AMERIA AUDIT CJSC CONDUCTING STATUTORY AUDIT OF SYNOPSYS ARMENIA CJSC
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 5 2006
YEREVAN, October 5. /ARKA/. The Ameria Audit CJSC is currently
conducting a statutory audit of the Synopsys Armenia CJSC.
“As one of the PwC partners Ameria Audit CJSC was appointed by PwC
Ireland as an engagement office for statutory audit of Synopsys
Armenia CJSC,” says a press release provided to ARKA.
This year Ameria Audit CJSC has completed the audit of annual financial
statements of the Synopsys Armenia CJSC.
“Following contentment by both PwC partners and Synopsys shareholders
Ameria Audit cjsc will continue to meet client expectations for the
audit years 2006 and 2007,”the press release says.
In 2005 following a competitive selection process PwC was assigned to
replace KPMG as the lead engagement office for the audit of a number
of EMEA and ASIAPAC Synopsys entities for the 2005 – 2007 years.
The Synopsys Armenia CJSC is a subsidiary of Synopsys Ireland Limited
(SIRL), which is the holding company for many of the EMEA/Asia Pacific
subsidiaries.
Synopsys is a leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA)
software and services used to design complex integrated circuits
(ICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and systems-on-chips
(SoCs) for the global semiconductor and electronics industries.
Synopsys’ solutions include pre-designed and pre-verified blocks of
intellectual property (IP) that can be easily inserted into design
flows, as well as technology to address yield and manufacturing issues
early in the design process.
Ameria is a group of professional services companies registered in
Armenia with the objective to provide a comprehensive package of
professional advisory and assurance services. Ameria specializes
in four major areas of professional activities: management advisory
services; assurance and advisory services; legal advisory services;
investment banking. Established in 1998, the company has become
a leader in the Armenian market of advisory services bringing an
international reach and local touch to complex issues rising in more
than 30 industry sectors.

BLACKSNAKE’S LAIR: KURDISH REBELS ARE STIRRING UP TURKEY AND IRAN, AND THREATENING THE ONE CALM PART OF IRAQ
By Michael Hastings; With Owen Matthews and Sami Kohen in Istanbul and Michael Hirsh in Washington
Newsweek
October 9, 2006
International Edition
>From deep in the hills
Murat Karayilan prefers to travel in darkness. Under cover of a
starry night, the Kurdish guerrilla chief’s white Nissan Pathfinder
crawls up a narrow gravel road in Iraq’s mountainous far north, only
the headlights giving his presence away. Karayilan–his last name
translates to “blacksnake”–is a hunted man. Across the eastern border,
Iran’s anti-U.S. leaders would like nothing better than to see him
jailed or dead. To the west, America’s longtime allies in the Turkish
government likewise hate and fear him. The U.S. State Department
and the European Union both list his group, the Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), as a terrorist organization. “We are not terrorists,”
says Karayilan, ensconced in a sparsely furnished dwelling with a
stone floor. “The U.S. has seen us through the eyes of our enemies. We
want you to see us as friends. We are not attacking, we are defending
ourselves.”
The invasion of Iraq opened a whole Pandora’s box of destabilizing
forces–among them, a surge of nationalism among the estimated 36
million Kurds who hail from the land that stretches from Turkey and
Syria in the west, to Iraq and Armenia in the east. The PKK, which
fought Turkey in a vicious war that cost 37,000 lives from 1987 to
1999, abandoned its truce two years ago, after the fall of Saddam
Hussein. The rebels still see themselves as standing up against
centuries of often brutal repression. This year the Kurdish group
has staged more than 250 attacks on Turkish security forces, in one
bloody week killing 14 Turkish soldiers, a toll unmatched since the
worst of the fighting in the ’90s. In recent weeks the violence has
escalated, as everyone tries to inflict as much damage as possible
before winter snows interrupt the war. Last week Turkey shelled
three Iraqi villages near the border town of Zaho, according to the
government of Iraqi Kurdistan. Iran’s artillery was busy as well,
killing a villager near the town of Hakurk. For its part, the PKK
and its allies have been blamed for at least eight bombings across
Turkey and for the kidnapping of a local official’s son.
U.S. and Iraqi officials worry that the fighting will spin out of
control. Ankara threatens to launch cross-border raids to get rid of
the rebels, and the guerrillas themselves say Iranian jets and ground
forces have crossed the border more than once this year. Even as U.S.
forces struggle to contain the chaos and violence everywhere else in
Iraq, the danger now is that the fires could spread to the Kurdish
north and beyond. No one was very impressed by the PKK’s declaration
of a unilateral ceasefire over the weekend. At least four previous
ceasefires have failed, and last week Turkey issued a pre-emptive
dismissal of any PKK peace offer. “The PKK usually hibernate over the
winter,” says one Turkish diplomat. “When spring comes, they are up
to their usual business again.” Everyone knows the hunger for Kurdish
rights is not going away.
The PKK is the only authority in its corner of Iraqi Kurdistan. To
get there you climb a winding road where even the shepherds carry
AK-47s, into the Qandil Mountains, a stretch of high peaks straddling
the borderlands of Iraq, Turkey and Iran. The last Iraqi government
checkpoint is at the foot of the mountains, guarded by soldiers
from Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government. It flies the flag of Iraqi
Kurdistan, a yellow sunburst on a field of green, white and red. The
flag at the next checkpoint, almost two miles above sea level,
belongs to the PKK: a red star on yellow sun outlined in green. Armed
guerrillas make sure no one goes farther without official permission
from their central command. Around the bend, an immense portrait has
been painted on the rocky hillside–the face of the PKK’s founder,
Abdullah Ocalan.
Ocalan–Apo, his followers call him–launched the PKK in 1978 as a
Marxist organization opposing Turkish rule. By the 1980s, the group’s
fighters were hanging out with Yasir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation
Organization and making pilgrimages to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, then a
hive of anti-U.S. terrorism. Back home in Turkey they applied their
newly acquired terrorist skills, attacking schools and government
offices until 1999, when Turkish commandos captured Ocalan. He was
tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison, and his group
declared a unilateral ceasefire.
Ocalan’s successor as chief of daily operations, Karayilan, has nothing
but praise for American ideals. He spoke glowingly to NEWSWEEK about
democracy and human rights and “Mr. Bush’s new Middle East project.” He
says his 7,000 armed fighters could be a valuable ally for the United
States against Islamic fundamentalism. The Kurdish people in general
tend to be enthusiastically pro-American, unlike most Turks. In a
recent Turkish opinion survey, only 22 percent of the respondents said
they support the United States, versus 43 percent who favored Iran.
There’s an even stronger reason many Americans might be tempted to back
the PKK: “We’re in a war situation with Iran,” says Essat Farasan, a
senior PKK officer. The group’s two-year-old Iranian sibling, the Free
Life Party (PJAK, pronounced “peshak”), claims some 1,500 guerrillas
along the Iranian border from Azerbaijan to Iraq, armed with machine
guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47s. Persecution of
Kurds in Iran has intensified since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power
a year ago, says one of the group’s commanders, Zinair Mustafa, 34,
in an interview at a base camp in the Qandil Mountains. Zinair says
the Americans just wink at PJAK’s operations. U.S. forces visited
the area a year ago, he says; they reached the first PJAK checkpoint
and promptly turned back. But that’s the limit of U.S. assistance,
the Kurds say. “We have the same enemy as the U.S., but they do not
extend help to us,” PJAK’s leader, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, told
NEWSWEEK in a phone interview from his exile home in Germany.
Still, local support for PJAK is rising. At a border crossing near the
Iraqi town of Pejwin, Kurdish smugglers gather around an open fire,
eating bread and tomatoes grilled on the embers. They say they began
hearing about the PJAK earlier this year. “I started to like them
when I heard they killed eight of those Iranian sons of bitches,”
says a 40-year-old Iranian Kurd who gives his name only as Faris. He
and his friends say they haven’t done anything to help the PJAK–but
they wouldn’t betray them, either.
For now, America is walking a careful line between two crucial allies:
the Turkish government and the Iraqi Kurds. To make matters even
more difficult, the PKK has spawned a splinter group, the Kurdistan
Freedom Falcons. Over the course of the summer at least 28 people died,
including four tourists, in Falcons bomb attacks on Turkish resort
towns. The PKK condemned the targeting of civilians, and Karayilan
says his group has “no control” over the Falcons.
Nevertheless, PKK leaders predict more such attacks unless Kurdish
demands are met–and both Turkish and American security officials
blame the PKK for the bombings. Under pressure from Ankara, Washington
has named retired Gen. Jos-eph Ralston as “anti-PKK coordinator,”
to work on a plan for disarming the group.
In August the Iraqi government announced that all PKK offices
would be shut down. The Baghdad branch soon reopened. The one in
Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital, Suleimaniya, never closed. A serious
Iraqi crackdown on the PKK would almost surely set off a revolt
among Iraq’s Kurds, who fiercely believe in the vision of a greater
Kurdistan. PKKleaders say they aren’t afraid, either. “If the Turkish
Army comes to Iraq, they will lose the battle,” says the Blacksnake.
“They have lost 100 times already.” But the Turks aren’t giving up,
either. The chances of the violence escalating are as great as ever.

RISE OF PRICES IN ARMENIA IS JUST PART OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF ECONOMY MONOPOLIZATION: ARMENIAN PM
ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 5, 2006 Thursday
The rise of prices in Armenia alongside with the sharply sagging US
dollar is just part of the consequences of economy monopolization,
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan told journalists, Wednesday.
He said many native businessmen take advantage of loop-holes in laws
and evade taxes registering their business on different companies
that in reality belong to them. This results in many problems in
the economic field, the premier said. He said that the Government
has already instructed the Commission for Protection of Economic
Competition to study the situation in the market. Afterwards, the
Government will take specific measures to correct the existing lacks.
“If legislative measures are not enough, we shall take also other
measures,” A. Margaryan said.

A NUMBER OF NON-PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES OF ARMENIA ARE FOR REDUCTION OF THE 5% BARRIER TO THE ARMENIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 5, 2006 Thursday
Leaders of a number of non-parliamentary parties of Armenia are for
reduction of the 5% barrier to the Armenian National Assembly.
Speaking at the Discussion Club “Pastark” Thursday, Leader of the
Liberal United Communist Party Vazgen Safaryan said his party is for
reduction of the barrier to 3% and for a 100% proportional system of
elections. In his turn, Leader of Democracy and Labor party Spartak
Melikyan also came out for the proportional system, as “deputies
elected through a majority system do not represent broad sections of
the population.” All the political forces running for the parliament
must be represented in election commissions and the barrier must
be reduced to 3%, he said. Both the politicians believe that Venice
Commission experts who participated in the parliamentary discussions
on amendments to the Election Code “fulfill the order of the incumbent
authorities to secure their re-election.”
In his turn, Leader of Marxist Party David Hakopyan known by his
eccentric statements said the acting Election Code of Armenia “was
invented in 1999 by the junta of the Union of volunteers “Yerkrapah”
Albert Bazeyan, Smbat Ayvazyan and Victor Dallakyan. It serves the
interest of the ‘bourgeois absolute’ and does not meet the public
interests. The so-called “parliamentary opposition” does not care of
this.” That is why elections have turned into business. D. Hakobyan
proposed reducing the barrier to 1% and introducing compulsory
examinations for candidates on world history, Armenian history, law
and oratorical skill. The deposit must be differentiated i.e. 10% of
a deputy’s income. He also proposes fining voters for non-attendance
and limiting their political rights for 5 years. In addition, he
demands a 90/40 ratio of proportional and majority seats.
V. Safaryan and S. Melikyan said their parties may join other
ideologically close ones before the elections. While. D. Hakobyan
said his party will run for the parliament independently.

RA DM VISITED 14TH INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF DEFENSE COMPLEXES “DEFENDORY INTERNATIONAL”
ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 5, 2006 Thursday
The Secretary of the National Security Council under RA President,
RA Defense Minister, Serzh Sarkissyan, has participated, October
3, in the ceremony of opening the 14th International Exhibition of
defense complexes “Defendory International” and got acquainted with
the latest defense armament samples.
As the Defense Ministry’s press-secretary, Seiran Shahsuvaryan, told
ArmInfo, the DM also visited the pavilion of a joint Armenian-Greek
enterprise “LT-PIRKAL”, which is a daughter enterprise of the
Greek EBO-PIRKAL. Here the Minister has met with the managers of
the enterprise’s Greek part and discussed the issues related to the
present and future activities of the enterprise. The same day, the
delegation, headed by S. Sarkissyan, visited the Military Academy
of Lad Forces of Greece, where he met with the Academy’s management
and a group of Armenia’s AF servicemen, studying in the Academy. The
delegation has also visited the Military Museum of the National Defense
Ministry of Greece. After the meeting with the Museum’s management and
acquaintance with the exhibits, the sides have preliminarily agreed
to hold an exhibition in the museum in 2007, devoted to the history
of Armenia’s Armed Forces.
A meeting of S. Sarkissyan with his Greek colleague, Evangelos
Meimarakis, was held October 4. During the meeting, the present level
and prospects of Armenian-Greek military relations was discussed,
an agreement on extension of Armenian- Greek cooperation in the area
of military education and peace-making activities was reached.. S.
Sarkissyan met with the representatives of the country’s Armenian
community the same day in the Embassy of Armenia in Greece. The issues,
concerning increase of education level of students , studying in Greek
Military Establishments, as well as improvement of life conditions
were discussed during the meeting, after which S. Sarkissyan held
a press-conference with the community’s representatives, where he
summed up the visit.

ARMENIAN LAW INFORCEMENT AGENCIES DISCLOSED MURDER OF “AVIASERVICE” CJSC SERVICE CHIEF ARTHUR KHALATYAN
ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 5, 2006 Thursday
The Armenian law-enforcement agencies have disclosed the murder of
“Aviaservice” CJSC service chief Arthur Khalatyan.
The Armenian Police press-service says that as a result of
operative-investigation actions it was found out that an inhabitant
of Byureghavan Robert Sargsyan entered into collusion with his cousin
Henrik Hovnikyan and his friend Tatoul Mirzoyan with the intention
to take possession of the deceased’s flat, cruelly beat and smothered
him. Tatoul Mirzoyan is arrested, Robert Sargsyan and Henrik Hovnikyan
are wanted by the police. Khalatyan’s body was found on September 30
around 11:30 PM. The public prosecutor’s office of Kotayk region has
instituted a criminal case under part 1 of Clause 104 (murder) of the
Armenian Criminal Code. According to the law enforcement agencies,
Sargsyan got acquainted with Khalatyan on September 20, 2006, through
the “PB Realty” Agency to buy his flat for 145 thousand dollars. On
September 30 around 11 AM Sargsyan and Khalatyan met in Yerevan to
clarify some questions about the price and agreed to come to the
agency two hours later. But afterwards it was impossible to get in
touch with Khalatyan, and Sargsyan refused the meeting. The same day
around 4 PM Sargsyan left his car VAZ 2121 at his relative’s in Zar
village and disappeared in an unknown direction.

BASESCU IN ARMENIA: ROMANIANS PAY FOR TRANSITION FROM COMMUNISM TO CAPITALISM
Rompres news agency, Bucharest,
5 Oct 2006
Yerevan, 5 October: The transition from communism to capitalism is a
decision assumed by politicians and taken to effect only if they have
the populations’ support, who pays the costs of this transformation,
said on Thursday 5 October in Yerevan the Romanian President Traian
Basescu in front of the students and professors with the State
University.
The Romanian head of state made a presentation of the transformations
occurred in Romania since the revolution in December 1989. He said that
Romanians had the power and patience to bear the transition period,
for they wanted to join Europe that they had left against their will
50 years before.
“We are aware that the EU accession is a new beginning for Romania.
Our country, as NATO and EU member, regained its dignity by coming
back home and starts the difficult process of the effective EU
integration,” said Basescu. The Romanian president stressed that it
would take many years until Romania will be fully integrated into
the European structures.
Traian Basescu said that Romania grew economically and politically
since 2000, the first year when the Romania economy gave signs of
recovery and reported a 1.5 per cent growth of GDP, which proved that
the transition period was over.
The Romanian president received on Thursday the title Doctor Honouris
Causa of the state university in Yerevan, being his second such award
received since he became president. He also received the Diploma of
Honour and Merit of the same university.

ROMANIAN PRESIDENT RETURNS FROM ARMENIA
Rompres news agency, Bucharest,
5 Oct 2006
Bucharest, 5 October: President Traian Basescu arrived back home on
Thursday [5 October] from a two-day official visit to Yerevan paid
at the invitation of Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharyan.
Basescu told reporters at Bucharest’s Henri Coanda International
Airport that the visit had been part of several such visits paid
to the Black Sea states, being aimed at strengthening the bilateral
relations with the Black Sea countries with a view to establishing
a security space conducive to the area’s development.
The talks held in Yerevan had focused on the need to implement the
project on setting up the Black Sea Euro-region, the president said;
the visit was an opportunity to adjust the bilateral Romanian-Armenian
agreements to Romania’s new status of a European Union member,
he added.
During talks with the Armenian president, Basescu said Romanian
backs unreservedly Armenia’s moves to get closer to the European and
Euro-Atlantic structures.
The two leaders also tackled the trade between Romania and Armenia
and discussed a range of projects that might be achieved by the
two countries such as Armenia using the Romanian Black Sea port
of Constanta, the opening of a direct airline between Yerevan and
Bucharest and the establishment of joint chambers of commerce.
Basescu also had talks with the Armenian premier and met the students
and professors of the Yerevan State University, to whom he spoke
about Romania’s transition from communism to capitalism, about the
costs paid by the Romanians on this road and the implications of
Romania’s EU membership, which – he said – is an as long road as the
one of transition.
The Romanian leader was awarded the Doctor Honouris Causa honorary
title by the Yerevan State University and the university’s honorary
diploma and gold medal.
Basescu laid a wreath at the Memorial to the Victims of the Genocide
in Armenia and planted a tree to the memory of nearly 1.5 million
Armenians killed in 1915.

ARMENIAN GEOLOGISTS IMPLEMENT LARGE-SCALE EXPLORATION WORKS AT METAL DEPOSITS
ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 5, 2006 Thursday
Director of “RAKE” contractor company, hydro-geologist Rouben Arakelyan
told an ArmInfo correspondent that the first results of geological
exploration of metal deposits in the Getik River basin, Gegharkunik
region of Armenia, will be presented at the end of the current year.
To note, the geologists carry out the order of Global Gold Corporation,
which exploits several gold deposits in Armenia. The members of the
geological expedition are making the map of the area, determining
the content of precious and non-ferrous metals in the Getik deposit
that occupies an area of 2,5 thousand ha. All the samples taken from
the deposit are passed to the GGC company which, in its turn, passes
them to Armenian and foreign laboratories.
According to Arakelyan, one can imagine the approximate reserves
of ore containing gold, silver, copper and other volcanic rocks and
sediments only after the results of the laboratory examinations.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU/SOUTH CAUCASUS : EU TO DEVELOP CLOSER RELATIONS WITH SOUTH CAUCASUS
European Report
October 5, 2006
The EU is to formally endorse European Neighbourhood Policy Action
Plans with three South Caucasian countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia, in November. The final agreement on the ENP Action Plan texts
was reached by the Ministerial Troika of the EU (External Commissioner
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Finland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Erkki
Tuomioja and Minister of State Gunter Gloser of Germany) during its
visit to the South Caucasus on 2-3 October. The formal adoption of
agreements (each plan is tailor-made to the individual needs of each
country) will take place at the next EU Cooperation Council with
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, to be held on 14 November in Brussels.
The Commission tabled its proposals for the action plans for the three
South Caucasus countries in March 2005 but formal endorsement of the
plans has been postponed several times. Before doing so, the EU and all
three countries had to tackle particular issues which came up during
negotiations. One of them was the Azerbaijani-Cypriot argument over
northern Cyprus. Azerbaijan was refusing to commit itself unequivocally
to respect the policy of isolation followed by the EU with regard to
Northern Cyprus. In response Cyprus was preventing the action plan
from coming into effect unless Azerbaijan clearly renounced links
to Northern Cyprus. Armenia was trying to secure more financial EU
support for the decommissioning of the Medzamor nuclear plant and
alternative energy supplies. Georgia’s diplomatic energy was in turn
focused on securing greater EU involvement in conflict resolution –
something the “action plans” do not encompass beyond a reference to
the EU’s readiness to assist with post-conflict rehabilitation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress