Author: Nahapetian Samvel

BUS WITH IRANIAN TOURISTS CATCHES FIRE
YEREVAN, JULY 26. ARMINFO. A Renault bus with 38 Iranian tourists
caught fire in Vayots Dzor region, Armenia, Monday evening.
The press service of the emergency department the fire did not injure
either the tourists or the driver but destroyed the bus despite the
firemen’s efforts.
The cause was the ignition of the rubber pad of the brakes.-

RAO EES AND GASPROM INTEND TO LAUNCH JOINTLY 5TH POWER UNIT OF HRAZDAN
THERMAL POWER STATION
YEREVAN, JULY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The Russian companies RAO EES and
Gasprom have set up a consortium with the aim of launching the 5th
power-generating unit of the Hrazdan thermal power station and
submitted the respective program to the Armenian government on March
15. Deputy Director of Interenergo Mikhail Mantrov stated at the July
22 press conference that the program is now under consideraion of the
RA Ministry of Energy. “We are somewhat concerned because time goes by
and no answer has been received yet,” he noted. According to M.
Mantrov, in Armenia, RAO EES has the right of property only with
respect to the Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade. The power generated by this
station makes up 10% of Armenia’s power capacities, and not 80%, as
some Armenian mass media reported. The Armenian nuclear power plant
belongs to Armenia – it is just managed by RAO EES. According to
M. Mantrov, in 2004, the plant’s profit made 18 mln USD.

PanArmenian News Network
July 22 2005
TURKEY TRIES TO HAMPER OPENING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM IN OSLO
22.07.2005 05:54
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ One of Oslo-based private companies has set about
the founding of a Genocide Museum, where a section will be devoted to
the Armenian Genocide. According to the Yerkir newspaper referring to
the Haratch Paris newspaper, Ankara is already taking steps not to
allow the exposition on the tragic events of 1915. Thereupon
Norwegian Deputy FM Kim Traavik noted the museum is founded by a
private company, thus the Government does not have a right to
interfere. History professor of Berken University O. P. Furie is one
of the co-sponsors of the museum. The opening is scheduled August 30,
when Turkey marks the Victory Day – the liberation of the country
from «enemies.» Turkish FM Abdullah Gul stated at a meeting with Kim
Traavik that the availability of sections devoted to the Holocaust
and the Armenian Genocide in the same museum is «insulting the
Turkish people.» «We expect this to be banned,» Gul added.

ArmenPress
July 22 2005
THREE FOREIGN PRESIDENTS TO VISIT ARMENIA THIS YEAR
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS: Armenia will welcome presidents of
Finland, Latvia, Romania this year, deputy foreign minister Armen
Bayburdian told today, but added that the exact dates were not
specified yet. He said the dates would be specified later through
diplomatic sources.

The Halifax Daily News (Nova Scotia)
July 21, 2005 Thursday
A tale of two kickers
Canwest News Service
Maybe it’s all the fault of Garo Yepremian. He was the soccer-style
Armenian field-goal kicker with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, who was
built like George Costanza and specialized in making men’s ties.
If football was looking to redefine the typical kicker in the 1970s,
Yepremian didn’t do much to shape the image of his colleagues when he
awkwardly tried to throw a pass in Super Bowl VII off a blocked
field-goal attempt against the Washington Redskins.
Kickers have lived with that stereotype ever since. In the social
hierarchy of most teams, these guys have no status. They are
dismissed by teammates because they are not real athletes, but
flakes. Fair or not, it’s a perception that isn’t changing quickly.
The Lions’ last game against the Toronto Argonauts featured two
kickers who take opposite approaches to their job.
Noel Prefontaine set out to change the image of a kicker, then
allowed it to define him. The Toronto kicker/punter is fearless when
it comes to throwing his body at a special teams defenders on
kickoffs.
Job is to win
Duncan O’Mahony couldn’t care less how fans see him. The Lions
specialist knows his job is to win games when they are on the line,
and says he doesn’t do his team any good if he’s injured trying to
make a tackle.
Which approach is best? Judging from a recent incident, in which
Prefontaine took a shot from teammate Robert Baker on the sidelines,
O’Mahony seems to be a leg up.
Baker was incensed because it was a kicker who engaged him when he
was upset, which caused Prefontaine to alter his outlook.
“Some moulds you can’t break,” Prefontaine told reporters. “Out of
three people standing here, I might change the opinion of one of you,
but two are still against me. That’s life. You don’t get everybody on
your side.”
But not everyone feels every book can be judged by its cover.
“It’s lazy journalism and convenient to attach the kicker label to
every kicker,” Toronto coach Mike Clemons said.
Lions coach Wally Buono would not dream of asking his kicker to make
a tackle, even though O’Mahony made one on his own when he nudged
Bashir Levingston out of bounds last week.
Nor is O’Mahony making an effort to alter prevailing public opinion.
“I sit around in practice. I kick a few balls. I go home. I’m not
beat up. Other players beat their bodies up,” he said. “But when the
games are on the line, it’s a whole different mental approach. When
we went to the Grey Cup last year, too many guys were like, ‘You may
be a kicker, but I wouldn’t want to be out there kicking the winning
field goal.’ Well, I don’t want to be out there pounding my body all
game long.”
O’Mahony accepts that any mistake, such as his two misses against
Toronto, means he’s instant fodder for talk-show radio.
That said, Buono made the unsolicited observation that his icy
approach with some media members might aid in shaping his reputation.
Will keep trying
“I don’t know how well liked Duncan is,” Buono said.
So, Prefontaine will keep trying to make a tackle, and O’Mahony will
likely keep his thoughts to himself the day he sees his colleague
injured.
“I gave up trying to change people’s opinions years ago. It’s a waste
of your energy,” O’Mahony said.
“I know only one to way. It’s like telling a duck not to swim,”
Prefontaine said. “But regardless of what I’ve done, I’m still a
kicker.”
Blame Garo.

PRESIDENTIAL REP ELECTED ARMENIAN CEC CHAIRMAN
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 20 2005
YEREVAN, July 20. /ARKA/. The presidential representative Garegin
Azaryan has been elected Chairman of the newly formed Central Electoral
Commission of Armenia at the CEC’s first meeting by seven to one
abstention. Talking to journalists, Azaryan said that the new CEC has
inherited a new Election Code, which is a good basis for efficient
work. The meeting participants also elected CEC Vice-Chairman and
Secretary – a member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), former
assistant to the RA Premier Abram Bakhchagholyan and a member of the
ARF Dashnaktsutyun Hamlet Abrahamyan.
RA President Robert Kocharyan signed a decree approving the new CEC
membership. The CEC members are also Zaven pluzyan (National Unity),
Artashes Avoyan (Law-Governed Country), Armine Khachatryan (People’s
Deputy), Felix Khachatryan (Justice), Sevan Arakelyan (United Workers’
Party), and a member of the RA Court of Cassation Erna Airyan. The
decree takes force today. P.T. -0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SOUTH CAUCASUS HAS TO DEFINE ITS CORPORATE INTERESTS, AZERI ANALYST SAYS
ArmenPress
July 19 2005
YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS: An exhibition of works created by young
painters from Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia and titled A Joint Step
Towards Future, opened today in Yerevan. The exhibition was organized
by an Armenia-based Caucasian Center for Peaceful Initiatives, Peace,
Democracy and Culture think-tank in Baku and All-Georgian Rustaveli
Association.
Mikhail Kurdiani, the head of Georgian think-tank said the three
Caucasian nations can boast of rich culture, a legacy that many
powerful nations lack. “If we draw the cultural map of the planet
Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan will take the bulk of its space,” he
claimed. The exhibition opening was followed by a seminar on seeking
ways out from deep-rooted stereotypes and surmounting communication
barriers.
Rauf Rajabov, head of Democracy, Peace and Culture, told the
seminar that none of the three South Caucasian nations is able to
succeed in building successful relations with the rest of the world
all alone. Rajabov argued that a compulsory condition for ensuring
stability and peace in the region is that all the three should give up
their efforts to solve their security problems separately, as well as
realize the fundamental truth that they cannot build their security and
prosperity at the expense of decreasing the security and prosperity
of others. The authorities and political forces in all three South
Caucasian countries have to realize and try to jointly determine and
specify their common corporate, geopolitical and regional interests, he
said, adding that resolution of the local conflicts would be the first
step. “Conflicts do not allow the three nations to come up jointly
at international organizations,” he said adding that the Karabakh
dispute should be resolved based on pragmatism and rationalism.

Suspect Detained in Bush Grenade Throwing
Associated Press
July 20, 2005
Georgian police on Wednesday detained a man suspected of throwing a
live grenade during a rally at which President Bush spoke in May,
the Interior Ministry said. The capture came after a shootout in
which one officer was killed and another wounded.
The shootout and detention occurred Wednesday evening in the village
of Vashlisdzhvari, outside the capital, Tbilisi, ministry spokesman
Guram Donadze told The Associated Press. The suspect fled into the
woods but was later detained, Donadze said.
Rustavi-2 television showed pictures of a dark-haired man it described
as the suspect being hustled into a car by police officers. It said he
was wounded and identified him as Vladimir Arutyunov, in his late 20s.
The man lived in an eight-story apartment building with his mother,
Rustavi-2 reported, citing neighbors as saying Arutyunov was
unemployed. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, said the agency
is monitoring the investigation by the Georgian authorities. “We were
not directly involved and not present” at the arrest, he said.
The police operation came two days after authorities released a
photograph of a man suspected of throwing the grenade, which failed
to explode, at a podium where Bush was speaking May 10 before tens
of thousands of people.
President Mikhail Saakashvili also was on the podium when Bush spoke,
raising the prospect that the grenade could have been directed at him.
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili also had announced a reward of
about $80,000 for information leading to the identification of the man,
who was shown with dark hair and dark glasses.
Saakashvili, who came to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution
that ousted Eduard Shevardnadze, has provoked enmity with his
anti-corruption initiatives and insistence on restoring control over
two separatist regions.
Bush spoke from behind bulletproof glass, addressing a huge crowd in
a main Tbilisi square as part of a visit aimed at cementing relations
between the United States and Georgia’s new pro-Western leadership.
The grenade landed less than 100 feet from the podium but did
not explode. A preliminary investigation indicated the grenade
malfunctioned, the FBI said.

Armenian opposition faces split over constitution reform
Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
19 Jul 05
Text of Naira Zograbyan’s report by the Armenian newspaper Aykakan
Zhamanak “The Justice bloc is splitting” on 19 July
The Justice bloc statement made on Friday [15 July], which says that
if the propositions on the constitution submitted by the opposition
are accepted, the opposition is ready not only to cooperate with the
coalition, but also to present other constitutional propositions,
has deepened the disagreements within the bloc even further.
Over the past few days the Republic party political council has
been discussing its statement which it will publicize shortly. The
provisional text of the statement says that if the Justice bloc
does not revise its strategy of reaching a political agreement
with the authorities and does resolutely renounce this imitation of
the constitutional reform, the Republic party will reconsider the
expediency of staying within the Justice bloc.
The Republic party thinks that the Justice bloc understands it well
that by adopting such a policy the bloc intentionally positions
itself on the side of the authorities, calling itself a “constructive
opposition”. The Republic party is sure that the uncertain behaviour
of the bloc is brought about by the influence that some of the bloc’s
conformist deputies have on Stepan Demirchyan.
The Republic party had to adopt its statement yesterday [18 July], but
there are certain disagreements of a strategic kind within the party
as well. For instance, Albert Bazeyan supports the viewpoint of the
Justice bloc and thinks they have to wait till 20 July, when the Venice
Commission will send the final conclusion on the draft constitution,
and only after that work out the opposition’s political moves.
Aram Sarkisyan is, in principle, in favour of taking his party out
of the Justice bloc. At the same time, he thinks that the Republic
party should be more specific about the steps it intends to take after
leaving the bloc, and only after that to apply such drastic steps.
But the next responsible member of the party, Smbat Ayvazyan, calls
for some more resolute actions. His principal approach is not to
cooperate with the authorities at all, to get out of the bloc and
to call for public action. These three approaches exist within the
party and each has its supporters.
Naturally, the Justice bloc is aware of the protest mood within the
Republic party, saying the party is free to make its own decisions.
Thus, irrespective of the statement made by the Republic party,
the Justice bloc will not change its decision. One way or another,
it will become clear in a couple of days how resolute the Republic
party is and what future awaits the Justice bloc.

AZERI DEPUTY FM: KARABAKH CONFLICT PARTIES SHOULD BE AFRAID OF LOSING WHAT THEY HAVE ACHIEVED
PanArmenian News
July 18 2005
19.07.2005 04:04
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Under the current conditions we are close to the
peace as never before,” Azeri Deputy FM Araz Azimov stated at a news
conference on the outcomes of the regional visit of the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs. Simultaneously, the diplomat said he was concerned
over a number of provocative statements being spread by Armenian
media. In Azimov’s opinion, actions like that can have a negative
impact on the talks “and the parties should be afraid of losing
what they have already achieved.” When commenting on the outcomes
of the talks of the mediators the Deputy FM reported “difficulties
and differences in the postures are still available on a number of
issues.” Having reminded that August 23 the FMs of Azerbaijan and
Armenia will meet, while the state leaders will have a meeting in
Kazan August 26, Azimov noted the parties need a healthy constructive
approach and compromise. “Azerbaijan has demonstrated the necessary
compromise, Armenia has to do the same. Otherwise the chances will
be lost,” Araz Azimov considers.