They
also refrained from comments on the prospects of pre-sale division of
ArmenTel into several parts (fixed and international communication,
mobile communication, Internet services), Mediamax reports.