Category: News

Armenian president, Russian official discuss economic ties
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
3 Jun 04
Presenter over video of meeting Noticeable growth can be felt in
Armenian-Russian economic relations, the Russian co-chairman of the
Armenian-Russian economic cooperation commission, Nikolay Ryzhkov, said
at a meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today. Ryzhkov
said that this growth was the result of cooperation between large
Armenian and Russian enterprises.
Ryzhkov said that the newly-established Armenian-Russian Business
Cooperation Association would be of great importance in deepening
economic relations.
President Kocharyan informed his Russian guests that the agreements
achieved during his recent visit to Moscow were being implemented
consistently.

NEW TIMES VERSUS NATIONAL UNITY
A1 Plus | 17:51:11 | 04-06-2004 | Politics |
Suit filed by New Times party chair Aram Karapetyan against National
Unity party leaders was heard Friday at the first instance court. The
suit has been filed over the allegation saying he is “the authorities’
agent”.
The plaintiff’s lawyer Levon Baghdasaryan demanded the defendant to
answer for their allegation.
The defense attorneys Gagik Kostandyan and Agassi Arshakyan said
their clients hadn’t intended to insult Karapetyan and hurt his
dignity. They only noted he had turned off the road of the opposition.
The defense side submitted their arguments, and the court gave the
plaintiff time to look through them. The second session is scheduled
for June 14. Azg newspaper correspondent Tatul Hakobyan will be
subpoenaed to court as witness.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INTERNET CHESS TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN DECEMBER
A1 Plus | 18:04:01 | 04-06-2004 | Sports |
Armenian Chess Academy has decided to organize Internet Chess
Tournament in December of this year, in which four best countries –
China, India, Russia and Armenia – will take part.
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan called on the Council for
Informational Technologies Development and its crews to take active
part in the event.

ARMENIAN DELEGATION VISITED THE PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT
Macedonian Press Agency
Athens, 4 June 2004
The excellent friendly relations between Greece and Armenia as well
as the cooperation between the Greek Parliament and the Armenian
community living in Greece was confirmed by Greek Parliament President
Mrs. Anna Psarouda-Benaki and the National Council of Greek Armenians
delegation. The delegation visited Mrs. Psarouda-Benaki together with
the Metropolite of the Orthodox Armenians in Greece.
The Greek Parliament President stressed that the Armenians living
in Greece constitute a dynamic and active community that contributes
greatly and creatively to the Greek society. She also referred to the
Greek-Armenian Friendship Group formed in Parliament to be activated
shortly.
The President of the National Council of Greek Armenians expressed
feelings of gratitude to the Greek Parliament for the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and expressed the Armenian community’s wish
for a visit to Armenia by the Greek Parliament President.

OSCE can contribute to Karabakh solution – European envoy
Mediamax news agency
4 Jun 04
Yerevan, 4 June: The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, along with
other European organizations, is capable of creating a favourable
environment around the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
The press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry has told Mediamax
that this was stated by Goran Lennmarker, special representative of the
chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly [for Nagornyy Karabakh],
during a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan today.
Goran Lennmarker told the Armenian minister that he would pay a
factfinding visit to Nagornyy Karabakh on 5 June.
The special representative of the chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly and the Armenian foreign minister also discussed ways of
improving Armenian-Turkish relations.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MP urges US envoy to respect Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity
Ekspress, Baku
4 Jun 04
Text of Farid report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on 4 June
headlined “A message from Gular Ahmadova to the US ambassador” and
subheaded “We can present you with articles by Armenian journalists
expressing their thanks to America for economic revival in Nagornyy
Karabakh”
The contradictory statements made by the US ambassador to Azerbaijan,
Reno Harnish, on the activities of US companies in Nagornyy Karabakh
have caused discontent among MPs from the NAP [ruling New Azerbaijan
Party]. Remarks and speeches full of displeasure are already being
voiced in the parliament. A speech by Gular Ahmadova made at the last
session of parliament is one of this kind.
“Mr Harnish, if you do not have any information about this, then we
can provide you with it. We can present you with articles by Armenian
journalists expressing their thanks to America for economic revival
in Nagornyy Karabakh.”
MP Gular Ahmadova addressed these words to the US ambassador. According
to her, each of these thanks is a blow to Azerbaijan. For this
reason, the MP asked the ambassador to clarify his opinion about
these issues. Ahmadova thinks that giving contradictory information
about such a serious issue does not do an envoy credit.
We wondered which documents the MP had. Ahmadova said that she had
a list of US companies working in Nagornyy Karabakh, which she was
speaking about. She said she could present the ambassador with the
list if he wished.
“If the ambassador does not know about this, I can hand it over to
him if he wishes,” she said.
Ahmadova denied that such remarks by MPs from the NAP might create
anti-American sentiments.
“There is absolutely no anti-American sentiment. We are in the
same alliance as the USA on many issues and are members of the
anti-terrorist coalition.”
Despite all this, the MP thinks that the Nagornyy Karabakh issue
is very sensitive for all the forces in Azerbaijan – both for the
opposition and for the government. Ahmadova thinks that since Nagornyy
Karabakh is presented as Azerbaijan’s territory in international
documents, the US ambassador to Azerbaijan and the US State Department
should respect this. The MP thinks that the issue should be approached
attentively in terms of territorial integrity.
“Such an approach is at least disrespect for Azerbaijan,” the MP said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

International group denies Azeri children held in Armenian captivity
Noyan Tapan news agency
3 Jun 04
Yerevan, 3 June: The international working group to release POWs and
hostages and to trace missing persons in the zone of the Karabakh
conflict states with full confidence that information about camps for
Azerbaijani kamikaze children, which is allegedly located in Lacin
[Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani district], is wide of the mark.
The Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo published on 20 May an article by
journalist Lala Nuri headlined “Lacin-Buchenwald for Azerbaijani
children”. The article appeared after the co-chairman of the
international working group for POWs, hostages and missing persons
in the zone of the Karabakh conflict, Paata Zakareishvili, described
as a myth a report by two defectors from Armenia, Roman Teryan and
Artur Apresyan, who had said that Azerbaijani children were being
trained as kamikazes in Armenian captivity. The article reported that a
certain businessman Asaf Alimardanov called the editorial office of the
newspaper and said that an American engineer (?Terry Kagel), who used
to work with him, met Azerbaijani children held by Armenians during
his trip to occupied Lacin in the 1990s. At the request of Zerkalo
newspaper, Alimardanov contacted Kagel again and received, according
to the journalist, more detailed information which confirms that
Azerbaijani children are being held in a special camp in Lacin. The
newspaper reported that the editorial office had Mr Kagel’s office
telephone number. Mrs Nuri suggested that the international working
group find and return the Azerbaijani children to the motherland.
Since one of the forms of the work of the international working group
is to check such information, the group, as its press release says,
immediately started to implement the task set by the newspaper. Having
obtained Terry Kagel’s telephone number from the editorial office, the
members of the group called him and told him about the Zerkalo article
which had mentioned his name. Mr Kagel was extremely surprised and
asked them to send him a translation of the article. The co-chairman
of the international working group, Bernhard Clasen, accepted his
request. In his reply, Kagel flatly denied the facts cited in the
article and suggested calling two people Pastor David Goehring and
volunteer Stan Brown who had repeatedly visited Lacin on a humanitarian
mission under an AGAPE project. Bernhard Clasen held two conversations
with the two employees of AGAPE and received clearer information
saying that they had rendered assistance to a children’s institution
for Armenian children in Lacin.
The international working group decided not to publish this
information, as it had not seen this institution for itself and
had not spoken to AGAPE employees. On 2 June, the co-chairmen of the
international working group, Bernhard Clasen and Svetlana Gannushkina,
visited Lacin and went to a boarding school. It has 28 children from
difficult and incomplete families, and 18 of the children have only
one parent. The boarding school has had only four orphans so far. The
age of the children is between five and 18. These are mainly children
from refugee families. They are looked after very well – the girls
are taught needlework and the boys are dealing with housekeeping. The
AGAPE project has been working in this region since 1994, helping to
supply medical equipment to a hospital and implementing educational
programmes. Its employees were extremely surprised by the supposition
that Azerbaijani children could be held hostage in the boarding school.
The press release has been signed by Svetlana Gannushkina, Bernhard
Clasen and Paata Zakareishvili.

Counter Charges: Sentencing in April 13 case evokes anger and action
By Vahan Ishkhanyan, ArmeniaNow reporter
ArmeniaNow.com, 4 June 2004
The conviction of a man charged with hitting police with a plastic
bottle has sparked action from human rights agencies, has led to two
activists’ arrests for putting up leaflets calling for his release,
and has even led some individuals to write confessions that they are
guilty of the same crime.
Protestors outside court brought symbolic Jermuk bottles…
Last week an Armenian court sentenced Edgar Arakelyan, 24, to 18
months in prison for striking police with a plastic Jermuk water
bottle while police were breaking up a political demonstration in
the early hours of April 13.
Arakelyan pled guilty to charges (which originally called for a two
and a half year sentence), but argued that he used the bottle for
defense only after police had sprayed the crowd with tear gas and
had hit him with a baton, breaking out his front teeth.
In protest of Arakelyan’s arrest and conviction, about 2 a.m. Sunday,
25-year old Harut Alaverdyan and 24-year old Hakob Hakobyan went
along Mashtots Avenue pasting posters saying “Freedom for Edgar”
onto utility poles.
The young men were arrested, held in jail overnight, and on Tuesday
charged in court with malicious disobedience of a legal order or
demand made by police, and with “blasphemy”.
The men, one a university student and the other a post-graduate, say
they became nervous when police approached them, and offered to remove
the posters they’d pasted. Instead, they were taken into custody.
“We were attaching the last leaflet when two policemen approached
us and asked why we were attaching them,” Alaverdyan said. “I said,
‘If it goes against the law then I can tear them off’. Then a third
policeman came up to us. He had already torn a leaflet off. They
demanded us to follow them to a police station. I asked, ‘What we
are accused of?’ But they said, ‘Follow us, you will find out there.'”
According to the men, they were told not to hire a lawyer as police
would appoint one anyway and hiring a lawyer would cost too much. They
signed a document saying they refused hiring an attorney.
The following day a lawyer and the chairman of the Helsinki Committee
of Armenia visited the men and arranged for their release, after
Alaverdyan and Hakobyan signed a statement saying they would return
for a hearing.
In a courtroom that, three hours before trial, was already filled
to standing, attorney Argshti Kiviryan (who took the case for free)
argued that the men were exercising their rights to freedom of
speech. Kiviryan asked policeman Karapet Barseghyan why the men
were charged.
The lawyer reminded that, according to constitution, a person has a
right to freely spread his or her points of view and then asked why
the policeman’s demand to tear off the leaflets was legal. Policeman
Barseghyan kept silent for a long time and never answered the
question. Judge Saribek Aramyan helped him. The judge withdrew
the question and said attaching leaflets was not an illegal act and
therefore it was not an offense. The lawyer made a motion to close the
case based on the conclusion that the police had acted without cause.
The judge agreed, but did, however, impose a 1500 dram (about $2.70)
fine on Alaverdyan (he printed the leaflets) and a 1000 dram fine
(about $1.80) on Hakobyan, saying that the defendants “demonstrated
disobedience of the legal demand made by policemen”.
The court hearing was attended by several protestors who held signs
saying “No to police-ridden state”, “Don’t be afraid”, “No to state
terrorism”. Some held Jermuk bottles.
Human rights’ activists say the young men’s arrests is an example of
police abuse of power and an overall effort by authorities to silence
criticism of the Government by the political opposition.
“It became clear to all parties of the case and to police and to the
judge that the boys hadn’t committed any crime,” says chairman of
the Helsinki Committee Avetik Ishkhanyan. “However, the court would
have never closed the case as it would have meant that policemen had
made a mistake and in its turn it would have immobilized police in
conducting political persecutions.”
Ishkhanyan says that the court imposing even a symbolic fine (for a
charge that the court itself ruled to be unfounded) is evidence that
“police has more power than the court.”
***
Tigran Ter-Yesayan, head of the International Union of Armenian
Lawyers, says that official data shows that this year more than
400 people have been subjected by court verdicts to administrative
imprisonments and penalties for participating at oppositional
demonstrations. Ter-Yesayan says the true number is higher, but that
court records were not kept in all cases.
ArmeniaNow asked the Ministry of Justice for a list of the
convictions. “We have no resources and possibilities for preparing
such lists,” says Press Secretary of the Ministry of Justice Ara
Saghatelyan.
