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SWISS PM: TURKEY IN THE WAY TO EU AND EU MEMBERSHIP MEANS GOOD RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORS
The press-service of the Armenian Government told ARMINFO that the meetings of Armenian and Swiss PMs took place before the beginning of the 3rd plenary session of the International Conference "Prevention of Genocide, Threats and Responsibility" in Stockholm. Delegations from some 60 countries and authoritative international organizations participate in the event. In the course of the meeting Goran Persson thanked the Armenian delegation for its participation in the conference, pointing out that it was very important for its organizers. Swiss PM Persson highly appreciated and called impressive the proposals by Andranik Margaryan at the conference and Armenia's approaches to the Armenian-Turkish relations. He expressed hope for Turkey to respond to these initiatives and the two countries to find a common side to establish and develop relations, as well as for Turkey opening its boundary with Armenia and the two countries will manage to "look ahead" after the tragic past. In this connection, Goran Persson welcomed Armenia's readiness for cooperation with its neighbors. In his turn, Andranik Margaryan presented his Swiss counterpart books dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. He expressed gratitude to the event organizers, including the Swiss Government, for invitation and invited Goran Persson to participate in the international conference dedicated to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey fixed for 2005 in Armenia. The Swiss diplomat expressed gratitude for the invitation promising to attend the conference if there is such a possibility. PACE MPs IGNORE INITIATIVES OF ARMENIAN OPPOSITIONISTS YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. The proposals of the Armenian opposition on inclusion of a point on the referendum of confidence to the Armenian President into PACE report on monitoring in Armenia were not supported by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The second proposal of the justice opposition block representatives to PACE Shavarsh Kocharyan on including into the report a point providing for appointment of the members of the National Commission for TV and Radio and the Board of the Public TV and Radio Company by the Parliament was not supported as well. The third proposal of Shavarsh Kocharyan concerning another provision that Armenian President is to appoint ombudsman only in agreement with the parliamentary factions and deputy groups, was also rejected by the CE MPs. It should be noted that yesterday in his interview to the Armenian Public Television and Radio, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan expressed dissatisfaction with the oppositionists of the Armenian delegation to PACE who "wash the country's dirty linen in public" by proposing the national referendum of confidence to the Armenian President, in stead of acting together and consistently. Meanwhile, in his interview to "Aravot" newspaper, Head of the Armenian Delegation to PACE, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Tigran Torossyan said: "There are no problems with opposition. There is another problem of acting in a united team. it will be more correct if those in Yerevan wait for our return instead of making assessments." Torossyan also said that several representation of Armenia abroad act ineffectively. He said that several diplomatic offices of Armenia promised the Armenian delegation that the MPs of those countries will come out in PACE supporting Armenia. "However, these MPs, whose names were preliminary known to us, came out from the diametrically opposite positions," the vice speaker said. It should be noted that 21 of 40 present MPs voted for the proposal on withdrawal of the word "remaining" from the wording "Nagorny Karabakh and remaining occupied territories of Azerbaijan" in the above report, meanwhile, the total number of the MPs in PACE is 313 people from 45 countries. ARMENIAN PREMIER INVITES NOBEL PRIZE WINNER TO TAKE PART IN CONFERENCE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. Armenian prime Minister Andranik Margarian, who is on a visit to Stockholm, Sweden, has invited the Nobel Prize-winner, Professor of Jerusalem University, specialist in the problem of Holocaust Yeguda Bauer to take part in an international conference on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which is to be held in Armenia in 2005. The press service of the Armenian Government reports that the Professor accepted the invitation with gratitude and promised to take part in the conference with his wife. Yeguda Bauer appreciated the Armenian Prime Minister's participation in the international conference "Prevention of Genocide, threats and responsibility" in Stockholm. YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. New York Life insurance company intends to pay $20 million to the offsprings of the victims of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Referring to Reuters, the Russian mass media report that New York Life will satisfy some 2.400 claims and will create a charitable fund for the Armenian community. The given agreements concern the claims made to the Los Angeles Court in 1999 demanding compensation in conformity with insurance policy of ethnic Armenians killed in Turkey in the beginning of the 20th century. Many of the offsprings of these insurants live in California, said insurance agent John Garamendy (name as given) expressing satisfaction that the hard work of the parties on this issue resulted in a triumph of justice. Yet in October, 2003, New York Life published the list of Armenians who were the company's clients and insurants yet before the Armenian Genocide in 1915. However, according to specialists, the list is not filled up. It should be noted that at the end of the 19th century, big American and European insurance companies operating in Ottoman Turkey issued dozens of thousands of insurance policies to Armenians, who were later killed or expatriated. PACE URGES ARMENIA TO RE-EXAMINE CASES OF COMMUTING DEATH PENALTY TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. PACE welcomes the abolition of the death penalty in Armenia as a result of the ratification of Protocol No.6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, says PACE resolution on Armenia. The resolution says that the abolition of the death penalty constitutes essential progress in Armenia's honoring its CE commitments. It notes that the Aug 1 decree of Armenia's President Robert Kocharyan to commute the death sentences of 42 people to life sentences has raised strong protests from some of the convicts. PACE believes that this issue should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and urges the Armenian authorities to re-examine as soon as possible the cases of those who had asked for a change of sentence or a retrial. To remind, over 20 death convicts expressed their protest against commuting their sentences to life in prison. They demanded either executing their sentences or re-examining their cases and reducing their terms to 15-20 years. ARMENIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONSUMERS TO CONTINUE SUING "TELEPLAS" COMPANY YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. The Armenian National Association of Consumers intends to continue legal proceedings against the "Teleplas" company, which renders telephone services, including the "Acquaintance Club" for young people. As a result of the company's activities, some telephone subscribers received bills of huge sums. Talking to ARMINFO President of the Association Melita Hakobian reported that after the first trial was won, 40 claims were lodged with courts, and 12 more claims are expected to be lodged in the near future. The Association received a total of 285 complaints about the unlawful activities of the "Teleplas" company. Most of the subscribers were deprived of telephone communication for not paying the huge amounts. Courts are currently considering over 20 claims. The main demand is that the courts recognize the advertising as unfair, nullify the bills and order telephone communication to be restored. ARMENIAN MP TRANSFERRED FROM VIRGINIA TO SAN-BERNADINO YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. Armenian MP Tatul Manaseryan detained in the US Jan 15 on charge of kidnapping his own son has been transferred from the immigration solitary confinement cell of Virginia to that of San-Bernadino, CA. Armenia's Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan says that the transfer was carried out due to the efforts of Armenia's Foreign Ministry and the Armenian Embassy to the US. Oskanyan notes that the incident was the result of some misunderstanding. I-WORM.NOVARG KEPT IN CHECK IN ARMENIA YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. The I-Worm.Novarg virus presently launching most fierce attacks on computer networks worldwide is said to be kept in check in Armenia. Some Armenian users have, nevertheless, reported server and system failures since this morning. The network-administrator of the biggest Armenian provider Arminco Zaven Navoyan says that the company installed a most sophisticated defence system as early as Sept 2003. "This system is being actively improved to detect new types of viruses." I-Worm.Novarg aims mostly at DOS capturing e-addresses contained in a computer database and sending there infected messages. Navoyan is warning non-subscribers against opening bat, cmd, exe, pif or zip files. The SCO Group company is ready to pay $250,000 for information about the author of the virus. His arrest will not, however, save the internet from impending disaster. Experts say that the virus is can block internet operations worldwide for at least 10 days. To remind, I-Worm.Novarg has been specially designed to attack www.sco.com from Feb 1 to Feb 12. It was detected on Monday. 24 hours later it was already everywhere. SCO Group representatives say that they have their suspicions as to who might have designed the "worm" and have set it to crawl in the internet. But they are giving no names hinting most probably at the open source advocates who are unwilling to pay the license fees for Linux. Now the "worm" can paralyze SCO Group for at least 12 days which will be quite a blow on the company's reputation and financial state. HEADLINES OF JANUARY 29
GOODS WORTH 11.287 BLN AMD BY KARABAKH'S INDUSTRY IN 2003
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YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. Turkey is in the way to joining the
European Union and the EU membership means good relations with ones
neighbors, Swiss Prime Minister Goran Persson said during his meeting
with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan yesterday.
