Month: April 2007

A STELLAR PERFORMANCE
by Malcolm Pein

The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
April 3, 2007 Tuesday

THE Armenian GM Gabriel Sargissian outclassed the field at the Ruy
Lopez tournament held at Zafra, the birthplace of the Spanish priest
who invented the opening that bears his name. Sargissian took a 1.5
point lead with just a game to play and achieved tournament victory
after twice defending the Ruy Lopez and scoring successive wins with
black. He also won twice against the Queen’s Gambit Accepted with white
to finish on a remarkable 6.5/7 with second placed Julio Granda Zuniga
and former Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov 2.5 points adrift on 4/7.

This stellar performance gained Sargissian 38 rating points, one of
the largest gains I have seen in one event in recent years and it
may even propel him into the world’s top 20 players. His tournament
rating performance was 3021 and to put this into context, the world
number one is usually rated around 2800.

G Sargissian – R Ponomariov

Magistral Ruy Lopez Zafra (5)

Queen’s Gambit Accepted

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.Bxc4 Nb6 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Be3 Be6
8.Nc3 Bc4 9.Bxc4 Nxc4 (Black neglects development in order to exchange
White’s potentially dangerous light squared bishop and establish
a strong square on d5) 10.Qb3 N6a5 11.Qc2 e6 12.Nf3 Nc6 (12…Nxe3
13.fxe3 would strengthen White’s centre and leave Black exposed on
the f file) 13.0-0 Nb4 14.Qe4 Nd5 15.Bg5 Nxc3 16.bxc3 Qd5 17.Qxd5
(Sargissian might have tried 17.Qg4 although 17…h6 18.Bh4 g5 19.Bg3

0-0-0 looks very unclear) 17…exd5 18.Nd2 Nxd2 (18…Nb6!? and if
19.f4 Na4 20.Rf3 Ba3) 19.Bxd2 f5 20.h3 Be7 21.g4 Rf8 22.Kg2 Kd7 23.Rab1
b6 24.a4 h5!? 25.gxh5 Rh8 26.h6 g5 (Also risky, gxh6 was reasonable)
27.h4 g4?! 28.f3 Rag8 29.fxg4 Rxg4+ 30.Kf3 Rhg8 (30…Bf8 to remove
the dangerous h6 pawn looks best)

31.Rg1! (Clearly overlooked by Ponomariov and suddenly he is
struggling) 31…Bxh4 (31…Rxg1 32.Rxg1 Rxg1 33.h7) 32.Rxg4 fxg4+
33.Kg2 33…Ke6 34.Rh1 Be7 35.Kg3 Kf5 36.h7 Rh8 37.Rh5+ Kg6 38.Kxg4
Bf8 39.e6 1-0

Ponomariov

Sargissian

Position after 31.Rg1!

Final scores: Sargissian

(Armenia) 6.5/7; 2-3 Granda

Zuniga (Peru), Ponomariov (Ukraine) 4/7; 4 I Sokolov (Netherlands) 4;
5 Candelario (Spain) 3.5; 6-7 Sasikiran (India), Stefanova (Bulgaria)
2.5; 8

Hou Yifan (China) 2

ARMENIAN BRANDY IS BETTER THAN FRENCH: RUSSIA’S FM

Arminfo
2007-04-04 15:33:00

Â"Excuse me, Mister Caroff but the Armenian brandy is better than the
French oneÂ", Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov told President
and Director General of the Yerevan Brandy Company, having tasted a
little of "ArArAt" brandy.

During his visit to YBC, Sergey Lavrov had highly appreciated the
Company’s traditions. The Russian FM appended his signature on the
Barrel of Peace, that should be opened the day of signing a peaceful
agreement on Nagorno Karabakh.

During the excursion, Director General of YBC Herve Caroff told
the Russian guest that the Company produces 6 mln bottles of brandy
annually, 90% of which are for export. According to him, the lion’s
share of the brandy export falls on Russia, that is 2,5 mln bottles.

To note, the YBC is a constituent part of Pernod Ricard French group
of companies, the second producer of alcohol drinks on a global scale.

–Boundary_(ID_eEkoWgRqDKuylpcIxOZoVA)–

EXAMINATION OF CASES ON ISSUE OF CORRESPONDENCE TO CONSTITUTION OF REJECTION OF ACCEPTION OF CASSATION COMPLAINTS STARTS AT CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Noyan Tapan
Apr 04 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 4, NOYAN TAPAN. Examination of 27 applications of 33
citizens started on April 3 at RA Constitutional Court. The applicants
litigate correspondence to the Constitution of articles regarding
order of bringing, return and acception of cassation complaints of
RA Civil Procedure Code.

The applicants consider that indefinite formulations included in those
articles do not permit citizens to completely protect their rights. In
particular, the criteria of the notion of "grave consequences" are not
mentioned and cassation complaints are mainly returned with the very
motivation of lack of grave consequences. For instance, in the words
of lawyer Ruzanna Ter-Vardanian, one of her clients lost a land plot,
but the Cassation Court did not consider this as a grave consequence.

It was also mentioned that the Code was amended on July 7, 2006,
but the cassation complaints introduced before were also returned
making the law retroactive.

Representative of respondent party, RA Acting Justice Minister David
Haroutiunian said that the respective laws of many European countries
also lack certainty. He also agreed that as a rule, cassation
complaints are returned. D. Haroutiunian said that a tendency of
replacing three-stage judicial system by a two-stage system is
noticed since the 70-s of the previous century in Europe. In his
words, the international experience shows that the third instance
accepts a case for examination in exclusive cases. The reason is that
there are many complaints and in case of examining all of them the
principle of implementing judicial examination in reasonable terms
is violated. For instance, in average the examination of civil cases
in Poland is seven years.

The examination of the case will continue on April 6.

ONLY POLITICAL METHODS OF ELECTORAL STRUGGLE ARE ACCEPTABLE FOR ARFD, HRAYR KARAPETIAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Apr 04 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 4, NOYAN TAPAN. "Today we have been given a historical
chance of holding elections positively differing from the previous
ones." Hrayr Karapetian, member of ARFD Supreme Body of Armenia, head
of National Assembly ARFD faction, stated at the April 4 meeting with
journalists. In his words, if tomorrow authoritative international
structures register unfair elections, Armenia will appear in very
hard conditions. This circumstance, in H. Karapetian’s words, should
be taken into consideration by all political forces and especially by
those who from the very start distort the election results by starting
the electoral campaign earlier than the term stipulated by the law.

H. Karapetian refuted the rumors that allegedly ARFD representatives
collect passports from citizens. As he affirmed, only political
methods of electoral struggle are acceptable for ARFD. Besides, he
does not understand the purpose of collecting passports. "This has
purely psychological influence on people: they start to think that
handing over the passport they become controllable," the Supreme Body
member said.

Condemning the attempt upon Gyumri Mayor’s life committed on April 2,
H. Karapetian qualified it as a terrorist act. At the same time he gave
assurance that we should struggle against any kind of terrorism. In his
words, it is no use convening consultations and adopting "declarative"
statements after this incident: preventive measures should be worked
out. H. Karapetian reminded that according to RA law "On Fighting
Terrorism," RA President can create an anti-terrorist structure.

SEGOLENE ROYAL PROMISES TO RATIFY THE BILL CRIMINALIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE NEGATION

ArmRadio.am
04.04.2007 16:48

"Turkey can join the European Union in case it recognizes the Armenian
Genocide," declared French Socialist candidate for presidency Segolene
Royal in an interview with one of Armenian reviews.

Turkish "Sabah" informs that Royal, who is considered to be one of
the most probable presidential candidates, declared that Turkey must
register progress in recognizing its past faults. "I promise to ratify
the law criminalizing the negation of the Armenian Genocide if I’m
elected President," declared Royal.

PLACE OF ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN FOOTBALL MATCHES TO BE KNOWN BY APRIL 14

ArmRadio.am
04.04.2007 16:55

By April 14 UEFA will determine the time and place of holding the
matches between the national football teams of Armenia and Azerbaijan
in the framework of the qualification round of Euro-2008, Armenpress
was told from the Press Secretariat of RA Football Federation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IN ULP LEADER’S WORDS, NO POLITICAL FORCE WILL RECEIVE ABSOLUTE MAJORITY OF VOTES AT ELECTIONS

Noyan Tapan
Apr 04 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 4, NOYAN TAPAN. During the consultation that took
place lately at RA President’s office, the United Labor Party (ULP)
parliamentary faction spoke for possible appointment of Acting Defence
Minister Serge Sargsian to the post of the Prime Minister. Gurgen
Arsenian, Chairman of United Labor Party, head of National Assembly
United Labor Party faction, reported at the April 4 press conference.

According to his observation, even under conditions of lack of
political dispute preelectoral processes develop in the political plane
in Armenia. In G. Arsenian’s words, ULP estimates these processes
as satisfactory. Answering the question of one of journalists how
he treats some parties’ strategy of starting the agitation campaign
ahead of the schedule, ULP leader advised to ask this question to
the representatives of these parties. Touching upon ULP’s agitation
campaign, G. Arsenian said that the programs and slogans have been
already worked out and they will be presented to the public no sooner
than April 8, official start of agitation campaign.

G. Arsenian refused to make forecasts on results of parliamentary
elections.

Nevertheless, he excluded that any party will receive absolute majority
of votes. Today, in G. Arsenian’s words, there is no such "monster"
political force having such huge resource in Armenia.

HRAYR KARAPETIAN ENTERS RACE WITH ‘TWENTY YEARS IN POLITICS’ SLOGAN

Yerkir
04.04.2007 15:08

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Hrayr Karapetian, the leader of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation faction in National Assembly, told a news
conference today that he is entering the parliamentary race with a
slogan "Twenty years in politics."

"All the forces that until now were training, should now show what
they can do for the Armenian people to get orientated and elect the
force that will be leading it for the next five years.

We have a historic chance to conduct fair election that will be
different from all previous ones. There are all prerequisites for that,
and if international bodies conclude that the election was not fair,
Armenia will find itself in a very tough position in the Artsakh
isse and the Millennium Challenge Account because this program
will be implemented only if free and fair election is conducted,"
Karapetian said. "The party interests should not be put above the
national interests."

He said that the ARF will do everything to ensure democratic election.

"Everybody says this, even those who are engaged in using illegal
methods, and who from the very beginning distort the idea of fair
elections," he said.

He was asked if it is true that the ARF is taking passports from
people, and for example, a family in Davtashen district of Yerevan
has been paid $200 to vote for the party.

"It is a lie," Karapetian said. "People do not understand that no
matter how much money they are paid, they still can vote for whomever
they want, no one can control the voting."

He also spoke of the negative things happening in constituency 4 where
he is running under the single-mandate system. "I am not against
signing a memorandum of understating between the candidates. From
day one I have said that I will fight those negative things. I have
facts that passports were taken from people. My method is campaigning,
I have no other methods."

He also warned against election fraud saying that tougher punishment
is envisaged in the Criminal Code for riggers.

ARMENIANS IN LATIN AMERICA AND SPAIN LAUNCH ARMENIA FOREVER! CAMPAIGN

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.04.2007 13:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On the eve of the 92st anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide perpetrated by Turkey, the International Armenian Network
– IAN is launching a worldwide campaign in support of Republics of
Armenia and Artsakh. The IAN Central Committee told PanARMENIAN.Net
that the collected support signatures will be saved on CDs that
will be delivered to the governments of Armenia and all other
nations through their embassies. A copy will be sent to the UN as
well. Armenia Forever! was set up by IAN (), the website
of Spanish-speaking Armenians from Latin America as well as Spain.

ATTEMPTS TO ENSURE SECURITY OF ONE STATE AT EXPENSE OF THE OTHER ARE CHIMERICAL

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.04.2007 14:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Russia proposes to launch a process of joint
assessment of the missile and nuclear threats Europe and CIS can
face," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a lecture
at the Yerevan State University. Russia hopes to resume a dialogue
on anti-missile defense with NATO, according to him.

"We eye the one-sided decision to install U.S. anti-missile defense
devices in Central and Eastern Europe as a risk for Russia and whole
Europe. When we are told about technological breakthrough without
presenting any arguments, we can say one thing: this should not be
done by undermining strategic stability and creation of security
deficit in the other states," the RF FM said.

He also said that the attempts to ensure security of one state at
the expense of the others are chimerical.

"The understanding achieved by the Russian and U.S. Presidents will
allow resuming of collective discussions on anti-missile defense
between Russia and NATO," Sergey Lavrov said.