Author: Tadevosian Garnik

TIGRAN TOROSYAN TO LEAVE FOR …. ANTARCTICA

Panorama.am
18:02 22/06/06

NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan told a press conference today that Council
of Europe Parliamentary Assembly monitoring committee will hold a
session in October in Yerevan. Asked about his visits to regions and
abroad, the speaker noted that no visit should be end it itself. "If
there is a need to visit regions, we will pay that visit. If there
is a need to visit Antarctica, we will visit Antarctica. There is
not need to make a visit which will be an end in itself," he said.

The reporters asked if the visits paid by the former speaker were
as an end in itself, the speaker answered, "the relations which have
been so far will remain the same. The attitude displayed to Mr.

Baghdasaryan will be the same." The relations between the former and
present speakers are based on respect and tolerance, Tigran Torosyan
assured.

HE DOES NOT MIX SEPARATE CASES OF CRUELTY WITH MASS ACCIDENTS

Lragir.am
21 June 06

Miklos Haraszti, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, in
Yerevan for a two-day visit, stated June 21 that recently no cases of
violence or physical assault against journalists have been reported
in Armenia. He said it is very important because the evaluation of
the rights of journalists and absence of self-critique is based on
this. His statement that there is no violence aroused laughter among
journalists, and they reminded Haraszti that two years ago on April
5 bodyguards broke a camera, on April 12 the police beat several
journalists, then in Tsaghkadzor the photographers taking pictures
of the villas of government officials and oligarchs were attacked by
bodyguards. Miklos Haraszti says he knows separate cases and he does
not mean that there is no violence at all. He means that there are
no systematic and mass accidents involving journalists.

By the way, Miklos Haraszti also wondered why the government, accused
by the majority of Armenian journalists of violation of the freedom
of media, does not apply the article on libel, which provides for
accountability of journalists. Being against this article, Miklos
Haraszti, nevertheless, wanted to know why it is not applied by the
government if it is against freedom of speech. Discerning an assertion
in the words of Miklos Haraszti that the government of Armenia is not
up for violation of freedom of the media, otherwise they would use the
article on libel, we will make an attempt at explaining Mr. Haraszti
why the article on libel is not applied in Armenia. This article is
not applied for the simple reason that it is impossible to libel the
government of Armenia, for whatever is written is true. But there
is another, a more forceful reason for not applying this article. By
applying this article the government will, in fact, create a precedent
of application of law in Armenia. And in order to prevent a precedent
of application of law, the government is ready to bear libel.

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW MEETS HEAD OF ARMENIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH, URGES SOLIDARITY
Benjamin Harvey

AP Worldstream
Jun 21, 2006

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I urged the world’s Orthodox churches
to minimize differences and seek solidarity as he met with the head
of Armenian Orthodox Church on Wednesday.

Deep divisions are prevalent throughout the Orthodox Church. Although
Bartholomew controls several Greek Orthodox churches around the world,
including the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and is considered
the spiritual leader of some 250 million Orthodox worldwide, relations
with two of the largest churches, in Russia and Greece, remain tense.

The Armenian Orthodox Church also operates independently and is not
under his jurisdiction.

"We must always keep in mind that we aim only for the glory of God,"
Bartholomew said after meeting Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians,
at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul. "He himself taught us this:
‘May they all be one.’ It is a sacred goal."

Armenian Christians pride themselves on being descendants of the first
people to adopt Christianity as their official national religion. The
Armenian national church was established in A.D. 301.

That predates the Roman Empire’s edict of A.D. 313 tolerating
Christianity, which was previously illegal, and was 94 years before
it became the official religion of Rome and the Orthodox lands of
the East.

Karekin arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday for a weeklong visit to the
Armenian community here and to hold talks with Bartholomew.

Police tightened security to protect the visiting leader from Turkish
nationalists who protested his arrival on Tuesday night, prompting
the police to accompany Karekin out of the airport through a separate
entrance.

Karekin has angered Turks by saying the country committed genocide
against Armenians around the time of World War I, an allegation
vehemently denied by Turkey.

Turkey, which has no diplomatic relations with Armenia, denies that
Turks committed genocide, saying Armenians who lived under the Ottoman
Empire were killed in internal fighting among ethnic groups as the
empire collapsed.

___

Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to
this report.

OSCE OFFICE TO FACILITATE SMALL, MEDIUM-BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TO BE OPENED IN GORIS

Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 19 2006

Yerevan, June 19. /ARKA/. An OSCE office to facilitate small and medium
business development will be opened in Goris, Syunik region, Armenia,
Head of the OSCE office in Yerevan Vladimir Pryakhin told reporters.

"The center will be a kind of database on business potential in
the Syunik region," Pryakhin said. According to him, the OSCE is
actively introducing developed information technologies in Armenia,
particularly in the country’s regions.

Pryakhin pointed out that the office will afford Armenia’s small and
medium business sector a unique opportunity to concentrate all the
information on this sphere in one place, for an effective start of
small and medium business in the Syunik region.

According to him, the project will be implemented by the OSCE with
the assistance of the Armenia Association of Small and Medium-Sized
Business.

Pryakhin could not cite the cost of the project (it has not yet been
completed) pointing out that the Goris Municipality has provided
premises for the office.

The presentation of the project is scheduled for the end of
June.

PRESS RELEASE
June 20, 2006

American University of Armenia Corporation
300 Lakeside Drive, 5th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Tel: (510) 987-9125
Fax: (510) 208-3576
Contact: Maggie Mead
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON BASE ISOLATED HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS

Yerevan – The Anti-Seismic Systems International Society and the
American University of Armenia (AUA), in collaboration with the
Armenian Association for Earthquake Engineering, held an international
workshop on "Base Isolated High-Rise Buildings" on June 15-17, 2006
at AUA. Forty experts attended from 9 countries, including Armenia,
Iran, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and the US.

The event provided a forum for the engineering community to assess
its accumulated experience with the behavior of civil buildings,
such as high-rise apartment buildings and multifunctional complexes,
during different types of earthquakes. Experts promoted the idea of
incorporating innovative Seismic Isolation (SI) techniques into design
rules for high-rise structures, and addressed the growing interest
in extending the application of SI techniques to other fields. Five
academic sessions and an international exhibition were followed
by technical visits to base isolated high-rise building sites in
Yerevan. Workshop findings were summarized during the closing session,
and all scientific documents will be published.

Armenia was the first among developing nations to implement seismic
isolation technology, and the only such country to have supported
substantial improvements to the technology, especially for apartments,
schools, hospitals and high-rise buildings. Armenia also pioneered
the practice of retrofitting buildings for seismic isolation at the
base and roof without vacating residents or terminating maintenance.

Mikayel Melkumyan, AUA Professor, President of Armenian Association
for Earthquake Engineering, VP of the International Association
for Seismic Isolation of NIS Countries, and member of the executive
committee/treasurer of Anti Seismic Systems International Society,
proposed the workshop and its location during the 9th World Seminar
on Seismic Isolation, Energy Dissipation and Active Vibration Control
of Structures in Kobe in 2005. "The aim of the Workshop is the further
strengthening of international collaboration on research, transfer of
technology and information, implementation of anti-seismic systems
in practice, and dissemination of information among decision makers
and construction designers in seismic-prone countries, to promote
implementation of innovative SI techniques in the construction of
high-rise buildings," he stated.

***************************************** *********

The American University of Armenia Corporation (AUAC) is registered
as a non-profit organization in the United States and as the Armenian
University of Armenia Fund (AUAF) in Armenia .The American University
of Armenia (AUA) is affiliated through AUAC with the Regents of the
University of California.

Receiving major support from the AGBU, AUA offers instruction leading
to the Masters Degree in eight graduate programs. For more information
about AUA, visit

NUMBER OF TAXI SERVICES BURGEONING UP

Armenpress
Jun 20 2006

YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS; The number of companies offering regular
taxi services has burgeoned out from 724 last year to 1,068 as of May
1. On average each of these companies has 5 cars. Armenian taxation
service said 282 of these companies with 2,500 cars were in Yerevan
and the rest were across the country.

These companies are paying fixed taxes-6,800 drams per one car in
Yerevan and 5,600 drams per one car outside Yerevan a month. This
year they have already paid 103 million drams in taxes.

Robert Kocharian, a deputy head of the taxation service, predicted no
rise in the number of these companies, but he admitted that part of
the cars may avoid taxation. He said the service is going to improve
supervision over this services and detect illegal operations. He also
said there is no document regulating the work of taxis, neither the
list of mandatory requirements is developed.

OFFICIAL BAKU TRYING TO DISCREDIT ARMENIAN PARTY

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.06.2006 15:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "By spreading false information about arsons in Azeri
villages set by Armenians and destruction of Azeri cultural monuments
on the territories controlled by the NKR Defense Army, Azerbaijan tries
to neutralize the negative reaction of the international community
to the demolition of the ancient Armenian cemetery in Nakhichevan,
head of the NKR Defense Ministry’s press office, lieutenant colonel
Senor Asratyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words,
after each unsuccessful round of talks on the Karabakh conflict,
in this case, after the Bucharest talks between the Armenian and
Azerbaijani Presidents, official Baku attempts to discredit the
Armenian party. "The Azerbaijani authorities have taken a militaristic
stand by strengthening the anti-Armenian propaganda. They are not
ready for compromise and this impedes the settlement process," Senor
Asratyan said.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE WITH DIABETES GROWS 4% ANNUALLY

Armenpress
Jun 15 2006

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS: The number of people in Armenia with
diabetes grows 4 percent every year.

Ashot Mamikonian, chief endocrinologist of the health ministry,
said this is a common trend worldwide.

About 35,000 people in Armenia have diabetes. The number of children
with this diseases also grows due to soaring rates of obesity in
children, a major reason accounting for the growth . They acquire the
so-called type 2 diabetes, a disease that used to be seen primarily
in adults over age 45. Mamikonian said diabetes is a disease that
wreaks havoc on just about every part of the body, including the
eyes. While many of the health problems associated with diabetes are
well publicized, many people are unaware that the disease causes severe
vision problems that can lead to blindness. Persons with diabetes
are also at increased risk of developing cataracts or glaucoma.

While type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented, it only accounts for about
5% to 10% of all cases. The rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes,
especially among children, adolescents has caused a huge increase
in total cases. Mamikonian says there are simple ways to avoid this
disease-to maintain a healthy weight, increase physical activity,
watch and control blood sugar levels and blood pressure.

Seven thousand people with diabetes out of the 35,000 in Armenia are
insulin dependent, others use pills to reduce the amount of sugar in
blood. All insulin dependant patients receive it free.

ARF TO CELEBRATE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF WILSON

Lragir.am
13 June 06

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation is going to celebrate the 150th
anniversary of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United
States. The purpose of Dashnaktsutiun is not to please the United
States or to ask money for the challenges of the past millennium.

Simply Dashnaktsutiun considers Wilson to be a serious friend of the
Armenian people, stated Deputy Speaker Vahan Hovanisyan June 13.

According to him, Woodrow Wilson did not commit great deeds for
Armenians. Simply he was alone to set down the independence of Armenia
in a document, namely the treaty signed in Sevres, France.

Vahan Hovanisyan says the fact that the treaty did not come into
being is another question.

AGO TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN ON FRIDAY FOR 2-DAY VISIT

Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 12 2006

YEREVAN, June 12. /ARKA/. Ago Group headed by German Representative
in Council of Europe Roland Vegener is to arrive in Yerevan on Friday
for a two-day visit, Armenian Foreign Ministry press service reports.

The Group members are set to meet with Armenian President, National
Assembly Speaker, Justice Minister and Ombudsman as part of their
visit.

A series of meetings with Armenian MPs and political parties’ members
are planned as well.

Ago Group is founded in January 2001 for monitoring fulfillment of
commitments assumed by CE member countries.