Author: Nahapetian Samvel

ARMENIAN MINISTER DOWNPLAYS INCREASE IN AZERI MILITARY BUDGET
ArmInfo News Agency
Oct 12 2005
Yerevan, 11 October: The difference between the military budgets of
Armenia and Azerbaijan can never force Armenia to make concessions,
Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan has said asked by journalists
if Armenia was concerned about the sharp increase in the Azerbaijani
military budget and if it was a quantitative approach.
Sarkisyan said that in any case, quantity transforms into quality
at some stage. “But it is not known when and how this will happen,”
he said, adding that it is quite alarming when an enemy, a rival or
a neighbour has a greater military budget.
“But there is also the issue of making effective use of the military
budget. There are also different ways of meeting the army’s needs. I
can cite numerous examples when we and Azerbaijan bought identical
armaments for different prices. We bought it four, five and sometimes
even eight times cheaper. I am not saying this to console someone. Of
course, it would be preferable if we had comparable financial
possibilities,” he said.
Asked about a possible increase in Armenia’s military budget,
Sarkisyan said that no sharp increase in the budget is expected as
the budget is drawn up not proceeding from one’s needs, but on the
basis of GDP. If GDP is high at the end of the year, then naturally,
the budget will increase, he said.

OUT OF OUR PAST
Battle Creek Enquirer, MI
Oct 12 2005
25 years ago today, 1980: Terrorist bombings in four major cities
left police puzzling over those claiming responsibility. Anonymous
callers claimed responsibility for bombs in New York, Los Angeles and
London that were aimed at Turkish-owned businesses and the Turkish
Mission to the United Nations. The callers claimed to be Armenians
retaliating for decades of persecution by Turks since a massacre that
began in 1915 when Turks killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians.
Two other explosions went off in London and Paris near Swiss-based
organizations. The October Third Organization claimed responsibility
and said the Swiss government would know what it was about.
50 years ago today, 1955: Michigan’s secretary of state ordered
the state’s attorney general to appear before a license examiner
to determine whether he was fit to continue driving. The order came
after it came out that the attorney general had received five traffic
violation tickets in the 18 months before he became attorney general
and the secretary of state’s office had dropped normal action in
the case.
100 years ago today, 1905: A pear tree on the Mary Smaltz place,
175 W. Fountain St. in Battle Creek, was producing immense sized fruit.
An average-sized pear from the tree brought to the Daily Journal’s
office measured seven inches in length, 12 inches in circumference,
and weighed 19 ounces. All that was known about the tree was that it
was a type of winter pear.

NOBEL LITERATURE PRIZE DUE THIS WEEK AMID TALK OF NEW TWIST
Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2005 Tuesday 11:39 AM GMT
The Nobel prize for literature, one of the most keenly-awaited awards
of the Nobel season, will be announced on Thursday, the Swedish Academy
said, amid speculation the jury this year could switch tack and honor
a non-fiction author.
While the list of possible winners appears largely the same as in
recent years, featuring US novelists Philip Roth and Joyce Carol
Oates, Ismael Kadare of Albania, Israeli Amos Oz and Swedish poet
Tomas Transtroemer, the Swedish Academy might just have a surprise
in store, pundits say.
“The Academy has spoken of wanting to broaden the prize, which could
open the door for instance for literary journalists like Poland’s
Ryszard Kapuscinski,” Eva Bonnier, head of Sweden’s Bonnier publishing
house, told AFP.
“Kapuscinski is a possibility. It would be very exciting if the Academy
decides to go in that direction,” agreed Ola Larsmo, a freelance
literary critic who writes for Sweden’s paper of record Dagens Nyheter.
Speuclation is just that, though — speculation. Larsmo pointed out
that the Academy is keeping tight-lipped about this year’s laureate
ahead of the announcement at 1100 GMT Thursday.
Horace Engdahl, head of the Swedish Academy, acknowledged that “it
is important that the prize develops as literature develops”.
If the award ends up going to a non-fiction writer it would not be
the first time, he told AFP, pointing out that Alfred Nobel, the
awards’ founder, did not specify in his will whether it had to go to
a fiction writer.
Since the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901, several non-fiction
writers and non-poets have won, including Bertrand Russell in 1950
for his philosophical writings and Winston Churchill three years
later for his historical texts.
However the majority of prizes have been awarded to fiction writers
and poets.
If the academy sticks to tradition this year, authors like Algerian
Assia Djebar, Dutch Cees Nooteboom, Belgian Hugo Claus, Somalia’s
Nuruddin Farah and Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri are thought
to be among the front-runners.
Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who was recently charged in Turkey with
“public denigration of the Turkish identity” for remarks he made
about the country’s massacre of Armenians, is also considered a
leading candidate.
Last year, the prize went to Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek.
That award came as a complete surprise to most Nobel observers and
was so controversial that it continues to make waves today.
On Tuesday for instance, a member of the Swedish Academy said he was
resigning to protest the choice.
“Giving the Nobel Prize to Elfriede Jelinek has destroyed the value
of the award for the foreseeable future,” Knut Ahnlund wrote in a
column published in the daily Svenska Dagbladet.
Ahnlund, who has been a member of the academy since 1983 but who has
not actively participated in the jury work for nearly a decade, said
he would officially hand in his resignation over last year’s choice.
The Nobel Literature Prize is traditionally made public on a
Thursday. It will be the sixth and last of the 2005 Nobel Prizes to
be awarded.
Each Nobel prize this year carries a prize sum of 10 million Swedish
kronor (1.1 million euros, 1.3 million dollars), to be shared if the
award is given to more than one laureate.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SERGE SARGSIAN TO MEET WITH RUMSFELD IN WASHINGTON
Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 10 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. At the invitation of the US
Department of Defense, Serge Sargsian, the Minister of Defence of
Armenia will visit Washington late in October where he will meet with
his American partner Donald Rumsfeld.
As Radio Liberty imformed quoting information of the American US
Newswire agency, on October 27, Serge Sargsian will make a speech
in Washington, at the National Press Club. According to the agency,
the Defence Minister of Armenia will touch upon the theme “Armenia:
Security Prospects and Developments in South Caucasus.”
In the United States, Serge Sargsian will have meetings with Donald
Ramsfeld, the US Defense Secretary, and with high-ranking officials
for the US National Security Council. The Defence Minister of Armenia
will visit the US Central Command’s central headquarter in the city
of Tampa, Florida.
Serge Sargsian will also meet in US with Armenian soldiers
participating in trainings at the Kansas National Guards.

LE FILM “NICOLAS BLONDEAU: MON FILS, MON CHEVAL” PRIME AU FESTIVAL EPONA
Agence France Presse
9 octobre 2005 dimanche 11:07 AM GMT
PARIS 9 oct 2005
Le film “Nicolas Blondeau: Mon fils, mon cheval” a obtenu le prix
“l’Or des Chevaux d’Arman”, samedi soir a Cabourg (Calvados), lors de
la douzième edition du festival Epona, qui recompense les meilleures
productions audiovisuelles sur le thème du cheval, a-t-on appris
dimanche auprès des organisateurs.
Ce documentaire de 24 minutes, realise par Jean-Pierre Laborde tente
de montrer “le cheminement que devrait suivre tout educateur d’enfants
comme de chevaux, a travers une comparaison des psychologies humaines
et equines”, selon un communique des organisateurs.
Le film “PMU, la course aux reves”, realise par Patrice du Tertre,
qui aborde les rapports complexes entre l’homme et le jeu, a remporte
le prix dans la categorie documentaires.
Le prix du meilleur reportage a ete decerne a “Born in fire”, un
hommage a la sculpture, realise par l’Armenien Suren Ter-Grigoryan
pour Shoghakat TV Company.
Dans la categorie “News”, le prix a ete decerne a Anne-Claire Martin
pour “Le vieil homme et le vieux cheval”.
Enfin, un film realise pour Budweiser, par l’agence DDB Chicago,
a remporte le prix du meilleur film publicitaire.
Quarante-cinq oeuvres – documentaires, telefilms et publicites –
representant une vingtaine de pays producteurs, etaient en competition
pour cette 12e edition du festival, cree a l’initiative de la Societe
du cheval francais (SECF).
Le jury etait preside par Jacques Doillon.
La “course des stars”, où des vedettes ont joue aux apprentis drivers,
installees sur des sulkies conduits en tandem avec des jockeys
professionnels, a ete remporte par le comedien Jean-Paul Rouve.
–Boundary_(ID_UcTb8IUjKQ35vjG1vIYVpQ)–

OLD-AGE CLUB IN YEREVAN
A1+
| 13:17:20 | 10-10-2005 | Social |
On the initiative of the benevolent non-governmental organization
“Mission Armenia” which has been taking care of about 18 thousand
lonely old people for the last 15 years since October 1, 2006 an
old-age club will be opened in Yerevan.
The organization will build a 4-storeyed building in the Qanaqer-Zeytun
community, in Sevak 88. The building will have a reception, bathing
rooms, laundry, beauty saloon, cafeteria, dentist’s office, hall,
cafe, and 34 one-room flats for old people to serve them till end of
their lives.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MURDER SUSPECT ELECTED MAYOR
A1+
| 12:48:53 | 10-10-2005 | Politics |
October 9 in the town of Nor Hachin the elections of the local
governing bodies were held. There were two candidates for the post
of the mayor – the present mayor Armen Qeshishyan who is charged with
murder, and Babken Margaryan.
The present mayor Armen Qeshishyan has been re-elected with a
difference of 320 votes. By preliminary data 4437 of the 8553 electors
have participated in the elections. 2160 of them voted for Qeshishyan,
and 1840 – for Margaryan.
Armen Qeshishyan rang up his relatives and the members of the electoral
headquarters from the prison and congratulated them.
We also learned from the Central Electoral Committee that there were
no violations during the whole electoral process.
By the way, there is information according to which the residents of
Nor Hachin have been assured that in case of having many votes the
present mayor will be “saved”.

The Age, Australia
Oct 10 2005
Year of great boxing promise now rings hollow
By Stathi Paxinos
October 10, 2005

AUSTRALIAN flyweight Hussein Hussein’s fate against Jorge Arce for
the World Boxing Council interim world title yesterday reflected the
way of Australian boxing this year.
There had been great anticipation surrounding the fight because their
first encounter in March was regarded as one of the fights of the
year. But, by near the end of the second round and after two
knock-downs, Hussein’s corner man, Jeff Fenech, had seen enough and
threw in the towel.
It was another blow to the promise that Australian boxing had shown
at the start of the year when the fight fraternity proclaimed that
half a dozen Australian fighters could hold world titles this year.
Such predictions now appear a touch optimistic as 2005 has, instead,
produced a succession of shattered dreams with Danny Green, Anthony
Mundine, Paul Briggs and Tommy Browne all losing shots at major world
titles.
Junior-lightweight Robbie Peden won the International Boxing
Federation belt in spectacular fashion only to lose it last month
against one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world – Marco
Antonio Barrera.
The unthinkable also occurred when junior-welterweight
king Kostya Tszyu quit on his stool after being hammered for 11
rounds by English challenger Ricky Hatton. That leaves Australia with
one champion of a recognised belt – Armenian-born Vic Darchinyan, who
has twice defended the IBF flyweight title he won last December.
Australian light-heavyweight Paul Murdoch will be fighting for the
World Boxing Association title in December but is the outsider
against multiple world champion Fabrice Tiozzo.
So, a year that started with such promise for local boxing is heading
towards a sobering finale, although the prospect of the long-awaited
match-up between Green and Mundine early next year has provided a
much-needed attraction.
And it is also fitting that Sam Soliman will take a step towards
finally earning that elusive middleweight world title shot.
The Soliman camp confirmed at the weekend that the 31-year-old IBF
No. 1 contender had signed a deal to take on his WBC and WBA
equivalent Ronald “Winky” Wright with the winner earning the
mandatory challenger position against the victor of the rematch
between world champion Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins.
Soliman is regarded as an awkward fighter who has posed too big a
risk for comparatively small financial rewards to big-name fighters.
Soliman earned a mandatory challenge for Hopkins’ IBF belt earlier
this year but Hopkins, who ruled the middleweight division for a
decade, was granted an exception by the sanctioning body and was
allowed to accept a big-dollar challenge from Sydney Olympian Taylor.
Hopkins subsequently lost his WBA, WBC, IBF and World Boxing
Organisation belts to Taylor and the pair are set for a rematch in
early December.
Soliman’s fight against Wright, a former junior-middleweight world
champion, will be held on December 11 in Connecticut in the US –
which will make it a huge weekend for Australian boxing.
It has also been set down for the joint Green and Mundine card in
Perth, which will act as a warm-up for the pair’s fight next year.
Victories by all three Australians would set up another exciting year
for local boxing.

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Oct 9 2005
Turkey’s Priority To Be Democracy & Human Rights, Flautre
ANKARA – Turkey’s priority will be democracy and human rights after
its full membership negotiations with the EU are launched, Helene
Flautre, the Chairperson of the European Parliament’s Human Rights
Sub-Commission, said on Friday.
Holding a press conference before flying to eastern city of Van,
Flautre said that efforts should be exerted to implement recent legal
reforms in Turkey.
-TORTURE, KURDS AND HUMAN RIGHTS-
Flautre stated that Turkey’s ”zero tolerance to torture” policy was
a ”perfect decision”, and said that paving the way for inspection
of independent boards could help full implementation of this policy
in prisons and police stations.
Underlining importance of legal changes regarding the safeguard of
social and cultural rights of the Kurds, Flautre said, ”but, it may
be considered a little weird to urge people to attend special and
paid courses to learn their own mother tongues. In fact, Kurdish
should be taught at public schools.”
Flautre said that gender equality was also an important part of the
EU acquis, while listed associations law, foundations law, and union
rights as areas in which Turkey should make more progress.
-SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS-
French parliamentarian Flautre said that the EU had recently
discussed ”whether Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian genocide
(allegations) was an obligatory precondition for its EU membership”,
not ”whether Armenian genocide was carried out”.
”The European Parliament said ‘yes’ to it (to consider recognition
of the Armenian genocide as a precondition for Turkey’s EU
membership) in the vote held last week. However, political groups and
individuals think differently about this matter. And, I personally
think that it should not be a precondition,” indicated Flautre.
”Everything that happens in Turkey becomes is an internal policy
matter in the EU. We should discuss in Europe what kind of a society
Turkey is and its possible contributions to the EU. Because, my
country, France has made an unbelievable decision that can let it
obstruct Turkey’s EU accession by a referendum. And, as a person who
knows this, I want Turkey to be discussed in Europe, with all its
dimensions,” said Flautre.
On the other hand, another member of the sub-committee Richard Howitt
said that they wanted to see Turkey in the EU, and added, ”this
(Turkey’s negotiations with the EU) will be a long run.”
-EP HUMAN RIGHTS SUB-COMMITTEE’S MEETING WITH IHD-
Earlier meeting Human Rights Association (IHD) officials, Flautre
told that Turkey would be monitored more in fields of human rights
and democracy after the start of the negotiation process with the EU.
”Before the start of the accession talks between Turkey and EU, the
EU was looking for fulfillment of the requirements by Turkey at a
sufficient level, but now Turkey should fulfill everything fully,
there is a more strict and serious agenda now,” Flautre said. She
noted that everybody whom she met was in consensus about the progress
recorded by Turkey in human rights.

The Peninsula, Qatar
Oct 8 2005
Turkey sentences journalist for comments
Web posted at: 10/8/2005 2:28:24
ISTANBUL: A Turkish court gave an Armenian-Turkish journalist a
six-month suspended prison sentence on Friday for `insulting Turkish
identity’ in an article he wrote, the journalist said.
The issue of freedom of speech has dogged every stage of Turkey’s
efforts to join the European Union. While the EU agreed this week to
start entry talks with Turkey, such court cases are likely to hinder
Ankara’s progress toward full membership.
The Istanbul court found Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of the
bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly Agos newspaper, guilty of
`insulting and weakening Turkish identity through the media’ in an
article he wrote last year.
`Whether the sentence was for one day or six years, it doesn’t
matter. The important thing, and what saddens me, is that I was
sentenced. I did not commit this crime,’ Dink said.