Author: Dabaghian Diana

RUSSIA PULLING OUT MILITARY HARDWARE FROM BATUMI BASE IN GEORGIA

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 25 2006

TBILISI, May 25 (Itar-Tass) – Russian troops at the Batumi base
started dispatching military hardware to the Russian base Gyumri in
Armenia on Thursday, Tass learnt at the headquarters of the Group of
Russian Troops in Transcaucasia.

The first train will bring to Gyumri 54 units of military materiel,
communication trucks as well as some property. In 2006, this is
already the third train with weapons and property of Russian troops.

The two previous ones pulled out military property from the Akhalkalaki
base. The headquarters reported that another six trains would depart
from Batumi over the next few months.

Last summer, Russia carried out the first stage of pulling out combat
materiel and weapons from the Batumi base. Two landing ships dispatched
to Russia 40 units of military hardware, including 12 tanks, the same
number of air defence missile systems Kub, five military reconnaissance
motor vehicles and three self-propelled missile vehicles Shilka.

The Batumi base is to be closed down during 2008 in compliance with
the Russian-Georgian understandings.

NATO PA SESSION STARTS IN PARIS

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.05.2006 13:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The regular session of the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly will be held in Paris May 26-30. During the first
day Ukrainian Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk and one of the
Belarusian opposition leaders Alexander Milinkevich will address
the parliamentarians from 26 member states. Milinkevich will also
answer the questions by the members of the NATO PA political committee
council on May 27. The agenda also includes the joint sitting of the
NATO PA and the Alliance Council to be held 30. On that day Georgian
President Mikhail Saakashvili and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
are expected to deliver a speech.

The recurrent session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly that unites
340 parliamentarians from Northern American and European states will
be dedicated to the issues referring to the NATO transformation,
international and regional security, peacekeeping operations within
the Euro-Atlantic region and beyond its borders.

Sittings of the NATO PA political, defense and security, economic and
security, science and technology as well as civic security committees
will be held within the session framework, reported RIA Novosti.

To note, RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and Defense Minister
Serge Sargsyan will represent Armenia at the session.

ARMENIAN SPECIALISTS LEFT FOR MOSCOW TO TAKE PART IN DECODING FLIGHT RECORDERS

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.05.2006 13:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Specialists of the Central Administrative Board
of the Civil Aviation of Armenia departed for Moscow. Along with
Russian and French specialists, they will engage in decoding the flight
recorders of A-320 airplane of Armavia air company, which crashed near
Sochi on the night of May 3. The speech recorder was lifted from the
Black Sea ground Monday afternoon, while the parameter recorder on
Tuesday evening. Earlier Chair of the Inter-State Aviation Committee
Tatyana Anodina stated that no complications are expected when decoding
the parameter recorder, while the speech recorder was heavier damaged
by aggressive water environment. “We may have to decode the magnet
tape piece by piece,” she said.

Experts of Airbus consortium – the producers of A-320 – will take
part in the decoding. Spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Department
of Armenia Gayane Davtyan stated Wednesday that the flight recorders
will only be examined in Russia, while they will be sent to France
for decoding. However, judging from latest reports, the recorders
will be decoded in Russia, reports Lenta.ru

THEY DID THEIR BUSINESS “NEATLY”

A1+
[12:37 pm] 25 May, 2006

Today the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR) decided
that the RA citizens don’t need the radio station “A1+” the slogan
of which was to be, “Listen to us and recognise yourselves.”

The contest packets for FM 90.3 MHz and FM 90.7 MHz radio frequencies
were opened on April 7 so we can say for sure that 48 days are
enough for the NCTR members to make all the necessary “consultations”
and comparisons.

Let us remind you that the rivals of “A1+” for the same radio frequency
in the above mentioned competition were “Ulyss-Media” on the one hand
and “Radio-Pro” on the other hand.

We shall inform you about today’s session of the NCTR more thoroughly
today.

NATO TOOK NEUTRAL POSITION IN EVERYTHING

Panorama.am
20:13 23/05/06

Special Representative of NATO Secretary General on South Caucasus
issues Robert Simons distrusted the statements of some of our leaders
that in 2015 the Armenian army will completely comply with NATO
standards. “It will not take place at once. It will be impossible
to finish the process by 2015, as it is impossible to graduate the
university at once. Even NATO member states continue their reforms. In
this sense, it is hard to set deadlines and to affirm that reforms
will be over before the set time. It is a continuous process,” he
told a news conference at foreign ministry.

