HAYK DEMOYAN: VERDICT ON AZERBAIJAN’S ANTI-ARMENIAN POLICY WAS PRONOUNCED IN BUDAPEST
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Armenian side
is satisfied with the verdict on the case of murder of officer of RA
Armed Forces Gurgen Margarian, according to which Azerbaijani officer
Ramil Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment without the right
of amnesty during the first 30 years. It is the strictest punishment
envisaged by the Hungarian legislation.
Lawyer Nazeli Vardanian representing the interests of the aggrieved
party declared this at the April 18 press conference. She considers
it unprobable that the verdict can change as a result of appealing
against it by the Azerbaijani side in the Appeal and Cassation Courts
as in Hungary the Appeal Court does not carry on new examination,
it only finds out violation of the material and judicial right, and
the Cassation Court examines newly-revealed circumstances but there
are no such circumstances in the case. The possibility of criminal’s
extradition is also excluded: the verdict envisages life imprisonment
without the right of pardon within 30 years and in case of pardoning
30 years later, according to the verdict, Safarov has no right to
visit Hungary for 10 years. The verdict envisages that all judicial
expenditures, about 10 thousand dollars, should be paid by Safarov. As
representative of RA Defence Ministry, historian Hayk Demoyan
characterized, in fact, the verdict was pronounced on Azerbaijan’s
anti-Armenian policy. This was the second serious reaction from Europe
after the response of the European Parliament to destruction of the
Armenian cultural monuments in Nakhichevan. Azerbaijan was warned that
solving issues by medieval methods is not acceptable for the world and,
in particular, for Europe. The European justice and human values won
in Hungary, H.Demoyan emphasized. The Prosecutor’s speech qualified
the murder as cruel and inhuman murder with numerous aggravating
circumstances. According to the Prosecutor, the premeditation is
conditioned by the fact that having a knife Safarov decided and bought
an axe 2 days before the murder, he grinded it and waited until 04:45
am, at first he decided to kill Gurgen Margarian who was stronger.
He intended to kill another Armenian serviceman, too but the murder
was prevented by the police. The circumstance that Gurgen Margarian
was killed only because of his national belonging was also among
the aggravating circumstances mentioned by the Prosecutor: Ramil
Safarov abused Hungary’s hospitality, as well as Gurgen Margarian’s
confidence that he was protected: he never closed the door before
going to bed. According to the press conference participants, the
court expressed a special gratitude to the Armenian side for being
reserved and mentioned with regard to the Azerbaijani side: “I do not
know a culture and a state where a murderer can be heroized”. The
participants of the press conference said that the claim of the
aggrieved party on compensation of the moral and material loss by Ramil
Safarov and Azerbaijani Defence Minister (according to the preliminary
calculations, this is 8-10 mln forints (about 500 thousand dollars)
was separated and will be examined by another judge. And on May 3,
the legal procedure on forcible actions of Ramil Safarov towards the
prison supervisors will start.

GROUP OF POLICE EMPLOYEES REWARDED WITH RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SPEAKER’S LETTERS OF THANKS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 17 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 14, on the occasion of the
5-years jubilee and the professional holiday of the Police, RA National
Assembly Speaker Artur Baghdasarian rewarded police employees with
NA Speaker’s letters of thanks and nominal watches for dilligent
and faultless implementation of service responsibilities. Noyan
Tapan was informed about this by the RA NA Public Relations
Department. Congratulating the policemen and wishing them the best,
A.Baghdasarian mentioned that the Police has had its important
contribution in the affair of building the independent statehood.

MARIE-ANNE ISLER BEGUIN: EFFICIENCY OF EU-ARMENIA COOPERATION IS OBVIOUS
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “The efficiency
of the European Union-Armenia cooperation is obvious, otherwise
neither Armenia nor another two South Caucasian republics would be
our partners, as well as the Council of Ministers and the European
Union would not call us for cooperating with Armenia, particularly,
within the framework of the New Neighborhood program,” Co-chairwoman of
the EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation commission Marie-Anne Isler
Beguin declared in her interview to Noyan Tapan correspondent during
the interval of the commission’s 8th sitting that started on April
18 in Yerevan. According to her, the bright example of efficiency of
this cooperation is also the fact that the “EU high representative is
already in the South Caucasus”. Mrs Beguin expressed willingness that
larger possibilities be given to the representative and he can have its
contribution to the Nagorno Karabakh settlement. She also mentioned
that the issue of free and fair elections will be pivotal during the
two-day sitting as democracy is impossible without it. “We are here to
accompany our Armenian friends, to be near them and to assist them in
holding free and fair elections as far as possible,” Marie-Anne Isler
Beguin declared. In response to journalists’ questions, Mrs Beguin
also touched upon the prospects of Armenia-Turley, Armenia-Azerbaijan
relations.
She, in particular, said that the European Union has always been for
opening the borders between Turkey and Armenia and from the moment
of joining the European family this issue should be raised before
Turkey, otherwise it is not possible to make part of EU and to have
closed borders with the neighbors. The second important issue to be
raised before Turkey is the recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
therefore EU calls on Turkey to raise the issue of the Genocide in
its society before joining EU. Mrs Beguin also expressed the hope that
the year 2006 can become a “window” for solving the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict as no elections are planned in both of the countries,
Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2006 and under conditions of a time-out
in home political relations it will be possible to solve interstate
issues. She stressed that only peace can bring future as it is not
possible to be on terms of hostility with neighbors for ever.

