CHANGES IN LAW ON CONSCRIPTION

AZG Armenian Daily
04/05/2006

On May 2, Artur Aghabekian, deputy defense minister, presented the
suggested amendments to the Law on Conscription. He informed that
an ad hoc commission set by the decree of the Armenian president
involving lawmakers is drawing up a document on organizing national
security strategy. Armenia receives professional support within
the framework of Armenia-NATO cooperation. The document will enter
National Assembly in late 2006 and afterwards will be presented to
the president for confirmation.

Simultaneously the process of introducing civil life elements into the
army has begun. Defense Ministry is specifying the positions that can
be replaced by civil servants. The Law on Conscription allows that
the Ministry gradually pass to military service on contract basis,
which is a way of creating a professional army. Artur Aghabekian stated
that there are already detachments in the Armenian army that enroll
contract servicemen. The peacekeeping detachment is one of them. The
term for contract service is 3-5 years. The issue of reducing the
term for compulsory army service is not on the agenda today.

THE ODYSSEY OF GOLDBERG’S ‘THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

AZG Armenian Daily
04/05/2006

“Public television’s attempt to illuminate a dark period of European
history is demonstrating that in the world of documentaries, few
topics are black and white. ‘The Armenian Genocide’ began airing this
week on dozens of PBS stations, including nine in the nation’s top
TV markets. Josh Belzman, cover producer on the MSNBC.com, writes on
April 23.

“We chose to air ‘The Armenian Genocide’ based on its merits and
because we felt it was balanced and presented both sides of the story,”
said Lucy Sholley, director of media relations of the WGBH station
in Boston. “We felt the documentary stood on its own.”

KCTS in Seattle aired the film and the panel discussion. Program
manager Eric Maki said in a statement that the station wanted to give
viewers as much information as possible to “make an informed decision”
and “better understand the world around them.”

On April 24 Goldberg screened his documentary at Hollywood’s Egyptian
Theatre before an audience estimated at 1,000. “I didn’t want
this story to not have a chance to be shown to the Armenians in Los
Angeles,” he said. “It’s a story that many of them had taken part in,
through their involvement or just being connected with it.”

Through tattered photos, letters and celebrity voiceovers, the
documentary created by New York-based filmmaker Andrew Goldberg
depicts a Turkish campaign of expulsion, rape, and murder that led
to the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians between
1915 and 1920.

As they come of age, a growing number of Armenian Americans are
demanding the government recognize their ancestors’ deaths as genocide,
Josh Belzman writes.

Filmmakers and Grammy-nominated bands with Armenian roots, such
as System of a Down, have staged benefits calling attention to the
issue. The band and other activists are scheduled to meet with members
of Congress next week to again press their case.

“Is change near? Another look at history casts doubt: Nearly every
year federal legislation is introduced.

All of the measures have either died in the House or languished in
the Senate,” he concludes.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WHOLE WORLD CONDOLES WITH ARMENIA

A1+
[11:46 am] 04 May, 2006

Different countries of the world are sending their condoling messages
to Armenia and Russia in connection with the crash of the “Armavia”
airplane “A – 320.”

The personnel of USA President George Bush has already expressed
condolence on the disaster, “We sincerely console with Armenians and
Russians as well as with the families of innocent victims.”

According to the agency “IRNA” the Foreign Ministry of Iran has also
sent consoling message to Armenians.

SITUATION IS STILL TENSE IN AIRPORT “ZVARTNOTS”

A1+
[09:03 pm] 03 May, 2006

20 doctors have been working in the “Zvartnots” airport since 06:00
AM. They give medical assistance to about 100 relatives of the victims
of the air crash. Some of them were prohibited to fly to Sochi because
of health problems. “They realized they cannot get on the plane and
refused to fly themselves,” doctor Svetlana Hayrapetyan said.

The doctors are on duty in the whole territory of the airport. During
each Yerevan-Sochi flight today at least three doctors accompany
the passengers.

MORE RELATIVES ARE LEAVING FOR SOCHI

The story of every victims of the A-320 plane crash is a separate
tragedy. 28 of the 113 victims were foreign citizens. Anahit
Khachatryan had come to Ararat from Adler to participate in the funeral
of her mother. His husband accompanied her. After living with their
relatives for four months they decided to go back home where they
had left their sons.

They were to return to Adler on May 1, but the flight was
postponed. Anahit Khachatryan’s cousin who is going to Sochi to
recognize their bodies saw them off exactly 24 hours ago in the same
airport promising to visit them in the closest future.

A THIRD FLIGHT TO BE ORGANIZED

The wife of one of the aircrash victims, Albert Avetisyan, arrived
at the airport immediately after learning that she can leave
for Sochi. Her nephew was on board the plane together with her
husband. Of all the relatives only Albert Avetisyan’s wife failed
to get a ticket. “They tell me they have no more tickets and no more
places on board”, she said, with tears welled in her eyes.

By the way, having a ticket was not a guarantee to leave for
Sochi. “Armavia” did everything not to refuse the relatives of the
victims but it was clear that the places were not enough. “Armavia”
will have to organize a third flight which will probably take place
late in the evening.

AIRCRAFT HAS UNDERGONE TECHNICAL INSPECTION IN APRIL 2006

Panorama.am
16:43 03/05/06

The Press-secretary of the State Department of Civil Aviation of
Armenia Gayane Davtyan dismissed the rumors about A-320 aircraft being
in a pure technical condition reports correspondent of “Panorama” from
Zvartnots airport. The information that the aircraft was completely
worn out was spread by a number of Russian media sources.

Let us remind that during the emergency press briefing chief of the
Department of Civil Aviation of Armenian Artem Movsisyan announced that
in opinion of Airport technical maintenance group the aircraft , was
in good technical condition and was completely ready for flight. The
similar opinion was expressed by the Sabena-Tekhnik Company that
is performing technical maintenance of the A-320 Aircrafts for the
“Armavia” Co. Besides, the health and professional qualifications
of the plane crew corresponded to the required standards. Airplane
passed technical examination in April, The flight Yerevan-Sochi that
was supposed to depart on 16:00 p.m. Yerevan time is postponed for
unknown period The numbers of catastrophe victims relatives arriving
to the Zvartnots airport increases since each minute, and it is surely
possible that two airplanes f shall depart to Sochi by the end of the
day : one with journalists and the other with victims relatives. At
present they are rendered medical and psychological assistance.

According to our sources in spite of the fact that Zvartnoc airport
functioned in its usual mode, passengers of several other flights
began turning back their tickets.

DEPUTY GENERAL PROSECUTOR OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION ARRIVED AT THE PLACE OF CATASTROPHE

Panorama.am
13:53 03/05/06

Deputy General Prosecutor of Russian Federation Nikolay Shepel
arrived at the place of A-320 aircraft catastrophe. It was reported
by RIA -News agency with the reference to the General Procuracy of
the Russian Federation. According to the source, Procuracy created
investigative task force group, headed by the senior coroner of the
public prosecutor”s office of the city of Sochi.

It is worth to mention that in connection with catastrophe of the plane
A-320 public prosecutor”s office of Krasnodar region has initiated
the criminal investigation as per point 3 of the article 263 of the
Criminal Code of Russian Federation – “breach of the rules of safety
while using and piloting the air transport by individuals who are
obliged to follow and maintain those rules, due to the nature of
their occupation and which has caused death of two or more persons”.

As of public prosecutor”s offices, at present rescuers discovered
dead bodies and body fragments. Earlier Emergency Situations
Department reported that 25 dead bodies were taken off the water. On
preliminary finding each of 113 persons that were on board of the plane
perished. The debris of the plane are found on 400 meters beyond the
water surface.

Finmarket reports that the Minister of Transport of Russia Igor
Levitin has departed to the place of air -crash. It also reports
that specialists of the interstate aircraft committee joined the
investigation however first findings about reason of the tragedy will
be announced only after decryptions of the flight recorders. Meantime,
as Russian Media reports bad weather conditions sharply reduce the
probability of finding the flight recorders. The representative of
the International aircraft committee Rudolf Teymurazov has declared
that he is skeptical about the possibility to find anything in the
sea, moreover on more that one km distance from the coast . In this
connection he has noted that investigations of the reasons of the
catastrophe by the special commission will occupy long time and he
does not expect to come to any conclusions in the nearest time.

At present more than 20 rescue crews work at the place of the tragedy
, including deep-water device “Goblin” which allows to examine the
place of the catastrophe up to 500 meter depth . Besides that the
ship leaves from Sevastopol equipped with undersea device “Tiger”,
which will also be able to examine the objects at the depth of 500
m and more – says “Finmarket”.

KARABAKH LEADER APPOINTS NEW ADVISOR

Mediamax news agency
4 May 06

Yerevan, 4 May: The president of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR],
Arkadiy Gukasyan, today signed a decree appointing Mavrik Gukasyan
his advisor.

Mavrik Gukasyan was relieved of his post of NKR prosecutor-general
on 6 February 2006 over retirement.

Armen Zalinyan was appointed NKR prosecutor-general. He previously
worked as head of the NKR presidential staff.

RUSSIA: SEARCH GOES ON AT PLANE CRASH SITE AS FRENCH EXPERTS ARRIVE IN SOCHI

Channel One TV, Moscow
4 May 06

[Presenter] The active phase of the operation on the A320 crash
site [in the Black Sea] has begun. The search was in progress even
throughout the night. The Russian Emergencies Ministry’s vessels
specially equipped for working in dark hours went out to sea to collect
from the water surface all fragments of the plane and the bodies of
the passengers. Our correspondent Roman Melnik has the details.

[Correspondent] A depth of 500 m. is out of divers’ access. There
is complete darkness there and a terrible pressure of 50 atm. Only
submersibles can shed light on the crash site.

[Igor Levitin, captioned as Transport Minister] Submersibles have
already arrived. They are being prepared for working in the search
area.

[Correspondent] The main task of those who are working at sea is to
locate flight recorders from the crashed plane. First, rescue workers
pinned their hopes on lifting the plane’s tail section. However,
these hopes were never justified – the black boxes have not been
found so far. The flight recorders are fitted out with radio beacons
which can facilitate the search. Airbus experts have already arrived
in Sochi from France to help carry out the search. Fragments of the
aircraft covering, which have risen to the surface with an oil slick
that appeared after the crash, are drifting to the north towards
Tuapse and Novorossiysk. [Passage omitted: technical details]

[Levitin] The weather forecast leads us to hope that we will be able
to use helicopters and the equipment that we have failed to use so far.

[Correspondent] The work with relatives of the crashed plane’s
passengers is under way. The Moskva hotel has become the centre of
people’s grief. Investigators from a prosecutor’s office are working
with the relatives gathering information necessary for initial
identification. Also, psychologists are helping these people, trying
not to leave them alone in this tragedy.

[Armen Smbatyan, Armenian ambassador to Russia] I have felt that
state brotherly support does exist in the world. What we saw here
is very precious. I am very grateful to the Russian authorities
and all organizations who carry out the coordination here. This is
real support.

[Correspondent] The tragedy has brought over 300 people to
Sochi. No-one of the plane’s 113 passengers has survived. There are 49
bodies in the city morgue. The identification procedure is to resume
this morning.

There is no comment from the operational headquarters on the causes of
the crash as there is too little information. After the prosecutor’s
office has denied the theory of a terrorist attack, there remain
three main theories: weather conditions, equipment malfunctions and
the human factor, i. e. the crew’s mistake.

LITHUANIAN FORUM PARTICIPANTS DISCUSS SPREAD OF DEMOCRACY IN EAST

Vilnius BNS WWW-Text
03 May 2006

[“Participants In Vilnius Conference Discussing Western Policy Towards
East” – BNS headline]

VILNIUS, May 03, (BNS) – Famous political scientists, diplomats and
public figures who have gathered for an NGO forum in Vilnius are
discussing the trans-Atlantic community’s policy towards the East.

The NGO forum, held within the framework of Vilnius Conference 2006:
Common Vision for Common Neighbourhood, addressed the future of
democracy in Ukraine, the Caucasian countries of Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan, as well as Russia and Belarus that have democracy problems.

The chairman of the Lithuania-based international historic justice
commission, MP Emanuelis Zingeris, noted the responsibility of
the European Union and the trans-Atlantic community for democratic
processes in Belarus, where authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko
had been reelected for a third term in presidential elections several
weeks ago, which were not recognized by the international democratic
community.

Much attention was given to Russia. Bruce Jackson, president of the
Project on Transitional Democracies, stated that the European Union
had been unable to pursue a principled policy of expanding democracy to
the East so far. He noted that, in terms of its definition, the policy
towards the East could not be anti-Russian, it could be anti-Putin
or anti-Kremlin, but an anti-Russian policy would not be successful.

Istvan Gyarmati, a famous Hungarian diplomat and expert in strategic
studies, said that relations with Russia had to be based on both
values and interests, as Russia would remain an important supplier
of natural and energy resources to Europe.

Boris Kuznecov, director of the St Petersburg-based Centre of
International and Regional Policy, said that the conference was
“anti-Russian.” He rhetorically asked where advocates of democracy were
over a decade ago when the then Russian president, Boris Yeltsin,
“stole an election victory,” and that international financial
assistance funds had allegedly been embezzled under his rule.

Andrei Illarionov, former economic adviser to Russian President
Vladimir Putin, strongly opposed him. In Illarionov’s words, on
the contrary, the Vilnius conference is very “pro-Russian,” as it
promotes significant values in Russia, which the country lacks, namely
democracy, human rights, freedom of press, free market and prosperity.

The NGO forum, the Agenda for Democracy in Europe’s East, is attended
by NGO representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Czech
Republic, Georgia, the US, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova,
the Netherlands, Norway, France, Russia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden,
Ukraine, Hungary and Germany.

At the Heads of State Summit on Thursday, speeches will be made
by presidents of Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia,
Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, the US vice-president, the EU high
representative for common foreign and security policy, other EU and
Eastern European government representatives.

The presidents of Lithuania and Poland, Valdas Adamkus and Lech
Kaczynski, are patrons of Vilnius Conference 2006: Common Vision for
Common Neighbourhood.

LITHUANIA’S ADAMKUS: ‘DEMOCRATICC CONSOLIDATION’ IN EAST EUROPE ‘GREATEST ISSUE’

Vilnius ELTA WWW-Text
03 May 2006

[“Adamkus: Europe Far From Being Finished Business” – ELTA headline]

Vilnius, May 3 (ELTA) – When opening the Forum of Non-Governmental
Organizations at the “Vilnius Conference ’06: Common Vision for the
Common Neighbourhood” on Wednesday [ 3 May], President Valdas Adamkus
highlighted the development of freedom and democracy in eastern Europe
and talked about how to apply the knowledge of successful transitions
in the past to make the processes inspired by the Rose and Orange
revolutions irreversible.

“Let me begin by saying that Europe is far from being ‘finished
business’. In fact, the fate of democratic consolidation in the
eastern part of Europe today is, in my opinion, the greatest issue
in Euro-Atlantic politics,” Adamkus said during his address.

The situation today, noted the president, differs from what we had
to deal with before, because we are faced with a combination of
factors: strong remnants of the post-communist past, national and
regional identity problems, and, at its worst, “frozen conflicts”
that in some cases have instilled fear and economic stagnation for
more than a decade.

“It is also challenging, because the speed and depth of democratic
transitions that we witness is astonishing. It is also demanding
because democratic consolidation in the eastern part of Europe is
related to a number of significant external factors. By this I mean
the rapidly evolving neighbourhood policy of the European Union. By
this I also have in mind the actions of other important stakeholders
such as neighbouring Russia and the trans-Atlantic community, first of
all the United States. And when sometimes these external influences
go in the opposite directions, we suddenly end up playing the game
of competition, and not that of cooperation,” the head of Lithuania
said at the forum.

In the judgment of the president, before crafting a common approach it
is also wise to ask whether all current Euro-Atlantic structures are
fit enough to develop a strategic vision of Europe, whole and free,
in the century of globalization.

“I personally believe that a common vision for the common neighbourhood
cannot be solved in isolation by a single actor, whether that would
be the EU, the USA., NATO, or Russia. A vision that will commit us
to a Europe bound by common values and linked by economic integration
will require common action from all responsible stakeholders.”

The NGO Forum “Europe’s New Democracies and the Euro-Atlantic Agenda”
is being attended by representatives of non-governmental organizations
from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Georgia,
the USA., Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands,
Norway, France, Russia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine, Hungary,
and Germany.

The Forum of Non-governmental Organizations is considering how
to respond to the most critical challenge of today’s Europe: what
measures should be taken to irrevocably consolidate the democratic
transformations in Eastern Europe and the southern Caucasus region.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress