Author: Hovhannisian John

ROBERT KOCHARIAN NOT TO TAKE PART IN NATO PA PLENARY SITTING

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 16 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Armenian President
Robert Kocharian will not take part in the plenary sitting of NATO
Parliamentary Assembly (PA) to be held on May 26-30 in Paris. Viktor
Soghomonian, Spokesperson for RA President, reported this to radio
Liberty. “The President has received an invitation from President of
NATO PA Pierre Lellouche but, unfortunately, he cannot take part in
the sitting as his agenda of these days is busy. OSCE Minsk Group
Co-chairs are to arrive in Yerevan on these days, the festivities
dedicated to the Holiday of Republic are to be held on May 28,” Viktor
Soghomonian said giving a negative answer to the question, whether this
is connected with the current home political situation. The analysts
had made suppositions that a Kocharian-Aliyev meeting could take place
in Paris. According to different sources, Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev has accepted the invitation to visit Paris. The three Co-chairs
of Minsk Group will arrive in the region in the period from May 25
to May 30, but, according to the Spokesperson, the concrete day of
arriving to Yerevan is not known yet.

REPORT: RICHEST ANGELENO IS WORTH MORE THAN $9 BILLION

NBC4.TV, CA
May 15 2006

LOS ANGELES — The richest man in Los Angeles is self-made investor
Kirk Kerkorian, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s annual
list of the 50 wealthiest Angelenos, which hits newsstands Monday.

Kerkorian is worth an estimated $9.3 billion, according to the
publication.

Born in 1917 in Fresno to Armenian immigrants, Kerkorian, who never
attended college, made billions in investments in Las Vegas casinos,
airlines, and MGM studios — which he later sold.

Last year’s richest Angeleno, media mogul Sumner Redstone, saw his
estimated wealth dip from $8.3 billion to $7.4 billion, and his ranking
drop to second on this year’s list. The media mogul led the split of
CBS and Viacom, but both companies’ stock later dropped.

Barbara Davis and her family, heirs to the Marvin Davis oil fortune,
ranked third with $6 billion, the Business Journal reported.

In fourth place was Eli Broad with an estimated net worth of $5.6
billion. Broad has invested heavily in revitalizing Los Angeles,
from revamping the Disney Concert Hall to proposing a $1.8 billion
makeover of Bunker Hill nearby.

Although rising real estate prices may be hurting California
homebuyers, they benefitted John Shea, a residential and commercial
developer and financier whose fortune rose 25 percent to $3 billion.

Shea’s real estate gains earned him the 12th spot.

Drooping revenues at the box office have sunk the fortunes of some
of those in Hollywood.

DreamWorks Animation SKG head Jeffrey Katzenberg’s wealth saw a 9
percent decrease, putting him in 45th place with $859 million. Steven
Spielberg, at No. 14, managed to stave off major losse3. His wealth
climbed 8 percent, to $2.8 billion, largely because the movie director
branched into video games.

The only actor to make the list was Mel Gibson, who came in at No.
47, with an estimated worth of $850 million.

Everyone on this year’s list was worth at least $760 million, which
is how much the Business Journal estimated investor Robert Peterson
was worth. That’s nearly $140 million more than it took to be No. 50
last year when former Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner brought up
the rear.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT WILL NOT TAKE PART IN NATO PA SESSION IN PARIS

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.05.2006 19:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Robert Kocharian will no take
part in the NATO PA Session in Paris over heavy schedule. “These days
Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group will be visiting the region. Besides,
the period coincides with holidays in Armenia,” RA President’s
Spokesman Victor Soghomonyan PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. To remind, NATO
PA President Pierre Lellouche invited the Armenian and Azerbaijani
President to participate in the NATO PA Session to be held in Paris
May 26-30.

Agence France Presse
11 mai 2006 jeudi 3:35 PM GMT

“Génocide” arménien: retour des ambassadeurs turcs à Paris et Ottawa

ANKARA 11 mai 2006

Les ambassadeurs de Turquie en France et au Canada sont retournés à
leur poste après des consultations à Ankara où ils avaient été
rappelés en raison de désaccords avec ces deux pays sur le “génocide”
arménien, a-t-on appris jeudi de source diplomatique turque.

La Turquie avait annoncé lundi le rappel d’Osman Korütürk,
ambassadeur à Paris, et d’Aydemir Erman, ambassadeur à Ottawa, pour
protester contre l’utilisation du terme de “génocide” arménien,
perpétré au moment de la chute de l’Empire ottoman lors de la
première guerre mondiale.

“Les ambassadeurs sont retournés à leur poste”, a précisé à l’AFP un
diplomate turc sous couvert d’anonymat.

Les deux hommes ont eu des entretiens avec des responsables de leur
ministère et ont été reçus mercredi par le Premier ministre Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.

Ce dernier a appelé la France mercredi à bloquer la proposition de
loi qui vise à poursuivre toute personne niant l’existence du
génocide arménien et mis en garde contre ses conséquences sur les
relations bilatérales.

“Je pense que le Parlement français ne va probablement pas injecter
le soi-disant génocide arménien comme un virus entre nos deux pays,
unis par des liens aussi importants. Je pense que le bon sens va
l’emporter”, a-t-il dit.

Le texte, s’il est approuvé, prévoit cinq ans d’emprisonnement et une
amende de 45.000 euros (57.000 dollars) pour les auteurs de
déclarations niant que les massacres d’Arméniens soient un génocide.

Il prend la suite d’une précédente loi, votée en 2001, qui a
officiellement reconnu que les massacres constituaient un génocide.
Il a été proposé par des membres du Parti socialiste (opposition) et
arrive en première lecture à l’assemblée le 18 mai.

Ankara s’était déclaré en outre “consterné” le mois dernier par des
propos du Premier ministre canadien Stephen Harper sur le génocide
arménien.

L’armée turque a ainsi décidé de se retirer d’un exercice aérien
international au Canada qui doit débuter dimanche pour protester
contre la position canadienne, selon le ministère canadien de la
Défense.

De 1915 à 1917, les massacres et déportations d’Arméniens ont fait
1,5 million de morts, selon les Arméniens, quelque 300.000, selon
Ankara qui rejette catégoriquement la qualification de génocide.

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 12 2006

Armenian speaker denies Karabakh differences forced him out
16:16 | 12/ 05/ 2006

YEREVAN, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – The former speaker of the Armenian
parliament said Friday he had not quit his post over differences on
how to resolve a long-running territorial dispute with Azerbaijan.

Artur Bagdasaryan announced his resignation Friday after his party,
Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law), pulled out of the governing
coalition late on Thursday, citing pressure from the authorities.

“I have no disagreements with other senior officials on the
settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict,” he said. “I think
negotiations on peaceful resolution and Armenia’s position are both
fairly constructive.”

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh – a
province in Azerbaijan with predominantly ethnic Armenian population
– first erupted in 1988, when Karabakh claimed independence from
Azerbaijan to join Armenia. A ceasefire was concluded in 1994,
leaving Nagorny Karabakh in Armenian hands, but tensions between
Azerbaijan and Armenia have persisted.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the world’s
largest regional security organization, conducted monitoring along
the disputed border in April after both sides traded allegations of
ceasefire violations.

TO EXTRACT BLACK BOXES OF THE CRASHED A-320 ROBOTS WILL BE BROUGHT FROM ANY SITE OF THE WORLD

ArmRadio.am
11.05.2006 15:55

The rescuers will decide the type of robot that is necessary to
extract the black boxes of the crashed A-320 plane.

“The second stage of the search works includes determination of
the type of robot-manipulator necessary to extract the fragments of
the sunk ship,” said Alexander Davidenko, Head of the Sea and River
Transport Agency of the RF Ministry of Transport, coordinator of the
extraction works of the crashed airplane.

Davidenko assured that the robot-manipulator will be brought from
any site of the world.

TURKEY IN GENOCIDE DISPUTE WITH NATO ALLIES
By Amberin Zaman

Voice of America
May 11 2006

Turkey has pulled out of a NATO military exercise in Canada and is
considering sanctions against France for supporting Armenians who
want the mass slaughter of their kin by Ottoman-Turk forces during
and after World War I recognized as genocide.

Members of Turkey’s Workers’ Party hold banners reading ‘The genocide
lie is an American game’. A senior Turkish foreign ministry official
confirmed Turkey would not be participating in an air force training
exercise in Canada.

Turkey’s withdrawal is the latest in a series of moves aimed at
conveying Ankara’s anger over Canadian policy.

Turkey recalled its ambassador last week after Canada’s prime minister,
Stephen Harper, characterized the mass slaughter of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Mr. Harper’s comments came as the French parliament prepares to debate
a bill that would criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide and
the Jewish Holocaust following World War II.

Critics of the bill, which was introduced by the Socialist bloc, say
it is calculated to win votes from France’s 800,000 strong Armenian
community in elections scheduled for next year. The French move has
broader ramifications as France is one of the most powerful members
of the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join.

Turkey has always denied that a genocide took place, but there are
mounting calls from within the European Union to change its policy of
denial as a condition for membership. Many Turks see such pressure as
further evidence that the European Union does not want a poor Muslim
country within its ranks.

But despite the Ankara government’s tough rhetoric, including veiled
threats of economic sanctions against France, public debate on the
fate of the Ottoman Armenians is growing in Turkey. Some prominent
Turkish academics have gone as far as to say that the mass killings
did amount to genocide.

But even these intellectuals say they are opposed to France’s efforts
to criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide. They argue that such
laws can only help to vindicate similar laws in Turkey that penalize
Turks who dare to utter the word genocide in discussions of the fate
of the Armenians after World War I.

DRUG TRAFFICKING THROUGH MEGHRI CUSTOMS IS RULED OUT, HEAD OF SYUNIK CUSTOMS-HOUSE SAYS

Noyan Tapan
May 10 2006

AGARAK, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The US State Department’s Annual Report
on International Strategy for Fight against Drug Trafficking contains a
provision, according to which the Afghanistan-Iran-Nagorno Karabakh and
the occupied territories of Azerbaijan-Armenia-Georgia-Western Europe
direction is a drug trafficking route, which is not substantiated
at all. Borik Sargsian, Head of Syunik Regional Customs-House of the
State Customs Committee adjunct to the RA government “sees no grounds
for making such an accusation.” He stated this in an interview to
the regional newspaper “Syunats Erkir”. “In my opinion, if the report
authors have real grounds, they should have produced some particular
facts so that all this would not create an impression of downright
statement,” B. Sargsian said. According to him, the fight against
drug trafficking at this customs point, which is the only one on
the Armenian-Iranian border, is being conducted by joint efforts of
customs officials, border guards, employees of the national security
bodies and other services of the State Customs Committee. Speaking
about drug trafficking cases at the customs point over the past year,
B. Sargsian said that no such cases were registered during the first
quarter of 2006. At the same time, the head of the customs-house noted
the Armenian-Iranian border stretches for kilometers, while they are
responsible for the customs territory only.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW OF MICHAEL BAGDASAROV, ARMAVIA AIR COMPANY OWNER, TO PANORAMA.AM

Panorama.am
17:10 09/05/06

– Mr. Bagdasarov, what does the air company Armavia undertake to deal
with the present situation?

-First, I would like once again to render my condolences to the
relatives of victims of May 3 airliners crash. Second, Armavia will
get another airliner – Airbus -319 in a week. Besides, Armavia has
already rented TU 154 M. Armavia tries to settle the issue of insurance
payments to the relatives of the victims.

-How the insurance is going to be settled?

-These issues are almost settled. The families of victims will receive
about $20 thousand since our insurance company pays about $2 mln
annually.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 9 2006

Special ship joins search for A-320’s recorders in Black Sea

MOSCOW, May 9 (Itar-Tass) – A special search and recovery sea craft,
the Navigator, joined an operation off the Black Sea beach city of
Sochi to recover from seabed of around 680 meters deep the flight
recorders of an A-320 airbus of the Armenian airlines that crashed
there last week, killing all the 113 people aboard.

The Navigator came to the operation area from the port of
Novorossisk, sources at the Russian Transport Ministry’s press
service said.

`The sea craft has all the equipment necessary to locate the flight
recorders,’ they said.

The Navigator’s crew will also install search buoys necessary for
recovery teams as guiding devices.

In the meantime, Transport Ministry officials said the deepwater
search compound Kalmar engaged in the operation off the shores of
Sochi has developed some technological problems, but they’ll be
likely eliminated by Tuesday night.

`The ship Kapitan Beklemishev, equipped with a hydro radar, worked in
the area of the tragedy all through Monday night and early morning
Tuesday,’ a source said. `The information obtained by its crew is
being processed now.’

`May 10, the ship Cheliken will take samples of seawater from the
disaster area,’ he said.

Weather conditions in the Sochi area were quite favorable for the
search operation Tuesday morning.

Igor Levitin, the chairman of the government commission investigating
the yet unclear causes of the air crash, ordered to set up a staff
for technical assistance to the recovery of flight recorders.