SHIKAHOGH RESERVE SAVED

A1plus

| 14:07:09 | 17-06-2005 | Social |

The RA Government has decided to reconsider the idea of constructing a
road through the Shikahogh reserve. Today Transport and Communication
Minister Andranik Manoukyan announced about it during the discussion of
the matter. The discussion was organized in the American University
and besides non-governmental organizations, representatives of the
Government, the NA and ecological organizations were invited.

The highway connecting Armenia with Iran will probably be constructed
passing around the reserve. As a result of it the highway will become
longer for 7 kilometers. Now it will run 96 km instead of 89.

“Today a Committee has been created which will give the economic and
technical basis of the road”, announced Andranik Manoukyan. Minister
of Environment Vardan Ayvazyan who had also arrived at the discussion
added that because of the additional 7 kilometers many problems
arise. So he called the non-governmental organizations to help solve
the financial and technical problems with the same enthusiasm with
which they struggled for the Shikahigh reserve.

By the way, the members of the Government hinted that they have made
the decision not because of the pressure of the non-governmental
organizations but proceeding from strategic reasons. The participants
of the discussion were angry at the remark. The Ministers of Transport
and Environment, answering several questions, complained that they
were not aware of the question-answer process. So the Ministers
preferred to leave the discussion.

Nevertheless, representative of the non-governmental organization
“Forests of Armenia”, lawyer Nazeli Vardanyan said, “There is not
a single official decision and we do not know how the road will be
constructed”. So, the participants mentioned that the non-governmental
organizations must continue the struggle.

CARS TO THE HOSPITAL

A1plus

| 14:00:50 | 17-06-2005 | Social |

The Georgian Health Ministry has allotted 2 Ambulance cars to the
Akhalqalaq regional hospital. At the same time the Ministry has
ordered to make the Ambulance service free of charge. The salary
of the workers of this service will probably be raised so that the
proper work with the population is guaranteed.

According to Alexan Toroyan, director of the Akhalqalaq region
hospital, son the Ambulance service of the hospital will receive
another car from the Health Ministry.

ONLY AFTER SETTLING THE KARABAKH CONFLICT

A1plus

| 16:15:50 | 17-06-2005 | Politics |

Yesterday in Tbilisi the Georgian Parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze,
RA NA deputy speaker Tigran Torosyan and Azeri Milli Mejlis delegation
head Siyavoush Novrusov signed a memorandum creating Southern Caucasus
countries Parliamentary Assembly.

According to day.az, after the signing Nino Burjanadze said that
“despite the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two countries
can sit around the negotiation table and start a dialogue”.

RA NA deputy speaker Tigran Torosyan mentioned that “the three
countries are trying to integrate into the European structures,
and the issue will be solved more easily if they unite their efforts”.

And Azeri Milli Mejlis delegation head Siyavoush Novrusov announced
that after the settlement of the Karabakh conflict the Southern
Caucasian countries can create both political and economical
substructures. “But for that purpose the NKR conflict must be settled
first”.

A1plus

| 15:48:12 | 17-06-2005 | Social |

“VERY LIBERAL DRAFT”

According to the RA Justice Minister David Harutyunyan, the RA Draft
Law on “Electronic Communication” is a “very liberal draft”. Today in
hotel “Congress” the draft was discussed with the initiative of the
“Cooperation for Open Society”.

“From the moment when the relations between ArmenTel and the
Government became complicated, we realized that the legislation must
be regulated”, said the Minister. Those who processed the project,
tried to draw a borderline between the functions of the executive and
the regulator. For example, the interference of the legislative bodies
into the work of the regulating ones has been considerably limited.

“I do not think that the new project is ideal. It is very complicated
and many new concepts will be introduced to us”, warned David
Harutyunyan. One of them is “Consuming individual” who uses the
electronic communication services.

Taking into account the Cooperation agreement signed between the RA
and the EU the “new concepts” have been made correspondent to the
EU criteria.

Will the new law change the relations between ArmenTel and the
Government? David Harutyunyan is not sure; moreover, he states
that the majority of the substructures are still under the control
of ArmenTel.

Iranian Armenians “massively” turn out at polls

IRNA web site
17 Jun 05

Tehran, 17 June: Members of the Armenian minority group turned out
massively at the polling stations here Friday morning [17 June]
to cast their votes for the 9th presidential elections.

Christians throughout the country, along with their Muslim countrymen,
took part in the elections to choose the country’s future president
this morning.

Polling started across the country at 09:00 hours local time (0430 gmt)
Friday to elect the country’s next president.

The latest figures released by the Interior Ministry show that
some 46,786,418 people are eligible to vote at the 9th presidential
elections.

All those having completed 15 years of age and above can participate
in the elections and vote for seven candidates who have registered
for the race.

Presidential election hopeful Mohsen Reza’i announced his withdrawal
from the race in his letter to the Interior Ministry on Thursday.

YOUNG PEOPLE AT THE CENTER OF ATTENTION

A1plus

| 14:50:21 | 17-06-2005 | Social |

On June 17-19 a republican youth conference entitled “Youth. Reality.
Outlook” will take place in the Government building. The conference
will consist of two parts – a symposium and exhibition of international
organizations.

During the symposium the young people will represent more than 50
reports and there will also be discussions. And during the exhibition
every non-governmental organization or group will represent their
works. For example, in the pavilion “Village Woman” the works of the
Oshakan Youth Union “Village Woman” were represented – paintings,
gobelins, dried fruit, sculptures, etc.

And the Javakhq Puppet theater organized a performance for the
visitors. Today they represented “The Tailless Fox” of Hovhannes
Toumanyan.

On June 19, at 7:00 p.m. the official ceremony of closing the
conference will take place during which results of the both the
Symposium and the exhibition will be summed up.

AMENDMENTS RATIFIED

A1plus

| 14:34:28 | 17-06-2005 | Official |

On June 16 Robert Kocharyan signed the RA Laws on Exploitation of
Agricultural equipment and Seeds.

On the same day he also signed the Laws on making amendments to the
RA Laws on the Application of Cashier apparatuses, Value Added Tax,
Road Tax, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Legislative acts, Fire
Security and the Water Code.

Kocharyan has also signed the Laws on RA State awards, amendment to
the RA Law on Holidays and memorial days, and Laws on the Medals for
“Service to the Motherland” and “Social activities”.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE NEW ELECTORAL CODE DID NOT JUSTIFY HOPES

A1plus

| 16:42:28 | 17-06-2005 | Politics |

“This time the hopes of the society to have a flawless Electoral Code
which could secure the fairness and transparency of the elections
organized was not justified. The guarantee could be the Electoral
Committees the real balance of which is not secured by the acting
Electoral Code”. This was the announcement of Haroutyun Haroutyunyan,
head of the non-governmental organization “Choice is yours” made
during the discussion in hotel Yerevan.

He considers that even in that case a flawless Electoral Code could
not guarantee fair and transparent elections as for that will is
needed. But he also said that the RA Law on amending the Electoral
Code has some improvements.

Deputy head of the organization Khachik Voskanyan mentioned the
non-introduction of the ink fingerprints as one of the shortcomings
of the Law. He wonders why the deputies considered it something
unsuitable to our mentality and did not accept it. “Forging elections
is suitable for our mentality, and ink fingerprints are not?”, he
asked rhetorically.

Mentioning other shortcoming of the Law, the non-governmental
organization “Choice is Yours” calls everyone to do their best to
secure the fairness of the coming elections of the local governing
bodies in coming September-October.

Pan Armenian News

“OLD EUROPE” IS AGAINST NEGOTIATIONS WITH ANKARA

The potential leaders of France and Germany suppose that the dialogue on
Turkey’s EU membership is senseless.

“Negotiations on Turkey’s EU membership are senseless”, announced the leader
of France’s ruling “Union for a popular movement” party, Interior Minister
Nicolas Sarcozy in his speech in Paris. According to Sarcozy, the European
Union has “more urgent and important issues than that of negotiations with
Turkey. Thus, the second person in the French government has confirmed his
position and spoke out categorically against Turkey’s membership in the
family of European nations.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Of course, it does not follow from Sarcozy’s statement
that official Paris insists on the refusal to start negotiations with Ankara
on the conditions of Turkey’s EU membership. Sarcozy only states that he
considers negotiations with Ankara unreasonable and having no prospects. But
if the start of negotiations for Turkey is an end in itself, then no
problem. Negotiations may start but never finish. EU
Commission representative to Ankara, Hans Kretschmer has already stated that
if negotiations start they will hardly finish by the end of 2014. Before
that, Europe may change beyond recognition. It is quite possible that by
that time, the issue of Armenia’s EU membership will be already put on the
agenda.

Nicolas Sarcozy has always been against Turkey’s EU membership, but it is
the first time that he speaks out so definitely. Sarcozy’s current status
allows to suppose that his position is the official position of the
government. Even if it is not so, let us not forget in any case that he is
the most probable successor of Jacques Chirak. In case of success in the
2008 presidential elections his personal point of view will become official.
Sarcozy’s statement contains an important accent. He underlined that he
considered Turkey’s EU membership unacceptable, since Turkey “is the largest
country of Central Asia and not of Europe”. So, he is against Turkey’s
membership in the family of European nations not because Turkey has not yet
fulfilled all the set requirements, but because of the geographical factor.
It follows that Sarcozy supposes that Turkey cannot even aspire to gain a
place in Europe even if all the requirements are fulfilled. This
circumstance cannot but worry us, because the French minister’s point of
view which becomes more and more popular contradicts to our interests. The
problem is not in the fact that Armenia is also geographically located in
Asia and that with the same logic Armenia can also be deprived of the right
for a place in Europe. The thing is that there is a serious danger that
Turkey may become absolutely unpredictable and unmanageably aggressive in
case there is no stimulus to follow European values.

Hopes that Ankara will agree to be satisfied with the status of a
“privileged partner” are not so big. Rejeb Erdogan has recently stated that
he is not going to agree to that. Nevertheless European leaders, including
Nicolas Sarcozy continue to state that “privileged partnership” is the
maximum of what can be offered to Turkey. In the same spirit was also the
statement of the head of Christian Democratic Union – Christian Social Union
of German Bundestag. The leader of the parliamentary majority has clearly
called to refuse to start negotiations with Ankara that were planned for
October. It should be noted that the head of CDU-CSU is not just the leader
of one of the political parties, but is a person that represents a political
force which according to forecasts will win in the upcoming elections. This
means that like in the case with Nicolas Sarcozy, we deal with “favorites”
that may soon be at the controls. The future leaders of the two most
influential countries of “Old Europe” are categorically against Turkey’s EU
membership. In case of victory, those people will rule until 2010-2015.
During that period of time, Turks will have no chances at all. Maybe this
was what the EU Ankara representative meant saying that the negotiations on
Turkey’s EU membership would last at the least until 2014.

It is likely that the negotiations with Ankara will start in October as it
was planned during the last year’s EU summit. This was confirmed by the
president of EU Commission Jose Manuel Barroso. But in the situation formed,
the negotiations will hardly achieve any success.

15.06.2005, “PanARMENIAN Network” analytical department

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MOST EU COUNTRIES WILL VOTE AGAINST TURKEY ACCESSION

Pan Armenian News
17.06.2005 05:46

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany
Angela Merkel has stated that holding 10-year-long talks with Turkey
over accession to EU, knowing in advance that the countries will
vote against Turkey’s entry in the referendum, is irresponsible,
the Yerkir newspaper reported. It should be noted that according to
survey results Merkel has most chances for becoming German Chancellor
at the coming election.