GRAND MASTER GABRIEL SARGSIAN IS IN LEAD IN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT HELD IN COPENHAGEN
Noyan Tapan
Jul 25, 2007
COPENHAGEN, JULY 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Gabriel Sargsian gained a victory
at the fifth stage of the international chess tournament held in the
capital of Denmark, Copenhagen. After five stages Sargsian (Armenia)
and Mikhayil Krasenkov (Poland) received five points each and share
first and second places.
ROAD ACCIDENTS IN ARMENIA ON THE STEADY RISE
ARMENPRESS
Jul 24, 2007
YEREVAN, JULY 24, ARMENPRESS: Armenian road police have reported a
substantial growth of road accidents in the first half of the year
as opposed to the same time span of 2006. Police said the number of
people who died and got injuries in road accidents also rose.
Overall 720 road accidents were reported in January-June, killing
139 people and injuring 1,140.
Some 44 percent of all accidents (348) were reported in Yerevan, where
37 people were killed and 461 injured. The number of road accidents
in Yerevan rose 22 percent from a year ago, while the number of killed
people rose by 3.
Police also reported 83 road accidents blamed on juveniles, which
killed 6 and injured 9 people.
The government released 550 million drams in January-June to the road
police, 30 percent of this money was to support a wage rise of road
police officers and the rest to ensure greater road safety.
NEW FACES, NEW NAMES IN ERDOðAN’S CABINET
Duygu Gven
Turkish Daily News , Turkey
July 24 2007
In the light of the election results, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan will make crucial decisions for Turkey, beginning by choosing
those around him.
Mehmet Þimþek, Zafer Caðlayan, Edibe Sozen, Ertuðrul Gunay, Dengi Mir
Fýrat and Zafer Uskul are expected to take seats in the new cabinet
of the AKP, while Bulent Arýnc, Hilmi Guler and Mehmet Aydýn might
lose their seats.
Erdoðan had previously announced that Abdullah Gul was his favored
candidate for the next presidency, but the prime minister is now
leaving the door open for other alternatives as well. In fact, he
opted not to respond to related chants by party supporters while he
was making his victory speech after the elections on Sunday night.
"There is still a possibility for Ertuðrul Gunay or Vecdi Gonul.
Erdoðan will search a consensus with the MHP this time, and the
MHP would prefer Gul to others," said a leading party member to the
Turkish Daily News yesterday.
Erdoðan is expected to insist on electing the next president from the
Parliament. Although the CHP is positive, the AKP members prefer not
to mention Abdullatif Þener’s name for the presidential seat.
Arýnc will lose his seat Parliament Speaker Bulent Arýnc is expected to
lose his seat in the new Parliament since he is blamed by AKP members
for tightening relations with the military and with secular groups.
In a parliament where Turkish nationalists will sit next to Kurdish
nationalists, Erdoðan is expected to avoid increasing tension in any
way. Murat Baþeskioðlu, Vecdi Gonul, and Ertuðrul Gunay are among
the names mentioned as Arýnc’s replacements.
Sharp change in the new cabinet
Erdoðan is expected to preserve three deputy prime ministers in the
new cabinet. Among the names for deputy prime minister, Mehmet Ali
Þahin is expected to preserve his seat, while the formerly leftist,
newly rightist Ertuðrul Gunay might replace Abdullatif Þener as deputy
prime minister.
Former Justice Minister Cemil Cicek might take a deputy prime minister
seat in the 60th cabinet. Minister of Transportation Binali Yýldýrým
is seen as successful by Erdoðan and is expected to be rewarded,
while Energy Minister Hilmi Guler is thought to lose his seat in the
new cabinet. Taner Yýldýz and Veysel Eroðlu are among the candidates
for his post. Since Ali Coþkun, minister of industry, is out of the
Parliament now; Zafer Caðlayan, formerly with the Ankara Chamber of
Industry, is expected to take Coþkun’s seat. State Minister Mehmet
Aydýn is expected to leave the cabinet because he dreams to write a
book as an academician, and the word is that Beþir Atalay might replace
him. Atalay’s name has been mentioned for the Ministry of Education,
as has the former DYP, newly AKP member, Mehmet Saðlam. Saðlam was
president of the High Education Board (YOK) and was the Education
Minister in the coalition government.
Two women in the cabinet
While Nimet Cubukcu, minister responsible for women and family issues,
is expected to continue her task, and a second woman minister is
likely. Edibe Sozen is expected to replace Beþir Atalay in the
cabinet shift, possibly taking the responsibility of culture and
tourism.Constitutional Professor Zafer Uskul might replace Cemil Cicek
as a new face of the AKP. If Abdullah Gul is elected as president,
Ali Babacan would replace him as the next foreign minister. Mehmet
Þimþek, a well-known economist, is expected to take a seat if
Babacan has a new post. Þimþek is seen as a shining star of the new
AKP. State Minister Kurþat Tuzmen and Finance Minister Kemal Unakýtan
are expected to keep their seats despite the claims of opposition
groups. If Vecdi Gonul holds the presidential seat or becomes the
next Speaker of Parliament, Vahit Erdem or Egemen Baðýþ might take
his seat. Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu was blamed especially
after the assassination of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink,
and he was expected to leave the cabinet. However, since his former
leader Mesut Yýlmaz is in the Parliament, Erdoðan might his seat,
said the AKP members. Murat Baþeskioðlu, minister of labor and social
security might have a new seat as interior minister if he is not made
deputy prime minister or Speaker of Parliament. Mehdi Eker who was
responsible for agriculture might be replaced with Dengi Mir Fýrat,
deputy leader of the AKP. The minister of public works and settlements,
minister of health, and minister of environment and forestry might lose
their seats if Erdoðan opts for a sharp change in the cabinet. Faruk
Celik and Salih Kapusuz the deputy leaders are eager to have a minister
seat in the second term of the AKP.
–Boundary_(ID_4FGyvTmf1B/U0rsENyC6pA)–
Where money seems to talk
Jul 12th 2007
> > From The Economist print edition
The rich are different from you and me-and they say they are happier
EVERY summer, the world has its temperature taken twice-once by
climate scientists, literally; a second time by opinion pollsters,
metaphorically. This year two new surveys have thrown up a lot of
fresh data on how the world really feels. And they have, so the
pollsters say, cast some unexpected light on the link between wealth
and happiness.
Ever since social scientists at the University of Pennsylvania found
that mansion-dwelling American millionaires are barely happier than
Masai warriors in huts, some economists have been downplaying the
link between cash and contentment. In a 2005 book, Richard Layard,
a British scholar, said family circumstances, employment and health
all mattered more to a sense of well-being than income. Rich countries
might be happier than poor ones, but beyond a threshold, the connection
weakens, and more cash would not buy more happiness-so the theory goes.
The new polls cast some doubt on that school of thought. They add
weight to the contention that growth and income play a big part
in boosting people’s satisfaction with life and their attitude to
the future.
One of these surveys claims to be the first genuinely global opinion
poll. Called World Poll, and conducted by the Gallup organisation,
it spans 130 countries, many of which are being polled for the
first time. Other surveys are smaller. The respected Global Attitudes
Survey of the Pew Research Centre, an offshoot of an American charity,
operates annually in just over 50 countries. The World Values Survey
run from the University of Michigan is more comprehensive (over 80
countries), but updated only once in five years.
Gallup’s pollsters asked a standard question: how satisfied are you
with your life, on a scale of nought to ten? In all the rich places
(America, Europe, Japan, Saudi Arabia), most people say they are
happy. In all the poor ones (mainly in Africa), people say they are
not. As Angus Deaton of Princeton University puts it, a map of the
results looks like an income plot of the world (see map). There
are some exceptions: Georgia and Armenia, though not among the
world’s poorest states, are among the 20 most miserable. Costa Rica
and Venezuela, though middle-income countries, are among the 20
happiest. The Brazilians, pictured above, seem a bit more cheerful
than their income level justifies.
But in general, declared levels of happiness are correlated with
wealth. The pattern also seems to hold true within countries, as
well as between them. Rich Americans are happier than poor ones;
rich Brazilians happier than poorer ones.
The other new survey, by Ipsos, confirms the picture. Top of its
list of 20 countries ranged by happiness is the rich Netherlands
(with Gallup, it is Finland); China is bottom. The survey also asked
questions about confidence in the future, whether your children will
be better off than you are, and so on. Regardless of countries’ current
income, there was a close correlation between GDP growth and optimism,
with China, India and Russia most optimistic; France, Germany and
Italy were the least. If both polls are right, the Chinese are pretty
miserable now but they expect a dramatic turn for the better.
The Ipsos poll is not strictly comparable to Gallup’s because (for the
first time) it asks questions of what Ipsos calls "leaders and shapers
of public opinion", mostly business people and politicians. This
group has distinctive views-it takes a loftier view than the general
population (see table). The gap between elite and popular perceptions
is especially sharp in Russia, India and China. In those countries,
top people’s attitudes are far more upbeat than those of the general
population. In Europe and America, the attitudes of the elite are
roughly in line with-or slightly more pessimistic than-society as
a whole.
In fairness, the "new happiness" economists, such as Mr Layard, never
claimed there was no connection at all between money and feeling
good. What they have said is that once people climb out of poverty,
the link is weak, and may not work at all above a certain point (as
one British pundit put it, extra money "is now proved beyond doubt
not to deliver greater happiness, nationally or individually"). The
evidence for this comes from surveys in most rich countries (such as
America’s general social survey), which show that happiness has been
flat for decades, even though incomes have risen sharply.
On the face of it, the new findings are a counter-point to the earlier
data. If the richest countries report greater "happiness" than
moderately rich ones, that would suggest there is no quantifiable
level of income at which extra cash fails to deliver extra
contentment. Still, the latest findings don’t invalidate the historic
experience of particular countries-like the United States-which have
surged to greater levels of wealth without experiencing any rise in
general levels of reported happiness.
But if you treat history as bunk and concentrate on the levels of
satisfaction that countries feel right now, the results are-in Mr
Deaton’s view-quite striking. He has compared Gallup’s satisfaction
score with national income based on purchasing-power parities, and
got a close fit.
So what should one make of the contradiction between these surveys
and previous evidence? Definitional problems may provide part of the
explanation. These are self-reported polls and people mean different
things by "happiness". Cultural problems are likely to be much greater
when 130 states are involved.
Another possibility is that "happiness" is really a proxy for something
else, such as health. Perhaps the main point is that money mitigates
poor health, so the rich are happier than the poor mainly because they
feel healthier. But that cannot be the whole story. More than half the
20 countries with the lowest level of satisfaction with health are in
the ex-Soviet Union or eastern Europe though in statistical terms they
seem relatively well off. In contrast, much poorer African countries
(with a far higher incidence of HIV/AIDS and other diseases) express
higher levels of health satisfaction. Expectations, or memories, may
be at work: medical woes in an ex-communist state feel worse because
people recall, albeit through rose-tinted spectacles, an era of full
health coverage.
Lastly, as the Ipsos poll clearly shows, happiness and optimism are not
just different, they can be contradictory. The Chinese are dissatisfied
but upbeat; Europeans are happy now but dread tomorrow. Many links
between happiness, income and optimism have yet to be teased out. This
new data-though not the last word on the subject-should help.
EX DIRECTOR OF NSS LEADING IN NKR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
July 20 2007
Presidential elections in Nagorno-Karabakh are over. All polling
stations closed at 8 p.m.
According to the information received at NKR CEC, about 29 % of
bulletins had been processed by 12 p. m. According to preliminary data,
87, 14 % of the electors voted for former Director of NKR National
Security Service Bako Sahakian, while 11, 2 % of constituents voted
for his principal contender NKR Deputy FM Masis Mailian.
76, 25% of voters participated in the elections. According to NKR
Electoral Code, the final results of the voting will be announced
within 3 days.
KARABAKH ELECTION
Dawn, Pakistan
July 21 2007
STEPANAKERT (Azerbaijan), July 20: A presidential election in
Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh was won by a former
head of security for the territory, Bako Sahakian, election officials
said on Friday.
Sahakian won 85 per cent of the vote at Thursday’s polls in the
unrecognised territory, the central election commission said after
all votes had been counted.
His nearest rival, deputy foreign minister Masis Maylian, came a
distant second with 12 per cent of the vote.
The results were preliminary, with final confirmation expected on
Saturday.
GHUKASSIAN: NKR HOLDS ELECTIONS FOR THE WHOLE NATION AND NOT FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
PanARMENIAN.Net
19.07.2007 13:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "I am leaving the presidential post of Nagorno
Karabakh with a sense that I have done my duty," NKR President Arkadi
Ghukassian stated on July 19 after having voted in one of the polling
stations in Stepanakert. He also added, undoubtedly he did not have
time to do everything.
Commenting on a CoE representative’s statement that the structure does
not recognize the presidential elections in NKR, the President stated,
"If the international community does not recognize electoral processes
in our republic, let it offer an alternative. Or may be Ghukassian must
proclaim himself a Turkmenbashi and rule fifty years," he underlined
adding that the NKR holds elections for the whole nation and not for
the international community
Touching upon candidate Masis Mailyan’s statements on violations
during campaign, the President said he had personally acquainted
himself with them. A. Ghukassian stressed, "there is nothing serious
there". "Those are just tales, created by those who feel defeated.
Unfortunately, the black PR reached and Nagorno Karabakh from
Armenia. After all, we have rather negativism from Turkey and
Azerbaijan," he underscored.
According to A. Ghukassian, the future President of NKR will fully
take the responsibility to settle the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
and will make every efforts to join NKR to the negotiation process,
IA Regnum reports.
KARABAKH ELECTION CLOSELY FOUGHT
By Ashot Beglarian in Stepanakert (CRS No. 401, 18-July-07)
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
July 18 2007
Observers say that official Karabakh Armenian candidate not assured
of victory.
There are two favourites amongst the five candidates competing in
the the July 19 election for the leadership of Nagorny Karabakh,
making this ballot the first genunine contest since the end of the
war over a decade ago
Both men come from within the governing elite but one is the official
candidate while the other is positioning himself as a potential
reformer.
Bako Sahakian, head of Karabakh’s national security service, has the
support of the main political parties in the local parliament as well
as most of the government and the elite in Armenia. Masis Mailian
serves as the unrecognised republic’s deputy foreign minister, but
is gathering more support from circles outside government.
The poll was triggered by the end of the second term of current
Karabakh leader Arkady Ghukasian. Although Karabakh has passed a
new constitution which might have enabled him to serve a third term,
he took the decision to step down after two periods in office.
Around 90,000 people are registered to vote in the poll. If no
candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the vote on July, a second
round will be held between the two main candidates in two weeks’ time.
"The defining feature of this campaign is its fierceness," said
Karabakh Armenian political commentator David Karabekian. "If in a
previous campaign one of the candidates won because he…got in the
worst case 86 per cent of the vote, this battle has a completely
different character."
Sahakian, 47, was not a public politician before the election campaign
began. During the 1991-4 war, he was one of the leading officers on
the Armenian side. He has been campaigning on a programme to raise
living standards in the territory.
He is promising support for war veterans, pensioners, schoolchildren
and families with multiple children and has pledged that there will be
a fivefold increase in mortgage credits available from the government
in 2008.
Karabekian said that in the campaign Sahakian had managed to
demonstrate he was his own man and not just a puppet of the elites,
"Several times he has distanced himself from steps recommended to
him and initiated by these people."
On the overarching issue for Nagorny Karabakh – its future status
and their stance on negotiations with the Azerbaijani government –
the two men express similar views. Both say that they want to see
Karabakh recognised as an independent state and represented in peace
negotiations with Baku. Currently, the Karabakh Armenians do not have
a place at the table and are represented by the government in Yerevan.
Both are also against making concessions on the occupied territories
outside Karabakh until the sovereignty of the republic is determined.
"Negotiations between the Nagorny Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan
about defining current borders can be held only after the unconditional
recognition of the sovereignty and state independence of Nagorny
Karabakh," said Mailian.
Mailian, 39, has worked in Karabakh’s foreign ministry since it was
created in the middle of the war in 1993 and took part in a series
of negotiations with Baku in the Nineties.
Mailian has focussed his campaign on the need for Karabakh to be
more transparent and democratic and said the elections are a test of
its credentials.
"Everyone has to be equal before the law," he said. "Only if all
the laws we have adopted actually work will be able to guarantee
development, a good life and a bright future and receive international
recognition."
Mailian said that the authorities were cut off from the people of
Karabakh, a situation he said was "unacceptable".
"In recent days I have had many meetings with voters and all with one
voice have said that no one listens to them and their statements are
not received in the offices of the powerful."
In a lively campaign, both main candidates have had the chance to
present their views on television, although there have been no public
debates. Both have toured Nagorny Karabakh and had public meetings
with voters.
There have been no violent incidents but members of Mailian’s campaign
team have complained that the government has been unfairly agitating
on behalf of Sahakian on Karabakh television.
Karabekian believes that, although he is not the official candidate,
Mailian has a genuine chance of success.
"Some analysts say that there isn’t a real contest between the
candidates and that the authorities of Armenia and Nagorny
Karabakh have basically agreed who will be president and Masis
Mailian is needed just as a sparring partner," he said referring to
Bako Sahakian.
"That is primitive logic. If the elections are just a backdrop for the
transfer of power from one representative of the elite to another, an
echo of the coming change of power in Armenia, then the question has to
be asked: why have the authorities played, to use chess terminology,
such big pieces and why are the different officials and bureaucrats
agitating on behalf of their own candidate, acting so nervously?"
Gegham Baghdasarian, independent member of parliament and editor of
the independent newspaper Demo, agrees that not everything has been
decided in advance.
"Even before the electoral campaign began some people and some forces
maintained and are still stating that the elections were pre-determined
and it’s already clear who will be the next president of the country,"
Baghdasarian said on public television.
"A person must really despise his own people and hold a low opinion
of it, about its mental and moral level, to say something like that.
It’s you, us, who will decide this. So don’t believe these fairy tales
and go to the elections, not as though you are doomed but with the
will to be masters of your own fate, in the frame of mind that who
gets elected really depends on you."
Ashot Beglarian is a freelance journalist and IWPR contributor in
Nagorny Karabakh. Editor’s note: The terminology used in this article
was chosen by IWPR, not the author.
ARMENIAN LAWMAKERS TO WATCH PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT IN KARABAKH
ARMENPRESS
Jul 16 2007
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS: An Armenian parliament delegation will
spend July 18-21 in Nagorno-Karabakh to monitor its presidential
election, scheduled for July 19.
The Armenian lawmakers will be headed by deputy parliament chairman
Ishkhan Zakarian from the Prosperous Armenia party.
The delegation will also have Gagik Minasian from the Republican Party,
Armen Rustamian and Gagik Gevorkian from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, Artashes Avoyan from the opposition Orinats Yerkir and
Larissa Alaverdian from another opposition Heritage party.
ARMENIAN OMBUDSMAN APPLIES TO UNO HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES FOR SUPPORT
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 16 2007
YEREVAN. July 16. /ARKA/. Armenian Ombudsman Armen Harutunyan applied
to the Office of the UNO High Commissioner for Refugees and the
Armenian Office of the Norwegian Council for Refugees.
The Armenian Ombudsman’s press service reported Monday, in particular,
Harutunyan is asking for support for the Avetisyans’ family, residing
in the village of Kasakh, Kotayk region
At the same time, the Ombudsman applied to Gagik Yeganyan, head of
Migration Department, run by the Armenian Ministry of Territorial
Administration, for information about programs and actions, implemented
by the Department in this region. The reason for the Ombudsman’s
application to the international organizations was the visit of the
working group, assigned by the Armenian Ombudsman on July 13 to the
village of Kasakh for familiarization with refugees’ living conditions.
According to Head of the village community A. Lazarian, a considerable
number of refugees has lived in Kasakh since 1988. He said that
most of housing problems has been solved there. At the same time,
30 families, residing in the territory of a former penitentiary,
have very bad housing conditions.
The family of refugee Avetisyan is especially in a bad condition. He
lives together with his children and two little grandchildren in
the basement of the house #20 without electricity and minimal living
conditions.
According to the working group, the family’s living conditions do
not meet the average standards of life and hygiene, which threatens
the children’s health.
As a result of the Karabakhi conflict in 1988-1991, about 360,000
refugees moved to Armenia from Azerbaijan. More 140,000 ethnic
Armenians migrated to CIS countries.
According to the information of the Migration Department, to date,
80,000 refugees obtained the Armenian citizenship as they reached
the full age. According to international organizations, more 120,000
Armenian refugees obtained citizenship of other countries.