Author: Mamian George

DEEP-WATER DEVICE DID NOT DISCOVER À-320 FLIGHT RECORDERS YET

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.05.2006 13:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The search group did not find the airborne recorders
of A-320 airplane, which crashed near Sochi on the night of May
3. Operation to lift flight recorders started in the morning. A
device was dropped at the bottom and started examination of the
location. “Many fragments of the liner are found at the bottom, but
in the opinion of French specialists, nothing like flight recorders
is found yet. The search continues,” an Operative Staff representative
said, Russian media report.

On the night of May 3 a Yerevan-Sochi plane of Armavia Armenian air
company crashed in the Black Sea 6 km away from Adler airport. All
113 passengers, including 6 children and 8 members of the crew, died
as a result. Among them were 26 Russian citizens, one Ukrainian and
one Georgian citizen, while the rest were Armenian citizens.

–Boundary_(ID_SGX9STSAaI3ZNn8chNLN/A)- –

TURKISH LOBBY AGAINST THE BILL PENALIZING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIERS

ArmRadio.am
15.05.2006 17:36

“May 18 discussion of the bill on penalizing Armenian Genocide deniers
may be cancelled or postponed,” said Hilda Tchoboyan, Head of the
European Armenian Federation, in her phone talk with “Radiolur”
correspondent.

The reason is the active Turkish lobbying. This, however, will not
put an end to the question, and in several months the issue will be
again presented to consideration.

In Hilda Tchoboyan’s words, the Armenian side is doing everything to
counter the active Turkish lobby and to make the issue a matter of
discussion. Today all Armenian organizations of France are working in
accord. These have been joined by the French organization for defense
of human rights. This is, however, not an issue of the Armenian
community in France only.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT REFUSED PARTICIPATION AT NATO PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SESSION
Author: A. Mammadov

TREND Info, Azerbaijan
May 15 2006

The President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan refused to take part at the
plenary session of NATO Parliament Assembly to be held May 26-30 in
Paris. The NATo Parliament assembly`s press service told ArmInfo.

The Press secretary of Armenian President Victor Sogomonyan, speaking
about Mr. R. Kocharyan`s refusal reasons to take part at the Spring
session in Paris, referred to Armenian President`s overemployment.

“The President refused to take part at the session, as he has

a complex time-table. During the session, the Minsk Group OSCE
co-chairmen to come to the region. Moreover, this period will
coincide with public holidays in Armenia”, – told the President`s
Press secretary.

It should be remind that the Chairman of NATO Parliament Assembly
Pierre Lelush invited the President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and
the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to take part and deliver a
speech at the Spring session of the Assembly. Furhermore, Chairman
Lelush told before that NATO Parliament assembly did all possible to
solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It should also be pointed out
that the issue of a possible organization of meeting between the two
Presidents within the session in Paris remains open

Answering ArmInfo, Mr. V. Sogomonyan underlined that he does not
consider that President R. Kocharyan`s refusal to take part at the
session could be a cause to the international community`s pressure
on Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

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05/15/2006
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1) Orinats Yerkir Members Follow Baghdasarian Out of Government
2) Turkey Threatens French with Sanctions over Armenian Genocide Law
3) US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Nominee Affirms Commitment to Peaceful
Resolution of Karabagh Conflict
4) Repatriation Efforts in Georgia to Negatively Affect Georgian Armenians

1) Orinats Yerkir Members Follow Baghdasarian Out of Government

YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Armenpress)The Orinats Yerkir party of outgoing Parliament
Speaker Artur Baghdasarian, lost yet another Parliament member to the ruling
coalition on Monday. However, several senior government officials affiliated
with the party remained loyal to the Baghdasarian, heeding his calls to
resign.
Baghdasarian cited growing policy disagreements with Kocharian, and the two
other parties in the ruling coalition, the Republican Party and the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation, as he officially announced his resignation and
Orinats Yerkir’s withdrawal from the Armenian government on Friday.
Baghdasarian stopped short of blaming Kocharian for this month’s defection
of a
dozen Orinats Yerkir parliamentarians, which precipitated the party’s exit.
According to Prime Minister and Republican Party member Andranik Markarian,
Orinats Yerkir’s withdrawal from the coalition was inevitable because of
Baghdasarian’s disagreements with the socioeconomic and foreign policies
pursued by Armenia’s leadership.
He noted in particular that its repeated demands for providing large-scale
compensation to Armenians who lost their Soviet-era bank savings during the
early 1990s “ran counter to the economic policy of our state.” He also
rejected
Baghdasarian’s recent calls for Armenia’s eventual membership in NATO as
“unacceptable”. 
Orinats Yerkir’s faction in the 131-seat legislature was reduced to just nine
members after another defection Monday. The latest defector, Mekhak
Mkhitarian,
issued no explanations, just like the nine other lawmakers that have left
Orinats Yerkir since May 5.
So far, all three Armenian ministers that have represented Orinats Yerkir have
ignored Baghdasarian’s demands to resign, choosing instead to remain in the
government. One of them, Education Minister Sergo Yeritsian, was the party’s
deputy chairman until last Friday.
Two other prominent Orinats Yerkir figures, Mher Shahgeldian and Gagik
Mkheyan,
who head the parliament committees on defense and social affairs, announced
that they will formally quit with Baghdasarian at the end of this month.
Orinats Yerkir has also had five deputy ministers in the coalition cabinet of
President Robert Kocharian. Three of them said on Monday that they remain
loyal
to Baghdasarian and will comply with his orders.
“On Friday, after Artur Baghdasarian’s news conference, I handed the minister
[of labor] a letter to the prime minister asking him to relieve me of my
duties,” said Artsruni Aghajanian, deputy minister of labor and social
affairs.
“I am one of those individuals who participated in the party’s creation and
don’t find it moral to even consider staying [in the government].”
“I have abandoned the post of deputy minister to stay with my party,” said Ara
Grigorian, deputy minister of trade and economic development. “I tendered my
resignation on Friday.”
Similar decisions are understood to have been made by Gagik Aslanian, another
Baghdasarian loyalist who has served as deputy minister for local government,
as well as at least two regional vice-governors representing Orinats Yerkir.
Party sources claimed that “numerous” other, lower-level Orinats Yerkir
officials will follow suit after Baghdasarian formally ceases to be Parliament
Speaker. Parliament is expected to accept his resignation without a debate on
May 27.
It is still unclear who will replace Baghdasarian as Parliament Speaker.
Deputy
Speaker Tigran Torosian said Monday that it is early to speak about candidates
for the job, adding that the Armenian Parliament still has its speaker who is
carrying out his duties.

2) Turkey Threatens French with Sanctions over Armenian Genocide Law

ANKARA (AFP)–Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France
with trade sanctions if it adopts a bill making it illegal to deny the
Armenian
genocide, a Turkish newspaper said Sunday.
“Patience has its limits. We do not have hatred (towards France) but we will
impose our sanctions,” the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted Erdogan as saying
at a summit of Muslim countries on the Indonesian island of Bali.
French lawmakers are due to consider this Thursday a bill from the opposition
Socialist Party (PS) which would make anyone denying the Armenian genocide
liable to a five-year jail term and a 45,000 Euro (57,000 Dollar) fine.
French members of parliament should be “particularly sensitive” to the
issue of
possible sanctions since France is the number one investor in Turkey, Erdogan
said. “There will possibly be problems,” he added.
France has angered Ankara in the past over the Armenian genocide. In 2001 it
adopted a law officially recognizing the massacres that took place starting in
1915 as genocide.
Several French businesses were excluded from invitations to conduct
business in
Turkey amid calls for a boycott of French products following the 2001 law.
French exports to Turkey in 2001 law plunged by 3.53 billion dollars,
according
to Turkish figures. But analysts predict the latest law could have a far
greater impact on trade between the two countries than the 2001 bill.
Turkey has reached record rates of growth in the past five years and bilateral
trade between the countries in 2005 was worth at least 9.6 billion dollars.
The 430-member Turkish chamber of commerce has intensified appeals to French
leaders including a letter to President Jacques Chirac, urging them to abandon
Thursday’s vote.

3) US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Nominee Affirms Commitment to Peaceful
Resolution of Karabagh Conflict

YEREVAN (Yerkir)–During her Senate confirmation hearing Monday,
Ambassador-designate Anne Derse reiterated US policy for a peaceful, mutually
acceptable resolution to the Karabagh conflict, stating that “a return to
violence would be a tragedy.”
Ambassador-designate Anne Derse responded that if confirmed, she will work
toward expanding and strengthening US-Azerbaijan security cooperation and help
promote democracy and governance.
She said a peaceful settlement to the Karabagh conflict is critical to
achieving this goal and expressed hope that President of Armenia Robert
Kocharian and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will work together on this
issue. She further stated that as Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the US
will
also urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain engaged in the process and
demonstrate political courage.
On the issue of democracy, Derse stressed the importance of a genuine
effort by
Azerbaijan to respect human rights in order to pursue democratic reform and
ensure long-term political stability.

4) Repatriation Efforts in Georgia to Negatively Affect Georgian Armenians

(Combined Sources)Zaza Imedashvili, a high-ranking official in the Ministry of
Housing and Refugees in Tbilisi, said that Georgia’s budget this year has
allocated 1,227,000 Lari (around 500,000 US Dollars), to resettle thousands of
Ajarian Georgians displaced by landslides and other natural disasters.
Close to 5,000 families, around 30,000 people all together, are expecting
resettlement any day now under a new government program, which is still at a
very early stage.
The program aims to resettle the ethnic Georgians in areas such as Tsalka and
Akhalkalaki, which have predominantly Armenian or Greek populations. 
“Everyone understands this policy here,” said Sevak Yeranosyan, an Armenian
resident of Ninotsminda district in the southern region of Javakheti. “They
[the Ajarians] will be resettled to Armenian villages so that there will be a
larger Georgian population here.”
“Their program is to populate our region with Georgians and Ajarians,” he
said.
The Georgian Government insists that the Ajarians are being moved to these
regions because of the cheaper housing that is available there.
The Georgian Government has also pledged to resettle Meskheti Turks in Georgia
by the year 2011, also in the predominantly Armenian populated region of
Samtskhe-Javakheti.

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ABRAHAM RETAINS IBF MIDDLWEIGHT CROWN
by ZWICKAU, Germany, May 14 2006

Agence France Presse — English
May 13, 2006 Saturday 10:16 PM GMT

Armenia’s Arthur Abraham retained his IBF middleweight title on
Saturday beating Ghana’s Kofi Jantuah on a unanimous points decision.

The 26-year-old Abraham, who has held the belt since December 2005,
was on top for most of the 12 rounds and is now unbeaten in 21 fights,
winning 17 inside the distance.

The three judges scored the fight 115-112, 116-111, 117-109.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 13 2006

Azerbaijanis close exposition of tourism company from Nagorno
Garabagh in Moscow

[ 13 May 2006 20:22 ]

Azerbaijanis staged a protest action related to the opening of an
exposition by the separatist Nagrono Garabagh regime, which has
occupied Azerbaijan’s lands, during the exhibition organized by
Moscow, Russia (APA).

Our 15 young compatriots surrounded the exposition for the Nagorno
Garabagh’s tourism company holding Azerbaijan’s national flag,
demanded closing the exposition. Azerbaijanis said Nagorno Garabagh
belongs to Azerbaijan, and Armenians has occupied it. The exhibition
organizers called militia to the site. The militiamen prevented
Azerbaijani young protesters to come into conflict with Armenians
from Nagorno Garabagh.
The separatist regime removed the expositions after that./APA/

Iranian expert notes weakness of Tehran’s policy on Azerbaijan

Zerkalo, Baku
13 May 06

Iranian expert Jalal Mohammadi who is thought to be close to President
Mahmud Ahmadinezhad has said that Iran has not yet forgiven Azerbaijan
for anti-Iranian remarks made during the second congress of the
Azerbaijani diaspora in Baku on 16 March.

In an exclusive interview with the Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo,
Mohammadi said that “the anti-Iranian statements made at the second
congress of Azerbaijanis in Baku show the weakness of Iran’s policy on
Azerbaijan and cause distrust between the two countries. Iran has
recognized Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and the fact of Nagornyy
Karabakh’s occupation, whereas Baku allows some suspicious people to
speak out against Iran’s territorial integrity.

Such statements create a good basis for Armenia and other unfriendly
countries to carry out intensive activities against our cooperation.
Iran’s retaliatory reaction to statements that question its
territorial integrity will be known in the future.”

The expert ruled out an orange revolution in Azerbaijan, saying that
the opposition is not supported by the people. Only the US embassy in
Baku supports the opposition, Zerkalo quoted him as saying.

Mohammadi linked the West’s determination to resolve the Karabakh
conflict to internal problems in Armenia and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan’s
international ties and the geopolitical situation. He said that it is
impossible to liberate the occupied territories at the negotiating
table, Zerkalo reported.

The expert believes that many countries use the conflict in their own
interests, trying to maintain the status quo. He said that they are
not interested in the conflict settlement at all. Mohammadi added that
France, Russia and Turkey want the conflict to continue, Zerkalo said.

“Turkey connects the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict to Armenian-Turkish
relations and interstate problems. Using the fact of Karabakh’s
occupation, Ankara is trying to prove Armenia’s aggressive policy and
defend itself from the psychological and political pressure of the
Armenian lobby which is demanding that Turkey recognize the Armenian
genocide in the Ottoman Empire,” the expert said.

Armenian minister quits ex-ruling party

Noyan Tapan news agency
12 May 06

Yerevan, 12 May: Armenian Minister of Town Planning Aram Arutyunyan
offered his resignation from the Orinats Yerkir (Law-Governed Country)
Party on 12 May, the press service of the ministry has told Noyan
Tapan.

It was announced yesterday that Orinats Yerkir had quit the ruling
coalition and party leader Artur Bagdasaryan had taken a decision to
resign from the post of speaker of the Armenian National Assembly.

TREND Info, Azerbaijan
May 12 2006

Turan Morali: Ankara disappointed with Canada’s position on so-called
Armenian `genocide’

Source: Trend
Author: R. Abdullayev

12.05.2006

Ankara is disappointed with Canada’s position on recognition of
so-called Armenian `genocide’ in 1915 by Ottoman Empire and this
disappointment has been brought to the attention of official Ottawa,
informed Trend basing on conversation of Turan Morali, the ambassador
of Turkey in Azerbaijan with journalists on May 12, 2006.

«Canada has chosen a wrong position and this policy may lead to
definite undesirable political results from the point of view of
development of cooperation between the two countries’ said T. Morali.

Concerning the position of France on so-called Armenian `genocide’
the Turkish ambassador said he hoped that with Ankara’s efforts, the
bill implying imprisonment for denying Armenian `genocide’ would not
be approved in France’s Senate.

Estimation of historical events is not a competency of Senate, which
is confirmed by declaration of 400-500 historians, who signed the
document appealing to prevent acceptance of similar bills.

TURKISH PRESS 11 MAY 06

BBC Monitoring
11 May 06

Armenian genocide issue

Posta (tabloid) “With every passing day, the Armenians are adding
new moves to their actions over the genocide claims The noose around
our country is tightening and we are just watching We are gradually
becoming isolated and still we are not taking any steps to influence
events We have missed the train. From now we must take steps which
are much more significant, much more influential, and require much
more political courage.” (Commentary by Mehmet Ali Birand)

Hurriyet (centre-right) “How can French people explain away the dirty
events in their own recent past? When it is about them, they consider
it reasonable to ‘leave history to the historians’, but when the
target is Turkey, they do not hesitate to apply contradictory double
standards and declare: ‘Saying there was no genocide of Armenians is a
crime requiring a five-year sentence.’ Moreover, they ignore the fact
that what they are doing is totally against ‘freedom of expression’,
the mother of all liberties.” (Commentary by Oktay Eksi)

Milliyet (centrist) “We can see what ‘genocide’ means from what Hitler
did to the Jews. The comparison that France wants to establish now
is unfair and an assault against Turkey.” (Commentary by Derya Sazak)

“Humiliating Turkishness Armenian genocide France It is not easy
for concepts to establish themselves properly in Turkey or France
Unfortunately it takes time to learn the lessons of democracy.”

(Commentary by Hasan Cemal)

Radikal (centre-left) “There must be people in Ankara who really have
the knowledge, the conscience and virtue to see there is no end to
this issue. Sooner or later we need to find another way to deal with
the Armenian issue.” (Commentary by Murat Yetkin)

Zaman (moderate, pro-Islamic) “Such a ban [on Armenian genocide
denial in France] tramples on one of the most fundamental principles
of liberal democracy which the EU and the European Council want to
prevail in all their members. There is no doubt that criminalizing
‘saying there was no Armenian genocide’ violates freedom of
expression just as much as describing ‘saying genocide has been
inflicted on the Ottoman Armenians’ in Turkey as a crime of ‘assault
on Turkishness’.” (Commentary by Sahin Alpay)

Kurdish issue

Yeni Safak (liberal, pro-Islamic) “US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice has not promised Turkey anything about the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’
Party] issue, nor will she. But she did feel able to guarantee Jalal
Talabani [president of Iraq and an ethnic Kurd] that they will not
allow Turkey to mount a cross-border operation. Even if nothing else
happens, does this not confirm the US-PKK relationship?”

(Commentary by Ibrahim Karagul)