WEIGHT: AUSSIE LIFTER NEVER TOO OLD FOR ANOTHER GOLD
by Sam Lienert
Australian Associated Press Pty. Ltd.
March 16, 2006 Thursday 12:01 PM AEST
The old man of Australia’s weightlifting team – Yourik Sarkisian –
is ready to prove the doubters wrong yet again.
Sarkisian, 44, has been competing at the top level since he won an
Olympic silver medal for the Soviet Union as an 18-year-old in 1980.
It is a career he believes is far from over, with ambitions to compete
at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
And he is confident of tomorrow adding another Commonwealth Games
gold to his enormous collection of championship medals, which already
includes three Commonwealth Games gold medals – from Manchester in
2002 – and three silver – from Kuala Lumpur in 1998.
“I am steeling myself only for the gold,” he said.
Sarkisian, who immigrated to Australia from Armenia in 1994, said
much of his motivation to win the 62kg division tomorrow stemmed from
gratitude to his adopted country and hometown Melbourne.
“Melbourne, I love it, Australia,” he said.
“It’s a big difference to when I was in the Olympic Games in 1980
(representing the Soviet Union) in Moscow.
“There is a different pressure, your coach says you must take gold
or silver, if you take bronze, you’re finished, they put the gun to
your head and shoot you.
“Here it’s a different atmosphere, the people are very nice.”
Indian Arun Murugesan has the best recent form of the contestants.
But there are up to five realistic gold medal contenders in what
Australian coach Luke Borreggine said will be the best battle of the
Games weightlifting program.
He expects Sarkisian’s peerless experience to win out.
“I think we will shock a few people,” he said.
“That gold medal’s going to be very tough, but in saying that he’s
got one thing over all these guys – experience, and experience is
worth 20 per cent.
“He is tough, he’ll break an arm if he has to.”

AZERBAIJAN: SLIM CHANCE FOR PEACE?
Fariz Ismailzade
A EurasiaNet Commentary
EurasiaNet, NY
March 16 2006
Both Azerbaijan and Armenia could not hide their disappointment
following the failure of a presidential summit in France in February
to achieve a breakthrough in Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks. With
discussions stalled and cease-fire violations by both sides
increasingly frequent, Azerbaijan has stepped up threats to use
military force to regain the territory.
Following his February 10-11 summit with Armenian President Robert
Kocharian, Azerbaijani chief executive Ilham Aliyev resorted to
bellicose rhetoric, telling local journalists that “[i]t is time
that Azerbaijan re-considers the negotiation course and views other
options.” He also paid a visit to the cease-fire line in the Ter-Ter
region, wearing a military uniform while touring the trenches. The
uniform was taken as a sign of support for Azerbaijanis’ increasingly
widespread pro-military sentiments.
President Kocharian responded in kind, declaring that “if the peace
process does not produce any results, Armenia will recognize the
independence of Nagorno-Karabakh,” various media outlets reported.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, meanwhile, stated that
Azerbaijan’s threats will not change Armenia’s position on Karabakh.
“Azerbaijan will not dare to start a war,” Oskanian told Armenia’s
Shant TV recently. “Azerbaijan is not ready for a war.”
Even so, it appears that Azerbaijan is embarking on a military
build-up. On March 16, Aliyev called for Azerbaijan’s military budget
within the next few years to equal “the total budget of Armenia,”
the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported.
Some Azerbaijani media outlets, however, argue that both sides are
posturing to gain an advantage at the negotiation table. “Armenia and
Azerbaijan’s military officials continue to shoot militaristic threats
into the air,” commented Baku’s pro-opposition Russian-language
daily Zerkalo on March 11. For all the militant rhetoric, Baku’s
desire to negotiate does not appear at an end. At a conference of
the Azerbaijani Diaspora in Baku on March 16, Aliyev affirmed that
Azerbaijan would continue with Karabakh peace talks “as long as we
feel that there is a chance for a political settlement . .
. But if we see that the process turns into a simulation, we shall
quit [them],” ITAR-TASS reported. Aliyev went on to add that granting
Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous status within the confines of Azerbaijan
is “possible,” but stressed that “we shall never agree to the loss
of our territories.”
International mediators appear to be increasingly concerned that time
is running out for a peaceful settlement of the 18-year-conflict. On
March 7, the Russian, French and American co-chairs of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group, which facilitates
Karabakh negotiations, reassembled in Washington to assess the peace
process. The group has urged the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders to
not give up on negotiations. The Minsk Group meeting coincided with
a summit between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Washington that also reportedly
included discussion of a resolution for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Local observers believe Washington is employing a carrots-and-stick
strategy to keep Azerbaijan at the negotiating table. The stick, they
say, comes in the form of the US State Department’s annual report
on human rights, a document that harshly criticized Azerbaijan’s
observance of voting rights in the 2005 parliamentary elections, as
well as law enforcement officers’ use of torture and arbitrary arrest.
Rumors are also swirling in Baku that President Aliyev could be invited
to Washington to meet with US President George W. Bush in late spring,
provided a breakthrough in Karabakh talks occurs by then. “It is not
excluded that the United States may use an invitation to Washington
as an incentive to get certain concessions from Ilham Aliyev,”
commented Tabib Huseynov, an independent expert on Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. The US government has not given any indication that such
a visit is under consideration, however.
The present aim of US diplomacy seems to be keeping the channels of
communication open. Speaking at a March 14 press conference in Baku,
US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Daniel Fried acknowledged that Washington was “disappointed with
the results of the Rambouillet [France] talks,” but added that “the
negotiation process is going on and we hope that the conflict will
be solved in 2006.” Steven Mann, the US co-chair of the Minsk Group,
who arrived in Baku a day earlier, stated that “the spring of 2006
is an important period for the Nagorno-Karabakh talks.”
US officials have clearly intimated that Azerbaijan’s economic
interests would be best served by a negotiated Karabakh settlement.
“The sides who want war should first ask what would Azerbaijan’s
strategic borders be if war starts?” ANS TV reported Mann as saying.
“What will be the situation in the energy sphere and the investment
flow? I know the Azerbaijani people very well and don’t believe that
the Azerbaijani people would want war again.”
Fried held talks in Yerevan on March 15-16 and was scheduled to travel
to Ankara, Turkey, on March 16 for further discussions on the Karabakh
peace process.
Editor’s Note: Fariz Ismailzade is a freelance analyst on Caucasus
politics and economics. He has received his master’s degree from
Washington University in St. Louis and is a regular correspondent
for various international media outlets.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS SATISFIED WITH UN ASSISTANCE TO ARMENIA
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 15, 2006
YEREVAN, March 15. /ARKA/. At his meeting with UN Representative
to Armenia Consuello Vidal Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II
expressed his satisfaction with the assistance rendered to Armenia
by UN structures.
The sides also discussed the mission and activities of the Holy See
of Echmiadzin, the stronghold of the Armenian faith.
The sides broached the issue of destruction of Armenian monuments
at an ancient cemetery in Old Juga, Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan. The
Azerbaijani side started destroying Armenian khachkars (cross-stones)
as far back as 1998. The destruction was stopped after the European
countries condemned it. However, the acts of vandalism were resumed
in 2003 and later in December 2005.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MORE OPERATIONS BY MEANS OF BANKING SYSTEM TO ATTRACT MORE INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA’S ECONOMY
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 15, 2006
YEREVAN, March 16. /ARKA/. The increase in the number of operations
by means of Armenia’s banking system will ensure an increase in
investments in the country’s economy due to internal resources through
accumulation of funds. This statement was made at RA President Robert
Kocharyan’s meeting with the newly appointed Chairman of the Union
of Banks of Armenia (UBA), Director General of Agricultural Corporate
Bank of Armenia (ACBA) Stepan Gishyan.
During the meeting, Gishyan informed the RA President that an
increase in the banks’ advances portfolio was observed in the 1st
quarter of 2006. Also, consistent steps to increase the amount of
attracted deposits are being made. The sides also addressed the
situation on the mortgage market, particularly the expected radical
changes in the sphere, which will afford new opportunities to the
population.

ATOM APLOMB
South China Morning Post
March 16, 2006 Thursday
Director Atom Egoyan set out on his latest venture as a step into the
unknown, but discovered, much to his dismay, that old obsessions have
a way of creeping back in, writes Clarence Tsui
ATOM EGOYAN shudders when he remembers his last visit to Hong Kong.
It was 18 years ago and he was here at the behest of the Hong Kong
International Film Festival, at which his critically acclaimed second
full-length feature Family Viewing was shown. The highlight of the
night was to be a post-screening meet-the-audience session.
“Nobody asked questions,” says the Canadian director, remembering the
stony silence. “And I brought my mother with me. I wanted her to see
how exciting it could be – but it wasn’t what I thought.”
This time around, the reception couldn’t have been more different.
Egoyan was in town last week as guest of honour at the local
Canadian Film Festival – his latest film, Where the Truth Lies,
was the curtain-raiser for the two-week event – and the 46-year-old
director was feted wherever he went.
The red-carpet treatment hasn’t gone to his head. Settling into his
couch, the first thing he asks is how long it takes for mail-order
DVDs to arrive in Hong Kong from overseas. Then he launches into
an passionate recollection of a shopping spree in Yau Ma Tei the
night before, where he found DVDs he has never seen anywhere else,
and original production stills of Blowup and Rashomon.
Such enthusiasm for trivia is testament to Egoyan’s reputation as an
idiosyncratic director. At the same time that he was directing Colin
Firth and Kevin Bacon in Where the Truth Lies, he was: screening his
no-budget digital video pieces at Camera, a 51-seat theatre-cum-bar
he helps run in Toronto; preparing for a production of Wagner’s Ring
Cycle; and writing a book about the cultural meaning behind film
subtitles (which was published last year).
“I want to be able to use my position to support emerging talent and
give it a space of its own,” he says. “The great thing about the bar
and the cinema is that when filmmakers show their digital features,
there can be discussion with their friends about it – and I’m proud
to be able to present this zone. But it’s tough to programme it all
the time.”
He’s able to support such work, thanks to his major projects. And Where
the Truth Lies is probably his biggest and most commercial film yet.
Taking the shape of a noir thriller, Truth revolves around the
mysterious death of a young student, Maureen (Rachel Blanchard), in the
hotel room of a Rat Pack-like 1950s comedy duo (Firth as straight guy
Vince, and Bacon as his partner Lanny). The narrative takes place in
1972, 15 years after that incident, when young journalist Karen (Alison
Lohman) is commissioned to interview the pair – whose partnership
collapsed after the death – with a view to writing an expose.
But Karen does more than just interview the pair. First, she goes
to bed with Lanny; then, she gets involved in a night of steamy
shenanigans under the aegis of Vince. It slowly emerges that Karen’s
motives are far more than just financial or sexual: her pursuit of
the “truth” is as much about exonerating her own past – she was the
beneficiary of a charity telethon the duo starred in – as it is a
quest for justice.
Known for his subtle, slow-burning films, Egoyan surprised many with
what could qualify as a conventional whodunit. Even more surprising was
the amount of bare flesh in Truth. The cast appear in various stages
of undress, including a no-holds-barred menage-a-trois that earned
the film a Category III rating in Hong Kong (and an NC-17 in the US).
It’s a far cry from his last film, Ararat, a heavy piece that examines
the Armenian genocides in 1915 and 1918. Ararat won five Genies
(Canada’s annual film awards) in 2003, among them best film and best
actress (Arsinee Khanjian, Egoyan’s wife, who has starred in nearly all
of his films). The success didn’t translate to box-office receipts –
but it seems likely that Truth will do much better.
Egoyan – born to Armenian parents in Cairo, but raised in Victoria,
British Columbia – says he adapted Rupert Holmes’ pulp thriller as a
piece of light relief. “After Ararat, I needed to do something really
different,” he says. “I remember when I read the book I was laughing
because it was so pleasurable. And I thought this is exactly what I’ve
been looking for – something so different from what I’ve done, to get
that pure enjoyment of filmmaking, creating these images and this world
with the costumes, art direction and the music. It would just be fun.”
It was also a sharp departure for his cast, Egoyan says. “One of the
reasons Colin did this film was that he got to deconstruct this persona
he felt he was imprisoned by,” he says. “As we were shooting he was
doing all the Bridget Jones [sequel] promotion and he was suffocated
by this Darcy character. He really loved this idea of deconstructing
that and stripping all that away – literally.”
The same goes for Bacon, he says. “Kevin just wanted to take risks.
So many other people that I might have approached would never play
these roles because they’re so vulnerable, but I got two people who
are, first and foremost, actors. And for Alison Lohman, who’s 26,
the characters she played before in Matchstick Men and White Oleander
were adolescents, and she wanted to break out of that mould. I think
everyone was attracted to the project because they’re redefining
themselves and not playing what people would expect.”
Leaving aside the glamour and sleaze, Truth is similar to Egoyan’s
more subdued productions. His films touch on how technology mediates
and transforms experiences – whether it be homemade videos (Family
Viewing, in which a father “erases” past memories by taping porn
over images of his ex-wife and son), movies (a director conjuring
the Armenian genocide through a film in Ararat), or voice recordings
(Krapp’s Last Tape, his film adaptation of the Samuel Beckett play,
in which the sole protagonist agonises over decisions he made, through
audio journals from his life). It’s no coincidence that Karen’s taped
interviews, the comfort she feels in rewatching old reels of Larry and
Vince’s telethons, and Maureen’s covert use of a recording machine in
the pair’s hotel room just before she dies provide the keys to Truth.
Egoyan’s obsession with the topic goes all the way back to his first
short film, Howard in Particular. Made in 1979 when he was studying
international relations at the University of Toronto – Egoyan never
went to film school – it’s a peculiar piece in which an aged worker
at a fruit-processing factory is told about his redundancy via a
tape recording.
Awards from local film festivals allowed Egoyan to continue making
independent short films while still at university (his first few pieces
were backed by Hart House, the university’s arts and recreational
centre). Provincial funding bodies contributed later on, with Ontario
Arts Council sponsoring his first feature, Next of Kin (1984), about
a young man who transforms his life by claiming to be the long-lost
son of an Armenian-Canadian family.
After spells directing episodes for Canadian and American television
– including Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone – Egoyan wrote
and directed Family Viewing, which propelled him into the limelight.
He has become a favourite at European film festivals: Speaking Parts
(1989) and The Adjuster (1991) both made it to the Director’s Fortnight
showcase in Cannes, but his major breakthrough was Exotica (1994),
a multi-layered intrigue about several dysfunctional characters
frequenting a table-dance club. It won the International Critics’
Prize at Cannes, an achievement Egoyan matched three years later with
The Sweet Hereafter.
Unlike David Cronenberg, the other, better-known Canadian director of
his generation, Egoyan basically sealed himself off from portraying
mainstream concerns – until now. He says making Truth was a step into
the unknown. Having completed the film, he discovered that a rebirth
is easier said than done.
“It was only when I started editing Truth that I realised it was
dealing with a lot of similar themes, but in a different way,”
he says. “There’s the moment when I brought out the tape recorder
[for Karen’s scenes] that I was going, ‘Oh, this is the same type
of recorder John Hurt used for Krapp’s Last Tape’. I was trying to
reinvent myself – but you never really can.”
Where the Truth Lies opens today.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CE MINISTERS’ COMMITTEE APPROVES PROGRAM OF ACTION AS PART OF ARMENIA-CE COOPERATION IN 2006-2007
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 16, 2006
YEREVAN, March 16. /ARKA/. The CE Ministers’ Committee has approved a
program of action as part of the Armenia-CE cooperation for 2006-2007,
the press and information department, RA Foreign Office, reported.
RA Permanent Ambassador to the CE, Ambassador Christian Ter-Stepanyan
reported that the program takes into account the program made by
Armenia in executing its commitments during its 5-year membership in
CE. He expressed satisfaction over the fact that the document considers
the prospects opened up after the adoption of constitutional reforms in
consolidating the human rights system, independence of the country’s
judicial power and activities of democratic institutions, through the
development of civil society, political parties and local democracy.
“The program becomes the most useful from the moment of the RA
Government’s approval of the schedule of legislative reforms, which
were necessitated by the referendum on constitutional reforms held
in 2005,” he said.
“We realize that this cooperation will help Armenia harmonize
its legislation with European standards and implement a policy of
reforms necessary for intensifying Armenia’s European integration,”
Ter-Stepanyan said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH HISTORIAN WANTS JOINT RESEARCH WITH ARMENIA INTO MASSACRES
Agence France Presse — English
March 16, 2006 Thursday 2:53 PM GMT
Istanbul
The leading Turkish historian who contests the definition of
controversial World War I massacres of Armenians as genocide, on
Thursday proposed to carry out joint research with an Armenian on
the issue.
“Let’s carry out a project together, dig up common graves if there
are some, to put an end to numerous demagogical arguments,” said Yusuf
Halacoglu, president of the Turkish History Society, to Ara Sarafian,
a British historian of Armenian origin.
Sarafian, a researcher at the Gomidas Institute in London, England,
told AFP that he was interested in accepting the offer.
“I will definitely consider this offer. I don’t want to show skepticism
about this proposal,” he said.
Some 70 Turkish and foreign academics are in Turkey until Friday for
a three-day conference to discuss whether controversial massacres of
Armenians during World War I amounted to genocide or not.
The Turkish gathering, in a rare move, offered the floor to academics
of all convictions, although it was largely dominated by historians
and officials who defend Turkey’s official position on the 1915-1917
killings.
Turkey categorically denies that Armenian subjects under its
predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, were victims of a genocide, but
acknowledges that at least 300,000 Armenians and as many Turks died
in civil strife during the last years of the empire.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings.

ALIEV INTIMATES CHANCE OF GIVING AUTONOMY TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH
by Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 16, 2006 Thursday 06:48 AM EST
Azerbaijan President Ilkham Aliev did not preclude a chance of granting
an autonomy status to Nagorno-Karabakh. The president expressed this
idea at the second world congress of Azerbaijanis in Baku on Thursday.
“Granting of an autonomy to Nagorno Karabakh is possible, and positive
experience in this sphere, existing in the world, can be applied with
respect to this area of Azerbaijan,” Aliev said. In this connection,
he called on Armenia for a constructive attitude to the negotiating
process.
The Azerbaijan leader emphasized that the negotiating process cannot
be endless. “Patience of the Azerbaijan authorities and people is
petering out,” Aliev said. He noted that Azerbaijan’s participation in
the negotiating process indicates its desire to settle the Karabakh
conflict peacefully. “While we feel that there is a chance for a
political settlement of the problem, we shall conduct negotiations.
“But if we see that the process turns into a simulation, we shall
quit it,” Aliev said. He also emphasized that Azerbaijan would sign a
peace agreement with Armenia only if the Karabakh conflict is settled
on the basis of norms of international law. “We shall never agree to
a loss of our territories,” Aliev stressed.
He noted that Azerbaijan would consolidate its military potential.
“I set the task that Azerbaijan’s military expenditures will be equal
over the next few years to the total budget of Armenia,” Aliev stated.

SPECIAL ELECTIONS OF COUNCILLOR MEMBERS TO BE HELD IN THREE COMMUNITIES OF SHIRAK
Noyan Tapan
Mar 16 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Government stopped prematurely
commissions of councillor members of the Gusanagyugh, Ghazanchi and
Vardakar rural communities at the March 16 sitting. Making of the
decision is conditioned by the fact that within different terms, in
the consequence of stopping commission of a number of members of the
mentioned community councillors for objective reasons, the councillors’
implementation of their commissions became impossible. It was decided
to appoint and hold special elections of councillor in the mentioned
communities on the last Sunday of the 30-days term following the
day of the decisions coming into force. As Noyan Tapan was informed
by the RA Government’s Information and Public Relations Department,
the RA Minister of Finance and Economy was instructed to allocate to
the joint fund of the RA Central Electorla Commission from the 2006
reservation fund of the Government 129 thousand 125 drams (about 290
U.S. dollars), 126 thousand 565 drams and 126 thousand 610 drams for
preparing and holding special elections of councillors of the rural
communities of correspondingly Gusanagyugh, Ghazanchi and Vardakar. By
another decision, the Minister of Finance and Economy was instructed
to allocate from the Government’s 2006 reservation fund to the joint
fund of the Central Electoral Commission 125 thousand 830 drams for
financing expenses of preparing and holding the special elections of
the rural community head and councillor members of Lanjar, the marz
of Ararat, taken place on February 19, 2006.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU TO PROVIDE ARMENIA WITH 2 MLN EUROS TO REPAIR RAILWAYS
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
March 16, 2006 Thursday 6:06 PM MSK
The European Union will provide Armenia with 2 million euros under a
TRACECA program to repair the Yerevan-Tbilisi railway route, Gagik
Grigorian, the national TRACECA coordinator and head of foreign
relations at the Transport and Communications Ministry, told Interfax.
Armenian specialists estimate that about 200 million euros will be
used to prepare a feasibility study and 1.8 million euros to repair the
most damaged tracks. The timeframe for the project will be determined
after the feasibility study.