Category: News

Europe Information Service
Euro-East
June 17, 2004
ARMENIAN DIPLOMATS ATTEND EURO-INTEGRATION INTERNSHIP IN LITHUANIA
Armenian diplomats attended an internship at the Lithuanian
Foreign Ministry from May 31 to June 11 to learn more about
European integration. According to the Ministry, they studied the
Lithuanian experience of preparations for EU membership, various
aspects of co-ordination of EU-related activities, and formation of
public opinion on Euro-integration, as well as attending a series
of meetings in the Lithuanian institutions and visiting the Vilnius
University’s International Relations and Political Science Institute.
The Ministry explained that representatives of the countries of
the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) would attend
various training activities on public administration in Lithuania in
2004-2005, in the framework of a programme to transfer Lithuania’s
Euro-integration experience to these countries. A similar internship
was held for Ukrainian officials in January.

Bacrot the hero
By Malcolm Pein
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
June 17, 2004, Thursday
THE Armenia v Rest of the World match went down to the wire as
Etienne Bacrot was forced to defend the tricky endgame of rook
against rook and bishop to secure victory for the Rest of the World
team. Bacrot completed his task using the well-known stalemate
defence and forced a draw on move 70 to give his team a win by the
narrowest of margins, 18.5-17.5.
The Armenian team moved to within one point of the Rest of the World
after Michael Adams was outplayed by Rafael Vaganian, but that proved
to be the only decisive game of the round. The Armenian, or
“Petrosian”, team won the final round 3.5-2.5.
World number one Garry Kasparov drew comfortably with black against
the world number two Vishy Anand by employing the sharp Sicilian
Sveshnikov. In a typical game from this opening Kasparov played as
actively as possible and was prepared to sacrifice a pawn or two if
necessary to open lines for his rooks and bishop pair.
Round six: Rest of the World 2.5-3.5 Armenia. Anand draw Kasparov
(Armenia), Sicilian Sveshnikov, 26; Van Wely draw Lputian (Armenia),
QGD Tartakower, 31; Vallejo Pons draw Leko (Armenia), Queen’s Indian
18; Gelfand (Armenia) draw Bacrot, Slav Defence 4 a6, 70; Akopian
(Armenia) draw Svidler, Sicilian Defence, 18; Vaganian (Armenia) 1-0
Adams, Colle System, 38.
Individual scores: Armenia/Petrosian: Kasparov 3.5/6, Leko 4/6,
Vaganian 3.5/6, Akopian 2.5/6, Lputian 2/6, Gelfand 2/6. Rest of the
World: Svidler 4/6, Adams 3/6, Bacrot 3.5/6, Anand 3.5/6, Vallejo
Pons 3/6, Van Wely 1.5/6.
Final score: Rest of the World 18.5-17.5 Armenia.
In the final position 26 Qxd4 27.Rxb5 Qxd1 28.Rxd1 (28.b3!?) Bxb2 is
level or 26…f4!? is unclear.
V Anand – G Kasparov
Armenia – ROW Moscow (6)
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6 Ndb5 d6 7 Bg5 a6 8
Na3 b5 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 Nd5 Bg7 11 c3 f5 12 exf5 Bxf5 13 Nc2 0-0 14
Nce3 Be6 15 Bd3 f5 16 0-0 Ra7 17 a4 Ne7 18 Nxe7+ Rxe7 19 axb5 axb5 20
Ra6 d5 21 Nc2 Bc8 22 Ra8 Qd7 23 Nb4 e4 24 Be2 Bb7 25 Ra5 d4 26 cxd4
draw
Kasparov
p p 7 ) p p – p Y 7 k c p p p p
6 c p p c p l n c p p p p p p n p A n b n p p Z p * d
Anand
Final position after 26.cxd4

New laws to cut refugee stream
PAP News Wire
June 17, 2004 Thursday
Warsaw, June 17 — New refugee laws are expected to cut down the number
of asylum-seekers in Poland. Since May 1 [Poland’s EU accession –
PAP] rejected asylum applicants in Poland will not be able to apply
for refugee status in another country.
