Category: News

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
October 23, 2004 Saturday
Georgia, Armenia to step up inter-parliamentary cooperation
By Tengiz Pachkoria
TBILISI
Armenia and Georgia have announced a new stage of enhanced
inter-parliamentary cooperation between the two countries.
Speaking after talks with Georgian parliament speaker Nino
Burdzhanadze on Saturday, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan told
journalists, “The parliaments of the two countries have certain
experience of cooperation. Now it needs to be refreshed and
enhanced.”
Burdzhanadze said Georgia sought “even closer cooperation with
Armenia”. In her words, “This is in the interests of both countries
and the entire region.”
“It is important that the presidents of Georgia and Armenia have
reached an agreement on many areas of cooperation. The parliaments of
our countries will have to create good conditions for the
implementation of these agreements,” she said.
The speaker said she and Kocharyan had discussed problems that “worry
Georgia and Armenia as well as questions connected with the future
activities of the two countries in the international arena.”

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
October 23, 2004 Saturday
Congress of submarine fleet veterans opens in Petersburg
By Nikolai Krupenik, Lev Frolov
MOSCOW
The second congress of the international association of public
organizations of veterans of the submarine fleet and submariners is
opening in St. Petersburg.
Over 200 delegates of a 300,000-strong detachment of former
submariners of the Navy of the USSR and Russia from 44 regions of
Russia, as well as Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Latvia and Estonia take
part in the congress.
As Itar-Tass learnt at the congress organizing committee, the
participants in congress will pay special attention to “the
preparation and holding of the celebrations devoted to 100th
anniversary of Russia’s submarine forces due to be marked in 2006.
The congress delegates will visit memorial complexes and the
Serafimovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg to pay homage to
submariners from nuclear-powered submarines “Kursk” and
“Komsomolets.”

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
October 23, 2004 Saturday
Armenia president to discuss issues of cooperation with Georgia
By Tengiz Pachkoria
TBILISI
President Robert Kocharyan of Armenia on Saturday will discuss with
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and Speaker of the Georgian
parliament Nino Burdzhanadze issues of further development and
deepening of cooperation between the two countries.
Robert Kocharyan, who arrived in Georgia for a three-ay official
visit on Friday, will also hold a meeting with representatives of the
Armenian diaspora in Georgia. According to the census of 2002,
Armenians account for 5.6 percent of the 4-million-strong population
of Georgia (84 percent of the population are Georgians, 6.5 percent –
– Azerbaijanians and 1.5 percent – Russians).
On Friday, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili satated that over
the last two thousand years Georgia and Armenia had had no
territorial claims to each other and expressed the hope that there
would be no claims in the future as well.
Robert Kocharyan said that during his meeting with Mikhail
Saakashvili he “began discussing an issue of the two countries’
coordination of actions within the framework of the EU program “New
Neighbours.”
According to Kocharyan, they also discussed an issue “of possible
cooperation in the field of railway transport of all countries of the
Southern Caucasus.”

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
October 23, 2004, Saturday
Where a sauna saved a church
By CHRISTOPHER HOWSE
WE EACH spend on average pounds 3,000 a year on the National Health
Service. But a mere 20p a head each year would double the amount
devoted by the public body English Heritage to the repair of
churches.
Britain has an astonishing richness of church architecture. Of
course, France and Spain and other European countries have marvellous
churches too. But many were smashed up, in the French revolution, or
burnt in various “liberal” convulsions in 19th and 20th-century
Spain. Our own convulsions left their marks in the 16th and 17th
centuries, and the dangers to church fabric since then have been
principally decay and traffic schemes.
The British love for church was convincingly confirmed last month
when The Daily Telegraph invited nominations for readers’ favourite
churches. Three or four thousand people wrote in, and the results
will be published later this year.
That figure of 20p each representing a doubling of public spending on
churches comes from Building Faith in Our Future, a report from the
Church Heritage Forum. Although the report occasionally lapses into
dull committee-speak, its subject is is churches – church buildings –
and how they can be “catalysts for regeneration”.
I’m not sure “catalyst” is exactly the right metaphor, since a
catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical
reaction without itself undergoing change. Churches, on the contrary,
are completely part of their village or suburb, as much as pubs and
post offices, more than betting shops, and certainly more than the
casinos that the Government is planning.
The Diocese of Lincoln makes tourism an ally in promoting the work of
its churches. The cathedral provides information about nine plum
churches of architectural and historic interest. These churches try
to have someone around so that when visitors call, they can find out
about 44 further churches in the area worth looking at. In these 44
churches visitors can be put in touch with 300 more.
At St Paul’s, Old Ford, in east London, tourism was not a likely
prospect. Although the church, built in 1878, was a Grade II-listed
building of historic importance, it was closed a decade ago for
safety reasons. But local people were very fond of it, and the new
vicar, the Rev Philippa Boardman, worked away with her parochial
church council to try to renovate it.
The result has been the construction of an extraordinary wooden “pod”
on steel stilts inside the nave space, housing an art gallery, a room
for projects, a room for counselling and, for some reason, a sauna.
The structure has been nicknamed “The Ark”. The old church has a part
dedicated for worship and a part used as a cafe.
Money for this came from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Mercers’
Company, the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, and other public,
church and private sources. The church opened up again in May this
year.
I have reservations about a church being used as a cafe, let alone a
sauna. But the world is littered with ruined churches. Ancient
Armenian churches stand crumbling in Anatolia; the basilicas of St
Augustine’s day have crumbled into the dust of north Africa. But we
get so used to saying that a church is not just the building that it
is easy to neglect the glory of the very structures.
“The achievement on the part of tens of thousands of volunteers is
hugely impressive,” says The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard
Chartres.
“Churches are probably better cared for now than at any time in the
past 100 years.” He is surely right that churches are good for
communities. And because of voluntary support, they spend what little
public money they get more productively that the poor old NHS. They
should get more.
How We Saw It: 150 Years of The Daily Telegraph 1855-2005 (Ebury
Press) by Christopher Howse, with a foreword by W F Deedes, is
available for pounds 20 (plus pounds 1.25 p&p) from Telegraph Books
Direct 0870 155 7222.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse — English
October 23, 2004 Saturday
Prisoner amnesty in Turkmenistan on first day of legislative session
ASHGABAT
Turkmenistan’s autocratic leader Saparmurat Niyazov Saturday opened
the annual three-day session of the nation’s main legislative body by
announcing what has become a traditional mass prisoner release during
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The annual assembly offers a glimpse into this isolated one-time land
of khans that matters on the world stage because of its gas and oil
reserves but where opposition is not tolerated, media tightly
controlled and official statistics distrusted.
Some 9,000 prisonners will be released this year a few days before
the end of Ramadan in the mostly Muslim country, Niyazov told the
2,507 delegates of the People’s Council, or Halk Maslahaty.
“Let our fellow citizens who have stumbled rejoin society,” Niyazov
told the deputies, who are expected, in following with tradition, to
pass laws introduced by Niyazov by the close of the session on
Monday.
The release is the fourth consecutive one in this former Soviet
republic and will include 150 foreign nationals, including those of
Armenia, Moldova, as well as neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, he said.
Seven thousand prisoners were released during the pardon last year.
Niyazov also announced a hike in pensions and salaries, said he would
introduce a water law, slash the number of taxes and decree new
quotas for grain and cotton production.
Beginning on January 1, 2005, salaries and pensions will be hiked by
50 percent, so that the average monthly salary will stand at 2,250
million manats (433 US dollars at the official exchange rate, 94
dollars at the black market rate), he said.
The number of possible taxes levied would be slashed from 17 to four,
and the government will introduce long-term land leasing.
“Land will always belong to the government, but any citzen will be
able to rent up to 10 hectares for 10 years,” he said.
Niyazov also said he would introduce a water law in the nation, which
is roughly the size of California and lies mostly in the desert sands
of Central Asia.
He said that farming consumed most of the water in the country every
year, 23 billion cubic meters or 88 percent, and that nearly half of
this, 10 billion cubic meters, was wasted.
“We cannot allow this any longer, this is our national riches, so we
need a law on water,” he said, promising to provide specifics later
in the session.
The Communist-era apparatchik, who has held power in Turkmenistan
since it became independent in 1991, also increased quotas for grain
and cotton production by 2010.
He said oil and gas production in for 2004 would stand at 10 million
tons and 61 billion cubic meters, respectively, and trade turnover at
seven billion US dollars.
Although it is not Turkmenistan’s sole legislative body, the asembly
passes the nation’s major laws.
Turkmenistan is a country of nearly five million people whose gas
reserves are believed to be among the world’s top five. It was also
once the world’s tenth-largest producer of cotton.
Niyazov was had himself anointed president for life in 1999 and
prefers to be addressed as Turkmenbashi (father-of-all-Turkmen) the
Great.
Huge statues of him can be found in most of the nation’s cities and
on Friday a vast mosque capable of holding 10,000 worshippers opened
in his home village, in part as a tribute to its famous native.
Rights groups have denounced his regime for stifling opposition and
human rights violations.

Agence France Presse — English
October 23, 2004 Saturday
China sides with Azeris in Nargorno dispute
BAKU
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov said Saturday that his
Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing backed Azerbaijan in its territorial
dispute with neighboring Armenia over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We received confirmation that the Chinese People’s Republic supports
Azerbaijan’s just position,” Mamedyarov told reporters after talks
with Li in the Azeri capital.
“China and Azerbaijan have common interests as far as Azerbaijan’s
sovereignty is concerned,” said Li.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bloody war in the early 1990s ending
with Armenia’s de facto rule over the Nagorny-Karabakh ethnic
Armenian enclave, which is still internationally recognized as part
of Azerbaijan.
China has developed close ties with Azerbaijan, a Caucasus state,
where it has made a series of recent investments in its oil industry
as the Asian giant struggles to meet its growing energy needs.
Li said bilateral trade between China and Azerbaijan stood at 238
million dollars (188 million euros) last year.
“But there is a huge potential to expand trade and the economy,” Li
said, while pledging an additional 1.2 million dollars in aid.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
October 24, 2004 Sunday 10:00 AM Eastern Time
Georgian interior ministry, Armenian police to have joint board
By Tengiz Pachkoria
TBILISI
The Georgian Interior Ministry and the Armenian police will have a
joint board, in line with a document signed between Georgian Interior
Minister Irakly Okruashvili and Armenian police chief Gaik Arutunyan
in Tbilisi on Sunday.
“The joint board will intensify measures against crime, including car
thefts and drug trafficking,” Okruashvili said. “Georgia and Armenia
will form working groups to coordinate anti-crime measures, and the
joint board will convene once in several months.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Hindu, India
October 24, 2004
FEMALE ELEPHANT DIES IN MYSORE ZOO
Our Staff Correspondent
Barely days before she was due to fly to Armenia as “India’s
ambassador of goodwill,” Komala, an eight-year-old female elephant
died under mysterious circumstances in Mysore Zoo on Friday.
Komala is the third elephant to die in the zoo in the past couple of
weeks. Her death came at a time when a large number of tourists, who
had arrived in Mysore for the Dasara celebrations, were visiting the
zoo.
Other instances
A 30-year-old tusker, Ganesha, and a 14-year-old female elephant,
Roopa, died in Mysore Zoo last month, and laboratories tests
confirmed that they were victims of chemical poisoning. A couple of
weeks earlier, a lion-tailed macaque died of poisoning. As at least
three animal deaths have been attributed to poisoning in the past few
weeks, there is suspicion of foul play in Komala’s death.
The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, who was visibly concerned, said
he would direct the Principal Secretary, Forests and Environment, to
visit the zoo and investigate the death of Komala. “It is unfortunate
that animals are dying in Mysore Zoo. Action will be taken against
the guilty,” he told presspersons after offering floral tributes to
Nandi Dhwaja outside the Mysore Palace premises.
Sources in the zoo said Komala had not had food since Thursday
morning. In the afternoon, she seemed to be suffering from dysentery,
and veterinarians provided treatment. But, on Friday afternoon,
Komala breathed her last. A post-mortem was conducted on Friday
evening. A complaint has been lodged at the Nazarbad police station.
After the deaths of the elephants and the macaque, the zoo
authorities had introduced a system to test the food supplied to
animals.
Gift
Komala had been chosen as India’s gift to Armenia after an elaborate
nationwide search carried out by the Central Zoo Authority recently.
As an ambassador of goodwill, Komala was to fulfil India’s promise to
Armenia to gift a female elephant as a companion for the lone male
Indian elephant housed at the Yerevan Zoo.
Gentle giant
According to the executive director of Mysore Zoo, Manoj Kumar,
Komala had been chosen as she was the gentlest of the gentle giants
short-listed for the trip to Armenia.
“Only animals bred in captivity are included in an exchange
programme,” he added.
Komala had been separated from her parents for the last couple of
weeks to prepare her for life in Armenia.
The Armenian authorities were scheduled to take the elephant on a
special flight.
A special cage was made, and officials from the Forest Department
were preparing to accompany the elephant.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Associated Press Worldstream
October 23, 2004 Saturday
Armenian opposition party says its lawmakers will continue boycott of
parliament
YEREVAN, Armenia
Armenia’s largest opposition party said Saturday that its lawmakers
would continue to boycott parliamentary sessions in this ex-Soviet
republic.
Two dozen lawmakers have refused to attend parliament since February
to protest last year’s re-election of President Robert Kocharian, a
vote the opposition charges was marred by widespread irregularities.
The protesting lawmakers want to change the law on referendums so a
vote can be held asking Armenians if they have confidence in
Kocharian, who critics say has violently cracked down on dissent,
allowed corruption to flourish and done little to improve the lot of
impoverished Armenia’s 3.3 million people.
“Everyone who tries to resist the authorities’ illegal activity, who
fights for justice and welfare is subjected to beatings, repression
and arrest,” said Stepan Demirchian, who leads the opposition
National Party of Armenia. “Under such conditions, we can’t
participate in the work of the National Assembly.”
Speaking at his party’s national congress on Saturday, Demirchian
said that “a dialogue with authorities is possible only when they act
within the framework of the law.” He pledged that the parliamentary
boycott would continue.
Thirteen of the lawmakers boycotting parliamentary sessions are from
a bloc of opposition parties which includes Demirchians’ party; the
others represent other opposition groups.
Demirchian took over the leadership of the National Party in October
1999 after its founder, his father Karen Demirchian, was killed when
gunmen attacked parliament in what some suspect was a politically
motivated killing.
The younger Demirchian ran for president last year but lost in the
second round.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian Defence Ministry spokesman denies detention of Chechens
Arminfo
23 Oct 04

YEREVAN
The head of the Armenian Defence Ministry press service, Col Seyran
Shakhsuvaryan, today denied media reports saying that three Chechens
had been detained on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act in
Yerevan’s district of Kanaker.
[Passage omitted: Arminfo reported on 22 October that three Chechens
were detained near the area of deployment of a Russian military
regiment in Yerevan]
In a conversation with an Arminfo correspondent, Col Shakhsuvaryan
firmly rejected the report, saying he “was checking it at the highest
level and had not received any confirmation”.