GROWTH OF SPHERE OF TOURISM MAY BE CHANGED BY FALL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OF UNION OF INCOMING TOUR OPERATORS OF ARMENIA WARNS
YEREVAN, AUGUST 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Phenomena of careless competition got
an extended character in the sphere of incoming tourism may create
such a situation that the 20-25% annual growth of the sphere may be
changed by a fall.
Arayik Vardanian, the Executive Director of the Union of Incoming Tour
Operators of Armenia (UITOA) mentioned about it in the interview to
the Noyan Tapan correspondent. According to his data, about 150 tour
operators are registered in Armenia, but only 30 of them work in
the legal field. Tour operators joined the union occupy 70% of the
incoming tourism market. According to A.Vardanian’s words, cases,
when “firms having a butterfly’s life are founded for receiving
a concrete group of tourists” which propose low price services
to tourists, became more. But their quality very often does not
satisfy any accepted standard. It was mentioned that it relates
particularly to the suggested inferior food and transport means. The
UITOA Executive Director emphasized that to prevent so careless
competition with the help of licensing, the Union proposed the RA
Government and National Assembly to make amendements to the RA laws
“On Tourism” and “On Licensing.” A.Vardanian believes that a licensed
tour operator functioning in an open legislative field must not be
able to offer inferior services and ones not corresponding to the
price to a client. He mentioned that the Union of Tour Operators took
steps aimed to self-arrangement of the sphere as well. For example,
it’s envisaged to adopt the Code of Laws for Tour Operators during
coming months. The UITOA was founded in late 2004 by 10 companies of
incoming tour operators. The process of formation of the union lasted
three years.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Aronian Beats Swidler
ArmRadio.am
18.08.2006 13:37
Armenian grand master Levon Aronian beat his Russian rival Pyoter
Swidler in two rounds of the “Chess 960” World Championship conducted
in German town of Mainz, Armenpress reported.
Chess 960 (originally called Fischer Random Chess) is a chess variant
created by grandmaster Bobby Fischer (who was world chess champion
from 1972 until 1975). It was originally announced on June 19, 1996,
in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fischer’s goal was to create a chess
variant in which chess creativity and talent would be more important
than memorization and analysis of opening moves.
His approach was to create a randomized initial chess position,
which would thus make memorizing chess opening move sequences far
less helpful. The championship consists of 8 rounds, the next two
ones will be conducted today.

Seiran Shahsuvaryan: “It is lie”
ArmRadio.am
18.08.2006 13:44
Information of APA Azerbaijan Agency about conducting of military
exercises in Aghdam region does not represent the facts, ArmInfo
was told in NKR Defense Ministry, commenting on the information
of the above-mentioned Agency about the beginning of the alleged
large-scale exercises. Allegedly, “the enemy uses heavy artillery
and armored equipment”.
Since the matter in APA information concerned the exercises “of
Armenian Armed Forces’ subdivisions “, ArmInfo correspondent addressed
Seiran Shahsuvaryan , the RA DM press-secretary, for comments and
received a laconic answer: “It is lie”.

Azerbaijan Calls on UN to Reaffirm its ‘Territorial Integrity’
ArmRadio.am
18.08.2006 14:03
The Azeri government, on August 4, submitted an appeal to the United
Nations urging the international body to reaffirm that country’s
territorial integrity as it relates to the liberated territories that
border the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Armenia’s representative in the UN Armen Martirosyan told Radio Free
Europe that the document also categorizes Nagorno-Karabakh as part of
Azerbaijan and calls on the international community to condemn recent
forest fires on the bordering regions of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Los Angeles based Asbarez daily has reported that several weeks that,
after conducting a full investigation of allegations that Armenians
from Karabakh were setting the forest fires, the OSCE determined that,
in fact, the fires were being set by Azeris.
Martirosyan announced that Armenia has already submitted its position
on the Azeri appeal and is working with UN-member states. He added
that during the last session of the UN, an agreement was reached
that status of Nagorno-Karabakh would not be addressed with the UN,
since OSCE Minsk Group is continuing its conflict resolution process.
“If Azerbaijan continues to pursue discussions and the matter is
placed for a vote [in the UN] then Armenia has the right to pull
itself out of the peace process,” stressed Martirosyan.
The UN representative added that Azerbaijan’s strategy will play a
great role in determining the outcome of this appeal. “If Azerbaijan
chooses to push forward with this matter, it signals that it has
reservations about the conflict resolution process.”
In 2004, Azerbaijan attempted–but failed–to address this issue in
the UN, by alleging that Armenia had adopted a policy to resettle
the liberated territories.
In a November 2004 interview with RFE/RL, Martirosyan said the
territories are serving as a security belt around Nagorno-Karabakh
as a response to what he called the “war-mongering rhetoric” of the
Azeri leadership.”The issue of those territories cannot be resolved
unless there is a resolution on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and
security guarantees are provided,” Martirosyan said.
The then US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Susan Moore said the
Minsk process is the best forum for resolving the dispute. She said
efforts should be focused on building confidence between the two
sides and avoiding divisions in the General Assembly.
“Azerbaijan is raising specific concerns linked to the situation in
Nagorno-Karabakh,” Moore said at the time. “We believe these concerns
can be fully addressed in the existing format. As a first step an
OSCE fact-finding mission could be considered as a means to address
this issue.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Assembly Holds Briefings in Michigan & New Jersey
ArmRadio.am
18.08.2006 14:09
The Assembly’s (The Armenian Assembly of America) Executive Director
Bryan Ardouny traveled to Farmington Hills, Michigan and Wayne, New
Jersey, on July 9 and 16 respectively, to meet with local supporters
and discuss critical issues facing the Armenian-American community.
In those meetings, Ardouny provided an update on his meetings with
U.S., Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh government officials during his
recent trip to Armenia, as well as a legislative update. He also
answered a variety of questions asked by supporters regarding the
Appropriations Bill for FY 2007, the pan-Armenian Genocide Resolution,
the Rail Measure and the confirmation hearing of U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia Designate Richard Hoagland.
In Michigan some 100 area supporters attended the annual picnic
on July 9. The picnic included music, food, numerology readings by
Ilene Hagopian Blackman and a raffle. Regional Council Chairman Edgar
Hagopian, who was unable to attend, organized the afternoon event with
the help of Council Members Robert Benian, Paul Kulhanjian, Natalie
Mosher, Shirley Sarkisian, David Terzibashian and Madeline Thomasian.
The following week, the Assembly’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Council
held its annual summer briefing at the residence of Gene and Jane
Hastings in Wayne, NJ. Co-Chairs Mike Candan, Arthur Halvajian and
Carla Kapikian organized the annual event.
“We have had numerous successes throughout this Congressional cycle
from House approval of a provision to prevent Export-Import Bank
funding of a rail bypass of Armenia to the resounding International
Relations Committee vote last September on affirming the Armenian
Genocide,” said Ardouny. “However we have many challenges ahead and
it’s heartening to meet with so many committed activists. I would
like to especially thank the Assembly’s Regional Council Members for
making these events possible.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEW SYSTEM OF SECONDARY SCHOOL LEAVING AND HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS’
ENTRANCE EXAMS TO BE INTRODUCED FROM 2007 BY ONE SUBJECT
YEREVAN, AUGUST 17, NOYAN TAPAN. A new system of school- leaving exams
of secondary education and entrance exams of institutions of higher
education is envisaged to introduce in Armenia in coming years: the
system will be introduced starting from 2007, by one subject, “Armenian
Language and Literature.” The new system was presented on August 17
to about 200 directors of Yerevan schools. As Vanya Barseghian, the
Estimation and Testing Center Director of the RA Ministry of Education
and Science mentioned, it’s envisaged to change school-leaving exams
by state joint centralized ones. So, school leaving state exams will
be of two types: school-leaving and joint. They will involve demands
necessary for secondary school-leaving exams and entrance exams of
institutions of higher education. A school-leaver may choose the
type of exam by his wish. V.Barseghian mentioned that school-leaving
and joint exams on every subject will be held centralized, one day,
in territorial school-leaving and joint examination centers of the
republic. By the way, organizers of the examination process must not
be specialists of the given or of an adjacent subject.
According to V.Barseghian, 10-point scale will be fixed for estimation
of exams, and its positive threshold will be 4 points. The school
directors mentioned during the discussion that they do not accept some
principles of the new system, but, “nobody takes their opinion into
account.” In the opinion of Anahit Bakhshian, the Yerevan No27 school
director, the envisaged reforms, if they are implemented in the right
way, will really serve for increasing authority of the school. But,
according to her words, “right mechanisms and right people” were not
chosen for implementation of those reforms. A.Bakhshian also mentioned
that tests must not be formed by using the text-books which do not
correspond to essense of the new system. “The new system demands to
give knowledge to a child and to check his skills within the framework
of that knowledge.
And text-books used today do not give those possibilities,” A.Bakhshian
mentioned.

Author of biography on Ataturk’s wife charged with insulting late leader
By SUZAN FRASER
AP Worldstream; Aug 18, 2006
A Turkish prosecutor has charged an author with insulting the revered
late leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in a biography about his wife,
the book’s publisher said Friday.
Ipek Calislar, the latest in a series of writers charged under Turkey’s
freedom-curbing laws, faces up to 4 1/2 years in prison if found
guilty of insulting Ataturk, said Vahit Uysal of Dogan Publishing.
The European Union _ which Turkey hopes to join _ has been exerting
heavy pressure on the country to get rid of repressive laws and to
improve freedoms.
The prosecutor also filed charges against Necdet Tatlican, an
editor for Hurriyet newspaper, which published excerpts of the book,
“Latife Hanim,” Uysal said.
In the book, Calislar says that the Turkish leader, facing an
assassination attempt, left the presidential palace in a chador,
disguised as a woman.
The charges were initiated by a Hurriyet reader, Huseyin Tugrul Pekin,
who petitioned the prosecutor saying, “to claim that … Ataturk,
whom no one could even attempt to weigh his courage, would have done
something like this … is the greatest insult.”
Trial was set for Oct. 5.
Calislar’s book is the first comprehensive biography of Latife Ussaki,
who was married to Ataturk for about two years until he divorced her
in 1925.
The book became a best-seller within days of its publication in June
and helped to dispel a long-held image of her as a reviled woman
blamed for the break up of the marriage. It portrayed her, instead,
as a strong-willed woman who advanced women’s rights in Turkey.
Calislar said Friday that the passage in question was based on accounts
from Latife’s sister Vecihe Ilmen and other sources.
“The assassination attempt … is a historic fact,” Calislar said in
a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. Ataturk’s escape in a
woman’s clothing “was a decision Ataturk made at a critical time and
was successful,” she said.
“Historians may discuss the issue, but I don’t think that the issue
is of any concern to lawyers.”
Calislar joins a long list of journalists and writers charged with
insulting Turkey, “Turkishness” or state institutions.
In the most prominent case, novelist Orhan Pamuk stood trial this
year on charges of insulting “Turkishness” for commenting on the
mass killings of Armenians by Turks around the time of World War I,
which a number of governments and scholars have said was the first
genocide of the 20th century.
The charges were dropped amid intense international pressure.
Turkey vehemently denies that the mass killings were genocide, saying
the death toll is inflated and Armenians were killed in civil unrest
as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
On Sept. 21, author Elif Safak is to stand trial because of the words
uttered by a fictional Armenian character in her novel “The Bastard
of Istanbul.”
In the book, an Armenian character refers to “Turkish butchers.”
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has made clear
it has no plans to change laws used to prosecute Pamuk and others,
saying the charges are eventually dropped and defendants are acquitted.
EU officials argue, however, that even if the charges are dropped,
the threat of prosecution remains as a deterrent against people
wishing to express opinions.

Armenian Caucus Established in California State Assembly
ArmRadio.am
18.08.2006 13:48
A bipartisan group of legislators formed the Assembly Armenian-American
Legislative Caucus, which is modeled after a similar grouping that
has been addressing Armenian-American issues in Congress, the Glendale
News Press reported.
Co-founded by Assembly majority leader Dario Frommer, a Democrat
who represents Burbank and Glendale, and Stockton Republican Greg
Aghazarian, the caucus aims to address issues of concern to the more
than 700,000-strong California-Armenian community, Asbarez reported.
“Our intent is for it to be a working caucus and a group of folks
who reach out and educate others,” Frommer told the Glendale News
Press. “Here in California we have a large and vibrant Armenian
community, not just in my district, but in Fresno and other places,
and we want to bring those folks together.”
Frommer and Aghazarian expressed hope that the California State
Senate will follow suit. Such a caucus is long overdue, Burbank
Unified School Board member and Democratic candidate for the 43rd
Assembly District, Paul Krekorian said. “I’ve been a little surprised
that legislators who consider themselves friends of the Armenian
community did not create one like this years ago,” he said, adding,
“But what matters to most to Armenians is the same that matters to
all Americans: Excellent public schools, good jobs, health care for
seniors and the opportunity to send their kids to college.”
Frommer, who currently represents the 43rd District, will vacate his
seat this year because of term limits.

There are 300,000 Refugees from Azerbaijan in Armenia
ArmRadio.am
18.08.2006 13:47
Overwhelming majority of families of refugees from Azerbaijan
is provided with accommodation; Armenian Directorate on
Migration and Refugees Chief Gagik Yeganyan stated to a REGNUM
correspondent. Armenian government approved program in May 2004,
which is about $20mln worth, in accordance with which 3470 families
of refugees will be provided with apartments within 2-3 years.
As Gagik Yeganyan informed, according to the Armenian Directorate
on Migration and Refugees, there are about 300,000 refugees from
Azerbaijan in Armenia; 80,000 of them are Armenian citizens.

Azeri minister warns about “environmental disaster” in Karabakh
Azerbaijani news agency APA
17 Aug 06
Baku, 17 August: “If the fires started by the Armenians on our
occupied land are not countered, this will lead to an environmental
disaster. Azerbaijan has made specific proposals to Armenia regarding
ways to counter the fires,” Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has
told journalists, according to APA news agency.
He said that the personal representative of the
OSCE chairman-in-office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, accepts this
position. “Currently, Kasprzyk is in Yerevan and is conducting talks
with Armenia on countering the fires. He will also brief Yerevan
on our proposals. Once he returns from there, we will discuss his
impressions,” the minister said.
If the proposals are accepted, then joint work with international
organizations will start in the occupied territories, Mammadyarov
said. “It is still too early to say how the clearance will be carried
out. However, I can say that all relevant agencies will take part in
it,” he said.
Armenia is responsible for everything that occurs in the occupied
territories. The issue of responsibility has been reflected in
international conventions, the minister said.
[Passage omitted: Mammadyarov spoke about the new Diplomatic Academy]