Author: Kalantarian Kevo

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
June 24, 2004, Thursday

Then there was one

By Malcolm Pein

DESPITE a valiant effort to unsettle his opponent, Nigel Short was
eliminated by Michal Krasenkow in the second round of the Fide
Knockout Championships at Tripoli.

English hopes now rest with Michael Adams, who looked impressive as
he defeated the dangerous Armenian player Karen Asrian with the white
pieces to go through 1.5-0.5. Adams looks to have a great chance as
some of the stronger players from his half of the draw either did not
show or have been eliminated.

The draw for the last 32 is: Top half: Topalov (Bul) – Movsesian
(Svk); Rublevsky (Rus) – Kozul (Cro); Mamedyarov (Aze) – Nisipeanu
(Rom); Kharlov (Rus) – Leitao (Bra); Filippov (Rus) – Grischuk (Rus);
Anastasian (Arm) – Beliavsky (Slo); Ivanchuk (Ukr) – Kasimdzhanov
(Uzb); Almasi (Hun) – Ye (Chn). Bottom half: Aronian (Arm) – Smirnov
(Rus); Bacrot (Fra) – Radjabov (Aze); Dominguez (Cub) – Tkachiev
(Fra); Sakaev (Rus) – Dreev (Rus); Adams (Eng) – Hamdouchi (Mar);
Nakamura (USA) – Lastin (Rus); Zvjaginsev (Rus) – Krasenkow (Pol);
Akopian (Arm) – Moiseenko (Ukr).

The youngest player left in the competition is the American Hikaru
Nakamura, 16, who eliminated Alexey Aleksandrov of Belarus, a tough
competitor in knockout competitions. Nakamura showed some cool nerves
to eliminate Russian GM Sergey Volkov in a first round tie-break
against Alexandrov, who was ground down in a drawn endgame after 71
moves. Needing a draw in the return, Nakamura produced some
fireworks. 7.g4 is favoured by Kasparov, who has used it against the
computer Deep Junior, if 7Nxg4 8.Rg1. 13.a3 does not look in the
spirit of the variation – 13.0-0-0 !?; 17Rhe8 was also possible, the
white king looks vulnerable on e1. If 24.Kf1 Qb5+ 25.Kg2 Nxe3+!!
26.fxe3 Qxb2+ 27.Kf1 Qxa1+ winning the house; if 27.Kh1 Bf3+ and
mate.

A Aleksandrov – H Nakamura

Fide KO Tripoli (2.2)

Semi Slav Shabalov Variation

1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 e3 e6 5 Nf3 Nbd7 6 Qc2 Bd6 7 g4 dxc4 8
Bxc4 e5 9 g5 Nd5 10 Ne4 Bb4+ 11 Bd2 Bxd2+ 12 Qxd2 Qe7 13 a3 N7b6 14
Ba2 Bh3 15 Rg1 exd4 16 Qxd4 0-0-0 17 Ng3 f5 18 gxf6 Nxf6 19 Qb4 Qd7
20 Ne5 Qc7 21 Nf7 Nbd5 22 Qh4 Bg4!! 23 Nxd8 Qa5+ 24 b4 Qxa3 25 Kf1
Qd3+ 26 Kg2 Nxe3+! 27 fxe3 Qc2+ 28 Kf1 Qd3+ 29 Kg2 draw

Nakamura
p ) l p 7 o c p p o c p c p m p p p p p n p p – f p p Y n l

A p p p X n

6 p p 6

Aleksandrov

Final position after 29.Kg2

David Howell is performing well at the second Young Stars of the
World tournament in Kirishi, Russia. He has scored 2/5 so far.

Armenia to help in Iraq reconstruction

United Press International
6/18/2004

WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) — Armenia is the latest country to join
President Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing,” in rebuilding Iraq.

In an interview with UPI earlier this week, Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian said his country would contribute, albeit in “a very
symbolic” way.

“We are ready to become engaged in rebuilding Iraq, but our resources
are very modest, so it’s going to be a very modest contribution,
nevertheless, the willingness is there.”

Armenia, Oskanian said, will be contributing doctors, medical personnel
and experts to help clear mines, as well as trucks, drivers and
technicians. The force amounts to about 100 people.

The minister said he believes all neighboring countries in the region
should contribute to the normalization of Iraq. Iraq’s Armenian
community is comprised of roughly 25,000 people.

Baku Today
June 16 2004

Motives For Murdering Of “Black Colonel” Not Clear Yet, Head
Prosecutor Says

Baku Today 16/06/2004 11:19

Motives of the murdering of the vice-president of Azerbaijan Football
Federations’ Association have not been established yet, Zahid Qaralov,
head of the General Prosecutor’s office, told reporters on Tuesday.

“It may be related to his personal affairs or career. But we don’t
know for sure yet,” said Qaralov while attending the funeral of Fatulla
Huseynov, who was shot to death early Monday in front of the building
he lived.

Huseynov, also deputy head of the opposition Justice party, was found
fatally wounded in his car around 7 a.m., the neighbors said. He had
got five bullets by a Russian-made Makarov pistol in his head and
chest, police said.

The murdered had been working for law enforcement bodies for long
years. He also had gained an appellation, “Black Colonel,” during
the 1991-94 war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

PACE MONITORING GROUP IN ARMENIA

A1 Plus | 17:42:12 | 11-06-2004 | Official |

Jerzy Jaskiernia, PACE Monitoring Commission Reporter and Commission
Secretary David Chupina are arriving in Armenia today. Meetings with
Ambassadors of CE states in Armenia, OSCE Office head, international
organizations, national minorities, Media representatives, and Armenian
Constitutional Court Chair Gagik Harutyunyan are scheduled.

Tomorrow meetings with Armenian Parliament Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan,
Vice-Speaker Tigran Torosyan, members of parliamentary committees
and parties are envisaged.

On June 13 the delegation will leave for Vanadzor.

On June 14 the delegation members will meet Robert Kocharyan, PM
Andranik Margaryan, Justice Minister David Harutyunyan, Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan, Defense Minister Serj Sargssyan, Police
Head Hayk Harutyunyan, General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan, Police’
Yerevan Department Head Nerses Nazaryan, members of Radio and
Television Commission, CEC Chair Gevorg Azaryan and members.

On June 15 the delegation will leave Armenia.

MP questions identities and confession of Georgian high ranks

Batumi News
June 11 2004

The interest of the majoritarian deputy from Zugdidi, Gocha Pipia,
in the ethnic and religious identities of the future ministers and
their parents, called forth anxieties among the deputies. Several
MPs left the session in protest.

Kakha Bendukidze, Minister of Economics, commented on Pipia as a
“mad” and “a man of evil conscious”, – before leaving the session.

“A madman rushed out and demanded the ministers to submit their parents
identities. I see myself it absolutely unacceptable, and he would be
jailed in any honoring itself state”, – Bendukidze said. “If anyone is
interested how I feel with the fact that my mother is Armenian, I have
always been and will always be proud with that”, – Zurab Zhvania said.

Pipia himself, believes, that presence of those deputies, who hide
their identity, is dangerous at the state levers. “Those individuals,
who are disguising their genuine identities, have complexes”, – Pipia
said. He recalled the internet sources, criticizing John Kerry for
disguising that he is Jew, claiming himself as an Anglo Sax. “When
everything is being sold out in Georgia, I have a right to ask,
are these people, selling out national property, Georgians?” –
Pipia argues.

“Religious education of our future generation should be based on
the Christian Orthodox belief, attacking the Orthodox Church on the
name of democracy is unacceptable”, – Pipia said, questioning the
confession of Kakha Lomaya, Georgian Minister of Education.

Saving Private Ivan: Mike Davis Remember Normandy’s heroes – but also that
the Red army played the decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany

The Guardian – United Kingdom
Jun 11, 2004

The decisive battle for the liberation of Europe began 60 years ago
this month when a Soviet guerrilla army emerged from the forests and
bogs of Belorussia to launch a bold surprise attack on the mighty
Wehrmacht’s rear.

The partisan brigades, including many Jewish fighters and
concentration-camp escapees, planted 40,000 demolition charges. They
devastated the vital rail lines linking German Army Group Centre to
its bases in Poland and Eastern Prussia.

Three days later, on June 22 1944, the third anniversary of Hitler’s
invasion of the Soviet Union, Marshal Zhukov gave the order for the
main assault on German front lines. Twenty-six thousand heavy guns
pulverised German forward positions. The screams of the Katyusha
rockets were followed by the roar of 4,000 tanks and the battle cries
(in more than 40 languages) of 1.6 million Soviet soldiers. Thus
began Operation Bagration, an assault over a 500-mile-long front.

This “great military earthquake”, as the historian John Erickson called
it, finally stopped in the suburbs of Warsaw as Hitler rushed elite
reserves from western Europe to stem the Red tide in the east. As a
result, American and British troops fighting in Normandy would not
have to face the best-equipped Panzer divisions.

But what American has ever heard of Operation Bagration? June 1944
signifies Omaha Beach, not the crossing of the Dvina River. Yet the
Soviet summer offensive was several times larger than Operation
Overlord (the invasion of Normandy), both in the scale of forces
engaged and the direct cost to the Germans.

By the end of summer, the Red army had reached the gates of Warsaw
as well as the Carpathian passes commanding the entrance to central
Europe. Soviet tanks had caught Army Group Centre in steel pincers
and destroyed it. The Germans would lose more than 300,000 men in
Belorussia alone. Another huge German army had been encircled and
would be annihilated along the Baltic coast. The road to Berlin had
been opened.

Thank Ivan. It does not disparage the brave men who died in the North
African desert or the cold forests around Bastogne to recall that 70%
of the Wehrmacht is buried not in French fields but on the Russian
steppes. In the struggle against Nazism, approximately 40 “Ivans”
died for every “Private Ryan”. Scholars now believe that as many as 27
million Soviet soldiers and citizens perished in the second world war.

Yet the ordinary Soviet soldier – the tractor mechanic from Samara,
the actor from Orel, the miner from the Donetsk, or the high-school
girl from Leningrad – is invisible in the current celebration and
mythologisation of the “greatest generation”.

It is as if the “new American century” cannot be fully born without
exorcising the central Soviet role in last century’s epochal victory
against fascism. Indeed, most Americans are shockingly clueless about
the relative burdens of combat and death in the second world war. And
even the minority who understand something of the enormity of the
Soviet sacrifice tend to visualise it in terms of crude stereotypes of
the Red army: a barbarian horde driven by feral revenge and primitive
Russian nationalism. Only GI Joe and Tommy are seen as truly fighting
for civilised ideals of freedom and democracy.

It is thus all the more important to recall that – despite Stalin, the
NKVD and the massacre of a generation of Bolshevik leaders – the Red
army still retained powerful elements of revolutionary fraternity. In
its own eyes, and that of the slaves it freed from Hitler, it was the
greatest liberation army in history. Moreover, the Red army of 1944
was still a Soviet army. The generals who led the breakthrough on the
Dvina included a Jew (Chernyakovskii), an Armenian (Bagramyan), and
a Pole (Rokossovskii). In contrast to the class-divided and racially
segregated American and British forces, command in the Red army was
an open, if ruthless, ladder of opportunity.

Anyone who doubts the revolutionary elan and rank-and-file humanity
of the Red army should consult the extraordinary memoirs of Primo
Levi (The Reawakening) and KS Karol (Between Two Worlds). Both hated
Stalinism but loved the ordinary Soviet soldier and saw in her/him
the seeds of socialist renewal.

So, after George Bush’s recent demeaning of the memory of D-day to
solicit support for his war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve
decided to hold my own pri vate commemoration.

I will recall, first, my Uncle Bill, the salesman from Columbus, hard
as it is to imagine such a gentle soul as a hell-for-leather teenage
GI in Normandy. Second – as I’m sure my Uncle Bill would’ve wished –
I will remember his comrade Ivan.

The Ivan who drove his tank through the gates of Auschwitz and battled
his way into Hitler’s bunker. The Ivan whose courage and tenacity
overcame the Wehrmacht, despite the deadly wartime errors and crimes
of Stalin. Two ordinary heroes: Bill and Ivan. Obscene to celebrate
the first without also commemorating the second.

Mike Davis teaches American history at the University of California at
Irvine and is an editor New Left Review; his latest book is Dead Cities

[email protected]

COMPETITION FOR JOURNALISTS ANNOUNCED

A1 Plus | 21:10:04 | 07-06-2004 | Social |

OSCE Yerevan office and Environment and Information Center / Orkhus/
has announced a competition for TV and press journalists.

To be eligible for Human Rights and Environment competition is an
applicant has to submit a 20-minute video-clip. If he/she is a TV
reporter, and a 1000-word article, if he/she is a press journalist,
produced/written in 2004.

Contemporary Iranian Artwork Go on Display in Armenia

Mehr News Agency, Iran
June 6 2004

TEHRAN June 6 (MNA) — A selection of artwork by Iranian contemporary
artists are to go on display June 12 at the Yerevan National Art
Museum, Armenia.

According to the Public Relations Office of the Tehran Museum of
Contemporary Arts, a total of 60 paintings, statues and installation
work by contemporary artists will be showcased for two weeks.

Paintings by Marco Gregorian, Mohammad-Ibrahim Ja’fari, Edmund
Ayvazian, Kamran Katuzian, Sirak Melkonian, Gholam-Hossein Nami,
Mahdi Hosseini, Gizella Varga Sina’i, and Sharareh Salehi, sculptures
by Parviz Tanavoli, Fatemeh Emdadian, and Shideh Tami as well as
an installation work by Bita Fayyazi are among the works to be put
on display.

An exhibition of artwork by Armenian artists was displayed at Tehran
Museum of Contemporary Arts in 2001.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
June 2 2004

Armenia Aviation up in the Air

After a string of managers and failed projects Armenia’s national
airline is formally bankrupt.

By Rita Karapetian in Yerevan (CRS No. 236, 02-Jun-04)

The clue to the state of Armenia’s civil aviation industry can be
found in Equatorial Guinea, where six Armenian pilots are expected
to stand trial shortly, accused of spying and plotting a coup d’etat.

The pilots deny these charges, and the Armenian government claims
that they were in the area for perfectly innocent reasons. Foreign
ministry spokesman Gamlet Gasparian said that dozens of Armenian
pilots are being forced to find work in Africa because the state
aviation company Armenian Airlines, AA, has been declared bankrupt
and is facing a Russian takeover.

The company’s management now has just over a week to present a recovery
package to the Armenian economic court by June 12, or it will face
certain liquidation.

Opposition politicians and industry analysts are furious. “Smart
operators from the aviation industry with government support have
ruined a whole strategically important sector of the economy,” said
Dmitry Adbashian, a former AA director, who now runs the National
Aviation Union.

Most of the company’s employees have since lost their jobs and
income. According to Marietta Kazarian, head of the airline’s legal
department, the number of company employees has dropped from 1,500
to 100 people.

“Of the 300 members of the flying team, only around 30 have secured
jobs with different airlines; the rest are looking into opportunities
abroad, ” said Kazarian.

For many pilots, this could be the end of the road. “I am too old
to change my profession and start again from scratch, but I am too
young to retire,” said 51-year-old pilot Genrikh Pogosian.

According to Arsen Avetisian, general director of AA, the company
owes its staff ten months’ wages – around 250,000 US dollars in all.
“The court has decided that debts will mainly be repaid after the
company property is sold,” he told IWPR, adding that the exact scale
of the firm’s debts would only be made clear when the liquidation
process begins, but it is estimated to be between 12 and 30 million
dollars. Some opposition figures are alleging that the bankruptcy
has been deliberately planned. “Since 1998 the authorities have
been carrying out a policy of artificial bankruptcy for AA,” claimed
parliamentary deputy Tatul Manaserian.

“Debts have mounted up so as to artificially lower the price of this
company, which many people want to get their hands on,” he added.

Justice minister David Harutiunian rejected this charge, but
did concede that there had been “serious mistakes in the company
management”.

Armenian Airlines was founded in 1993 and given the status of national
carrier. The company inherited highly qualified staff, a mass of
equipment and 23 planes.

Former director Adbashian said he had drawn up plans to make the
airline, as well as Zvartnots airport and the state-run refuelling
company GSM, commercially competitive. But he was sacked and his
programme was not implemented, something which he said “pushed civil
aviation towards collapse”.

The company has been in financial crisis since 1998. AA lost out both
to competitors and to other state companies, and the fuel supplied by
GSM was expensive. Opposition parliamentary deputy Agasi Arshakian said
that GSM used its monopoly “to sell one tonne of aviation kerosene
at a price which was 100 dollars higher than the average price in
the region.”

Trade union leader Garik Mkrtchian says that a heavy blow came with
the transfer of Zvartnots airport to the management of Argentinian
businessman Eduardo Ernekian.

According to an agreement signed at the beginning of 2003, Ernekian
pledged to invest up to 100 million dollars in reconstruction and
development of the airport over 15 years. But in practice, almost
immediately after it took over the management, Ernekian’s company
increased prices on fuel, plane parking and ground service.

AA has also suffered from having 15 general directors over the course
of a decade, most of whom were not industry specialists.

“General directors who presided over mounting company debts were
replaced one after another, but no one was sacked or made to answer
for this,” AA manager Ashot Berberian told IWPR.

In March last year, the Armenian government took a decision to transfer
ownership of AA to the private Russian airline company Armavia. After
nearly 70 per cent of Armavia’s shares were sold to another Russian
company, Sibir-Avia, that company then took a controlling stake in AA.

Opposition politicians are outraged. “Armavia cannot be the national
carrier, as the controlling shareholding belongs to Russian business,
and the rest of the shares belong to a Russian citizen,” said
Manaserian.

Another deputy, Grant Khachatrian, believes that the takeover threatens
the sovereignty of landlocked Armenia, which has two closed borders
because of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.

But the government maintains that the sell-off makes commercial
sense. Justice minister David Harutiunian said, “The state is a bad
businessman – only privatisation can guarantee the profitability
of aviation.”

Rita Karapetian is a correspondent for Noyan Tapan news agency
in Yerevan.

Ottawa Citizen
May 31, 2004 Monday Final Edition

Montreal school bombing sparks inter-faith concert for peace:
Synagogue chooses to ‘do something practical’;
will raise money for books

by Bob Harvey

Ottawa faith groups hope to sow a little more peace in the world.

On Sunday at 7 p.m., Jews, Mormons, Roman Catholics, Armenian
Christians, Hindus and Muslims will join in a Concert for Peace at
the Beth Shalom Synagogue on Chapel Street.

Daniel Benlolo, the cantor at Beth Shalom, and the event’s
co-chairman, said that after the fire-bombing of Montreal’s United
Talmud Torah School on April 5, “we decided we wanted to do something
practical.”

Some of the money raised by the concert will go toward buying books
to replace those destroyed in the school library, and the rest will
be doled out by the participating groups to any project that might
help make peace.

Mr. Benlolo said “people think all Jews and all Arabs are the same,
and we’re trying to prove otherwise. We hope people will stop and say
there are some good people in the world.”

A note found at the scene of the fire-bombing linked it to Israel’s
killing of the founder of Hamas, a Palestinian resistance movement.

Mr. Benlolo said that when he met Palestinians, he sang his songs,
and the Palestinians sang theirs. “That way, camaraderie was
established.”

He said it is not just the Middle East that faces conflict today.
“We’ve learned that there is terrorism in cities all over the world.”

Mr. Benlolo said the concert will be strictly entertainment and “is
not going to make a huge difference in the world, but it is
definitely going to make a difference to some people, and these
people are going to be speaking about it to other people.”

The choirs, the musicians and the synagogue are waiving any payment,
and even the synagogue’s custodian is working for free.

Tickets for the peace concert and the dessert reception that follows
are $10. The synagogue’s auditorium has 740 seats, and there are only
125 seats still left. But Mr. Benlolo says that, if necessary, he
will open the doors to the synagogue and provide more seats.

Tickets can be obtained from the participating groups: the Jewish
community at 789-3501; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, 832-0101; the Roman Catholic Cathedral at 241-7496; the
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada, at 224-8117; the Hindu
Temple at 822-1531; and the Ottawa Muslim Association, 722-8763.