Author: Kanayan Tamar

US CONGRESS’S SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS APPROVED THE DRAFT LAW THAT FORBIDS FINANCING THE PROJECT ON A RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION BY-PASSING ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2007-06-25 13:18:00

The Armenian Assembly of America today commended a Subcommittee on
Foreign Affairs for ensuring that taxpayer dollars are not spent on
funding a rail from Azerbaijan to Turkey bypass of Armenia.

As ArmInfo was informed from the Armenian Assembly of America,
the document says that draft project on the new rail construction
sponsored by the Turkish and Azerbaijani governments is aimed
at excluding Armenia from economic and regional transportation
opportunities. Congressman Breed Sherman told the Assembly that the
strict language of the document will ultimately help ensure that
taxpayer dollars will not be spent on efforts that would isolate
Armenia – which is already facing dual blockades by Turkey and
Azerbaijan. "The United States should look for opportunities to
improve, not hinder regional integration and economic cooperation in
the South Caucasus", – the Congressman said.

MEETING AT NKR REPRESENTATION

Azat Artsakh Daily Newspaper, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
NKR Permanent Representation To Armenia
22-06-2007

The permanent representative of NKR to Armenia Carlen Avetisian met
with the fact-finding mission of the Caucasian Caspian Commission at
the NKR representation to Armenia. The head of the delegation George
Reed said in presenting the purpose of the civil initiative that the
commission is going to make a report on the problems of resolution
of the South Caucasian conflicts and the involvement of the European
Union in the regional processes. At the request of the guests, Carlen
Avetisian presented the stance of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on the
recent developments related to the Karabakh issue. He said the EU
will hopefully contribute to the settlement of the conflicts in the
region and reconciliation of peoples.

TIGRAN TOROSIAN ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO USE OF GERMANEXPERIENCE OF DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL AND MULTI-PARTY SYSTEM

Noyan Tapan
Jun 22 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 22, NOYAN TAPAN. RA NA Speaker Tigran Torosian, receiving
the Ambassador of Germany to Armenia Heike Peitsch, who is completing
her diplomatic mission in Armenia, said that during the three years
of her tenure the Ambassador took considerable steps in the respect
of deepening relations between the two countries.

During the meeting they discussed issues related to the development
of a political and multi-party system in Armenia. Mentioning that
some steps will be taken in this direction in the coming years,
T. Torosian attached importance to the use of the rich experience of
Germany in this sphere. In this context the NA Speaker touched upon the
necessity of equal work of German funds with all representatives of the
political sphere, as the authorities and the opposition are parts of
the same multi-party system and have the same problems. T. Torosian
also attached importance to the establishment of cooperation with
German political scientific structures.

AZERI MEDIA: LITHUANIA SERIOUSLY CONSIDERS POSSIBILITY TO JOIN GUAM

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.06.2007 15:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Lithuania seriously considers the issue of becoming
GUAM member-state, Day.az reports citing sources in the Lithuanian
government. According to the source, currently economic and political
aspects of this issue are under examination.

President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus is an active participant of all
GUAM summits, which in itself speaks about Lithuania’s high interest
towards that organization. Most probably issues concerning Lithuania’s
close cooperation with GUAM will be discussed during Azeri President
Ilham Aliev’s official visit to Lithuania this autumn. Currently
Azerbaijan holds the presidency in this organization.

NATO EXPERTS WILL RENDER SUPPORT TO ARMENIA IN WORKING OUT THE MILITARY DOCTRINE

ArmRadio.am
20.06.2007 17:25

NATO Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia
Robert Simmons declared during the joint press conference with RA
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian that experts of the Treaty will
render practical support to Armenia in working out the Military
Doctrine and the Strategic Defense Review.

The NATO representative underlined that the elaboration of the Military
Doctrine and the Strategic Defense Review are components of Armenia’s
Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO.

The NATO Special Representative recalled that in spring of the current
year the Treaty gave a positive evaluation to the process of the
IPAP execution.

According to Robert Simmons, during the meetings with representatives
of RA Ministry of Defense issues related to the increase of civil
servants in military structures, military expenses and improvement
of budgetary porcesses.

ACCORDING TO ROBERT SIMMONS, NATO DOES NOT WELCOME RHETORICAL STATEMENTS ON WAR RESUMPTION

Noyan Tapan
Jun 20 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 20, NOYAN TAPAN. Although NATO is concerned about
Iran’s nuclear program and the possible use of sanctions by the UN
Security Council in this connection, this cannot become an obstacle
to the development of economic relations between many countries and
Iran. The Special Representative of the NATO Secretary-General in the
South Caucasus, Ambassador Robert Simmons stated this at the June 20
press conference. "We understand Armenia’s state and the necessity to
seek new sources for the import of power bearing substances," he noted.

