Author: Karabekian Emil

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| 13:09:22 | 02-07-2005 | Politics |

REFERENDUM – PRINCIPAL WAY

The referendum on changing the Constitution is declared by the President of
the republic on the suggestion or with the consent of the majority of the
parliament members. During 21 days after receiving the draft amendments the
president can draw it back to the NA with the demand for new debates with
his objections and proposals.

The coalition draft suggests the following: `If the President initiates a
referendum on draft constitutional amendments the NA puts the issue to vote.
If the majority votes for the adoption the President set the terms for
common referendum.’

How should the Constitution be changed? We addressed 100 citizens with this
question June 25-29. 48% consider that the constitutional amendments should
be adopted via referendum. `Constitution is for people and it must be
adopted and changed by the people’, a man said.

19% think that the amendments should be adopted with the suggestion of the
NA and with the consent of 2/3 of the Constitutional Court members. In the
opinion of 15% of the respondents the amendments should be inserted on the
President’s suggestion with the support of 2/3 deputies of the National
Assembly.

18% found difficulty in answering.

Pan Armenian News

VENTURE FOUNDATION TO BE BASED IN ARMENIA

01.07.2005 08:02

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During 2-3 months a venture foundation for information
technologies will be based in Armenia, Director of the Armenian Enterprise
Incubator Foundation (EIF) Bagrat Yengibarian stated during today’s press
conference. In his words, such capitals are the most appropriate way of
financing the IT sphere, since financing a highly dynamical field is always
accompanied by great risk. The project will be implemented within the second
EIF program. To note, the period of the project was prolonged by the World
Bank till December 2006. The development model will not undergo any
considerable changes. The EIF will go on holding business consultations,
contributing to the formation and development of new organizations and
conducting trainings for specialists. Bagrat Yengibarian also informed that
the new EIF building will accommodate 15 companies interested in cooperation
not over the low rent but the resources available in the building. To
remind, the business incubator project was launched in 2002 with the
assistance of the Armenian government and the World Bank. The authorized
fund of Enterprise Incubator Foundation made $5 million; financial flows of
Armenian private sector were also attracted.

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| 21:38:00 | 30-06-2005 | Official |

OSKANYAN LAID A WREATH TO HARIRI’S GRAVE

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan visited the house of former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and once again condoled with the wife
and son of the Premier, leader of Future movement Saad Hariri. The Minister
noted that Armenia condemned this inhuman terrorist act and other acts of
violence that followed later.

Recollecting the warm relations with Rafic Hariri, Minister Oskanyan noted
that Rafik Hariri was a good friend of the Armenian people

Then, accompanied by Ambassador Hovhannissyan, Vardan Oskanyan laid a wreath
to the grave of the former Lebanese Premier

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| 20:30:18 | 30-06-2005 | Social |

CITY AUTHORITIES INDIFFERENT

Neither the city administration nor the administration of the Kentron
community are concerned over the polluted condition of the Hrazdan gorge.
Such conclusion can be made after the action for refuse collection initiated
by Heifer international organization.

Head of the Heifer Armenian office Anahit Ghazanchyan informed that the
recent investigations of the gorge showed that the pollution of some parts
of the gorge has reached rather dangerous level. In her words, many sectors
of the gorge turned into dumps.

With spades and nets the action initiators cleaned a 50-meter sector. To
note, representatives of the city administration and Kentron community
failed to keep their promise to attend the action. However representatives
of the Cleanness Kentron came to see the works but refrained to join.

Coordinator of the Heifer Armenian Office Vadim Uzunyan informed that the
representatives of the Cleanness Kentron will join the works only in case
they are paid. `This sector belongs to the Kentron community, but they do
nothing to clean it from refuse. Our organization is ready to provide refuse
collection equipment and place litter-bins under the condition that the
authorities will take control over the process’, he noted.

At about 5 p.m. the Yerevan city administration has sent a refuse collection
vehicle to the Hrazdan gorge. It should be also noted the workers were paid
by the initiators of the action.

ASHOT GHULYAN ELECTED KARABAKH SPEAKER

Pan Armenian News
30.06.2005 06:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Leader of the Democratic Party of Nagorno Karabakh
Ashot Ghulyan today was elected Chairman of the National Assembly of
Nagorno Karabakh. 30 of 33 MPs voted for his candidacy. In 2002-2004
A. Ghulyan was Nagorno Karabakh Foreign Minister. In December 2004 he
was appointed Minister of Education and Culture and held the office
up to being elected as MP June 19. Azat Hayrenik (Free Fatherland)
Party representative Rudik Yusunts is elected Vice-Speaker.

AZERBAIJANI FM DEDICATES HIS SPEECH AT OIC CONFERENCE TO KARABAKH
CONFLICT

YEREVAN, JUNE 30. ARMINFO. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mamedyarov dedicated his speech at a conference of the organization
of Islamic Conference to Nagorny Karabakh conflict.

The 525th newspaper reports that the first day of the conference on
June 28 Minister Mamedyarov come out informing those present of the
negotiation process for Karabakh conflict’s settlement. At the same
time he said that “despite the intention of Azerbaijan to resolve
the problem by peaceful means, Armenia does not refuse from its
aggressive position.” Elected Vice Chairman of the conference, Elmar
Mamedyarov met with his colleagues from Afghanistan, Iran, Jordan,
Palestine and Oman, discussing with them the steps for settlement of
the conflict and bilateral relations. The final declaration of the
conference will reflect the Karabakh problem as well, in particular,
a provision “condemning Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan” is
to be included in the document, the source reports. It adds that OIC
is the only international organization condemning this “aggression,”
nevertheless, it is not an organization seriously influencing the
international policy and its decisions are of declarative nature. The
conference will be over on June 30.

Canadians get gala treatment at fest
by Peter Howell, Toronto Star

The Toronto Star
June 29, 2005 Wednesday

The surprising choice of this year’s opening-night gala selection
for the Toronto International Film Festival could easily have led
to a catfight between contending filmmakers David Cronenberg, Atom
Egoyan and Deepa Mehta.

But in true Canadian fashion, the announcement yesterday that Mehta’s
Water had been chosen over Cronenberg’s A History of Violence and
Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies for gala honours was an occasion for
celebration, mutual admiration and a little bit of savvy marketing.
All three filmmakers were on hand yesterday at the Royal York Hotel’s
Imperial Room for the festival event.

It had been assumed by many that either Cronenberg or Egoyan would
open the 30th edition of the festival on Sept. 8 at Roy Thomson Hall.
Both men premiered their films at Cannes last month, and often the
year’s main Canuck flag carrier gets the nod for Toronto.

But instead the festival will bow with Mehta’s Water, the final chapter
of her Elements Trilogy, following Earth (1998) and Fire (1996). It’s
the story of a child bride, living in 1930s India just before the
rise of Mahatma Gandhi, who is exiled to a widow’s ashram after her
husband’s death. She thirsts for freedom, as do many of her countrymen.

Mehta thanked Cronenberg and Egoyan for graciously accepting her
selection, only the second time in the festival’s history that a female
director has been chosen to open the event. Water, five years in the
making, had a troubled start because the director’s original plan
to shoot it in India was met with death threats, destroyed sets and
denunciation by fundamentalists who objected to the script. Mehta
eventually moved the production to Sri Lanka, where it was shot
secretly under the title River Moon.

She called it “the understatement of the year” to say that she was
thrilled to be the gala opener, but she also thanked the festival
for being brave enough to “expand the boundaries of what defines a
Canadian film.”

“We know that Canada is multicultural … but somehow it’s never been
affirmed the way it has here today. That is an important day for me.”

Egoyan and Cronenberg seconded her sentiments. Egoyan added he’s
pleased the festival was willing to take a chance on a controversial
film, just as it did for him in 2002 when he opened the festival
with the contentious Ararat, which concerns the genocide of Armenians
early in the last century.

But both men added that it suited the marketing strategy of their
films to skip the opening-night slot and to take one of the 17 other
gala posts, a move that was also confirmed yesterday. A History
of Violence and Where the Truth Lies are both scheduled for a fall
release, aimed at an adult audience that isn’t necessarily interested
in film festivals.

“The distributors of my film, and I think, Atom’s, really didn’t want
to have the opening night,” Cronenberg said in an interview.

“Because they felt that the opening night is a lot about the
festival. They want to control the party and the press and whatever
else. I’m just interested in having it released as well as it can be
and, if that’s part of it, then go ahead and do that.

“You gradually realize what is worth getting upset about and what
isn’t. If I had insisted on having my film at least proposed as
the opening film, they probably would have. But I’m not looking for
honours, I’m looking for the film to have a strong release.”

Festival co-director Piers Handling praised Mehta for persevering in
making Water, which will have its world premiere at the festival.

“Deepa has matured and grown, and she had pretty deep convictions
to make a film like this, with all the trouble she had with the
production. She got terrific performances. It’s basically a women’s
film, told from their perspective, and it’s very powerful and
emotional. Its power comes through understatement.”

Cronenberg heaped high praise upon the Toronto festival, saying it’s
better than Cannes.

“Well, we all know that Cannes is perfect and fun. But this is the
real festival,” he said, to solid applause from the room.

Handling and fellow festival co-director Noah Cowan sought to live
up to the superlatives. Along with the gala program choices, they
announced a total of 25 films to add to the 20 announced last week,
still just a small portion of the 250-odd features that will screen
from Sept. 8-17.

They also unwrapped new selections for the Special Presentations,
Contemporary World Cinema, Discovery, Masters and Visions programs.

Highlights include Shopgirl, Anand Tucker’s adaptation of Steve
Martin’s comic novella about romance and retail, starring Martin,
Clare Danes and Jason Schwartzmann; Thank You For Smoking, Jason
Reitman’s satire on corporate lobbyists, starring Aaron Eckhart,
Robert Duvall and Katie Holmes; and Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain,
an epic cowboy love story starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal,
set in the Texas and Wyoming of 1963.

New ticket categories and screens have been added this year,
allowing for a promised 10 per cent boost in available seats. The
first ticket-sale deadline, for passes and coupon books, is July 18
at 10 a.m.

For more information, call 416-968-FILM or click

GRAPHIC: Peter Power TORONTO STAR Three Toronto-based directors who
have made their mark on world cinema, from left, David Cronenberg,
Deepa Mehta and Atom Egoyan, pose at yesterday’s film festival press
conference.

KOCHARYAN CONGRATULATED NEWLY ELECTED IRANIAN PRESIDENT

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| 13:16:48 | 28-06-2005 | Official |

June 27 Armenian President Robert Kocharyan sent a congratulation
message to newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The
message says in part,

“On behalf of the Republic of Armenia and on my behalf I congratulate
You on the occasion of election to the high post of President of a
friendly state. Armenia attaches great importance to relations with
Iran. I hope that during the period of your office the relationships
between our countries will develop for the welfare of our peoples. I
wish You good health and success and wish peace and prosperity to
the friendly people of Iran.”

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| 17:44:44 | 24-06-2005 | Politics |

VAZGEN MANOUKYAN STARTED MOBILIZATION

«Today only people with limited abilities are at power», announced Vazgen
Manoukyan today during the National Democratic Union 16th session. According
to Mr. Manoukyan these people do what they can and still are surprised at
why people are displeased with them. And the people will be displeased as
long as the majority consists of those with limited abilities.

Vazgen Manoukyan announced that the struggle authorities-opposition is that
of types. «The people of their type are struggling with us, and we must
unite and announce mobilization». Vazgen Manoukyan is sure that Armenia can
be competitive not only in the region but also in the whole world. He
reminded about the past of our country when Armenia without having a sea had
200 ships and competed with Greece.

In the struggle of the «types» Vazgen Manoukyan sees 4 allies – the people
who are wise, the clever part of the authorities, the youth the majority of
which is cleverer than people in the Soviet times, and finally the West.
According to Vazgen Manoukyan, the values of the West are our values, those
which are losing the struggle now.

Vazgen Manoukyan announced that he wants to start mobilization of NDU
because he sees the fault of the party in the situation created. «We were
guilty too for standing aside sometimes, but it is impossible to struggle
alone, we must unite».

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
The Jamestown Foundation
June 24 2005

CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION HOLDS SUMMIT

By Vladimir Socor

Friday, June 24, 2005

Putin and Belarusian President Lukashenko at the CIS CSTO meeting. On
June 22-23, Moscow hosted a meeting of the heads of state of the CIS
Collective Security Treaty Organization (Russia, Belarus, Armenia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) and concurrent meetings of the
CSTO countries’ ministers of foreign affairs, defense ministers, and
secretaries of the national security councils.

The meetings approved a framework plan on CSTO development in two
stages — through 2010 and beyond — as well as plans to upgrade the
Collective Rapid Deployment Forces in Central Asia and to create an
inter-state commission for handling deliveries and servicing of
military equipment at preferential prices. These measures have been
on the agenda for several years but hardly showed any results.

Far more significantly, this summit decided to separate the CIS Joint
Air Defense System (nominally of ten countries) from that of the
CSTO’s planned United Air Defense System (six member countries). The
Joint System consists of forces under national command, exercising
periodically under coordination from a center in Russia, and regards
each country’s airspace as distinct and sovereign. The planned United
System consists of forces under a single — that is, Russian —
planning system and command, and it only recognizes a single CSTO
airspace. Russian officials explained the need for separating the two
systems by noting that certain CIS countries are not CSTO members and
aspire to join NATO.

Russian officials moved unobtrusively but unmistakably to exploit
American discomfiture over Uzbekistan. Thus, Minister of Foreign
Affairs Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Security
Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, and CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai
Bordyuzha all characterized the recent “events” in Andijan
unambiguously as an assault by international terrorism and radical
Islam against Uzbekistan. Citing international obligations to assist
states under terrorist attack, they announced Russia’s support for
the Uzbek leadership’s efforts to stabilize the situation in Andijan
and throughout the country. These statements form part of an
intensifying exchange of political overtures between Moscow and
Tashkent in the wake of the Andijan rebellion, which by the same
token has deepened the misunderstandings between Tashkent and
Washington.

With President Vladimir Putin joining in, those same Russian
officials criticized the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan for
failing to suppress “terrorist training bases, including those
supported by certain intelligence services” (Putin) and for
tolerating the booming export of Afghan heroin to Russia and Europe.
Rating the coalition’s efforts as “very ineffective thus far,” Putin
and other Russian officials hinted that the CSTO is prepared to
consider stepping in. The meeting discussed possible measures to
increase and coordinate assistance to Afghanistan, as well as setting
up “a working group to coordinate with Afghan structures” and a joint
anti-drug authority.

Kyrgyzstan’s post-revolution defense minister, Ismail Isakov, was
authorized by the defense ministers’ session to tell the press that
the creation of a second Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan is
intended. It will, apparently, carry a CSTO label. The CSTO’s
Russian-led military staff has been tasked to determine the possible
missions, troop level, and armament of such a base, and whether it
should be designated as temporary or permanent. Another
post-revolution leader, Felix Kulov, had publicly called last month
for the deployment of a second Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan,
to be located in Osh.

By contrast, Kazakhstan opposed a Russian initiative — presumably
supported by others — to create a joint standing conventional
military force for Central Asia within the CSTO’s framework. Kazakh
Defense Minister General Mukhtar Altynbayev told the press, “Creating
a cumbersome force for permanent stationing would be worthless.” Due
to Kazakhstan’s position, further discussion of this issue was
deferred until the next meeting some months from now (Interfax, June
23).

In the session of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, certain countries
that were not publicly identified successfully resisted proposals on
financing the CSTO. One defeated proposal would have collected
long-overdue contributions from Central Asian member countries to the
CSTO’s budget from the years 1996-2003. Another, more topical measure
that was defeated would have required member countries to co-finance
the development of command-and-control systems for the Collective
Rapid Deployment Forces in Central Asia. The only financial issues
that appeared to be resolved would increase salaries of CSTO
Secretariat personnel by 20% — provided that the extra funding is
taken out of other items of the CSTO budget, so as to avoid a net
increase.

Loyalists had their day, however. Armenian President Robert Kocharian
professed to find comfort “in the CSTO’s lineup, one in which we do
not disagree among ourselves, but strive for practical results”
(Interfax, June 23). Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka
praised the CSTO as one of the centers of power that provide
counterweights to the “unipolar dictatorship of a single super-power”
[the United States]. Igor Ivanov rewarded his ally by denouncing “the
external forces’ threats of interference in Belarus, where they are
trying to impose political decisions. We reject this kind of actions”
(RIA, June 22).

For the first time in the CSTO’s history, the Russian military now
plans to hold joint ground-force exercises in the organization’s
“western region” and “southern region” — that is, in Belarus and in
Armenia. These exercises are scheduled to be held on the
command-and-staff level in 2006. Thus far, the CSTO has only held
joint ground-force and combined exercises in its Central Asian
region.

At this summit, Putin took over the chairmanship of the Collective
Security Council (the top political authority of the CSTO) from
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev. That and other CSTO posts
are supposed to rotate annually in the Russian alphabetical order of
the member countries’ names. In this case, Kyrgyzstan was
unceremoniously skipped. Next year, moreover, the CSTO summit will be
held in Belarus, and the honor of chairing the organization will
devolve to Lukashenka.