ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN ACCUSE EACH OTHER OF CEASE-FIRE REGIME VIOLATIONS
Source: NEWSru.com, March 6, 2006
Translated by A. Ignatkin
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 9, 2006 Thursday
Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of cease-fire regime
violations. Seiran Shakhsuvarjan, Armenian Deputy Defense Minister’s
Press Secretary, claims that the Azerbaijani army bombarded the
settlement of Megrab in the Taush district on March 14, and Armenian
positions in the Idjevan district in northeastern Armenia on March 5.
Trenches of the Armenian army in the Vai district in southwestern
Armenia came under fire that night too.
Shakhsuvarjan said that the Armenian side had not sustained any
casualties or returned fire on this occasion. ITAR-TASS news agency
reported him as saying, however, that Private Arsen Zakevosjan, 19,
sustained a fatal wound in bombardment of the Idjevan district on
March 3.
Official Baku denounced all accusations. Official spokesman for the
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, Ilgar Verdiyev correspondents that
“the Azerbaijani forces did not open fire on March 4 and 5.” “On the
contrary, it was our positions in the Kazakh district of Azerbaijan
that came under fire on four occasions in the course of the last
twenty-four hours,” Verdiyev said. Trenches of the Azerbaijani army in
the settlement of Gushchu Airym (Kazakh district) came under machine
gun fire from the Armenian territory on March 5. Positions in the
settlement of Kyzyl Dajily were fired upon from the village of Berkaber
(Idjevan district of Armenia) the following night. Positions of the
Azerbaijani army in the villages of Jafarely and Ashyg Askipara
came under fire that same night. No casualties were sustained,
Verdiyev said.

US PROBLEMS WITH PUTIN
By Dimitri Sidorov And Bill Thomas
UPI Outside View Commentators
United Press International
March 9 2006
WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) — The recent visit to Moscow by leaders
of Hamas should not be viewed as just another attempt by the Kremlin
to create confusion in Washington.
The Hamas meeting, coupled with Russia’s agreement to sell arms
to the terrorist group now in charge of the Palestinian Authority,
indicates something much more problematic in U.S.-Russia relations,
namely Moscow’s desire to return to the Middle East with a well-planned
campaign to unite all parties dissatisfied with American policy in
the region.
In fact, the Kremlin’s latest moves suggest that Russian President
Vladimir Putin may be reviving the cold war-era Primakov Doctrine.
Originated by former Soviet hard-liner and current Putin adviser
Yevgeny Primakov, the strategy was designed to challenge the United
States and its NATO allies on every major political and strategic
front.
Some Kremlin experts in Washington believe Russia has only a reactive
foreign policy, responding to events as they occur without any specific
long-term agenda. But an arms sale to Syria, a missile deal with Iran
and the get together with Hamas hardly fit that pattern.
All of this indicates a growing political struggle between Washington
and Moscow. “U.S.-Russia relations are clearly headed in the
wrong direction,” concluded a new report by the Council on Foreign
Relations. The Kremlin wants to be a player again in the old Soviet
sphere of influence, and its ambitions have gone largely unchecked
by a White House preoccupied with Iraq.
Moscow has insinuated itself into the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict;
become an obstacle in territorial disputes going on in independent
Moldova and Georgia; increased political pressure in Ukraine, trying
to reverse its failure in last year’s presidential election; and
formed an alliance with Uzbekistan after a popular revolt and the
expulsion of the U.S. military from that country.
Following a trial run in the ex-Soviet republics, the Kremlin has
turned its full attention to the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.
Unlike the Soviet policy of backing rogue terrorist groups, Putin
and his Kremlin colleagues have set out to create a support network
of rogue nations dedicated to frustrating the United States and
its allies.
Helped by the war in Iraq, Moscow has strengthened ties with several
neighboring countries unhappy about Washington’s policies, particularly
Iran where American and European resolve faces a crucial test.
For more than a decade the White House tried unsuccessfully to persuade
Russia to end its nuclear cooperation with Iran. American suspicions
about “peaceful, financially based” relations between Moscow and Tehran
grew stronger when Russians began work on an Iranian nuclear facility.
Moscow has not only continued to assist with Iran’s potentially
threatening nuclear program, the Russian government has some in the
West convinced it can be trusted to enrich Iran’s uranium, though
talks on the matter between Russian and Iranian negotiators have so
far gone nowhere.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration seems uncertain about what its next
move should be. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice still insists the
United States “has very good relations with Russia, perhaps the best
we’ve had in the long time.” The report issued by Council of Foreign
Relations sharply disagrees with that assessment.
So does a former CIA official, citing the administration’s lack of
leverage with Moscow as one reason for escalating tensions over Iran.
At this point the Russians are pretending to cooperate, he added. The
moment of truth will come when Kremlin strategy shifts to outright
opposition, in other words when the Primakov Doctrine gives way to the
approach perfected by longtime Soviet Foreign Ministry Andrei Gromyko,
whose penchant for defying the United States earned him the nickname
“Mr. Nyet.”
And that’s when Washington’s real problems begin.
—
(Dmitry Sidorov is the Washington correspondent for Kommersant Daily.
Bill Thomas is the author of “Red Tape: Adventure Capitalism in the
New Russia” and other books. They are writing a book on US-Russia
relations.)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HENRI CUNY: WOMEN IN ARMENIA ARE MOST IMPELLENT AND MIGHTY POWER OF SOCIETY
Noyan Tapan
Mar 09 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. 150 Armenian and foreign women of
different specialities and employment gathered at the Embassy of
France in Armenia on March 7. As Henri Cuny, the French Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia, mentioned, the occasion
of the evening party was the holiday of the 8th of March. “It is
natural, that this should be held at the Embassy of France, as
the symbol of France after the declaration of the republic is the
face of a woman and the bust of Mary, always young and beautiful,
is placed at every Mayor’s Office of France”, the French diplomat
mentioned. The Ambassador assured, that for men, to call the women
“a weak sex” is simply a kind of a way to “expiate sins”. Henri
Cuny in his congratulatory speech said that he is the “Ambassador
of women’s embassy” as his first Adviser, Consul, the Adviser on
cultural issues, and attaches on culture and trade-economic issues,
as well as the assistant and the translator are women. According to
him, such abundance of women is beneficial for the activity of the
embassy. According to Ambassador Cuny, women are the most impellent
and mighty power of the society in the ancient and traditional
Armenian land.” Being in Armenia, I became more convinced, that
the nations develop by means of women: mildness is their power,
devotion is the protection of men, their mystery is our belief”,
the Ambassador announced.

JOAN ALLEN SAYS YES TO RHYMES AND REASON
By Matt Wolf
New Zealand Herald, New Zealand
March 9 2006
In Hollywood, where beauty is skin deep, Joan Allen possesses the
kind of natural radiance you can’t buy off the shelf.
Sure, Allen doesn’t make the covers of Heat and People – few performers
the wrong side of 40 do (the actress will turn 49 this month).
But in an environment that is harsher than ever to women of a certain
age, Allen is working almost constantly – five films in the past
two years – and with unwavering integrity and adventurousness, too:
not every actress would say yes to a film like Yes.
“I just feel very fortunate that I’ve got to do interesting things
with talented people,” she says during a stopover in London, a city
she has come to know pretty well in recent years.
For the Mike Binder film The Upside of Anger, co-starring Kevin
Costner, for which she has won rave reviews across the Atlantic,
Allen lived in Notting Hill and was driven every day to Hampstead,
which was substituting on screen for, of all places, suburban Detroit.
Sally Potter’s film Yes found the actress taking up residence in the
East End. And yet, she laughs, “I still can’t get my bearings here.”
The more immediate question is whether filmgoers will find their
bearings as regards Yes, a movie told not just in verse but in rhymed
iambic pentameter.
As one might expect from the director of Orlando and The Man Who
Cried, Potter’s movie is a love story but of a particularly rarefied,
high-flown kind, and it also registers as a none-too-veiled political
commentary.
Whatever one’s reaction, it’s hard not to respond to the burnished
intensity of Armenian-Lebanese actor Simon Abkarian (who was cast
in The Man Who Cried but cut from the finished feature) and to the
unforced luminosity of Allen, playing an American scientist based in
London who finds refuge from a chilly marriage to an English diplomat
(Sam Neill at his most severe) in an affair with Abkarian’s Lebanese
refugee.
The two principals go only by the names She and He. It can’t be easy
acting archetypes – characters who, Allen acknowledges, “represent,
I suppose, the Eastern and Western worlds, though I don’t want to
sound pretentious or anything”.
What’s important, she says, is Potter’s interest in bridging different
cultures and merging the political and the personal at a time when
too few movies choose that route.
“I was really drawn to Sally’s material because of that question of
how we really talk to each other; how do we try to understand.”
Potter began writing Yes on September 12, 2001, a date that resonates
throughout the film.
Says Allen: “Somebody said to Sally that it was the first therapeutic
response to 9/11 because we are all sharing a dialogue. It’s not just
one person talking while the other listens.”
Allen’s capacity for listening – for a restraint that tends to gather
force throughout a film – can often make her the quiet centre of a
noisy movie.
She got the first of her three Oscar nominations a decade ago for
playing Pat Nixon, wife of the disgraced American president, in the
Oliver Stone biopic Nixon, and was nominated again the following year
for her role in Nicholas Hytner’s film version of The Crucible.
“On film, I like work that is more introverted,” she tells me, citing
Robert Duvall’s low-key contribution to The Godfather as the sort of
acting she admires.
Her contribution to Yes is as remarkable for what goes unspoken as
for the language that Allen gets to speak, not least a scene in which
colour visibly drains from her face.
Nixon wasn’t Allen’s first big-screen splash. In 1986 she played Brian
Cox’s blind victim in Manhunter, the first Hannibal Lecter movie,
and was Jeff Bridges’ wife in Francis Ford Coppola’s little-seen but
much-admired Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988).
A later biopic, When the Sky Falls (2000), cast Allen as a
semi-fictionalised version of the murdered Irish journalist Veronica
Guerin.
“It was very hard to understand her character,” says Allen, reflecting
on a film about a crusading woman and mother who dared to invade the
Irish underworld. “People would go, ‘Why did she do this?’, and I was
like, ‘Because she did’. You wouldn’t be asking that if she had been
a man.”
Still, her range of acting opportunities over the years seems even
now to come as something of a surprise to Allen, who says she grew up
“a gal from a little-horse Illinois town surrounded by cornfields”.
The youngest of four children, Allen had never before been to New
York when she first worked at the Lincoln Center for the Performing
Arts in the early 1980s in C.P. Taylor’s play And A Nightingale Sang.
That production was part of the widening reach of the Steppenwolf
Theatre Company of Chicago, where Allen acted with then-unknowns John
Malkovich and Gary Sinise while working as a secretary to pay the rent.
Allen soon began appearing on Broadway, winning a 1988 Tony Award
for her role in Lanford Wilson’s Burn This, and a nomination the next
year for Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles.
But she hasn’t done a Broadway play since 1989, the dual result of
raising a daughter, Sadie, who is now 11, and her shifting attitude
to theatre.
“I’m just not as interested in doing the same thing every night,”
she says. “I used to love it, but it just doesn’t interest me the
way it used to.”
Besides, it’s not as if Allen has much time to miss the theatre,
as she ricochets between high-profile films such as Face/Off and The
Contender (which brought her a third Oscar nod, her first for Best
Actress) and art-house fare like Yes.
Still to come is Pushers Needed, written and directed by Irish actor
Jimmy Smallhorne, about four working-class Dublin women who visit
Lourdes.
“It’s called Pushers Needed because we push the wheelchairs of the
crippled,” says Allen, laughing at the misconception that the film
might have anything to do with drugs.
Another adventure for an actress who by now is used to them? Allen
smiles and nods.
“I haven’t done much world travelling, I have to say, but I have been
to Lourdes.”
Filmgoers keeping a keen eye on this fine actress will give thanks
for that.
* Yes is screening at Rialto cinemas now

ZHARANGUTIUN PARTY IS GOING TO APPLY TO PROSECUTOR GENERAL WITH A DEMAND TO RESTORE ITS ACTIVITY
Noyan Tapan
Mar 09 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. “Today, or as a last resort tomorrow in
the morning we are going to apply to the Armenian Prosecutor General
with a demand to immediately restore the constitutional order in the
country and to immediately restore the Zharangutiun (Heritage) party’s
activity,” Vardan Khachatrian, Zharangutiun party Political Secretary,
declared in his interview to Noyan Tapan correspondent. According to
him, as a result of unknown persons’ entering the party headquarters
ang changing the locks on March 4, the party members aren’t able to
come into their office where the whole documentation and archives
necessary for party’s normal activity are. As V.Khachatrian estimated,
in fact, the party’s activity was blocked and the party, in essence,
appeared in isolation from the whole political field. He expressed
bewilderment in connection with the conduct of the Director of Hakob
Paronian Theater of Musical Comedy, in which a room has been rented by
the party for already 12 years, at that, the rent term expires only
in June. Meanwhile, he gave assurance that the office door couldn’t
have been sealed by the instruction of the theater Director Karapet
Shahbazian: “The theater director had no powers to do this, this
is, in essence, a provocation carried out by the authorities”. The
politician was also surprised at the circumstance that K.Shahbazian
advised the party to apply to the State Property Department motivating
this by the fact that the building is within the jurisdiction of
the department. But the following answer came from this instance:
“There is no such property on the department’s balance”. “We appeared
in a regular theater of distorting mirrors, a way out of which can
become our actions, namely: to apply to the Prosecutor’s Office, which
controls the constitutional order, and to find out its attitude towards
all this. The attitude of the Prosecutor General will unanimously
show the authorities’ position and to what extent they are involved
in this,” Vardan Khachatrian declared. Besides, !
according to him, the Prosecutor’s attitude will condition the further
processes in this issue. He informed that the party plans to hold a
press conference where its position to these events will be presented
more minutely and at which, possibly, commentaries will be given
“to the party’s next logical steps”.

UKRAINE HAS STOPPED BEING THE COUNTRY-GUARANTOR IN TRANSDNESTR SETTLEMENT
Alexei Martynov To Regnum
Regnum, Russia
March 9 2006
Interview of Russian-Transdnestr Analytical Center Head
Head of the Russian-Transdnestr Information Analytical Center Alexei
Martynov has commented to a REGNUM correspondent on the resolution
by the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers #112-R, according to which on
March 3, 2006, Ukrainian customs stopped letting in the country goods
registered by Transdnestr customs, which led to economic blockade of
the Transdnestr Moldavian Republic.
REGNUM: How would you assess actions of the Ukrainian government
towards Transdnestr?
The Ukrainian authorities have lost their temper in the tense
negotiation process on Transdnestr settlement. The Transdnestr economic
blockade, or as they call it in Ukraine, “the new rules of customs
registration of goods coming through Transdnestr and from Transdnestr,”
are in fact an instrument for strengthening Ukraine’s influence in the
negotiation process and weakening Russia’s role as a country-guarantor.
Before it, Ukraine used to postpone for unidentified term coming
to force of the agreement between Ukraine and Moldavia on customs
registration of Transdnestr goods in Moldavia, using it as a reason
for blackmailing and putting pressure upon Transdnestr. But now,
somebody in the Ukrainian leadership or all of them has lost temper,
as I said, and this happened.
REGNUM: Do you think, there is any connection between the recent
decision not to open polling stations for Ukrainian citizens living
in Transdnestr and the resolution of the Ukrainian government on
toughening the regime of goods transition?
Situationally, it is undoubtedly connected. But I do not think that
these actions were well-considered and planned. Most probably,
it should be regarded as hasty reciprocal steps in response to
Transdnestr’s tough position in the talks on Transdnestr conflict
settlement.
REGNUM: What are the results of Transdnestr blockade for the republic’s
economy?
On the reason that the flow of goods from Transdnestr as well as to
Transdnestr and transit via Transdnestr are ceased, for these days
the Transdnestr budget has lost about $10 million. But I am sure
that Transdnestr residents in this case will resist to the end,
even if they are subjected to siege.
REGNUM: You say, the resolution by the Ukrainian government was aimed
at strengthening Ukraine’s role in the negotiation format, however,
on March 4, Transdnestr’s foreign ministry has put under question
Ukraine’s right to speak as a country-guarantor in the Transdnestr
settlement…
In this situation, actions of the Ukrainian government can be
characterized by the words of the Russia’s Ambassador in Ukraine
Viktor Chernomyrdin: “We wanted to the best way, and it turned out
to be as it always happens.” It was not the first case of dull and
short-sighted policy of the Ukrainian authorities.
This way or another, by these actions Ukraine actually recalled
its signature under the Memorandum of 1997 and stopped being the
country-guarantor in Transdnestr settlement, but became a party
in the conflict. The Memorandum of 1997 guarantees independence to
Transdnestr in its economic activity, and the Moldavian authorities
can speak as much as they want about absence of mechanisms for enacting
the Memorandum’s statements, but it is not Transdnestr’s problem, but
a problem of the countries-guarantors in the Transdnestr settlement
and Ukraine as well.
The recent developments have shown clearly the fact that Ukraine’s
President Viktor Yushchenko has no control over the situation
in the country. In his statements he has repeatedly guaranteed
observance of rights of all Ukrainian citizens, including those
living in Transdnestr, at the same time, the Ukrainian government,
the foreign ministry and the customs by their activity denied the
president’s statements.
Actually, Yushchenko has entered the list of noncontractual leaders
of CIS leaders, I mean Moldavian President Voronin and Georgian
President Saakashvili. Now no one can deal with Yushchenko anyway,
as well as with other above mentioned politicians.
REGNUM: For whose support can Transdnestr reckon in this situation?
I think, in this situation the Transdnestr Moldavian Republic will
be supported by the “CIS-2” countries entering the so-called club of
unrecognized states – Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Karabakh. Undoubtedly,
Russia will render assistance to Transdnestr, taking into
consideration the fact that about 100,000 Russian citizens live in
Transdnestr. Moreover, if the blockade brings about a humanitarian
catastrophe with all the resulting consequences – food deficit,
refugees, Russia as a country-guarantor would render humanitarian
help to the republic.
Major Transdnestr enterprises belong to Russian capital, so the
Russian Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Union and the Russian Trade
and Industrial Chamber will participate in solving this problem.
I am sure, the Russian State Duma that cooperates closely with the
Transdnestr Supreme Council will make a statement on the issue. As
for the exact actions, Russia could apply analogous and even tougher
sanctions towards Ukraine in response to the Transdnestr blockade:
it can impose a ban for Ukrainian goods crossing the Russian border,
although from the point of view that, as I already said, the Russian
capital and Russian citizens do suffer from the actions of the
Ukrainian and Moldavian authorities too.
REGNUM: What do you think the international community will react to
the Transdnestr blockade?
Reaction of the international community has already been given. EU’s
foreign policy chief Xavier Solana announced on March 6, that
he welcomed “the start of realization of the joint statement of
Ukrainian and Moldavian prime ministers of December 2005” and calls
for “Transdnestr self-proclaimed authorities not to put obstacles on
the way of registration.”
Evidently, the reaction of the international community to the
issue should derive from principles of democracy, human rights and
international law regulations protection, but we have to state for
just another time that the so-called international community in the
person of the West pursues double policy standards policy regarding
the Transdnestr problem, and the statement made by Solana is just
another proof of it.

CEC ALLOCATES 285 DOLLARS FOR COVERING EXPENSES OF ELECTIONS OF JRAHOVIT VILLAGE COMMUNITY HEAD IN ARARAT MARZ
Noyan Tapan
Mar 09 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. At the March 9 sitting, the Armenian
government assigned the RA Minister of Finance and Economy to allocate
128 thousand 165 drams (about 285 USD) from the 2006 governmental
reserve fund to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Fund for the
purpose of covering the expenses on the preparation and holding of the
regular elections of the community head in the village of Jrahovit
(Ararat marz) held on March 5, 2006. NT was informed about it from
the RA Government Information and PR Department.

FILMS BY BRITISH DIRECTORS AT ARMENIAN CINEMAS AGAIN
YEREVAN, MARCH 7. ARMINFO. Demonstration of British films at Nairi
Cinema in Yerevan on March 10-15. Armenian spectators will enjoy six
best films of the last years by British directors.
The festival will present the following films: “Calendar Girls”
by Nigel Cole, “In My Father’s Den” by Brad McGann, “Pride and
Prejudice” by Joe Wright, “In This World” by Michael Winterbottom,
“Sweet Sixteen” by Ken Loach, “Festival” by Annie Griffin. Head of
British Council Yerevan Office Nigel Townson told journalists that
the festival is organized by the Embassy of Great Britain in Armenia.
It will present films awarded at international film festivals. The
British cinema is highly in demand in the world, it is very flexible
and touches upon the most dangerous topics, he said. The Armenian
spectators display an interest in the European cinema, with the fifth
in succession festival in Armenia is an evidence of it. Within the
frameworks of the festival, films will be demonstrated also in the
second largest Armenian town of Gyumri at Cinema “Oktyabr”. N.
Townson mentioned the Armenian Film Festival held in London a year
ago due to which the British spectators got an opportunity to enjoy
the Armenian movie art.
The British Film Festival pursues a charitable goal: the proceeds
from the tickets (cost 500 AMD) will be transferred to the Children
Houses in Armenia. The films will be demonstrated in English, Armenian
and Russian.

USA EMBASSY IN ARMENIA DID NOT CONFIRM THE RUMORS OF RECALLING AMBASSADOR JOHN EVANS
YEREVAN, MARCH 7. ARMINFO. The USA Embassy in Armenia did not confirm
the rumors that Washington recalls from Armenia Ambassador John Evans.
The information of Mr. Evans’ recall first appeared in ‘The California
Courier’ newspaper. Moreover, it was reported that the Ambassador
reported on his recall to the Government of Armenia.
According to the newspaper, the reason of the recall was the
Ambassador’s incorrect statement about the Armenian Genocide in the
Ottoman Empire. Allegedly, the US Senate has already adopted Richard
Hoagland, presently USA Ambassador to Tajikistan, to the office of
Ambassador in Armenia.
In his return the Spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia
said that he has not the right to comment on the inner affairs of a
foreign state.

USA REPORTEDLY RECALLING ENVOY TO ARMENIA
Arminfo
7 Mar 06
Yerevan, March 7: The US embassy in Armenia has not confirmed rumours
that Washington is recalling its ambassador John Evans from Armenia.
First the information about Evans’ recall appeared in The California
Courier newspaper.
Moreover, it was reported that the ambassador informed the government
of Armenia of this decision. According to the newspaper, the reason
for the recall was the ambassador’s incorrect statement about the
Armenian genocide in the Ottoman empire.
The US Senate has allegedly confirmed Richard Hoagland, the current
US ambassador to Tajikistan, as the ambassador to Armenia. A spokesman
of the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that he has no right to comment
on the affairs of a foreign state.