Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
October 8, 2004
RusAl to invest $70 million to upgrade its Armenal plant
MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Prime-Tass) — Russia’s largest aluminum producer
Russian Aluminum (RusAl) plans to invest U.S. USD 70 million
upgrading its 100%-owned foil making subsidiary in Armenia, Armenal,
starting later this month, RusAl said in a press release Friday.
According to the press release, RusAl will invest USD 25 million of
its own funds and another USD 45 million will come as a long-term
export loan from a group of German banks, led by Bayerische
Landesbank.
RusAl plans to modernize equipment and raise the capacity of the
plant, concentrating on production of thin foil.
Germany’s Achenbach, having made a feasibility study for Armenal’s
upgrading program, is to act as a contractor. The project is to take
18 months to complete, and is to produce the first pilot batch of
thin foil by the end of 2005.
After realizing the project, Armenal’s output of thin foil, six-nine
micrometers in thickness, is expected to increase to 18,000 tonnes
per year. The plant has never produced thin foil for industrial
purposes, the press release read.
By 2008, Armenal’s share of the world market for thin foil production
is expected at about 2.5%, the press release read.
In 2003, Armenal’s output amounted to 10,476 tonnes of foil.
RusAl is the third largest primary aluminum producer in the world,
established in March 2000 from the merger of a number of the largest
smelters and other aluminum producers located in the CIS. RusAl
accounts for 75% of Russia’s primary aluminum output and 10% of the
global primary aluminum output.
The company’s shareholders are Oleg Deripaska and the Governor of the
Chukotka Autonomous District Roman Abramovich, who hold 75% and 25%
respectively. End

The Mirror, UK
October 8, 2004, Friday
BUYURUN!;
EXCLUSIVE LAWRIE’S ARMY HEAD TO TERROR WAR ZONE
by LAURIE HANNA
DIFFERENT WORLD: Azerbaijan national emblem over oil rigs at the
shore of the Kaspian Sea in Baku; TRIP: Manager Sanchez
NORTHERN Ireland football fans have been told to ignore scare stories
about Azerbaijan and support their team in the terror hotspot.
The East European country is at war with neighbours Armenia and
political terrorism is rife in certain regions.
And the British Home Office advises against travelling to the
Nagorno-Karabakh area, which the Armenian military control and where
gun battles ring out regularly.
But Graeme Johnstone, 43, a member of the Baku Rangers Supporters
Club in the Azerbaijani capital, said he has been looking forward to
the visit by Lawrie Sanchez’s men.
He added: “I know Azerbaijan has its problems but it is a great place
and well worth visiting.”
And he revealed the head of the Celtic Supporters Club in Baku, Billy
Quinn, would probably be more interested in the Republic’s test
against France tomorrow as he is the cousin of goalscoring legend
Niall Quinn. Vice-consul Derek Lavery, the UK’s official
representative in Azerbaijan, is a Scotsman but he insisted fans
would be welcomed by locals.
However, he warned against leaving Baku, where the vital World Cup
qualifier will be played tomorrow evening. He said: “The Armenian
military protect the area while the two governments are trying to
negotiate some sort of settlement.
“There is occasional firing, even though there is a ceasefire, but
fans coming out should be OK.”
Gary Hancock, secretary of the Amalgamation of Northern Ireland
Supporters Club, who has stayed at home, said: “I think there about
100 of our boys who went out, but they’re not worried.
“Last year, they went to Armenia in the middle of all the conflict in
Iraq, which was only 300 miles away.
20
FACTS ABOUT AZERBAIJAN
1. The country lies between Russia and Iran and is in Europe and
Asia.
2. The national language is Azeri and the currency is manat. One
thousand manat is the equivalent of 11p.
3. Northern Ireland are ranked 110th in FIFA’s world rankings, just
four places above Azerbaijan.
4. More people live in the capital Baku than in Northern Ireland. The
country’s population is 7.5 million.
5. It is a Muslim country and visitors are advised to avoid wearing
shorts in case they offend locals.
6. The country declared its independence from the Soviet Union in
August 1991.
7. Oil is Azerbaijan’s number one export and the world’s first oil
well was drilled in Baku in the 1800s.
8. About four per cent of the population have internet access. In
Northern Ireland, 33 per cent have access.
9. The country has nine airports.
10. It has the largest number of mud volcanoes in the world.
11. A person from Azerbaijan is known as an Azeri.
12. There are estimated to be more than 45million Azeris in the
world.
13. Garry Kasparov, once the world’s number one chess player, was
born in Baku.
14. The Nobel brothers, who the peace prize is named after, made
their fortune drilling oil in Baku.
15. A central part of Hitler’s vision was to create an empire
connecting Berlin and Bombay, via Baku.
16. There are two television stations.
17. December 31 is a national holiday.
18. Pancakes and spiced meats are popular in Azerbaijan.
19. Popular sports include basketball and karate.
20. The national anthem reads: “Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan, you are the
country of heroes. We will die so that you might be alive.”

RIA Novosti
October 09, 2004
HEADS OF CIS TAX SERVICES MEET IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – The 7th session of the
coordination council of the CIS tax services’ heads opens in the
Armenian capital on Saturday.
Changes in the coordination council’s staff and reports on the
execution of previous council’s decisions on the development and
efficiency of CIS economic cooperation in 2003-2010 are on the
session’s agenda, said the press service of the Armenian State Tax
Service.
Moreover, the participants will discuss the analysis of small
business taxation systems used in the Commonwealth of Independent
States, analyze the activities of the CIS tax systems in 2003,
consider the mechanism of registration of the identification numbers
of taxpayers, draft the convention on mutual administrative
assistance in tax issues, and discuss the use of the agreement to
avoid double taxation and the plan of the coordination council’s work
for 2005.
The coordination council of the CIS tax services’ heads was
established on May 31, 2001. At the moment it is led by chairman of
the State Tax Service under the Armenian government Felix Tsolakyan,
elected for one year in October 2003.
The previous session of the coordination council took place in Minsk,
Belarussian capital, on May 29, 2004.

The Irish Times
October 9, 2004
EU role for Turkey would boost Middle East democracy
WorldView: In Turkey the European Commission’s favourable but tough
report on whether negotiations on joining the EU should start with
Ankara next year was widely greeted, writes Paul Gillespie.
Members of the moderate Islamist governing party, business and trade
union leaders, women’s organisations, leaders of the Kurdish minority
and sections of the armed forces welcomed it.
There was a more sceptical response from secular nationalists in the
army, bureaucracy and in right-wing parties which defend Turkey’s
sovereignty against outside encroachment. They suspect the EU agenda
of democracy and minority rights is part of a devious and abiding
international conspiracy to weaken and divide their state.
These differing reactions are instructive in evaluating the merits of
the Commission’s case for Turkey’s eventual accession to the EU.
Turks can be remarkably quick to take offence from Brussels, having
been on the receiving end of hostility and prevarication for over 40
years on their application to join – and more particularly through
the 1990s.
Ever since the Treaty of Sevres was imposed on the rump of the
Ottoman Empire in 1920, in an attempt to partition Anatolia, there
has been a deep syndrome of suspicion in Turkish politics. It is
associated with a determination to resist takeover through a
programme of modernisation to emulate its European competitors and
thereby protect itself from them. It draws strongly on the 19th
century experience of the retreating Ottoman empire (described as the
“sick man of Europe” – not of Asia – by Czar Nicholas 1 in 1853) and
similar efforts to modernise it from the 1870s.
Kemal Ataturk based his nationalist revolution of the 1920s on these
sentiments. The state he built was founded on sweeping reforms in
which the caliphate was abolished, academic curriculums reformed and
the Arabic script replaced by a Latin one. Religious courts were
abolished, the legal system westernised and women given suffrage and
equal rights.
The resulting secular republic drew strongly on the inspiration of
French Jacobin republicanism. It had a unitary view of the “people”
and was suspicious of pluralism, identity and human rights because
they would fuel separatism and division.
Kemalism’s prehistory during the Armenian genocide of 1915-1916 and
the trauma of the independence war after it, in which over a million
Anatolian Greeks were expelled in exchange for Greek Turks, have
profoundly affected Turkey’s political culture. They gave the
military a central position in protecting national unity. Kurds have
been suspected of encouraging a breakup since the 1920s, a suspicion
fuelled during the 1990s rebellion in which 30,000 people died. It is
stoked again by demands of the Kurds in neighbouring Iraq for deep
autonomy within a federal state, which Kemalists believe could have a
knock-on effect.
The EU is seen as an agent of change by many of the forces in Turkish
society who want to transform this Kemalist inheritance by combining
it with religious, cultural and ethnic diversities persisting from
the Ottoman past. The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP),
which has an outright majority in sharp contrast to the nine
different coalitions in the 1990s, has continued another round of
sweeping reforms begun in 2001 in response to a previous Commission
document.
According to the veteran Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand the
changes since then have been “nothing short of a miracle”. There have
been two major constitutional and 66 statutory amendments, 49 public
notices, 29 regulatory policies and 28 international agreements
ratified – a tremendous legislative output in a highly legalistic
culture.
In summary, the political system has been liberalised, while
restrictions on freedom of the press, expression and association have
been relaxed. Turkey has signed up to the European Convention of
Human Rights. The new government has adopted a zero-sum policy
towards police and army torture. The death penalty has been
abolished. Anti-terrorist statutes have been substantially changed
and the state security courts dismantled.
Kurdish civil and linguistic rights have been explicitly recognised
and protected, and the state of emergency in southeastern provinces
lifted. A provisional amnesty for Kurdish prisoners has been agreed,
and several prominent parliamentarians released.
The military’s special powers have also been curtailed and its
special financing brought under parliamentary scrutiny. The powerful
National Security Council has been trimmed, with the prime minister
appointing its secretary-general, who directs its work.
High inflation has been curtailed, as have interest rates and bank
loans. Through an International Monetary Fund loan the pension system
has been changed, the bureaucracy cut back and bankruptcy laws
reformed. Growth for this year is expected to reach 5 per cent.
These sweeping changes are fully acknowledged in the Commission’s
report, even as they are seen as a work in progress requiring much
more effort over the coming years. Mehmet Ali Birand says no special
conditions are laid down for Turkey, the reforms are not beyond its
capacities and there is no secret agenda involved. “Most of it is no
harder than the way we criticise ourselves,” he says.
There are, of course, still many suspicions on both sides. Turks in
favour of EU membership are quick to recognise Christian prejudice
against their country and keen to distance themselves from a clash of
civilisations. The fact that these reforms have flowed from a
moderate Islamic government creates suspicions among older secular
Turks that it is working to a hidden agenda of rolling back
secularisation.
But the AKP is deeply rooted, very ably led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
and represents a new political generation anxious for change. Its
foreign policy positions have also adapted, notably on Cyprus,
relations with Greece and on Iraq. Turkish co-operation with the US
invasion was withdrawn after a free parliamentary vote in March last
year.
A commentary in the liberal Israeli paper Ha’aretz this week points
out that a reforming Turkey inspired by EU membership to continue on
this path is a far better bulwark for democracy in the Middle East
than governments imposed by US arms. This geopolitical aspect
underlines how eventual Turkish membership can transform the EU’s
international role. One has only to think of the consequences should
Turkey consider itself rejected to realise how different it could be.
That dog did not bark much this week.

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 60; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
October 8, 2004
___________________
HOLY CROSS CHURCH MARKS 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF CONSECRATION
On Sunday, September 19, 2004, the Holy Cross Church of Armenia in upper
Manhattan marked the 75th anniversary of its consecration.
To mark the occasion, the parish, which has about 90 active
parishioners, welcomed Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), who celebrated a
special Divine Liturgy, and held a banquet which brought out more than
200 people.
The historic church in upper Manhattan has seen its share of joys and
challenges. But the parishioners have always retained their devotion,
said the church’s pastor for the past three years, Archbishop Anania
Arabajyan.
“It is a very faithful parish. They’re strong believers and they help
keep the Armenian tradition alive,” he said. “They’re strongly
dedicated to the church and are always doing the work to keep it alive.”
HONORING THE STEWARD
One long-time parishioner at the Holy Cross Church was honored during
the anniversary celebration. Archbishop Barsamian presented the St.
Nersess Shnorhali Medal and a pontifical encyclical from His Holiness
Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, to Holy Cross parishioner
Deacon Krikor Anoushian.
“He is truly a devout and dedicated steward, not only of his parish but
of the Armenian Church in general,” the Primate said. “A tireless
worker, his passionate service has been an example for his fellow
parishioners.”
A parishioner at Holy Cross for more than three decades, Anoushian
currently serves as a deacon on the altar, is the parish council
treasurer, and a Diocesan delegate. He is also a leader of the Komitas
Choir.
“He is important to the life of our church,” Archbishop Arabajyan said.
“He is originally from Turkey, where the Armenians have the tradition of
being close to their parishes. He came here and brought his dedication
and faith with him to this church.”
— 10/08/04
E-mail photos available on request. Photos also viewable in the News
and Events section of the Eastern Diocese’s website,
PHOTO CAPTION (1): During a banquet marking the 75th anniversary of the
consecration of the Holy Cross Church of Armenia in Manhattan,
Archbishop Anania Arabajyan, parish pastor, congratulates Krikor
Anoushian after Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate, presented him with
the St. Nersess Shnorhali Medal and a pontifical encyclical from His
Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, on Sunday, September
19, 2004.

The Xinhua News Agency.
October 9, 2004 Saturday 9:30 AM EST
Finland 0 Armenia 1 – Euro under-21 result
STOCKHOLM
Finland lost to Armenia 0-1 in the European under-21 soccer
championship, Group One qualifier in Helsinki on Saturday.
Scorer: Melkonyan 77
Halftime: 0-0

The Xinhua News Agency.
October 9, 2004 Saturday 9:30 AM EST
Starters for Finland v Armenia World Cup qualifier
STOCKHOLM
Following are the starters for Saturday’s World Cup European zone
Group One qualifier between Finland and Armenia in Helsinki:
Finland: 1-Antti Niemi; 2-Petri Pasanen, 3-Janne Saarinen,4- Sami
Hyypia, 6-Mika Vayrynen, 7-Mika Nurmela, 11-Joonas Kolkka, 14- Toni
Kuivasto, 16-Aki Riihilahti, 18-Shefki Kuqi,20-Aleksei Eremenko.
Armenia: 12-Armen Ambartsumyan; 3-Karen Dokhoyan, 4-Sarkis Hovsepyan,
5-Arutyun Vardanyan, 6-Romik Khachatryan, 8-Rafael Nazaryan, 9-Hamlet
Mkhitaryan, 10-Armen Shakhgeldyan, 11-Andrei Movsesyan, 16-David
Grigoryan, 18-Alexander Tadevosyan.
Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
October 9, 2004 Saturday 11:42 AM Eastern Time
Ukraine has the largest GDP in CIS countries
By Valery Rzhevsky
KIEV, October 9
Ukraine has the largest GDP among the CIS countries. “Ukraine’s GDP
grew by 13.6%, the fastest rate among the CIS countries, in
January-August 2004,” says a report of the CIS Committee for
Statistics that was published in Kiev on Saturday.
The economies of Tajikistan, Belarus and Armenia developed at a rate
of 11.7%, 10.7% and 9.6%, respectively. Then come Azerbaijan (9.5%),
Georgia (9.42%), Russia (7.55%), Kirghizia (7.3%) and Moldova
(6.52%).
The GDP in the CIS countries grew at an average rate of 8% in
January-August 2004. Industrial production also grew at 8%. The
growth of retail trade turnover is estimated at 12%, the report says.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

City News Service
October 7, 2004 Thursday
Man Pleads No Contest to Soliciting Murders
LOS ANGELES
A former pickle factory owner accused of involvement in an Armenian
crime ring pleaded no contest today to seven counts of solicitation
of murder. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bob Bowers Jr.
immediately sentenced 42- year-old Edvard Gyulnazaryan, 42, of
Glendale, to 15 years in state prison, said Jane Robison of the
District Attorney’s Office. None of the intended victims were killed
during the two-year scheme, Robison said. Gyulnazaryan was the last
of six people to be sentenced in connection with the case, which
reportedly constituted one of the largest murder-for-hire cases
investigated by the Glendale Police Department. The FBI also aided in
the probe. Five other defendants were sentenced earlier to terms
ranging from 180 days in county jail with a suspended state prison
term to nine years in state prison, according to Robison. The crime
ring was believed to have been involved in credit card fraud and
extortion, authorities said. The Los Angeles Times reported in June
that investigators learned about the plot when Gyulnazaryan asked an
informant if he knew anyone who would conduct a murder-for-hire. One
of the first discussions took place at the pickle factory in a small
brick storefront on an industrial stretch of San Fernando Road, the
Times reported, citing court documents. Gyulnazaryan allegedly told a
would-be killer that he would pay $5,000 to have a worker shot twice
in the head at the Washington Smoke Shop in Pasadena, according to
court documents. Other intended targets also were discussed in
alleged murder-for-hire plots, according to the documents. “We
believe we thwarted the murders that were planned,” police Sgt. Kirk
Palmer told The Times last year. “The individuals who were targeted
may have been rivals.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SeeNews
October 5, 2004 07:09 PM EEST
Bulgaria Sees Regular Air Flights to Armenia from April 2005
SeeNews
SOFIA (Bulgaria), October 5 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria and Armenia may be
linked by regular air flights from April next year, Bulgaria’s
Transport Ministry said on Tuesday.
Launching direct flights between the capitals of the two countries,
Sofia and Yerevan, was agreed at a meeting of Bulgaria’s Transport
Minister Nikolai Vassilev and his Armenian counterpart Andranik
Manukyan, the ministry said in a statement.
Vassilev is paying a visit to Armenia.
He and Manukyan also discussed boosting the development of transport
links between the two countries following a sharp rise in bilateral
trade in recent years.
Bulgaria was ready to launch a ferry link between its Black Sea port
of Varna and Russia to service trade with landlocked Armenia and was
expecting Russia’s final decision on this project, the statement
said.
Bulgaria’s exports to Armenia increased by over 100% in the last
three years, the statement said.
Bulgaria’s exports to Armenia reached 18.7 million Bulgarian levs
($11.7 million/9.6 million euro) in 2003, while imports totalled 21.2
million levs under official Bulgarian statistics.
(1 euro=1.95583 levs)