VIKTOR DALLAKIAN: “FORCES SUPPORTING ROBERT KOCHARIAN SHOULD LEAVE
TOGETHER WITH HIM”

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The coalition supporting Robert
Kocharian from political point of view assumed the responsibility
for all the crimes and failures committed in Armenia after the power
shift in 1998, Viktor Dallakian, Secretary of the Ardarutiun (Justice)
faction, declared on March 22 in NA. According to him, supporting
Kocharian and being against power shift for self-interested reasons the
ruling coalition is to some extent responsible for the October 27 1999
terrorist act and 22 non-disclosed political murders, coming to power
through falsifications, robbery of population’s property in the form
of privatization, general corruption and bribery, existence of clan
economic and political system, unification of criminal authorities
and criminal world, violence in relation to the peaceful action early
in the April 13 morning, foreign political failures and international
pressure around Nagorno Karabakh. “Those assisting Robert Kocharian try
to isolate themselves from the criminal regime for different purposes
and on different occasions realizing that the moment of retribution
will come,” the speaker declared. Considering such attempts immoral
Dallakian said that “those running away from the ship, which is going
down, should realize that they will drown together with their captain.”

International Herald Tribune, France
March 24 2005

Holiday to see Britons travel in record numbers

Reuters
Thursday, March 24, 2005

LONDON Record numbers of Britons were expected to travel during the
Easter weekend, the airport operator BAA said Wednesday.

The United States and Spain were among the most popular destinations
for about 1.9 million people expected to fly between Thursday and
Monday, BAA said. Destinations in Eastern Europe, including Prague,
Budapest and Bratislava in Slovakia, were increasingly popular.

BAA said it expected Thursday to be the heaviest day of air travel,
with about 440,000 passengers passing through its airports, including
London Heathrow.

To help motorists, the Highways Agency said it would suspend roadwork
at more that 70 spots in England and delay new projects until after
the holiday weekend. (Reuters)

HONG KONG

Airport is rated No. 1

Hong Kong International Airport was named the world’s best in survey
results announced Wednesday.

Singapore Changi Airport and Incheon International Airport in Seoul
were second and third, respectively, in the survey conducted by
Airports Council International and the International Air Transport
Association, based on interviews with 65,000 people at 40 airports in
2004.

Halifax International Airport in Nova Scotia was rated the best in
the Americas, Copenhagen Airport was rated best in Europe and Dubai
International Airport came first in the Middle East and Africa. (AP)

CASTRIES, St. Lucia: Two U.S.-based airlines are increasing flights
to St. Lucia after Air Jamaica temporarily suspended flights to the
Caribbean island, a tourism official said. US Airways has already
increased its flights from two to three times a week, while Delta Air
Lines will move from two to five flights a week, beginning April 1,
said the St. Lucia tourism director, Hilary Modeste. (AP)

YEREVAN, Armenia: Birds that had abandoned trees around Armenia’s
main airport because of heavy snow caused problems for at least three
planes Tuesday after they were sucked into the planes’ engines,
Armavia Airlines said Wednesday. Several flights were delayed out of
the capital. “Because of heavy snowfall the birds were not sitting in
the trees and preferred to stroll on the runway,” said a spokesman
for the national carrier. (AFP)

TOKYO: A suicidal man who hijacked a Japanese domestic flight in 1999
and stabbed the pilot to death in the cockpit was sentenced to life
in prison Wednesday after a court ruled that he suffered mental
problems. Yuji Nishizawa, 34, killed Naoyuki Nagashima before he was
seized by airline staff; the plane with 517 passengers and crew
returned safely to Tokyo.(AFP)

MANILA: Terrorists are in the final stages of planning an attack in
the Philippines, the British Embassy warned Wednesday as it
discouraged British citizens from traveling to most parts of Mindanao
and the Sulu Archipelago. The United States also updated its travel
advisory, saying that reprisals by the militant group Abu Sayyaf are
possible. (AFP)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: A 110-passenger cruise ship carrying gay and
nudist passengers was temporarily stopped by local authorities and
prevented from entering Saint Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday, a
Windjammer Barefoot Cruises official said. (AP)

Putin, Kocharyan to discuss relations’ prospects, int’l problems

ITAR-TASS, Russia
March 24 2005

MOSCOW, March 24 (Itar-Tass) – Presidents Vladimir Putin of the
Russian Federation and Robert Kocharyan of Armenia are to meet on
Thursday to discuss the entire spectrum of bilateral relations,
including agreements on “transfer of property to settle the debt”
and military technical cooperation (MTC). The two leaders are also
to compare their positions on regional problems of current concern,
security in the Caucasus, in particular.

A Kremlin official has pointed out, “The two leaders are to discuss,
as a priority, the state of and prospects for the development of
trade-and-economic cooperation: projects in the fields of energy,
non-ferrous metallurgy, banking, construction, and transport, and
the implementation of the agreement on the transfer of property to
settle the debt, and efforts to give greater scope to MTC”.

“Such items as humanitarian cooperation, the deepening of contacts
between the citizens of the two countries, interaction between public
organisations, and the strengthening of the positions and importance
of the Russian language in Armenia and of the Armenian language in
Russia will figure importantly on the agenda (of the two presidents’
meeting),” the official said.

The leaders of the two countries are to exchange views on a number
of international problems of current concern. “The two presidents are
to compare notes on matters concerning the coordination of efforts in
such major areas as the neutralisation of the threats of international
terrorism and extremism, the ensurance of security and stability in the
Caucasus, and solutions to regional problems,” the Kremlin expert said.

“Special attention will be devoted to the two countries’ interaction
in the reforming of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the
mutually beneficial participation of Russia and Armenia in the Eurasian
Economic Community and in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation,”
the Kremlin official pointed out.

Reuters.uk, UK
March 23 2005

Africa Lags in Fight Against TB, WHO Report Says
Thu Mar 24, 2005 12:05 AM GMT

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – Tuberculosis has reached “alarming proportions” in
Africa, where co-infection with the widespread HIV virus makes a lethal
combination, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Thursday.

The number of cases of tuberculosis is rising 3 to 4 percent annually
across the African continent, though the respiratory disease is
being stemmed elsewhere, the United Nations agency said in a report,
“Global Tuberculosis Control.”

There were an estimated 8.8 million new cases worldwide in 2003,
according to the WHO report issued on World TB Day — 2.3 million of
them in Africa.

“The rate of TB infections has tripled in some African countries since
1990 … In Africa we have to face the fact that we have much further
to go,” WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook told a news conference
in London.

Most of the victims of TB, a curable disease spread by coughing and
sneezing, live in developing countries, and an estimated 1.7 million
people died from the disease in 2003.

Nearly one-third of the deaths were in Africa where HIV/AIDS is
prevalent and health services are weak. TB and HIV form a deadly
combination and TB is the leading cause of death among people who
are HIV positive.

Globally, TB prevalence has dropped by more than 20 percent since
1990, and is “falling or stable” in five of the world’s six regions,
according to the WHO. “But for the strongly adverse trends in Africa,
prevalence and death rates would be falling more quickly worldwide,”
it said.

ASIA ON TRACK

India and China, with their vast populations, accounted for an
estimated 1.8 million and 1.3 million new TB cases, respectively,
in 2003 for a combined 35 percent of the global total, according to
the report.

But there has been “tremendous improvement” in the two densely
populated Asian powers, where more and more people are receiving
treatment, Lee said. Indonesia and Philippines are also making
progress.

Mario Raviglione, head of the WHO’s Stop TB Programme, attributed
the success in Asia to the right mix of government commitment and
financial support from the state and donor nations.

Nine of the 22 countries hardest hit by TB are in Africa, including
Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa and Kenya.

The U.N. Millennium Development goal is to detect 70 percent of all
new infectious cases of TB by the end of 2005, and to cure or treat
successfully 85 percent of them.

A great effort is required to achieve this in Africa and eastern
Europe, where there are high levels of multidrug-resistant TB, the
deadliest form, the report said. The latest data show the WHO is
three percent short of the targets.

Several independent humanitarian organizations issued their own
statements to mark World TB Day.

The Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said
inmates of overcrowded prisons in the southern Caucasus countries
of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are especially vulnerable to
the disease.

Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) called
for the development of a simple, rapid test for TB in poor countries,
where health workers still rely on sputum microscopy.

This method, developed 123 years ago, detects TB in only about half
of those who have it, and is even less reliable for people with both
HIV and TB, the group said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Reaney in London)
From: Baghdasarian

ARF BUREAU MEMBER MEETS WITH ARMENIAN COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES OF
MONTEVIDEO

MONTEVIDEO, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Mkrtich Mkrtichian, a member of ARF
(Dashnaktsutiun) Bureau, the Chairman of the National Education and
Culture Association Central Department, arrived in the Montevideo,
the capital of Uruguay accompainied by Paulo Shishmanian, a member of
ARF South America Central Committee. The main goal of the ARF Bureau
member’s visit to South America is the participation in the ARF Youth
Unions’ All-American First Seminar to be held in Buenos Aires, where
his report is envisaged. As Noyan Tapan was informed from “Armenia”
radio, Mkrtich Mkrtichian had a meeting with the members of “Vramian”
ARF Montevideo Centre, who expressed thier anxiety concerning the
latest events taking place in Lebanon. Mkrtichian stressed the
Lebanon Armenians’ orientation concerning this new alarm “not to
interfere in conflicts of community nature and stay with the legal
authorities.” Then he answered the young people’s questions concerning
the present situation of Armenia, Fatherland-Diaspora relations,
acting of ARF and “Hamazgayin”. On March 21, Mkrtich Mkrtichian and
Paulo Shishmanian left for Buenos Aires.

VARTAN OSKANIAN EXPRESSES HOPE THAT MILITANT STATEMENTS OF OFFICIAL
BAKU ARE FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Azerbaijan not only makes aggressive
statements but also violated the cease-fire, attempting to shift the
blame on Armenia. The RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated
this during a talk with reporters on March 23 when commenting on
the reasons for the situation having become tense on the border. He
underlined that such a line of action of Azerbaijan will not bring
good results. In response to the question “Is a war resumption
possible?”, the Foreign Minister noted that this depends only on
Azerbaijan. According to him, Azerbaijan has already made such
mistakes twice. At the same time V. Oskanian expressed a hope that
the war threats made by the official Baku are for internal use only.
He said that although there are no specific agreements on bilateral
meetings at top level, the Armenian and Azeri Presidents have an
opportunity to have two meetings in the near future. According to him,
meetings between Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev are likely to take
place on May 9 in Moscow, at the celebration of the 60th anniversary
of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, as well as at the summit
of the CE member states in Warsaw on May 16.

ON MARCH 24, VLADIMIR PUTIN TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN WITH HIS SPOUSE ON
A 2-DAY WORKING VISIT

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 24, RF President Vladimir
Putin will arrive in Yerevan with his spouse on a 2-day working
visit. On March 25, Presidents Robert Kocharian and Vladimir Putin will
have a tete-a-tete conversation that will be followed by their joint
press conference. The Presidents will also participate in meetings
with Armenian and Russian officials. According to RA President’s
Press Service, RF President will be also received by Catholicos of
All Armenians Karekin II. The Presidents will be present at the solemn
ceremony in the National Opera hall that will be held on the occasion
of the beginning of Russia’s Year in Armenia. The delegation headed
by RF President Vladimir Putin will leave Yerevan in the evening of
March 25.

POWER IS DEARER THAN KARABAKH FOR SOME FORCES IN ARMENIA, ARDARUTIUN REPRESENTATIVE ASSURES

YEREVAN MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian President and Foreign
Minister should participate in the parliamentary hearings on Nagorno
Karabakh scheduled for late March and comment on the policy carried on
in this issue. Stepan Zakarian, a member of RA NA Ardarutiun (Justice)
faction, made such a statement on March 22 in NA. Mentioning that the
members of Ardarutiun faction are among the initiators of the hearings
the MP declared that they don’t share Robert Kocharian’s and Vardan
Oskanian’s optimism and don’t agree that Armenia carries on a right
policy in this issue. Zakarian assured that Armenia is inferior to
Azerbaijan in the sphere of propaganda around Karabakh issue. Learning
about the hearings some political figures and forces declared that
this is the order of the authorities, the MP mentioned. “Will it
be bad if the authorities take right steps in Karabakh issue with
our assistance?” he emphasized and concluded that “there are some
political forces and figures both within the power of Armenia an out
of it for whom the power is dearer than Karabakh.”

SHAVARSH KOCHARIAN CONSIDERS THAT ARMENIAN OPPOSITION CHOSE WRONG
TACTICS IN 2003

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. In the opinion of Shavarsh Kocharian,
Chairman of the National-Democratic Party, RA MP from the Ardarutiun
(Justice) faction, the influence of the West on the processes taking
place in the post-Soviet states is considerably exaggerated and
the rumours about financing of this or that revolution by the West
just aren’t true. At the same time, during the March 23 meeting at
the National Press Club he mentioned that the West considers the
process of democratization of the former Soviet republics as one of
its main tasks. According to Shavarsh Kocharian, the situation in the
post-Soviet area was discussed at the meeting betwen the US and Russian
Presidents in Bratislava. They, in particular, touched upon the fact
that Russia supports the authoritarian regimes in these countries. “I
don’t exclude that Putin conceded to Bush in this issue.” As for
Russia’s policy in the South Caucasian region, the MP said that
today RF is carrying on a balanced policy here, i.e. parallel to
Armenia it tries to establish closer relations with Azerbaijan, as
well, which naturally, proceeds from its interests. Returning to
the subject of “velvety revolutions” in the post-Soviet area, in
particular, to the issue, why such a revolution failed in Armenia in
2003, Shavarsh Kocharian pointed to the wrong tactics chosen by the
Armenian opposition in 2003. “The opposition shouldn’t have promised
the people that it will start an attack in the nearest future, they
should have chosen the long way of struggle chosen by the Georgian
and Ukrainian opposition. The goal of the change of situation isn’t
the attack on this or that building, but this is a long-lasting attack
on the regime.” Besides, in his opinion, the Armenian opposition was
formed very late and at the moment of the post-electoral situation
there was no precise opposition field in Armenia. Answering the
question about absence of a real opposition leader today in Armenia
Shavarsh Kocharian didn’t exclude the possibility of nomination of a
real leader at the end of the struggle as this happened, for instance,
in case of Sahakashvili’s candidature. “Today we should accentuate
attention to the person capable of guaranteeing system changes in
the country,” he mentioned.

RENE GROUSSET’S “ARMENIAN HISTORY” PUBLISHED IN TURKISH

ISTANBUL, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. These days “Aras” publishing house
published in Turkish the “Armenain History” by Rene Grousset, a
famous French historian, a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
The book represents to Turkish reader’s attention the Armenian
history from the time of the Armenian people’s origin to 1071.
Grousset represents the Armenian people’s origin, culture, the stages
of origin and development of the Armenian language, the history of the
countries created by Armenians, the history of adopting Christianity
by Armenians, development of the Armenian church, the Armenian heroic
epics and Armenians’ political and cultural relations with different
nations and countries of the region. The volume having about 750
pages includes maps and photoes, too. According to “Marmara” daily
of Istambul, Sosi Dolanokhli translated the book from French. The
photo of of Ani Mother Cathedral is on the book-cover.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress