Month: June 2005

Pan Armenian News
ILO REGIONAL DIRECTOR TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA JUNE 27
25.06.2005 03:59
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Regional Director on Europe and Central Asia of the
International Labor Organization Friedrich Butler will pay an official visit
to Armenia, reported the Press Service of the Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs of Armenia. June 27-29 Mr. Butler is scheduled to meet with Armenian
Ministers of Labor and Social Affairs; Foreign Affairs; Trade and Economic
Development; Chairman of the Standing Commission of the National Assembly of
Armenia for Social Affairs, Health and Environment, US Ambassador to
Armenia, Director of the World Bank Yerevan Office and other high-rank
officials.

Pan Armenian News
OVER 1 THOUSAND ARMENIAN CITIZENS GOT GREEN CARDS
25.06.2005 04:29
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The US State Department has made public the returns of the
Green Card lottery (official name DV-2005) for 2004. 5.9 million
applications for the right of permanent residence and work in the US are
recognized as meeting the established criteria. Online applications were
filled in during November 1 -December 30, 2003. 55 thousand persons are
recognized winners, specifically a bit more than 1 thousand citizens of
Armenia, 235 Azerbaijanis, 375 Georgians, 5.36 thousand Ukrainians, 925
Belarus citizens, 383 citizens of Moldova, 1.55 thousand Uzbeks, 296
Kazakhs, 206 Kyrzyzstan citizens, 83 Tajiks, 78 Turkmenians, 1.1 thousand
Lithuanians, 158 Latvians, 64 Estonians, 384 Frenchmen, 1.27 thousand
Germans, 1.8 thousand Turks, 6.6 thousand Ethiopians, 22 – Afghans, 373
citizens of Japan, 116 Israelis, 820 Iranians, 1 citizen of North Korea.
Citizens of Russia, China, UK, Canada, India, Mexico, South Korea and other
eight states did not have the right to take part in the lottery.

Pan Armenian News
DECISION ON PERIODICAL MEETINGS WITHIN PACE KARABAKH SUBCOMMITTEE MADE
25.06.2005 03:01
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Subcommittee formed to address the Karabakh issue has had its first meeting,
stated PACE Azeri delegation head, Subcommittee member Samed Seidov,
reported APA Azeri agency. In his words, the report of the Subcommittee
head, former PACE Secretary General Lord Russell-Johnston was heard first.
«In his speech Russell-Johnston said that the fifth item of the resolution
on establishing the Committee, passed at the PACE January session
recommended that the Council of Europe constantly include the issue in the
agenda and make its contribution to the peaceful settlement of the conflict.
A decision was made thereupon to hold meetings within the Subcommittee.» As
stated by S. Seidov, the recurrent meeting is scheduled in Paris September
12. «The agenda of the recurrent meeting includes 2 questions: 1) making
public the positions of the countries that are members of the OSCE Minsk
Group; 2) hearing of reports of the OSCE MG Co-Chairs or persons
representing them and inviting them to the Subcommittee next sitting,» he
said. S. Seidov also said that Committee members are expected to visit the
regions based on the information received at the Committee meetings.

Pan Armenian News
STEVEN MANN: ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN POSITIONS CLOSER, BUT PEACE NOT AROUND
CORNER
25.06.2005 02:22
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `The positions of Armenia and Azerbaijan are now closer
than a year ago, but it is always a mistake to think that peace is around
the corner,’ OSCE Minsk Group US Co-Chair Steven Mann said, reported RFE/RL.
`Achieving a peace is still a very difficult task, but I absolutely believe
that it is a task that is possible to achieve,’ he remarked. He also
confirmed that the mediators will arrive in the region in July.

Pa Armenian News
ARMENIA PARTICIPATING MILITARY COOPERATION-2005 CIS EXERCISE
24.06.2005 07:11
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Anti-aircraft forces of Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,
Russia and Tajikistan participated today in Military Cooperation-2005 CIS
exercise, Yerkir online reported. Military units of the CSTO member-states
took part in the maneuvers. Upon completion of the sitting of the CIS
Defense Ministers in Dushanbe Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov noted
that the Council has ratified the initiative of military exercise, according
to which the exercise participants should settle issues of joint use of
national forces of air-raid defense in the Western European, Caucasian and
Central Asian regions of the CSTO. S. Ivanov also noted that the exercise
will be held within three phases, the first and third of which will be held
in Russia and the second – in Kazakhstan.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
June 25 2005
EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY DISCUSSED IN BAKU
[June 25, 2005, 12:43:24]
Conference on a theme `European Neighborhood Policy’ was held on June
24 at the Hyatt-Regency-Nakhchivan hotel, reported AzerTAj. The
conference organizers have discussed the New Neighborhood Policy of
the European Union and Azerbaijan’s participation in the policy.
The purposes of the event are to raise public awareness of the ENP
challenges and opportunities. The Azerbaijani society should be fully
informed on the European neighborhood policy within the prepared
Action Plan, told speakers at the event. Deputy economic development
minister Mikail Jabbarov and British Ambassador to Azerbaijan Laurie
Bristow have emphasized the necessity of the Action Plan on the
EU-Azerbaijan relationship enhance. It is expected that EU-Azerbaijan
rapprochement will have a positive influence on settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, strengthening of
economic development and democratic institutions, as well as
successful implementation of the poverty reduction problem. Alongside
with these strengthening of relations with EU allows to restore a
stabile situation in the region.
It is noted particularly that Azerbaijan’s government is interested
in development of relationship with the European Union. Therefore, on
June 1 President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has issued Decree on the
State Commission for integration with the European Union. Moreover,
on April 25 on the European Union recommendation March 2,2005 was
decided to formulate an action plan, preparation of that is underway.

Yes’s sing-songy dialogue wears thin early, distracts from action: review
June 24, 2005
(AP) – Despite its affirmative title, Sally Potter’s Yes is a maybe at
best.
The romantic drama starring Joan Allen, Simon Abkarian and Sam Neill
is meticulously constructed and gorgeously shot, just what you would
expect from the director of the delicate, sumptuous Virginia Woolf
adaptation Orlando.
Yet the movie’s quirks and conceits – mainly, the fact that dialogue
is delivered in sometimes subtle, sometimes sing-songy verse – quickly
wear thin and distract from what little action the movie
presents. What’s left beneath writer-director Potter’s parlour tricks
is a story fervently performed yet dramatically drab.
Though Potter has a painter’s eye for framing and composing her shots,
the characters feel distant, and their little tales of infidelity are
uninvolving.
Potter tries to use her main story, about an affair between an
Irish-American woman and a Middle Eastern man, as a parallel for Arab
relations with the Western world. Perhaps because of that, the lovers’
relationship often is forced and artificial, as though they’re
political puppets first, people second.
Or perhaps Potter simply was so caught up in her own poetry, both in
word and picture, that she failed to present her characters as living,
loving humans.
Many details of their lives are deliberately left vague, right down to
the main players’ names. Allen is simply known as “She,” a
Belfast-born, U.S.-raised scientist living a sham of a marriage in
London with her philandering husband (Neill), a politician.
At a banquet, “She” meets “He” (Abkarian), a Lebanese doctor who fled
Beirut and now works as a chef. Sparks fly, not so much on screen but
in theory; though Potter’s script demands that these two begin an
affair, the relationship unfolds with deep intimacy but little
passion.
Yes meanders about with great precision and not much point. She and He
sleep together, cuddling and cooing. She and her husband quarrel
bitterly. She has fitful encounters with family friends. He has a
dangerous encounter with his kitchen help. She and He lapse into
recrimination and separate, geography becoming the metaphor through
which the future of their relationship will be determined.
Dialogue is arranged largely in iambic pentameter, 10 syllables a
line.
Potter wisely told her actors not to flaunt it, focusing on the
meaning rather than the rhythm. That generally retains the naturalness
of their speech, though the rhymes at times are florid and awkward,
distracting from what the characters mean to say.
Delivered in such verse, Allen and Abkarian’s early pillow talk brings
real freshness to the hyperbole of romance, like lovers in a musical
unable to contain themselves and bursting into song.
Eventually, it just seems like a tired gimmick, while the sheer
density of the language often undermines the exchanges.
Likewise, Potter’s fixation on housekeepers and cleaners as witnesses
to the main players’ crises becomes a heavy-handed pretension. As She
and her husband’s housekeeper, Shirley Henderson serves as a windy
chorus speakingdirectly into the camera about what she sees, while
other mute cleaners hover elsewhere, putting a period on scenes with
cryptic glances straight into the lens.
It all feels empty, and in the end, Yes comes off like an elaborate
shell game. You’ve dutifully kept your eyes on the shell concealing
the ball, only to find magician Potter has palmed it.
Two stars out of four.
© The Canadian Press 2005

Pan Armenian News
SYNOPSYS COMPANY PRESIDENT TO VISIT ARMENIA
25.06.2005 06:01
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ June 26-27 President of Synopsys Group famous company Aart
Degeus will pay a two-day visit to Armenia, SG Executive Director Hovik
Musaelyan stated in a conversation with .am reporter. In his words, within
the framework of the visit Aart Degeus will have a meeting with President of
Armenia Robert Kocharian and will discuss High Technology development
matters in Armenia with him. Musaelyan also reported A. Degeus will take
part in a ceremony of awarding diplomas to 64 graduates of the Faculty of
Circuits and Microelectronics Systems of State Engineering University of
Armenia. It should be reminded that Synopsys is the chip engineering world
leader. The company leaders have indicated many times the high level of
Armenian specialists in the sphere, as well as the advantageous geographic
location of Armenia that is a link between large markets of the region.

Ekklesia, UK
June 25 2005
Iran’s new president a blow to US foreign policy -25/06/05
The landslide victory of the conservative mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, in Iran’s presidential poll has thwarted US hopes of a
satisfactory resolution to the nuclear standoff between the two
nations. It has also challenged the effectiveness of America’s
aggressive foreign policy stance in the region.
Western analysts were caught off guard by the scale of the defeat of
moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose political
pragmatism and dialogue with progressive students over
democratisation held out hopes for further change in Iran.
Mr Ahmadinejad won the run-off in the two-stage election with 62 per
cent of the 22 million votes cast on a turnout of 47 per cent. The
average turnout in the two contests was 55 per cent. US commentators
immediately claimed that this `low poll’ questions the legitimacy of
the result, which was not one they expected or wanted.
But Tehran has hit back by pointing out that even the comparatively
high 2004 US federal turnout of 60 per cent was lower than Iran’s
first round figure of 62% – and that the 2000 American election was
`won’ by the presidential candidate with fewer votes amidst
widespread rigging allegations and a poll of just over 51 per cent.
Though US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has to some extent
mitigated her tough ideological image through straight talking
diplomacy, the overall image of the US – especially in the Muslim
world – has continued to plummet in recent months.
President Bush’s confrontational foreign policy based on military
intervention is widely seen as having backfired – with the insurgency
in Iraq claiming hundreds of lives each week, a recent CIA report
admitting the emergence of a new breed of mobile Islamic jihadists,
the Taleban reconfiguring in Afghanistan, and now a serious reversal
of the reform movement in Iran.
European nations, many of them sceptical or hostile towards the
US-led invasion of Iraq, have long been urging a more open and
pragmatic approach towards Iran on the part of the White House. But
they have mostly been ignored.
Regional commentators say that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory is due
to a number of factors – his appeal to poor voters and those opposing
corruption, his defiance of what is seen as US aggression, and his
positioning as an Iranian nationalist aligned to conservative Islamic
forces but not imprisoned by them.
The US State Department declared a few hours ago that the result was
`out of step with moves towards democracy in the region.’ They are
also pointing towards 300 complaints about voting irregularities
raised by Rafsanjani backers.
A spokesperson for the new Iranian president declared: `The US
position is unprincipled. To them a country is only democratic if it
elects people they agree with.’
Christians and other minority groups in Iran are wondering what the
future will hold for them under the new, hard-line presidency.
The majority of Iran’s 250,000 Christian population are members of
the Armenian Orthodox Church, with others belonging to Assyrian
Church of the East. There are also small numbers of Chaldean
Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants.
Persians, Parthians and Medes were among the first new Christian
converts at Pentecost. Since then there had been a continuous
minority Christian presence in Iran.
The Armenian Church has a recognised status, though its activities
are carefully controlled. Protestant Christianity is seen as
Western-aligned and treated accordingly.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
June 25 2005
Azerbaijan increases defence budget

BAKU, June 25 (Itar-Tass) — Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said
his country has increased the defence budget because Russia is moving
military hardware from its base in Georgia to Armenia.
`It is true that this hardware is not handed over to Armenia but
remains at the disposal of the Russian base. But still it will be
transferred to Armenia, and this required us to take proper steps,
which we did by increasing defence expenditures in the budget,’ the
president said on Saturday as he addressed the graduates of the
Azerbaijani Higher Military School named after his father.
Aliyev said the increase in defence capabilities is necessary in
order to `resolve the Karabakh conflict’.
`We will use all diplomatic and political methods, but the adversary
must know that the Azerbaijani army can mobilise at any moment and
liberate the occupied territories,’ he said.
`We will not step aside from our position even by an inch,’ Aliyev
said, adding, ‘The biggest compromise Azerbaijan has made in the
resolution of the Karabakh conflict is that the country remains
committed to a peaceful settlement.’