PARTICIPANTS OF MOURNING PROCESSION IN SOCHI LOWER WREATHS AND LIT
CANDLES TO THE SEA

Sochi, May 6. ArmInfo. Friday, at 10:00pm Yerevan time a mourning
procession started in Sochi. About 3,000 participants of the procession
let down wreaths and lit candles to the Black Sea in commemoration
of the victims of May 3 air crash near Sochi. A minute of silence
was observed for the killed.

According to the last data, over 50 bodies were found, including 42
identified. All 113 on board were killed in the crash.

44 ships work at the search zone

ArmRadio.am
06.05.2006 17:35

44 ships work at the search zone, where the A320 Armavia plane crashed.
Head of the Southern regional center of the RF Ministry of Emergency
Situations Sergey Kudinov declared today.

He said that 30 out of the 44 ships belong to Sochi and Novorosiysk
ports, 13 belong to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Congressman Adam Schiff sent a message of condolences to RA Presidnet

ArmRadio.am
06.05.2006 17:45

Congressman Adam Schiff has sent a message of Armenian President
Robert Kocharyan, extending condolences on the crash of A-320 liner
in the Black Sea. His letter says, “On behalf of the people of the
29th District of California and, especially the many thousands of
Armenian-Americans in my district, I write to express my deepest
condolences on the tragic loss of life aboard the Armavia Airlines
Flight 967 that crashed in the Black Sea on Wednesday.

I mourn the loss of the 113 passengers and crew aboard the plane and I
extend my sympathies to the families of the victims and to the people
of Armenia. I have seen television news reports on the tragedy and
I have been especially moved by the anguish of the victims’ relatives.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HONOR IS CHEAP
Aram Abrahamian

Aravot.am
05 may 06

The circumstance that Arthur Baghdasarian’s some standpoints will raise
the desire of revenge of the authorities is quite predictable. And
as the god of our ruling clique, so called”Alfa and omega” is money
we should wait that the main direction of punishment will deprivation
of ”OEP” of material sources.

For that reason the ”OEP” member businessmen are ”ordered” and
according to some information some statements about leaving that party
are already put on the table of the RA President’s chief of personnel
Armen Gevorgian who performs the operation. If they don’t leave the
party they will have serious problems in their business. Businessmen
and oligarchs are powerful and strong from the first sight.

And I think, who is uglier; the President’s personnel, which not only
revenge for “dissent” but also prepares for the coming parliamentary
elections or the businessmen who are ready for everything for their
property. Perhaps the second.

A very respectful intellectual after saying some criticizing words
felt that the authority could damage his relative who is engaged in
business and then went to that official for giving explanations. The
official was satisfied and declared; ”He is afraid of me”. As if
there is some merit in fear. But here, I’m inclined to accuse that
intellectual in first.

Or the famous art specialist Henrik Igitian who slandered the brother
of the RA first president for pleasing the current authority. A great
bravery and civil strength is needed for criticizing the died brother
of the dismissed president. Maybe Igitian gets some more “stores”
from the authority.

Let’s not forget our dignity before slandering the authority and
“regime”.

There were people in the strongest regime of the Soviet period who
were decent and who were ready to please the ruling clique. But it
wasn’t necessary to be dissent. Even that system allowed remaining
humans without heroic efforts.

Nowadays system allows more.

–Boundary_(ID_L04tlgAwLP7GTnNx1QOijw)–

“THIS AIRPLANE WILL FALL”

Aravot.am
05 may 06

The NA deputy Aghasy Arshakian warned in time on the occasion of the
” experimentation” of A310 airplane.

Answering to “Aravot’s” question on 19 of June 1998, Aghasy Arshakian
said; “I want the journalists to appreciate rightly, we don’t burn
out the bridge with our elected president, we don’t want to make
noise in the square, but we want to inform our society because we
are sure if the noise round the ”Armenian Airlines” is hidden,
the ”Armenian Airlines” will be bankrupted and privatized. In this
case the rebellion of the people will be unpredictable / ” Aravot”,
20 of June, 1998/

They were going to it since 1992

Mr. Arshakian reaffirmed his words during the interview with us,
reminding; ”I was simply fighting from 1992 to 2000 to save the
Armenian aviation and now respecting the memory of the victims
on 3 of May and gain sympathy and can’t keep silence and not to
say to what they were going since 1992. The air crash is in that
logic.” Mr. Arshakian considers the accident happened on 3 of May
as the logic continuation of what happened 15 years ago. When the
structure of general ruling was separated giving the food the other,
fuel to another, flights to others and so on. Aghasy Arshakian is sure
that everybody “rise the price of his service and that wasn’t enough
and they decided to strike more powerful blow. I warned that time
that airplane /I mean A310 brought to Armenia in 1998/ was brought
to Armenia not only for bankrupting the Armenian aviation. About 50 %
of flights should be given to this airplane for not suffering damage
as the rent of the airplane cost 725 000$. That means the airplane
should fly 270 hours in a month, which was simply impossible. We
warned that this airplane would cause damage of 6-7million$ to the
Armenian aviation. If you remember the insurance sum was 650$ but
nothing like this happens in the world.

THERE IS NO ORDER IN THE AVIATION

Aghasy Arshakian also declared that order must be introduced in our
aviation; ”The property of our aviation is our professionals. I have
no idea about the died captain but it known that the airport of Adler
was one of the most difficulty airports in the former USSR and the
pilot should have a stage of 500hours of flights. I don’t know the
influence of climate how strong was or perhaps the reason was bad
dispatching work. There is discrepant information about it. Aghasy
Arshakian informed that ”Armavia” has about 2$million to Russia for
air services. The deputy considered important to stress; ”I say all
these because I’m anxious and not for the reason that I’m from the
opposition, I know all these, that’s why I speak about this. And it is
sorrowful for me that people who have been specialized in selling oil,
or producing cement want to be specialized in aviation. Our tragedy
is just this, everybody must be engaged in his business.”

PARALLES

”That airplane must realize Yerevan-Amsterdam flight by which my
daughter must fly. I was informed about that tragedy from Moscow
at 6 am and I was in airport at 7. Then I heard all news and drew
parallels. At the first hours of the crash the fall of the airplane
by 60 degree was being stressed. But now there is no information about
it. Russian media was giving neutral information in that morning from
which you would understand nothing. But when information was spread by
our local media that the airport dispatchers were guilty Russian media
spread a speech of a military man who had seen the exploding. Then
the version of storm was spread in the news field. The 90% of the
whole time the plane was in the Georgian territory and controllable
by the Georgian party.

The answers of the Georgian party about it aren’t been given. We
also learned that conversation about dispatchers of Rostov also had
been. But there was no detail”.

VERSIONS

Lack of fuel; The deputy Aghasy Arshakian also had come to a
conclusion for a moment that the airplane was crashed because of the
lack of fuel. The circumstance that the oil in the airport of Sochi
is two times cheaper than in the airport of Yerevan gives reasons to
think. Mr. Arshakian said ”he is informed to such kind of outrage
since 1990 when airplanes were half refueled then were fueled in
other countries. We should notice that the Minister of Defense Serge
Sargsian has denied the possibility of the lack of fuel and that the
fuel was enough for realizing 4 flights.

BLACK BOX

Black boxes are usually found but there are also cases when they
aren’t.

According to our interlocutor it is simply impossible not find the
black boxes because they have such technical structure which give
signals even in the most difficult places. ” I think black boxes
aren’t found when the information in it isn’t profitable for the more
powerful side”.

Margaret Yesayan

–Boundary_(ID_sBo75MiCjYVa00uN0sEUZg)–

Turkish ministry spokesman warns French Armenian bill could damage relations

Anatolia news agency
3 May 06

Ankara, 3 May: Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan said that Turkey
expects the French authorities to adopt the same common sense approach
they use with respect to their own history when dealing with the
unfounded Armenian allegations.

Speaking at his weekly news conference, Tan stated in reply to one
question on the matter that the French authorities were being informed
at every level that the bill introduced to the French parliament
considering it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide would cause
frayed nerves in Turkish-French relations.

Tan said: “In our talks we pointed out that in a country with a
powerful democratic past such as France restrictions to freedom of
expression and freedom of academic study are not in keeping with the
understanding of democracy, and that acceptance of this bill would
cause irreparable damage to the long-standing relations between Turkey
and France, and we asked them not to give this bill any quarter.”

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tan stated that in debates about France’s
own history, comments made by senior French officials including the
Minister for Foreign Affairs that politicians and parliamentarians
should stay out of history, that history should be left to historians
and that phrases such as genocide should not be used rashly, matched
the thesis that Turkey had been defending for many years.

Tan commented: “There is no way we can accept dual standards and
contradictory approaches in this matter.”

When asked at what level Turkey had made its sensitivities in this
matter known to France, Tan replied saying there was a host of
meetings between both countries on the agenda, but that he would not
go into detail.

Tan added that France had exhibited as much effort in this as Turkey
had, but that he would not go into detail because to do so might
jeopardize an effective outcome.

PRESS RELEASE
New York Armenian Students’ Association
333 Atlantic Avenue
Warwick, RI 02888
(401) 461-6114
Email: [email protected]

New York ASA and Columbia University Armenian Club Screen Genocide Documentary “I Hate Dogs”

On April 18, 2006, the New York ASA and Columbia University Armenian
Club screened the genocide documentary “I Hate Dogs.” Produced and
directed by husband and wife filmmakers PeA Holmquist and Suzanne
Khardalian of Sweden, “I Hate Dogs” chronicles the life of 99-year
old Garbis Hagopian, one of the last genocide survivors living in
France. In 1988, Holmquist and Khardalian produced “Back to Ararat,”
the first Armenian genocide documentary. Their inspiration for “I
Hate Dogs” stemmed from an article they read about the last genocide
survivor in Britain who passed away. They realized that few genocide
survivors remained and the resultant importance of documenting their
experiences.

The documentary starts off with Mr. Hagopian in the present day going
about his life. As he is walking through a park and sees a dog, he
mentions that he doesn’t like dogs, a seemingly odd utterance until
one discovers the underlying reason for his dislike. Mr. Hagopian
explained that his family was forced onto the death march, unable
to take their belongings with them, and described some of what he
witnessed, from mass slaughters to young girls being forced into
harems. Upon recalling how his mother embraced him for the last time
before she left him, Mr. Hagopian burst into tears, a 9 year-old
child once again lost in a sea of misery and grief. His father died
shortly thereafter and when he went back to see his father’s body the
following day, he saw dogs eating away at it. He tried to scare them
away to no avail, and that horrific image was seared in the mind of
young Garbis, hence his lifelong dislike of dogs.

Mr. Hagopian remained silent about his experience during the genocide
until his son turned 40. When his son realized the depth of his
father’s suffering, he became enraged against Turks due to the lack
of emotional closure from their denial of the genocide.

Throughout the documentary, one also sees clips of old home movies
that illustrate how Mr. Hagopian persevered, moving to France after
the genocide and becoming a successful businessman. He is also shown
surrounded by his family at joyful gatherings, from picking almonds
with his son from his vacation home, to dining with his granddaughter
who remembers how she would sneak into her grandparents’ bed and have
breakfast with them.

The juxtaposition of grief and happiness, anger and joy is true of
many Armenian families whose loved ones survived the genocide. The
furor of Mr. Hagopian’s son is similar to that of many children and
grandchildren of genocide survivors struggling to make sense of their
identity that is shaped in part by the inhumanity of the genocide. One
also sees that the childhood memories of genocide survivors are as
vivid as they were 91 years ago. They are easily transported back to
unspeakable horrors, yet somehow, they return to their present lives,
grateful always to have survived.

Following the film, Dr. Anie Kalayjian, renowned traumatologist,
Professor of Psychology at Fordham University, explained the myriad
of feelings experienced by genocide survivors and, in particular,
those of succeeding generations. She noted that healing comes from
non-violent communication through empathy and forgiveness and not
from waiting for the perpetrators to acknowledge their mistakes. Dr.
Kalayjian is the Founder and President of the Armenian American
Society for Studies on Stress & Genocide and spearheads a research
team on this particular topic. Her research findings indicate clear
generational transmission of trauma of the Genocide which include:
sadness, grief, anger, hatred, fear of the other (racism), despair,
helplessness, identity confusion, feeling abandoned and uprooted,
guilt, defensive functioning, and inability to engage in meaningful
relationships. Fortunately, it is possible to process these feelings
and transform the anger into empowerment, and the hatred into empathy
and compassion through post trauma healing workshops, or individual
therapy. A spirited question and answer session ensued.

ASA wishes to thank Dr. Kalayjian for her participation as well as
to Lisa Kebejian and the Columbia University Armenian Club for their
co-sponsorship and assistance. Most of all, thanks to PeA Holmquist
and Suzanne Khardalian for presenting Garbis Hagopian’s story to the
world. Sadly, Mr. Hagopian passed away a few months ago at the age
of 100, but his spirit will surely live on.

The Armenian Students’ Association of America is a nationwide
membership organization that promotes Armenian culture and education
by sustaining strong links with Armenia through various projects and
by providing Armenian communities with social, cultural, academic,
and educational events. All funds raised by the regional branches
contribute to the ASA scholarship fund for Armenian students studying
in the United States. In addition, ASA often co-sponsors events held
by local college clubs, working closely with and encouraging young
leaders in the Armenian student community.

For more information about the NY ASA, please visit
For more information about
the Columbia University Armenian Club, please visit
For more information about
Dr. Kalayjian’s research, please visit

NKR leader denies rumours of changes in Karabakh government

Ayots Ashkhar, Yerevan
6 May 06 p 5

Text of Lilit Pogosyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkhar
on 6 May headlined “The potential of the diaspora is not used in full”

An interview with the president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic,
Arkadiy Gukasyan.

[Ayots Ashkhar correspondent] Mr President, are you pleased with the
work of the Ayastan All-Armenian Foundation and how do you assess
the effectiveness of the work carried out within the framework of
the Revival of Artsakh [Karabakh] programme?

[Arkadiy Gukasyan] I am pleased and displeased at the same time. I
am displeased because expectations are always greater. I am sure
that the diaspora and its powerful organizations could have given
greater support to Karabakh. What’s more, I think that we really have
a problem with the quality of our work. I think that the foundation
should exercise stricter control over the work that has been carried
out. But in general, our programmes are continuing and we hope that
the quality of our work will improve year by year.

[Correspondent] Do you think it necessary to replace the leadership
of the foundation?

[Gukasyan] It is up to the council of trustees. I cannot raise such
a problem. I think such a problem exists and it should be solved.

[Correspondent] Mr Gukasyan, has a national tax idea been instilled in
our society so that every year every Armenian donates a small amount
of money for the implementation of pan-national goals?

[Gukasyan] The national tax idea has always been discussed. I think it
is possible. I think we need authoritative people who would explain
the national tax idea to our compatriots from the diaspora and to
Armenians of Armenia and Karabakh. If they understand it, I am sure
the idea will come true.

[Correspondent] Rumours have it that radical changes will take place
in the government of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic.

[Gukasyan] Such rumours are simply ridiculous, first of all because
they do not come from Karabakh. There is no such problem on our
agenda today.

[Correspondent] There was a commentary on [Azerbaijani President Ilham]
Aliyev’s visit to Washington saying that Aliyev became a political
star because he passed messages from Iran to America and back and
that he will “swallow” Karabakh soon.

[Gukasyan] I can suppose that some people want that. Or maybe Aliyev
himself wants to present the situation in this way. I do not think it
is worth taking these rumours seriously. As for the Karabakh conflict,
you know that the talks are continuing although I do not think that
we have come closer to a final settlement of the conflict.

[Correspondent] But there is a view that in July the parties will
be forced to sign a preliminary agreement on the main principles of
the settlement.

[Gukasyan] I have also heard such rumours. Of course, we do not rule
everything out and we want a compromise acceptable to everybody to be
found as soon as possible. But nobody can say if it will be in July,
August or February.

You know that the negotiating process is moving forward slowly. There
are many participants in that process and their interests do not
always coincide because every party has its own position, and it is
really difficult to combine everyone’s interests and expectations.

Council of Europe official, Azeri leader discuss democratization, relations

Turan news agency, Baku
6 May

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammerberg and
President Ilham Aliyev discussed the process of democratization in
Azerbaijan and its relations with the Council of Europe at a meeting
in Baku on 5 May, the Azerbaijani news agency Turan has reported.

After the meeting with the president, Hammerberg met a group of
Azerbaijani rights activists. The meeting discussed the problem of
political prisoners, the refusal of the UN to admit Azerbaijan to
its human rights council, the situation surrounding members of the
pro-opposition Yeni Fikir youth organization charged with cooperation
with the Armenian intelligence service, the absence of an independent
judiciary system in Azerbaijan and the health of the former ministers
arrested on coup charges, rights advocate Novella Cafaroglu told Turan.

Armenians hold first funerals for victims of plane crash that killed 113
By AVET DEMOURIAN

AP Worldstream; May 06, 2006

Armenians observed a moment of silence Saturday for the victims of
the Armenian airliner crash that killed all 113 people on board,
while experts were still seeking to determine why the plane crashed
into the Black Sea earlier this week.

Weeping relatives buried some of the victims in the Armenian capital
Saturday, and more funerals were expected Sunday. Most of the victims
were Armenians.

Relatives carried the coffin of 27-year-old flight attendant Lusine
Gevorkian out of her house in Yerevan, as musicians played traditional
Armenian mourning dirges on a duduk, a clarinet-like instrument.

“I was flying a lot alongside Lusine,” said her colleague Nune
Beglarian, 33. “She was happy and eager to smile, and she had plans
to change her life she failed to fulfill.”

Black-robed priests later held a mourning service in Yerevan’s St.
Grigor Cathedral and other churches across the Caucasus nation.

Only 53 bodies have been recovered from Wednesday’s crash, which
occurred about six kilometers (four miles) off the coast of the
southern Russian resort of Sochi. Of those, 42 had been identified by
Saturday, and authorities began collecting DNA samples from relatives
of the dead.

Hope dimmed that searchers would recover the remains of more than
half the people on board, and authorities struggled to pinpoint the
precise location of the Airbus A-320’s flight recorders under nearly
700 meters (2,300 feet) of water.

The plane plunged into the sea in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday in
heavy rain and poor visibility as it approached the airport in Adler,
about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Sochi, a city wedged between
the sea and soaring, snowcapped mountains.

It was not clear what caused the crash.

Some experts, like Dmitry Adbashian, the former head of Armenia’s
civil aviation authority and a veteran pilot, said bad weather,
a shortage of fuel and technical problems all could have contributed.

The plane had covered most of its route from Yerevan to Sochi when it
turned back after air controllers in Sochi said the weather there was
too bad for landing. It later flew to Sochi again after air traffic
controllers said the weather had improved.

Mikhail Bagdasarov, the owner of the Armavia company that owned the
aircraft, said an air traffic controller ordered the airliner’s crew
to make another run when it came too close. The plane was turning
back when it hit the water.

“The air traffic controller made a mistake that worsened the
situation,” Bagdasarov said in a statement, adding that other factors
might have contributed to the crash.

Adbashian told The Associated Press that pilots considered the airport
in Sochi to be among the hardest to land at across the former Soviet
Union.

“I frequently flew there,” Adbashian said. “Thunderstorms were very
frequent and the direction of wind changed sharply.”

Adbashian said the airport’s location makes it difficult for a plane
to pull back and start a new approach if something went wrong during
its first attempt to land.