Author: Nargizian David

Daily Nexus (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, Student Newspaper)
April 12 2005

Finance Board Questions Leg Council Actions

By Kaitlin Pike – Staff Writer

After giving away the remaining $200 in its Spring quarter budget
Monday afternoon, Associated Students Finance Board members debated
A.S. Legislative Council’s actions last week, which many thought
violated the autonomy of the board.

The board gave $50 each to the Chinese American Association for its
culture show, the UCSB Dance Team for Saturday’s benefit performance
and the Raices de Mi Tierra for a cultural show. It also granted the
Armenian Organization Sisterhood $20 for an event commemorating the
Armenian genocide. The Alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority received $30
for its Phoenix Scholarship Charity Ball. The Indian Undergraduate
Student Association (INDUS) was the only group who did not receive
funding. The board allocated $700 to INDUS last week, but the group
asked Monday for any possible amount of additional funding for its
`Visions of India’ show.

At last week’s meeting, board members originally allocated $1,300 to
Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) fraternity’s Fight Night event. But after the
PIKE representative left the meeting, the board debated its initial
decision, and decreased the fraternity’s grant to $1,001. Several
members at last week’s meeting said they disapproved of how the money
would be used.

A.S. Leg Council overruled the revision last Wednesday, granting PIKE
the $1,300 that Finance Board had initially given them.

During Finance Board’s remark period Monday, members debated whether
Leg Council should have infringed upon the board’s autonomy in this
instance.

Finance Board Chair Bill Shiebler said Leg Council’s decision was
unnecessary and disregarded the expertise of the board.

`I think it’s too bad Leg Council doled out another $299 of our
budget,’ Shiebler said. `I think Finance Board is the most
knowledgeable in financial matters.’

Shiebler also said council members based their decision on the
opinions of other council members who either did not attend the
meeting or left the meeting early. The board decided to decrease its
funding of Fight Night because of its extravagant budget, which
included limousines for `ring girls,’ and not strictly because the
event inadvertently promoted sexual discrimination, he said.

Off-Campus Rep Adam Graff said neither reason, whether it was because
of sexual discrimination or an excessive budget, justified the
board’s action in lowering PIKE’s funding. Graff said PIKE only asked
Finance Board to partially fund its insurance costs and the cost of
renting the Thunderdome, but it did not ask for any item the board
might find objectionable.

`The justification they gave for changing the funding after the fact
was insufficient and illogical,’ he said. `Be it sexual
discrimination or extravagant budget… neither is sufficient to
warrant [the board] taking this action because it’s not germane to
the funding of the event.’

Even though the board is out of money for the quarter, members said
they would continue to meet for the remainder of the school year to
advise student groups about financing events.

RIA Novosti, Russia
April 12 2005

NEW GENERATION NUCLEAR POWER PLANT MAY BE BUILT IN ARMENIA, IF FUNDS
ARE ALLOTTED

YEREVAN, April 12 (RIA Novosti) – Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
admitted that a new modern technology nuclear power plant can be
built in Armenia, while meeting with students of Yerevan State
University.

“The only currently operating nuclear power plant in Armenia will be
stopped with time. Talks with the EU on this problem are under way,”
the president said.

Speaking on the prospects for the energy sector, the head of state
noted that the development of alternative power is vital today.

In particular, the construction of a hydropower plant on the Arax
river is a major project in the hydro energy sector. Besides, about
70 small hydro plants are being built, Kocharyan said.

Also, the president said that late 2005 will witness the start of the
reconstruction of the Yerevan thermoelectric power station, which
will make it possible to save fuel.

The construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is expected to
start this month, which Kocharyan believes “will become a guarantor
of safety and stability of Armenia’s energy system.”

The Armenian nuclear power plant was put into operation in 1980 and
stopped in March 1989. Then it was again activated in 1995, when an
acute energy crisis occurred in the country.

Equipped with a VVER-440 Russian first-generation reactor, the
plant’s second unit produces the average of 30-40% of the total
Armenian energy. Experts estimate the plant is able to operate until
2016.

In September 2003 the nuclear power plant was handed over to the
INTER RAO UES close corporation, an affiliate of RAO UES of Russia
and the Rosenergoatom concern, for trust management for five years.

The European Union insists on conserving the plant and is ready to
allocate 100 million euros for that purpose. However, according to
Armenian experts’ estimates, at least a billion euros is necessary to
develop alternative energy generating capacities in the country.

A1plus

| 16:20:11 | 08-04-2005 | Sports |

SAMBO COMPETITION IN GYUMRI

In Gyumri the Armenian Championship of sambo took place in which
about 60 sportsmen took part.

For the Armenian sportsmen this was a good preliminary phase before
the Sambo European Championship in Moscow.

On April 8-10 in Gyumri the youth championship of sambo will take
place.

Tears And Prayers In Armenian Catholic Orphanage

Agence France Press
April 8, 2005

Tears and prayers filled an orphanage in northern Armenia on Friday
as nuns and children watched the funeral of Pope John Paul II, who
helped build the home after a 1988 earthquake.

“Right now we are with 60 orphans of the orphanage and we are
watching the pope’s funeral with tears in our eyes,” Sister Arusiak,
the director of the “Mother of God – Armenia” Catholic center in the
northern town of Gyumri, told AFP by telephone.

“We prayed for the peace of the pope’s soul. It is a great loss for
all the Catholics in the whole world. He was an exceptional spiritual
leader with his humanism and courage,” she said.

According to the Catholic Church some 150,000 Catholics live in
Armenia, whose 3.2 million population belongs mainly to the Orthodox
Armenian Apostolic Church.

Pope John Paul II visited Armenia’s capital Yerevan in 2001 to
celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of Christianity in the country —
the first to adopt Christianity as the official religion. Catholicos
Garegin II, the spiritual leader of the Apostolic Church, Prime
Minister Andranik Markarian, as well as the head of the Armenian
Catholics, attended John Paul II’s funeral at the Vatican.

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS AND DEFENCE MINISTER OF LITHUANIA SPEAK ABOUT ARMENIAN-LITHUANIAN FRIENDLY RELATIONS

ETCHMIADZIN, APRIL 6, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 5 Karekin II, Catholicos
of All Armenians, accompanied by Lieutenant-General Artur Aghabekian,
the RA Deputy Defence Minister, and Monk Norair Simonian, the RA
Army Holy Primate, received in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
Gediminas Kirkilas, the National Defence Minister of the Republic of
Lithuania, and the delegation headed by him, which was in Armenia on an
official visit. Friendly relations between the two countries, present
cooperation between the Defence Ministries and future programs were
spoken over at the meeting. Catholicos of All Armenians addressed his
condolence to Lithuania’s people, the majority of which are followers
of the Catholic Church, on the death of Pope John Paul II. As Noyan
Tapan was informed from the Mother See Information Centre, church-state
relations in the two countries, as well as spiritual service of the
Armenian Church servicemen in the RA Army were also touched upon at
the meeting.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ASSIST TO DEVELOPMENT OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
SYSTEM OF ARMENIA

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, NOYAN TAPAN. International TACIS and German Technical
Cooperation (GTZ) organizations, acting in Armenia greatly assist
improvement of educational processes in the vocational education
system. As Samvel Pipoyan, the Chief of the Vocational Education
Department of the RA Ministry of Education and Science mentioned in
his interview to the Noyan Tapan correspondent, it is already the 5th
year that GTZ has implemented the program “Interregional Cooperation
in Vocational Education Sphere”. Re-training of administrative staff
was envasiged at the first stage of the program, and re-training
of lecturers in the second one. According to S.Pipoyan, in Armenia
the teachers’ staff of that system has not passed re-training
for already 15 years. TACIS implements three-years, 3 mln euros
project of “Assistance to Development of Vocational Education
System of Armenia”. It has three components: study and analysis
of job market, re-training of lecturers, technical support and
rearmament of material-technical basis. Ijevan State and Vanadzor
Technologic State Colleges, Yerevan Humanitar Technical and Yerevan
State Agricultural Colleges were chosen for the pilot implementation
of the program. It was mentioned that another educational program is
being implemented along with the Government of Greece. The Government
of Greece allocated 200 thousand euros for the fisrt stage of the
program. Preference was given to Yeghegnadzor State College, where
a new subject, “Wine-making” will be studied. A small factory and a
laboratory are envisaged to be given to the college.

ARMENIAN SINGER ANNA MAYLIAN TO REPRESENT ARMENIAN CHURCH MUSIC AT
FESTIVAL IN AUSTRIA

04.04.2005 04:36

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The 11-th Stanser Musiktagen music festival starts
in the Austrian town of Stans today. As reported by German media,
various musical genres can be heard during these days. The performance
of Czech violinist and singer Iva Bittov, trio of saxophonists from
Switzerland as well as the performance of Armenian singer Anna Maylian,
who will present Armenian church music, promise to become the highlight
of the festival.

BELGIUM AND ARMENIA UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER

A1+
04-04-2005

Today NA President Arthur Baghdasaryan had a private conversation
with Herman de Kroo, President of the Belgium Chamber of
Representatives. The sides discussed the Armenian inter political
situation, the legislative amendments, the regional problems, the
Armenian-Belgian interparliamnetary issues and the cooperation in
the international structures.

It was mentioned that the Belgian support is very important for
Armenia within the framework of the program â~@~Enlarged Europe;
New Neighborsâ~@~]. As for regional cooperation, Arthur Baghdasaryan
found the establishing of normal relations with all the neighbors
important. He also mentioned Armenian readiness to discuss all the
questionable issues by means of negotiations.

The NA President thanked the Belgium Parliament for recognizing the
Armenian Genocide in 1998. It was mentioned that participating in
the South Caucasian Parliamentary Initiative in which delegates of
Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani Parliaments are included, Armenia
expects a South Caucasian Parliament to be created which can become
a field of discussing problems and finding solutions.

Estimating the importance of the visit Herman de Kroo, President of
the Belgium Chamber of Representatives, mentioned that representatives
of all the political powers of Belgium are included in the delegation
which is a rare phenomenon. Mr. Kroo expressed his readiness to support
the work of the Armenian Parliamentary delegation in International
structures.

–Boundary_(ID_JYTaItbwY91ydImkOF/9Yw)–

Azerbaijan not invited to NATO event in Yerevan

Baku, March 31, AssA-Irada

A two-day meeting of the advisory group of the NATO Euro-Atlantic
Partnership Council started in Yerevan, Armenia on Thursday.
Sixty-five representatives from 38 NATO members and partner states are
attending the event, according to Armenian press reports. The security
in the Euro-Atlantic region will be discussed at the meeting chaired
by the NATO Assistant Secretary General on Political Affairs and
Security Policy Gunther Altenburg.

Asked whether Azerbaijan has been invited to the meeting, a spokesman
for the Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the issue, saying
that the Ministry has not received any information about the NATO
event.*

KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS TO PROGRESS ONLY WHEN INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS
CONFIRM KARABAKH PEOPLE’S SELF-DETERMINATION RIGHT

YEREVAN, MARCH 29. ARMINFO. There will be progress in the Karabakh
peace process only when international documents and Azerbaijan confirm
the Karabakh people’s self-determination right, says Armenia’s FM
Vardan Oskanyan.

Only then one will be able to speak about resolving the consequences
of the conflict. This is not maximalism – this is the least the
Armenian side can expect. “We just want recognized the Karabakh
people’s right to self-determination,” says Oskanyan noting that
Karabakh can be involved in the talks only after the Armenian and
Azeri presidents have agreed on the matters of principle and just need
to consider details – which is not the case for the time being.

Commenting on President Putin’s statement that Russia is ready to
actively promote the Karabakh peace process Oskanyan says that this is
good wish only. “We also have such wishes but the process should not
be accelerated artificially. This would lead to complications.” To
make the talks effective Azerbaijan should stop calling for war and
violating the cease fire regime.

As to the OSCE FFM report Oskanyan says that if Azerbaijan stops
speculating on the territories settlement issue after the report is
made public this will mean that it was concerned but now these
concerns have been dispersed but if Baku persists this will mean that
it is following political ends.