ARMENIAN CB CHAIRMAN TO TAKE PART IN 15TH INTERNATIONAL BANK CONGRESS
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
June 8 2006
Yerevan, June 7. /ARKA/. Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia
(CBA) Tigran Sargsyan is to take part in the 15th international bank
congress in Saint Petersburg on June 7-10, 2006. The CBA Chairman has
left for Russia at the invitation of the Chairman of the RF Central
Bank and Governor of Saint Petersburg.
The main subject of the congress is Basel recommendations: approaches
and implementation. At the suggestion of the congress organizers,
the CBA Chairman is to make a report entitled “Banking supervision
in transitional economy: hindrance or impetus to development of
banking system?”
The congress participants will discuss such topics as “Efficiency of
banking supervision: prerequisites, criteria, estimations”, “Base II:
capital, risks, transparency”, “Stability of banks and banking system:
approaches in estimation and in maintenance”, “Financial reports
of credit institutions within international standards of financial
reporting”, “Internal control and audit in banks”.
The congress is also expected to discuss issues of applying Basel II
provisions in banking supervision.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJAN AND LITHUANIAN PRESIDENTS SIGNED JOINT STATEMENT
Author: E.Suleymanova
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
June 8 2006
Azerbaijani and Lithuanian presidents Ilham Aliyev and Valdas Adamkus
signed a Joint statement.
The Azerbaijani economic development minister Heydar Babayev and the
secretary of Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Albinas Yaushka signed an
agreement on protection and support of investments.
At a joint press-conference of presidents Adamkus stressed the interest
of his country in the cooperation with Azerbaijan in the energy
sector. According to Adamkus, Lithuania looks through the opportunities
to receive the energy resources, as well as oil products of Azerbaijan.
Touchin on Azerbaijani-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Lithuanian
president noted that the European Union should take an active part
in solution of the conflict.
The Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev stressed that unfortunately
the solution of the conflict didn’t depend on one side. According to
Aliyev, the position of Azerbaijan on this question corresponds to all
international norms. According the Azerbaijani president, if Armenian
side constructively approaches the question, then it is possible to
find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the near future.
Azerbaijani and Lithuanian presidents expressed their interest to open
embassies in Vilnius and Baku to stimulate the future development of
relations between the two countries.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

COMMISSION FINISHES DECIPHERING BLACK BOX FROM BLACK SEA PLANE
RIA Novosti, Russia
June 8 2006
MOSCOW, June 8 (RIA Novosti) – An intergovernmental commission has
finished work to decipher the cockpit voice recorder from an Armenian
A-320 passenger jet that crashed in the Black Sea May 3, Russia’s
Transportation Ministry said.
The ministry said in a press release that the recorder had captured 33
minutes of exchanges between the pilot of the plane and air traffic
controllers at Russia’s southern Adler airport, which services the
popular resort of Sochi.
“It was established that most of the conversation between crewmembers
took place in the Armenian language. Armenian embassy representatives
helped translate the talks into Russian and verified the translation,”
the ministry said.
The statement also said the transcript would not be published in
line with the standards and practices of the International Civil
Aviation Organization.
The Transportation Ministry also said the commission was continuing
work on deciphering the flight data recorder.
All 113 people on board the plane, including 8 crewmembers, died in
the tragedy.

DARCHINYAN TO SEARCH FOR MORE WORLD TITLES
Stathi Paxinos
The Age, Australia
June 9 2006
AUSTRALIA’s flyweight world champion Vic Darchinyan said yesterday he
would only fight for new world titles after he completed his fourth
title defence by a knockout last weekend.
And the feisty Armenian-born Darchinyan said he was prepared to move
up three weight divisions to secure the fights he wanted.
Darchinyan, who yesterday received a disappointingly low-key reception
in Sydney after retaining his International Boxing Federation and
International Boxing Organisation belts last weekend, said he was
only prepared to fight other world champions from now on.
He said negotiations were being held to fight World Boxing Organisation
flyweight champion Omar Narvaez on the undercard of either the Hasim
Rahman and Oleg Maskaev fight in August or the next Diego Corrales
fight scheduled for September – both of which would give him extensive
coverage in the US.
He said he would wait one month after that bout to secure fights
with holders of other flyweight belts. If he could not secure a bout,
he would move divisions.
“Super-flyweight, bantamweight, super-bantamweight, it doesn’t matter
for me. If someone has a belt and wants to fight me, I will fight
him. But he needs a belt,” Darchinyan said.
“I don’t want to just defend my titles, I want other titles … I
want to put my name in the memory of boxing.”
Darchinyan said he has sparred against Israel Vazquez, World Boxing
Council and IBF super-bantamweight champion, and was comfortable at
that weight.
He extended his perfect sequence of knockouts in world title fights
to five with his eighth-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Mexican
Luis Maldonado in Las Vegas last weekend.
The exciting southpaw’s “warrior” style earned him plenty of fans in
the US and delighted promoters.
But when Darchinyan arrived at Sydney airport just after 6am yesterday,
there were only a couple of reporters and no television cameras or
fans to meet him.
The scene was in contrast to the throng that met former
junior-welterweight world champion Kostya Tszyu on his early-morning
return from numerous overseas conquests.
Darchinyan, who relocated to Sydney from Armenia after representing
that country at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was diplomatic about the
continued modest level of recognition for his feats.
“Maybe it’s because there’s not too much advertising or too much
media involved,” he said. “But my promoters and (US pay TV network)
Showtime told me, ‘Your style is very exciting, everyone wants you,
they’d like to watch you again’.”

REPORT: PLAYERS IN PUNCH-UP OVER ‘ANNA KOURNIKOVA OF CHESS’ AT BERMUDA EVENT
By Ruth O’Kelly-Lynch
Royal Gazette, Bermuda
June 8 2006
The Bermuda chess team has been dubbed one of the world’s worst teams
in international papers, but it has also gained the reputation of
throwing the best parties.
This year its annual party will be remembered because of a punch-up
that happened between a world championship judge and the world’s
third-ranked chess champ over a young Australian beauty.
“[The Bermuda party] is always organised by the Bermuda team because
they are one of the world’s worst teams but they run the best party,”
Graeme Gardiner, a former Australian Chess Federation president,
told a Sydney paper.
The young woman who sparked the row at the Bermuda party is Arianne
Caoili, she is ranked number 2,569 in the world and dubbed “the Anna
Kournikova of chess” the Australian paper said.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that British grand chessmaster
Danny Gormally was infuriated when he saw her dancing with the world’s
number three player, Armenia’s Levon Aronian. Arianne, who graces a
stamp in Austria and came in seventh in the first World Chess Beauty
Contest in May, was reported to be salsa dancing with the Armenian
when the first punch was thrown by Mr. Gormally.
“She’s a 19-year-old, very attractive girl,” Mr. Gardiner said.
“She’s probably got the guys queuing up for her. As far as I’m aware
in this incident she was an innocent party in the sense that she was
merely having a dance at the Bermuda party.”
The following day Mr. Gormally, who is ranked sixth in Britain, left
the competition and was reportedly “gutted” when he realised what he
had done, a source told the paper.
He also apologised to the Armenian team, but not before the some
members of the delegation threw some punches at him.

JOURNALIST BELGE ACQUITTED
Erol ONDEROGLU
BÝA, Turkey
June 8 2006
Istanbul – An Istanbul court on Thursday acquitted “Radikal” newspaper
journalist Murat Belge on charges of attempting to influence the
outcome of judicial proceedings in an article he wrote last year that
challenged the decision of an Istanbul administrative court to ban
an academic conference on Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.
Belge faced six months to 10 years imprisonment if found guilty and
was the last defendant on trial in a case where four other journalists
were acquitted on the same charges in April.
Charges against Radikal and Milliyet newspaper journalists Ismet
Berkan, Haluk Sahin, Erol Katircigolu and Hasan Cemal in the same
case were dropped, but the favourable verdict was appealed against
by the prosecutor and taken to the Court of Appeals.
Only Belge’s most recent article was deemed in exception of a statue
of limitations imposed for offences committed in writing and through
publications, which is why his case continued.
The Istanbul Bagcilar 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance on Thursday
dropped charges based on one of Belge’s articles due to the statue
of limitations and acquitted him on the other.
The charges against Belge and previous co-defendants were leveled on
a criminal complaint made by a “Jurists Union” who have, since launch
of the tribunal proceedings in February, been actively involved in
the case demanding to be accepted as an intervening party.
–Boundary_(ID_10+G871mqAZmj6ManPIBHQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BLACK SEA FORUM SEEKING ITS RATIONALE
By Vladimir Socor
Rompres, Moldpres, Interfax-Ukraine, AzerTaj, June 5, 6
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
June 8 2006
Russia snubs summit of Black Sea leaders Presidents Traian Basescu of
Romania, Vladimir Voronin of Moldova, Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine,
Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, Robert Kocharian of Armenia, and
Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan were joined by senior officials from the
United States, Turkey, Bulgaria, and international organizations
at the inaugural session of the Black Sea Forum for Partnership and
Dialogue on June 4-6 in Bucharest.
A Romanian initiative, the Forum is tentatively meant to hold annual
presidential-level summits — the venues rotating among participant
countries — and thematic or sectoral-cooperation meeting during
those annual intervals. The Forum is not meant to create new regional
institutions, but rather to turn into a regular consultative process
among countries of the extended Black Sea region (defined as including
the South Caucasus to the Caspian Sea) and between this group of
countries and international organizations such as the European Union.
Russia refused to send a delegation to the Forum; instead, it merely
authorized the ambassador to Romania, Nikolai Tolkachev, to sit
in as an observer, without taking part in discussions or signing a
concluding document. Moscow had turned down the Forum initiative as
soon as Bucharest announced it last December: Russia’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs publicly deprecated the proposed Forum as redundant,
duplicative of existing cooperation frameworks, and apt to siphon
off limited resources from those frameworks (Interfax, December
13, 2005). From that point on and practically until the Bucharest
session’s eve, Russia turned down entreaties to join the Forum as a
participant and to send an official delegation on a ministerial or
some other decent level.
Officially, Moscow maintains that existing cooperation frameworks
such as the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and the joint naval
activity Black Sea Force (Blackseafor) are adequate in themselves as
well as the only possible basis for deepening regional cooperation.
Tolkachev reiterated this position to local media during the summit,
thus in effect sniping at the Forum from the sidelines. Moscow finds
BSEC and Blackseafor to its liking because it can dominate them jointly
with Turkey and can also use them to promote Russian objectives in
the region.
There is, however, a broader political message in Russia’s dismissive
attitude toward the Forum: It suggests, first, that it is not for
“lesser” countries to take major regional initiatives on their own that
are not worked out with Moscow; and, second, that no regional project
can be successful without Russia’s participation — a proposition that
has almost become reflexive in Black Sea diplomacy and that Moscow
tries to reinforce by distancing itself demonstratively from the Forum.
Nevertheless, Forum organizers hoped until the last moment to secure
a decent-level Russian representation at the founding session as well
as participant status for Russia in the Forum down the road. This
consideration loomed large in shaping the summit’s agenda in a way that
would not risk irritating Moscow. In this regard, the Forum summit
duplicated (instead of learning from and avoiding) the experience of
the December 2005 summit of the Community of Democratic Choice (CDC)
in Kyiv. There, President Viktor Yushchenko’s forlorn hope (tied to
the electoral campaign) to induce Russian President Vladimir Putin to
visit Ukraine trumped the CDC’s own democracy-promoting goals and made
for a bland, irrelevant agenda at that summit. Similarly in Bucharest,
the shadow of absentee Russia weakened the Forum’s agenda and raised
unnecessary question marks about the rationale of this initiative.
Energy transit and the secessionist conflicts — those uppermost
policy issues in the extended Black Sea region — seemed almost lost
among a wide variety of issues on a kaleidoscopic agenda. Several
participating heads of state did not avoid addressing the conflicts.
Thus, Saakashvili described the latest claims by Russia-sponsored
secessionist movements to legitimacy through a “democratic referendum”
as a “cannibal-style democracy”: It involves the violent seizure
of a territory, ethnic cleansing, despotic rule, and criminality,
all of which is then to be crowned by a referendum and claims for
international recognition on such a basis, Saakashvili noted.
For his part, Voronin criticized the draft of the Forum’s concluding
declaration for failing to identify the external source and sponsor
of the secessionist conflicts: Resolving the conflicts will not be
possible if the external factor is not identified with the necessary
clarity, Voronin observed. Aliyev declared that Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity would not be subject to negotiations; while
Kocharian characterized Karabakh as a “classic case of secession
through self-determination” — a formulation seemingly in line with
Moscow-led recent attempts to provide a “model” for post-Soviet
conflict resolution. Aliyev and Kocharian held five hours of
inconclusive talks, including a working dinner with Basescu, during
the two days of the Bucharest summit.
Yushchenko’s speech harked back to the 2005 CDC, although that
initiative does not seem to have survived its birth. He also urged,
as he had then, Black Sea countries to co-invest in a project to
build a massive industrial center and transport hub at Donuzlav on
Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, without providing specifics; and he called
for coordination among Black Sea, Caspian, and Baltic countries in
addressing energy problems. Yushchenko held a news conference for
Ukrainian journalists, presumably dealing with deepening instability
back home, and prompting the local press to complain of being excluded.
Aliyev’s speech, delivered extemporaneously, stood out for reflecting
the political stability and bright economic prospects of Azerbaijan,
possibly the most successful among the region’s countries at
this stage. The speech exuded quiet confidence in the strategy of
evolutionary political and economic reforms on parallel tracks and
the advance of Azerbaijan from a regional to a global role in energy
projects.

ANOTHER SENATOR IS FIRED: THE KREMLIN TARGETS THE LEADER OF KALMYKIA
By Andrei Smirnov
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
June 8 2006
Russia continues to be rocked by purges of the Federation Council,
the upper house of the Russian parliament, where deputies (often called
“senators”) represent regional governments.
On May 14, Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council,
dismissed four members of the Council. The ousted senators represented
a northern region (Nenets autonomous okrug), two Siberian regions
(Yamal-Nenets autonomous okrug, and Khakassia), and a region in the
Far East (Primorsky krai). After some local resistance, regional
parliaments approved Mironov’s decision (see EDM, May 25).
However, it soon became clear that more resignations were in the
pipeline. On June 2, Senator Levon Chakhmakhchyan was arrested by
officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) on charges of bribery.
Chakhmakhchyan represents Kalmykia, a region in southern Russia is
and vice-president of the Association for Russian-Armenian Business
Cooperation. Chakhmakhchyan and Igor Arushanov, chief accountant
for the Association, were arrested at the headquarters of Transaero
Airlines. FSB officers confiscated a bag containing $300,000, which
they claimed was a bribe.
Chakhmakhchyan was arrested after meeting with Alexander Pleshakov,
the chairman of the Transaero board of directors. The senator said that
he had visited Pleshakov “to discuss a Transaero advertising campaign
in Armenia and Transaero’s possible membership in the Association”
(lenta.ru, June 5). After the meeting, Pleshakov told the senator to
take a bag sitting under the table; Chakhmakhchyan thought the bag
contained souvenirs for him. FSB officers were waiting outside and
detained the senator and the accountant as they left the office.
Speaking to Ekho Moskvy radio on June 5 Chakhmakhchyan said, “As soon
as the two of us were out of Pleshakov’s office, we were stopped by FSB
officers. The reasons for the detention were not given. My demands for
release and the arguments that I am a member of the Federation Council
were ignored. The agents behaved rudely and cynically, used physical
violence, treated me with contempt, including [making] comments of
nationalistic nature. Only two and a half hours later was I released.”
According to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, the money
confiscated from Chakhmakhchyan and his associate were part of a
bribe to an official in the Russian Federation Board of Accounting
to close a case of tax evasion against Transaero. Armen Oganesyan,
Chakhmakhchyan’s father-in-law, works at the Board, so the senator had
suggested to Pleshakov that he could assist in solving the problem
for Transaero. Pleshakov, however, complained to Sergei Stepashin,
chairman of the Russian Board of Accounting, that Board officials
had blackmailed him.
Stepashin got in touch with FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev,
who ordered a special operation to arrest Chakhmakhchyan and his
father-in-law. Chakhmakhchyan was released due to his immunity as a
member of the Federation Council, but the next day proceedings were
initiated at the Federation Council to withdraw his mandate. On June
5, Mironov’s press service issued a statement saying that the speaker
had sent a representative to the parliament of Kalmykia recommending
that Chakhmakhchyan be recalled from the Federation Council before
his term expired (Interfax, June 5).
Despite the accusations of corruption, many observers and politicians
in Kalmykia and in Moscow regarded the attack on Chakhmakhchyan as an
attack by the central authorities on Kirsan Ilumzhinov, the president
of Kalmykia. According to Kommersant newspaper, Chakhmakhchyan and
Ilumzhinov are close friends, and Chakhmakhchyan helped Ilumzhinov
during the 2002 presidential elections in Kalmykia, which the latter
won despite resistance from the Kremlin. In 2004 the Kalmykian leader
returned the favor by helping Chakhmakhchyan to be elected by the
local parliament to represent Kalmykia in the Federation Council
(Kommersant, June 5).
“One can only regret this unpleasant accident,” Ilumzhinov said,
commenting on the arrest of Chakhmakhchyan. “I believe that the guilt
of the senator should be proved by the court.” At the same time,
the Kalmykian president added, “I have no grounds not to trust Sergei
Mironov. If he demanded the senator’s recall, it means he had grounds
for this.” However, Ilumzhinov also stressed that Chakhmakhchyan’s
guilt should be determined in court and he also pointed out that the
senator “did a lot of useful things for Kalmykia” (strana.ru, June 6).
Apparently Ilumzhinov does not have enough power to help his
old friend this time. He is under great pressure from the Kremlin
himself. The Russian authorities regard the Kalmykian leader as a too
independent regional governor. Moscow thinks that maverick governors
such as Ilumzhinov could be a problem as the Russian parliamentary
and presidential elections approach. President Vladimir Putin’s
administration is not sure that such governors will guarantee a
“correct vote count” during the elections.
The Kremlin was especially enraged by the Kalmykian leader’s recent
meeting with Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion and the
leader of the United Civic Front, a radical, democratic, anti-Putin
organization. On June 4, Ilumzhinov was reelected chairman of the
World Chess Federation. In his interview with Sport Express, Russia’s
leading sports newspaper, Ilumzhinov thanked Kasparov for providing
help in the elections (Sport Express, June 7). This statement was a
direct challenge to the Kremlin, and the Kalmykian leader flaunted
his independence by mentioning Kasparov.
The arrest and firing of Chakhmakhchyan may prove to be the Russian
authorities’ first steps in an anti-Ilumzhinov campaign. However,
there are no doubts that the campaign will not be easy, since the
president of Kalmykia has proven to be a formidable adversary for
the powerful Kremlin bosses.

AUTHOR ELIF SAFAK UNDER INVESTIGATION
Erol ONDEROGLU
BÝA, Turkey
June 8 2006
Istanbul – Elif Shafak, one of Turkey’s best selling authors and a
social scientist with a Master of Science degree in Gender and Woman
Studies, is under investigation for her March 2006 published book
“Father and Bastard” that was originally written in English.
Shafak and the book’s Turkish publishing house Metis director Semih
Sokmen testified to the Beyoglu Prosecutor’s Office this week in
relation to an investigation launched under article 301/1 of the
Turkish Penal Code.
The allegation of “insulting Turkishness” was brought forth in a
criminal complaint filed by nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz from
the Jurists Union. It is the same charge that was levelled at Turkey’s
internationally acclaimed writer Orhan Pamuk.
In their statement to the prosecution, Shafak and Sokmen stressed
that the book subject to investigation was a work of literature and
that comments and remarks taken from the scripts of the characters
in the book could not be used to level allegations against the author.
They said the complaint was unjust and that counter to the allegation,
the book targeted to broaden a culture of peace between people.
They said that making the book an issue of trial would not only deliver
a blow to the democratic developments and process in the country,
but would damage the interests of Turkey abroad.
The prosecution will decide within this month whether to level charges
against Shafak and the publishing house or dismiss the complaint.
Kerincsiz, the lawyer who filed the complaint against the book,
is known for his interventions during the Pamuk case where he not
only demanded new charges be launched against the author but wanted
to be accepted as an intervening party in the trial itself. He was
also present as the intervening side in the case launched against
five Turkish writers who criticised a court decision postponing the
Ottoman Armenian Conference in Istanbul.
“Father and Bastard” which was published on March 8 is already on the
best seller list and the book is sold in Turkey. Originally written
in English, the book is in the publishing schedule of Viking/Penguin
publishing house.
Elif Shafak, a Turkish citizen, was born in France and spent her
childhood in Spain. After studying political science in Turkey, she
held teaching positions in the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the United
States and then took the position of Assistant Professor in the Dept.
of Near Eastern Studies at University of Arizona.
Her publications include both novels and essays, among them The Saint
of Incipient Insanities, which was her first book published in English,
Bit Palas, Mahrem, which won the Turkish Writers’ Association Best
Novel of the Year Award, and Sehrin Aynalari. She has also published
reviews in The Economist, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston
Globe, and The Washington Post.
–Boundary_(ID_KV+Vr8WwPCPI5EhJ4G9BgQ)–

MAGDEN COURT CASE STARTS TENSE
Erol Onderoglu
BÝA, Turkey
June 8 2006
Istanbul – The trial of author Perihan Magden for allegedly
“discouraging people from military service” in her magazine article
titled “Conscientious Objection is a Human Right” started in tension
this week with families of Turkish soldiers killed in action staging
a protest at the court house.
Police crack teams were called in to maintain discipline at Istanbul’s
2nd Criminal Court of First Instance when a group calling themselves
“Families of Martyrs” turned up in front of the building and started
a protest as Magden arrived.
The scene was reminiscent of previous protests by nationalist groups
in the trials against authors Orhan Pamuk and Hrank Dink as well as
the five writers on trial for criticising a court decision in Istanbul
to postpone the Ottoman Armenian Conference.
Similar to the other cases, a group of 11 families of martyrs members
applied to the bench to be accepted as an intervening party in the
prosecution’s case against Magden but they were turned down on grounds
that they were not an aggrieved party.
Magden’s is one of the six cases against press and expression freedoms
heard in Turkey this week and is based on a criminal complaint filed
by the Chief of General Staff office in relation to her article which
was published in the “Yeni Aktuel” magazine in December 2005.
If found guilty of the charge of “discouraging people from military
service” under article 318 of the Turkish Penal Code, she faces a
maximum of three years imprisonment.
On Wednesday, Magden and her lawyer filed under heavy police protection
a written defence with the court after which the bench gave time to the
Republic Prosecutor to decide on whether to expand the investigation
and deliberate. The court was adjourned to July 27.
In the indictment against Magden’s article on individual rights against
compulsory recruitment, the prosecution maintains that “taking into
consideration the geographical conditions of our country, it is
evident how important compulsory military service is”.
The indictment further states that those recruited are then assigned to
the East and Southeast of the country according to their qualifications
where they serve in various capacities including as teachers and
doctors. The indictment charges that Magden, rather than use her
right to freedom of expression, was discouraging people from military
service in her article.
–Boundary_(ID_8DBY/9p+dEapgDk1ygDXhg)–