Levon Aronyan to participate in a chess tournament in Elista
ArmRadio.am
26.05.2007 15:00
Leading Grand Master of Armenia, Olympic Champion and World Cup holder
Levon Aronyan will leave for Elista, the capital of the Republic of
Kalmikia of the Russian Federation, to participate in the tournament
of World Champion challengers to start on May 27. Levon Aronyan’s
first rival is Magnus Karlsen of Norway. The winner will later compete
with the winner of the Michael Adams-Alexey Sherov match.
Armenian opposition parties demand fresh election
Arminfo
25 May 07
Yerevan, 25 May: The People’s Party of Armenia, the Republic Party,
the New Times Party, the Impeachment bloc and the Hnchak Social
Democratic Party of Armenia have signed a joint statement not
recognizing the results of the 12 May parliamentary election.
The statement was voiced in the opposition rally in Yerevan
today. About 2,000 people took part in the rally. The document states
that even during the election campaign the ruling parties made serious
fraud, such as bribing of voters, using the administrative resources
and others.
The statement also stresses that during the day of election and while
counting the votes serious violations of the Election Code took
place. The five parties that signed the joint statement demanded that
a fresh parliamentary election be held.
ARMENTEL CANCELS 65 PERCENT OF DEBT REGISTERED AS INTERNATIONAL CALLS
Panorama.am
18:19 24/05/2007
ArmenTel cancels 65 percent of debt for customers who used dial
up internet service and registered international calls on their
accounts. This action concerns those customers who submitted
applications to the company from May 1, 2006 to May 23, 2007. If a
customer has paid the debt, 65 percent of the amount will stay in
his/her account as an advanced payment.
Those customers who have not made any payments will have 65 percent
of the amount cancelled. The remaining 35 percent they must pay in
the course of three years according to an agreement and timetable
agreed with ArmenTel.
AZERBAIJAN TOPS THE CHARTS FOR NUMBER OF IMPRISONED JOURNALISTS
By Rovshan Ismayilov
Today.Az
/
23 May 2007 [10:01]
The number of Azerbaijani journalists in prison has reached a record
high over the past month, even while one senior government official
maintains that the country’s leadership is doing everything possible
to respect press freedom.
Azerbaijan currently has the highest number of arrested journalists
among all of the 56 member states of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Miklos Haraszti, the organization’s
special representative for media freedoms, told Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev in April. As if to underscore that status, the Paris-based
media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders recently included
the Azerbaijani leader on its list of so-called "Media Predators."
Since then, the number of imprisoned journalists has risen from five
to seven. Most recently, on May 16, opposition newspaper Muhalifat
editor Rovshan Kebirli and correspondent Yashar Agazade were sentenced
to two years and six months in prison for allegedly slandering the
president’s uncle, Jalal Aliyev.
The correspondent had described Jalal Aliyev as "the most corrupt
person in Azerbaijan" with control of the country’s largest trading
center, AMAY. Aliyev demanded evidence for the charges, which the
newspaper did not provide.
International human rights and media watchdog organizations, the
United States, and the European Union have repeatedly urged the
Azerbaijani government to release all imprisoned journalists and to
adopt legislation that would ban the criminal prosecution of media
representatives.
Government officials assert that criticism of their stance on media
rights is off-target. In remarks to journalists on May 3, Ali Hasanov,
head of the presidential administration’s political department,
asserted that "after Ilham Aliyev took office [in 2003], he solved
all problems with media freedom."
"A few facts related to some journalists cannot be equated with
the situation in the country as a whole," Hasanov added. Imprisoned
journalists, however, were excluded from a May 8 parliament amnesty
for prisoners granted at the suggestion of the president’s wife,
parliamentarian Mehriban Aliyeva.
Reporters Without Borders appears to be in the presidential
administration’s firing line. Hasanov claimed that the organization
"is working under the Armenian lobby’s influence," and has been
"fighting against [Azerbaijani ally] Turkey for a long time." Given
this perceived bias, officials in Baku tend to disregard the group’s
assessments.
The criticism of international organizations is unlikely to die
down soon.
Late on May 20, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, citing violation
of fire safety standards, moved to shut down the offices of Realniy
Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan, two newspapers often critical of
the Aliyev administration. The papers’ publisher and editor-in-chief,
Eynulla Fatullayev, was recently sentenced to two-plus years in
prison for slander. Intervention by local journalists, human rights
activists and American and British diplomats stopped the closure,
the pro-opposition news agency Turan reported.
A rally by local journalists has been tentatively scheduled for June
14 in Baku to protest the recent imprisonments of reporters.
Perhaps the highest profile instance of press repression involves
Fatullayev, who was arrested on April 20 on charges of slandering
internally displaced persons from Khojali, a town in Nagorno
Karabakh. The suit was filed by Tatiana Chaladze, chairwoman of the
Committee for Protection of Refugees, a Baku-based non-governmental
organization. In an article entitled "Karabakh Diary," Fatullayev
published a statement by an Armenian army officer who said that
Armenian forces had kept open an exit corridor for civilians during
a bloodbath in 1992, remembered in Azerbaijan as the Khojali
massacre. The article also reported that escapees from Khojali
confirmed the existence of such a corridor. Chaladze demanded evidence
that the town’s former residents had confirmed the existence of a
corridor. Fatullayev was also charged for reportedly stating in an
online discussion forum that chaotic Azerbaijani gunfire had killed
some Khojali residents. The publisher maintains that both accusations
are a political response to Realniy Azerbaijan’s sharp criticism of
President Aliyev’s rule.
Helping to stir the press freedom controversy was a brutal beating
of the editor of Gundelik Azerbaijan on the day of Fatullayev’s
sentencing. The editor, Uzeir Jafarov, was hospitalized as a result
of injuries suffered in the attack. He claims that a police officer
who attended Fatullayev’s trial was among his assailants. The charge
has not yet been investigated.
The arrest of Sanat newspaper reporter Rafik Taghi and editor Samir
Sadagtogulu focused on a similarly sensitive topic, the role of
Islam. On May 4, the two received three and four-year prison sentences
respectively, for the publication of a 2006 article that described
Christian values as more progressive than Islamic values. Charges were
brought by the general prosecutor’s office for "inflaming religious
conflict."
Baku analysts have trouble explaining possible reasons for the
government’s apparent hard line toward journalists. The country’s
opposition is weak and fragmented, they note, and the presidential
elections are still a year off.
The April 27 decision to grant a broadcast license to private
television and radio company ANS after months of delay is cited by
Azerbaijani reporters as the only recent sign of tolerance of media
outlets that diverge from the government’s viewpoint.
Shahin Hajiyev, editor of the pro-opposition Turan news agency, which
has had its own property dispute tussle with officials, sees the
issue as part of a larger malaise concerning democratization. "It is
not only a media problem," commented Hajiyev. "It is a problem with
the general situation with democracy in Azerbaijan."
SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN: ‘HERITAGE’ PARTY IS NOW RESPONSIBLE FOR PRESENTATION OF WHOLE OPPOSITIONAL ELECTORATE OF ARMENIA IN PARLIAMENT
ArmInfo
2007-05-24 15:08:00
The "Heritage" party is in difficult situation now since, as a
result of the parliamentary election, it will have to present
the whole protest electorate in the Parliament alone", leader of
the National-Democratic party of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan told
ArmInfo. He said theta the relative success of the "Heritage" is
explained by its recent creation and joining the political struggle. He
added that the further political success of the party depends on its
specific work in the Parliament.
GREEKS PRESS CHARGES OVER TURKISH FLAG BURNT IN ARMENIAN DEMO
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 23 2007
A prosecutor in the northern Greek city of Salonika has pressed
charges against unidentified persons who burned a Turkish flag during
a Greek-Armenian demonstration at the city’s Turkish consulate last
month, a local justice source said on Wednesday.
The charge of insulting the symbol of a foreign state will enable
the perpetrators to be brought to justice should they be identified
via photographs and video shot during the demonstration.
The incident occurred during an April 24 demonstration to mark the
92nd anniversary of massacres committed against Armenians by the
Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Turkish consular authorities
complained to Greece over the burning.
Greeks of Armenian descent annually hold demonstrations to press
Turkey to admit guilt over the massacres.
Ankara says 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died in
civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence and sided
with invading Russian troops during World War I.
But Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their ancestors were
slaughtered in orchestrated killings that can only be seen as
genocide. Greece’s parliament adopted a resolution condemning the
Armenian massacres as genocide in 1996.
ARMENIANS RESTART ARSONS IN OCCUPIED AZERBAIJANI REGIONS
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 22 2007
Armenian Armed Forces continue to commit arsons in the occupied
parts of Azerbaijani regions of Fuzuli and Jabrail, APA’s Karabakh
bureau reports.
Great fire is observed in the villages of Horadiz, Ayibasanli of Fuzuli
region, and Iman valley, Leletepe and Mehdili settlements of Jabrail.
Fuzuli executive power officer Khanoglan Azimov told the APA that
fires are being observed at present. Fuzuli executive power special
commission is making notes concerning the arsons.
EVENTS DEDICATED TO THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF OPENING THE LACHIN CORRIDOR HELD IN NKR
armradio.am
18.05.2007 15:35
Athletic-cultural events dedicated to the 15th anniversary of opening
of the Lachin corridor are underway in Berdadzor, the centre of
Kashatagh (Lachin) region.
ArmInfo correspondent informs from Stepanakert that repetitives of
the state and regional authorities and the public are participating
in the arrangements. Under the conditions of the continuing blockade
the Lachin corridor is the only way connecting Nagorno Karabakh to
Armenia and thus to the whole world.
YOUNG ARMENIAN CHESS-PLAYERS WIN IN SECOND TOUR OF KIRISHI INTERNATIIONAL TOURNAMENT
Noyan Tapan
May 17 2007
KIRISHI, MAY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Games of 2nd tour took place on
May 17 in the International Chess Tournament being held in the
town of Kirishi, Leningrad region, with participation of 12 young
chess-players. Representatives of Armenia Zaven Andriasian and Avetik
Grigorian defeated Ivan Popov (Russia) and Salco Bindrich (Germany),
respectively.
‘THEY KNEW, THEY KNEW BEFORE THE BOMB WENT OFF’
Jeff Sallot
Globe and Mail, Canada
May 18 2007
>From Friday’s Globe and Mail
OTTAWA – A senior Canadian Security Intelligence Service officer
seemed to have advance knowledge of the Sikh extremist plot to bomb
an Air India flight in 1985, two lawyers testified Thursday.
Their testimony is based on separate conversations with Mel Deschenes,
then the head of the CSIS counterterrorist branch, just days before
the bombing.
Graham Pinos, who was a federal Justice Department lawyer representing
CSIS, said he remembers talking shop with Mr. Deschenes over drinks
beside a Los Angeles hotel pool.
Mr. Deschenes said that CSIS considered Sikh extremism the biggest
terrorist threat facing Canada, not the Armenian nationalists whose
violent activities had brought the Canadians to California.
Mr. Deschenes didn’t specify that Air India Flight 182 was a target,
Mr. Pinos said.
However, "he did tell me he was afraid of a plane being taken out of
the air, or in his words, blown out of the air" by Sikh extremists.
The Air India flight was bombed four days later. Mr. Pinos, now in
private law practice, said he thought: "Holy expletive. They knew.
They knew. I had a distinct impression that they knew something was
going to happen."
In earlier testimony yesterday, Michael Anne MacDonald, who was an
Ontario government prosecution lawyer in the Armenian case, said she
also had what now seems like an eerie conversation with Mr. Deschenes
at the L.A. hotel.
Mr. Deschenes told her he had to head back to Canada early to deal
with an urgent Sikh terrorism case.
When she heard that the plane had been blown out of the sky, she too
remembered Mr. Deschenes’s words. "I thought, even when they know
something is going to happen, they can’t stop it."
Inquiry lawyers say Mr. Deschenes is not going to testify. He’s old
and in poor health.
Tracey McCann, a federal lawyer at the Air India inquiry, said the
government disputes the accuracy of the recollections of the two
witnesses.
However, Jacques Shore, a lawyer for the families of Air India victims,
said Ms. MacDonald and Mr. Pinos provide important new evidence.
Their testimony tends to corroborate Ontario Lieutenant-Governor
James Bartleman’s startling statement earlier this month that Canadian
authorities knew of a threat against Flight 182, Mr. Shore said.
Ms. MacDonald and Mr. Pinos were in Los Angeles at a judicial hearing
to obtain wiretap evidence in the case of an Armenian nationalist
who had attacked a Turkish diplomat in Canada.
Mr. Pinos quoted Mr. Deschenes as saying that CSIS feared Sikh
extremists would attack Indian interests, including Air India."I
have an absolutely clear recollection of events. It was something
that shocked me," Mr. Pinos said.
Ms. MacDonald said she vividly remembers Mr. Deschenes checking out
of the hotel early. They ran into each other in a corridor and Mr.
Deschenes said he had received an urgent call and had to rush back
to Canada to deal with a problem of Sikh extremism.
Ms. MacDonald said that when she learned that Flight 182 had exploded
over the Atlantic, her first thought was: "They knew, they knew before
the bomb went off."
In a 1988 report, Mr. Deschenes wrote that he did not have advance
word about the bomb plot. But he wasn’t feeling well and decided to
leave early.
He said he may have used a "work-related pretext."
"My return from Los Angeles was not sudden and could only have been
perceived as such by someone who chose the warm sands of Venice Beach
over a return to cool Ottawa," Mr. Deschenes wrote.