Asylum seekers in other EU countries whose applications were rejected
in Poland will be sent back to Poland as the original application
country.
Most asylum seekers in Poland are Chechens (82 pct), followed by
Afghans, Hindus, Pakistanis and Armenians.

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say. Part B (Russia)
June 17, 2004, Thursday
CIS SECURITY: TIME TO SET PRIORITIES
SOURCE: Krasnaya Zvezda, June 17, 2004, pp. 1, 3
by Roman Streshnev
Question: What can you say about the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) nowadays?
Nikolai Bordyuzha: The decision to establish the CSTO was made a year
ago. We’ve concentrated on three directions of work.
Foreign policy activities are the first direction. The main task here
boils down to coordinating the positions of members of the CSTO on
regional security problems. There is nothing new about this form of
interaction, which is quite effective. Numerous international
structures use it. Take the European Union, for example, where
opinions on some matter are first discussed and then the common point
of view is worked out and proclaimed. Approximately the same practice
is used in foreign policy activities of the CSTO. We discuss all
global and regional issues and do our best to work out a common
stance. Considerable importance is attached to contact with
international organizations specializing in security matters. We
actively cooperate with the CIS, the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, the counter-terrorism committee of the UN Security
Council, UN drug enforcement and organized crime structures, other
organizations. As for the OSCE, we even have joint international
programs with it.
Dealing with challenges and threats is the second direction. First
and foremost, the matter concerns coordination of efforts within the
CSTO against religious extremism, terrorism, drug trafficking,
illegal immigration, organized crime. We promote cooperation between
special structures and law enforcement agencies.
The military component is the third direction. It is probably the
most complicated because of the abundance of sensitive issues
inherent in it. First and foremost, the matter concerns formation and
perfection of army groups – Russia-Belarus in the West,
Russia-Armenia in the Caucasus, and the Collective Rapid Response
Forces in Central Asia. Not long ago, we wrote an important document
titled “Priorities of coalition military development to 2010.” It
stipulates establishment of new regional groups and international
integrationist systems. It also specifies some steps that will change
the military component of the CSTO beyond recognition.
At the same time, there are some serious problems within the
framework of the CSTO. I’d divide them into two blocs. The first
includes political problems. Russia’s passivity with regard to its
neighbors was noticeable throughout the 1990s, and resulted in these
countries drifting towards the West and specifically the United
States. This situation complicates the process of reaching a
consensus on key issues.
The second bloc includes the problems that concern the CIS as such.
Political courses of many CIS countries parted company. We have to
decide now in what directions cooperation and interaction within the
CIS will proceed.
I’d like to emphasize nevertheless that the CSTO has retained what
really counts – good will on the part of national leaders who say
that they are prepared to follow in the wake of common interests and
interests of Russia. Now that processes of integration are under way
in the CSTO, it is in the focus of attention of the international
community and particularly NATO. In fact, these steps on our part
worry some world leaders. We even encounter certain resistance from
them. It means that the CSTO may have problems of course but the
progress it is making is undeniable.
Question: The CIS Collective Security Council will meet in Astana on
the level of national leaders on June 18. What matters will be
discussed? Will any agreements be adopted?
Nikolai Bordyuzha: We hope to have a great deal of issued discussed
at the meeting – including the main directions of coalition military
development to 2010.
The document is supposed to specify what we aspire for in the
military sphere – united armed forces or coalitionist forces, what
actions should be taken in armed conflicts (meaning, autonomous or
coordinated). We also hope that the national leaders will discuss an
agreement on the joint use of military infrastructures in special
periods, on mutual protection of the data appraised as state secrets,
etc.
It is time we defined the place and the role of the CSTO in the
international security framework. It is time a decision was made on
political cooperation with NATO (for example). We propose contacts
with the Alliance on the level of organizations as such. In fact,
NATO countries emphasise developing bilateral relations with
post-Soviet countries. We do not have any official contacts with
Brussels – cannot have any, in fact – without a political decision
made at the level of the CIS Collective Security Council.
The concept of the CSTO’s peacekeeping resources is to be discussed
at the meeting as well. We believe that these resources – if
organized, of course – may be used within the CSTO or, with the UN’s
approval, elsewhere in the CIS. Or even on the global scale, provided
the UN made the request and the CIS Collective Security Council
agreed.
In general, national leaders of the CSTO will discuss over a dozen
documents.
Question: United Headquarters of the CSTO of the CIS Collective
Security Treaty began its work on June 1, 2004. Is it an analog of
the CIS Military Cooperation Coordination Headquarters?
Nikolai Bordyuzha: If you ask me, the CIS Military Cooperation
Coordination Headquarters is not a coordinating structure nowadays.
I’d rather call it a structure advancing military-political
cooperation. Of course, it is necessary within the framework of the
CIS to cooperate on the level of defense ministries, but integration,
coordination, transition to common military standards – that’s a
different matter altogether. All of that is becoming more and more
difficult. We all know for example that Georgia is switching over to
NATO standards. Some other CIS countries follow suit – the countries
who are involved in the work of the CIS Military Cooperation
Coordination Headquarters only nominally. Analysis of documents
signed within the framework of the CIS and dealing with military
cooperation and interaction shows that the accords are honored mostly
by members of the CSTO. It is these countries that are ready for
continuation of the dialogue and military integration and
integration.
I believe that the work of the CIS Military Cooperation Coordination
Headquarters should be rearranged. In this light, we energized
military and military technology cooperation within the framework of
the CSTO. For example, its members are permitted to buy military
hardware from each other at the producer’s domestic price.
Question: What is Russia’s role on post-Soviet territory? And what
does the CSTO think about the presence of NATO bases on its
territory?
Nikolai Bordyuzha: As for post-Soviet territory and Russia’s role
there, I’d say that we felt somewhat euphoric in the early 1990s but
discovered soon enough that neither Europe nor the United States were
actually waiting for us with open arms. We are coming to our senses
again – it is dawning on us that we have our own neighbors quite
close by. Considerable impetus to the process has been provided by
the policy of President Vladimir Putin. Strangely enough, however, a
substantial part of the Russian political elite is still pro-Western
– dismissing Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and
other neighbors. That’s a mistake. We all used to live in a single
country. We have so much in common.
As for the presence of NATO bases on the territories of some
countries of the CSTO, Russia’s position (and positions of other
members of the CSTO) is well known. The bases were established with
the UN mandate and with the consent of national governments – for the
duration of the counter-terrorism operation in Afghanistan.

Yo-yo Ma, Silk Road make stop in Seoul
By Warren Lee
THE KOREA HERALD
June 17, 2004, Thursday
A program featuring Armenian folk songs, Romany melodies and a Korean
12-stringed zither or “gayageum” thrown in for good measure may appear
chaotic, but there is a common thread that unites these sounds. All
were heard along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route that connected
the people and traditions of Asia and Europe.
For the past six years acclaimed cellist Yo-yo Ma has led the Silk
Road Project on a nomadic concert series devoted to music from lands
along the historic route. Ma has helped unearth and introduce a
diverse range of isolated musical traditions that remain as exotic
to contemporary ears as they were to European travelers like Marco
Polo several hundred years ago.
The Silk Road Project will make its first appearance in Korea at the
Seoul Arts Center on June 24, with Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
performing music stretching from Azerbaijan to Korea with stops
in between.
Ma originally created the Silk Road Project, which has gone on to
successfully capitalize on the exoticism shrouding the Silk Road’s
historical legacy, as an earnest study of how musical ideas travel
through various geographic and cultural terrains. It has become
more than a mere travelogue in sound and aims to underscore more
similarities than differences among traditions, while integrating
Western classical works with ties to those traditions.
The concert will begin with a pair of Korean artists. Kim Ji-hyun’s
performance of “gayageum byeongchang,” traditional Korean singing
with accompaniment on the gayageum, will contrast with a newly
commissioned work by composer Jacqueline Kim. “Tryst,” written for
the gayageum, oboe and cello, is a love song sung between the famed
scholar and poet Jung Chul and the beautiful courtesan Chin Ok. The
vocal cries are brought to life by the gayageum, with the cello and
oboe mirroring the traditional ensemble functions carried out by the
“piri,” a Korean wind instrument.
The second half of the program features the music of Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Roma arranged for string quartet, performed by Ma, violist
Nicholas Cords and violinists Jonathan Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen.
In “Mugham-Sajay for String Quartet,” composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh
mimics the sounds of traditional Azerbaijani and Middle Eastern
instruments, transforming a Western string quartet into a small
Azerbaijani folk band. Her piece evokes the spirit of her native
mugham, a collection of suites that form the backbone of Azerbaijani
classical music. Ali-Zadeh, who received a doctorate in musicology
from Baku Conservatory, exemplifies the Western-trained composer who
straddles two musical worlds. Chinese virtuoso Wu Tong will perform a
traditional work on the sheng, a Chinese mouth organ made of bamboo or
bronze pipes. In “The Prospect of Colored Desert” written for Chinese
lute, violin, cello and sheng, Chinese composer Jia Daquan, a painter
who turned to music when his vision became impaired, imagines a black
ink brush painting a desert.
The Silk Road Project represents another step in Ma’s musical journey
that extends well beyond performance of the classic cello repertory.
Fascinated by how ideas evolve when they travel over geographic and
cultural distances, Ma founded the organization to study the flow of
ideas along the Silk Road. The Silk Road Project is now an umbrella
organization and common resource to a variety of artistic, cultural
and educational projects.
Yo-yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble will perform June 24 at 7:30 at
the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall, located near Nambu Bus Terminal
Station, Subway Line No. 3, Exit 5. Tickets start at 30,000 won. For
more information, contact (02) 720-6633 or visit
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Palestinian shuns pageant after threats
by Tia Goldenberg
The Jerusalem Post
June 17, 2004, Thursday
After inviting Dina Emal to participate in Tuesday night’s “Miss Green
Line” beauty pageant in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood, coordinator
Asi Nagar told the Palestinian contestant from Beit Jala to stay home,
in response to her mother’s fears for her safety.
Nagar had invited Emal, who also goes by the last name Mahariz,
to participate in order to help build on the pageant’s theme of
coexistence.
“She really wanted to participate, but her family was afraid, so
I had to make a decision on their behalf,” Nagar said before the
pageant. “I’d rather have a friend living in Beit Jala than a beauty
queen living in fear.” He said Emal cried when he told her not to
come to the event.
A band comprising Jews and Palestinians welcomed the guests to the
pageant, playing both Israeli and Arabic songs. While the guests were
mostly Jewish, Nagar said some Arabs had come from the Palestinian
town of Beit Jala and Jerusalem’s Beit Safafa neighborhood. After
Emal’s withdrawal, only one non-Jewish participant, Arpi Krikorian,
an Armenian Christian from Jerusalem’s Old City, remained.
“Dina really wanted to participate, but the security situation
couldn’t allow for it,” said Krikorian, who came in fourth place.
“She was very disappointed and so am I.”
Ayelet Fishman, first runner-up in the competition, said the fact
that a Palestinian woman would participate in the pageant is what
pushed her to join.
“If the Arab girl wasn’t a part of this, I wouldn’t have done it,”
Fishman said, before being notified of Emal’s absence. “It was a
once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
Before the competition, Labor MK Colette Avital spoke to the
audience. “Dina has a place in all our hearts,” said Avital. “I hope
that next year the atmosphere will be such that we will be able to
live as neighbors.”
The participants, ranging in age from 14 to 21, strutted onstage in
dresses, bikinis, and wedding gowns.
Ortal Balilti, 17, from Gilo, took the crown.
GRAPHIC: Photo: ISRAELI YOUNG women don evening dresses to
participate in a beauty contest Tuesday night in Jerusalem’s Gilo
neighborhood. (Credit: Lefteris Pitarakis/Ap)

Armenian Assembly of America
122 C Street, NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:
 
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2004
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
E-mail: [email protected]
ASSEMBLY BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIRMAN BARSAMIAN ARRIVES IN YEREVAN
Washington, DC – Armenian Assembly Board of Directors Chairman Anthony
Barsamian arrived in Yerevan June 17 for a 10-day visit to Armenia, Nagorno
Karabakh and Georgia for high-level meetings with government officials.
Barsamian, together with Assembly Country Director for Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh Arpi Vartanian, is scheduled to meet with Presidents Robert
Kocharian and Arkady Ghoukasian, as well as members of their
administrations, to continue discussions on the economic and security
elements of the U.S.-Armenia and U.S.-Karabakh relationships.
Before his departure, Barsamian said: “The Assembly values our ongoing open
exchanges with Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. I look forward to a busy and
productive week.”
Barsamian will also meet U.S. Embassy officials in Yerevan before traveling
to Georgia for talks with President Mikhail Saakashvili, Prime Minister
Zurab Zhvania and Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili. Those discussions
will include the U.S./ Georgia/ Armenia relationships and center on
Tbilisi’s plans for Javahk, a region in southern Georgia populated largely
by Armenians.
Last month, a five-member Assembly delegation, headed by Assembly Board of
Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian, took part in the Armenian Foreign
Ministry’s Conference highlighting the country’s foreign policy objectives,
then attended U.S. Ambassador John Ordway’s continuing series of roundtable
talks with Diasporan leaders. Trustee representative Jirair Haratunian,
Board of Directors Vice Chair Lisa Esayian, Executive Director Ross Vartian
and Country Director for Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh Arpi Vartanian were in
attendance.
And this week Barsamian headed an Assembly delegation that conferred once
again with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian during his three-day official
visit to Washington, DC.
The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide
organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian
issues. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
NR#2004-055

The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
June 17, 2004 Thursday
MaryAnn’s music makers;
Awards to honor students in memory of lover of the arts
By MERRY FIRSCHEIN, STAFF WRITER, North Jersey Media Group
PARAMUS
Orthodontist Robert V. Kinoian loves music and art. He also loved his
wife, MaryAnn, who died of breast cancer four years ago. So Kinoian,
a classical guitarist who has played at Carnegie Recital Hall, has
created The MaryAnn Kinoian Memorial Scholarship Fund to reward
children in their music and art studies.
On Monday, six children – two each from Ridge Ranch Elementary
School, East Brook Middle School, and West Brook Middle School – will
receive small monetary prizes meant as a pat on the back for their
hard work.
“The award says, ‘Look, you’re interested in music and this is
something that has value. People are recognizing your ability, and
it’s worth pursuing,’-” said Kinoian. “They might say, ‘Maybe I
should keep up with this, because someone did recognize me.’-”
MaryAnn Kinoian waged a 10-year battle with breast cancer and
succumbed in September 2000 at age 45. Robert Kinoian is now raising
their daughter, Lucine, who is 14..
MaryAnn was a nurse administrator and operating room supervisor and
instructor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City
and in New Jersey at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.
When MaryAnn was in high school, she played the violin for the
all-state orchestra in New York. And she was the chairwoman of the
art exposure program at Ridge Ranch from 1995 to 1999, when Lucine
was a student there.
“We would have posters of pieces of fine art, either paintings or
sculpture,” Kinoian said. “We would write up the background on the
paintings and give questions to the parents to ask the kids.”
Robert Kinoian is a classical guitarist who studied with Andres
Segovia, an innovator of the modern classical guitar. Kinoian has
performed at Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall. By his
late 20s, he changed careers and became a dentist. He still plays the
guitar.
“I started at 8 years old,” he said. “I remember seeing the Beatles
in 1964. I always wanted to play guitar. There are even photos of me
with a toy guitar.”
When MaryAnn died, Robert Kinoian came up with a way to honor her. “I
thought it would be nice to give a little prize to children who
showed an interest in music and art,” he said. “In the spring of
2001, I approached [Ridge Ranch Principal] Meryl Barrett with the
idea. She was very pleased and enthusiastic about it.”
Administrators at each school choose the children, usually graduating
students, who will receive the award. Their names are kept secret
until the graduation ceremony, when Kinoian presents each child with
a plaque and a check.
“The child must be someone who has excelled in music and someone who
has excelled in art, and showing enthusiasm for these subjects,”
Kinoian said. Ridge Ranch students receive $50 and the middle school
children receive a $75 check.
Kinoian also gives a small award to two students at the Sunday school
of his church, St. Leon’s Armenian Church in Fair Lawn.
Kinoian’s goal is to distribute prizes to children in each of the
district’s elementary schools and middle schools. Currently, he funds
the awards himself. He hopes in the future to use money given in
honor of his wife.
“My main thrust is to support the younger children, to encourage them
that this is a worthwhile pursuit even if it doesn’t turn out to be
their career,” he said.
An award like this, even such a small one, is so important, Kinoian
said. “There seems to be so little support for the arts in financial
support from the government,” he explained. “We don’t see a lot of
art or music programs in schools. It’s peripheral.
“I always had a love for music,” he said. “It’s been such an integral
and important part of my life, I want to support children who have
those feelings, too.”
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, CARMINE GALASSO, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER – Robert V.
Kinoian, shown in his orthodontics office in Paramus, is honoring the
memory of his wife by rewarding children who excel in music and the arts.

The Washington Times
June 17, 2004, Thursday, Final Edition
EMBASSY ROW
By James Morrison, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
[parts omitted]
Beneficial embargo
Turkey’s economic embargo on Armenia has had an unexpected positive
effect on the economy, said Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian.
Turkey’s embargo is meant to force Armenia to relinquish land it
captured from Turkey’s ally, Azerbaijan, in the 1990s during a civil
war in the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which declared
independence from Azerbaijan in 1988. One million Azerbaijanis were
displaced, and the conflict has yet to be resolved. An unofficial
cease-fire has held since 1994.
Although State Department reports say the embargo has devastated
the economy of landlocked Armenia, Mr. Oskanian said his country
has diversified.
“We are developing and developing well. We are more efficient, more
effective,” he told our correspondent Tom Carter in an interview at
the Armenian Embassy this week.
“We have strengthened our [information technology] industry. We have
diversified into diamonds and jewelry: things that can go out on
satellite or in small pouches on airplanes.”
Mr. Oskanian met with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and a variety of senators during
his brief “working” visit.
He said that Armenia was gratified that it had met the qualifications
necessary to be a part of the Millennium Challenge Account, which
will give Armenia access to U.S. financial aid in the next three to
five years.
“There are billions of dollars available, which will be extremely
valuable to our economy,” said Mr. Oskanian, predicting that his
country will continue to liberalize the economy, invest in “human
capital” and improve human rights and the rule of law.
Mr. Oskanian said Armenia supported the U.S.-led effort to liberate
Iraq, although it did not provide troops. Armenia granted permission
for coalition planes to fly over its territory and is prepared to
send a specialist team to help remove land mines.
Mr. Oskanian also said Armenia’s relationship with the European Union
improved this week when the union welcomed Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia under its “neighborhood policy,” which is aimed at encouraging
ties with the European bloc. However, he added that the designation
does not guarantee membership.
“This was a first signal saying, ‘Why not?’ It has not been ruled out,
but there is no firm commitment,” Mr. Oskanian said.

Armenian opposition holds new protest
Associated Press Worldstream
June 16, 2004 Wednesday
YEREVAN, Armenia — Opposition leaders in Armenia held the latest
in a series of anti-government protests on Wednesday and accused the
authorities of trying to fool European human rights representatives
by easing a crackdown against opponents during their visit.
About 5,000 people gathered in the capital for a protest in central
Yerevan, the capital of the former Soviet republic, where speakers
denounced the foreign and economic policies of President Robert
Kocharian and his government.
Opposition leader Stepan Demirchian said the authorities “imitated
democratic reforms” during a recent visit by representatives of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or PACE.
An opposition party leader was released from jail the day the
envoys arrived in Armenia, and prosecutors dropped a criminal case
against official of the same party the day they left, speakers said.
Wednesday’s protest was the first this year to be held with government
permission.
Opposition leaders in the small, poverty-plagued Caucasus Mountain
country have organized a series of protests this spring aimed at
forcing the resignation of Kocharian, who won a second term last year
in an election they claim was marred by fraud.