Author: Dabaghian Diana

PERNOD WINS ARARAT RULING

Moscow Times
May 15 2006

Bloomberg

Pernod Ricard, maker of Chivas Regal and Martell cognac, won a ruling
from the Russian government upholding its rights to the Ararat cognac
brand, a mark of quality since the Soviet era, Vedomosti reported.

The Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks
ordered the Ararat Cognac Factory in St. Petersburg to stop using the
brand after Paris-based Pernod filed a complaint, the newspaper said,
citing copy of the agency’s ruling.

Pernod bought the rights to the Ararat cognac brand in Russia and
Armenia from the Armenian government “shortly after” Armenia sold its
St. Petersburg factory to Russian investors in 2002, Vedomosti said.

Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 14 2006

Turkish Parliamentary Delegation Meets French National Assembly
Speaker

PARIS – A Turkish parliamentary delegation met on Wednesday French
National Assembly Speaker Jean-Louis Debre.
Turkish Parliamentary delegation, comprising Mehmet Dulger and Musa
Sivacioglu from Justice & Development Party (AKP); and Onur Oymen and
Gulsun Bilgehan Toker from the main opposition Republican People`s
Party (CHP), is currently in Paris to lobby for rejection or
withdrawal of the bill which would make “the denial“ of the
so-called Armenian genocide a crime.

Following their meeting with Debre, the Turkish delegation met French
parliament foreign affairs commission chairman Edouard Balladur.

Speaking to A.A correspondent following the meetings, CHP MP Onur
Oymen said, “we have explained the harsh reaction of the Turkish
people. We have attracted the attention to the calls in Turkey to
boycott French goods. We had the opportunity to convey them that
relations would be harmed in case the bill becomes a law.“

Meetings of the Turkish delegation will continue on Thursday.

Turkish parliamentarians will make references to previous statements
of the French executives and historians that the “parliaments can
not write history and the history should be left to historians“ and
want French parliamentarians to be consistent with their previous
statements.

Proposal of the Socialist Party will be discussed on May 18th. The
bill should be approved in the senate in order to become a law.

THE PLACE OF HOLDING MATCHES BETWEEN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAMS OF ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN TO BE DETERMINED TODAY

ArmRadio.am
12.05.2006 10:30

At a special meeting in Nion, Switzerland, Heads of Football
Federations of Armenia and Azerbaijan will decide today the place
of holding qualification matches of the 2008 European Championship
between national teams of the two countries.

The Armenian delegation comprises President of the Football
Federation of Armenia Ruben Hayrapetyan, Executive Director Armen
Minasyan and Plenipotentiary Representative of RA President and
Government, President of the Public Radio and Television Council
Alexan Harutyunyan.

DOCTORS VISITED KARIN TAK
Laura Grigorian

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
10 May 2006

Recently a group of doctors was sent to the village of Karin Tak,
Shushi.

The group included a general doctor, a neurologist, an ENT doctor,
an ophthalmologist, a gynecologist and a surgeon, as well as the
executive director and two pediatricians of the regional hospital of
Shushi. The executive director had also brought charity medicine. A
senior official of the Ministry of Health Karineh Alexanyan said the
visit of doctors was on the occasion of the May holidays. Despite
the bad weather, a lot of people saw the doctors. Within a day the
doctors examined 120 people (the population of the village is 600). 29
were examined by the ophthalmologist, 23 by the ENT doctor, 20 by
the neurologist, 17 by the surgeon, 20 by the general doctor and 11
by the gynecologist. The majority of patients had hypertension. The
reason is, according to Karineh Alexanian, humidity. Some patients
were sent to the hospital of Shushi for inpatient treatment, yet
others were sent to the republic hospital. There were patients who
needed special examination. Karineh Alexanian said later they will
be sent abroad for treatment on a governmental allowance.

LES INTERETS FRANCAIS MENACES EN TURQUIE
Jeanne Lhoste

Le Figaro
10 mai 2006

LES INTERÊTS economiques francais se retrouvent otages d’un bras de fer
diplomatique engage par la Turquie contre Paris. Deux propositions de
loi qui visent a penaliser la negation du genocide armenien, examinees
a l’Assemblee nationale le 18 mai, ont en effet declenche la colère
d’Ankara. La Turquie multiplie les pressions pour tenter d’empecher ce
vote et contre-attaque sur tous les fronts : l’ambassadeur turc a Paris
a ete rappele en debut de semaine pour “consultations” et les menaces
de represailles contre les entreprises francaises en cas d’adoption
de ce texte sont clairement evoquees par les responsables politiques.