Speaking on Karabakh conflict regulation, R. Simons noted that NATO
is not directly involved in the negotiation process but hopes that
the sides will find a mutually beneficial solution. After that, they
themselves will decide which forces they want to see in those areas –
peacekeeping, frontier or other.

Concurrently, the representative mentioned that NATO supports OSCE
Minsk Group.

Speaking about Russian military bases in Armenia, R. Simons noted
that it is the internal issue of the country to decide if it wants
any military bases in the country. In his words, if Armenia wants the
Russian forces to go, NATO will support the country in doing that as
in Georgia.

Speaking about Armenian-Turkish relations, R. Simons said, “Turkey
is the member of the alliance and consented to implement Individual
Partnership program in Armenia. However, NATO is not going to engage
in the relations between the two countries and will not deal with
their foreign policies. In fact, it is a bilateral issue between
Armenia and Turkey.”

VOICE RECORDER RECOVERED FROM CRASHED PLANE

Irish News
May 24, 2006 Wednesday

Russian searchers have recovered the cockpit voice recorder from an
Armenian passenger jet that crashed in the Black Sea nearly three
weeks ago killing 113 passengers and crew.

Workers using a remote-controlled diving apparatus with a robotic arm
plucked the recorder from the sea floor nearly 1,640 feet beneath the
surface after removing a layer of silt up to two feet thick that had
hidden it from searchers.

The searchers said they hoped to also recover the flight data recorder
soon, which they believe is under silt nearby.

Officials hope the recorders will help determine the cause of the May 3
crash of the Armavia Airbus A-320, which plunged into the sea in heavy
rain and poor visibility as it approached the airport on a flight from
the Armenian capital, Yerevan, to the Russian resort city of Sochi.

“I think that what happened will be revealed,” Tatyana Anodina,
head of the Interstate Aviation Committee, the civil agency that
links Russia with 11 other former Soviet republics, said.

Ms Anodina said the cockpit voice recorder was damaged by the crash
and may have suffered from the harsh conditions beneath the silt.

However, she said she was confident that it would yield information
“very important to investigators”, including voices and other sounds
in the cockpit during the final minutes of the doomed flight.

Ms Anodina said the Interstate Aviation Committee would work with
French investigators and Armenian representatives to retrieve the
data but was usnure when they might have results.

Prosecutors almost immediately dismissed the possibility that
terrorists brought down the plane and officials point to rough weather
or pilot error as the likely cause.

However, officials from the manufacturer Armavia have suggested that
air traffic controllers may be at least partly to blame.

Ms Anodina described the recovery operation as “one of the most
difficult” worldwide.

A device normally used for geological research was brought in last
week for the search but the operation was disrupted by bad weather
until Friday.

When the weather cleared the device first combed a 65ft by 65ft
patch of the sea floor amid the wreckage near the coast where French
specialists had detected signals from the recorders.

The search area was widened after the recorders were not found but
the voice recorder was finally located late on Sunday under silt
in the initial search area after searchers attached a radio-signal
detection device to the apparatus.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian General Benevolent Union Inc.
Viken L. Attarian
Chairman
805, Manoogian street
Ville St-Laurent, QC H4N 1Z5
Tel: 514-748-2428
Fax: 514-748-6307
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

Montreal, May 24, 2006 – His Excellency, Mr. Vartan Osganian, Minister of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, paid a short visit to Canada and
met with representatives of the Armenian community in the Embassy of Armenia
in Ottawa.

During the event, he introduced the new Deputy Chief of Mission to Canada,
Mr. Arman Hagopian, and then went on to describe the challenges facing the
Republic of Armenia on the eve of the 15th anniversary of its existence.

Mr. Osganian spoke at length about the upcoming 3rd Armenia/Diaspora
Conference which is to take place in September, 2006. He focused
specifically on a new initiative by the Government of Armenia to repopulate
and modernize the infrastructure of border villages to stop the migration of
youth from rural areas into Yerevan. The Minister is on a special worldwide
tour to engage Armenian communities to support this project.

At the end of the event, Minister Osganian kindly answered several questions
from the audience. AGBU Montreal was represented at this meeting by
chairman Viken L. Attarian, vice-chairman Raffi Chitilian, vice-chairman
Levon Afeyan and his wife Annette, board member Avedis Atamian and his wife
Suzanne, the director of the Armenian Studies program Manuel Kuesseyan and
the young intern at the Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Vrouyr
Moughalian.

For further information, please contact the AGBU at 514-748-2428 or at
[email protected]

UKRAINIAN ARMY CHIEF-OF-STAFF STARTS TRANSCAUCASIAN TOUR

Interfax-AVN military news agency web site, Moscow
23 May 06

Kiev, 23 May: Col-Gen Serhiy Kyrychenko, the Ukrainian armed forces
chief-of-staff, has started a tour of Transcaucasia, during which he
will visit Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the press service of the
Ukrainian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday [23 May].

“Having completed the visit to Tbilisi on 24 May, the Ukrainian
military delegation led by Col-Gen Serhiy Kyrychenko, the armed
forces commander-in-chief and chief-of-staff, will leave for Armenia,”
a press service official told Interfax-AVN.

Yerevan will host an eye-to-eye meeting between Kyrychenko and Col-Gen
Mikael Arutyunyan, the Armenian armed forces chief-of-staff and first
deputy defence minister, and talks between the delegations of the
two countries.

“During the talks, the parties are planning to discuss the state
and development prospects of regional cooperation and cooperation
between the two countries’ armed forces, consider participation
in peacekeeping activity, and share the experience in armed forces
reform,” the official noted.

The Ukrainian delegation plans to visit the Military Institute and
the Humanitarian Mine Clearance Centre in the locality of Echmiadzin
on the same day.

The delegation will travel to Azerbaijan on Thursday. While staying in
Baku, Kyrychenko will meet with Azerbaijani Defence Minister Col-Gen
Safar Abiyev.

[Passage omitted: Kyrychenko will also meet the Azerbaijani armed
forces chief of staff.]

HAMLET HOVSEPIAN DISCHARGED POST OF YEREVAN MALATIA-SEBASTIA COMMUNITY PROSECUTOR

Noyan Tapan
May 22 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Robert Kocharian signed
a decree on May 20 on discharging Hamlet Hovsepian from the post
of the Prosecutor of the Malatia-Sebastia community of the city
of Yerevan. Noyan Tapan was informed about it by the President’s
Press Office.

CANADIAN COMPANY INTENDS TO PURCHASE ARMENIAN TECHNOLOGY OF STEEL TEMPERING IN WATER SOLUTION OF NAIRIT LATEX

Noyan Tapan
May 22 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. A Canadian company has expressed
an intention to purchase the technology of instrumental steel
tempering in water solution of Nairit latex. The technology was
developed by scientists of the State Engineering University of
Armenia (SEUA). Anahit Paronian, a co-author of this development,
SEUA lecturer, announced this during the Spring 2006 Faculty Student
Multidiscipline Conference on Research and Teaching on May 20. The
event was organized by the ooi Consortium for Teaching, Research,
Learning and Development (ooiCTRLD) (Ruston, Lousiana, US), which
is going to publish an article on this technology in its journal in
2006. According to A. Paronian, a group of SEUA scientists patented
the copyright on the indicated tempering technology as early as in
the Soviet time. However, metallurgical enterprises of former Soviet
countries could not use it due to financial difficulties. Work on
introduction of the steel tempering technologies developed at SEUA
is now underway at several such enterprises. The SEUA scientist said
that special oils, whose price ranges from 300-500 USD a ton, are used
in the widespread technologies of instrumental steel tempering. A ton
of concentrate of nairit latex produced by the Nairit Plant (Yerevan)
costs about 1,600 USD. However, taking into account that a 1.5% water
solution of this latex is used for steel tempering, the price of a ton
of the necessary substance is 40-60 USD a ton. The speaker pointed out
the advantage of nairit latex use over other polymers, in case of which
4% or 10% solutions are used in steel tempering. Besides, the nairit
latex solution is made by mixing, while solutions of other polymers
require extra operations and expenses. A. Paronian noted the low danger
of a fire in case of using nairit latex for steel tempering. Besides,
there is no need to use powerful ventilators at enterprises.