Author: Frangulian Shushan

THE SKATING-RINK OF SPORT AND CONCERT COMPLEX FIRST TO BE RESTORED
By Ara Martirosian
AZG Armenian Daily #163
13/09/2005
President of BAMO Promises Investments of $9-10 Million
The new owner of Yerevan Sport and Concert Complex after Karen
Demirtchian, president of Moscow-based construction group BAMO Murad
Muradian met with journalists at the Armenpress media hall last
week. He firstly represented the activities of the company in Russia,
informing that BAMO is one of the most famous construction companies
in Russia which employs 2500 people.
Muradian said that the company has recently built 2 big sport
complexes in Moscow region. The president of BAMO group applied to
the President of Armenia offering $5 million to buy the Sport and
Concert Complex. The final price of the deal was $5.7 million.
Muradian said that he has set a commission of exports to study the
Complex in three years’ time and settle on the size of investments. He
promised to inform about the process of reconstruction once in 3-6
months. He also said another term of the agreement requires that the
name of the complex be not changed.
One of the first goals is to reconstruct the skating-rink to hold
winter sports all-the-year-round. The company also looks to cultural
arrangements.
“Yerevan should become a city of festivals”, Murad Muradian
underscored.
The company will invest $9-10 million under the deal. No restaurants
or hotels will spring up in the territory of the Complex nor will
the green areas reduce.
One of the founders of BAMO group, Hovik Muradian, rebuffed the rumors
that the wife of Moscow mayor is a shareholder of the company. Murad
Muradian pointed out that the family of the Muradians is the all-out
owner of BAMO group.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY UNWILLING TO REACH FRIENDLY SETTLEMENT ON MINORITY FOUNDATIONS
Anatolia news agency
12 Sep 05
Ankara, 12 September: Turkey has no intention to reach a friendly
settlement agreement at this stage regarding the hearing before the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) about real estate held by some
minority foundations, it was reported on Monday [12 September]. The
issue will be debated on 20 September.
Turkish MFA said the ECHR would hear the cases submitted by Yedikule
Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital Foundation and Fener Greek Boys High
School Foundation, against Turkey.
Sources said MFA requested information, documents and views from
the related institutions pertaining to their allegations, and that
the jurists prepared a document reflecting the views of the Turkish
government.
Sources recalled that ECHR decided to hold a joint hearing on the
two applications, and stated: “Turkey has no intention for a friendly
settlement at this stage.”
The minority foundations claim that articles of the European Convention
on Human Rights about protection of property, anti-discrimination
and on right to a fair judgment, were violated by Turkey.
Related chamber of the ECHR will make its decision at a later date
after listening to the pleas of the lawyers of the foundations and
the Turkish government.

Oscar hopefuls, political dramas head to Toronto
By Jeffrey Hodgson
TORONTO (Reuters) – The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off
its 30th edition on Thursday with movies about violence, sex,
religious persecution and the stress of a post-9/11 world — all set
to share a stage with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
The 10-day event, which film critic Roger Ebert calls the start of
Hollywood’s “Oscar season,” will screen more than 250 features on
subjects as diverse as female miners, gay cowboys, a transvestite
Irish revolutionary, would-be suicide bombers, a mistreated child
bride and Japan’s emperor Hirohito.
Johnny Depp, Charlize Theron, Steve Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony
Hopkins, Cameron Diaz, Viggo Mortensen and Jackie Chan are just a few
of the stars expected at the festival, which ranks with Cannes,
Venice, Berlin and Sundance as one of the world’s most influential.
The festival began on Thursday evening with the world premiere of
“Water” — a movie that sparked riots in India when the first attempt
was made to film it five years ago.
The emotionally charged film about an eight-year-old Hindu child widow
was eventually made last year in Sri Lanka, where director Deepa Mehta
said she could work without distractions.
“It was fabulous… I didn’t have to go to a single political
meeting. I just directed the film,” she said.
Closing the festival on September 17 will be crime drama “Edison,”
which pairs Oscar winners Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman with pop
star Justin Timberlake and rapper LL Cool J.
The movies shown in between will come from more than 50 countries,
with more than 100 being shown for the first time.
Last year’s festival offerings — including “Ray,” “Hotel Rwanda,”
“Being Julia,” “Sideways” and “The Sea Inside” — became major
contenders in the Oscar race and critics will be on the lookout for
next year’s award winners.
