Agence France Presse — English
May 19, 2006 Friday 3:10 AM GMT
Cyprus division looms over parliament vote
NICOSIA, May 19 2006
The decades-long division of Cyprus weighs heavy on voters’ minds
ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election, but residents on both sides
of the island envision very different solutions to the partition.
“I want a good solution: Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots all
living together in one country,” said Andreas Michael, a retired
Greek Cypriot.
The best way to do that, he said, is to vote for the DIKO party of
President Tassos Papadopoulos, who has made Greek Cypriots’ rejection
of a UN-backed reunification plan in 2004 a point of pride in this
year’s campaign.
DIKO is enjoying a surge of popularity as the government-controlled
south goes to the polls for the first time since becoming an EU
member following an overwhelming “no” vote by Greek Cypriots to the
so-called Annan plan.
Supporting the “no” to reunification and yet wanting a solution to
the Mediterranean island’s divide is not a contradiction to Andry, a
40-year-old Greek Cypriot lawyer.
“I was against the Annan plan and for one Cyprus, to live all
together Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, but not under Turkish
occupation,” said Andry, citing the Cyprus divide as her key concern
at the ballot box.
To her, the UN blueprint was too vague on removal of the Turkish
military, which maintains around 30,000 troops patrolling the
northern third of the island where she grew up.
She also said she believes the rise in support for Papadopoulos’s
party will send a message to Europe that Cypriots want a better, more
equitable reunification plan.
But on the other side of the barbed wire-laced dividing line in the
breakaway republic recognized only by Ankara, the parliamentary
campaigning and especially the widespread rallying around
Papadopoulos sparks dismay among Turkish Cypriots.
“There is so much popular support for the president,” said Ahmet
Sozen, a Turkish Cypriot who heads the Cyprus Policy Center
think-tank at the Eastern Mediterranean University. “It’s scary.”
Sozen said most Turkish Cypriots “would prefer a party that is closer
to the Annan plan.”
Turkish Cypriots living in the north in territory viewed by the Greek
Cypriot authorities as land under illegal Turkish occupation are
unable to vote in the election on May 21.
Some changes have been made in this year’s election, signalling small
steps toward rapprochement.
The minority of Turkish Cypriots who live in the south have been
awarded the right to run and vote for the first time since 1963.
Around 270 Turkish Cypriots have registered to vote and one Turkish
Cypriot candidate, poet Neshe Yashin, is running on a small
pro-reunification party list.
But according to Greek Cypriot sociologist Nicos Peristianis from
Cyprus’s Intercollege, “realistically speaking, (Yashin’s candidacy)
it is not very significant” and will not change “how politics are
carried out on this side.”
“The way people vote has to do with long term blocs of alignment that
people identify with and they very seldom walk away from these
identities,” he said.
Indeed, the major players have hardly changed, with polls indicating
only a slightly more rejectionist tilt to this year’s poll, the first
since 2001.
While Papadopoulos’s party is expected to gain three seats to give it
12, the left-wing AKEL party which opposed the Annan plan is still
the leader with 20 projected seats in the 56-member parliament.
The right-wing DISY which controversially supported the UN blueprint
is close behind with its projected 19 seats or 28 percent support,
down from its 34 percent tally in the last election, according to
state television polls.
“Turkish Cypriots are interested in the Greek Cypriot election,
unfortunately according to our survey… they believe all parties are
basically the same and they are not happy about that,” said Turkish
Cypriot Muharrem Faiz, director of the Cyprus Social and Economic
Research Center.
Faiz said Turkish Cypriots have indicated in polls conducted by his
center that they are ready for certain steps, such as changing street
signs to read in Greek as well as Turkish, sharing common investments
and having Greek Cypriot neighbors.
Now, they would like to see some “concrete projects from the Greek
Cypriot side,” he said.
But no new plan is on the negotiating table, and proposed new talks
between leaders of the two sides have hit snag after snag without
getting off the ground.
Meanwhile, some say those living in the so-called Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus — established about a decade after Turkish troops
invaded in 1974 in response to an Athens-engineered coup aimed at
uniting the island with Greece — are falling further and further
behind.
In particular, it is the distant prospect of EU membership that
conjures pangs of regret for Gulbenk Terziyan, who owns a picture
frame shop wedged along one of the capital’s dusty side streets that
gets little walk-by traffic.
“We are left out. We are unhappy because of that,” said Terziyan, an
Armenian Turk who is married to a Turkish Cypriot and who, like most
in the north, voted “yes” to the Annan plan.
“I am 55 years old and I have seen too many elections,” he said. “We
believe nothing will change.”

Agence France Presse — English
May 21, 2006 Sunday 2:08 PM GMT
Search continues for crashed Armenian plane’s flight recorders
Russian officials continued searching Sunday for the black box flight
recorders of an Armenian plane that crashed off Russia’s Black Sea
coast more than two weeks ago, but warned that they might be stuck in
the mud under the sea bed.
A submersible vessel was being used to search for the flight
recorders of the Airbus A320 that crashed on May 3, but “it is not
ruled out that they have sunk into the silt,” the ITAR-TASS news
agency quoted an official at the search headquarters as saying.
“If examination of the surface of the sea bed doesn’t yield results,
the underwater work will be reoriented to searching in the boggy
silt, which will significantly hamper the work,” the official said.
All 113 people aboard the plane died when it crashed on its approach
to the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Eighty-five of the victims were
Armenians, many of them on family visits.
The flight recorders are thought to lie at a depth of 500 metres
(1,600 feet) below the surface of the water.
Specialists from France have been called in to help with the search.
As of May 10, 51 bodies had been recovered.

The New York Times
May 21, 2006 Sunday
Late Edition – Final
Caviar Dreams
By Christopher S. Stewart
It’s 1:30 in the morning, and reality is really starting to blur.
Inside the sprawling 19th-century mansion that was once the home of a
Russian trade mogul and now houses the club XIII, scantily clad women
in razor heels and would-be oil oligarchs in fancy suits groove to
house music in shattered rainbow light. Tomorrow is so far away from
this glitzed-out place.
Garey Tchagleysean, the club’s American owner, raises a Champagne
glass to his lips, loving what he sees. Standing at the edge of the
convulsing dance floor, he sports a blue suit with knife-sharp
creases in the pants, to go with the sinister smile permanently
plastered on his very round face. It’s Saturday. Supermodel
look-alikes in black sell $500 bottles of vodka, while outside a
babushka in a kiosk peddles shots for a buck and change. ”People
come to get lost,” Tchagleysean hollers over a thumping bass, as two
model types in bikinis gyrate on pedestals above us.
When Tchagleysean opened XIII in 1998, its outrageousness and glamour
immediately drew comparisons to Studio 54. Since then, Tchagleysean
has been behind some of the most extravagant and talked-about parties
in Moscow, a city that, after almost half a century behind the Iron
Curtain, is still new to hedonism.
Tchagleysean, who speaks in a sort of lazy California surfer drawl,
describes the XIII crowd as ”royals,” by which he means hip and
moneyed Muscovites. Moscow may boast the second highest billionaire
count in the world (New York ranks first), but much of the city
subsists on about $480 a month. ”We don’t just let anyone in,” he
says. ”You’re either part of this party or you’re not.”
Models, mobsters, diplomats, tennis starlets, aspiring oligarchs,
leggy molls — they all make their way here at some point. And it’s
this combustible convergence that, even after closing for two years
of renovations and reopening last spring, makes the place feel less
like New York in the 1970’s than like Chicago in the 20’s: glitz,
guns and truckloads of green. ”We have to watch out for the guns,”
Tchagleysean admits. ”It’s necessary. Because of what’s going on in
this country.”
David Morales, a New York-based D.J., has played XIII several times.
”Garey’s the man — the man,” he enthuses. ”What he has is not
some lounge place happening for five minutes. People go there dressed
to the nines — and dance. It’s dangerous!”
Tonight, the club is celebrating Tchagleysean’s 39th birthday —
which is actually not for another month, but who’s counting? ”I felt
like having a birthday party,” he says. Tchagleysean is making the
rounds, kissing cheeks, bear-hugging.
”When people are around me, they’re feeling cool,” he boasts.
Outside, late-model luxury cars and S.U.V.’s, most with private
drivers, are double-parked. A sleek crowd is waiting on the front
steps for the linebacker-size security guys in polar jackets to let
them through the social divide of the velvet rope. Plebeian or cool?
Tonight’s theme is the Scorpion, for Tchagleysean’s assumed
astrological sign. And everything is draped in shimmering gold, like
a movie set for ”Dune.” Women in shiny scorpion masks roam the
mansion’s two floors. On the winding marble stairwell, fey-looking
actors in gold gowns and headdresses pray over burning candles and
incense while a woman in translucent wings and stiletto heels swings
overhead.
XIII is all about theater. One night, it might be ”The Nutcracker”;
another, Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel ”The Master and Margarita”; and
another, the orgy scene from Stanley Kubrick’s movie ”Eyes Wide
Shut,” complete with some actors dressed in black cloaks and others
naked but for their feather masks. For gangster night, Tchagleysean
hauled in vintage cars from the 30’s and dressed actors in period
costumes with toy machine guns. ”People are always asking me, ‘What
are you going to do next?”’ he says.
Tchagleysean is short and stocky, and when he moves, his thick
shoulders roll like a wrestler setting up for a match. Born in
Armenia, he is an American citizen and got his start after high
school in Southern California, promoting parties in the 1980’s at the
Roxy and Vertigo in Los Angeles. When the L.A. scene dimmed, he
headed to Moscow, first as a tourist and then as an itinerant
lunch-truck owner who served up hamburgers and hot dogs.
He set up the promotion company Organized Kaos and then opened Papa
John’s (now known simply as Papa’s), a restaurant at the city’s
center with a music space downstairs. Minutes before the Russian
economy tanked in 1998, he bought the decrepit yellow two-story
mansion across the street, built sometime in the 19th century by one
of Russia’s richest merchant families. XIII was named for its
address, 13 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa. ”I also liked the idea of the
number 13, a kind of secret society,” he says.
When he opened the club, he charged entry fees upward of $40, which
were then unheard of. And unlike in the egalitarian days of
Communism, there was a highly selective door policy, which persists
today. Tchagleysean offered weekly masquerades and sometimes brought
in real circus performers. Props were borrowed from the national
opera house or local movie studios. Major D.J. acts like Fatboy Slim,
Paul Oakenfold and Sasha & Digweed came to XIII before they played
any other spot in Russia, he says.
The dance floor, half the size of a basketball court, is lighted by a
cascading crystal chandelier. At each end are swishy V.I.P. rooms
with leather banquettes. After long nights in the summer, the party
usually spills out onto the balconies. When Tchagleysean decided that
it was time to close the place down in 2003, people were stunned. But
after extensive renovations, he reopened last May, and unveiled his
new idea: burlesque nights.
Almost every month, Tchagleysean brings in burlesque and cabaret
stars, mainly from Britain, with names like Lucifire, Empress Stah
and Kittie Klaw. Shows feature whips, chains, leather and fire.
Tchagleysean describes it as a sexual revolution, where anything
goes. ”I’m teaching the city about new things,” he says with a
laugh.
It’s close to 4 a.m. now. In a V.I.P. banquette, a guy is laid out on
his girlfriend’s lap, completely intoxicated. A new D.J. is just
coming on, the third of the night.
”What we do here is illegal,” one reveler with a girl on his arm
says to me.
”What?”
He nods toward the crowded dance floor, the nearly naked girls in
cages, the pretty ballerinas twirling on the pedestals. He laughs.
”You can’t do
this in America,” he says, getting up real close to my ear, as if
he’s about to tell a secret. ”You understand?
We’re having fun.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Driver plows into Moon Walk at church carnival
WLNS.com (Channel 6, Detroit)
May 21, 2006
SOUTHFIELD, Mich — Several people were injured today when a driver
plowed into an inflatable “Moon Walk” at a church carnival in
Southfield.
Police say they believe the driver intentionally drove his ’94
Plymouth into the spring fair in the parking lot of Saint John’s
Armenian church. He fled the scene afterward.
It’s unclear how many children and adults were injured. A broken
pelvis was the most serious injury, police say.
WWJ-AM
?S=4931437&nav=0RbQ

ORINATS YERKIR STEPPED INTO A LARGER FIELD
Lragir.am
20 May 06
All the explanations of the secession of Orinats Yerkir from the coalition
have been clearly stated, and there is no need to look for an extraordinary or
treacherous element, stated Garnik Isagulyan, adviser to president, May 20. `
In fact, the political parties of the coalition disagreed on some issues,
and when Orinats Yerkir understood that their disagreement transgressed the
agreement they had signed, I think it was quite regular that they rejectedthe
common way of the coalition, and it is normal, because all the offices had
been appointed on a common arrangement, it is natural there would occur the
actions that followed,’ said Garnik Isagulyan. He also rejects the
suggestions
that it was an attempt to punish Orinats Yerkir and its leader for a
disagreement with the leadership.
`Many tend to look for the reason of everything at the residence of the
president. I have stated that the head of state, though most people ascribe the
processes of establishment and dissolution of political parties to him, isnot
such a president. There could not have been pressure on behalf of the
administration of the president. I do not think that at some time Arthur
Baghdasaryan hesitated to express his opinion, and I do not know under what
circumstances steps would be taken against him,’ says Garnik Isagulyan. According to
him, it is quite different when a political figure speaks about questions which
are outside his competence, expresses an opinion, whereas such questions are
not within his competence. In addition, Garnik Isagulyan emphasizes that his
words refer not only to Arthur Baghdasaryan but also other figures.
According to him, the problem is that Orinats Yerkir considered the
coalition a narrow circle and chose to go to a wider field. According to Isagulyan,
it is a regular thing. The adviser to the president mentions that the Orinats
Yerkir Party announced about becoming constructive opposition, and further
activities will show. As for the possibility that the entrance of Orinats
Yerkir may change the quality of the opposition, Garnik Isagulyan finds it
difficult to tell, or he is reluctant to tell, he simply begs God for the entrance
of Orinats Yerkir to change the quality of the opposition.

Prosecutor of Malatia-Sebastia community Hamlet Hovsepyan dismissed

ArmRadio.am
20.05.2006 13:22
May 20 RA President Robert Kocharyan signed a decree on dismissing
Hamlet Hovsepyan from the position of the Prosecutor of
Malatia-Sebastia community of Yerevan.

Panorama.am
14:26 20/05/06

GOD GRANT THAT ORINATS YERKIR GIVES QUALITY TO OUR OPPOSITION
`We will not have either politically hot spring or hot autumn this
year,’ Garnik Isagulyan, president’s adviser on national security
issues, told a news conference today. In his words, there are neither
social nor economic preconditions for serious events. There is no
public demand, either. Besides, holidays start after which the
political forces will become more active in fall getting ready for the
parliamentary elections. `But I don’t think that this activism will
enable some political forces to raise their rating more than they have
now,’ he said. Isagulyan predicts peaceful elections in spring.
In the words of the president’s adviser, Orinats Yerkir’s departure
from the ruling coalition is a normal fact. Orinats Yerkir has become
aware that their disagreements on some issues have stepped out of
contract agreement, so the party decided to enlarge its scope of
activity which may not cause any serious or extraordinary
consequences.
The adviser refuted that OY was punished for not obeying the
president’s apparatus. There has been no such instruction from the
president’s house, he said. `If any of OY members say that pressures
were imposed upon them, I will apologize,’ the adviser noted.
Answering to the question whether OY affiliation to the opposition
will give a new qualitative effect to this political force, Isagulyan
answered in short, `God grant.’ /Panorama.am/

Le Temps
20 mai 2006
Les tensions s’apaisent entre Paris et Ankara;
FRANCE. Les députés ont ajourné le vote d’une loi pour pénaliser la
négation du génocide arménien.
La crise entre Ankara et Paris a été évitée de justesse. Les députés
français ont reporté à une date ultérieure (qui pourrait être au mois
d’octobre) le vote d’une proposition de loi qui vise à pénaliser à
hauteur de 45 000 euros d’amende et d’un an de prison la négation du
génocide arménien de 1915.
La Turquie, qui reconnaît la réalité de massacres mais rejette le
concept de génocide, avait réagi de manière très vive ces dernières
semaines face aux intentions françaises. L’ambassadeur turc à Paris a
été rappelé pour «consultation», tandis qu’une délégation
parlementaire s’est rendue en France pour tenter d’infléchir le vote
des députés. Le premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan avait quant à
lui annoncé le week-end dernier que «la patience a ses limites. Nous
n’aurons pas de haine, mais nous imposerons nos sanctions».
Les moyens de pressions turcs notamment économiques semblent avoir
porté leurs fruits, même si la crise n’est peut-être qu’en suspend.
Comme en 2001 – lorsque le parlement français avait reconnu la
réalité du génocide – les entreprises tricolores pourraient être
mises hors course dans certains gros dossiers si cette nouvelle loi
était adoptée. Areva redoute ainsi de ne pouvoir participer à l’appel
d’offres concernant le projet de centrale nucléaire turque. Une
expérience vécue par le constructeur d’avion suisse Pilatus.
Des appels au boycott, lancés de manière individuelle, circulent
également sur Internet et inquiétaient ces derniers jours le
directeur de la cChambre de commerce française en Turquie, Raphaël
Esposito. «Les échanges entre les deux pays ont triplé en dix ans et
avec une croissance économique turque de 7,5% en 2005, on ne peut
plus faire n’importe quoi» estime-t-il.
«Cette loi est contraire à l’esprit de la révolution française»
s’insurge de son côté Hifzi Topuz. Cet écrivain turc, parfaitement
francophone, a travaillé pendant vingt-cinq ans à l’Unesco à Paris et
en tant «qu’ami de la France», un pays qui l’a «adopté», il se dit
«choqué» par la proposition de loi déposée par le Parti socialiste.
«Il faut interdire d’interdire» lance-t-il. Cette opinion est
partagée par de nombreux intellectuels turcs qui ont lancé la semaine
dernière un appel à la France. Parmi eux, se trouvent deux
journalistes d’origine arménienne, Hrant Dink et Etyen Mahcupyan,
connus pour leurs prises de position courageuse. Eux aussi se disent
«inquiets» de cette loi qui ne peut que «nuire à l’avancée du travail
de mémoire et de réflexion sur l’Histoire entamé aujourd’hui» dans le
pays. En septembre dernier, une conférence unique dans l’histoire du
pays, réunissant des tenants de la thèse du génocide, avait en effet
eu lieu à Istanbul.
La population turque se fait quant à elle peu d’illusion sur les
motivations françaises. «Elle instrumentalise ce dossier car elle ne
veut pas de nous dans l’Union européenne», explique Yigit Cetin. Ce
lycéen stambouliote de 16 ans avoue ne pas croire à la thèse du
génocide et se dit prêt, s’il le faut, à suivre l’appel au boycott
lancé contre les produits français… même dans six mois.

Lawyer: Kevorkian’s Health Deteriorating
The Associated Press
Saturday, May 20, 2006
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — An attorney for Jack Kevorkian said the
assisted-suicide advocate will probably not survive another year if
kept in prison, as he again asked the state to grant his client a
pardon or commute his sentence.
Lawyer Mayer Morganroth said he applied to the state Parole Board and
Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Friday seeking a pardon, parole or
commutation, citing the 77-year-old’s deteriorating health.
“Kevorkian has become increasingly frail and has fallen twice,
injuring his wrist and fracturing two ribs,” Morganroth said in a
statement.
His blood pressure has gone “through the roof,” the lawyer said
Saturday.
The former doctor is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for
second-degree murder for giving a fatal injection of drugs in 1998. He
is eligible for parole in 2007.
In 2003, 2004 and 2005, Granholm followed the parole board’s advice in
denying applications for a commuted sentence or a pardon.
Kevorkian has said he assisted in at least 130 deaths, but has
promised that he will not assist another if released.
ontent/article/2006/05/20/AR2006052000556.html

BRIEF REPORT ON STATE BUDGET PERFORMANCE IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2006

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
20 May 2006
In the first quarter of 2006 the actual receipts of the NKR state
budget totaled 2253.8 million drams, exceeding the estimate by 21.9
percent. Budget receipts are up by 35.9 percent or 595.7 million
drams compared with the first quarter of 2005, including a 512.1
million dram increase in return on tax, and a 74 million growth of
non-tax receipts. Return on tax comprises 75.8 percent of budget
receipts in the first quarter, state due 4 percent, non-tax receipts
9.5 percent, capital transactions 10.7 percent. In the first quarter
of 2006 return on tax totaled 1708.3 million drams, increasing by 42.8
percent compared with the same period in 2005. The VAT collections in
the pattern of the return on tax are 57 percent, totaling 973.9
million dram, having grown by 51.9 percent or 332.9 million drams
compared with the first quarter of 2006.
Return on excise tax mounted to 109.3 million drams, comprising 6.4
percent of the return on tax, increasing by 47 percent or 34.9 million
drams compared with the previous year. Income tax collections totaled
about 221.4 million drams, growing by 33.1 percent or 55 million drams
compared with the first quarter of 2006. Profit tax collections
totaled 112.7 million drams, comprising 6.6 percent of return on
tax. Lump-sum tax collections topped 55.8 million drams, comprising
3.3 percent of tax collections. Lump-sum tax collections grew by 51.7
percent or 19 million drams compared with last year. Return on tax on
trade was 93.2 million drams, growing by 26.5 percent or 19.5 million
drams compared with the first quarter of 2006. State due collections
totaled 89.2 million drams, growing by 4.2 percent compared with the
first quarter of 2005.
Non-tax receipts were up by 52.6 percent or 74 million dram against
2005.
Return on capital transactions totaled about 241.6 million drams,
including 104.2 million drams from sell-off and 137.4 million drams
from alienation of state capital assets. In the first quarter of 2006
the receipts of the NKR Social Insurance Fund totaled 518.1 million
drams. Community budget receipts totaled 104.2 million drams,
increasing by 25.2 percent or 20.9 million drams against 2006. In the
first quarter of 2006 budget outlays totaled 4345.1 million drams,
including 68.6 percent of current expenditure, and 31.4 percent
capital expenditure. Budget outlays are up by 38.7 percent or 1212.6
million drams compared with the same period of 2005. Current
expenditure totaled 2979.9 million drams, increasing by 17.2 percent
or about 437.4 million drams compared with the first quarter of
2005. 25.7 percent or 766.4 million drams was allocated for salaries,
growing by 16.2 percent or 106.7 million drams compared with
2005. 283.8 million drams was allocated for subsidies. Over 545.1
million drams was allocated for retirement benefits and allowances. In
the first quarter of 2006 1384.6 million drams or 46.5 percent of
current expenditures was purchase of goods and services, growing by
258.9 million drams or 23 percent compared with the first quarter of
2005. Over 1365.1 percent was capital expenditures, growing by 775.2
million drams or 2.3 times compared with the first quarter of
2005. NKR Ministry of Finance and Economy
AA.
20-05-2006