Author: Varosian Antranik

Azerbaijan to increase military spending – president

Trend news agency
12 May 04

Baku, 12 May: Azerbaijan intends to continue its policy of increasing
budget expenditure on the build-up of the national army, Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev said during a visit to a military unit in the
city of Naxcivan on 12 May.

Azerbaijan should increase its military potential, Aliyev said. The
Azerbaijani leadership is in favour of a peaceful settlement to the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and believes that the occupied territories
will be liberated peacefully, he said. But if peace is not possible,
we will do this in a military way, Aliyev went on to say, adding that
this requires an efficient army and strong will.

He voiced his satisfaction with the conditions in military units in
Azerbaijan and with the defence capacity of the Naxcivan Autonomous
Republic. He also stressed that strong military units should be
created since Naxcivan is blockaded.

The president said that Azerbaijan’s economy was getting stronger
thanks to large-scale regional projects. An economically weak country
cannot have a strong army, he said.

Aliyev also expressed his satisfaction with the achievements of the
Naxcivan leadership in the sphere of the population’s social and
economic development.

SAAKASHVILI DOES NOT VIEW SKIRMISH BETWEEN GEORGIANS AND ARMENIANS IN TSALKA
AS ETHNIC CONFLICT

12.05.2004 12:59

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is not
inclined to consider the skirmish between Georgians and Armenian in
the Tsalka region as an ethnic conflict. “It’s not an interethnic
conflict. It was just a fight between Georgians and Armenians. We
will not allow any violations of public order and will not
yield to provocation”, the Georgian President told journalists
yesterday. He noted that “after the Ajarian developments Georgia’s
enemies retreated”. “Our neighbors admire the peaceful settlement of
the situation in Ajaria. I heard it from the Armenian and Ukrainian
Presidents during the telephone conversations with them”, Saaklashvili
said. In his words, “some of Georgia’s enemies want to involve her
in a new conflict”. “We will not tolerate any blackmail and are ready
to give a proper response to everyone”, Saakashvili stated. To remind,
Armenians and Georgians started a fight after the football match with
the participation of the local youth in the area center of Tsalka
(Eastern Georgia) on May 10. As result two people were injured. A
unit of the Georgian MHA troops was deployed in the region.

Associated Press Worldstream
April 28, 2004 Wednesday

Armenian parliament passes softened law regulating rallies

YEREVAN, Armenia

The Armenian parliament on Wednesday approved the final reading of a
proposed law on public gatherings that limits where they can be held
but that provides for penalizing officials if they block legitimate
rallies.

The measure comes as Armenia undergoes a wave of opposition protests
calling for the resignation of President Robert Kocharian.

It calls for rallies to be prohibited within 150 meters (about 500
feet) of places of strategic or state significance. That designation
could include the presidential palace, where police forcefully broke
up a large rally this month, injuring some demonstrators and
detaining more than 100.

However, the measure, if it is signed into law by the president, also
calls for says national and local officials can be subject to
criminal or administrative punishment if they illegally hinder the
organization of mass demonstrations.

Justice Minister David Arutyunian said the final version of the draft
law took into account most of the changes recommended by the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Among the changes was elimination of a clause that would have
considered journalists and other non-participants in a rally legally
responsible in connection with a gathering’s actions.

A1 Plus | 14:59:34 | 30-04-2004 | Social |

4 HOURS INSTEAD OF 24

Armenian Commission on Coordinating Public Services has today held a
sitting. The least demands for quality of drinking water supply
introduced by “Water and Sewerage” CJSC were approved.

Under the passed water supply schedule, the consumers are to be
provided with 4-hour-long water supply daily. Company is obliged to
cause people to be informed beforehand by Media or other means about
the time for water supply.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
May 3 2004

AZERBAIJAN AMBASSADOR PROTESTS AGAINST KOREAN COMPANY
[May 03, 2004, 20:55:23]

Korean Republic `DAEWOO-UNITEL’ in Tashkent and Nagorno-Karabakh
`Karabakh Telecom’ have reached a cooperation agreement.

In this connection, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Uzbekistan Aydin Azimov
met with `DAEWOO-UNITEL’ Director General Khan Yeng Sangu to inform him
in detail on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and described the company’s
step as inadmissible.

Mr. Azimov also met Ambassador of South Korea to Uzbekistan Kim San
Khvan and Deputy Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Ilham Nematov to handed
them an official letter reflecting Azerbaijan’s stance in the matter.
The letter says in particular: The Republic of Azerbaijan considers the
cooperation between `DAEWOO-UNITEL’ and `Karabakh Telecom’ as a
violation of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and requests of the
Republic of Uzbekistan to take relevant measures to put an end to
unlawful cooperation between the companies.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION MARCHING DOWN CAPITAL’S STREETS

A1+ web site
4 May 04

The participants in today’s procession, headed by the opposition
leaders, are marching right now down the streets of Yerevan. In order
to have a rough impression of the number of the protesters, we should
say that part of them are already on Koryun Street, near Matenadaran,
and the remaining people are still on Moskovyan Street.

The participants in the procession with photos of (ex-defence
minister) Vagarshak Arutyunyan, Aramazd Zakaryan, Suren Surenyants are
demanding that these political prisoners be set free.

The procession passed by the Police Department, stopped near the
National Security prison. The protesters demanded that the political
prisoners being held in this prison be released and political
persecution be stopped.

The protesters are now marching through Nalbandyan Street towards the
Prosecutor’s Office to protest at fabricated criminal case against
Agvan Ovsepyan.

The procession will end on Freedom Square.

Life After Communism: The Facts

In the ‘transition’ from communism, the suffering of the people of Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union has been great, while the hoped-for
freedom from exploitation and autocracy remains elusive.

The NI maps some of the costs of market-driven shock therapy.

Post-communist meltdown in Russia

– Throughout the entire Yeltsin transition period, flight of capital away
from Russia totalled between $1 and $2 billion US every month.1

– Each year from 1989 to 2001 there was a fall of approximately 8% in Russia
‘s productive assets.1

– Although Russia is largely an urban society, 3 out of every 4 people grow
some of their own food in order to be able to survive.2

– Male life expectancy went from 64.2 years in 1989 to 59.8 in 1999. The
drop in female life expectancy was less severe from 74.5 to 72.8 years.3

Transition costs – shock therapy

– The increase from 1990 to 1999 in the percentage of people living on less
than $1 a day was greater in the former communist countries (3.7%) than
anywhere else in the world.4

– The number of people living in ‘poverty’ in the former Soviet Republics
rose from 14 million in 1989 to 147 million even prior to the crash of the
rouble in 1998.2

Economic success
Poland was the only ‘transition’ country moving from a command to a market
economy to have a greater Gross Domestic Product in 1999 than it did in
1989.1 GDP growth between 1990 and 2001 was negative or close to negative in
every country of in the region with Russia (-3.7), Georgia (-5.6), Ukraine
(-7.9), Moldova (-8.4) and Tajikistan (-8.5) faring the worst.4

Equality
Slovakia tops the Gini index as the most equal country in the world. Russia
and Armenia are amongst the most unequal.4

Privatization
Between 1993 and 1995, 20,000 out of 27,000 Russian state enterprises were
privatized. The Government sold them for about 10% per cent of their true
value.1

The state rolls back in
Despite its transition to a market economy the bureaucracy in Russia has
grown dramatically. The Soviet bureaucracy under Brezhnev (Soviet
centralism) made up about 12 million people. It ballooned to 18 million
under Gorbachev (restructure). Under Yeltsin (transition) the number of
state functionaries in Russia alone exceeded that for the whole Soviet Union
in Gorbachev’s time.1

Soviet resurrections
Of the 20 current presidents of Eastern European nations (excluding the
former Yugoslavia) and countries which used to be part of the Soviet Union
11 are former party insiders (called nomenklatura).

The Ego of them all
Turkmenistan ‘President for Life’ Saparmurat Niyazov has erected a golden
statue of himself that rotates 24 hours a day so that it always faces the
sun and has renamed the months and days of the week to honour himself, his
mother and his favourite national heroes.

All monetary values are expressed in US dollars.
1 Boris Kagarlitsky, Russia Under Yeltsin and Putin, Pluto, London 2002.
2 Stephen Cohen, Failed Crusade, Norton, New York, 2001.
3 Martin McCauley, Bandits, Gangsters and the Mafia, Longman, London, 2001.
4 2003 World Development Indicators, World Bank, Washington.
5 World Guide, 2003/2004, Montevideo 2003.

—

ArmenPress
April 24 2004

JOHN KERRY’S STATEMENT NOT POLITICALLY MOTIVATED, OSKANIAN BELIEVES

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: Armenian foreign affairs minister
Vartan Oskanian commended today a US Democratic presidential hopeful,
John Kerry, who called for international recognition of the Armenian
Genocide Thursday in a statement issued to Armenian Americans marking
the 89th anniversary of that crime against humanity.
“I join Armenian Americans and Armenians worldwide in mourning the
victims of the Armenian Genocide and I call on governments and people
everywhere to formally recognize this tragedy. Only by learning from
this dark period of history and working to prevent future genocides
can we truly honor the memories of those Armenians who suffered so
unjustly,” Kerry said in the statement, outlining his longstanding
support for a broad range of Armenian American concerns.
Speaking to reporters at THE Genocide Memorial today, Oskanian
praised the US-Armenian organizations for their efficient work
towards international recognition of the genocide, downplaying also
allegations that Kerry’s statement was politically motivated to seek
the votes of American Armenians in 2004 autumn polls.
“Of course there were precedents when presidential hopefuls used
to say one thing before the election and different things after being
elected. John Kerry has been supporting the genocide motion when he
was in Senate and I do not think there are political speculations
behind his statement,” Oskanian said, adding that genocide
recognition motions are on agendas of those US states which have not
officially acknowledged it.

Agence France Presse
April 22, 2004 Thursday 9:08 AM Eastern Time

US envoy re-affirms commitment to Karabakh peace deal

BAKU

The United States believes it is in its interest to help find a
peaceful solution to the conflict between the former Soviet republics
of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, the top US mediator said Thursday.

Stephen Mann was speaking during his first visit to the region after
being appointed as the US representative to the Minsk Group, the body
mandated by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
to help tease out a peace deal.

About 35,000 people were killed and one million people made homeless
in a war before a ceasefire in 1994 left Armenia in de facto control
of over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave inside
Azerbaijan.

But lingering tensions have caused instability in the Caucasus
region, an emerging key crossroads for oil exports from the Caspian
Sea to Western markets.

“My government has defined it as being firmly in our national
interest to work fully, to work energetically… to resolve these
problems and to give our full support to the governments of
Azerbaijan and Armenia to reaching a peaceful solution to the
conflict,” Mann told reporters.

“In coming to this job I… will be representing the United States’
national interest in these issues,” he said, adding that, “this is
not a problem that is going to be solved overnight.”

Washington is keen to develop the Caspian as an alternative source of
energy supplies to the Middle East, and is backing a major pipeline
project in the region.

Mann, who is also the senior US envoy for Caspian energy issues, met
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar
Mamedyarov on Thursday. Before coming to Azerbaijan he had visited
Armenia and neighbouring Georgia.

Bloomberg
April 22 2004

Sony, Two Buyout Firms May Acquire MGM for $5 Bln, People Say

April 21 (Bloomberg) — Sony Corp., the world’s second- biggest
consumer-electronics maker, and two buyout firms may buy film studio
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. for $5 billion, people familiar with the
matter said.

Sony, Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners would invest
$1.5 billion cash and finance the rest of the transaction with debt,
the people said. Tokyo-based Sony already owns Sony Pictures
Entertainment, which includes the Columbia Pictures studio.

A sale would double the size of Sony’s film library to about 8,000
films, adding MGM titles including James Bond films. Sony would
augment its 85,000 hour-archive of television programs with 10,000
MGM TV episodes including “The Outer Limits.” By gaining those
assets, Sony also would acquire MGM’s cash flow, which an analyst
said may reach $150 million to $200 million this year.

“This is a good thing for Sony,” said Mark Greenberg, manager of
the $938 million Invesco Leisure Fund, which holds more than 750,000
MGM shares. “The value of MGM is it’s the largest post-World War II
library in Hollywood. It’s logical.”

MGM issued a statement saying it’s still proposing that its board
approve plans for a one-time dividend of $8 per share.

A purchase would mark the third time billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who
controls 74 percent of MGM, has sold the studio. Kerkorian tried
unsuccessfully to merge his studio with Sony Pictures in 2001.

Price Tag

A $5 billion price tag implies a cost per share of $21, Lehman
Brothers analyst Anthony DiClemente said in an interview. They closed
at $17.65 on Tuesday, the day before news of the talks became public.

“Our view is that fair value is $19 a share, said DiClemente, who
rates the shares “equal weight” and doesn’t own them. “If Kirk
gets $21, in our view, that would be a Hollywood ending for MGM.”

MGM shares rose $2.10, or 12 percent, to a 52-week high of $19.75 in
New York Stock Exchange composite trading today after Reuters
reported that MGM was in talks with Sony. The shares have gained 16
percent this year.

Andrew Cole, a Providence spokesman, and Owen Blicksilver, a Texas
Pacific Group spokesman, declined to comment. MGM spokesman David
Bloom also declined to comment.

“It’s our policy not to comment on rumors,” said Kei Sakaguchi, a
spokesman for Sony in Tokyo.

Media

Large media companies are acquiring assets to gain content such as
films, and the means to distribute them. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
in December paid $6.6 billion for a controlling interest in the
DirecTV satellite television service to gain a share of the U.S.
pay-television market.

General Electric Co.’s NBC said yesterday that the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission approved its planned $14 billion purchase of Vivendi
Universal SA’s U.S. entertainment assets.

MGM last year had a loss of $161.8 million on sales of $1.88 billion.
MGM will announce first-quarter financial results next week on April
29.

For the year ended March 31, Sony earned $813 million (88 billion
yen) from sales of $68.5 billion. Operating income at Sony’s film
business dropped 82 percent to 5.6 billion yen in the quarter ended
Dec. 31, the most recent period for which figures are available,
because of a lack of hit titles.

Sony Pictures, in Culver City, California, already owns the former
Columbia and TriStar studios. Led by Chairman and Chief Executive
Michael Lynton, it has produced movies “Hellboy” and “50 First
Dates” this year, putting it in second place in box- office sales
with $372.5 million.

Newmarket Films, the distributor of “The Passion of the Christ,” is
No. 1 with ticket sales of $394.6 million.

MGM, founded in 1924, owns the “Rocky” and “Pink Panther” films,
19 Woody Allen films, as well as “West Side Story” and “Rain
Man.”

“There’s not much else out there that has a positive free cash flow
like MGM does,” DiClemente said.

Leveraged Buyout

Kerkorian’s company doesn’t own a traditional Hollywood studio lot,
and instead rents studio space and sound stages. The company has a
long-term lease for the MGM Tower in Century City, about 10 miles
west of downtown Los Angeles. The company has a facility in Santa
Monica where it houses the home entertainment unit.

In a leveraged buyout, a firm acquires a company using investor cash
in combination with debt taken out on the acquired company’s books.
The buyout firm then tries to pay down the debt and sell the company
at a profit in three to five years.

Texas Pacific, started in 1993 by David Bonderman, a former aide to
the billionaire Bass family of Texas, raised a $5.3 billion takeover
fund last year, TPG Partners IV LP.

The firm has a history of investing in brand names in need of
resuscitation, including loss-ridden airlines such as Continental
Airlines Inc. and burger chain Burger King.

Providence

Providence Equity, named for the Rhode Island city where it is based,
invests in communications and media companies and was started in
1991. The firm is currently investing its $2.8 billion Providence
Equity Partners IV.

Providence almost doubled its money on a stake in Irish telephone
company Eircom Ltd. after an initial public offering this year. Other
stakes include cable channel Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network
LLC.

Buyout firms increased their purchases 25 percent to a record $127
billion worldwide in 2003 as they used more than $100 billion of
uninvested capital in combination with the lowest interest rates in
40 years to make purchases from corporations shedding divisions.

Such purchases have continued this year, with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
& Co. yesterday announcing plans to buy satellite broadcast company
PanAmSat Corp. for $4.3 billion from Murdoch’s DirecTV Group Inc.

Kerkorian

Kerkorian is the president and chief executive of closely held Las
Vegas-based Tracinda Corp. and is ranked as the 65th wealthiest
person with $6 billion in net worth, according to Forbes magazine.

The son of an Armenian immigrant rancher in California’s San Joaquin
Valley, Kerkorian has owned the MGM film studio three times since he
first bought it in 1970. Under Kerkorian, the company built the MGM
Grand Hotel in Las Vegas in 1973. The casino unit was spun off into a
separate company in 1980.

Kerkorian sold the studio to Ted Turner in 1986 and then bought it
back, leaving the pre-1948 library with Turner. Kerkorian later sold
the part of the studio he retained to Italian financier Giancarlo
Parretti, who lost it to Credit Lyonnais after defaulting on bank
loans.

Kerkorian bought it a third time in 1996 with MGM Inc. Chairman Frank
Mancuso for $1.3 billion in cash, outbidding the Dutch entertainment
company PolyGram NV.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Dan Lonkevich in New York at [email protected]; Michael White
in Los Angeles at [email protected].

To contact the editor of this story:
Greg Baumann at [email protected].