Category: News

NUMBER OF FEMALE OFFENDERS REDUCED IN KARABAKH
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
15-03-2004
According to the annual report of the head public prosecutor of the
republic Mavrik Ghukassian presented to the National Assembly of
Nagorni Karabakh, in 2003 the number of women offenders reduced,
totaling 29 against the 44 in 2002. Of the total number of offenders
(467) 144 were jobless. According to the conclusion of the
corresponding parliamentary committee, despite the reduction of the
crime rate in the republic in the last 2 years, as a ratio to the
number of population in Karabakh the crime rate remains high in
comparison to Armenia and other CIS countries. Moreover, if in Armenia
0.4 percent of the state budget is spent on the needs of the public
prosecution, in Karabakh it is 1 percent.
NAIRA HAYRUMIAN.
15-03-2004

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say. Part B (Russia)
March 15, 2004, Monday
PUTIN RANKS NINTH AMONG ALL PRESIDENTS IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION[
SOURCE: Kommersant, March 15, 2004, p. 1
by Dmitri Kamyshev
Vladimir Putin won his second presidential election yesterday, with
around 69% of the vote, according to exit polls. His closest rival,
Communist Party (CPRF) candidate Nikolai Kharitonov, lagged by more
than 56%, with 12.6% of the vote. In this election, Putin wasn’t
competing with the other candidates as much as with his fellow
presidents in other countries of the former USSR. And in that
long-distance competition, Putin didn’t even manage to make the top
five.
According to exit polls done by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM),
Vladimir Putin received 69% of the vote; Nikolai Kharitonov got
12.6%; Sergei Glaziev, Duma memember with the Motherland bloc
(Rodina), and Irina Khakamada, former co-leader of the Union of Right
Forces (URF), got 4.7% each; Oleg Malyshkin, Duma member for the
Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), got 2.3%; Federation
Council Speaker Sergei Mironov got 1%. And 5.7% of voters voted
against all candidates.
Almost 70% of the vote for candidate Putin – of course, this is much
less than the 80% which some pollsters predicted as recently as
mid-February (for example, Yuri Levada, head of the Levada Center
polling agency). However, in late February and early March, FOM polls
registered a substantial drop in Putin’s support rating. Given that
this happened soon after Mikhail Kasianov’s government was dismissed
and a new prime minister appointed, the popularity slide was due to
ordinary voters finding the president’s actions incomprehensible. All
the same, even this lower figure has enabled Putin to exceed his own
result from four years ago (he got 52.9% of the vote in 2000) and
even break a record which has stood for nearly 13 years: in June
1991, Boris Yeltsin won Russia’s first presidential election with
57.3% of the vote.
Yet a comparison of yesterday’s voting results with the outcomes of
presidential elections in other former Soviet countries shows that
President Putin still can’t compete with his counterparts there. In
this long-distance competition, Russia’s leader is only ranked ninth
– with the worst result for any leader who has won in the first round
of voting.
If the government had not been dismissed, and candidate Putin had
indeed received the promised 80% of the vote, he would have been in
the top five – overtaking President Nursultan Nazarbaev of
Kazakhstan. Still, he wouldn’t have crossed the 90% threshold – which
markes the start of truly universal love for their leaders among
citizens.
There is a similar picture in the “winning margin over nearest rival”
category. In Russia, a 56% margin over the runner-up is an all-time
record: the previous record was set by Boris Yeltsin in 1991 (with a
40.5% margin over Nikolai Ryzhkov). But in the championship of the
former USSR, Vladimir Putin is only ranked eighth – and might have
been ninth if there had been any alternative choice in Turkmenistan’s
election of 1992. The Russian leader has only outscored President
Robert Kocharian of Armenia (21.26%) and President Leonid Kuchma of
Ukraine (14.25%).
Not counting the president of Turkmenistan, the lead in this category
is held by the presidents of Tajikistan and Georgia, Emomali
Rakhmonov (with a winning margin of 94.86%) and Mikhail Saakashvili
(94.42%). Then again, the Georgian leader has moral superiority:
while Rakhmonov faced only one other candidate, Saakashvili – like
Putin – had five rivals.
Actually, Vladimir Putin still has a chance of improving his result
in the battle for a more convincing margin over the runner-up. If his
result rises by even a couple of percentage points as voting results
are finalized, and if the number of votes for candidate Kharitonov
falls by a couple of points, Putin may yet overtake President
Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus (who has a 60% winning margin),
President Askar Akaev of Kyrgyzstan (60.58%), and perhaps even
President Ilkham Aliyev of Azerbaijan (62.87%). However, Putin
certainly won’t be able to catch up with President Nursultan
Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan (68.08%).
Translated by Alexander Dubovoi and Andrei Ryabochkin

UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCED
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
15-03-2004
According to the data of the NKR National Statistics Service, the
average number of workers on the play-roll employed in the branches of
the NKR economy was 32 686 in 2003 which increased by 1881 or 6.1
percent. The number of people employed in the sphere of industry grew
by 1420 or 11.8 percent. By January1, 2004 4272 people have been
registered at the department of work and employment of the NKR
Ministry of Social Security of which 3314 or 77.6 percent have the
status of unemployed. The number of citizens looking for jobs in
Stepanakert is 2364 of which 2361 or 99.9 percent are unemployed. The
number of people looking for jobs dropped by 9 percent, and the
unemployment rate dropped by2.6 percent from January 1, 2003. The
level of unemployment as the correlation of the unemployed registered
in the employment agencies and the economically active population
(employed and unemployed) totaled 5.7 percent in 2003 against the 5.9
percent of 2002.
AA.
15-03-2004

Baltic News Service
March 15, 2004
LITHUANIA PLANNING TO ESTABLISH EMBASSY IN GEORGIA
VILNIUS, Mar 15
Lithuania’s parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee approved during
its sitting on Monday of the proposal to establish Lithuania’s
embassy in Georgia.
Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gediminas Kirkilas told BNS it was
scheduled to establish embassy in Tbilisi in the end of May, and it
would represent Lithuania not only in Georgia but also in Armenia and
Azerbaijan.
Lithuania is currently represented in Georgia by an ambassador
residing in Ukraine, ambassador to Russia represents the country in
Armenia and envoy residing in Turkey represents it in Azerbaijan.
Meantime, the Georgian Embassy in Vilnius was opened in September
last year. Before that, Georgian Consulate General operated in
Vilnius since 1996.
In Kirkilas’ words, decision on the candidacy of Lithuania’s
ambassador to Tbilisi should be made in the nearest months.

RIA OREANDA
Economic News
March 15, 2004 Monday
Aslan Abashidze Called on Russia to Stop Rose Revolution in Adjaria
BODY:
Moscow. Aslan Abashidze claims that the Georgian authorities are
preparing military invasion of the republic. Mr. Abashidze considers
that they are trying to repeat the so-called Rose Revolution in
Adjaria, – according to NTV.
The Georgian authorities are gathering 100 thousand people, men and
women, from all the regions of the country. People with military
training and those who participated in similar actions will be among
them. All of them will come to the border of the autonomous republic
and women will be ahead them, Adjaria head claimed.
Mr. Abashidze also called on the world community to stop Tbiisi
authorities attempts to exert pressure on Adjaria. I want to tell our
opinion to influential world organizations and to our neighbors
Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia in order to stop the force
that will bring lamentable consequences, Aslan Abashidze claimed in
the course of press-conference in Moscow.

SwissInfo
15 Mars 2004
L’UE presse Erevan de fermer sa centrale nucléaire

EREVAN – L’UE a pressé l’Arménie de fermer la centrale nucléaire de
Metzamor, à 30 km d’Erevan. Bruxelles lui a promis en échange
l’octroi d’une aide de 156,5 millions de francs. Construite en 1977,
cette centrale produit 40 % de l’énergie arménienne.
«La sécurité est très importante pour nous. L’UE octroiera à
l’Arménie 100 millions d’euros pour créer des productions d’énergie
alternatives quand l’Arménie fixera la date de la fermeture de la
centrale», a déclaré le directeur de la mission de la Commission
européenne en Arménie Torben Holtze.
Selon le ministre arménien des finances, l’Arménie a besoin de 1,3
milliard de francs pour compenser les pertes en cas de fermeture de
la centrale.
La fermeture de Metzamor est «une question très douloureuse pour
nous. Nous n’allons pas fermer la centrale tant qu’il n’y aura pas de
sources alternatives» d’énergie, a-t-il souligné. La construction
d’un gazoduc entre l’Arménie et l’Iran, qui doit être lancée cette
année, devrait accélérer ce processus, selon lui.

CASH INCOMES INCREASED
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
15-03-2004
According to the NKR National Statistics Service, the cash incomes of
the population of the republic in 2003 totaled 34408.7 million AM
drams and increased by 17.1 percent against 2002. The incomes in all
the spheres of activities have increased against 2002;
entrepreneurship by 55.0 percent, realization of agricultural
production by 32.8 percent, salary by 24.5 percent, social and other
transfers by 6.6 percent, other incomes by 6.9 percent. The average
nominal monthly salary of one worker employed in the economy totaled
33 661 AM drams in 2003 and increased by 13.4 percent from 2002. In
comparison to 2002 the average nominal monthly salary increased
notably in building by 49.7 percent, information computing services by
31.8 percent, communication by 27.7 percent, industry by 26.7 percent,
finance and loaning by 23.5 percent, material and technical supply by
20.3 percent. The average nominal monthly salary in comparison to the
average republic salary was notably low in the spheres of material and
technical supply, forestry, trade, health, communal services.
AA.
15-03-2004

Daily Star, Lebanon
March 12 2004
Nejmeh defeats Homenmen in a tight game
Nejmeh soccer team player, Moussa Hjeij, lead his team to victory
over Homenmen after scoring 3 goals out of 4 in the semi-final game
held at Jounieh Municipal Stadium on Tuesday.

Nejmeh soccer team player, Moussa Hjeij, lead his team to victory
over Homenmen after scoring 3 goals out of 4 in the semi-final game
held at Jounieh Municipal Stadium on Tuesday.
Despite the early goal scored by Geafar in the 8th minute of first
half, Nejmeh managed to work its way to Homenmen goals, leveling the
score by Moussa Hjeij through a penalty kick, 35 minutes into the
game.
Nejmeh third goal followed two minutes later by Salah Haddad and was
objected by Homenmen technical team who said that Haddad was
sneaking.
The second half witnessed Nejmeh taking advantage of their experience
and raised the score to four goals by Hjeij through a pass from
Mcpherline in the 68th and 71st minutes before they suffer a setback
in their performance due to the changes implemented by Zizo when he
replaced Hussein Salim by Attawi who failed to push forward the game.

Associated Press Worldstream
March 15, 2004 Monday 5:42 AM Eastern Time
NATO-sponsored training program begins in Azerbaijan
BAKU, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan’s land forces began a four-day NATO-sponsored training
exercise Monday on border control, defense officials said.
Turkey is leading the exercise as part of NATO’s Partnership for
Peace program, aimed at boosting ties between the military alliance
and states of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Mammad Beydullayev of Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said the program
would familiarize Azerbaijani military commanders with methods to
prevent border incursions, steps for fighting the trafficking of
drugs, illegal immigrants and weapons and ways to control the flow of
refugees and ensure security.
The Turkish Embassy in Azerbaijan said it was organizing the program
to help this ex-Soviet republic bring its military up to NATO
standards.
A similar training program was carried out last week in Georgia, and
plans are underway to bring the program to other nations.
Azerbaijan shares borders with Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran.

THERE ARE NO SPECIAL FAVOURITES IN THE TOURNAMENT
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
15-03-2004
Yanik Palatier has arrived from far Switzerland to take part in the
international chess tournament devoted to the 75th anniversary of
Tigran Petrossian. Before coming to Karabakh he knew nothing of this
small country besides that there had been war here. The Swiss
chess-player told about his decision to read corresponding books to
get acquainted with the events that took place in Karabakh. He did not
speak about his impressions as he has not managed to see the town
yet. Only once he had the opportunity to walk in the central street of
Stepanakert. He said it still can be felt that there was war here. He
mentioned that the first impression was good, the tournament is
organized on a high level, the hotel conditions are good, and he
pointed out the warm and friendly atmosphere. The Swiss young man has
been to Yerevan for several times and has many friends
there. According to him, the Armenians are very warm, proud and
hospitable. In reference to the chess tournament held in Stepanakert
for the first time, he appreciated the level of organization. He
mentioned that there areno special favourites, and according to him
the competition will be hard. He mentioned that he was not acquainted
with all the participants of the tournament. He did not know Tigran
Petrossian and Arman Pashikian but following their games he mentioned
that the games of the both were very interesting. The young
chess-player representing Switzerland has 0.5 point after two rounds.
ANAHIT DANIELIAN.
15-03-2004