France’s Alcatel to build network for Armenia’s K-Telecom
Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
August 3, 2005
MOSCOW, Aug 3 (Prime-Tass) — France’s Alcatel has concluded a contract
on building a GSM network for Armenia’s mobile operator K-Telecom,
Alcatel said Wednesday.
The exact amount of the contract was not disclosed, but Alcatel said
that it is worth several millions of euros.
Alcatel plans to build the network together with Greece’s Intracom.
Alcatel is to install over 200 base stations with the operational
capacity of 400,000 numbers.
Operation of the first stage of K-Telecom’s network began on July 1.
K-Telecom, an affiliate of Karabakh Telecom, is controlled by Lebanese
businessman Pierre Fattouch and is to provide its services under the
VivaCell trademark in Armenia.
K-Telecom has already invested more than U.S. USD 75 million in its
network in Armenia and projects its subscriber base at 300,000 users
in 2005.
Earlier national telecom company ArmenTel has held a monopoly
to provide GSM services in Armenia. However, in November 2004 the
Armenian government decided to make amendments to ArmenTel’s license,
depriving the company of its exclusive right to provide GSM, mobile
satellite and mobile radio communication services in the country.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Chess champ manoeuvres to take a piece of Putin
by Jeremy Page
The Australian
August 4, 2005 Thursday All-round Country Edition
Despite a rough opening, Garry Kasparov is determined to topple the
political king, writes Jeremy Page in Moscow
IF chess is mental torture, as Garry Kasparov once said, then Russian
politics has not been much kinder to him since his dramatic debut
this year.
In the past five months he has been hit over the head with a
chessboard, roughed up by police, pelted with eggs and tomato sauce
and bombarded with verbal abuse.
All this after he announced in March that he was retiring from
competitive chess to dedicate himself to the political fight against
President Vladimir Putin.
Kasparov, 42, is not used to being the underdog, having dominated
chess since 1985 when he became its youngest world champion.
Yet far from being intimidated, he is throwing himself into the
toughest — and riskiest — contest of his life, with all the flair
and aggression that made him the greatest chess player to date.
“There’s only one chance for this country — if the regime collapses,”
Kasparov said.
“If the Government doesn’t change, then we must change the Government.”
Unlike most of Putin’s opponents, he is not talking about running in
the next parliamentary elections in 2007 or standing for president
in 2008.
He is travelling around Russia calling openly for a peaceful
revolution, like those that rocked Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine
last year.
The trigger, he predicts, will be an attempt by the Kremlin to change
the constitution to allow Putin to serve a third term instead of
stepping down in 2008.
“Next year the country will go through a political crisis which will
decide the future of the country,” Kasparov said. “We’re talking
about mass protests.”
Such talk is highly provocative — if not seditious — when the Kremlin
has spent much of the past five years silencing political opponents.
In May, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed for nine years in
what was widely seen as punishment for meddling in politics. Then
Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister, became the target of a
corruption probe last month after hinting at running for president
in 2008.
So far, the worst Kasparov has suffered is being hit on the head with
a chessboard by a young activist in April and roughed up by police
outside Khodorkovsky’s court hearing in May.
In public, Russian officials have responded to his challenge with
disdain — dismissing him as a political non-entity who appeals only
to the West.
Many political analysts agree, saying most Russians have not heard
about his campaign and would not support him because of his Caucasian
and Jewish roots. He was born in Azerbaijan to an Armenian mother
and a Jewish father.
But at the same time, officials are going to extraordinary lengths
to prevent such a respected celebrity from entering the political fray.
That much became clear when Kasparov went to southern Russia in June
to drum up grassroots support in Dagestan, North Ossetia, Stavropol
and Rostov.
“Unlike my critics, I go to the Russian regions,” he said.
“It’s the only way to learn the situation in my country because the
media is under the Kremlin’s strict control.”
In Dagestan, authorities blocked him from meeting refugees from
neighbouring Chechnya and even tried to stop him giving prizes at a
children’s chess tournament.
In North Ossetia, a meeting with Beslan residents in a cultural centre
was cancelled after officials hastily arranged a showing of the movie
Madagascar there.
Then he was hit with eggs covered in tomato sauce in Vladikavkaz,
the regional capital.
At his next stops, in Stavropol and Rostov, the airports refused to
let his charter plane land.
Hotels in Stavropol would not accept him and meetings in both places
had to be held outside after the venues developed “technical” problems.
Kasparov says he believes local authorities were under orders from
Putin’s personal representative in the region, Dmitry Kozak.
“If they act in this way, they are scared — scared of anyone talking
with the people,” Kasparov said. “If people don’t like my ideas,
then fine, but at least let them speak with me.”
Kasparov dabbled in politics in the 1990s and, early last year,
was voted chairman of Committee 2008: Free Choice, a liberal group
dedicated to ensuring the next presidential election is free and
fair. But his real political awakening came after the Beslan school
siege, when the Kremlin announced plans to abolish direct elections
for regional governors.
This year he formed his own, more militant, group called the United
Civil Front.
“It’s extreme because the situation is extreme,” he said.
“The Government is violating the Russian constitution and limiting
our rights to influence the electoral process.”

GOP Criminal Flip-Flop: Was Denny Hastert Bribed By Turkish Agents?
Blogcritics.org
Aug 4 2005
Posted by Balletshooz on August 04, 2005 08:03 PM (See all posts by
Balletshooz)
Filed under: Politics – Scroll down to read comments on this story
and/or add one of your own.
Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years in Coaching and Politics
Dennis Hastert
Book from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
Release date: August, 2004
Why exactly did Denny Hastert flip-flop at the last moment, derailing
a Congressional resolution designating as genocide the killings of
Armenians between 1915 and 1923? He initially attributed it to a
letter from Bill Clinton, but new FBI wiretaps show Turkish foreign
agents mentioning Hastert’s name in the context of a bribe, right
before the resolution was scheduled to pass.
Is Denny Hastert taking bribes from foreign officials and why is
the Justice Department trying to squelch an investigation into the
matter? What are they trying to hide? These new allegations, if allowed
to surface, will make Tom Delay and Karl Rove look like Mother Teresa
and Gandhi. Call it Genocide-Gate, Traitor-Gate, or Hastert-Gate,
the American public and American law enforcement deserve to know and
must take a close look at this unfolding scandal.
For many years, attempts had been made to get the House to pass the
genocide resolution, but they never got anywhere until August 2000,
when Hastert, as Speaker of the House, announced that he would give
it his backing and see that it received a full House vote. Thanks to
Hastert, the resolution, vehemently opposed by the Turks, passed.
Then on October 19, minutes before the full House vote, Hastert
suddenly and without explanation withdrew it.
Vanity Fair’s September edition, which has yet to hit national
newsstands, has an article about Sibel Edmonds, an FBI translator who
has been gagged by the Bush administration from revealing information
about conversations she translated surrounding a seemingly major
corruption scandal involving Turkish nationals and U.S. lawmakers.
The following are some brief excerpts from RAW STORY surrounding the
allegations Edmonds has made-some of which the FBI has confirmed-about
the specifics surrounding her case:
· According to those briefed on the case, Edmonds says she has heard
classified wiretaps, which indicate Turkish nationals tried to bribe
lawmakers in Chicago and Washington.
· Edmonds was fired from the FBI after trying to persuade her bosses
to investigate a Turkish family, the Dickersons, she said was trying
to trade on her status as an FBI operative. She suspected that the
American Turkish Council, which the family tried to persuade her to
join, was a front group for criminal activity.
· On top of the usual prohibition against disclosing classified
information, the Bush administration has smothered her case beneath the
all-encompassing blanket of the “state-secrets privilege”-a Draconian
and rarely used legal weapon that allows the government, merely by
asserting a risk to national security, to prevent the lawsuits
Edmonds has filed contesting her treatment from being heard in court
at all. According to the Department of Justice, to allow Edmonds her
day in court, even at a closed hearing attended only by personnel
with full security clearance, “could reasonably be expected to cause
serious damage to the foreign policy and national security of the
United States.”
Edmonds’ attorney, who works for the ACLU, says: “It also begs a
question: Just what in the world is the government trying to hide?”