VARTAN OSKANIAN: WE HAVE REACHED A STAGE WHEN WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO SHOW NECESSARY POLITICAL WILL
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “We have reached a
stage when we should be able to show the necessary political will:
without it we see no prospect for the peaceful settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh problem,” RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
declared in his April 18 interview to journalists. According to the
Minister, the bellicose statements voiced by Azerbaijan that find
their manifestations on the contact-line just cause anxiety.
“It is very important that the European Parliament, the European
structures, other mediator countries set this issue more seriously
before Azeris for them to understand that there is no alternative to
the peaceful negotiations,” he mentioned. The Foreign Minister informed
that OSCE Minsk Group American Co-chair Steven Mann will pay a visit
to the reigon on April 20. Asked why the Co-chairmen do not visit
the region together, he answered that there is no special problem
here, their schedules just do not coincide. In any case, according
to Vartan Oskanian, the Co-chairs themselves say that their separate
visits should not be commented upon in another way. He mentioned that
the Co-chairs may pay a joint visit in early May. Vartan Oskanian
informed that no separate meeting between him and Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadiarov is envisaged at the April 21 meeting of CIS
Foreign Ministers. For the present, there is no agreement about the
next meeting between the two countries’ Presidents, either. “There
is no decision yet but I can confirm the fact that the Co-chairs
separately raise this issue. It is difficult to say, whether in
late May or in early July, but I can confirm that they have already
started to think about it,” the Foreign Minister said. According to
him, the Presidents’ meeting will be justified if the separate and
joint visits of Co-chairs to the region are efficient. “If there
is no progress after Rambouillet, it is senseless to continue the
meetings without carrying out an intermediate work. First we should
wait for the Co-chairs’ visits and only after them we can see,
whether it is worth organizing a meeting between the Presidents,”
Oskanian mentioned. Touching upon the issue of the society’s being
unaware of the principles of settlement, Vartan Oskanian said that
it is the principle of territorial integrity that has dominated
by now and only recently “the issue was placed on the plane of the
territorial integrity and self-determination”. “First to fix the right
of self-determination and only then to move forward has become the
most important task for us. What “to move forward” will mean, what
manifestations it will have, this, of course, will be seen in the
future. I think only after it we can notify our people. But today the
main task is to get this recognition, I think it will be easy after
this,” the Foreign Minister declared. As he affirmed, today there is
noticeably more comprehension in this issue than ever. According to
the Foreign Minister, it is still too early to speak about returning
territories: “Today the issue of principle for us is that the issue
of return of refugees is bilateral and this is not only Azerbaijan’s
problem. So, no matter what solution this issue is given in the
future I think it should be adequate for all sides”. Asked whether he
considers possible that the optimism that the year 2006 can be pivotal
for the Nagorno Karabakh settlement finally will not be justified,
the Minister was not able to give a definite answer. According to him,
much will depend on the events of the next month, on the approaches
to be manifested before the next meeting between the Presidents. “Only
after this we can orient ourselves more exactly”.

TIGRAN TOROSIAN: PACE RESOLUTION WILL HELP TO PUT AN AND TO SPECULATIONS OF AZERIS
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 17 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Resolution
adopted on April 13 at the plenary sitting of PACE on issues on
refugees and forcibly displaced people in Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia will permit to put an and to the speculations
of Azerbaijan. Head of the PACE Armenian delegation, RA NA
Vice-Speaker Tigran Torosian expressed such an opinion at the
April 17 press conference touching upon the discussion of the issue
immediately concerning Armenia at April 10-13 PACE spring session
in Strasbourg. T.Torosian motivated his opinion by the fact that
the adopted document exactly stipulates the data of the UN Supreme
Commissar on issues of refugees, according to which there were a little
more than 83 thousand refugees during the conflict in Azerbaijan and
in late 2004 their number reached 8606. The number of the displaced
persons in Azerbaijan amounted to about 570 thousand people. Whereas,
he emphasized, in the recent years the Azeris have been trumpeting
about existence of 1 mln refugees in the country. He also mentioned
that the attempts of the Azerbaijani delegation to withdraw data not
favorable for them from the report failed. In total, 35 proposals
on the draft Resolution were submitted, 18 of them were submitted by
the Azerbaijani delegation. 5 proposals of editing character out of
the above-mentioned ones were adopted. As a result, the provisions
of the Resolution, according to which refugees can return to places
of their residence remained unchanged. This is a right fixed in the
international documents and not a commitment as the Azeris propose. The
proposal about cooperation among 3 South Caucasian countries for the
purpose of solving the issue of refugees was also preserved in the
document. Azeris spoke against this proposal. Tigran Torosian said
that reporter on the issue, Latvian Deputy Boris Tsilevich in his
speech informed that works connected with refugees are implemented
in Armenia at the high level. Meanwhile he expressed the hope that
if Armenia is provided with the proper international support it will
be able to solve the issue of refugees not within several years but
within only several months.

“NATIONAL GALLERY” SECOND MUSICAL FESTIVAL TO START ON APRIL 20 IN YEREVAN
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The “National Gallery” second musical
festival will be held from April 20 to June 15. Such world-famous
musician-performers as Vardan Mamikonian (France), Sergei Babayan
(Russia), Svetlana Navasardian and Barsegh Tumanian will take part
in this festival consisting of 8 series of concerts and dedicated to
the 85th anniversary of the Armenian National Gallery. As Noyan Tapan
was informed from the Armenian National Gallery, a concert dedicated
to the 15th session of the Hayastan All Armenian foundation’s board
of trustees and giving of youth prizes of RA President in the sphere
of classical music will be held on May 5, within the framework of
the festival.

FOUR BORDER VILLAGES OF TAVUSH TO BE SUPPLIED WITH NATURAL IRRIGATION WATER
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
NOYEMBERIAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Construction of a 27-km
Voskepar-Baghanis-Voskevan-Koti natural irrigation water pipe will
start in a month. Land plots of the total area of 1,100 ha in these
villages will be irrigated thanks to the water pipe with a capacity
of 370 litres per second. Rafael Vardanian, head of the irrigation
system operation unit in Noyemberian, told NT correspondent that the
2.3 mln-dollar program is financed by the International Organization
for Agriculture Development (IFAD).

ARDSHININVESTBANK TO REPLENISH ITS AUTHORIZED CAPITAL BY ABOUT 10 MLN DOLLARS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The shareholders of Ardshininvestbank
made a decision to allocate the undistributed profit of 4.5 bln
drams (about 10 mln USD) for replenishment of the bank’s authorized
capital. Chairman of Ardshininvestbank Board Aram Andreasian stated at
the April 18 press conference that as a result of it, the bank will
take first place in the banking system of the Republic of Armenia in
terms of the amount of its authorized capital. The bank’s authorized
capital currently makes 3 bln 20 mln drams, while its overall capital
– about 20 mln dollars. According to A. Andreasian, although thanks
to the policy of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), there are no
“unhealthy” bank in the RA banking system, their capitals ans assets
continue to be small. It was noted that the banking system of the
country is undergoing a dynamic development.

FIRST CONSIGNMENT OF NITRIC FERTILIZER DISTRIBUTED TO FARMS IN ARARAT MARZ
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
ARTASHAT, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The spring sowing of 350 ha with
wheat and barley has been almost completed in Ararat marz. 3,400 tons
of nitric fertilizer, which will be sold to farms for 3,700 drams,
was provided by Azotinvest CJSC. The first consignment (2,300 tons)
of nitric fertilizer has already been transported to the marz and
distributed to farms.

LEGISALTION ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE SYSTEM IN NEED OF AMENDMENTS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 18 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The legislation on introduction of a
corporate governance system in the RA banking system is in need of
amendments and additions. Chairman of Ardshininvestbank Board Aram
Andreasian expressed this opinion at the April 18 press conference. In
his words, the banking system is a sector that operates in the most
transparent way, while the introduction of corporate governance is
aimed at reducing the shadow sector of the economy.
This means that it would be more expedient to introduce the corporate
governance principles first of all in other sectors of the economy. At
the same time, A. Andreasian noted that as a whole the introduction
of a corporate governance system is to be welcomed, and the Central
Bank of Armenia (CBA) and commercial banks have reached a mutual
agreement on a number of isssue.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress