Saturday marks 95th since Ottoman genocide of ethnic Armenians.

YEREVAN, April 24 (Itar-Tass) - Armenians all over the world are
marking the 95th anniversary since the start of the genocide of their
ancestors in the Ottoman Empire.
On the orders from the Empire's rulers, mass pogroms and deportations
of ethnic Armenians began April 24, 1915. They led to the eventual loss of
life by about 1.5 million people.
Commemorative events will be held in all parts of the world. Monuments
to the genocide victims have been built practically in all countries where
the Armenians live today.
The Armenian global community outside Armenia exceeds 5 million
people, including 2.5 million living in Russia, about a million in the
U.S., and from 450,000 to 500,000 people in France.
The main ceremony is to be held in Yerevan at the memorial to victims
of the genocide. It was built by the government of the Armenian Soviet
Socialist Republic in 1967 on the Tsitsernakaberd hill.
The memorial symbolizes the grief over those who died and the nation's
revival.
Dozens of thousands of people of different age groups and political
affiliations are expected to bring flowers to the memorial Saturday
morning.
Many representatives of Armenian communities abroad have come to
Yerevan to take part in the April 24 memorial procession.
International efforts to attain recognition of the fact of Ottoman
genocide are a priority of Armenia's foreign policy.
The genocide has already been recognized by a number of countries
/France and Greece went farther than others and passed appropriated laws/
and the European parliament.
In 1995, Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament issued a
statement condemning the genocide.
A museum and institute of the history of genocide opened next to the
memorial in Yerevan in 1995.

.Ukraine's former premier vows to denounce agreements with Russia.

KIEV, April 24 (Itar-Tass) - All the agreements that run counter to
Ukraine's national interests will be denounced after state power in this
country changes hands, former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said Friday
night in a comment on the agreement extending the deployment of Russian
naval forces in the Crimea for 25 years.
"As soon as state power changes hands - and I'm sure it'll do so
within the time brackets established by the Constitution - all the deals
that contravene national interests will be denounces," she said.
"We'll do everything that's needed for the strategy of development of
our state," Timoshenko said. "We haven't ceded either our aircraft
manufacturing or the energy sector or the gas transportation system."
"The opposition must give clear assessments of the authorities'
actions," she said.
Speaking on the Inter TV channel at much the same time, the incumbent
Prime Minister, Nikolai Azarov said an early termination of the agreement
on deployment of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's units and forces in the
Crimea is totally out of the question.
"I can assure you the Verkhovna Rada /the national parliament/ will
never pass a decision of this kind because the decision we adopted /on the
extension of the fleet's stationing/ fully meets the interests of the
Ukrainian people," he said.
Azarov vehemently denied the nationalistically minded oppositionists'
allegations that the prolongation of the current agreement on the fleet's
deployment beyond 2017 when it was supposed to expire initially encroaches
on the national interests of Ukraine.
"Go ask the people living in Sevastopol /Crimean city that is home to
the major Black Sea naval base - Itar-Tass/ if they are for it or against
it," Azarov said somewhat rhetorically. "Ask people in the Crimea and the
majority of our population in general. Does the Black Sea Fleet hamper
their life in any way? And who does it hinder in particular?"
He dismissed all the criticism of the agreements Ukraine and Russia
signed regarding the Black Sea Fleet as something not worth a serious
discussion.
"I don't see any serious overtones in - what's the best way to put it
- in the opposition's howling," Azarov said, adding that the agreements
the two countries signed in Kharkov Thursday are beneficial for the
economy, in the first place.
"No one with a sense of reason will ever try to break off the
agreements we've reached with Russia," he said.

.Russia's Putin to working visits to Italy, Austria.

MOSCOW, April 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
on Saturday leaves for a three-day European tour, in the course of which
he is going to visit Austria and Italy.
Saturday afternoon, he is expected to hold talks in Vienna with
Austrian Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann. The forecast result of this
meeting will be Austria's de facto joining of the South Stream gas
pipeline project.
A Russian government source told Itar-Tass Russian and Austrian Energy
Ministers will sign an agreement on cooperation in the process of setting
up and operating the South Stream system.
At the same time, Russia's major producer and exporter of natural gas
OAO Gazprom and the Austrian energy corporation OMV, which will be project
operators, will sign the basic agreement on it.
In addition to this, Putin and Faymann are expected to discuss
Russian-Austrian cooperation the sphere of transport.
"The sides are working on a multilateral project on building a railway
line with the Russian-size wide track /1,520 millimeters/ from Kosice in
Slovakia to Vienna via Bratislava," the source said. "This will help to
unite the railway system of Central Europe with Southeast Asia via Russia."
Putin is due to have a meeting with Austrian President Heinz Fischer,
who will have a really busy time this weekend, as the Austrians go to the
polls to elect the head of government /Federal Chancellor/ for the next
six years.
As part of the cultural program of his stay in Vienna, Putin will
attend the European championship in judo and will take part in the
ceremony of giving awards to the winner.
Sunday morning, Putin will lay flowers at the monument to the Soviet
soldiers who died in 1945 while liberating Austria from Nazism.
He will then go to Milan, Italy, where he will be met by Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a man whom he has long established friendly
relations with.
The two Prime Ministers will have an informal dinner Sunday night, and
the business itinerary of Putin's visit will begin Monday.
Work on that day will begin with the talks, at the end of which the
sides hope to sign a range of documents.
"Their scope includes an agreement on restoration works in the town of
L'Aquila devastated by a powerful earthquake in 2009 and more
specifically, on two facilities there - the Ardinghelli Palace and St
Gregory the Great's Church," the government source said.
"The Russian and Italian Ministers of Education are also expected to
sign a memorandum of mutual cooperation in building the Ignitor
experimental thermonuclear reactor in Russia," he said.
The Russian and Italian delegations will continue the talks at a
working breakfast then. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and Energy
Minister Sergei Shmatko will join Putin on the Russian side.
"Discussion of energy sector issues most likely won't boil down to
natural gas only, as the sides will also look at the prospects for joint
activity in the nuclear power industry," the source said.
-0-kle


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