Author: Karakhanian Suren

ARMENIA INTERESTED IN FUNCTIONING OF ‘UPPER LARS’

ArmInfo
2009-05-23 19:34:00

ArmInfo. Armenia is much interested in functioning of "Upper
Lars" Russian checkpoint near the Russian-Georgian border on the
Military-Georgian road in Northern Ossetia, Prime Minister of Armenia
Tigran Sarkisyan told journalists on May 22.

"Russia has assured that it has already completed all the work. They
attach primary importance to the work of specialists in "Upper Lars",
especially as they have recently equipped this checkpoint with
up-to-date technologies", T. Sarkisyan said. He expressed hope that
the Georgian party will do its best for the checkpoint to function
and the Armenian party – to carry the goods.

Iran and Turkey to supply gas to Europe
23.05.2009 16:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran has achieved agreement with one of Turkish
companies over delivering gas to Europe, Rza Kasaizade, Iran National
Gas Company Director said.
`Under the agreement reached, Turkish company shall take
responsibility for obtaining state’s official permission for delivery
of Iranian gas to Europe in a volume of 35 cubic meters per year,’
Kasaizade mentioned.
As reported by MEHR news agency, Iran possesses 50% of Turkish
company’s shares. According to Kasaizade, Iran is interested in
delivering gas via two – Pars and Nabucco transit pipelines.

ANGELINA JOLIE TO ADOPT ARMENIAN BABY?

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.05.2009 00:07 GMT+04:00

World famous actress Angelina Jolie is going to adopt an Armenian baby
with or without her husband Brad Pitt, examiner.com reports. Officials
in Armenia would neither confirm nor deny Angelina’s adoption efforts
but the Armenian rumors have been strong for a long time. One of the
reasons Angelina wants to adopt from Armenia is because there is a lot
less "red" tape and the adoption process can be a lot easier. She also
believes an Armenian child will fit in perfectly with her African,
Cambodian, and Vietnamese babies.

Several insiders say that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are not getting
along anymore and have simply grown apart. Some people think Angelina’s
possible adoption from Armenia is causing problems. Angelina’s upcoming
Armenian adoption has not gone down well with Brad; he wants to adopt
from India.

SECURITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW NUCLEAR ENERGY UNIT IN ARMENIA

armradio.am
20.05.2009 11:41

On May 19 President Serzh Sargsyan convened a sitting of the National
Security Council, President’s Press Office reported.

The Council considered the report of RA Minister of Energy and Natural
Resources Armen Movsisyan on the current stage of construction of
a new nuclear energy unit in Armenia. It discussed and approved the
steps taken in that direction so far.

Attaching importance to the construction of the new energy unit for
the middle-term and long-term development of Armenia’s economy, as
well as ensuring the country’s energy security, the Security Council
considered all the stages of the process from the technical-economic
development of the project to the exploitation of the energy unit.

VLADIMIR KAZIMIROV: HAYDAR ALIEV DID NOT NEED THE POSITIVE RESULTS OF BISHKEK

ArmInfo
2009-05-19 15:51:00

ArmInfo. Oftentimes journalists say that the cease fire agreement was
reached in Bishkek May 5 1994. It is a mistake: the document signed
by the heads of the parliamentary structures of Azerbaijan, Armenia
and Nagorno-Karabakh was a protocol urging to stop fire May 9 night
1994, Vladimir Kazimirov, the vice chairman of the Association of
Russian Diplomats, the head of the Russian intermediary mission,
the plenipotentiary representative of the President of Russia
for Nagorno-Karabakh from Apr 1992 till Sept 1996, said during a
press-conference in Stepanakert May 19 2009.

ArmInfo’s corespondent quotes him as saying that Bishkek was just an
auxiliary link to the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of States
in Moscow Apr 15 1994, which adopted strong urge to stop the combat
actions.

"It was exactly for supporting the statement of the CIS presidents
that the speakers of the parliaments met in Bishkek. It was a useful
effort. But it was just an auxiliary action," Kazimirov said.

However, President of Azerbaijan Haydar Aliev did not need the positive
results of Bishkek as he was then solving quite different problems:
he was signing with NATO an agreement for joining the Partnership for
Peace program. The cease fire agreement was signed in unprecedentedly
hard conditions. Baku wanted to sign the agreement with Yerevan,
while the latter refused to sign it without Stepanakert. To try to
reconcile them meant to lose time and chance. So, the mediators had
no other way-out but to ignore the whims of the parties and to sign
the document in any acceptable form.

"In the office of Haydar Aliev in Baku we drafted the text of the
agreement for signing by the defense minister of Azerbaijan and the
commander of the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh. We made three copies
for each of the parties. Azeri DM Mamedrafi Mamedov signed its copy in
Baku May 9 1994 in the presence of the Russian mediator. His Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sargsyan (presently President of Armenia) signed
his copy in Yerevan May 10, the commander of the Nagorno-Karabakh
army Samvel Babayan – May 11. Those copies were brought together into
a cease fire agreement in Moscow. As mediator Russia has confirmed
the identity of the texts and declared them effective May 12,"
Kazimirov said.

"The main thing was to stop the bloodshed. That’s why we decided to
sacrifice certain legal formalities like unity of time and place of
signing, one original copy with three signatures, juicy seal and nice
folder," Kazimirov said.

ARMENIA: GOVERNMENT SUPPORTERS CLAIM FIST FIGHT "BETWEEN FRIENDS"

Eurasianet

May 19, 2009

The Republican Party of Armenia and Prosperous Armenia Party stress
that a recent brawl between activists from the two parties, both
members of Armenia’s government coalition, does not undermine their
political partnership.

According to Armenian news sources, the fight broke out as party
loyalists were holding competing campaign events in a Yerevan suburb
in connection with the capital’s May 31 City Council election.

Republican Party MP Arman Sahakian termed the May 12 scuffle a
"provocation," but did not elaborate. "The incident was based on
personal motives and has nothing to do with the parties," he told
the pro-opposition A1plus news service. "Am I really supposed to know
about all fights?"

Prosperous Armenia representatives insisted that their party’s
supporters did not start the fight. "We have never violated the
rules of competition. . . . Questions should be directed to those
who started this," Prosperous Armenia MP Naira Zograbian told A1plus.

ARMENIA, UAE TO SIGN PACT ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING

2009/ 05/19 | 13:08
court society

Armenia and the United Arab Emirates are expected to sign an agreement
to combat human trafficking soon, Armenian embassy officials are
reported to have said on Monday according to Khaleej Times Online.

Armenian Ambassador to the UAE, Vahagn Melikian said that the Armenian
government is cooperating with the UAE authorities to stop human
trafficking.

The countries recently cooperated to help bust a human trafficking
gang when hundreds of women were sent to the UAE and forced to work
as prostitutes. The gang’s leader and her two sisters were sentenced
by a court in the Armenian capital Yerevan last month.

"Hetq" extensively covered the trial in Yerevan of the convicted
ringleaders. (See: "Madame Anoush", Infamous Pimp of Dubai Sentenced
to 13 Years)

"We are in the process to finalise it soon. After this agreement we
will be able to deal with the matter more efficiently," said Mher
Mkrtumyan, deputy head of the Armenian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, adding
that, "Our cooperation is not limited to human trafficking. We signed
a judicial agreement with the UAE government in 2002 and began to
cooperate in the judicial field. We have also signed an extradition
treaty with the UAE."

There are 5,000 Armenians in the UAE of which around 500 are in Abu
Dhabi and the rest are in Dubai, Sharjah and the Northern Emirates.

ANC ANTICIPATES TO OBTAIN 40% OF VOTES

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.05.2009 16:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian National Congress has chances to obtain 40%
of votes in upcoming elections of Yerevan Mayor and Elder’s Council,
RA Liberal Party’s leader Hovhannes Hovhannisyan told today a news
conference.

"The second force having maximum number of votes will be ‘Prosperous
Armenia, with Republicans to follow," Hovhannisyan mentioned,
stressing future ANP Aldermen’s willingness to cooperate with other
parties provided elections are held in a fair atmosphere.

ARMENIA’S PARLIAMENT SPEAKER MEETS NKR PRESIDENT

armradio.am
19.05.2009 15:16

On May 19 the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Hovik
Abrahamyan, had a meeting with the President of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic, Bako Sahakyan.

Greeting the leader of Artsakh, Hovik Abrahamyan noted that the ties
between the Armenian and Artsakhi legislators have particularly
intensified recently. In this context he attached importance to
parliamentary cooperation, reciprocal visits and the development of
direct ties between specialized committees.

The Armenian Parliament Speaker expressed confidence that this
cooperation would contribute to the development of independent
structures in Artsakh.

During the meeting the interlocutors discussed issues related to
the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the cooperation between
Armenia and Artsakh.

ess17-2009may17,0,7304528.story

CHESS
World team crushes Azerbaijan
By Jack Peters, International Master
May 17, 2009

Position No. 6055: Black to play and win. From the game Charles
Lawton-Melikset Khachiyan, U.S. Championship, St. Louis 2009.

Solution to Position No. 6054:

Black reaches an easily won endgame by 1 . . . e3+ (less convincing is
1 . . . Rd3? 2 Rxb6) 2 f3 Rxc4! 3 Bxc4 Rd2+ 4 Rxd2 exd2 5 Bb3 Bxa6.
Not 2 Kh3 because 2 . . . Rh1+ 3 Kg4 Rd4+ 4 f4 f5+ 5 Kg5 Kg7 sets up 6
. . . h6 mate.

The grandly named "Azerbaijan vs. the World" match ended May 9 in
Baku. The competition pitted the best Azeri grandmasters against world
champion Viswanathan Anand of India, former champion Vladimir Kramnik
of Russia and elite grandmasters Alexey Shirov of Spain and Sergey
Karjakin of Ukraine in eight rounds of 25-minute games. The World won
easily, 21 1/2 -10 1/2 , as every World player exceeded his predicted
score. Kramnik had the best result, 6 1/2 -1 1/2 . Teimour Radjabov,
ranked fifth in the world, managed 4-4 for Azerbaijan.

U.S. Championship

The 2009 U.S. Championship ends today in St. Louis. The 24-player
tournament includes 15 GMs, eight former U.S. champions and two U.S.
women’s champions. Go to uschess.org to watch the final round.

California’s best hope, GM Varuzhan Akobian of North Hollywood, was on
the wrong end of a brilliancy by Gata Kamsky, the tournament’s
highest-rated competitor. However, he defeated GM Julio Becerra of
Florida in his next game to rejoin the leaders.

The greatest surprise of the early rounds was the 0-3 start of GM
Boris Gulko, a former champion. Gulko, the oldest competitor at 62,
lost to the youngest, IM Ray Robson, 14, of Florida. On the positive
side, another young talent, 17-year-old IM Robert Hess of New York,
defeated two grandmasters in fine style.

Local news

The 30th annual Lina Grumette Memorial Day Classic takes place
Saturday through May 25 at the Hilton Hotel, 5711 W. Century Blvd. in
Los Angeles. Entrants in each of the five sections will play six
games.

The late Lina Grumette, fondly remembered as Bobby Fischer’s chess
mother, founded the tournament in 1980. The first two attracted more
than 500 entrants. Attendance has fallen off for all tournaments, but
the Memorial Day Classic remains one of the West Coast’s largest.

The holiday weekend also includes a scholastic tournament on Sunday
and both 30-minute and 90-minute tournaments on Memorial Day. For
complete information and online entries, see scchess.com.

Today’s games

GM Gata Kamsky-GM Varuzhan Akobian, U.S. Championship, St. Louis 2009:
1 e4 e6 The French Defense, long Akobian’s favorite. 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3
dxe4 The Rubinstein variation. 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Nf3 Ngf6 6 Bd3 c5 7 Nxf6+
Nxf6 8 Be3 Fashionable. Current theory considers 8 0-0 cxd4 and 8 dxc5
Bxc5 less dangerous to Black. Nd5 Akobian nearly equalized last year
against Nakamura with 8 . . . Qc7 9 Qe2 a6 10 0-0-0 b5 11 dxc5 Bxc5 12
Bxc5 Qxc5 13 Ne5 Bb7 14 Rhe1 0-0. 9 Ne5 Apparently new. White has
tried 9 c3 and 9 0-0. Bd6 Must Black pause for 9 . . . a6 to guard b5?
After 10 0-0, White’s lead in development is ominous. 10 Qh5 Qc7 11
Bb5+ Kf8 12 0-0-0 a6 13 Bc4 Welcoming 13 . . . Nxe3 14 dxe3 Bxe5 15
dxe5, as White can use the d- and f-files. Nf6 Also unpleasant is 13 .
. . b5 14 Bxd5 exd5 15 f4. White intends 16 dxc5, and 15 . . . c4 16
f5 gives him an uncontested Kingside initiative. 14 Qf3 Rb8 Neither 14
. . . Bxe5 15 dxe5 Nd7 16 Qg3 Nxe5? 17 Bf4 f6 18 Rhe1 nor 14 . . .
cxd4 15 Bxd4 Bxe5? 16 Bxe5 Qxe5 17 Rd8+ Ne8 18 Qa3+ is acceptable. 15
Bf4! Black will suffer on the b8-h2 diagonal. b5 16 Rhe1! Every piece
works. White invites 16 . . . bxc4? 17 dxc5, as Ne5-g6+ will follow.
cxd4 17 Rxd4 Rb6 The only way to bolster d6. 18 Bb3 Bb7 Only 18. . .
Kg8 19 Bg5 Be7 keeps faint hopes of survival. 19 Qh3 a5 Useless is 19
. . . Bd5 20 Bxd5 exd5 because 21 Rxd5 (seeing 21 . . . Nxd5 22 Nd7+)
breaks through. 20 Rxd6! Rxd6 21 Nxf7! Kxf7 No better is 21 . . . Rd1+
22 Kxd1 Qxf4, as both 23 Nxh8 and 23 Qxe6 win for White. 22 Qxe6+?!
Good enough, but 22 Rxe6! ends it sooner. Rxe6 23 Bxe6+ Kg6 24 Bxc7
Re8 25 Bxa5 Bxg2 26 f4 Two extra pawns are decisive. h5 27 Re5 Kh6 28
Bd2 Bc6 29 Rc5! White will obtain three connected passers. Bd7 Not 29
. . . Rxe6 30 f5+. 30 Bxd7 Nxd7 31 Rxb5 Re2 32 h4 Nf6 33 f5+ Kh7 34
Kd1 Rh2 35 Be1 Ng4 36 Rb3 Eliminating counterplay. White’s last task
is to reach the time control at move 40. Rh1 37 a4 Rf1 38 a5 Rxf5 39
a6 Rf7 40 Ra3 Rd7+ 41 Kc1, Black Resigns. Takashi Kurosaki-Konstantin
Kavutskiy, Los Angeles County Open, Monterey Park 2009: 1 c4 e6 2 g3
d5 3 Nf3 c5 4 Bg2 Nc6 5 cxd5 exd5 6 d4 Nf6 Reaching a variation of the
Tarrasch Defense to the Queen’s Gambit. 7 0-0 Be7 8 dxc5 Bxc5 9 Qc2
Bb6 10 Nc3 White has the usual edge against Black’s isolated d-pawn.
h6 11 Na4 Bc7 12 b3 Also good is 12 Rd1 0-0 13 Be3, controlling d4.
0-0 13 Bb2 Ne4 14 Nd2 Reasonable, although the computer reveals that
White can get away with 14 Rfd1 Bf5 15 Nc3, not fearing 15 . . . Nxg3?
because 16 Qc1 Ne4 17 Rxd5 Qc8 18 Nh4 gains material. Ng5 15 h4?
Overlooking a Black resource. Either 15 Nc5 or 15 f4 Ne6 16 Nf3 favors
White slightly. Nh3+! 16 Bxh3 White must part with an important
defensive piece, as 16 Kh2 Nxf2! (stronger than 16 . . . Qxh4 17 f4)
17 Rxf2 Qxh4+ 18 Kg1 Bxg3 19 Rf3 Qh2+ 20 Kf1 Bh3 21 Rxg3 Qxg3 leaves
Black ahead in material and position. Bxh3 17 Rfe1 f5 18 Nf3 Sturdier
is 18 e3, but 18 . . . Qe7 envisions powerful threats from 19 . . .
Rac8 or 19 . . . Qf7 and later . . . Qf7-h5. f4 19 Kh2? White should
set the trap 19 g4!? Bxg4?? 20 Qg6 Qd7 21 Nc5, and Black should
decline with 19 . . . Rf7. fxg3+! Another Black piece remains immune
at h3. Black can refute 20 Kxh3 gxf2 21 Red1 by 21 . . . Qd7+ 22 Kg2
Qg4+ 23 Kxf2 Bg3+ 24 Kf1 Qxh4, when 25 Kg2 Rxf3 and 25 Kg1 Bf2+ 26 Kf1
Be3 win quickly. 20 fxg3 Rxf3! 21 exf3 Qxh4 22 Qg6 White gets no
relief from 22 f4 Bxf4! 23 gxf4 Bf5+, while 22 Kg1 Qxg3+ 23 Kh1 Qxf3+
24 Kg1 Qg3+ 25 Kh1 Nb4! 26 Qe2 Bg4 costs him his Queen. Bg4+, White
Resigns. After 23 Kg2 Qxg3+ 24 Kf1 Qxf3+ 25 Kg1, Black forces mate by
25 . . . Bh2+! 25 Kxh2 Qf2+.