According to R. Simmons, NATO has good relations with all the
three South Caucasian states. At the same time he noted that the
security-related situation is different in these countries, and in its
relations NATO takes into account the interests of the given country,
including Armenia. R. Simmons reminded that Georgia intends to join
NATO, and the relations with Georgia are a bit different.

Speaking about the Karabakh problem, R. Simmons stated that NATO
does not want to be directly involved in the conflict settlement. "We
follow these developments but we have no intention to take an active
part in the negotiation process," he noted.

In his words, NATO welcomes the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs and hopes that negotiations will give a result. "We do
not welcome any rhetorical statements on war resumption: NATO is in
favor of resumption of the negotiations and their successful end,"
the ambassador said.

VARDAN OSKANIAN: "THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH AMERICA WITH RESPECT TO ARMENIAN-IRANIAN RELATIONS"

Noyan Tapan
Jun 19 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 19, NOYAN TAPAN. There is no problem with America with
respect to Armenian-Iranian relations. This statement was made on
June 19 by Vardan Oskanian, the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs. At
the request of journalists the RA Foreign Minister commented on the
statement of Anthony Godfrey, the US Charge d’Affaires to the republic
of Armenia, saying that "the USA is troubled with Armenian-Iranian
relations." The RA Minister of Foreign Affairs mentioned: "We have
dialogues with the USA concerning all kinds of questions: within
economic, political, and security frameworks, we discuss all kinds
of issues."

72% OF SURVEYED NAGORNO-KARABAKH CITIZENS HAPPY ABOUT THEIR PRESIDENT’S WORK

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
June 18 2007

YEREVAN, June 18. /ARKA/. Aharon Adibekyan, Sociometer Independent
sociological centre director, said Monday referring to the
public opinion poll conducted by the center that 72% of surveyed
Nagorno-Karabakh citizens were happy about their president, Arkady
Ghukasyan’s work.

"About 60% expressed appreciation of the president’s work, 12% gave
"completely good" mark. About 15% think otherwise – they gave a
bad mark to the presidential work and 10% "completely bad" while 5%
of respondents found it difficult to say anything.

The sociologist attached great significance to the support provided
by such a respected Karabakh leader to one of presidential candidates.

He said 700 people have been surveyed in Nagorno Karabakh ahead of
presidential elections.

Presidential elections are scheduled for July 19. Nagorno-Karabakh
Central Election Commission decided Thursday to register five
presidential candidates – Bako Saakyan, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
National Security chief; Masis Mailyan, deputy foreign minister; MP
Armen Abgaryan; Vanya Avanesyan, professor at Artsakh State University,
and Hrant Melkumyan, Karabakh Communist Party leader.

Date for launching election campaigns is already set. The Candidates
can start campaigning on June 20.

The presidential elections are scheduled for July 19, 2007.

Stabroek News, Guyana
June 17 2007

Chess with Errol Tiwari
Deep Junior defeats Deep Fritz

Sunday, June 17th 2007

The official handshake before the start of Game Six. Aronian drew and
qualified for Mexico.

Levon Aronian, Peter Leko, Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk
emerged winners in their second round Candidates’ Matches and will
advance to Mexico City to play in the 2007 FIDE World Championship
tournament in September.

The four grandmasters will join current world champion Vladimir
Kramnik, al`ong with Viswanathan Anand, Alexander Morozevich and
Peter Svidler for a grand round robin tournament to contend for the
maximum title in chess: World Chess Champion.

The Mexico tournament will be a rigorous one, as it boasts the
strongest line-up of active players on the international circuit. The
battles will be fierce, moreso since seventy-five per cent of the
participants are about equally matched. Although Kramnik is the
current world champion, Anand is ranked the number one player in the
world because his rating points are higher. The more successes one
has in tournaments and matches, the higher one’s rating points are.

The grandmaster to watch coming out of the Candidates is Levon
Aronian. The Armenian grandmaster has demonstrated tremendous resolve
in scaling the walls of resistance to qualify for Mexico. Peter Leko
is the other favourite from the Candidates’ finals. How the two will
fare against Kramnik and Anand especially, is left to be seen. But
certainly excitement is assured in Mexico.

The preponderance of draws in the Candidates’ is misleading. Even
when draws were inevitable, grandmasters still searched painstakingly
for the win. This attitude of the players accounted for many
interesting games in the matches.

Computer World Champion Deep Junior meanwhile, defeated Deep Fritz by
four points to two in their six-game match. Junior won Games Three
and Four and the rest were drawn.

Chess experts have concluded that Junior proved to be more
knowledgeable in opening theory. While the opening book of Fritz was
more extensive, Junior played sharp, solid moves and began playing on
its own earlier. This is how the machine was able to win game three
by producing a novelty on move 27 which grandmasters had never seen,
and at which Fritz fumbled.

Junior and Fritz were calculating 20 to 30 million positions per
second in each game during their match.

On the local scene, it is evident that the standard of play has taken
a leap forward since January. Ronuel Greenidge has captured two
tournaments since he began playing, and like Loris Nathoo, Shiv
Nandalall and Learie Webster, is a strong contender for the title of
National Champion when the Championship is played at the end of the
year. Shazeeda Rahim has also improved her game and is playing more
strongly than before. She scored four points among some seasoned male
players in the tournament last Sunday.

Gelfand v Kamsky

This game was the fifth in the six-game match between Boris Gelfand
and Gata Kamsky. The score before the game was played was 2/ ½
points to 1/ ½ in favour of Gelfand. To stay in contention, Kamsky
had to win, or at least draw, to move on to play Game Six. It was
also Kamsky’s final game with the White pieces, so he had to do
something special here.

Kamsky chose the Moscow Variation of the Sicilian Defence but
faltered in his attempt to complicate things for his opponent.
Gelfand polishes him off nicely.

Kamsky,G (2705) – Gelfand,B (2733) Candidates’ Finals, Elista, Russia

Game Five.

June 11, 2007

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 g6 7.0-0 Bg7
8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 0-0 10.f3 Rc8 11.b3 d5! Taking advantage of White’s
temporary weakness on the long diagonal. If Black delays, after Nde2
White has a space advantage known as the Maroczy Bind and Black
cannot break free easily 12.exd5 Nxd5 13.Nxd5 e6 14.Bh6 exd5 15.Bxg7
Kxg7 16.c5 Na6 17.Nc2 Nxc5 18.Qd4+ f6 19.Ne3 Ne6

20.Qh4 Rc5 21.Rad1 d4 Black has a clear extra pawn 22.Ng4 Rf8 23.Rfe1
Rh5 24.Qg3 Rd5 25.Rd2 Qd6 26.Qh4 h5 27.Nf2 g5! 28.Qe4 Re5 29.Qb1
Rxe1+ 30.Qxe1 Rd8 31.g3 Nc5 32.Qe2 a5 33.Qb5 b6 34.a3 Qe6! 35.Rb2 d3
36.b4 axb4 37.axb4 Nb3 38.Qa4 Nd4 39.Kg2 Nc2 40.Rxc2 dxc2 41.Qxc2 g4!
42.fxg4 hxg4 43.Kg1 Rd4 44.Qc7+ Kg6 45.Qc2+ f5 46.Qc3 Rc4 47.Qd2 Kh7
48.h3 gxh3 49.Nxh3 Qc6 50.Qe3 Rc1+ 51.Kf2 Qc2+ 52.Kf3 Rf1+ 53.Nf2+
Rxf2+ White Resigns! 0-1.

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Avec lui, on approche de la plénitude. Le prunier d’Arménie a beaucoup
voyagé et apprécié nombre de terroirs avant que son nom en arabe, al-barqûq,
renvoie à l’abricot de nos contrées. Ses rondeurs veloutées invitent à la
découverte de délices fondants. Sans plus attendre, suivons ses courbes, peu
avares de transformations. L’abricot glacera un jambon comme il s’enrobera
de lard pour l’apéritif ou garnira une terrine de poisson. Il craquera pour
des croquantes crevettes. Il aimera compoter ou faire fondre sa bonhomie
dans une marmelade. Au chapitre dessert, il en connaît un rayon : de la
tartelette ultra-rapide à réaliser au moelleux aux amandes, en passant par
un mini-clafoutis, un croquant, une tarte, un gteau safrané au sésame, un
far, un flan ou un bavarois. Il aura les oreillons à l’envers dans une tatin
au lait ribot. De la lavande il se régalera dans un délicat millefeuille et
un cake dit rustique, et se poêlera avec du romarin. De plus, il ne crachera
pas dans la soupe. Un rayon de soleil.