Hakobyan and Alaverdyan’s trial was an exception to the normal hearings
of those accused of similar politically-motivated misdemeanors.
Ter-Yesayan said he knows of only one case in which the accused was
represented by an attorney and that most of the hearings have been
held with only court administrators and police present.
“Hearings are private, as people don’t know where their relatives
are so that they could go and at least be present at hearings,”
Ter-Yesayan says.
Besides being subjected to administrative imprisonments and penalties
criminal cases have been started against 12 people – seven have been
released, four are in jail (including Arakelyan).
A number of non-governmental organizations were conducting mass
meetings every day in front of the building of Prosecutor General
Office of Armenia demanding that they are set free. Alaverdyan
participated in the demonstrations.
“It seemed to police that I was from the opposition,” he says. “But
I’m not engaged in any political party. The verdict against Edgar was
simply unjust and it didn’t correspond to what he had done. That’s
why I decided to begin attaching leaflets.”
After Arakelyan’s verdict and sentencing was announced, three people
who had helped organize the demonstration that turned violent April
13 sent declarations to police, stating their own guilt at having
committed such acts.
“I decided to own to the following: On April 12-13 I also took
part in a peaceful demonstration taken place on Baghramyan Avenue,
during which police of the free and independent Republic of Armenia
in subjected us, demonstrators, to beatings. I also hit law-abiding
officer with an empty Jermuk bottle (plastic).”
The statement is intended to express solidarity for the convicted.
“I made this statement because I was present at hearings and recalled
that I had also a hit policeman,” says Lala Aslikyan, who works for
World Study Organization.
“It is absurd when police break teeth and beat peaceful demonstrators,
who came only for expressing their opinions,” Aslikayan says. “And
after that, police remain unpunished while the demonstrator with
broken teeth is sentenced to one and a half years of imprisonment
for hitting one of those policemen with an empty plastic bottle.”

VLADIMIR PRYAKHIN EMPHASIZES NEED FOR ELECTORAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
A1 Plus | 20:56:08 | 04-06-2004 | Official |
With regard to a recent decision of the Yerevan Mayor’s Office to
prohibit rallies by opposition parties on 4 June, the Head of the
OSCE Office in Yerevan, Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin said: “We regret
that the right of people to free assembly and expression of their
political views was restricted. We urge the authorities to apply the
new law on Conduct of Public Gatherings, Rallies, Demonstrations and
Marches in a proportionate and justified manner and make efforts to
further improve this essential piece of legislation.”
He stressed that the OSCE Office will continue to closely monitor
the political developments in Armenia and to support the country in
the process of democratization. He emphasized in particular the need
for electoral and constitutional reform.

Named for a Fruit? Make Juice
By STRAWBERRY SAROYAN
NEW YORK TIMES
Published: May 30, 2004
WHEN told about Gwyneth Paltrow’s name for her new daughter, my mother
paused for a moment. “We thought about naming you Apple,” she said,
“but decided it was too common.”
Because I grew up with the name Strawberry, my first reaction to
hearing about the birth of Ms. Paltrow’s daughter, Apple Blythe Alison
Martin, on May 14 was, “Finally, someone to share my vast body of
otherwise useless knowledge with.”
I was born in 1970 to counterculture parents. There is no overridingly
romantic or hilariously drug-addled story to explain their choice of
a name for me. It was suggested by my grandmother Carol, a whimsical
person who also came up with the name Cream for my younger sister. But
I didn’t know exactly why my parents had chosen the name until one
morning my mother explained: “We wanted it to be fun to have a kid. Why
have just another Jane or Debbie?”
In fact, it fit in perfectly with what my father was doing at the
time. A one-word poet – he would change a word by adding a letter
or two, or otherwise misspelling it – he was interested in messing
around with the alphabet of life, too. Who defines what makes up a
word? Who defines what makes up a name? It’s the same thing.
I was the one who picked up the tab, however, and this is where I
might be able to offer some tips to Apple, the daughter of Ms. Paltrow
and the rocker Chris Martin. First, the good news. Just as I was
raised in a tiny California beach community full of poets, peppered
with lots of other kids with unconventional names, she will grow up,
no matter where she is geographically, in “Hollywood,” which is also
rife with creatively named children. It helps.
