Author: Emil Lazarian

Is Armenia an authoritarian state?

Yerkir
May 28, 2004

During parliamentary briefing on May 27 faction representatives
discussed more political development rather than legislative
activities.

Who is governing Armenia today? Is Armenia democratic? Did the
president behave accurately during the opposition activation
period? How is the legislative activity possible in terms of the
opposition boycotting? These questions were answered by all faction
except for the opposition which once again skipped the briefing.

ARF faction leader Levon Mkrtchian believes Armenia is now governed by
the constitution. The first person is the president who is responsible
for home and foreign policies. There is the political coalition which
has its share of responsibility. As to Robert Kocharian’s presidency,
he has been carrying out his functions and expressed his position at
every necessary point.

The leader of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) believes that
the presidents should have been stricter, since tolerance brings even
worse consequences.

Touching upon the estimation of an international legal organization
that called Armenia authoritative, Mkrtchian advised to consider
the purpose and period of the made assessment. “The activities of
such organizations have a subjective factor which implies certain
regional, geopolitical issues that do not exclude pressures,” said
Mkrtchian. “Our route is democracy, since otherwise we would not be
a member of many international prestigious organizations.”

Regarding these issues, leader of RPA Galust Sahakian said: “The
trouble is that any phrase and judgment of a foreigner is more
discussed than the issues of our national interests.”

Leader of the Orinats Yerkir faction Samvel Balasanian stated that
Armenia has a primary development stage of democracy.

As to the recessed dialogue, the coalition once again stated its
determination to bring the opposition back to the political field.
Levon Mkrtchian said: “The coalition always tried to get the opposition
back to dialogue, since otherwise political functions are passed to
the legal field.

The dialogues must take place not only between the coalition and the
opposition but the society must also be prepared for it. And the
society has mad clear its point: it wants t be able to peacefully
live and work in between the elections. It does not want shock.”

The political forces say the issue of depriving the boycotting
opposition of parliamentary mandates is not on the agenda, but it
can have more serious political consequences.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN TV CHANNELS REFRAIN FROM COVERING PROTEST ACTION

A1 Plus | 13:53:23 | 04-06-2004 | Politics |

Every-day protest action outside the Prosecutor General Office in
Yerevan continued Friday. Protesters keep on demanding a number of
political prisoners to be released from jail.

Only Aravot TV Company is highlighting the event.

Armenia’s other TV channels prefer to keep silence about that,
despite the organisations that staged the picket have repeatedly
invited crews from all TVs.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The PM: After the first six months

Windsor Star (Ontario)
June 2, 2004 Wednesday Final Edition

Prime Minister Paul Martin, like all politicians mired in an election
campaign, is running on a slew of promises. In his first week on the
hustings, Martin promised to hand cities at least $2 billion annually
from the federal gasoline tax and dump nine billion new dollars into
health care without raising taxes or introducing premiums to pay
for either.

But promises come cheap. Ontarians learned that the hard way when
Premier Dalton McGuinty whacked them with the biggest tax hike in a
decade just months after vowing on the stump to not raise taxes and
to balance the books.

With that in mind, prudent voters have no choice but to assess
politicians — particularly those who’ve governed and had the chance
to make changes — on past performances just as much as future pledges.

So how does Martin’s performance stack up? What did he accomplish in
his 163 days as prime minister before dropping the writ that might
convince Canadians to vote for him?

Sadly, very little. First, Parliament under Martin was a legislative
wasteland. His government passed only one major new bill — a piece
of legislation handing municipalities a 100-per-cent rebate on
the GST. Most of the other bills it passed, like one to establish
independent ethics officers for the House and Senate and another to
change the Patent Act so generic companies could sell cheap AIDS drugs
to Africa, were recycled offerings introduced in Jean Chretien’s final
term. The few major bills Martin’s government actually introduced
died on the order paper when the election was called.

Second, Martin failed to slay what he termed the “democratic
deficit.” He consulted with more people, more often, to be sure; but
his efforts at democratic reform were half-baked. After promising more
free votes in the House, he cracked the whip on a vote to continue
funding the rifle and shotgun registry and forbade his cabinet
ministers from voting in favour of a motion condemning Turkey for
the 1915 Armenian genocide. On the Supreme Court front, Martin hasn’t
given any clear indication how he’ll pick judges, despite the fact two
vacancies are pending. Martin gave no indication he’s about to engage
in meaningful Senate reform that would take the appointment process out
of the PMO. And Martin’s plans to expand the powers of parliamentary
committees produced only the farce that was the sponsorship hearings.

That brings us to another of Martin’s failures. He bungled the
investigation into the advertising money scandal. After he pledged
to get to the bottom of the mess, the Liberal majority on the public
accounts committee cut short its inquiry into the alleged scam 12
days before the election call.

All this ignores a host of other positive changes Martin might have
made as prime minister. He could have scrapped the gun registry, began
work on Senate reform and started the ball rolling on a much-needed
retooling of the High Court. But he didn’t. Overall, he has little
to show for nearly six months at the country’s helm.

A Martin performance review would be unfair and incomplete if it
ignored his nearly nine years as finance minister. As a fiscal manager
he did trim spending and cut taxes to revitalize Canada’s economy
and balance the country’s books for five straight years. But his
record was hardly blemish free. His balanced budgets were largely the
result of slashed transfer payments to the provinces. The sponsorship,
HRDC and gun registry fiascos occurred on his watch.

Since winning the top job, Martin has proved relatively inept; he
talks a good game but takes no action.

For that reason Canadians are right to question if Martin might not
be better suited to playing second fiddle than leading the band. At
the very least they have to question the veracity of his election
promises. He hasn’t delivered as prime minister. Canadians have a
right to wonder if Martin would morph into the mailman if re-elected.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Tie-breaker in Turkey
By Malcolm Pein

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
June 02, 2004, Wednesday

THE fifth European Individual Championship at Antalya in Turkey went
to a tie-breaker as the established players Vassily Ivanchuk and
Praedrag Nikolic saw off a strong challenge from the younger
generation and prospered in the later rounds. The pair ended on 9/13.

There were no British players among the 72 who competed in the
tournament, which was a classic Eastern European carve-up. From the
prize-winners below, you will find that even the players given as
coming from Western Europe actually emigrated from Russia, Ukraine or
Armenia.

There were a number of play-offs to determine the distribution of
medals, prize money and places in the next Fide knock-out
championship, should it ever come to pass. Levon Aronian secured the
bronze medal.

Final scores: 1-2 Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Nikolic (Bosnia) 9/13; 3-7
Aronian (Germany), Istratescu (Romania), Miroshnichenko (Ukraine),
Navara (Czech Republic), Gurevich (Belgium) 8.5; 8-16 Kempinski
(Poland), Krasenkow (Poland), Agrest (Sweden), Milov (Switzerland),
Asrian (Armenia), Sargissian (Armenia), Macieja (Poland), Gashimov
(Azerbaijan) Naiditsch (Germany) 8.

BY THE time Black develops his pieces, his opponent has a decisive
attack. For better or worse, 21…Qxe4 had to be tried.

V Milov – M Parligras

5th IECC Antalya (13)

Nimzo Indian

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Nf3 b6 5 Bg5 Bb7 6 Nd2 c5 7 d5 h6 8 Bh4
exd5 9 cxd5 Qe7 10 Qc2 0-0 11 0-0-0 Bxc3 12 bxc3 Bxd5 13 e4 Bc6 14 f4
d6 15 Re1 g5 16 fxg5 Nh7 17 Bg3 Nxg5 18 h4 Ne6 19 Nc4 Rd8 20 Ne3 Ng7
21 Bc4 Nd7 22 Ng4 Rf8 23 Nxh6+ Kh8 24 Qd2 Ne5 25 Bxe5 dxe5 26 Ng4 1-0

Parligras – p p 7 e o p g c m
o – p p p p o o p
p A p b p ‘ n p n p p b p f p b p p d 6 p *

Milov

Final position after 26.Ng4

FIDE world championship semi-final, game one:

Kovalevskaya 1-0 Koneru: Koneru totally outplayed her opponent and
then turned down an endgame with three extra pawns to continue the
attack, which, although winning, gave Kovalevskaya chances to resist.
Three blunders later, Koneru lost.

Stefanova draw Chiburdanidze: a complex tactical line of the Pseudo
Trompovsky 1 d4 d5 2 Bg5 led to a drawn endgame.

NIGEL Short could not defeat the tournament winner, Alexey Shirov, in
the last round at Sarajevo. Short held an edge for much of the game,
but the presence of opposite-coloured bishops always made the draw –
Short’s seventh in a row – more likely. The England number two had
his first bad tournament for a long time and did not win a single
game.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PM MEETS IMF RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE

ArmenPress
June 3 2004

YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS: Prime minister Andranik Margarian received
today James McHugh, IMF resident representative, who briefed him on
a recent meeting of IMF Board of Directors and discussed also future
cooperation plans between the lending organization and Armenian
government.

McHugh was quoted by the government press office as saying that he
was happy to inform the prime minister about the growing confidence
of the IMF in Armenia. “IMF Board of Directors is pleased with the
ongoing economic progress of your country,” he was quoted as saying.

McHugh said IMF is completing its current program in Armenia in
June. After reviewing the fulfilled work in September, the Board
of Directors will consider release of a new aid, he said. McHugh
said the successful accomplishment of previous programs inspires
hopes that the current one will also be a success. Other economic
development-related issues were discussed during the meeting.

According to deputy finance and economy minister, Atom Janjukhazian,
Armenia’s foreign debt as of December 31, 2003 stood at almost $1.1
billion, constituting 39.3 percent of the GDP. Around $875 million
were the government’s direct credit liabilities, $214.6 million were
credit liabilities of the Central Bank and $73 million were credit
guarantees of the government.

Armenia paid last year around $141 million to service its foreign debt.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia to amend foreign policy if Turkey admitted to EU – minister

Mediamax news agency
3 Jun 04

Yerevan, 3 June: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan today
expressed the hope that US efforts towards the normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations would be successful in the end. The
Armenian foreign minister said this at a meeting with students of the
international relations department of Yerevan State University today.

Vardan Oskanyan said that negotiations on the date of Turkey’s
admission to the European Union might start this year, which “will
give a new status to this country” and will require some corrections
to Armenia’s foreign policy.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEW TIMES VERSUS NATIONAL UNITY

A1 Plus | 17:51:11 | 04-06-2004 | Politics |

Suit filed by New Times party chair Aram Karapetyan against National
Unity party leaders was heard Friday at the first instance court. The
suit has been filed over the allegation saying he is “the authorities’
agent”.

The plaintiff’s lawyer Levon Baghdasaryan demanded the defendant to
answer for their allegation.

The defense attorneys Gagik Kostandyan and Agassi Arshakyan said
their clients hadn’t intended to insult Karapetyan and hurt his
dignity. They only noted he had turned off the road of the opposition.

The defense side submitted their arguments, and the court gave the
plaintiff time to look through them. The second session is scheduled
for June 14. Azg newspaper correspondent Tatul Hakobyan will be
subpoenaed to court as witness.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE can contribute to Karabakh solution – European envoy

Mediamax news agency
4 Jun 04

Yerevan, 4 June: The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, along with
other European organizations, is capable of creating a favourable
environment around the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

The press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry has told Mediamax
that this was stated by Goran Lennmarker, special representative of the
chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly [for Nagornyy Karabakh],
during a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan today.

Goran Lennmarker told the Armenian minister that he would pay a
factfinding visit to Nagornyy Karabakh on 5 June.

The special representative of the chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly and the Armenian foreign minister also discussed ways of
improving Armenian-Turkish relations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MP urges US envoy to respect Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity

Ekspress, Baku
4 Jun 04

Text of Farid report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on 4 June
headlined “A message from Gular Ahmadova to the US ambassador” and
subheaded “We can present you with articles by Armenian journalists
expressing their thanks to America for economic revival in Nagornyy
Karabakh”

The contradictory statements made by the US ambassador to Azerbaijan,
Reno Harnish, on the activities of US companies in Nagornyy Karabakh
have caused discontent among MPs from the NAP [ruling New Azerbaijan
Party]. Remarks and speeches full of displeasure are already being
voiced in the parliament. A speech by Gular Ahmadova made at the last
session of parliament is one of this kind.

“Mr Harnish, if you do not have any information about this, then we
can provide you with it. We can present you with articles by Armenian
journalists expressing their thanks to America for economic revival
in Nagornyy Karabakh.”

MP Gular Ahmadova addressed these words to the US ambassador. According
to her, each of these thanks is a blow to Azerbaijan. For this
reason, the MP asked the ambassador to clarify his opinion about
these issues. Ahmadova thinks that giving contradictory information
about such a serious issue does not do an envoy credit.

We wondered which documents the MP had. Ahmadova said that she had
a list of US companies working in Nagornyy Karabakh, which she was
speaking about. She said she could present the ambassador with the
list if he wished.

“If the ambassador does not know about this, I can hand it over to
him if he wishes,” she said.

Ahmadova denied that such remarks by MPs from the NAP might create
anti-American sentiments.

“There is absolutely no anti-American sentiment. We are in the
same alliance as the USA on many issues and are members of the
anti-terrorist coalition.”

Despite all this, the MP thinks that the Nagornyy Karabakh issue
is very sensitive for all the forces in Azerbaijan – both for the
opposition and for the government. Ahmadova thinks that since Nagornyy
Karabakh is presented as Azerbaijan’s territory in international
documents, the US ambassador to Azerbaijan and the US State Department
should respect this. The MP thinks that the issue should be approached
attentively in terms of territorial integrity.

“Such an approach is at least disrespect for Azerbaijan,” the MP said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Oskanian Says Council Of Europe Sanctions Unlikely
By Gevorg Stamboltsian 04/06/2004 00:38

Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
June 4 2004

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said on Thursday that the Council
of Europe is unlikely to impose embarrassing political sanctions on
Armenia despite its strong criticism of his government’s crackdown
on the opposition.

In a resolution adopted on April 28, the pan-European organization’s
Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) threatened not to recognize the
credentials of four Armenian members in September unless the
authorities stop arresting opposition supporters and release all
political prisoners. “I can dare say that there is no danger of
that. I don’t think that our deputies will be stripped of their
voting rights,” Oskanian said during a meeting with students at
Yerevan State University. “I think that everything will be alright
and we will continue our normal work there.”

“But in any case, a lot will depend on what kind of developments
will take place by September. If, God forbid, such a thing happens
it will definitely have a negative impact on our foreign policy and
reputation in general,” he added.

The PACE resolution says that the Armenian authorities have until
late June to “inform the Assembly of their findings and possible
legal actions against people responsible” for human rights abuses
reported during the crackdown. They were also told to lift “unjustified
restrictions” on peaceful anti-government demonstrations and release
all individuals arrested in connection with them.

Two PACE rapporteurs are due to visit Armenia later this month ahead of
the 45-nation assembly’s next session in Strasbourg to assess progress
in the implementation of its recommendations. The authorities say they
have already taken meaningful steps to comply with the resolution. The
Armenian opposition denies the claims, pointing to the continuing
“administrative detentions” and imprisonment on criminal charges of
its activists.

The opposition has sought to portray the Council of Europe criticism as
a major success in its campaign to oust President Robert Kocharian. The
government, for its part, counters that the resolution did not endorse
the opposition calls for a referendum of confidence in Kocharian and
said that serious irregularities did not affect the official outcome
of last year’s presidential election.

The opposition efforts to provoke international pressure on Yerevan
was denounced by Kocharian this week as something “close to treason” of
Armenian national interests. Oskanian echoed the charges on Thursday,
saying that the continuing anti-Kocharian rallies hurt the country’s
international standing.

“When I’m in Strasbourg, Brussels, New York, London or Paris and
several thousand people gather in Freedom Square on the same day to
call for regime change, believe me that our foreign policy becomes
very inefficient,” he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress