ARMENIA AMONG TOP TEN MOST CIGARETTE CONSUMING COUNTRIES
AZG Armenian Daily
09/08/2006
A study of the situation of tobacco consumption in the world has
put Mongolia on the first place as a country with greatest smoking
population. According to experts, Armenia is in the top ten of
countries with heavy smokers. This is perhaps one of the cases
when it’s not a privilege to appear in the top ten. 64 percent of
Armenian citizens are smokers and in Mongolia this number is 67.8
percent. Greece is on the first place as a country with highest
frequency of smoking – 8.6 cigarettes a day. The experts considered
the data of 2002-2003 for the study. Armenia also rivals with such
countries as China (66.9%), Kenya (66.8%), Cambodia (66%) and Namibia
(65%).

THE ‘BENEFIT’ OF ARMENTEL’S MONOPOLY
By Nana Petrosian
AZG Armenian Daily
09/08/2006
Any work in Armenia done through the Internet is suffering damage
since August 4 because of a broken fibre optic cable passing though
the territory of Georgia. Two times since the breakdown Armenia
completely had no Internet connection.
Monopoly-holding ArmenTel provides a very unstable connection via
satellite and does not promise any change for at least one more week
assuring that repair is under way to fix the broken cable on the
bottom of the Black Sea. ArmenTel is currently providing only 5%
access to the Internet. The satellite’s connection capacity is 2
megabits. Cursing this no-way-out situation, experts also blame the
authorities along with the ArmenTel.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PUTIN AWARDS ORDER TO GAREGIN II
ArmRadio.am
09.08.2006 15:50
Russian President Vladimir Putin has awarded an Order of Friendship
to Supreme Patriarch-Catholicos Karekin II of All Armenians, Interfax
news agency reported.
The Order of Friendship was conferred on Karekin II “in recognition
of his great contribution to the development and strengthening of
Russian-Armenian friendly relations,” the Kremlin press service told
Interfax on Tuesday.
Karekin II is the 132nd Supreme Patriarch-Catholicos of All
Armenians. He is an honorary member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences
and holder of national awards of the USSR, Jordan, Rumania, Ukraine
and France.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA IS AGAIN WITHOUT INTERNET
ArmRadio.am
09.08.2006 16:25
Armenia is again without internet because of break of the second
fiber cable in Georgia. The press service of the ArmenTel telecom
company reports that the able is being repaired, but they can’t say
when Armenia will have internet again, Arminfo reported.
To remind, since Aug 4 Armenia has had almost no internet because of
break of the main fiber cable on the bottom of the Black Sea. In the
last two days internet has been provided by satellites but foreign
domains were very hard to access.

PROJECTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF MINORITIES IN JAVAKHETI
Lragir.am
9 Aug 06
Akhalkalaki, August 8, A-Info. The Akhalkalaki office of the European
Center on Minorities is likely to implement 8 projects on the rights
of minorities in Javakheti.
The first project was launched on August 7. The project of protection
of Human Rights in Javakheti is implemented by the Union of Regional
Civil Initiatives for Development of Democracy in Javakheti and the
Union of Lawyers and Economists for Reforms.
In the framework of the project classes on protection of human rights
will be organized in some areas in Javakheti.

THE MINISTER WORRIED THE COMMAND
Lragir.am
9 Aug 06
The command of the Armed Forces of Armenia are seriously worried
about the prospect of political activities of the defense minister.
The Lragir has learned that the command of the Armed Forces, as well as
the veterans of the Karabakh war think that the political activities
of the defense minister may threaten the activities of the army,
as well as the defense of the country. They are also worried that
the defense minister is ready to make any deal to come to power,
particularly, in connection with the problem of Karabakh. We have
learned that the army command and the veterans of war are likely to
turn to the intelligentsia to discuss the possible ways of separating
the defense minister from the army.

THIS IS NOT TYPICAL OF A NORMAL COUNTRY
Lragir.am
9 Aug 06
Felix Khachatryan, the representative of Ardarutiun Alliance to the
Central Election Committee, announced August 8 in connection with
the assassination of Alexander Givoyev that this is not typical of a
normal country. Like in the case of assassination of Sedrak Zatikyan,
this time too an innocent person was killed. Felix Khachatryan thinks,
“The killers will not be found, and this will encourage them.” And they
will not be found because “they do not want to be found. Since October
27 everyone was found, everything was known from the beginning.”
Felix Khachatryan thinks those who find the killers but do not announce
about it later use these killers to reach their aims. And if they do
not want the case to be revealed, there is a phone call from above,
“hey body, they say this case cannot be discovered, eh?”. According
to Felix Khachatryan, this is a signal that they do not want to have
this case revealed.

ADMINISTRATIVE-CRIMINAL CONSOLIDATION THREATENS NATIONAL SECURITY
Lragir.am
9 Aug 06
The administrative-criminal community, which formalized its aspirations
on July 22, is ready to sacrifice even the most important national and
public issue to establish their right to rule. The former foreign
minister of Armenia Alexander Arzumanyan has this opinion, who
commented on the possible developments in the political sphere for
the Lragir. He believes that this government pole already threatens
the national security of Armenia.
Mr. Arzumanyan, on the eve of elections in Armenia we have always
witnessed mobilization of the resources of power, so what is the
reason of such an unprecedented reaction to the Republican Party –
Serge Sargsyan consolidation?
Alexander Arzumanyan: The corrupt officials and the criminal business
rounding up around the defense minister and capturing the ruling body
of the Republican Party is an action that threatens the national
security of Armenia. It is apparent that another plan to foil the
election and seize power through criminal terror is prepared.
The possibility of implementation of such an anti-state action is
directly connected with the behavior of Robert Kocharyan. The eight
years of struggle against the law through criminal methods have turned
the institution of presidential power the prisoner of the machine of
common terror as the term of office of Kocharyan is coming to its end.
In order to establish absolute rule over the government system, this
political and criminal co-existence wants to make Kocharyan recognize
its “right” to control this machine freely.
What should Robert Kocharyan do in your opinion, is he able not
to recognize the right of the criminal he relied on all through
his office?
Kocharyan does not have the right to ignore the interests of the
society, replacing them with his personal interests and the problem
of insuring his own future. Moreover, coming to power with a mask
of a guarantor of the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Robert
Kocharyan has turned the fate of the people of Nagorno Karabakh into
a target for the political aspirations of the criminal system he had
created. By consistently overlooking the process of criminalization
of the political sphere he, in fact, pushes forward the processes
undermining the state.
Choosing the Karabakh issue as a sphere for causing a home political
crisis, the criminal are ready to sacrifice the fate of the people
of Karabakh as well. The “successful” attempt at seizing power in
1998 dazzled this criminal union in Armenia, and what is more, it has
dazzled Arkady Ghukasyan, who is concerned about prolonging the term
of his office, thus automatically favoring these plans.
Robert Kocharyan witnesses this. The society and the political forces
worried about the future of Armenia cannot allow Robert Kocharyan to
solve his personal problems at the expense of the interests of the
publics of Armenia and Artsakh.

EITHER GAMBIT OR NOTHING
Lragir.am
9 Aug 06
After the unification of the Republican Party and Serge Sargsyan
absolute power in the country went to the Republican junta. On August
9 Davit Hakobyan, the leader of the Marxist Party thus described the
home political processes in Armenia at the Pastark Club. “After 1998
this is the second time that the military machine and the sanction
machine are annexed by a political party which is a majority in the
parliament and the executive,” says Davit Hakobyan.
It is interesting to hear the description of the extraordinary
conference of the Republican Party by Davit Hakobyan, defining it as
a court coup. “It is called bonapartism, juntism, blancism, political
adventurousness,” says Davit Hakobyan. Besides defining the present, he
also forecasts the future. According to Davit Hakobyan, Serge Sargsyan
will not be Serge Sargsyan if he does not start the autumn session
with a gambit, stepping up an offensive for the post of president.
“The question will occur to you if I am mistaken in my prognoses, and
I will answer like Hegel, the worse for them. Because today there are
the most convenient, favorable conditions before the campaign of the
parliamentary election, when today all the levers are in the hand of
the Republican junta, it is impossible to imagine a more convenient
moment after the parliamentary election,” says Davit Hakobyan. He
thinks that it would be political idiotism to postpone the gambit
until after the parliamentary election.
“And today the historical moment, especially that the international
diplomacy prompts that the diplomatic stage of the Artsakh issue came
to a crash, and today the republic needs a diplomatic time out, for at
least a year is left for Bush to finish his career and in late 2007
we will see Hillary Clinton at the post of president of the United
States to reach a turnaround in the policy of the Near East. In this
connection, the republic badly needs a diplomatic time out, and it
is a pre-condition, the underlying precondition for the resignation
of the president,” the first Marxist of Armenia makes a forecast of
developments from the aspect of the international situation.
Besides, he thinks that the Republican Party should not allow
“its opponents to become established until May, expand and become
strong.” According to Davit Hakobyan, nobody can guarantee that after
the election in May the army and the administrative resource will
remain under the control of the Republican Party.
“Either Serge Sargsyan will become president until January or will not
become president at all,” says Davit Hakobyan. If Robert Kocharyan does
not resign from the post of president until January, Davit Hakobyan
thinks it will cause a controversy between the president and the
defense minister, and the third force will benefit from it. If we
assume that the Marxist is not the ally of the president and Serge
Sargsyan as he tries to prove by his behavior of an oppositionist,
it should be supposed that he is one of the forces who may benefit
from the controversy between the president and the defense minister. In
this case, it is more than surprising that instead of waiting until the
failure of his opponent, the Republican junta, Marxist Davit Hakobyan
prompts the best way for the Republican Party and Serge Sargsyan.
“It is not a matter of prompting or political dividends. It is a matter
of prognosis of events and developments. First, a political figure,
who does not assess duly his opponents, can never defeat them. Second,
I prompt them in order for them to make their action more simple and
definite. This is also a political manner. You are right, I prompt
that they are going to miss the chance and when their action is clear,
we will clarify our steps too. This is a call for a game. A political
figure is a player, and politics is a game with its own risk and fear,”
says Davit Hakobyan.
But even in this case it is difficult to guess what kind of a game
the chief Marxist of the country is playing, whether he prompts Serge
Sargsyan the right way or he prompts Robert Kocharyan what the way of
Serge Sargsyan will be. The vagueness of the tactics of the Marxist
is not so important for the public, meanwhile his unclear game may
have a deciding role for the force Davit Hakobyan prompts. After all,
the president may think that Hakobyan is prompting Serge, and Serge
may think that Hakobyan is prompting the president. In this case,
his prompting is not worth anything because it does not give rise to
anything but suspicion. But one must not exclude the possibility that
the purpose of the Marxist is to arouse doubts. However, he should
be cautious. After all, the president and the defense minister may
start suspecting the Marxist rather than each other.

“IT’S DIFFICULT TO TAKE PEOPLE’S VOTES”
Margaret Yesayan
Aravot.am
05 Aug 06
“People’s deputy” group member Hakob Hakobian thinks.
* Mr. Hakobian, what did make you join “Republican” Party being a
non-party politician before when it was speaking about ”People’s
deputy” group and “Union in Favor Armenia” close collaboration?
* It isn’t secret that according to the new “electoral Code” the number
of deputies who are elected in majority system reduces. Eight years
of parliamentary work experience showed that you must represent any
political power for your effective activities. After long and detailed
discussions we, the members of “People’s deputy” group decided to
join the “Republican”. And nowadays, 10 members of the group from 16
are RPA members.
* For your decision, Lyova Khachatrian and Vahram Baghdasarian found
themselves in a tight corner.
* I have with friendly relations and it will never prevent coming
political fight.
* There are affirmations that some politicians join that party not
for love of Njdeh but the problem of solving own problems.
* I don’t know who and what will lose, but I know a thing: I
have taken part in three elections and my rival has always been
Republican. I haven’t lost anything, I have acquired what I have
and they shouldn’t declare if a person isn’t a politician or doesn’t
represent any party he is unable to achieve anything. It isn’t so,
as we have 15020 thousands of people who are engaged in a serious
business, pay taxes to the state.
* Would you and the members from your group join Republican if the
defense minister didn’t join?
* Defense minister hasn’t discussed that question with us.
“People’s deputy” group has made that decision.
* In your opinion, what kind will elections 2007 be, especially when
we used to see rigged and unfair elections for many years.
Now it is obvious that the fight will pass between authority powers,
it seems there is no place for the opposition.
* I think the opposition is the part of authority, and there are two
ways for authority reproduction: elections or revolution. We have
chosen the election, and both the authority and the opposition must
be reproduced. Of course, we need in people’s vote for reproduction
but it isn’t so easy. People know very well in favor of whom they
must vote. In general, I don’t believe in fair elections, just the
U.S. last elections showed that there aren’t fair elections as the
U.S. people were dissatisfied.
Thousands of people who vote can’t be mistaken, thousands of people
who work in the commissions also can’t be mistaken.
People must vote themselves to understand what to expect from their
candidate.
–Boundary_(ID_6zmyIShibdlF/2tEg sdW0A)–