Hier après-midi, le premier ministre, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a convoque
les representants de grandes entreprises francaises installees
dans le pays pour evoquer le problème. Le week-end dernier, Mehmet
Dulger, le president de la commission des affaires etrangères au
Parlement turc, a annonce qu’un boycott des produits francais etait
envisageable, de meme que la mise a l’ecart de la France dans les
procedures d’appels d’offres. Un appel au boycott des marchandises
francaises circule deja sur Internet et dans les ministères : Axa,
Danone, L’Oreal, Renault, Lafarge et toutes les marques presentes
en Turquie apparaissent sur cette liste rouge. Par ailleurs, les
medias turcs passent d’ores et deja en revue les appels d’offres les
plus sensibles dont les Francais pourraient etre evinces. Areva qui
convoite la construction de la première centrale nucleaire turque est
menace au premier chef . Un groupe canadien a deja ete exclu de la
liste des candidats, Ankara n’ayant pas apprecie les declarations du
premier ministre sur le genocide armenien. Ankara veut frapper fort
Face a la determination turque, le president de la chambre de commerce
franco-turque ne cache pas son inquietude pour les 250 entreprises
francaises deja implantees la-bas et pour les exportations vers la
Turquie. Elles ont atteint 4,7 milliards d’euros l’an dernier. “Les
echanges entre les deux pays subiraient des dommages irreparables”,
estime Raphaël Esposito. Lundi, la chambre de commerce a meme adresse
une lettre ouverte a Jacques Chirac pour lui faire part du “prejudice
irremediable” que provoquerait la loi. Meme constat de la part du
directeur de Carrefour, Luc de Noirmont : “Les deputes francais ne
soupconnent pas a quel point le sujet est sensible en Turquie. Ils
sous-estiment totalement les repercussions de cette loi, irresponsable
sur le plan economique.” En 2001, la loi votee par la France et qui
reconnaissait le genocide armenien avait deja penalise les entreprises
nationales : des contrats avec Thomson et Alcatel avaient ete annules
; les PME avaient subi de multiples tracasseries administratives,
de meme que Peugeot ou Danone. Et des entreprises turques avaient
stoppe leurs importations de France…

Mais la crise economique avait finalement fait passer ces mesures de
retorsion au second plan. Le contexte diffère totalement en 2006.

Enhardie par sa forte croissance, la Turquie est bien decidee a
frapper fort. n Lire aussi page 10.

–Boundary_(ID_6+S402B5w0dqOKEX9/4szw)–

REED AMENDMENT REAFFIRMS PARITY IN DEFENSE DEPARTMENT ASSISTANCE TO
ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

WASHINGTON, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. In a legislative
reaffirmation of the 2001 agreement between the Congress and the White
House to maintain military aid parity to Armenia and Azerbaijan,
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) secured the adoption of an amendment adding
Armenia to the list of nation’s receiving Department of Defense
counter-drug assistance, reported the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA). Commenting to the ANCA following the adoption of his
amendment, Senator Reed said, “I am pleased that the Senate Armed
Services Committee recognized the importance of providing military aid
to Armenia for training and equipment in light of its decision to
provide funding to Azerbaijan. It is essential that we maintain parity
between the two nations, and I am happy that my amendment was
accepted.” The amendment was offered by the Senator, a senior members
of the Armed Services Committee, to the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (S.2507). The measure added Armenia to the
list of eligible nations for a Defense Department counter-drug
assistance program. Azerbaijan was among the nation’s listed in the
original version of the Authorization bill authored by Committee
Chairman John Warner (R-VA). Significantly, the Armed Services
Committee report advises the Defense Department that the panel
“expects that the authority granted in this section will be
administered in the spirit of maintaining current military parity
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.” The Committee report language refers
to the agreement between Congress and the White House in 2001 to
maintain military aid parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In 2001,
Congress granted the President limited waiver authority over Section
907 of the Freedom Support Act, which restricts U.S. assistance to
Azerbaijan as long as it continues to blockade Armenia and Nagorno
Karabagh, with the understanding that the Administration will not
provide more military assistance to Azerbaijan than to Armenia. “We
join with the Armenian American community of Rhode Island in thanking
Senator Reed for helping to ensure parity in the provision of
U.S. defense assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We will, in the coming weeks,
continue to share with legislators in both houses of Congress the
negative implications for peace and regional stability of the
Administration’s ill-advised proposal to break the military aid parity
agreement that has been in force for the past five years.” The House
Armed Services Committee has also finalized its version of the
National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2007 (H.R.5122),
which does include Azerbaijan, but not Armenia as an eligible
country. The two versions of the bill will eventually be reconciled
upon passage in both chambers. The ANCA will urge the conference
committee to accede to the amended Senate version of this provision,
and, more broadly, to work toward overall military aid parity to
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 8 2006

Search for flight recorders from crashed Airbus-320 continues

SOCHI, May 8 (Itar-Tass) — The search for the flight recorders from
the crashed Armenian Airbus-320 in the Black Sea off Sochi has not
stopped despite rough seas.

