Author: Navasardian Karapet

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT ASSIGNS ARARAT REGIONAL GOVERNOR TO ASSIST PEASANTS WHO SUFFERED AS RESULT OF FLOODS

Noyan Tapan
May 18 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues related to state assistance
for elimination of the consequences of sping floods in Ararat marz
were discussed during the May 18 working meeting of the Armenian
President Robert Kocharian and the regional governor of Ararat marz
Alik Sargsian. The President gave the regional governor assignments
on providing assistance to the peasants – owners of land plots and
gardens damaged by floods and continuous rains. According to the RA
President’s press service, the current work on the social, economic,
health, cultural and educational programs to be implemented in the
marz this year were discussed at the meeting.

ARMENIANS WIN FIRST ROUND IN HOME RENT PLEA
Story By Jillo Kadida

The Nation, Kenya
May 18 2006

The High court yesterday declined to order two Armenians to deposit
Sh782,460 in court as security for rent arrears.

Mr Justice Festus Azangalala said it was not necessary to give any
orders before the issue was heard fully.

“Having perused the application and heard the submissions, I’m
satisfied that the application is urgent,” said the judge.

“I am afraid I am not satisfied that any ex-parte orders are
necessary.”

Landlord Sammy Mutinda Musyoki had filed an application against the
brothers Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargasyan over failure to pay rent.

He listed Brotherlink International Limited, whose directors are the
two brothers, as defendants in the case.

And he sought a warrant of arrest against the two to tell court why
they should not furnish security.

He also wanted them stopped from removing their property from the
house on Glory Road in Nairobi’s Runda Estate.

Mr Musyoki’s lawyer said his client stood to suffer irreparable damage
if the court failed to grant the orders sought.

And in the interest of justice, he said, he was seeking that the
court order the brothers to deposit the sum due in court or provide
security for court attendance.

He said the two were not Kenyans.

Mr Musyoki said there was an allegation that the two might move to
Uganda, and he risked losing what was duly his.

In his suit papers, the landlord said he had entered into an agreement
with the brothers to occupy the premises for one year, starting
February 1, 2006 to January 31, 2007.

He said his search at the registry of companies regarding Brotherlink
had been futile as the file could not be traced.

And when he called Mr Margaryan to enquire about the rent that was
due for the May, June and July quarter, he was promised payment. Mr
Margaryan was to get Real Management Services to release it. But
instead, he said, he received a letter from Real Management Services
terminating the tenancy.

The termination, he believes was unlawful as it breached their earlier
agreement. The rent due for early termination was US$1,458 which
translated to Sh102,060, while the rent due amounted to US$4,860
(Sh340,200).

Hearing was set for May 25 when both parties will argue their case.

NKR’S FM URGES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO CONDEMN ARMENIAN POPULATION DEPORTATION FROM SHUSHI IN 1988

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
May 18 2006

YEREVAN, May 18. /ARKA/. Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s Foreign
Ministry urges international community to condemn Armenian population
deportation from Shushi in 1988, the ministry said in its statement
issued Wednesday.

18 years ago Armenians were driven form their homes and either Armenian
pogroms in Sumgait or expulsion campaign in Shushi was orchestrated
by Azerbaijani authorities, the statement said.

In its statement, Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry urges international
community to recognize Azerbaijan’s responsibility for violation of
its Armenian population rights and aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic. The ministry is convinced that this step would have a huge
positive impact on the process of strengthening security and peace
in the region and would bring Karabakh problem closer to its solution.

The statement also stressed that Sumgait pogroms aimed to root out
Armenian population and the impunity the perpetrators enjoyed paved
way for further assaults on Armenians living in Soviet Azerbaijan.

ARMENIAN PAPER EXPECTS STRASBOURG TALKS TO BE “DIFFICULT”

Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
13 May 06

Excerpt from report by Armenian newspaper Aykakan Zhamanak on 13 May
headlined “They are taking Kocharyan to Camp David” by Anna Akopyan

Three months of efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to revive
the Karabakh settlement process that died in Rambouillet have finally
produced results. In a few days time talks will resume in Strasbourg.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers are going to meet
there. There is every reason to believe that the talks in Strasbourg
will be difficult. After the three-month-long lull, Azerbaijan will
undoubtedly come forward with an unprecedentedly harsh position.

There have been serious changes in world politics since the
Rambouillet talks over three months ago. And the changes are not in
favour of Armenia. First of all we are naturally talking about the
new US attitude to Azerbaijan. After a meeting between George Bush
and Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s position on the Karabakh conflict
settlement became stronger.

[Passage omitted: reported reax to Aliyev’s visit to Washington and
Azerbaijan’s membership of the UN Human Rights Protection Council;
Karabakh may also be discussed at the summit in St Petersburg in June]

Incidentally Azerbaijan hopes that the Camp David scenario of 1978 will
be used for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan
and Armenia over the Karabakh.

[Passage omitted: US President Jimmy Carter made the president of
Egypt, and the prime minister of Israel, sign a peace agreement at
Camp David].

According to analysts, unlike before the USA and Europe will now
push for a quick settlement of the Karabakh conflict because of
new developments in the region, including over Iran. All of this is
happening against the background of energy problems.

[Passage omitted: more on Camp David]

The Azerbaijani side wants the USA to put pressure on Armenia so
that the latter signs the document on the negotiating table. Under
the document, the status of Karabakh will not be specified and
Armenia will be forced to leave five to seven occupied territories
of Azerbaijan. In view of such developments we cannot rule out that
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan may fall sick or President
Robert Kocharyan may hurt his leg.

But to avoid the signing of the document on the Karabakh settlement
Robert Kocharyan might use not just the above mentioned options but
other arguments. Under the circumstances, if the USA decides to go for
the Camp David scenario, the NKR independence will be all but memory.

RUSSIAN MILITARY CHIEF URGES MORE CONTACTS BETWEEN CIS COUNTRIES’ TOP BRASS

ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
18 May 06

Chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces Yuriy
Baluyevskiy has called on his Collective Security Treaty Organization
[CSTO] counterparts to improve cooperation between the general and
main staffs of the member states’ armed forces, the ITAR-TASS news
agency reported at 0716 gmt on 18 May. In an opening speech at the
meeting of the chiefs of the CSTO main and general staffs, which
was held on 18 May in Moscow, Baluyevskiy said the efficiency of the
CSTO’s military component relies extensively on practical interaction
between the member nations’ armed forces.

“We know that not everybody is happy with [the current state of] this
interaction. It has weakened for a number of reasons. This is how
our performance was appraised at a meeting of the Council of Defence
Ministers of the CIS and the CSTO member states,” Baluyevskiy said.

The member states of the CSTO are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. ITAR-TASS reports that Belarus
was not represented at the meeting in Moscow.

CASE OF MURDER COMMITTED BY NATIONALISTS GOES TO TRIAL

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 17 2006

MOSCOW, May 17 (Itar-Tass) – The Moscow regional transport prosecutor’s
office has turned over the case of murder of an Armenian to the Moscow
regional court.

The Armenian, Samvel Tadevosyan, was killed in an electric train in
the region in August last year.

Seven young people, including three underage persons, students of
institutions of higher learning and special schools, are charged with
the crime, a source at the prosecutor’s office told Itar-Tass.

The defendants have radical nationalist views, as the investigation
has established.

According to the investigation, the group on August 9, 2005 planned
an attack on persons of non-Slav appearance and decided to make a
videotape of the attack to sell the recording later.

They changed trains for two hours on the night to August 10 and went
through train cars to find people of Caucasian or Asian appearance,
until they saw the Armenian in a train between Odintshovo and
Bakovka. They seized his mobile telephone, money and documents and
struck the man on his head and neck with a piece of a broken glass
bottle. The man died at the site.

The group is also charged with attacking other two people in trains
the same night, including a police officer, whose money, documents
and valuable things were seized.

“THE RUSSIAN POLICY IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE BORING”

A1+
[08:20 pm] 16 May, 2006

Armenia is more protected from the point of view of national risk
threat than its neighboring countries Georgia and Azerbaijan. The index
of life quality in our country outnumbers that of our neighbors. And
on the contrary, the index of dynamism is lower in Armenia than
in Azerbaijan.

These are preliminary data given by a number of Russian
politicians’survey the results of which will be summarized at the
turn of the year. Russian politician Michael Ilyin who participates in
the program titled “Modern political atlas” said during today’s press
release that the survey is very complicated but they get information
of great importance and of encyclopedia value.

Our first task was to collect information on political developments
of various countries of the world.

187criteria for survey have been worked out, the data we possess was
marked by 6 complex indexes and as a result of it we got data of more
than 36 000 points,” noted the politician. 192 UNO member countries
are engaged in the survey.

The politician presented the program which started in 2005 in the
symposium related to the political issues of post soviet countries
held in YSU on May 11 – 14.

While speaking of the Russian foreign policy Michael Ilyin noted that
Russia has always been able to establish friendly relations with its
neighbors. But the relations with Georgia are getting worse day by day
though according to the politician it is determined by the aggressive
policy of Georgia.

“The deterioration of the relations is determined by a number of
factors, but the vital of them, to my mind, is the policy of the
Georgian authorities which is very aggressive though Russia is not
wise either.”

“The prospect of negotiating with Armenia is great.

The two sides seem to be interested in it. The relations may become
worse in case there is a serious crisis in the region as they may
encounter new difficulties,” claims the politician.

As for the Russian policy he stated “The policy of Russia is becoming
more and more boring.”

OSKANIAN SEES NO LINK BETWEEN KARABAKH PROCESS AND DOMESTIC SITUATION IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.05.2006 16:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian does not link Karabakh
process and domestic situation in Armenia, he told journalists in
Yerevan. “The process takes its normal course and I do not think
domestic situation in Armenia can influence it, at least at present,”
the diplomat underscored.

At the same time Oskanian found it difficult to name certain terms
of settlement of the conflict, connecting it with the duration of
the talks over Nagorno Karabakh. “At the moment the approaches of
both parties to solution of the issue are not registered yet, thus
speaking of solving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict soon is premature,”
the Armenian FM noted. Oskanian hoped for the probability of that to
become possible in the near future, reports Novosti-Armenia.

EQUIPMENT TO RECOVER BLACK SEA AIRBUS RECORDERS ARRIVES AT PORT

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 15 2006

SOCHI, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – Equipment to recover what are believed
to be the flight recorders from an Armenian airliner that crashed
in the Black Sea has been delivered to the scene, a Russian official
said Monday.

The black boxes are seen as the key to discovering why the Airbus
crashed May 3 six kilometers (3.7 miles) off the Russian coast with
the loss of all 113 people on board.

“The equipment has been loaded on a vessel,” the official from the
Emergency Situations Ministry said. “Today, it will be fixed, tuned
and tested.”

On Saturday, recovery teams said a deep-sea search vehicle had recorded
images of objects believed to be the flight recorders and other parts
of the airliner.

The objects were located using the same coordinates as the radio
signals presumed to be coming from the flight recorders.

Transportation Minister Igor Levitin, who is overseeing the recovery
effort, said Saturday the recovery of the objects would start May 16,
adding that the effort could take two or three days, depending on
the weather.

He said the objects were at a depth of 496 meters (1,627 feet) and
at a distance of five meters (16 feet) from each other.

The Airbus A-320 operated by Armenia’s Armavia was flying from the
Armenian capital, Yerevan, to Adler airport, which services the
popular Russian resort of Sochi, when it came down in stormy weather.

ARTHUR BAGHDASARYAN WAS RECOGNIZED EUROPEAN OF THE YEAR

A1+
[08:26 pm] 15 May, 2006

International NGO “European Movement” awarded NA President Arthur
Baghdasaryan the title of the “European of the year” in Armenia. Only
three members of the Orinats Yerkir were present at the ceremony –
Mher Shahgeldyan, Samvel Balasanyan and Hovhannes Margaryan. After
the ceremony Baghdasaryan was congratulated by the members of his
party and several foreign members of the NGO.

Arthur Baghdasaryan announced that he is thankful for the award and
claimed that Armenia has no alternative to European integration.

Let us remind you that Arthur Baghdasaryan had said the same in an
interview to a German newspaper which became one of the reasons of
his resignation.