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SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN HAS THE KEY TO FAIR ELECTIONS

03:25 pm 22 March, 2006

Leader of the National Democratic Party Shavarsh Kocharyan has
processed a program together with the NGO `Democracy’. According to
Kocharyan, in case the program is put into execution, it will be
practically impossible to tamper with the elections. Shavarsh
Kocharyan has not doubt about the efficiency of the control
program. He represented the program which is at present being
discussed in OSCE.

If the program is ratified, during the 2007 elections two foreign
observers will be present in every electoral area. They will be
present since early in the morning until the end of the calculation.
According to Kocharyan, about 4000 observers are needed. `4000 is a
large number, but there are countries, where more than ten thousand
observers have been sent; for example Ukraine’. According to
Kocharyan’s calculations, the expenditures for one observer are about
1000 USD, and for 4000 observers – four million USD.

The other issue refers to inner control: every polling station must
have a computer, and no one in the station can access the computer. It
is connected to the server and has its `twins’ in the OSCE office and
in the Central Electoral Committee. `That is to say, interference is
practically impossible’. Every station has its computer with different
accessories. First – every ballot box has a bug on it which states the
hour, minute and second and number of voting. Second – All the polling
stations have cameras and monitors which shoot the whole process of
voting. Third – when the passports are checked, they are immediately
photocopied and scanned and thy remain in the memory of the computer
to avoid their double use.

Everything is connected to the net and every citizen can surf in the
internet and watch what is going on in the station he is interested
in, as what is shot in the station is not for the archive but for
online broadcasting.

According to Shavarsh Kocharyan, the program will cost about 2.5-3
million USD, including tutoring.

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RESIGNED AND APPOINTED

06:04 pm 22 March, 2006

By the decision of the RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, Gagik
Vardanyan has been resigned from the post of the RA deputy Minister of
Commerce and Economic Development.

By another decision of the Prime Minister Arayik Grigoryan has been
appointed RA deputy Minister of Commerce and Economic Development. In
2001 through 2005 he was director of the commercial farm «Urartu».

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

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NO RECTOR WAS ELECTED

08:54 pm 22 March, 2006

During 8.5 hours the voters did not manage to elect a rector for the
Yerevan State University. In the third phase too none of the
candidates collected the necessary amount of votes: Aram Simonyan had
20 votes for, and Gagik Ghazinyan – 36, which is only one vote shy of
the necessary amount. 11 voters voted against everyone, and three
ballots were announced invalid.

The elections will take place in 50 days – on May 15.

RECTOR OF THE YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY WILL BE ELECTED IN THE THIRD
PHASE

Since midday till now the session hall of the central building of the
Yerevan State University is full of people. The reason is the election
of the rector of the University.

There were four candidates: vice rector of the University Aram
Simonyan, Dean of the faculty of Mathematics Gegham Gevorgyan, Dean of
the law faculty Gagik Ghazinyan and Dean of the faculty of physics
Samvel Haroutyunyan. 50% of the voters were representatives of the
Government and the Ministry of Education and Sciences, and the other
half were representatives of the University professors and
students. Of the 72 electors two were absent: NA deputy Speaker Tigran
Torosyan who is participating in the CE works and Dean of the oriental
studies faculty Gourgen Meliqyan who is in hospital.

The session was closed. The journalists followed the course of events
from the corridor trying to guess what is going on on the other side
of the doors. During the session the candidates made speech about
their plans and answered the questions of those present.

«It is meaningless to speak about any support before the electoral
process. The atmosphere was fine today», Aram Simonyan said. The
voting took place after the break. As a result Aram Simonyan had 21
votes for, Gegham Gevorgyan – 16, Gagik Ghazinyan – 28, and Samvel
Haroutyunyan – four. One of the electors voted against all the
candidates. The first two candidates reached the second phase. But now
that the second phase has finished the rector has not been elected
yet. Gagik Ghazinyan has 32 votes, and Aram Simonyan – 23. 7 votes
were invalid, and 8 people voted against everyone.

By the way, one of the members of the University Governing Council
mentioned, «Everything is fabricated. They are simply playing a
game». One of the student added, «There has been no physical
pressure upon the students, but there has been psychological
pressure».

Panorama.am

18:44 22/03/06

MULTI-STAGE ELECTIONS STILL GO ON IN YSU

Not long ago the second stage of elections of rector ended in Yerevan
State University. Yet, it had no results. None of the two candidates
managed to collect 37 necessary votes. 22 members of HEI Management
Council voted for pro-rector Aram Simonyan, and 32 votes were in favor
of the dean of the department of law Gagik Ghazinyan. 9 members voted
against either candidate, 7 ballot-papers were invalidated.

At the moment the 3rd stage is in the process.

Thus, we are the witnesses of just another multi-stage election in
YSU. To remind, the mother University had an experience like this ago
when electing President of Students’ Council 2 years. /Panorama.am/

Panorama.am

15:55 22/03/06

NA PROVED ITS VALUE

To everybody’s surprise today the NA passed a number of laws discussed
yesterday.

When the illuminated indicator board represented the number of the
registered Deputies (95) the leader of the session NA Speaker Arthur
Baghdasaryan asked each of the Deputies to press their button. After
the request of the NA Speaker the illuminated indicator board
registered the proper number: 90. However, today the native Deputies
passed a number of draft laws including the draft laws about making
changes in the laws `About Advertisement’, `About State Dues’, `About
Police’, `About Privatization of State Property’ etc. /Panorama.am/

Panorama.am

15:52 22/03/06

V. HOVHANNISYAN SAD BECAUSE OF BITTER REALITY

`At the moment there are a great number of unfinished buildings in
Yerevan which spoil the view of the city.

Will this law have a recourse power as a result of which the
institutions will be punished? ‘ NA vice Speaker V. Hovhannisyan asked
member of NA Permanent Committee of state-legislative affairs Vostanik
Maroukhyan during the discussion of the draft law about making changes
in the law about `Responsibility for violations in city building
field’ in the NA today.

`It cannot be used,’ V. Maroukhyan answered. And according to the
draft law a due technical control is to be set in building field.

`Everyone builds whatever he wants, everyone adds as many balconies as
he wants,’ NA Speaker mentioned in his speech. Moreover, he suggested
fixing a fine of three hundredfold of the average salary. `I think our
Constitution is too gentle in this case,’ concluded his speech
A. Baghdasaryan. The voting of the draft law will probably be held
tomorrow. /Panorama.am/

SILENCE OF DEFENSE MINISTER PROLONGS INDEFINITENESS

Lragir/am
23 March 06

Although Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan had announced in early
February that two or three weeks later he would decide on running for
parliament, he still keeps silent, though almost two months have
passed instead of two or three weeks. Some analysts explain the
silence of the minister of defense in the context of aspirations to
presidency; Serge Sargsyan keeps silent and will not support any party
because he needs the support of all the political parties to become
president. On March 22, answering the questions of journalists, the
defense minister replied to this question, but his reply did not
reveal anything about his decision.

`Frankly speaking, there are such different comments that I sometimes
wonder how many Nostradamuses there are in our society, who know
everything, but unfortunately I do not know anything,’ said Serge
Sargsyan.

>From the Los Angeles Times

EDITORIAL

It was genocide

March 22, 2006

JOHN EVANS IS THE U.S. ambassador to Armenia, as of this writing. But he
probably won’t be for long. Evans, a career diplomat who was selected to
receive an American Foreign Service Assn. award last year for his frank
public speaking, irked his superiors at the State Department by uttering
the following words at UC Berkeley in February 2005: “I will today call
it the Armenian genocide.” For that bit of truth-telling, Evans was
forced to issue a clarification, then a correction, then to endure
having his award rescinded under pressure from his bosses, and finally
to face losing his job altogether.

What happened in Armenia in 1915 is well known. The Ottoman Empire
attempted to exterminate the Armenian population through slaughter and
mass deportation. It finished half the job, killing about 1.2 million
people. Yet the State Department has long avoided the word “genocide,”
not out of any dispute over history but out of deference to Turkey,
whose membership in NATO and location between Europe and Asia make it a
strategic ally.

It is time to stop tiptoeing around this issue and to accept settled
history. Genocide, according to accepted U.N. definition, means “the
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or
religious group.” Armenia is not even a borderline case. Punishing an
ambassador for speaking honestly about a 90-year-old crime befits a
cynical, double-dealing monarchy, not the leader of the free world.

Turks point out that their Ottoman ancestors considered it treason to
side with Russia at the outbreak of World War I, as many Armenians did.
But the massacres were also fueled by Muslim animosity toward a
Christian minority. When then-U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
Henry Morganthau protested the bloodletting, he received a telling
response from Mehmed Talaat, the interior minister in charge of the
anti-Armenian campaign. “Why are you so interested in Armenians anyway?
You are a Jew, these people are Christians,” Talaat said. “Why can’t you
let us do with these Christians as we please?”

For Armenians who escaped the killing and came to this country,
inadequate recognition of their history is crazy-making. Rep. Adam B.
Schiff (D-Burbank), whose district includes the heart of the Armenian
diaspora, keeps introducing a bill to officially recognize the genocide,
only to see congressional leadership quash it each year, under pressure
from the State Department.

Some nations, thankfully, are stepping where Congress fears to tread.
The European Parliament last year passed a nonbinding resolution asking
that Turkey acknowledge the genocide as a precondition for joining the
European Union. The Turkish government, typically, was infuriated, yet
it still desperately wants to join the EU.

One day, the country that was founded as a direct repudiation of its
Ottoman past will face its history squarely, as part of a long-overdue
maturing process. Some day before then, we hope, the State Department
will too.

_____

la-ed-armenia22mar22,0,1423762.story?coll=3Dla-new s-comment-editorials
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times

La Croix , France
22 mars 2006

Polémique. Les Arméniens de Lyon envisagent une riposte. La
communauté arménienne de Lyon reste indignée par une manifestation
négationniste qui s’est tenue samedi. Lyon, de notre correspondant
régional.

TOSSERI Bénévent

“Cette manifestation n’aurait jamais dû être autorisée.” Les slogans
lancés samedi dernier à Lyon au cours d’un rassemblement organisé par
un collectif d’associations franco-turques hostiles à l’édification
d’un mémorial du génocide arménien entretiennent la colère de la
communauté arménienne. “Il n’y a jamais eu de génocide”, “Nous sommes
fiers de notre passé”, pouvait-on lire sur quelques-unes des
pancartes brandies par un cortège composé de 2 500 à 3 000 personnes
radicalisées et très encadrées. “Nous avons mandaté un huissier pour
prendre des clichés. Sur une quinzaine d’entre eux, on remarque des
inscriptions négationnistes, relève Jules Mardirossian, président de
l’association du mémorial. Nous étudions avec nos avocats les suites
à donner à cette affaire.”

L’organisateur de la manifestation contestée, c’est le Comité de
coordination des associations turques, officiellement motivé par la
volonté d’ “éviter la propagation de la haine”. Le préfet du Rhône,
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, avait mis en avant cette déclaration d’intention
pour justifier son autorisation, malgré les multiples mises en garde
des responsables de la communauté arménienne et de plusieurs
personnalités politiques. “D’un point de vue juridique, nous n’étions
pas en mesure d’interdire la manifestation. À présent, a-t-il déclaré
lundi lors d’une conférence de presse, nous avons des preuves et
j’interdirai tout autre rassemblement de ce type.”

À l’indignation succède une interrogation: la manifestation a-t-elle
été inspirée par les autorités turques? C’est ce que suggère la
concomitance d’un autre rassemblement organisé le jour même à Berlin
en l’honneur de Talaat Pacha, considéré comme l’ordonnateur des
massacres d’Arméniens en 1915-1917. “Les cortèges étaient semblables,
estime Philippe Videlier, historien au CNRS à Lyon. Ils étaient
composés de membres des Loups gris, un mouvement d’extrême droite,
ainsi que d’autres groupuscules nationalistes, qui gravitent autour
des consulats. Soulignons que la manifestation lyonnaise était
annoncée à la télévision turque, et largement couverte par la presse
turque.”

De fait, le consulat de Turquie à Lyon continue de parler du mémorial
qui doit être érigé à proximité de la place Bellecour comme d’une
“provocation”, menaçant la municipalité d’un “vote sanction des 25
000 électeurs franco-turcs”. Une position relayée au cours des
semaines passées par des “pétitions à caractère négationniste et un
climat de guérilla active”, selon le président du groupe socialiste
au conseil municipal de la ville de Lyon, Yves Sécheresse.

Dans ce climat, et malgré les assurances données par le préfet, les
responsables de la communauté arménienne de Lyon (40 000 membres)
restent inquiets, à un mois de l’inauguration du mémorial, le 24
avril prochain, date de commémoration du génocide arménien, qui fit
plus d’un million de victimes entre 1915 et 1917. Martine David,
député-maire de Saint-Priest (Rhône), s’est saisie de l’événement
pour porter hier devant le groupe socialiste à l’Assemblée nationale
une proposition visant à “compléter la loi de janvier 2001 (par
laquelle la France reconnaît le génocide arménien, NDLR) en ajoutant
un second article qui condamne le négationnisme du génocide
arménien”.

BENÉVENT TOSSERI

RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY RATIFIES 10 INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS ON MARCH 23

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA National Assembly ratified on
March 23 the Agreement on Intergovernmental Courier Communication
signed in Minsk on January 22, 1993, and the protocol on making
amendments to this agreement signed in Moscow on May 27, 1997. The
parliament also ratified 8 international agreements related to the
transport and communication sectors, particularly: – the Customs
Convention on Containers signed in Geneva on December 2, 1972, – the
International Convention on Facilitation of Cross-Border
Transportation of Cargos by Railway signed in Geneva on January 10,
1952, – the conventions on the Agreement on International Motor
Transportation of Cargos signed in Geneva on May 19, 1956, and July 5,
1978, – the charter of the International Postal Union signed in Vienna
on July 10,1964, – the European Agreement on the Major International
Motorways signed in Geneva on November 15, 1975.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress