ARMENIA SWITCHING TO 12-YEAR SCHOOLING
By Hovannes Shoghikian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep
June 5 2006
Armenia is gradually extending the length of study in its public
schools to 12 years, in line with an ongoing reform of its system of
primary and secondary education supported by Western donors.
Officials confirmed on Monday that Armenian children who were born
after June 2000 will study longer than the current students who need
10 or 11 years to finish school. The transition to 12-year school
education, the norm around the world, will get underway with the
start of the next academic year on September 1, they said.
Armenians have for decades gone to school at the age of seven and
needed ten years to complete their secondary education. The Armenian
government reformed this Soviet-era system in 2001 when it lowered
the age of first-graders to six years and prolonged the duration
of school instruction by one year. The government made it clear at
the time this is only the first step towards brining the country’s
education system into greater conformity with Western standards.
Officials at the Ministry of Education say lengthier instruction
will ease pressure on students and allow for the introduction of new,
non-traditional subjects that were not taught in Soviet times.
“Naturally, the school curriculum for 12-year first-graders will be
much lighter and easier,” said Onik Vatian, head of the education
department at the Yerevan municipality.
The structural reform enjoys the strong backing of the World Bank
which disbursed a $19 million loan to support it two years ago. The
bank is expected to provide tens of millions of dollars in additional
funding in the coming years.
However, the reform has also raised concerns among many parents and
schoolteachers who believe that children below the age of seven
are too young to be taught reading, writing and other skills. “I
am against 11-year and 12-year instruction,” said one teacher. “The
previous system was much better.”
Parents of small boys also fear that their sons will be drafted to
the army when they finish school at the age of 18 before being able
to try to enroll in a university. But Narine Hovannisian, head of an
Education Ministry department on secondary education, sought to dispel
their fears. “I think every graduate will be given a chance to try
to enter a university [before doing compulsory military service],”
she told RFE/RL.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS: SISTEMA BIDS FOR 90% IN ARMENIA’S ARMENTEL
Cellular-News, UK
June 5 2006
MOSCOW, June 5 (Prime-Tass) — Major Russian holding AFK Sistema has
filed a bid to participate in the tender of a 90% stake in Armenian
fixed-line and mobile operator ArmenTel, Sistema’s Chairman Vladimir
Yevtushenkov said, Vedomosti business daily reported Monday.
The stake is currently owned by Greece’s OTE, which said in late April
that it planned to sell the stake. The remaining 10% in ArmenTel is
held by the Armenian government.
Neither OTE, nor Sistema have indicated the price for the possible
purchase. An analyst with MDM-Bank estimated the price of the 90%
stake at U.S. $140 million, the daily reported.
Meanwhile, Russia?s largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS),
a subsidiary of Sistema, has opted out of a tender for a 70% stake
in Serbia and Montenegroen mobile operator Mobi 63, Yevtushenkov
said, the daily reported. MTS said in mid-May that it had applied to
participate in the tender.
ArmenTel is a fixed-line and long-distance monopoly in Armenia. It
also had a monopoly on mobile services until mid-2005. ArmenTel’s
fixed-line subscriber base stands at about 600,000 users and its
mobile subscriber base at about 330,000 users.
Armenia’s population amounts to about 3.2 million people, of which
about 20% use mobile services.
ArmenTel’s revenue totaled $145.3 million in 2005, while its net
profit stood at $55.9 million, the daily reported.

AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS FAIL TO SIGN JOINT DECLARATION IN THE END OF BUCHAREST MEETING
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 5 2006
The meeting of Azerbaijan’s and Armenia’s Presidents Ilham Aliyev
and Robert Kocharian today in Bucharest with participation of OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs failed to have any results.
APA reports quoting American co-chair Steven Mann as saying to Radio
Liberty that the presidents had very intense discussions. The co-chairs
will discuss the results of the talks and plan further steps. They will
report about it in the upcoming meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.
Mr.Mann said there was a good atmosphere in the talks, “I’ll not
inform about the content of the discussions. I can say it was a
detailed discussion.”
Responding to the question “What is the difference between today’s
talks and the previous talks in Rambouillet,” the co-chair said,
“We had a detailed discussion. Yesterday evening and today, the
Presidents had one-one meeting and with presence of the co-chairs. We
are on the stage of detailed discussion.”
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told the Radio Liberty
that the issues dividing them are related to general principles,
“Azerbaijan’s position remains unchanged.”
Mammadyarov also said the Ministers may meet if it is necessary.
Though the Presidents expected to sign a joint Declaration, they
failed to do it.

BOXING: VIC “RAGING BULL” DARCHINYAN DESTROYS MALDONADO!
Hardcore Boxing, CA
June 5 2006
“Team Fenech” Media Release – 6/5/2006
Reigning IBF/IBO flyweight world boxing champion Vic “Raging Bull”
Darchinyan – Australia’s only current male boxing world champion –
was at his destructive best in defending his world titles against
previously undefeated Mexican Luis Maldonado on Saturday night at
the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, USA.
30 year-old Darchinyan’s power packed left hand destroyed the 28
year-old from Mexicali with an eighth round TKO stoppage at the 1:38
minute mark.
Considered one of the hottest new stars in world boxing, Vic “Raging
Bull” Darchinyan from Sydney now has an undefeated record of 26 wins,
0 losses and 21 knockouts
Maldonado, who was rated No.10 in the world at flyweight by the
influential The Ring magazine, now has a record of 33 wins, 1 loss,
1 draw and 25 knockouts.
Darchinyan’s trainer is three-time world boxing champion and
International Boxing Hall of Famer Jeff Fenech.
30 year-old Darchinyan, the Armenia born Australian citizen southpaw,
is promoted by well-known American Gary Shaw, who guides the careers
of some of the best active boxing talent today.

ALIYEV MET WITH CHAIRMAN OF OSCE, DEPUTY ASSISTANT OF USA PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY GENERAL OF COUNCIL OF EUROPE
Author: E.Huseynov
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
June 5 2006
The Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev on June 5 in Bucharest met
with the present chairman of OSCE, Belgian foreign minister Karel
de Hukht, Trend reports. The meeting focused on the solution of
Azerbaijan-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh problem and other questions.
Karel de Hukht congratulated Ilham Aliyev that Azeri oil has reached
Turkish port Ceyhan.
Besides, president received the deputy assistant of the USA president
on national security James Crouch. The high level of the cooperation
between Azerbaijan and America and their successes were stressed and
the present situation of the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
was discussed at the meeting. Crouch also congratulated Ilham Aliyev
on Azeri oil’s reaching Turkish port Ceyhan.
Besides, Aliyev met with the secretary general of the Council of Europe
Terry Davis and discussed the issues of developing cooperation with
this organizations.

TAJIK-AZERBAIJANI MILITARY ACCORD
United Press International
June 5 2006
BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 5 (UPI) — Azerbaijan and Tajikistan have
signed an agreement on military cooperation.
Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev and Tajik Defense Minister
Shirali Khayrulloyev signed the agreement in Baku on June 1.
AssA-Irada reported Thursday that Abiyev told a news conference
after the signing ceremony, “I believe the document will positively
influence the expansion of bilateral ties in the area of defense and
serve to establishing stability in the Caucasus and Central Asia.”
The document provides for holding joint military exercises and training
of personnel.
Abiyev told Khayrulloyev that large quantities of weaponry and
ammunition are stored in Azerbaijani territories under Armenian
occupation. As the USSR collapsed in 1991, Azerbaijan and Armenia
became embroiled in a shooting war. In 1994, a cease-fire was signed.
About one-seventh of Azerbaijan’s territory is occupied by Armenian
forces, and Azerbaijan has 800,000 refugees and internally displaced
persons.
Tajikistan and Azerbaijan are also involved in NATO’s Partnership for
Peace program and the Commonwealth of Independent States, a union of
11 former Soviet republics.

FITCH GRANTS ARMENIA BB- RATING
RIA Novosti, Russia
June 5 2006
YEREVAN, June 5 (RIA Novosti) – International rating agency Fitch
said Monday it had assigned Armenia foreign and local currency issuer
default ratings of BB- with a stable outlook.
The agency also assigned the country a short-term rating of B, and
a country ceiling of BB-.
David Riley, Managing Director of Fitch’s Sovereigns Group,
said: “Armenia’s sovereign credit ratings are supported by prudent
macroeconomic policies and a declining public and external debt burden
that compares favorably with rated peers.”
He said the country’s impressive economic performance had been
underpinned by a robust and coherent macroeconomic policy framework,
and wide-ranging structural reforms that had enhanced the capacity
of the economy to absorb adverse shocks.

BLACK SEA SUMMIT OPENS IN BUCHAREST
Journal of Turkish Weekly
June 5 2006
A summit of Black Sea states opened in Bucharest today.
Speaking at the opening of the summit, Romanian Foreign Minister
Mihai Razvan Ungureanu said, “We should all work to define a new
vision for the Black Sea region, a new vision that would reflect the
new realities and create better conditions for its development.”
The presidents of Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and
Azerbaijan will explore setting up new energy routes to ensure supply
stability between Central Asia and Europe.
The EU wants to diversify energy supplies after a pricing dispute
between Ukraine and Russia cut supplies to Europe in January.
Also on the agenda are talks about the dispute between Armenia and
Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave is
an internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan but under de facto
control of ethnic Armenian separatists.
Officials attending today’s summit in the Romanian capital include
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Moldovan President Vladimir
Voronin, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Armenian Robert
Kocharian, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

ARMENIA/AZERBAIJAN: PRESIDENTS MEET IN BUCHAREST TO DISCUSS KARABAKH
Journal of Turkish Weekly
June 5 2006
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev have met for talks on the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Speaking to RFE/RL in an exclusive interview, Steven Mann, the U.S.
co-chair of the OSCE’s Minsk Group, said that the presidents spoke
for 2 and 1/2 hours on June 4. “There was a good atmosphere in the
talks and again, a good atmosphere and a detailed discussion,” he said.
The Minsk Group, which is co-chaired by the United States, Russia,
and France, has been negotiating the conflict since 1992.
Russian Minsk Group co-chair Yury Merzlyakov said the fact that the
presidents decided to meet was significant: “Russia’s position is
that a settlement cannot be imposed on the two parties. They should
reach it themselves, with the help of mediators. I think it is clear.
The parties themselves bear the main responsibility for reaching
a settlement.”
The talks are the second time the presidents have met this year,
after meeting in Rambouillet, near Paris, on February 10-11. Those
talks failed to yield any agreement.
Peace Prospects
Predominantly ethnic-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh seceded from Soviet
Azerbaijan in 1988, triggering a six-year war that ended with a
truce. Officially, the two countries are still at war.
Both presidents are under renewed pressure to reach a framework
agreement on solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by the end of
this year.
Diplomats and observers have said that, with the absence of national
elections in both countries, this year presents a good opportunity
to reach a framework agreement.
Today, the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents will both speak at the
Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization in the Romanian Parliament
in Bucharest.

THERE WAS GOOD ATMOSPHERE IN TALKS OF AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS IN BUCHAREST
Author: E.Huseynov
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
June 5 2006
There was a good atmosphere during the meeting of Armenian President
Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Bucharest
on June 4, and there was held a detailed discussion of the ways of
resolving the conflict, Trend reports quoting an interview of Steven
Mann, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE’s Minsk Group, to the radio
“Svaboda” (Freedom). Mann said that the presidents spoke for 2 and
1/2 hours.
Russian Minsk Group co-chair Yury Merzlyakov said the fact that the
presidents decided to meet was significant: “Russia’s position is
that a settlement cannot be imposed on the two parties. They should
reach it themselves, with the help of mediators. I think it is clear.
The parties themselves bear the main responsibility for reaching
a settlement.”