Author: Kamalian Hagop

THIS YEAR RODENT CONTROL ACTIVITIES TO BE CARRIED OUT ON 140 THOUSAND
HECTARES

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, NOYAN TAPAN. This year, 135 mln drams (about 270
thousand USD) has been allocated from the state budget, which enables
to carry out rodent control activities by chemical pest-killers on
about 140 thousand hectares. According to the director of the State
Plant Protection Service of the RA Ministry of Agriculture Mukuch
Danelian, chemical pest-killers will be distributed to the communities,
with the respective work to be done from April. M. Danelian noted
that a 2-year Locust Control Program has been implemented since 2004
in Armenia on an area of 17.3 thousand ha, including on 11.7 ha this
year, with a total of 345 thousand USD allocated by the UN’s Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO). It is envisaged that locust control
activities on another 5 thousand ha will be carried out with the
state budget resources.

ARMRUSGASPROM ENVISAGES TO SELL TO POPULATION NATURAL GAS OF 40-50
MLN USD THIS YEAR

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, NOYAN TAPAN. The director general of the
ArmRusgasprom company Karen Karapetian stated at the March 11 press
conference that as of January 1, 2005, 41 towns and 316 village
communities of Armenia were supplied with gas, 270 thousand consumers
(or 55.6% of the Soviet time consumers) used services of the system.
The company will invest 21 bln 562 mln drams (about 45 mln USD) in
the system in the next three years, with 17 bln drams being used
for restoring the gas supply and supplying gas to new consumers.
According to the director general, the 2005-2007 investment program
envisages supplying gas also to the communities which previously did
not have gas. According to K.Karapetian, in January and February of
2005, gas consumption in Armenia exceeded by 87 mln cubic meters the
index of the same period of 2004. In 2001, the population bought gas of
4-5 mln USD, while this year it is envidaged to increase this figure
to 40-50 mln USD. The speaker also noted that it is planned to carry
out repairs of 3-4 mln dollars in the Abovian gas depository this year.

IMPROVEMENT OF TAX AND CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION BRINGS POSITIVE RESULTS

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA President Robert Kocharian
informed reporters on March 11 that in the two first months of
2005, the state budget was overfulfilled. According to him, the
recent discussions on the issues of improving the tax and customs
administration have brought their positive results. According to the
President, the more stable the state budget, the more useful it is for
the country. NT: It is noteworthy that in January, 2005, the revenues
and official transfers of the RA state budget grew 58.1% compared with
January, 2004, and made 28 bln 30.7 mln drams (about 61.7 mln USD). In
the month under review, the current revenues of the budget grew 58.1%
to 27 bln 937.2 mln drams. The tax revenues increased 23.3% to 19
bln 479.6 mln drams, whereas the state duty revenues decreased 4.6%
to 837.4 mln drams. The budget made 16 bln 496.4 mln drams in Janyary.

Turkish Daily News
March 12 2005

Gündüz Aktan: A few points involving the Armenian issue
Saturday, March 12, 2005

The suggestion Mr. Sükrü Elekdað has made regarding the ~SBlue Book~T
in order to counter the Armenian genocide claims, is quite right. At
the instigation of Turkey~Rs main opposition party and with the
support of the Turkish government a joint call will be issued to the
British Parliament

Gündüz AKTAN
The suggestion Mr. Sükrü Elekdað has made regarding the ~SBlue Book~T
in order to counter the Armenian genocide claims, is quite right. At
the instigation of Turkey’s main opposition party and with the
support of the Turkish government a joint call will be issued to the
British Parliament. The latter will be urged to declare as
~Spropaganda material~T the Blue Book in question. Britain, who was an
invading power at the end of World War I, is the country that knows
about the facts better than anybody else. Westminster has not, until
now, accepted the argument that the Armenian incidents had been
genocide. In fact, in a press release the British Embassy in Ankara
made it clear two years ago that the genocide claims were groundless.

On the other hand, the Armenian foreign minister has promptly
rejected the proposal for creation of a commission — consisting of
Turkish and Armenian historians or, to put it differently, academics
— to look into the genocide claims. The Armenians are saying that
all historical-and-archive work has been completed; that the outcome
has been accepted by the world; and that the problem stems from
Turkey’s ~Sdenial of the genocide.~T

If the Armenians’ sole aim is to disseminate anti-Turkey propaganda
this is an understandable attitude. However, they must not think they
can make the EU or America, pressure us into accepting the genocide
claims — whereas Turkey would, naturally, accept the outcome of a
joint initiative.

The U.N. is not a suitable place for such a task. Those who, with
good intentions, suggest the U.N., are not well acquainted with the
U.N. The U.N. Security Council may tackle only those issues that
constitute ~Sa threat to international peace and security.~T The
incidents of 90 years ago are not within that scope. The Whitaker
Report debated in 1985 shows how inadequate the U.N. human rights
system is in this respect. And we know that UNESCO and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are not eager to
tackle this issue. Under the circumstances, we must keep striving to
pave the way for the creation of a common working premise. However,
we must know that this issue is more technical than it seems. So we
must not promptly voice any proposal that seems reasonable at first
sight.

Now let us come to the ~Smea culpa~T front. In the course of an
interview that appeared in the March 7 issue of daily Milliyet,
Professor Halil Berktay claimed that the Armenians had been subjected
to a forced relocation ~Sonly because they were Armenian.~T He argued
that forced relocation amounted to ethnic cleansing and that ethnic
cleansing is considered genocide in our day. He said that the secret
orders (concerning the massacres) were more important than the
documents available in the archives.

As far as I know Berktay has no published work on the historical
aspect of the incidents. More gravely, he is not familiar with the
genocide law, that does not keep him from making a legal assessment.

According to Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, acts committed
with the intent to destroy a group only because of that group’s
identity (that is, without any ground fall into the genocide
category. For example, Jews were destroyed without any other reason,
that is, only because they were Jews. Armenians, on the other hand,
were relocated because they had rebelled, because they had cooperated
with the invading Russian army and because they had attacked the
Turkish and Muslim population, with the aim of setting up their own
state in eastern Anatolia. If, in the course of that process, the two
sides massacred groups of civilians, that would fall into another
category of crimes.

The concept of ~Sethnic cleansing~T emerged during the incidents in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. That is not a legal term. It is being used when
describing such actions as the destruction of civilian targets and
the killing and raping of defenseless civilians — acts perpetrated
during the attacks staged by armed groups with the aim of driving out
from their homes the resident population of a given area. The Former
Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague treats this kind of ethnic cleansing
as ~Swar crimes~T or ~Scrimes against humanity.~T The only exception was
the Krstic case. But that was quite different. Ethnic cleansing is
similar to the way Turks were driven out of the Balkans and the
Caucasus in the 19th century rather than to the relocation of
Armenians which was largely carried out in an orderly manner.

Article 7 of the ICC’s Rome Statute (1998) considers forced
transfer of people a ~Scrime against humanity.~T However, according to
Article 17 of Protocol 2 additional to the Geneva Conventions,
relocation is not a crime if carried out due to ~Smilitary
imperative.~T

On the other hand, it is strange that Berktay does not know that
almost all archive documents involving the Armenian incidents are
~Ssecret~T documents anyway, that is, they are encoded.

And, finally, one can only wish that the ~Seminent~T members of our
press — which we increasingly realize are beyond criticism — who
seem to be dying to take part in the genocide debate, would be
willing to study this issue at least a little.

–Boundary_(ID_dpedlcioDc37mNOdOO99EQ)–

PanArmenian News
March 11 2005

EU NOT RIVAL TO OSCE MINSK GROUP, ARMENIAN FM CONSIDERS

11.03.2005 06:30

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Union is not a rival to the OSCE Minsk
Group, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said when commenting
of the statement by First Counselor of the Delegation of the European
Commission for Georgia and Armenia Jacques Vantomme, who said that
with the joining of the South Caucasian states to the EU: Wider
Europe, New Neighbors program the EU will assume the responsibility
for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. According to
Vardan Oskanian, many international organizations including those on
which Armenia and Azerbaijan serve are manifesting interest in the
conflict resolution. However the settlement of the Karabakh problem
should be achieved within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group while
the others should watch the process being ready to render assistance,
the RA FM added. At the same time Vardan Oskanian found it natural
that the EU report on Armenia contains the phrase “occupied
territories”, as this wording has been already used in the documents
prepared by other international organizations. “However it does not
mean that we agree with such a wording”, Mr. Oskanian stressed.
Besides, in the Minister’s words, one should not conclude that
“Armenia is an aggressor”. In his opinion, the EU report on Armenia
is representing Armenia-EU relations. “With a thorough examination
the report prompts the directions of cooperation. It also records of
the fields where Armenia has fallen behind. Thus, it would be correct
to make them priority issues”, Vardan Oskanian noted adding that
either he or his deputy are to pay a call to Brussels.

Armenian football team is visiting Dubai to play a friendly match against Kuwait

Azad-Hye, Dubai
March 10 2005

UEFA’s website reports that Armenia will play its first international
match of 2005 against Kuwait in Dubai on 16 March 2005 and have also
agreed to play two friendly matches with Jordan on 30 August in Amman
and on 4 October in Yerevan.

For the Kuwait game, Armenia’s coach Bernard Casoni is expected to
try out his reserves and home-based players, as many of the Armenian
internationals who are preparing for the coming season with their
clubs. In addition, captain Harutyun Vardanyan and playmaker Artur
Petrosyan are both injured.

Armenia will resume its 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign at the
end of March when it will meet the team of the tiny State of Andorra
in Yerevan and the Netherlands team away in the space of four days.

Currently the Armenian team is in the seventh position (bottom)
of the European Group 1, with only one point from five matches.

In the latest FIFA ranking of national teams, Kuwait occupies 56th
position and Armenia comes 120 (on a list of 205 countries).

Football Federation of Armenia was founded in 1992.

Glendale News Press
Published March 7, 2005
Finish accomplished
By Robert Chacon, News-Press and Leader

They jogged, walked and rolled across the finish line hours behind
the elite runners of the race, but for locals who participated in
the 20th annual Los Angeles Marathon, finishing was the goal.

“I can’t believe I haven’t passed out yet,” said Spencer Belko,
an eighth-grader at Rosemont Middle School who ran with 13 other
classmates in the event, after crossing the finish line 6 hours 2
minutes after he began. “Even though it was hotter last year, for
some reason this year was much more difficult for me.”

Aside from the students who ran in the marathon, there was a La
Crescenta woman who was bouncing back from major surgery, a La Cañada
Flintridge business owner, and a double amputee representing a Glendale
group that competed in the wheelchair portion of the race.

“She fell out of her chair during the race, but one of the spectators
helped her out,” said Lori Sivazlian about Greta Khndzrtsyan, who lost
both her legs in an earthquake in Armenia 17 years ago. Khndzrtsyan,
17, finished the 26.2 mile course in 3 hours, 15 minutes, Sivazlian
said.

Sivazlian is a board member of Pyunic, a Glendale-based organization
that provides financial and medical assistance to disabled people in
Armenia. Her group sponsored Khndzrtsyan’s participation in the race.

More than 25,000 people ran in this year’s marathon. Mark Saina of
Kenya won the race in 2 hours, 9 minutes, and Russian Lyubov Denisova
won the women’s division in 2 hours, 26 minutes.

Along the way, runners experienced sore feet, tense backs, painful
knees and doubt about finishing.

La Crescenta resident Joann Norris, 45, experienced her greatest
challenge at mile 19, when her Apple iPod ran out of batteries. The
R&B music she was listening to kept her legs going, she said.

She has overcome greater obstacles, however. Two years ago, she
weighed 247 pounds, but she had a gastric bypass procedure in June of
2003. Since then she has lost more than 100 pounds and has accomplished
one of her greatest feats — finishing a marathon without walking. She
crossed the finish line in 5 hours, 12 minutes.

She hit a wall at mile 24, she said, but a training buddy ran alongside
her and helped her finish. Three hours after finishing the race,
she was at a local Mexican restaurant, drinking margaritas and eating
with a group of friends.

“I have been through a lot of changes in the past year,” she said. “I
was just so happy to finish and accomplish my goal.”

Just finishing the race indicates greater accomplishments in the
future, local runners said.

“Finishing this race means that I can basically accomplish anything
if I just keep at it,” eighth-grader Spencer Belko said.

–Boundary_(ID_m9PC9f6SxtN0PoTqCBIiUw)–

Armenia’s crime rate down in 2004, official says

Noyan Tapan news agency
7 Mar 05

Yerevan, 7 March: The crime rate continued to decline in Armenia in
2004, the first deputy head of the Armenian Police, Ararat Makhtesyan,
told a press conference on 5 March.

While 31.4 crimes were committed per 10,000 people in 2004, this
figure stood at 34.5 crimes per 10,000 people in 2003, he said.

Makhtesyan drew parallels between Armenia and Russia and Ukraine and
said that these countries’ crime rates were 199.4 and 106.1 per 10,000
people respectively.

In 2004, 10,083 crimes were registered in Armenia against 11,073 in
2003. Of these, 1.7 per cent were very grave crimes and 34.6 per cent
were grave crimes, he said.

The Messenger, Georgia
March 7 2005

Noghaideli succeeds in lifting railway blockade
By M. Alkhazashvili

New Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli has managed to persuade President
Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan to lift the quasi railway blockade from
Azerbaijan to Georgia.

The breakthrough happened during the recent working visit of PM
Noghaideli to Azerbaijan and his personal negotiations with President
Aliev during which he promised to lift the blockade in the coming
days.

Misunderstanding concerning cargo transported from Azerbaijan to
Georgia started in 2004. The Azeri leadership stated then that some
cargo entering Georgia from Azerbaijan was being rerouted to Armenia.

By detaining railway freight cars at the border, Azeribaijan hoped to
identify any goods being sent to Armenia via Georgia. But this
activity unintentionally resulted in serious damage to the
reliability of the South Caucasus transport corridor. Georgian
importers incurred major losses and many international forwarders
started exploring other for cargo transportation.

However Friday’s visit of Noghaideli to Azerbaijan and his meeting
with Aliev proved that the relationship with the two countries is
still very good. President Aliev mentioned that there is a better
understanding and support between Georgian and Azerbaijan, reports
24-Saati.

Still this temporary misunderstanding occurred and as the head of
Georgian Railways, David Onoprishvili, says, because the delays of
freight at the Azeri border, Georgia has lost more than USD 1
million.

Due to an agreement signed by both Baku and Tbilisi, it is clear that
transiting of goods bound for Armenia via the Azeri-Georgian border
is prohibited. It is also a fact that some of the goods entering
Georgia from Azerbaijan ended up in Armenia. But a question remained
as to why Azerbaijan does not check the cargo at its other border
when it first enters Azerbaijan.

The Georgian paper 24-Saati asks if there is a suspicion or ways of
identifying and detecting such goods, why doesn’t the Azeri
administration detects such goods upon their arrival in Azeri
territory and turn it back or confiscate at that time.

Georgian media tries to explain the situation with two arguments:
Azerbaijan avoids spoiling its relationship either with Russia or
Turkmenistan and secondly Azerbaijan wants to involve Georgia in the
blockade of Armenia.

Some analysts however think that Azeri activities in blocking cargo
bound for Armenia may be an indication that Azerbaijan is preparing
for war to retake the Karabakh province.

Considering history, it is ironic that now during a time of peace
Azerbaijan is seeking stricter trade measures against Armenia. The
circulation of goods between two countries via Georgia did not stop
even during the hottest battles between the two countries.

GREEK MASS MEDIA CONDEMN JERUSALEM PATRIARCHATE OF ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH

YEREVAN, MARCH 3. ARMINFO. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem has
heard with great concern about the false allegations published by the
media in Greece regarding the Holy Fire ceremony, which takes place
each year on the Saturday before Easter in the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, according to which: “the Armenians are demanding that they
light the Holy Fire, and it must be noted that the issue has reached
all the way to the Israeli Knesset.

ARMINFO was informed in the JPA, as it is known, this request of the
Armenians is persistent, and many times, during the entrance and exit
of the Greek patriarch, there have occurred serious incidents.” The
position of the Armenian Patriarchate has always been to uphold the
peaceful and centuries-old traditional ceremony of the Holy Fire, in
compliance with the Agreement on the Status Quo in the Holy Places,
according to which: “The Bishop of the Armenian Church, who is to
accompany the Greek

Patriarch into the Sepulchre, here joins His Beatitude. The Patriarch
now disrobes, and his mitre and vestments are carried by the attendant
clergy to the Altar in the Orthodox Chapel.

The door of the Edicule is then opened and the Patriarch enters the
Tomb, accompanied by the Armenian Bishop.” Unfortunately, since his
accession to the throne in 2001, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ireneios
I has maintained that the Greeks hold the exclusive right to light the
Holy Fire from the Holy Tomb, subsequently passing it to the
Armenians. Contrary to this assertion, firmans, hujjats, and other
historical and legal documents all state that the Armenian Bishop and
the Greek Patriarch should together light the Holy Fire from the Tomb
of our Lord.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem has and will continue to reject
the attempts of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Jerusalem to deny the
right of equal participation by the Armenian Patriarch in the lighting
of the Holy Fire.