One counterintelligence official familiar with Edmonds’s case
has told Vanity Fair that the FBI opened an investigation into
covert activity by Turkish nations and found evidence, mainly via
wiretaps, of attempts to corrupt senior American politicians. One
name apparently stood out-a man the Turkish callers often referred
to by the nickname “Denny boy.” According to some of the wiretaps it
was Denny Hastert. The FBI’s targets had arranged for thousands of
dollars to be paid to Hastert’s campaign funds in small checks. Under
Federal Election Commission rules, donations of less than $200 are
not required to be itemized in public filings.
An examination of Hastert’s federal filings shows that the level
of un-itemized payments his campaigns received over many years was
very high. Between April 1996 and December 2002, un-itemized personal
donations to the Hastert for Congress fund amounted to $483,000. In
contrast, un-itemized contributions to the same period to the
committee run on behalf of the House majority leader, Tom DeLay,
Republican of Texas, were only $99,000. An analysis of the filings
of four other senior Republicans shows that only one, Clay Shaw,
of Florida declared a higher total of un-itemized donations than
Hastert during the same period: $552,00.
Edmonds reportedly added that the recordings contained repeated
references to Hastert’s flip-flop in the fall of 2000, “over an
issue which remains of intense concern to the Turkish government-the
continuing campaign to have Congress designate the killings of
Armenians between 1915 and 1923 a genocide.” Hastert’s spokesman
denied the allegations that he was bribed by a foreign agent, and
said he knew nothing of the Turkish group.
Hastert’s defense is sounding a lot like some parallel Republican
defenses to ongoing criminal investigations, namely Karl Rove, Tom
DeLay, and Randy “Duke” Cunningham. They claim to have no involvement
in the crime until it becomes obvious they are involved, and then
they try to smear anyone willing to talk about it. This has become
an ongoing pattern in the Republican administration and a danger to
democracy. Only the justice system running its proper course can shed
light on what crimes, if any, have been committed by Denny Hastert, and
obstruction of the investigation should be roundly condemned by all.
–Boundary_(ID_mMHb8ShwhD8YfuuS9QrJ1w)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CBS2 Chicago, IL
Aug 4 2005
Magazine Article Claims Hastert Took Bribes
Story Alleges Hastert Took Money To Block Armenian Resolution
Mike Flannery
Reporting
(CBS) A spokesman for speaker of the House Speaker Denny Hastert
tonight is ridiculing a magazine story that claims Hastert may have
taken bribes.
There is little hard evidence to support the explosive allegations.
The claim is that Hastert may have accepted tens of thousands
of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for blocking a
Congressional resolution about a bloody Armenian-Turkish Conflict.
As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, that conflict 80
years ago claimed more than one million Armenian lives.
It was only after a personal appeal from then-President Clinton
that Speaker Hastert agreed to block a Congressional vote on the
resolution. Armenian-Americans have long wanted the U.S. government
to declare that Turkey was guilty of genocide in 1915, when more than
one million Armenians died.
“My own family were driven into the Syrian desert, where almost
everybody perished. My father and his brother were among the few
survivors,” said Ann Lucine.
Enter Vanity Fair magazine’s David Rose. In next month’s edition,
he claims that sources told him of secret recordings in which
diplomats from Turkey were heard referring to Hastert as “Denny-Boy”
and allegedly discussed making campaign contributions of $500,000 to
get Hastert to block the genocide resolution.
Hastert was in Japan today, one stop on an official trip to AsIa.
In a statement, a spokesman said: “This story is nonsense. It makes
for great summertime reading. Next thing you know, they’ll blame the
speaker for the Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt breakup.”
“I took a quick look at the Vanity Fair article,” Lucine said. “I
would be shocked if the allegations of bribery or criminal actions
were true.”
Like Ann Lucine, Armenian-American activists disagreed strongly
with Speaker Hastert when he withdrew the genocide resolution from
a House floor vote he had promised. But they knew President Clinton
and then-Sec. of State Madeline Albright were pressuring Hastert,
telling him of Turkish threats to close American military bases
vitally needed for the fight against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Russian sailors owe release on bail to collective effort-Abramian
By Tamara Frolkina
ITAR-TASS News Agency
August 4, 2005 Thursday 12:32 PM Eastern Time
MOSCOW, August 4 — The release of Russian sailors from a Nigerian
prison on bail is largely a result of collective efforts by diplomats
and political and public figures, UNESCO’s goodwill ambassador Ara
Abramian has told Tass in an interview.
“I was very glad to hear the news about the Nigerian court’s decision
to release our sailors against the Russian embassy’s guarantees. That
success is a product of our joint efforts,” he said.
As UNESCO’s goodwill ambassador, Abramian took an active part in the
humanitarian campaign for easing the plight of Russian sailors kept
in a tight security prison in Nigeria.
The African pride oil tanker belonging to a Greek company, whose crew
included fifteen Russian sailors, was detained in the autumn of 2003
in neutral waters off Nigeria on the suspicion of oil smuggling. The
tanker’s crew was arrested.
There have been repeated calls on the Nigerian leadership for easing
the Russian sailors’ conditions from the Patriarch of Moscow and all
Russia Alexy II, State Duma members and the Russian Foreign Ministry.
State Duma international affairs committee Konstantin Kosachyov said
last month, “We have approached UNESCO’s goodwill ambassador Ara
Abramian, with whom we have a good relationship, with a request for
joining the efforts to settle the situation,” Kosachyov said. “He
readily agreed.”
Abramian then told the media that as UNESCO’s goodwill ambassador
he was prepared for taking part in the humanitarian action to help
ease the conditions of Russian sailors, but that was a very delicate
matter. He explained that he would be able to work for a solution,
if there was a formal request from the Russian Foreign Ministry and
the mandate for using his international contacts for negotiations
with the Nigerian leadership.
“This is precisely the line of action we chose to follow with the
Armenian government to secure the release of Armenian pilots from
jail in Equatorial Guinea,” Abramian said.

AGREEMENT OVER KARABAKH ISSUE MAY BE REACHED AT KOCHARIAN-ALIYEV MEETING
PanArmenian News Network
Aug 4 2005
04.08.2005 02:46
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “An agreement over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
may be reached at the recurrent meeting of the Azeri and Armenian
Presidents to be held August 26. The talks held within the past
year provide ground for an opinion of this kind,” Project Director
of International Crisis Group for Caucasus Sabine Freizer stated in
the air of RFE/RL. In her words, the population is not sufficiently
informed on the course of the talks, which results in discontent and
press speculations. “It is utterly important for the Governments
of Azerbaijan and Armenia to provide information to their country
population irrespective of whether an agreement is reached or not.
Otherwise the attitude of the population of both countries to any
arranged issues will be negative,” she said. The International Crisis
Group monthly report says during OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ visit
to the region there were optimistic conversations about peace. The
document says that the matter of the referendum in Karabakh was
discussed in the press, while the Azeri MFA denies it. The report
also notes that in spite of the public opinion in Azerbaijan still
being very critical, relative calmness is available in Armenia. It
notes that on the eve of the parliamentary election pressure over
Azerbaijan increases – the US, EU and OSCE make statements on the
need to hold free and fair election.

ARMENIA AND THAILAND TO SIGN AGREEMENT ON SCIENTIFIC-ENGINEERING COOPERATION
PanArmenian News Network
Aug 4 2005
04.08.2005 07:06
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Government has approved of the proposal
to sign an agreement between the Governments of Armenia and Thailand
on scientific-engineering cooperation. Today the Government also
approved of the proposal to sign a memorandum on legal assistance
and cooperation between Offices of Prosecutor General of Armenia
and Georgia, the Press Service of the Armenian Government told
PanARMENIAN.Net.

Azeri official criticizes Russia for moving hardware from Georgia to Armenia
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
4 Aug 05
[Presenter] Moscow today started transferring part of its military
hardware from Georgia to its Gyumri military base in Armenia.
[Azerbaijani] Deputy Foreign Minister Xalaf Xalafov has said that this
is a threat to the region and that Russia is disrupting stability in
the region with its step. Xalafov also criticized the OSCE’s loyal
attitude to steps that pose a threat to the region.
[Correspondent, over video of Xalafov] The deployment of military
hardware and ammunition withdrawn from Georgia at the Gyumri base
in Armenia is a threat to stability in the region. Having said this,
Xalafov said that Russia’s step should worry not only Baku, but also
all regional states.
[Xalafov] Of course, the deployment of military bases in an aggressive
country like Armenia does not serve security and stability in the
region. It does not strengthen stability, on the contrary, makes these
issues even more tense and complicated. We have already expressed our
opinion about this and will express it in the future. I think it is an
issue that concerns not only Azerbaijani-Armenian-Russian relations,
but also all regional relations.
[Correspondent] The deputy minister also said that the Kremlin had
informed Azerbaijan that military hardware, weapons and munitions
will be sent to Armenia. They even guaranteed that these weapons will
never be used against our country.
[Xalafov] The Russian side has officially told us at various levels
that these weapons, hardware, equipment and forces will be sent to
Russian military bases in Armenia. This does not mean that these
forces will be handed over to Armenia. They told us about this and
confirmed this. They gave us guarantees that this will be the case.
[Correspondent] At the same time, Xalafov thinks that the issue
of deploying bases in Armenia should be solved both by Russia and
Azerbaijan and by OSCE member states. Otherwise, this organization,
which ensures regional supervision, will have to bear responsibility
for the security of the region.
[Xalafov] There is an OSCE agreement on the balance of weapons in
this region and there are agreements on applying it. Of course,
we should look at these issues in this context and the balance
should not disrupted. The balance has been disrupted anyway. The
balance has been disrupted to such an extent that one country of
the region has invaded another country and keeps 20 per cent of its
territory under occupation. The OSCE should deal with this issue in
the future. The OSCE bears direct responsibility for solving this
issue in a peaceful way.
[Correspondent] The deputy minister said that instead of preventing
these factors in regional security issues, the OSCE is creating
conditions for this.
[Passage omitted: Details of Russian military hardware sent to Armenia]

ARMENIAN PM RECEIVES EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
ArmenPress
Aug 4 2005
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian received today Egyptian ambassador to Armenia Mrs. Abla
Abd al-Rahman Osman.
Governmental press service said during the meeting the prime minister
expressed condolences on the terrorist attack in Sharm el Sheikh July
23 and pointed out that terrorism is an evil directed against the
humanity and must be condemned. Referring to the Armenian-Egyptian
political relations, particularly in international organizations,
Andranik Margarian said they are on a high level and noted that within
the frameworks of amendments in UN Armenia is for including Egypt in
the Security Council.
As to bilateral trade-economic cooperation, the prime minister
said there are not satisfactory at the same time noting that during
the recent period positive steps have been implemented towards the
development of the cooperation.
The Egyptian ambassador expressed hope that the visit of the Armenian
prime minister to Egypt planned on fall will tangibly promote the
expansion of economic cooperation. The visit will be followed by the
4th session of the Armenian-Egyptian inter-parliamentary commission, by
the Armenian-Egyptian business conference and political consultations
between Foreign Affairs Ministries. During the meeting they also
discussed the possibility of developing new programs for cooperation
in health, cultural, education, agricultural and other spheres
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DISCUSSIONS OF “MILLENNIUM CHALLENGES” PROGRAM PASS SUCCESSFULLY
ArmenPress
Aug 4 2005
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS: This year the qualification round
of the “Millennium Challenges” program will end and afterwards the
negotiations over preparation of the agreement will launch, Tigran
Khachatrian, deputy finance minister, told at a press conference.
He said within the frameworks of the program a group of experts from
US arrived in Armenia to assess the separate points of the program
from qualification viewpoint. At present the effectiveness of the
points is being discussed i.e. whether they will secure economic
growth and promote the poverty reduction.
T. Khachatrian said the discussion of the program is going on
successfully and added that they have reached positive response over
two major points which are connected with the construction of community
roads and ensuring water supply. The two issues have been assessed as
important factors for securing economic growth and promoting poverty
reduction in Armenia. The deputy minister also noted that the first
real investments in the program will be made in 2007.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress