IAN PORTERFIELD APPOINTED NEW COACH OF FOOTBALL NATIONAL TEAM OF ARMENIA
YEREVAN, AUGUST 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Presenting Ian Porterfield, newly
appointed coach of the football National team of Armenia, at the
August 16 press conference, Ruben Hayrapetian, the Football Federation
Chairman of Armenia mentioned that I.Porterfield’s candidature was
chosen as a result of study of numerous candidates’ resumes. It was
also mentioned that I.Porterfield will at the same time work with
National teams of Armenia of all ages. According to the FFA Chairman,
the deadline of the contract signed with I.Porterfield is late 2007,
and he will come and live in Armenia with his family. I.Porterfield
mentioned that before accepting the FFA invitation, he got acquainted
with the works done by the FFA, with the problems and goals of the
federation. In his opinion, the team of Armenia has a potential, and
in the case of a hard work, the team will have great future. “Though
it’s difficult to be the coach of a national team, but I’ll put in the
experience, I have got during years, for development of the Armenian
football,” the Scot coach said. I.Porterfield was born on February
11, 1946, in Danfermline (Scotland). He is the 5th foreign coach of
the national team of Armenia. Argentinian Oscar Lopez, Romanian Mihai
Stoichita, Frenchman Bernard Casoni and Dutch Henk Wisman headed that
post before Porterfield.

NEW CHIEF COACH OF ARMENIA’S NATIONAL FOOTBAL TEAM FAMILIARIZES
HIMSELF WITH INFRASTRUCTURES OF CLUBS
YEREVAN, AUGUST 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The newly appointed chief coach of
Armenia’s national football team Yan Porterfield on August 17 visited
the leading clubs of the country in order to familiarize himself with
theit infrastructures.
NT was infomed about it from the press servoce of the Football
Federation of Armenia. At the sport base of Pyunik Club, Y. Porterfiled
watched the young football players’ training and discussed with
their coaches the problem of fitness of Pyunik players who are
candidates to Armenia’s national team, as well as the opportunity
for using the sport base and fields of Pyunik Club for traning the
national team. Then Y. Porterfield became acquainted with Banants
Club’s infrastructures, its fileds, in particular the one with an
artificial grass cover, as it is quite likely that the preparation
for Finland-Armenia match will take place on this field, because it
is envisaged to hold this match on a field with a similar cover. After
visiting Mika Club, he conveyed his satisfaction at the opportunities
created for the football players and expressed a hope that it will
allow to organize effective training of the national team and bring the
level of Armenian players’ preparedness in line with standards during
international matches. Y. Porterfield considered it important that the
national team’s training process be held in various fields on covers
of different quality so that the sportsmen will not get used to one
field and will be able to show their technical and tactical skills
in any conditions. He also attached importance to close cooperation
of the club heads and coaches and the coaches of Armenia’s national
team. On the same day, Y. Porterfiled went to the Republican Stadium
after Vazgen Sargsian to examine the state of infrastructures there.

GUAM Countries Establish Their Own Military Unit
ArmRadio.am
17.08.2006 18:30
Establishment of a joint military unit by the Organization for
Democracy and Economic Development — GUAM has been discussed at
a meeting of representatives of defense ministries and general
staffs of Armed Forces of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan in Tbilisi
on August 17. Moldavian military officials do not participate in the
discussion. The country’s foreign ministry explained it by a number
of technical reasons.
As Spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Viktor Matko says,
the GUAM meeting is dedicated to further development of military
cooperation in the framework of Guam. According to him, it goes about
establishing a joint military unit, to which each country will send
its troops. In his turn, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Anatoly Gritsenko
noted that GUAM peacekeeping corps in case it is established will be
fulfilling tasks under a UN or an OSCE mandate, Regnum reported.

“IAC is no longer effective”, Adbashyan Claim
ArmRadio.am
17.08.2006 18:23
The Regulations of the International Aviation Committee (IAC) prevented
from modernization of the aircraft fleet in Armenia, a well-known
aviation worker Dmitry Adbashyan says in an interview with “Iravunk”
newspaper, Arminfo reported.
The IAC registration and certification rules Armenia has got are
contrary to the ICAO codes. “Once, we brought in two planes which we
failed to register. We asked IAC to register them. The ICAO codes
did not require certificate for registering such a brand but IAC
claimed one.
By the way, one article of the IAC codes said that one should have a
certificate for registering such a plane while another article gave
the list of documents one should present to register it and there was
certificate mentioned in it. While the ICAO codes clearly said that
for having his plane registered an owner has just to prove that its
worthiness, with no certificate required,” Adbashyan says.
Reference to the regulations of ICAO did not allow Armenian aviators
persuade IAC of the necessity of certificates for the purchased
planes. They in IAC stated that brand certification is necessary if
a company acquires more than 2 planes. ICAO has no such rule and in
Russia they invested it just to earn money. There are over 500 such
planes in the world, so, according to IAC, it is obligatory to have
their brand certificate.
IAC rules were very much different from the international standards
So, if there are so many contradictions between the IAC and ICAO
rules, which ones Armenia should adopt? “Of course, there are, and
we should adopt the ICAO rules,” says Adbashyan. “IAC is no longer
effective. There is ICAO and we should cooperate with them and,
in some cases, with their European counterparts,” says Adbashyan.
The point in this particular case is not so much if the pilots or the
planes were guilty for the Sochi and Irkutsk crashes. The point is
that IAC – who says that it is exclusively professional structure –
has allowed or, at least, has failed to prevent those cases from being
politicized. In the Armavia case, IAC has failed to professionally
substantiate its position and to prove that its findings are true. And
even if in this particular case IAC is professionally right and fair,
we can still see that it can no longer normally regulate its own
functions and decisions. This proves that it is stagnating, and not
only Russian but also our relevant authorities should do something
about it, “Iravunk” writes.

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.