There were sisters down the street named Ivory, Shelter and Wonder,
and other friends were named Ocean, Raspberry and Echo, so I was
not alone. What were they going to do, make fun of me? They did,
but I could bite back. I’ll never forget the terror as Cream and I
awaited the arrival of Wonder’s mother to speak with ours because we
had been calling her daughter Wonder Bread.
Over in England, her parents’ current home, Apple will grow up with
other celebrity children like Brooklyn Beckham (Posh and Becks’s son)
and Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes. When she visits Los Angeles, she
may romp with the daughters of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Rumer,
Scout and Tallulah Belle. Then there is Pilot Inspektor, the son of
the actor Jason Lee.
Yes, there will be dark days. When my parents moved to a super-preppy
town in Connecticut when I was 13, it seemed I had little choice
but to change my name, a shift that stuck for three years (I
chose Cara). There were also other moments when I longed for
normalcy. Visiting my grandmother Carol, who had remarried Walter
Matthau after marrying and divorcing my grandfather twice, I would
attend Jack and Felicia Lemmon’s Christmas party in Los Angeles. There,
I would have glimpses of Courtney, their daughter, who was pert and
pretty and also, it seemed to me, had the perfect name. As she wafted
through her white-walled Hollywood home, I thought she had the perfect
life, and perhaps that is what I really wanted.
Now, though, I see mainly upsides in my unusual first name. For
one thing, when you have a well-known last name (mine comes from
my paternal grandfather, the writer William Saroyan) an unusual
first name can derail otherwise inevitable questions about your
famous parents or grandparents. “Strawberry? Were your parents
high? Crazy? Mean?” The Saroyan part is often forgotten. My name can
also break the ice, especially in the company of other people from
well-known families. Once when I was in the offices of George magazine,
John F. Kennedy Jr. shook my hand enthusiastically. “Strawberry? Tell
me about your parents!” The irony seemed delightful: How often had
he, perhaps the most famous progeny in the world, gotten to say
those words? I wanted to throw the question back at him: what were
J.F.K. and Jackie like? But I restrained myself.
Then there will be the unforeseeable boons. My name has afforded
the occasional opportunity for clever flirting, for example. Years
ago when I met an ex-boyfriend of the writer Plum Sykes and he took
a liking to me, I couldn’t resist telling him, “You just like girls
with fruit names.” Another highlight was being invited to a party in
London by a well-connected friend of a friend. I didn’t find out part
of the reason why I was invited until later: he wanted to introduce
a girl named Strawberry to John Major, the prime minister at the
time. (Mr. Major wasn’t there but Claus von Bülow was, and though
I was delighted by our introduction, my name seemed to have little
effect on him.) I found out about my acquaintance’s ruse the next
Sunday, when he chronicled it in his column in a national newspaper,
and I proceeded to have a week or so of notoriety in London.
Of course, there are awkward moments too. “Nice to eat you” is one
greeting I remember, though I wish I didn’t have to. “Don’t people
think you’re a stripper?” a boyfriend once asked. He was wondering
if my name might hurt my career ambitions. For Apple, the puns have
already begun: “Big Apple,” having arrived at 9 pounds, 11 ounces, and
she is “Li’l Apple” and “Apple Martini.” Sometimes, even name-related
things that have happened a million times can be fun. I recently
interviewed Oprah Winfrey. Uncharacteristically nervous, I picked up
the phone on the second ring and was greeted by a strange sound.
“Strawberry Fields for-ever,” sang out the voice.
“Oprah?” I asked.
That summed up the name experience for me, as it very likely will
for Apple too. You just have to roll with it.
In the end, I would like to give the little girl some parting
words. Someday, you may come to see your name as part of a larger
picture of what your parents were trying to do, and one that will add
multitudes to your life. When Richard Avedon, a family friend who was
especially close with my grandmother, came out to visit my family in
California for several days during my childhood, he took a series of
photographs that seem now to pay tribute to the way of life our names
reflected. The pictures of us in our home with my mother’s paintings
on the walls and my father’s books on the shelves; the pictures of
us running around in the woods near our house; even just the ones
of us goofing around at a fancy restaurant having brunch, now seem
to me to be a visual reflection of what my parents were aiming for:
to create a family where countercultural ideas and artistic freedom
reigned. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin may be aiming for the same.
Who knows? Fruit names, and those goals, just might catch on.
From: Baghdasarian