INTERNATIONAL ANTISMOKING DAY UNDER MOTTO “TOBACCO DEADLY IN ANY FORM” HELD IN YEREVAN
Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 1 2006
Yerevan, May 31. /ARKA/. The International day of struggle against
smoking has been held in Armenia under the motto “Tobacco deadly
in any form, under any mask”. At his press conference, Coordinator
of the Tobacco Control Program, RA Ministry of Health, Alexander
Bazarchyan reported that people must know that all kids of cigarettes
are dangerous.
About 2,000 aged 35-69 die from tobacco-caused diseases in Armenia
every year.
On May 29, 1999, the World health conference made a decision
on elaborating a Framework antismoking convention approved 192
countries. On February 27, 2005, the convention took effect in
Armenia.

ARONIAN’S INDIAN SUMMER
by Malcolm Pein
The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
May 31, 2006 Wednesday
ARMENIA stretched their lead to two points at the 37th Chess Olympiad
in Turin, with another powerful performance to overcome an in-form
Cuban team 3-1. This took their tally to 24/32. Russia were lucky
to draw 2-2 with the Czech Republic. Peter Svidler was outplayed by
David Navara and Alexander Morozevich was fortunate to win on time
in a dubious position after misplaying the opening.
Ukraine, France and the United States all advanced in the eighth
round and, like the Armenians, they have yet to lose.
Scotland lost to Iran 1-3 as John Shaw conceded his first draw.
England beat Lithuania 2.5-1.5, but Stuart Conquest lost again to
take his score back to 50 per cent.
Leaders: 1 Armenia 24; 2-3 Russia, Ukraine 22; 4-7 China, Georgia,
France, US 21.5; 8-9 Czech Republic, Germany 21; 36 England 18.5;
54 Scotland 17.5; 57 Ireland 17; 73 Wales 16.5.
HERE is Levon Aronian’s tremendous seventh-round win with black.
I Sokolov – L Aronian
37th Olympiad, Turin (7)
Nimzo-Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 c5 (This is the
sharpest way to counter 4.Qc2. Nigel Short got a draw with it against
Kasparov in their WCC final in 1993, but then made the mistake of
playing it again) 7.dxc5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Ne4 10.Bxb8 (10.e3 is best
to answer Qa5 with Nge2) 10…Qf6! (A novelty, but I think the move has
been analysed. Black hits c3 a third time and threatens Qxf2) 11.Bg3
Nxc3 12.a3 Bf5 (12…Ba5 13.b4 Ne4 14.Rd1 Bf5 15.Qc1 and White emerges
at least one pawn ahead with the better position) 13.Qd2 Ba5 14.b4
(14.e3! is critical, but Black’s resources are more than adequate
14…0-0-0! [14…0-0 15.b4 Ne4 16.Qd4! defends] 15.Nf3 [or 15.b4
d4! 16.bxa5 dxe3 wins] 15…d4!! 16.Be5 [16.Nxd4 Rxd4 17.exd4 Re8+]
16…dxe3! 17.fxe3 Rxd2 18.Bxf6 Rxb2 19.Bxh8 Nd5+ 20.Nd2 Bxd2+ wins)
14…Ne4 15.Qc1 Rc8!! (A hard move to foresee because it appears to
attack a well-protected pawn, but it wins. White cannot afford to open
any lines) 16.Ra2 (16.bxa5 Rxc5 17.Qd1 Qc3+ 18.Qd2 Qxd2 mate. Or 16.Nf3
Rxc5 17.Be5 Rxc1+ 18.Rxc1 Qb6!) 16…Rxc5 17.Qa1 Qc6!! (A brilliant
finish, White is mated on c1 so Black just has to avoid the checks)
18.Qe5+ Kd8! 19.Qxh8+ Kd7 0-1
Aronian
Sokolov
Final position after 19…Kd7.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY, ARMENIA HAVE HELD TALKS ON NORMALISING TIES: OFFICIAL
Agence France Presse — English
May 31, 2006 Wednesday 12:02 PM GMT
Diplomats from Turkey and Armenia have held exploratory talks since
last year in a bid to normalise bilateral ties poisoned by allegations
of genocide against Armenians during World War I, a Turkish foreign
ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
Three rounds of talks have been held so far between deputy
undersecretaries of the two foreign ministries “to determine whether
there is common ground on which to make progress with respect to
bilateral ties,” spokesman Namik Tan told a press conference here.
Preparations are under way for the next round of talks, he added.
Tan said Ankara is determined to pursue efforts to normalise relations,
but said Armenia too must do its part.
“Naturally, getting a result from these efforts would depend on
Armenia adopting a more flexible and constructive attitude, as well
as acting in line with international law in current bilateral and
regional problems,” Tan said.
Ankara has refused to set up diplomatic ties with Yereven since the
former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991 because of Armenian
efforts to secure international condemnation of the controversial
1915-1917 killings as genocide.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings during the last years of the Ottoman Empire,
the predecessor of modern Turkey.
Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label and argues that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia
and sided with Russian troops invading Ottoman soil.
In 1993, Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with
Armenia over the Nagorny-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy economic
blow on the impoverished nation.
Ankara wants Armenia to both abandon its campaign for the recognition
of the massacres as genocide, and make progress in its dispute with
Baku before formal diplomatic relations can be established.
Tan explained that the recent talks were launched after an exchange
of letters in April 2005 between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
In initiating the correspondence, Erdogan proposed the creation of a
joint commission of historians to study the genocide allegations as
a first step towards normalising ties.
Kocharian accepted the Turkish proposal in principle, but underlined
that Ankara should first unconditionally normalise relations with
Yerevan.
Ankara is under pressure from the European Union, which it is seeking
to join, to re-open its border with Armenia, and has faced mounting
calls from EU countries to address the genocide allegations.
The Armenian massacres remain one of the most sensitive periods in
Turkish history despite a burgeoning debate among Turks on the issue.
Several Western countries have recognized the killings of that period
as genocide, much to Ankara’s chagrin.

PROSECUTOR-GENERAL AGAIN DENIES LINKS WITH NEW PARTY
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep
June 1 2006
Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian insisted on Thursday that he
was not behind the recent creation of a new political party that has
staked a claim to a role in Armenia’s next government to be formed
after next year’s parliamentary election.
“I have said repeatedly that I am not engaged in party building,” he
said. “You may say something once and everyone will understand. But
you may say something for ten times and not everyone will understand.”
Hovsepian was commenting on allegations by a top leader of the
governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun),
Hrant Markarian, that he is illegally sponsoring the Association for
Armenia party. Some of the party’s leaders have close ties with the
influential prosecutor.
“The current prosecutor of the Republic of Armenia has no right to
create a party. Neither directly, nor indirectly,” Markarian told the
newspaper “Iravunk” last week. He repeated his view in an interview
with RFE/RL on Tuesday.
Markarian also accused Hovsepian of behaving like a “feudal ruler”
of the central Aragatsotn province which is governed by a member
of Dashnaktsutyun. Reports in the Dashnaktsutyun-controlled media
have said the Prosecutor-General’s Office has conducted politically
motivated inspections of local government agencies and schools in
recent weeks.
One of the Aragatsotn districts, Aparan, is known as the stronghold of
Hovsepian’s Nig-Aparan organization uniting prominent natives of the
area. The Association for Armenia plans to make a strong showing there.
“The people know well who is who,” Hovsepian told RFE/RL after
inaugurating a new U.S.-funded forensic laboratory of Armenia’s
law-enforcement bodies. He refused to answer more questions.

A SHORTAGE OF MINISTERS
by Irada Alekperova, Baku; Petr Iskenderov
Source: Vremya Novostei, May 31, 2006, p. 2
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
May 31, 2006 Wednesday
Not all CIS defense ministers are attending the Baku meeting;
The defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and representatives
of the CIS executive committee, will attend a meeting in Azerbaijan
today. Representatives of Georgia and Armenia will not attend.
A scheduled meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers will
be held in Baku today. The defense ministers of Azerbaijan, Russia,
Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,
and representatives of the CIS executive committee, will attend the
summit. Representatives of Georgia and Armenia will not attend. The
Ukrainian delegation will be present as an observer.
The agenda includes around 20 issues, including the program of
development of military cooperation within the framework of the CIS
until 2010. The ministers also hope to pass the agenda of the Council
of defense ministers for 2007, discuss the development of the joint
air defense system, the creation of the joint communications system
and the performance of the collective peacekeeping contingent in the
zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov will chair the meeting. He arrived in Baku yesterday
and held negotiations with Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abiyev.
The newspaper reports that the ministers plan to discuss the Karabakh
problem. They will have to do this without Armenia. The press service
of the Azeri Defense Ministry stated that Baku considers Armenian
servicemen as persona non grata, which is why the republic did not
sent the invitation to Yerevan.
Armenia explained the situation as follows. Press secretary Seiran
Shakhsuvaryan of the Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijan did not
provide security guarantees. Yerevan awaits the Council’s official
reaction to Azerbaijan’s failure to ensure the security of participants
in the international conference on its territory.
Azeri press secretary Ilgar Verdiyev said that such accusations are
unfounded. He stated: “We oppose Armenia’s participation in the summit
because it seized 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory.”
Political analyst Elkhan Kuliyev said that the absence of the Armenian
representative was predicted beforehand. Firstly, society’s reaction
to such contacts is very painful. The Organization for Liberation of
Karabakh has repeatedly organized actions of protest against Armenian
representatives’ visits to Baku. Elkhan Kuliyev stated that Baku
prefers to seek the solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem through
the Minsk OSCE group, since negotiations between the presidents of
Azerbaijan and Armenia held in Paris failed.
The absence of the Armenian defense minister is not the only problem.
Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili will not attend the
meeting either. Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko
arrived Baku with “special opinion.” He said: “Ukraine’s status is
an observer. We will not sign documents passed at the meeting.”
Hrytsenko arrives in Baku in the wake of a scandal over an unauthorized
visit to the Crimea by NATO representatives. He had to apologize on
television for concealing information that the US cargo ship which
visited Feodosia on May 27 carried weapons.

RUSSIA TO LIFT BAN ON ARMENIAN FRUIT, VEGETABLE IMPORTS VIA GEORGIA
Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
May 31, 2006 Wednesday 4:44 PM EET
Russia is to lift a ban on fruit and vegetable imports from Armenia
transported via the territory of Georgia, Sergei Dankvert, head of
Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinarian and Phytosanitarian control,
said Wednesday.
Russia and Armenia have reached an agreement on safety procedures
when transporting the supplies, Dankvert said.
The ban was imposed in March after it was found that on several
occasions shipments were being imported with forged health
certificates. Dankvert added that during talks with Armenia it turned
out that the forgeries occurred in Georgia.
“Armenian exporters will have to send notification of any shipment one
day before its arrival,” Dankvert said, adding that the notification
should specify the registration number of the health certificate
for the shipment and the registration number of the truck carrying
the supplies.
Dankvert stressed that all steps taken by the service were to
ensure the safety of imported products. He denied any political
implications. Georgia earlier accused Russia of banning fruit and
vegetable imports as well as imports of wine and mineral water to
put political pressure on the country.

A CLAIM OF 50 MILLION ROUBLES IN GYUMRI
A1+
[01:19 pm] 01 June, 2006
Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Filaret Berikyan claims
that the question of compensating deposits by the Government is still
in effect, and the distribution of money will likely start from July.
It is worth mentioning that only the sum of the 4542 citizens
registered in 2 regional social services of Gymri is 50 million
roubles. The number of depositors registered in 1 social service of
Gyumri has reached 4 738, who presented 10 thousand 500 saving-account
books.
TV Company “Tsayg” of Gyumri.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN OFFICIAL SAYS NO SECRET TALKS HELD WITH TURKEY IN 2006
Arminfo
1 Jun 06
Yerevan, 1 June: The Armenian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that
Armenian and Turkish diplomats have held several meetings.
Commenting on recent reports in the Turkish media about meetings
between Armenian and Turkish diplomats, Armenian Deputy Foreign
Minister Gegam Garibdzhanyan told journalists today that such meetings
had really taken place.
“There was an exchange of letters,” Garibdzhanyan said. But he also
said that the statement by Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik
Tan that three such meetings have already taken place and a fourth
one is being prepared is groundless and not a single adviser of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry is dealing with this issue. Garibdzhanyan
said that such meetings have taken place, but not in 2006.
He expressed Armenia’s position on Armenian-Turkish relations
once again and said that Armenia suggests lifting the blockade of
the Armenian-Turkish border without preconditions, establishing
diplomatic relations and recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915
in Ottoman Turkey.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TIGRAN TOROSSYAN ELECTED SPEAKER OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT
Yerevan, June 1. ArmInfo. By 94 MPs pros and only 1 contra the vice
speaker of the Armenian parliament Tigran Torossyan has been elected
speaker of the parliament.
Torossyan was nominated by the Republic Party. The election followed
the May 12 resignation of the speaker of the parliament Artur
Bagdassaryan.
Torossyan thanked the MPs for their confidence and urged them to
actively cooperate. He expressed hope that from now on the parliament
will work more effectively.
Torossyan was born in Yerevan Apr 14 1956. In 1978 he graduated from
yerevan Polytechnic Institute. He is candidate of technical sciences.
In 1996-1998 he was member of Central Electoral Commission, in
1997-1998 editor of Republic daily, in 1999-2003 MP. Jan 12 2003 he
was elected vice speaker of the Armenian parliament. He is married,
has one child.

ARMENIAN, KAZAKH FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSS BILATERAL RELATIONS
Arminfo
1 Jun 06
Yerevan, 1 June: In view of the fact that Kazakhstan will hold the
presidency of the OSCE in 2009, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan gave his Kazakh counterpart Kasymzhomart Tokayev detailed
information about the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
The Armenian foreign minister is paying a two-day official visit
to Kazakhstan.
During the meeting held today, the Armenian and Kazakh foreign
ministers discussed a number of issues of bilateral and international
interest, the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry has told
Arminfo. The parties expressed their satisfaction with the level of
political relations between the two countries. The ministers expressed
their mutual interest in the deepening of economic cooperation, which
is promoted by the work of the Armenian-Kazakh government commission,
existing legal agreements and the absence of political disagreements.
In the context of boosting bilateral trade and economic relations, the
Armenian foreign minister noted the importance of organizing meetings
between entrepreneurs and holding cultural events. The sides also paid
special attention to energy and transport issues. In this regard, the
Kazakh foreign minister informed Oskanyan about Kazakhstan’s position
on some regional programmes, especially Kazakhstan’s involvement
in projects being implemented in the Caspian region. In conclusion,
the Armenian foreign minister invited his Kazakh counterpart to pay
an official visit to Armenia at any convenient time.
The Armenian foreign minister also met Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev and delivered a speech at the Diplomatic Institute today.
Oskanyan is planning to meet representatives of the Armenian diaspora
in Almaty on 2 June.