Author: Emil Lazarian

SHEN YANG AND ZAVEN ANDRIASIAN WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONS
Chessbase News, Germany
Oct 17 2006
17.10.2006 Both are seventeen and have won the girls’ and the open
section of the World Under 20 World Championship that was held in
Yerevan, Armenia, from October 2nd to 17th 2006. Shen Yang was just
a couple of tiebreak points ahead of one of the greatest talents in
chess today, Hou Yifan, who is just twelve! Report and games.
Junior World Championships in Yerevan
For our younger readers: a “demo board” is a large wooden or vinyl
chessboard attached upright to the wall or supported by a stand. The
pieces attach to the board with magnets, or are cleverly inserted
into slits at the bottom of the squares. Sometimes, when the boards
are very large (as in the above pictures) rods are used to move the
pieces. The transmission of the moves from the game to the board is
done by non-electronic means – a human agent is used instead.
World Junior Championship top finishers The open section was won
by 17-year-old Armenian super-talent Zaven Andriasian, who last
year won the Boys’ Under 16 section of the Youth Championships in
Herceg Novi. Zaven started as the 29th seed in this event. Second was
19-year-old IM Nikita Vitiugov of Russia, who was the fourth highest
rated player in the tournament.
Photos & score table
id=3432
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OUR WEAPON IS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Oktay Eksi
Hurriyet, Turkey
Oct 17 2006
Has France really surprised us, or has it shown us that the
“freedom-loving” France whose image we have carried for years in
our minds is not the real thing, replaced instead by this fanatic,
anti-freedom of expression, “one truth,” despotic country we now
face? It seems that we have seen the king naked for the first time.
And because of this, we are surprised.
France doesn’t see what an embarassment it is to tell people “If
you say that the Armenian genocide didn’t happen, you get 5 years
in prison and up to 45 Euro in fines.” What they are saying is,
“even if you know another truth, you may not express it.” What an
embarassment this is to civilization.
Look, we are not even saying “There was no slaughter of Armenians.”
We do not believe that there was, but we are not going to get into
this subject right now. We are right now just looking at this incident
from the perspective of freedom of expression, and maintaining from
this moment that this bill-if accepted, which it most likely will
be-will not only be a great shame for France, but for the entire EU.
And while on the subject of the EU, I would like to draw your
attention to words spoken this week by the EU’s Commissioner in
charge of Expansion, Olli Rehn: “If this French Parliament votes
to accept this bill, I fear it will create a very non-constructive
atmosphere.” Why, I ask, does Olli Rehn, who arrived in Turkey two
weeks ago demanding in no uncertain terms that Ankara remove article
301 from its penal code, water-down his words so blatantly when it
comes to France? Couldn’t he find it in himself somewhere to say
“This bill is completely opposed to freedom of expression”? Or is
the game played differently once a country is already inside the EU?
And by the way, where are the intellectuals who crow so often “Europe
is a union of culture and values”? Where is former President Giscard
d’Estaigne? Why aren’t the columns in Le Monde dealing with this
subject? France is showing that they are no longer of this age,
but have returned to being the French of the age of Inquisition,
the times when Galileo was forbade from saying that the Earth moved
around the Sun.
Don’t think that I am exaggerating. We are obliged to emerge successful
from this fight, which began with the slander about the “Armenian
genocide.” This is because if we don’t, the accusation will never
be removed from our official records. And what this means-as I wrote
yesterday in this space-is that we must direct our side of this fight
very well. As Taha Akyol wrote yesterday in his column, what makes
us strong in this fight is the “freedom of expression” weapon.
But Turkey must be careful, before telling others about the shame
of their infraction against freedom of expression, to clean up its
own shames. Firsy and foremost in this realm comes our very own
Turkish Penal Code, and its article 301, forbidding the “insulting
of Turkishness.”
In the end, as you can see, “freedom of expression” will be our
salvation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EARTHQUAKE IN KARABAKH
A1+
[12:51 pm] 18 October, 2006
Today at about 06:00 a.m. an earthquake took place 20 km from Martakert
on the border line of Karabakh and Azerbaijan. The force of underground
shocks was 4.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

JACQUES CHIRAC NEVER APOLOGIZED TO TURKISH PRIME MINISTER
Public Radio of Armenia
16.10.2006 16:25
In a phone talk with the Prime Minister of Turkey Rejeb Tayyib Erdogan
the President of France Jacques Chirac repeated the words about the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide he uttered during his state
visit to Armenia, Press Service of Elisee Palace told “ArmInfo.
The press service refuted the information disseminated by Turkish
media, according to which President Chirac had apologized for the
adoption of the bill penalizing the negation of the Armenian Genocide
by the lower house of the French Parliament. According to Turkish
media, Chirac had promised to block adoption of a corresponding law
in future.
“The phone talk really took place, but we do not confirm the
information disseminated by Turkish media.
During the conversation with the Turkish Prime Minister Chirac
repeated the words he said in Yerevan, emphasizing the necessity of
acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide by Ankara if Turkey wants
to join the European Union,” the official source of the Elisee
Palace noted.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO OSCE JULIE FINLEY ARRIVING IN ARMENIA OCTOBER 17
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2006 18:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ October 17-19 U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Julie
Finley will be paying a visit to Armenia, the press office of the
U.S. Embassy in Yerevan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. The details
of the visit will be known tomorrow. As reported by Mediamax, when
addressing the OSCE Permanent Council in summer Ms. Finley said that
“one-sided decision on suspension of legal travel of people and
commodity circulation at the Russian-Georgian border conflicts with
economic and humanitarian interests of the peoples of the region,
including Armenia.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

25 YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN LEAVE CHILDREN HOMES EVERY YEAR
Armenpress
Oct 17 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 17, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian government has earmarked
325 million drams this year for purchase of apartments for young
men and women who leave children homes and other institutionalized
establishments.
According to Armenian labor and social affairs ministry, which
supervises these establishments, every year about 25 young men and
women leave children homes. This year alone 53 such young men and
women will be given apartments. This program of assisting graduates
of institutionalized children establishments was adopted in 2003. A
2004 study found that 220 graduates needed apartments.
Apart from providing apartments the program also envisages various
training programs for these graduates. They are also eligible to
legal and medical assistance.
>From its inception the program has already provided apartments to 100
people. The draft 2007 budget will raise subsidies to social sector
from this year’s 56 billion drams to 64 billion drams.

PATRIARCH MUTAFIAN OBSERVES RAMADAN FAST NOT TO DESERT MOSLEM BROTHERS
By Hakob Chakrian
AZG Armenian Daily
18/10/2006
The ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan, is a holy month for
all Moslems. From dawn to sunset they fast during Ramadan. Mesrop
II Mutafian, Armenian patriarch of Constantinople, has decided to
observe Ramadan fast, Agos newspaper informs in an article titled
“Patriarch Observes Ramadan Fast” on September 29.
Here is what the Turkish-language Armenian paper writes: “On the first
day of Ramadan Mesrop II Patriarch of Turkey’s Armenians took part at
a party organized by Sisli mayor Mustafa Saregyul opening the fasting
period and made astonishing statements. The Patriarch announced to
Turkish journalists that he will fast during this year’s Ramadan,
too. ‘Prayer and fasting,’ he said, ‘are common values for both
Christians and Moslems. We, the Christians, observe a 7 days’ fast
before the Easter. Since I am always invited to the ceremonies of fast
opening, I’ve decided to join my Moslem brothers in fasting month’.
Mesrop II wished good Ramadan to all at the end.”
These statements of Mesrop II to Turkish media require no comment. Let
us only remind that in 2004, when the European states were seriously
discussing whether to start or not talks for EU membership with Turkey,
the Patriarch was touring in Europe. Asked by Danish state minister
in Copenhagen “Are you not an Armenian?” he answered: “I am both
Armenian and Turk.”
By joining Moslems in observing Ramadan fasting the Patriarch is
apparently preparing to announce: “I am both Christian and Moslem”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PACE SITTING TAKES PLACE IN YEREVAN
AZG Armenian Daily
18/10/2006
The sitting of the PACE Monitoring Commission for Implementation of
Commitments to EU took place at RA National Assembly, yesterday. In
the course of the sitting the parliamentarians discussed issues of
Russian-Georgian relations, the implementation of Monaco’s commitments,
the issues of carrying out monitoring in Ukraine and in the Great
Britain. Tigran Torosian, Speaker of RA National Assembly, Head
of the Armenian delegation to PACE, informed “Noyan Tapan” about
this. The deputies didn’t discuss Armenia’s implementation of its
commitments. Most likely, this issue will be discussed at the December
12 sitting, in Paris.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN POLITICAL SCIENTIST: IN ARMENIAN-GEORGIAN RELATIONS THERE IS DIRECT EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION WITH THIRD PARTY
Yerevan, October 17. ArmInfo. Today, at a press-conference at the
National press-club, Igor Mouradyan, a famous Armenian political
scientist, said that in the Armenian-Georgian relations there is
direct evidence of collusion, probably, with a third party
He noted that from 1997 till 2003 he actively took up the problems
of the Georgian region Samtskhe-Javakheti, participating in
three EU expert programs. Besides, he has lately returned from
Samtskhe-Javakheti, therefore he knows the situation in the region
from within. According to him, there was a period when public
organizations were actively established in the region and were
controlled by Armenia. They gave diverse information, but because of
the lack of bright leaders they gradually lost their topicality. At
the moment these are just offices with few people. Another thing is
the recently established which unifies about 20 organizations. Its
main body consists of 2-3 thousand of politically competent young men,
mostly from the Youth Center. They have 15-20 representatives in each
village of the region. Igor Mouradyan is convinced that the received no
more than 70% of votes at the recent municipal elections of Georgia,
however Tbilisi could not afford the defeat of the ruling party,
that’s why only 5 representatives remained in the organization in
the rural administrations.
In this connection, Mouradyan noted that the West considers
Samtskhe-Javakheti a kind of , allowing the Georgian authorities to do
anything they like, as the international community is very interested
in the region and considers that the USA-Turkey relations depend on
this region. It resulted in the acknowledgement, though with minor
reservations, of the recent regional municipal elections corresponding
to the European standards by the OSCE mission of observers. Mouradyan
said that the international community considers Georgia not capable
to maintain the security in the region, therefore some international
contingent will certainly be present in Georgia.
However, he emphasized that the recent Georgian-Russian crisis
postponed Georgia’s joining the NATO for several years at least.
As regards the Armenian-Georgian relations, Armenia is evidently
carrying out some obligation, most likely, to the West, in Mouradyan’s
opinion. This may explain Armenia’s non-intervention into the
Javakhk problem, and the recent arrest of Vahagn Chakhalyan,
a activist. Mouradyan said that there are not and cannot be any
documents about such collusion, but this is the most logic explanation
of official Yerevan’s actions. He thinks that, probably, at the
price of such policy of Armenia, the international community will
acknowledge the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU WARNS TURKEY TO LET CYPRUS USE PORTS IF IT WANTS TO JOIN
Belfast Telegraph, United Kingdom
Oct 17 2006
Turkey has been given a stark warning that time is running out for
it to salvage talks on its membership of the EU by opening its ports
to Cypriot planes and ships.
Amid frantic diplomatic efforts, the EU’s enlargement commissioner,
Olli Rehn, warned of a “last window of opportunity on the Cyprus issue
in the coming weeks or months for a very long time, perhaps for years”.
Yesterday, EU officials sought to encourage Turkey to engage in the
diplomacy, and tried to calm anger in Ankara at last week’s French
parliamentary vote to criminalise those who deny the Armenian genocide.
Mr Rehn met the Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul, in Luxembourg
as the countdown began to a year-end deadline for Turkey to end its
embargo on vessels from Cyprus which joined the EU in 2004.
Mr Rehn has already warned that failure to do so would lead to a
“train crash”, with Turkey’s membership talks are put on ice. Ankara
is holding out, saying it will only relent if the economic blockade
is lifted in Turkish northern Cyprus.
On 8 November, the European Commission will publish a report on
Turkey’s progress towards membership and is likely to be critical of
the slow pace of reform.
Diplomats said yesterday’s talks with Mr Gul had “a good atmosphere,
a good discussion but no breakthrough”.
Finland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, has launched a
last diplomatic push to reduce restrictions on Turkish-run northern
Cyprus if Turkey, in turn, opens its ports to Greek Cypriots.
Mr Gul said he “will constructively support the Finnish presidency’s
proposal”, which is thought to propose opening the northern Cyprus
seaport of Famagusta to free trade with the EU. In return, the Turkish
side should give control of the abandoned town of Varosha to the
Greek Cypriots.
But the Turkish side is resisting any concession over Varosha,
arguing it cannot do so outside of UN talks on the future of Cyprus.
It is also calling for direct flights to be started to the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus which is not internationally recognised.
In 2004, Greek Cypriots voted against a UN-backed plan aimed at
reuniting the country on the eve of its entry into the EU. Turkish
Cypriots approved the plan.
Mr Rehn repeated that the Cyprus customs issue could prove to be
the breaking point in Turkey’s membership talks which began in
October 2005.
He said there were “tensions in EU-Turkey relations” but the problems
could not be resolved “by dramatising them”. He said: “Instead,
we have to work prudently and with full determination in order to
find solutions. Both communities and all parties should now show
political will.”
The talks were also aimed at soothing Turkey after French lawmakers
approved legislation that would criminalise denying that First
World War killings of Armenians was genocide. The legislation still
needs approval from the French Senate and president. Turkey does not
accept the label of genocide, saying the Armenians were killed in a
partisan war.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress