Author: Hunanian Jack

Hürriyet, Turkey
May 8 2006

Parliament delegation to travel to France over Armenian bill

Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said on Sunday that a delegation of
four parliamentarians is planning to travel to France tomorrow.
Speaking to reporters, Arinc, currently paying an official visit to
Sweden, stated that France’s Parliament is set to debate a bill
concerning the so-called Armenian genocide on May 18, adding that the
Turkish parliamentarians will hold a series of talks with their
France counterparts to convince them not to pass the bill.

Regarding the issue, Arinc also sent a message to France Parliament
Speaker Jean-Louis Debre last month.

RELATIVES OF VICTIMS OF A-320 CRASH TO GET INSURANCE COMPENSATION FOR SEVERAL MONTHS

Yerevan, May 6. ArmInfo. The relatives of those killed in the A-320
crash will get money on the victims’ insurance policies for several
months, the owner of the Armavia company Mikhail Bagdassarov says in
an interview to Gazeta.ru.

This problem will be solved by the insurer, whose representatives
have already visited Sochi, are now working in Yerevan and will
later meet with the relatives. The money will be paid without fail,
says Bagdassarov.

Fire destroys Armavia plane days after deadly crash
Published: 5/5/2006

Turkish Press
May 5 2006

BRUSSELS – A fire in a Brussels airport hangar destroyed an Armavia
Airbus A320 identical to one which recently crashed into the Black Sea
killing everyone aboard, the company using the hangar said on Friday.

The blaze, spotted in the building at around midnight (0200 GMT)
and brought under control about two hours later, gutted the Armavia
plane and three others, said Christophe Bernardini, head of the Sabena
Technics maintenance company.

Bernardini, whose firm maintains Armavia’s Airbus planes including
the one that crashed, said the Armenian company had lost two of its
five Airbus in less than a week.

His announcement came as mourners gathered off the Russian resort of
Sochi at the spot where the Armenian jet plunged into the waters early
on Wednesday, killing all 113 people on board, in a crash apparently
caused by bad weather.

In Armenia, a spokesperson for the civial aviation authority confirmed
to AFP that the plane had been destroyed in Brussels.

“An A320 from the company Armavia, which was undergoing maintenance
checks with the Sabena Technics firm in Brussels, was burnt,” the
spokesperson said.

Meanwhile Armenian Defence Minister Serge Sargsian played down
suggestions that the fire was connected with the recent accident or
was lit deliberately.

“I can’t see any link between these two events and I don’t think
someone did it on purpose,” he said during a brief press conference
at Yerevan airport.

Flights were disrupted at Brussels airport Friday morning due to
smoke still rising from the hangar, situated some distance from the
airport’s passenger terminals and runways.

The cause of the fire has not been established.

Armenians hold first funerals for victims of plane crash that killed 113
By AVET DEMOURIAN

AP Worldstream; May 06, 2006

Armenians observed a moment of silence Saturday for the victims of
the Armenian airliner crash that killed all 113 people on board,
while experts were still seeking to determine why the plane crashed
into the Black Sea earlier this week.

Weeping relatives buried some of the victims in the Armenian capital
Saturday, and more funerals were expected Sunday. Most of the victims
were Armenians.

Relatives carried the coffin of 27-year-old flight attendant Lusine
Gevorkian out of her house in Yerevan, as musicians played traditional
Armenian mourning dirges on a duduk, a clarinet-like instrument.

“I was flying a lot alongside Lusine,” said her colleague Nune
Beglarian, 33. “She was happy and eager to smile, and she had plans
to change her life she failed to fulfill.”

Black-robed priests later held a mourning service in Yerevan’s St.
Grigor Cathedral and other churches across the Caucasus nation.

Only 53 bodies have been recovered from Wednesday’s crash, which
occurred about six kilometers (four miles) off the coast of the
southern Russian resort of Sochi. Of those, 42 had been identified by
Saturday, and authorities began collecting DNA samples from relatives
of the dead.

Hope dimmed that searchers would recover the remains of more than
half the people on board, and authorities struggled to pinpoint the
precise location of the Airbus A-320’s flight recorders under nearly
700 meters (2,300 feet) of water.

The plane plunged into the sea in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday in
heavy rain and poor visibility as it approached the airport in Adler,
about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Sochi, a city wedged between
the sea and soaring, snowcapped mountains.

It was not clear what caused the crash.

Some experts, like Dmitry Adbashian, the former head of Armenia’s
civil aviation authority and a veteran pilot, said bad weather,
a shortage of fuel and technical problems all could have contributed.

The plane had covered most of its route from Yerevan to Sochi when it
turned back after air controllers in Sochi said the weather there was
too bad for landing. It later flew to Sochi again after air traffic
controllers said the weather had improved.

Mikhail Bagdasarov, the owner of the Armavia company that owned the
aircraft, said an air traffic controller ordered the airliner’s crew
to make another run when it came too close. The plane was turning
back when it hit the water.

“The air traffic controller made a mistake that worsened the
situation,” Bagdasarov said in a statement, adding that other factors
might have contributed to the crash.

Adbashian told The Associated Press that pilots considered the airport
in Sochi to be among the hardest to land at across the former Soviet
Union.

“I frequently flew there,” Adbashian said. “Thunderstorms were very
frequent and the direction of wind changed sharply.”

Adbashian said the airport’s location makes it difficult for a plane
to pull back and start a new approach if something went wrong during
its first attempt to land.

26 VICTIMS OF AIRCRAFT CRASH DELIVERED TO YEREVAN AIRPORT “ZVARTNOTS” AT 5:30 AM YEREVAN TIME ON MAY 5

Yerevan, May 5. ArmInfo. 26 bodies of the killed in the crash of
Airbus A320 and their relatives, who had left for Sochi to identify
the bodies, arrived at “Zvartnots” airport in Yerevan at 5:30 am
local time.

Police officers, ambulances, psychologists were on duty at Yerevan
airport all night long. Government members were at the airport as
well. The bodies were delivered to Yerevan medico-legal morgues. May
5-6 are declared Mourning Days in Yerevan. The funerals of the victims
will take place just on these days. The unidentified bodies will be
buried in common graves in Sochi. Body fragments will be transported
to Rostov-on-Don for histological examination. No new bodies were
found as of 8:00 am Yerevan time. Despite the readiness of Russian
and French rescuers to search the bodies as long as necessary, experts
say the bodies start decomposing already in three days at such depth.

Data on the number of the found bodies fluctuate between 48 and 53
according to different sources. The reported numbers of unidentified
bodies are also contradictory: 24-28. 113 people were killed in
the crash. The reasons are still unknown. Criminals cases have been
initiated on the fact both in Russia and Armenia. Investigation is
in process.

PRESS SECRETARY OF THE GEORGIAN AIR NAVIGATION SERVICE: THE PLANE WAS NOT IN AN EMERGENCY STATE

AmRadio.am
04.05.2006 17:10

The flight from Yerevan to Sochi lasts 50-55 minutes. The Sochi
airport is in the city of Adler at the Russian-Georgian border,
i.e. most part of the flight passes through Georgian air space.

To understand the reasons of the May 3 crash of the “A-320” airplane
over the Black Sea it is important to know the conversations between
the crew and the air traffic control officers of Georgia.

In a phone talk with “Radiolur” correspondent Tatul Hakobyan Press
Secretary of the Georgian Air Navigation Service Tea Gedabadze
thoroughly presented the record of the conversations between the crew
of the “A-320” and the Georgian air traffic control officers.

“At 21:15 GMT or 1:15 local time the Armenian plane was normally
flying in the Georgian sky. The pilot informs that the Sochi airport
is closed because of unfavorable weather conditions. We ask to check
the reserve of fuel in the plane. They respond the fuel will suffice
for two more hours. We return back to Yerevan,” Tea Gedabadze tells.

Therefore, learning about the bad weather conditions in Sochi, the
crew took the decision to return to Yerevan.

21.26 GMT they resumed connection with Sochi, and the pilot said,
“In five minutes we’ll receive information from Russia and will decide
whether we are continuing the flight or returning to Yerevan.”

Tea Gedabadze notes that Georgian air traffic control officers have no
connection with their Russian colleagues, an the Armenian pilots were
informing them about the conversation with dispatchers of Rostov,
“Most probably Rostov told the crew of the Armenian plane that
the weather conditions improved. By 21.58 they left the air space
of Georgia. During our last conversation the pilot said good-bye,
till new return. After that the Armenian “A-320″ disappeared from
the radiolocation station.”

Could the Armenian airplane land in Sukhumi, the nearest airport
to Sochi.

“They did not need landing. When they learned that because of bad
weather it is impossible to land in Sochi they decided to return to
Yerevan. They have not asked for the permission to land. You see,
everything was normal. The plane was not in an emergency state,” Press
Secretary of the Air Navigation Service of Georgia Tea Gedabadze said.

REQUIEM SERVICE TO MEMORY OF VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN PLANE CRASH TO BE CONDUCTED IN JERUSALEM

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 04 2006

JERUSALEM, MAY 4, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “The Armenian
Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Archbishop Torkom Manoogian
and the members of St. James’ Brotherhood have learnt with deep
sorrow about the tragic crash of the Armavia Yerevan-Sochi flight
resulting in the 113 deaths of the entire crew and passengers with
no survivors,” the report provided to Noyan Tapan from the Divan
of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem read. The Patriarchate
extends its condolences to all the bereaved families as well as to
the President of Republic of Armenia and its Government. The Divan of
the Patriarchate informs that on this sad occasion they will conduct
requiem service this Sunday, 7 May 2006, during the celebration of
their Divine Liturgy on the Holy Tomb of Our Lord in the church of
Holy Sepulchre. “And we will pray the resting in peace for all the
victims of the plane accident and for the consolation and well being
of their families,” the report read.

PRESIDENT HU EXTENDS CONDOLENCES TO ARMENIA

Xinhua, China
2006-05-03 17:34:32
May 4 2006

BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday
sent a message to his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharyan, expressing
sincere condolences to the relatives of those killed in a jet crash
early Wednesday morning.

An Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline belonging to the air company
Armavia went down into the Black Sea near the southern Russian resort
town of Sochi at about 2:15 a.m. Moscow time (2215 GMT Tuesday),
killing all 113 people on board, including six children and eight crew.

Bad weather conditions were responsible for the air tragedy.

ARMENIANS STAGE PROTEST ACTION AGAINST REMOVAL OF RUSSIAN BASE FROM AKHALKALAK

Today, Azerbaijan
May 4 2006

Removal of Russian military bases from Akhalkalak dissatisfied
Armenians living in this territory.

As APA reports, military equipment in Base #62 has to be taken from
Akhalkalak to Russian Gumru Base #102 in Armenia.

Armenians stages protest action in connection with this event.

Because of the protest action, military unit management transported
the military equipment about 01.00 am at night however it was scheduled
for 07.00.

Protesters claimed that Turkish army will be stationed here after
Georgia become NATO member and this fact poses threat to them.

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12th meeting of US-Armenia Task Force to start in Yerevan on May 2

ArmRadio.am
29.04.2006 15:55

The 12th meeting of the US-Armenia Task Force (USATF) will be held in
Yerevan on May 2. The meeting will be chaired by RA Minister of
Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan and US Coordinator for Europe
and Eurasia Tom Adams. According to the Press Service of the RA
Ministry of Finance and Economy, it is envisaged to discuss issues of
bilateral interest, present the programs under implementation and to
clarify issues of the programmed measures. Among the issues on the
USATF agenda are measures to encourage Armenia’s economic development,
democratic reforms, the Millennium Challenge Program-related issues,
macroeconomic policy and long-term development promotion programs, tax
and customs sector reforms. Problems of agriculture, judicial and
energy sectors, educational and scientific issues, as well as the
fight against terrorism and other programs of mutual interest will be
addressed during the meeting. The USATF was established in 2000 with
the aim of promoting the cooperation between the two countries and
enhancing the efficiency of assistance programs implemented by the US
government in Armenia. The USATF holds two meetings annually – in
Washington and Yerevan. Over the past decade, the US government has
implemented various development and humanitarian programs of a total
of 1.6 billion dollars in Armenia.