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s starring role in the biography “Capote” and
director Ang Lee’s revisionist Western “Brokeback Mountain” are
already being spoken of as likely nominees.
But festival organizers said lower-profile films, many dealing with
anxiety that followed the terror attacks in New York, Washington and
Madrid, would offer equally worthy viewing.
TERROR ATTACKS, WAR
“Sorry, Haters” tells the story of an Arab immigrant cab driver whose
brother has been caught up in America’s security net after the
attacks.
“Paradise Now” follows two young Palestinians in the days before they
are called up to become suicide bombers, a theme also taken up in a
U.S. setting in “The War Within.”
The festival’s director of communications, Gabrielle Free, said the
selection of several films with similar themes was not deliberate,
given that they were picked by different variety of programmers.
“September 11 is now four years behind us, and I think that’s about
the amount of time you would expect for some thought-provoking films
(to emerge),” she said.
Equally provoking will be the latest films from Canada’s two most
famous directors, both of which debuted in competition at Cannes.
David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence” tells the story of the
manager of a small town diner whose life is thrown into chaos after
thwarting an attempted robbery.
And Atom Egoyan’s “Where the Truth Lies” revolves around a scandal
that d rives apart a pair of entertainers played by Kevin Bacon and
Colin Firth. The movie has already been slapped with a NC-17 rating
for its explicit sexuality.
(With additional reporting by Arthur Spiegelman in Toronto)
Reuters/VNU
09/09/05 13:49 ET

Is Hovnanian Near the Ceiling?
0907.htm
By Stephen D. Simpson, CFA
09/09/2005
Usually, finding a stock with a low P/E is an indication that
investors don’t expect a whole lot from the company in question. Yet
even though Hovnanian_(NYSE: HOV)_
() missed estimates by
only a small amount and lowered future guidance fairly modestly, the
Street responded by taking down the shares of this homebuilder by
about 7%.
Of course, homebuilders aren’t your run-of-the-mill single-digit P/E
stocks. There’s that purported bubble to contend with. Everyone knows
(or at least assumes to know) that this boom in construction of new
housing has to end eventually, so a lot of investors and analysts sift
through these earnings announcements for the merest hints of an “aha,
I told you so” moment.
On the surface, there’s not a lot to really hate about Hovnanian’s
quarterly report. Sales rose 24%, earnings climbed 32%, and
homebuilding gross margins expanded. Deliveries of new homes increased
by only about 6% in unit terms, but the value of those homes was about
23% higher.
Guidance, though, was the issue. Although company executives stuck to
their guns and pointed out that they beat their own guidance, that’s
like pointing out the price of nutmeg in Batavia — in other words,
pretty irrelevant.
True, it’s not the company’s fault if analysts get out in front of
management’s own projections, but that’s the way the Wall Street world
works. Speaking of that guidance, though, management said that sales
prices on new homes were moderating, and the company lowered guidance
for the next two years by about 4%-5% from prior mean estimates.
Pretty much everywhere you look, you see homebuilders trading at
single-digit P/E multiples. “So,” the novice investor asks, “how could
I possibly lose if I buy stocks like Hovnanian, D.R.Horton_(NYSE:
DHI)_ () , Lennar_(NYSE:
LEN)_ () , or
Centex_(NYSE: CTX)_ ()
?” Well, what happens if the bottom drops out of the earnings part of
the P/E ratio? This is how, and why, cyclical stocks draw in the
unwitting when the stocks approach their cyclical peaks — the stocks
look cheap until you realize the risk that earnings have peaked.
Have Hovnanian and its brethren peaked? Honestly, I don’t know. What I
do know is that the returns on equity we’re seeing in the sector
aren’t sustainable — unless we’re all going to own two or three
houses apiece. That suggests to me, then, that the risk/reward ratio
in these stocks is tilted too much toward “risk” for my comfort.
For more homely Takes:
* _Bad-Mouthing the Bubble_
()
* _Behind the Bubble Babble_
( m)
* _Don’t Get Crushed by Your Home_
( ary05081505.htm)
* _Home Sweet Homebuilder_
()
Fool contributor _Stephen Simpson_ (mailto:[email protected]) has no
financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he’s neither long nor
short the shares).
The Motley Fool.

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MODERN BIOLOGICAL ISSUES
AZG Armenian Daily #160
08/09/2005
Science
An international workshop on issues that modern biology faces today
dedicated to Russian scientist Nikolay Timifeev-Resotski will launch
today at the American University of Armenia. Around 100 scientists
all over the world have gathered in Yerevan to make their reports on
genetics, radiobiology, radial biophysics and radioecology.
The workshop organized by Pan-Armenian Organization of Biophysics
will last till 11 September.

JUSTICE WILL COOPERATE WITH BOTH
A1+
| 19:19:02 | 07-09-2005 | Politics |
Today during the session of the Justice bloc the inter-party problems
of the Republican Party were not discussed. Even the leader of the
bloc did not want to comment the political events.
“I do not find it correct to comment on the events taking place in
other parties or to interfere with their business. I can only say
that we have passed a long way with the Republican Party and we will
cooperate both with the Republican which is member of the bloc and
with Bazeyan and Vagharshak Haroutyunyan”, answered Stepan Demirchyan
to the question of “A1+”.

Azerbaijan: From Showmanship To Brinkmanship
By Liz Fuller
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Rep.
Sept 2 2005
In the run-up to the parliamentary elections scheduled for 6 November,
Azerbaijani leaders face an unenviable dilemma.
On the one hand, they are under pressure from the Council of Europe,
the OSCE, and the United States to avoid the egregious violations
and outright falsification that marred the elections of 1995, 1998,
2000, and 2003 and to deliver on their repeated pledges that this
time around the vote will be transparent, free, and fair. And, on the
other hand, they need to secure a comfortable parliamentary majority
for the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party without sparking postelections
protests on the lines of those that over the past two years have
toppled entrenched regimes in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. The
tactics and strategy selected to achieve that objective appear to
contain elements of both showmanship and brinkmanship.
Showmanship
On 11 May, President Ilham Aliyev issued a decree outlining measures to
improve the conduct of elections. The preamble to that decree admitted
that contrary to the “political will” of the Azerbaijani authorities,
previous elections were marred by “illegalities,” but it blamed those
irregularities on the “lack of professionalism” and “post-Soviet
mentality” of individual local officials and election commission
members. (No effort has been made over the past two years to identify
the individuals responsible for those “irregularities” and bring them
to justice.) The first of 11 measures listed in President Aliyev’s
decree and intended to prevent a recurrence of procedural violations
entailed programs to raise the professionalism and competence of the
officials responsible for the organization of the election process
and the vote count; the second was a warning to those officials
that they will be held legally responsible for any infringements
of the Election Law, such as hampering electioneering by opposition
candidates or intervening in the voting process or vote count. The
Azerbaijani leadership is thus apparently seeking to offload in advance
the blame for possible violations on to regional officials, who will
have to calculate which offense will be perceived as greater: failing
to ensure at all costs the victory of the ruling party’s candidate,
or risking their superiors’ opprobrium should international observers
register and publicly condemn malpractice in voting stations under
their jurisdiction.The final list of candidates is to be announced on
7 September, and manifestations of both brinkmanship and “black PR”
are likely to multiply in the two months remaining before the election.
A third provision of President Aliyev’s decree, ostensibly intended to
contribute to the fairness of the election process, is the provision
for the conduct of exit polls. Paradoxically, however, this provision
could have the opposite effect if voters in rural areas, fearful of
the wrath of the local authorities, claim to have voted for the YAP
candidate when in fact they cast their votes for a member of the
opposition. A glaring discrepancy between the actual division of
ballots cast and the exit-poll results could impel local election
commission members to bring the “official” tally into line with the
inaccurate exit-poll data.
Further aspects of the election campaign to date that could be
construed as manifestations of showmanship include the lifting of
long-standing restrictions on holding opposition demonstrations in
Baku; registration of several controversial opposition candidates,
first and foremost former parliamentary speaker Rasul Guliev; the
MSK’s 12 August appeal to the Armenian population of the breakaway
unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to register to elect a candidate
to represent the enclave in the next Azerbaijani parliament; and
the belated launch, on 29 August, of a nominally independent public
television station whose mandate requires it to provide equal access
to both pro-government and opposition parliamentary candidates. On
the same day as the MSK announced Guliev’s registration, the office of
Azerbaijan’s prosecutor-general declared that it has stripped Guliev
of his immunity from prosecution. Should he return to Baku from the
United States, as he has pledged to do, he consequently risks arrest
on charges of large-scale embezzlement.
Following the 11 May presidential decree, in late June, under pressure
from the international community, Azerbaijan’s parliament adopted
43 amendments proposed by President Aliyev to the existing election
law. Those amendments did not, however, include the most important
changes called for by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, nor
did they increase opposition representation on election commissions at
all levels, as the opposition had demanded. (The opposition demanded
equal representation on election commissions, which the authorities
rejected, accusing the opposition of thus seeking to prevent such
commissions from adopting any decisions. Presidential-administration
head Ramiiz Mekhtiev told day.az on 23 July that the opposition’s
objective in demanding equal representation was the desire to be in a
position to paralyze the functioning of election commissions and thus
sabotage the entire election process. The Council of Europe called
for appointing an additional opposition representative to the MSK to
give a total of seven opposition and nine pro-government members.)
..And Brinkmanship .
The presidential administration appears to regard the combined
provisions of the presidential decree and the amended election
law as a panacea against election fraud — provided lower-level
bureaucrats abide by its provisions. Proceeding from that conviction,
the Azerbaijani leadership has apparently switched from showmanship
to brinkmanship, arguing that additional measures to preclude fraud
are unnecessary. For example, Ali Hasanov, who heads the political
department within the presidential administration, told day.az on
1 September that the authorities do not consider it necessary to
accede to the proposal, made most recently during a visit to Baku
late last month by Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) Chairman Rene van der Linden, to mark voters’ fingers with
indelible ink to prevent multiple voting.
Further, uglier manifestations of brinkmanship include the recourse
for the first time in an Azerbaijani election to “doubles,” meaning
the nomination in a given constituency of additional candidates
with the same name as a prominent oppositionist. The first target
for such confusion is former presidential adviser Edar Namazov,
one of the leaders of the opposition alliance Yeni Siyaset, who will
compete against two namesakes in a Baku constituency. The questionable
allegations of collusion with Armenian special services brought by
the Prosecutor-General’s Office against Ruslan Bashirli, chairman
of the opposition youth movement Yeni Fikir, fall into the same
category. Allegations of treason by association were subsequently
brought against Bashirli’s mentor Ali Kerimli, chairman of the
progressive wing of Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, one of three
opposition parties aligned in the Azadlyg bloc. Some observers
have construed the vilification campaign launched against Kerimli
as an attempt to split Azadlyg by creating the impression that the
authorities consider Kerimli, rather than fellow Azadlyg leader and
Musavat party Chairman Isa Gambar (who lost to President Aliyev in the
October 2003 presidential ballot), as the most popular and influential
candidate, and by extension as a threat to be neutralized.
The final list of candidates is to be announced on 7 September;
manifestations of both brinkmanship and “black PR” are likely to
multiply in the two months remaining before the election.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HOPE DIES LAST
A1+
| 18:40:00 | 01-09-2005 | Politics |
It is rumored that ArmenTel Company is going to disconnect the cellular
communications for ten days and then put on account of each subscriber
5000 AMD as compensation.
“It is nonsense”, head of the department for public relations Hasmik
Chulityan told A1+ reporter. She assured that the communication
quality will considerably improve within the next several days.

RA PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARYAN RECEIVES MEMBERS OF CREW OF “KILIKIA” VESSEL
ARKA News Agency
Sept 1 2005
YEREVAN, September1. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharyan received
members of the crew of “Kilikia” vessel, which is the other day
finished the 2nd stage of the sailing, AR Presidential Press-Service
reports. The sailors presented the flag they sailed with to the RA
President and received another flag from the President, which they
will take to their future sailing. The sailors also presented the RA
President their signed photograph.
Kocharyan discussed with the crew members the issues of the 3rd
final stage of their sailing, as well as the issue of transporting
the vessel to Armenia. He pointed to the necessity to construct a
special berth in Lake Sevan and promised to help with this issue.
AYAS, the club of naval researches, has constructed a copy of
Armenian Kilikian trade sailing ship of 13th century, which started
a cruise following mediaeval routs around Europe through Black
Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. The vessel was constructed
in accordance with mediaeval manuscripts and epitomes with using
mediaeval technologies. In 2004, Kilikia entered 23 ports in 12
countries of Europe and Asia. The first stage of the expedition was
completed in the 2004 fall in Venice. On May 9, 2005, the ship put
to sea again. A.A. -0–

RUSSIA’S NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO EU FULL OF IDEAS
RIA Novosti, Russia
Sept 1 2005
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov). —
Veteran diplomat and former deputy Russian foreign finister Vladimir
Chizhov, 52, Russia’s new permanent representative to the European
Union, has plenty to be getting on with.
His many priority tasks include negotiating simplified visa regulations
for Russians traveling to the EU, promoting the energy dialogue, and
drafting a new, comprehensive agreement for the Russian-EU partnership.
At his first press conference in his new capacity, Chizhov, who
attended 13 of the 15 EU-Russia summits, spoke about his plans to
transform his representative office in Brussels into the main center
for coordinating Russia- EU cooperation, which has been expanding.
Chizhov’s appointment came at a difficult time for the EU, with the
“No” votes in the referendums on the European constitution in France
and the Netherlands casting considerable doubts over the future
of the document. But the diplomat is undeterred, saying that it is
not yet clear how the ballyhoo over the European constitution will
affect Russia.
Moscow would like the plans and actions of its partners in Brussels
to be more transparent, as this would simplify joint projects. Yet
high-ranking EU officials have hinted that in the complicated
situation in which the organization finds itself, it is particularly
keen to prove its effectiveness, primarily in its relations with
third countries. Russia would like to take full advantage of the
opportunities this presents.
Since Britain currently holds the EU presidency, the 16th EU-Russia
summit, scheduled for December 4, will be held in London. Chizhov
said that one of the key issues on the agenda would be the
introduction of simpler visa regulations for Russians traveling to EU
countries. Russian experts and their European counterparts have already
made good progress in drafting two key agreements on simplifying visa
regulations and on readmission. Brussels sees a connection between the
two issues and is insisting that Moscow commits to readmitting deported
illegal migrants. Moreover, the EU is referring both to Russians and
to citizens of third countries who have traveled to Europe via Russia.
Chizhov does not rule out the possibility of compromise over these
conditions. Moscow’s new man at the EU is optimistically predicting
that the next stage of the visa negotiations will consider scrapping
visas altogether.
Contrary to what many Western analysts are saying, the EU is not
making progress in this area conditional on Russia signing border
treaties with Estonia and Latvia. Moscow and Brussels both regret
that such treaties have not yet been signed and hope that a solution
will eventually be found to these bilateral problems. “The ball is
in the court of our Baltic colleagues,” Chizhov said.
The diplomat highlighted a relatively new and specific problem that
has emerged within the Russia-EU energy dialogue, namely the need to
work out conditions for trade in nuclear fuel cycle materials.
With the enlargement of the organization last year from 15 to 25
member states, the EU gained an additional 19 nuclear power plants.
Of these, all but one were built by Soviet specialists or with Soviet
technical assistance. (The only exception is the plant in Slovenia
that was built by the company Westinghouse.) Accordingly, these 18
nuclear power plants receive nuclear fuel using the same arrangement
as similar facilities in some veteran EU countries, such as Finland:
Russia supplies the plants with fresh nuclear fuel and retrieves
nuclear waste. The EU and Russia should now formalize the conditions
of trade in nuclear materials in a legally binding document.
Russia’s representative to the EU also does not see any obstacles to
expanding cooperation in the seemingly sensitive and unstable region
of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russia is not laying
claim to a monopoly of influence in the post-Soviet territory and is
willing to develop dialogue with the EU in this area, especially as
some CIS countries plan to join the EU.
As for the “frozen conflicts” in the CIS, namely the Transdniester,
Georgia-Abkhazia, Georgia-Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts,
the EU is keen to help bring an end to these tensions. Chizhov said
that Moscow was willing to discuss conflict settlement proposals,
be they of a political or material nature.
The initial ten-year EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement is
due to expire on December 1, 2007. Article 106 of the agreement says
that the agreement can be automatically renewed, so neither party
expects a legal vacuum in their relations. However, it is evident
today that the agreement no longer reflects the present level of
EU-Russia relations and should be amended.
It is too early to predict with any certainty what form a new agreement
might take, whether it will be a new, comprehensive agreement, a
short-term framework agreement with appendices on specific areas of
cooperation, or a new wording of the old agreement.
But the main issue is that Russia and the European Union will continue
to need each other, and even more so in the future than they do today.