Author: Tambiyan Samvel

JAMAICA DRAW WITH UAE AT CHESS OLYMPIAD
Jamaica Observer, Jamaica
May 31 2006
TURIN, Italy (CMC) – Trinidad & Tobago provided the Caribbean with
its only win as Barbados and Cuba suffered losses on Day 8 at the
37th World Chess Olympiad on Monday.
It was not a rewarding day either for Jamaica, Haiti, Surinam or the US
Virgin Islands, who were all held to draws by the United Arab Emirates,
Brunei Darussalam, Honduras and Rwanda, respectively.
T&T, who have played erratically like most of the Caribbean teams
participating in the tournament, beat Thailand 2-1 to move to 16
points and into 81st place in the standings.
Barbados experienced their most disappointing result to date, going
down 3-1 to the Italian C team, a squad comprising mainly juniors.
The Italians benefited from unbelievable one-move blunders from two
of Barbados’ most experienced players, FIDE Masters Delisle Warner
and Dr Philip Corbin.
Warner’s mistake caused him to checkmate in two moves while Corbin was
actually checkmated, something that occurs very rarely at this level.
International Master Kevin Denny and Terry Farley drew their matches
against some International Master Spartaco Sarno and FIDE Master
Pierluigi Piscopo to rescue pride for the Barbadians.
Cuba, meanwhile, went down 3-1 to the Armenians, Dominican Republic
won 3-0 against Malta while the British Virgin Islands beat Aruba, 2-1.
Armenia extended their lead by moving to 24 points, while Russia and
Ukraine share second position with 22 points.

ISAKOV AVENUE TO BE FULLY RENOVATED THIS YEAR
By Karine Danielian
AZG Armenian Daily
31/05/2006
Frunze Basentsian, head of the Utility Department at the Yerevan
Municipality, informed at that soon they will begin renovation works
of the Isakov Avenue. The Isakov Avenue will be made a highway that
will lead from Yerevan to “Zvartnots” airport.
It is also envisaged that the gambling houses and the furniture
shops will be separated from the streets by iron decorative walls. In
general, there are 81 objects on the road that have passed the allowed
line for the construction. All of the owners of these shops and other
buildings are warned about coming destruction. New roads 6,5 meters
wide will pass by these buildings. Another 7 meters wide highway
leading to the airport will be constructed.
In general, it is envisaged that AMD 5,1 billion of construction
works will be done in this sphere.
Besides, AMD 755 million will be spent on reconstruction of damaged
buildings. 11 more damaged buildings will be underpinned this year. In
total, there are 72 damaged buildings in Yerevan. By end August,
the specialist will complete the elaboration of the reconstruction
plans of these buildings.
Besides, AMD 2,4 billions will be allocated for the asphalt works of
the Yerevan streets. Basentsyan assured that the illumination will
be resorted in 13 more streets, including the territory stretching
from the Davitashen bridge to the orchards of Arabkir district.

NEW TIMES PARTY ON WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN BASES FROM GEORGIA: WHEN RUSSIANS GO AWAY, ARMENIANS HAVE TO DO THE SAME
Regnum, Russia
May 30 2006
The New Tinmes opposition party has held a sanctioned rally in Yerevan
under slogan “Attention to Javakh.” “We do not want to interfere into
Georgia’s internal affairs, our task is to tell the Armenian government
that after Russian military withdraw from Georgia, social, economic
and demographic situation of Armenians living there would worsen,”
leader of the Party Aram Karapetyan announced during the rally.
According to him, a negative trend for Armenians can be seen in the
post-Soviet territory: “When Russians leave, Armenians have to follow
them.” “So, in Javakh (Samtskhe-Javakheti – REGNUM) up to several
thousand Meskhetian Turks can settle, in the long run, Javakh can be
taken under control of Georgian troops,” Aram Karapetyan noted.
After the rally, the participants marched to the Foreign Ministry,
then to the Armenian Government, where Aram Karapetyan gave appeal
of the Attention to Javakh Action participants to officials of these
agencies. A copy of the appeal was given to Ambassador of Georgia in
Armenia Revaz Gachicheladze. The message particularly presents two
claims to the Armenian authorities. First, “to increase substantially
finances allocated for settlement of social and economic, cultural
problems of the Javakh Armenians.” Besides, the New Times Party claim
for “discussing multilaterally and achieve a positive solution to
all vital issues about which Javakh Armenians are concerned, up to
signing a bilateral agreement on border delimitation.”
Late March Tbilisi and Moscow signed two agreements concerning time
limits for withdrawal of Russian military bases and transit of the
armaments. The Base from Akhalkalaki will be withdrawn from Georgia
by the end of 2007, and the Batumi base by the end of 2008.

HEAD OF THE UKRAINIAN MILITARY FORCES HEADQUARTER DENIED INFORMATION ABOUT SUPPLYING ARMOUR TO AZERBAIJAN
Yerevan, May 24. ArmInfo. Ukraine is a state friendly to Armenia,
stated on a press conference Head of the Headquarter of Military
Forces of Ukraine Sergey Kirichenko, answering whether Ukraine
supplies armour to Azerbaijan, which has been long violating the
Agreement about Common Armor in Europe.
Mr. Kirichenko reminded that the peoples of Armenia and Ukraine
have been close friends throughout the history and the present high
level of relations between the two states is a brilliant example of
that friendship. He assured that not a single tank or missile was
officially transported from Ukraine to Azerbaijan and advised the
asking reporter to address to corresponding structures in case he
possesses information from serious sources.

NATO WAITS FOR ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT
Lragir.am
25 May 06
NATO is waiting for the government of Armenia to open an information
center of NATO in Yerevan, said the special representative of the
Secretary General of NATO on the South Caucasus Robert Simons on May
23 in Yerevan. He said that NATO is likely to open an information
center but the problem of premises is a problem that the government
of Armenia must solve. Simons announced that NATO would help to solve
the other problems if the government solved the problem of premises.
It is notable that Robert Simons spoke about opening this center
during his visit to Yerevan in November. At that time he discussed
this question with the government of Armenia. In fact, the problem
of premises has not been solved yet, however.

GAROYAN WRITES HISTORY
;cI D=4&pID=51&s=2
22-05-2006
Marios Garoyan becomes the first Cypriot Armenian to be elected in
the Cyprus Parliament. Garoyan won a seat (Democratic Party (DIKO)
of President Tassos Papadopoulos) in the Nicosia district.
Unfortunately M.Sarkissian (communist AKEL) did not manage to win in
the Limassol disctrict.
Most of the parties comprising the ruling coalition administration
gained ground in Cyprus’ parliamentary elections Sunday, but the
island’s two main rival parties lost seats and a smaller party chief
resigned after he failed to enter the House of Representatives.
In all, 487 candidates challenged the 56 seats in parliament, a mainly
legislative and non-executive body, while the island-state’s president
is elected directly by the people.
The main coalition partner, the communist AKEL, shed 3.4 percentage
points from its voters and polled 31.2 per cent of the votes, entering
parliament with 18 deputies, two less than in the previous assembly,
while the opposition party Democratic Rally (DISY) won 30.3 per cent
of the votes, shedding 3.7 percentage points to lose a seat and will
now have 18 deputies in the House.
The clear winner in these elections is the Democratic Party (DIKO)
of President Tassos Papadopoulos that raised its voter strength
by three percentage points to 17.9 per cent and gained a new seat,
rising to 10 deputies.
Political analysts say that this outcome will also boost Papadopoulos
party which will have enough public support to seek a second term
in office in 2008, while coalition partner AKEL, though still the
biggest party, has now lesser chances of putting forward its own
candidate for president.
The social-democrat EDEK, which has two ministers in Papadopoulos’
present cabinet, also improved despite earlier predictions of a
loss, earning 8.9 per cent of the votes and five seats, gaining one
new deputy.
The European Party (Evroko) – created by four deputies who left DISY
two years ago and merged with the nationalist New Horizons and the
single-seat ADIK – recorded a marginal gain to 5.7 per cent with four
seats in the new parliament.
The Green Party/Ecologist Movement made no gains, ending the day with
1.9 per cent of the vote and just one seat, while the party had been
hopeful it would get a second deputy.
The United Democrats (EDI) of former president George Vassiliou was
the biggest loser of the day, failing to reach the threshold of 1.8
per cent in order to enter the House of Representatives.
The party’s present president, Michalis Papapetrou, handed in his
resignation and called for an early party congress in June to elect
a new leadership.
‘It’s a shame that our policies were not accepted by the public,’
Papapetrou said, referring to EDI’s open support of the United Nations
peace plan, dubbed the Annan Plan, that was rejected by the majority
of the Greek Cypriot community in April 2004.

OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS TO ARRIVE IN BAKU
ArmRadio.am
24.05.2006 10:25
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs will arrive today in Baku in the
framework of a regional visit. This time they will be accompanied
by senior officials of Ministries of Foreign Affairs of US, France
and Russia. The delegation will comprise Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Grigori Karasin, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Daniel Fried and Director on Political Issue of the French Ministry
of Foreign Affairs Stanislas D’Labouiet. The delegation will leave
Baku for Yerevan.
During the meetings with leadership of Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh issues related to the negotiations process on
settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the further steps will be
discussed.

61,967 ARMENIAN CITIZENS APPLY FOR DEPOSIT COMPENSATION
Noyan Tapan
May 22 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The process of filing applications to
receive compensation for deposits made with the Savingsbank of the
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic before June 10, 1993, finished
on May 12. 61,967 Armenian citizens have applied for compensation,
presenting 137,481 saving books.
According to the PR Department of the RA Ministry of Labor and
Social Issues, the lists of citizens eligible for compensation will
be published in the third quarter of 2006, after which the payment
process will start. Prior to it, the database of applicants has to be
clarified by comparing the family benefit database of the ministry
with the information in deposit cards of the Savingsbank. To recap,
only members of the families, which were continuously in various
social groups to receive a family benefit from July 1, 2005, to
April 1, 2006, are eligible for compensation. The payment priority
is determined based on a social group.

SHUSHI FOUNDATION EXPECTS DONATIONS FROM ARMENIANS TO RESTORE TOWN’S MONUMENTS
Armenpress
May 23 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS: The Shushi Foundation and the Haypost
company (Armenian Post) have signed an agreement to help efforts to
restore the town of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh and its cultural and
historical monuments. Under this agreement every Armenian can transfer
a symbolic sum of 500 Drams (a little more than one US Dollar) to the
Foundation’s account, approving that way the Foundation’s initiative.
Bakur Karapetian, an author who is also the manager of the Foundation,
said his Foundation, established in 2000, has registered and
mapped around 525 monuments in the town and its outskirts. He
said architects have measured about 220 buildings dating back to
18 and 19 centuries. Karapetian said Shushi is the only Armenian
town that has been preserved since the 19-th century and therefore,
‘its atmosphere and colors should be preserved,’ which in turn could
promote development of tourism in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Karapetian went on to say that Shushi can become at the same time a
place where Christian and Muslim civilizations and cultures can meet,
because Shushi was also a place where the Muslim Shia culture met
with Christian culture. He said one of the town’s mosques was already
repaired. Karapetian said his Foundation wants also to set up a center
to study the history of the struggle for Karabakh independence. The
Foundation was able to materialize part of its ideas only thanks
to donations.
Under the agreement Haypost offices will accept transfers and send
them on the Foundation’s account once in a fortnight. Names of people
donating their 500 drams will be placed on the Foundation’s website.
Armenians in Diaspora can also join the initiative.
They can find information how to do it by visiting

HEAD OF GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES TO PAY TWO-DAY OFFICIAL VISIT TO ARMENIA ON MAY 24
Noyan Tapan
May 22 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. On May 24, the delegation led by
Colonel-General Sergei Kirichenko, Commander-in-Chief and Head of
the General Headquarters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, will pay a
two-day official visit to Armenia.
As Noyan Tapan was informed by Colonel Seyran Shahsuvarian, RA Defence
Minister’s Spokesperson, meetings with Mikael Haroutiunian, Head of
the General Headquarters of RA Armed Forces, First Deputy Minister of
Defence, and Tigran Torosian, RA NA Vice-Speaker, are planned within
the framework of the visit.
The delegation will visit the memorial of the Armenian Genocide,
the Humanitarian Mine-clearing Center, the Military Institute
after RA Defence Minister Vazgen Sargsian. The delegation headed
by S.Kirichenko will also visit the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin,
where it will be received by Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin
II. Late in the evening of May 24, a ceremony of signing documents
will take place at the Reception House of RA Defence Ministry, which
will be followed by the joint press conference of the Heads of General
Headquarters of the two countries.