Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

ARMECONOMBANK’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR EXPRESSES APPRECIATION OF CAMPAIGN RUN BY CBA AGAINST DOLLARIZATION

Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 12 2006

YEREVAN, June 12. /ARKA/. Armeconombank’s Executive Director
Ashot Osipyan, speaking at a press conference on Friday, expressed
appreciation of the campaign run by Central Bank of Armenia against
dollarizatipon.

In his opinion, Armenia, a country with high degree of dollarization,
took very reasonable step this year.

He finds it reasonable to set prices for commodities and services in
Armenian national currency.

Armenian dram has strengthened against US dollar by 4.35% (on nominal
exchange rate) over May. For the first nine days, dram rose by another
2 percent. The CBA set USD exchange rate at AMD 418.94.

Compared with the beginning of the year, national currency jumped 7.63%
against USD.

Armeconombank OJSC was registered on August 26, 1991. Over 75% of
shares belong to the key shareholders – EBRD (25% +1 share) and SIL
Concern founders, Sukiasyan family (50.6%). The bank’s assets totaled
AMD 34.8bln by Dec 31, 2005, total capital AMD 5.6bln and statutory
fund AMD 2.3bln.

The bank’s profit was AMD 1.2bln after taxation and balance accumulated
profit AMD 2.9bln.

FOE OF REGIME INVITES TO COOPERATE, EXCEPT SERGE SARGSYAN

Lragir.am
10 June 06

Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, the former deputy minister of national security,
stated June 10 at the Azdak Club that he will ally with any political
force, which is against Robert Kocharyan. Gurgen Yeghiazaryan thinks
Kocharyan’s regime ruins the country.

`The exchange rate of the dollar is falling day by day, and some fools
are getting ready for the election. At the expense of our children and
us,’ says Gurgen Yeghiazaryan. He has not offered his proposal of
partnership to any political force. `I will offer when it is time,’
said the former national security official. He states that he is even
ready to ally with the Republicans if they are against Robert
Kocharyan. Serge Sargsyan does not have a chance of partnership with
Yeghiazaryan, however, even if he opposed Robert Kocharyan.

According to him, the president has not set up a team, which would
guarantee his leave and rest. The former national security official
considers the option of Serge Sargsyan impossible, even in a country
with such an obedient public as Armenia. He says the regime also
realizes this.

`I think they have calculated that this is impossible to fulfill even
in Armenia. Even in Armenia, because we are one of the most obedient,
most compliant, most lamb nations of the world,’ says Gurgen
Yeghiazaryan.

Fresno Bee – June 10, 2006
An old, sad story
Armenian genocide measure bottled up in Congress – again.

(Updated Saturday, June 10, 2006, 5:50 AM)

It’s as regular as clockwork: A bill comes before Congress that would
recognize the massacres by Turkish authorities against Armenians in the
days of World War I as what they were – a genocide.

The Turkish government objects strenuously. The White House and the
State Department pass the word: Don’t upset our Turkish allies. Congress
caves. The genocide remains unofficially recognized by this government
and by Turkey.

It happened again this week. House leaders refused to let a measure come
to the floor for a vote that it surely would have passed. It happens
nearly every year, in every administration, regardless of which party
controls the White House and Congress. It is an offense against the
strong sense of justice that animates Armenian Americans and others. And
it makes no sense.

This is the same valuable Turkish ally, remember, that wouldn’t let
American troops cross their land during the invasion of Iraq. In
hindsight, that didn’t hinder the quick advance of the American-led
coalition that ousted Saddam Hussein, but it could have.

This is also the same valuable Turkish ally that stands as a strong
bulwark against southern expansion by the dreaded Evil Empire of the
Soviet Union – which no longer exists.

This is the same valuable Turkish ally that wants desperately to join
the European Union, but can’t, because the Europeans rightly demand that
Turkey acknowledge the genocide first.

This is getting very old – like the remaining survivors of the
massacres who would like nothing better than some small measure of
justice all these years later.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
June 9 2006

Armenian officials issue divergent statements on Garabagh

Baku, June 8, AssA-Irada

Armenian officials have issued divergent statements on the Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh conflict.
Minister of Defense Serzh Sarkisian alleged that Azerbaijan `is
missing its chance’ to solve the dispute in peace. He said President
Robert Kocharian had informed him about the results of Sunday’s round
of talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Bucharest.
Sarkisian noted that he was unaware of the details of the talks as he
did not attended them.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said the next round of
talks on Garabagh will be held between the two countries’ foreign
ministers in the near future. The exact date of the meeting is yet to
be set, he said.
Commenting on the Armenian officials’ statements, the Azeri Foreign
Ministry spokesman Tahir Taghizada said Armenia is the one taking a
heavy toll from the unsettled status of the conflict.
`The prolonged settlement of the conflict is certainly a problem for
Azerbaijan. But first of all, this is a big problem for Armenia, as
it is left out of regional projects,’ he said.*

ESPN
June 6 2006

Federer found a way to beat Nalbandian
By Whit Sheppard
Special to ESPN.com

PARIS — Pffffftttt.

That was the sound that seemed to linger in the air early Friday
afternoon as the French Open final everyone wants to see appeared to
be on the verge of dissolving.

With No. 3 David Nalbandian leading world No. 1 Roger Federer 6-3,
3-0 in the day’s first semifinal, prospects seemed shaky for a Sunday
matchup between top-seeded Federer and No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who will
stand in the way of Federer’s quest to make tennis history.

Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Nalbandian (l) pushed Federer before an abdominal injury forced the
Argentine to retire from the match.

If Federer wins Sunday, he will have won the tennis equivalent of the
Tiger Slam, capturing all four tennis majors consecutively, something
that hasn’t been accomplished since Rod Laver won all four Slams in
the same calendar year in 1969.

The Swiss will have a great chance to equal Laver’s achievement if he
triumphs Sunday because he’ll be heading to Wimbledon, where he has
won three straight titles, then the U.S. Open, which he has won the
previous two years.

But first, he had to find a way to pull his game together and get
past a hot-starting Nalbandian.

“I couldn’t explain why I had such a bad start,” Federer said. “All
of a sudden, he pulled away and I couldn’t keep the ball in play.
That’s definitely got something to do with the long history I’ve had
with him.”

Nalbandian, who until today was one of three active players with a
winning record (6-5) against Federer, had broken the vaunted Federer
serve three times and looked to be in control on a windswept Court
Philippe Chatrier. But control is the smooth Swiss’ domain on all but
the rarest of occasions, and he regained a measure of it shortly
thereafter.

Having fought his way back to 3-all in the second set, Federer hit a
you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it forehand winner off his shoetops with
his back turned to his disbelieving opponent, then raised a lone
digit into the blue Parisian sky as cheers rained down upon him. The
gesture was decidedly un-Federer-like, but it was appropriate — and
telling.

“I thought, ‘Somehow, I have to find a way to get into the match,'”
Federer said. “I knew that something had to happen. That it took a
shot like that, that’s quite interesting. I can’t pull those off on a
consistent basis.”

Nalbandian’s take on the shot: “Incredible, incredible.”

Less than an hour later, Nalbandian — who earlier in the third set
had been visited courtside by a trainer — abandoned the match at a
set apiece, with Federer up 5-2, because of a recurrence of a
strained abdominal muscle he incurred Wednesday in his quarterfinal
win over Nikolay Davydenko.

“In the beginning of today, I feel hundred percent, I feel perfect,”
he said. “And then in the middle of the second set, I feel it again
much worse than [against] Davydenko. So, that was tough.”

It was a strangely anticlimactic way to finish a Grand Slam
semifinal, reminiscent of Justine Henin-Hardenne’s injury pullout
earlier this year against Amélie Mauresmo in the Australian Open
women’s final.

“It’s true, it doesn’t usually happen that someone actually starts
playing a match and then gives up halfway through,” Federer said.
“It’s a bit unfortunate to win a match like this in a semifinal. But
I think I worked to put myself in that position.”

Federer heads to Sunday’s final as rested as one could hope to be
after six matches on the terre battue at Roland Garros and should be
the fresher player. To say he’ll have his work cut out for him,
though, is a gross understatement. Nadal leads their head-to-head
series 5-1 and has beaten Federer in Masters Series finals in Monte
Carlo and Rome this spring. He also is riding a 59-match winning
streak on clay, establishing a new men’s record.

Asked whether he had contemplated his date with history, Federer
paused for a moment, smiled shyly, and said, “Yes. I have.”

He added, “I have created a fabulous opportunity for myself, so we’ll
see if I can make it good. It would be something quite incredible
because I’ll be winning two things at the same time.”

Don’t bet against it.

NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation to arrive in Armenia

ArmRadio.am
09.06.2006 15:30

June 12-14 the joint delegation of the Future Security and Defense
Capabilities Subcommittee of the Defense and Security Committee of
NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly and the Subcommittee on Democratic
Governance of the Committee on Civil Dimension of Security will arrive
in Armenia.

June 12 the delegation is scheduled to meet the associated delegation
of RA National Assembly to NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly, OSCE Deputy
Ambassador F. Kramp, Military Attaché K. Hofstrey and Head of
the OSCE Department of the Ministry of Foreign affairs V. Nersisyan.

The same day the delegation will meet RA Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan, Head of RA Security Service Gorik Hakobyan, member of the
Commission to Fighti Corruption, Head of Staff of RA Government Manuk
Topuzyan, and NGO representatives.

June 13 meetings with Chairman of RA National Assembly Tigran Torosyan
and Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan are scheduled.

June 14 the joint delegation will leave for Georgia.

Armenian public organizations denounce Russia’s skinhead killings

Arminfo
7 Jun 06

Yerevan, 7 June: The cases of violence on the grounds of racial and
ethnic hatred have recently become more frequent in Russia.

Along with this, attempts by the Russian law-enforcement agencies and
justice authorities to veil racial crimes or even to justify
criminals, and thereby to encourage a recurrence of aggressive
xenophobia and extremism, are also in evidence, several Armenian
public organizations said in a statement forwarded to Arminfo news
agency.

Today more than half of the world’s neo-Nazi organizations have been
registered in Russia, the authors of the statement said. Moreover,
the issue is not about separate marginal groups but about a mass
phenomenon

[Passage omitted: reiterates the point]

In connection with the above the Armenian public organizations
consider it their duty to resolutely denounce any manifestation of
ethnic and racial hatred and express their deep concern about the
spread of xenophobia, racism and neo-nazism in Russia. The Russian
authorities and society are directly responsible for the deterioration
of the situation.

“If you talk about racism with regard to Armenians, one should also
mention the political dimension of the issue. The official statements
made by both sides about “centuries-old friendship and brotherhood”
sound false against the background of such events. The Armenians do
not intend to remain silent while our compatriots are being killed in
Russia,” the statement said.

“The political leadership and the elite of Russia are causing a rift
between the two nations by their inertia regarding this issue. We are
aware of the low level of legal and civil culture in Russia, when both
the constitution and laws of the country are being violated. However,
the current situation is not only about the violation of Russian
legislation, but rather about the gross breach of international norms
and obligations Russia has signed up to,” the statement said.

[Passage omitted: Armenia to appeal to international bodies]

TURKISH JOURNALIST CLEARED IN FREEDOM OF SPEECH TRIAL

Agence France Presse — English
June 8, 2006 Thursday 3:40 PM GMT

A Turkish court Thursday acquitted a prominent Turkish journalist in
a freedom of speech case linked to debate over the mass killings of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The court ruled that Murat Belge, a columnist for the daily Radikal,
did not insult the judiciary when he criticized a court decision that
briefly blocked a landmark conference last year on the massacres,
a long-standing taboo that Turks have only recently began to discuss.

The judge dropped similar charges against Belge over a second
critical article on the same issue, citing the statute of limitations,
Anatolia reported.

Belge risked up to 10 years in jail for the two articles.

The European Union has repeatedly warned Ankara that the prosecution
of intellectuals for exercising their right to free speech is damaging
Turkey’s membership bid.

Charges against four other leading journalists, who had been indicted
with Belge in the same case, were dropped in April because their
articles fell under the scope of the statute of limitations.

A landmark conference contesting Ankara’s official line on the Armenian
massacres — recognized as genocide by many Western countries —
was blocked in September when a court, petitioned by a group of
nationalists, ordered the suspension of the event.

It was held the following day after the organizers changed the venue
to circumvent the court order.

The ruling came under widespread criticism, including harsh words by
the EU and even the Turkish government, which backed the event in a
bid to prove its tolerance of dissenting views.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings during World War I and want the massacres to
be internationally recognized as genocide.

Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label and argues that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and
sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

A LAW GENERATING MONOPOLY

A1+
[07:33 pm] 08 June, 2006

On June 8 at the House of Journalist in Yerevan a press-conference
was held, where the representatives of journalistic associations spoke
about the draft amendments to the RA Laws “On Postal Communication”,
“On Licensing” and “On State Duty”, proposed by the RA National
Assembly deputies of the United Labor Party Gurgen Arsenian and
Grigor Ghonjeyan.

According to the draft amendments developed by them, the provisions
on licensing of organizations who implement subscription for print
periodicals and their delivery should be removed from the respective
laws.

In April this year similar amendments to the Law “On Postal
Communication” were proposed by Yerevan Press Club.

The drafts of the ULP faction meet the requirements of the journalistic
community and the press disseminating agencies. However, as it was
stated at the press-conference, the stance of the Government does cause
concern. The Government agrees that the subscription service does not
have to be licensed, yet maintains that the subscription delivery
is actually the same as the letter delivery, and its licensing is
necessary as conditioned by the interests of the consumers.

In the opinion of journalistic associations, the functioning of
the Law “On Postal Communication” as the Government sees it will
mean a shutdown for many private companies engaged in newspaper and
magazine delivery by subscription: their small profits will not afford
the payment of 5 million AMD for the license (over $ 11,500). The
monopolist position, with all the resulting negative consequences, will
be taken by the national communication operator “Haypost” (“Armpost”).

Putting an equality sign between the deliveries of open print
periodicals with letter delivery is completely illogical: the
letters contain confidential information and hence the activity of
the organizations that deliver them to the addressees must be under
certain control of the state.

Meanwhile, on June 7 the RA State Commission for the Protection of
Economic Competition admitted that “Armpost” has already taken a
dominating position on the market in several services, including
interstate post, telegraph and urgent messaging service.

On June 9 the proposed amendments to the RA Law “On Postal
Communication”, “On Licensing” and “On State Duty” will be considered
by the RA NA Standing Committee on the Issues of Finance, Loan,
Budget and Economy.

The material was provided by the YPC.

TRIAL SET IN FESTIVAL TRAGEDY
Joe Menard / The Detroit News

DetNews.com, MI
June 8 2006

SOUTHFIELD — A 34-year-old Troy man will stand trial on 28 felony
charges in a school-carnival crash that injured 13 people after a
judge ruled Wednesday that there is enough evidence to try him on
charges of assault with intent to kill.

Timothy Hall Buss, 34, is expected to be arraigned in 6th Circuit
Court on June 19.

At his preliminary hearing Wednesday, witnesses to the May 21
incident outside the Alex Manoogian School at St. John’s Armenian
Church detailed how Buss ignored their pleas to stop his minivan and
proceeded to plow into festivalgoers, including children as young as 6.

“I saw six kids get hit by the van. The kids were like bowling pins,”
said business owner Michael Kayayan. He said he saw Buss drive over
a woman’s legs, breaking both ankles. “I actually saw the tire run
over her ankles. It sounded like a tree branch breaking.”

Witnesses said the incident started at around 2 p.m., when Buss slammed
his 1994 Plymouth Grand Voyager into a metal abutment separating the
school grounds from a service drive for the Southfield Freeway. They
say Buss then drove the van onto the school grounds at a high speed.

Several parents pleaded with Buss to stop, and one man punched out
Buss’ driver’s side window, but Buss turned into the crowd, hitting
13 people before speeding off, witnesses said.

He was arrested about nine hours later at his home.

Buss had an emotionless expression as he sped through the crowd,
witnesses said, and avoided eye contact.

He is being held on a $1.3 million bond.

Photo:
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