`Specialists will be examining the bottom at the place where the
plane crashed with the help of sonar till night. French specialists
will sail off into the sea tomorrow morning, at 7 a.m. Moscow time.
They have already arrived in Sochi with equipment for a more precise
search,’ an official at the search operation headquarters told
Itar-Tass on Monday.

The specialists plan to examine the seabed at a death of 450-800
metres where a large number of the plane’s fragments and the `black
boxes’ are lying.

The area where the debris are scattered is quite big and the French
equipment will help to distinguish between the plane’s fragments and
personal belongings of the passengers.

Earlier, a deep-water apparatus, Kalmar, traced four unidentified
objects at the crash scene at the depth of 450 meters.

`Four objects have been traced at the depth of 450 meters. They are
being identified. The objects were found by a hydro-radar system of
the Kalmar apparatus operated from the Zaliv towboat,’ Sergei
Biryukov, Executive Director of the company Tetis Pro that designed
the apparatus, told Itar-Tass.

Flight recorders used on aircraft of the Airbus-320 type withstand
the depth of up to 6,000 meters for 30 days, experts from the French
air crash investigation bureau said on Sunday.

They said that flight recorders’ radio beacons keep working during
the 30-day period.

One of the flight recorders registers flight parameters, including
the speed, height and direction of the flight and the autopilot
operation, each second. The other gadget records conversations in the
cockpit.

Each flight recorder weighs 10 kilograms, including a seven-kilogram
armoured casing for the gadget. The casing can withstand water
pressure at a depth of 6,000 meters, the temperature of 1,100 degrees
Celsius, and the compression of 2.2 tonnes.

The French experts think that flight recorders from the Armenian
Airbus-320 are lying at a depth of 680 meters.

The bureau retrieved flight recorders from the depth of over 1,000
meters in the Red Sea in January 2004, when an Egyptian plane crashed
near the Sharm-el-Sheikh resort. The rescuers were using a Scorpio
deep-water apparatus.

A technical commission investigating the Sochi air crash, which is
led by the CIS Interstate Aviation Committee, has asked French
experts to help find A-320 flight recorders.

Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said, `The Frenchmen have
appropriate equipment and they are ready to quickly bring it to the
crash scene.’

Of 113 people who were abroad the plane, 51 bodies have been found so
far. On the fifth day after the crash, specialists say chances that
the others will be found are quite small.

The Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia plunged into the
Black Sea as it was making a landing manoeuvre in the early hours of
May 3. The accident claimed the lives of 113 people.

The Gazette (Montreal)
May 7, 2006 Sunday
Final Edition

Cast Your Vote

Do you think Stephen Harper was right to acknowledge the 1915
Armenian genocide?

You can cast your vote in our daily poll all day long by logging onto
canada.com/montreal. Your answers will appear in tomorrow’s Gazette
and on Global TV’s evening newscast.

Yesterday’s question was: Are you in favour of the agreement giving
Quebec its own representative to UNESCO? Yes: 48% of votes No: 52%

SECOND MOURNING DAY IN ARMENIA FOR VICTIMS OF ARMAVIA AIRCRAFT CRASH
IN BLACK SEA

Yerevan, May 6. ArmInfo. Armenian mourns for the killed in air crash
for the second day today.

State flags are lowered throughout the country. Service for the dead
is expected at St. Grigor Lushavorich Church in Yerevan by Catholicos
of All Armenians Karekin II. Fund collection for the families of the
killed is in process.

President of Armenia donated his monthly wages to the fund (about
$700). To recap, Airbus A320 crashed in the Black Sea on May 3 night
killing all 113 on board.

18 MEN FROM KAPAN CALLED UP FOR MILITARY SERVICE LEAVES FOR ARMY

Noyan Tapan
May 05 2006

KAPAN, MAY 5, NOYAN TAPAN. 18 men called up for military service
left for the Army on May 3 from the Kapan memorial complex after
Garegin Nzhdeh.

According to Kapan Millitary Commissar Leonid Grigorian, first
gatherings of spring and autumn levies have already for few years been
organized at the memorial complex. According to the Military Commissar,
“it is done for men newly called up for military service realize the
importance of defending the Fatherland.”

L.Grigorian mentioned in the interview to the Noyan Tapan
correspondent, that there were almost no problems in the affair of
preparing for the spring levy. “But the physical readiness of men
called up for military service is gradulaly decreased, what I connect
with non-proper level of teaching the physical education in schools,”
the Kapan Military Commissar mentioned.