NKR MFA: KARABAKH CONFLICT SHOULD BE SETTLED IN HUMANITARIAN DIMENSION
PanArmenian News Network
Aug 3 2005
03.08.2005 02:29
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Representatives of the Azerbaijani mass media,
having no idea of the details of the peaceful process on the
Karabakh problem and its political-legal aspects, publish articles,
in which the information of official Stepanakert is misconstrued. As a
result, an atmosphere, hindering the understanding of human values
and considering any alternative means and goals is created in the
Azerbaijani society. It is doubtless that the search of mutually
profitable and fair settlement of the Karabakh conflict is possible
only via establishment of effective communication between the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the Azerbaijani Republic. In this
connection, it should be re-emphasized that any settlement of the
Karabakh conflict, the current stage of which started with such
humanitarian calamity as mass killings of Armenians in Sumgait and
Baku, as well as further ethnic cleansing, deportation and banishment
of nearly 500 000 Armenian citizens of the former Azerbaijani SSR
in 1988-1990, must, first of all, propose restoration of justice
and reparation of the moral and financial losses to these people,
including recognition of their right for having their Motherland. The
Azerbaijani leadership is entirely responsible for unleashing the
military activities and their results, including the issue of paying
reparations to all the refugees and IDP’s, suffered from these
actions, regardless of their nationality and current citizenship.
Starting with humanitarian calamity, the Karabakh conflict must be
settled just in the humanitarian dimension, in full accordance with
the fundamental principles and goals of international law.

RUBEN HAYRAPETIAN WON YOUTH CHESS TOURNAMENT IN ESTONIA
PanArmenian News Network
Aug 3 2005
03.08.2005 02:35
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A youth chess tournament was held in Parnu, Estonia
July 29-31. 61 young chess players from 11 youth chess clubs of the
country took part in the competition. Pupil of Shakh and Garde club,
10-year-old Ruben Hayrapetian (youngest age group) again distinguished
himself as the best player. He has won 6 of the 7 games and played one
in a draw thus winning the first place with 6.5 points, Yerkramas,
the newspaper of Armenians of Russia reports. Ruben’s 7-th victory
this year is a record for Estonia. Before this one he has won all
the republican tournaments. Ruben has practiced chess since he was 5
years old. Since the age of 6 he has taken part not only in all the
youth age groups but also among adults. Presently he is 10 and is a
candidate for master of sports. In 2005 he won the 4-th place in the
Estonian tournament in the age group under 10 and also shared the 2-nd
and 5-th horizontals in the age group under 12. He gained the right
to represent Estonia at the European youth championship to be held mid
September in Serbia and Montenegro. As Yerkramas reporter came to know
from the republican public union of Baltic Armenian House, Ruben has a
dream. He has never been to Armenia and wishes to participate in the
Armenian tournaments. His club fellows, double champion of Estonia
among girls Yana Hayrapetian and bronze medallist of the Estonian
championship under the age of 18 Vitaliy Khalapian have the same dream.

MAMMADYAROV AND RICE DISCUSSED U.S. ROLE IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
PanArmenian News Network
Aug 3 2005
03.08.2005 03:43
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yesterday Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov, who is on visit to the U.S. at present, met with U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the development of
the Azerbaijan-U.S. relations, Karabakh conflict and the role of
the United States in its settlement, energy projects of the Caspian
basin, parliamentary election campaign, current situation in the
Caucasus and some other issues. Meetings in the U.S. government,
Pentagon and the National Security Council are as well scheduled.
Elmar Mammadyarov will take part in the round table debates to be held
with the participation of representatives of the National Democracy
Institute, International Republican Institute of and a number of NGOs.

PERSONAL OFFICE OF THE CE SECRETARY GENERAL: EVERYTHING TO BE DONE
FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE INCIDENT CONNECTED WITH THE ARMENIAN
NATIONAL FLAG DISAPPEARANCE
ARKA News Agency
Aug 3
YEREVAN, August 3. /ARKA/. Everything will be done to find out the
details of the incident connected with disappearance of the Armenian
flag from the territory of the headquarter of the Council o Europe
in Strasburg, as the Office of the Secretary General of the Council
of Europe reported MFA in response to the diplomatic note of protest
sent by the MFA to the CE, according to the RA MFA Press Service
Department. As the Office reports, all measures are taken to put the
Armenian flag back in its place. With regard to the investigation,
representatives of the Secretary General of the CE discussed the
incident with the police of France, which is responsible for the
safety of the territory adjacent to the headquarter, and assured
that they will do their best to prevent such things in the future.
To remind, on July 30 the Armenian national flag has disappeared
from the territory of the CE Headquarters, and the stand of Armenia
has been distorted. The permanent representative office of RA to the
CE informed the CE Security Service and demanded to return the flag
back in its place as soon as possible. RA MFA sent a note of protest
to the RA Secretary General, condemning the incident and demanding
that all the circumstances be investigated and the culprits be held
responsible. Jean Lui Lurani, Director of the Personal Office of the CE
Secretary General, has already apologized for the incident. A.H. –0–

The Cost of Secrecy
Seattle Weekly, WA
Aug 3 2005
A citizen pursues meaningful monetary punishment for King County’s
failure to disclose public records.
by Rick Anderson and Chuck Taylor
It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to comprehend the state’s
public- disclosure law. But Armen Yousoufian, 57, who once helped
build missiles for Boeing, had to go where no man had gone before. He
ran an eight-year gauntlet of closed King County government doors,
bureaucratic roadblocks, and finger-wagging officials. They told
him he just didn’t understand a state law that is intended to splash
sunshine on the schemes of public servants.
Later this month, he is likely to show just how wrong they were.
Yousoufian could be awarded up to $825,200 in public funds, although
out of the goodness of his heart he is asking for merely $742,680.
State law allows up to $100 per day in fines against public agencies
that fail to disclose requested records. In Yousoufian’s case,
King County-under executives Gary Locke and then Ron Sims-dallied
for no less than 8,252 days. The stalling dates back to the time
of Yousoufian’s first request in 1997 for documents related to the
proposed new Seahawks stadium, now called Qwest Field, which was built
largely with public money for team owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen. Frustrated by the runaround, Yousoufian sued, and a King County
Superior Court judge in 2001 found the county’s actions “egregious,”
handing out a $5-a-day penalty.
Sore winner, Yousoufian appealed and won a rehearing on the penalty
amount. Today, he says, “We’re asking for $90 per day versus the
original award of $5, which both appellate courts said was too low-and
for the additional legal fees.” Those would be his attorney bills,
$330,000, he says. Altogether, at a penalty hearing set for Aug. 19
in King County Superior Court in Seattle, Yousoufian could be awarded
up to $1,155,000 in public money because a public agency thought it
didn’t have to tell the public how it was spending public money.
That should be a stinging reminder to government officials and a
victory for the little guy-although Yousoufian, a former Seattle
hotelier, had some bucks to spend. Yousoufian’s landmark victories
have also strengthened the state Public Disclosure Act (PDA). In two
subsequent court rulings, his case was cited in the awarding of daily
penalties of $50 and $75. Legislative amendments have also pumped
up the disclosure law this year. State Attorney General Rob McKenna,
who has made a strong PDA a priority, has launched a statewide tour
to inform the public about new aspects of the disclosure law. Among
them is a requirement that officials must help citizens narrow the
scope of requests and not flatly reject them as too broad, an easy out.
The recent efforts to make governments more respectful of the
public-disclosure law, whether through litigation or outreach, are
a good thing, but the law itself could use more work. The PDA still
contains a loophole big enough to swallow up roomfuls of filing
cabinets. A government official who wants to lock a record from
public view can copy it to a government attorney and argue that it
is attorney- client privilege that precludes disclosure. That aspect
of the law was challenged last year by Seattleite Rick Hangartner,
who sought documents from City Hall about light-rail permits. In
Hangartner v. City of Seattle, the state Supreme Court (attorneys all,
mind you) ruled against him and allowed the city to withhold records
on an attorney-client basis, even though their release posed no threat
of litigation.
“The nonlitigation-based attorney-client privilege the Supreme Court
created in Hangartner will continue to be the great hiding place for
information the government does not want to disclose,” says Michele
Earl-Hubbard, whose law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, represents
Seattle Weekly and The Seattle Times, among other media outlets.
“This will continue until the Legislature, the Supreme Court, or the
voters of Washington take the law back to the way it was before.”
Earl-Hubbard, who serves on the board of the nonprofit Coalition for
Open Government (), says all that’s needed is
the insertion of four words. To be exempt, records should have to be
“relevant to a controversy”- relevant to completed, existing, or
reasonably anticipated litigation. But proponents of such a change
have run into the “government-lawyer lobby,” as Earl-Hubbard calls
it-lobbyists supported by taxpayers to oppose opening records to
taxpayers.
Obviously, there’s need for more public and media access to records.
Apparent or actual fraudulent and incompetent government practices
abound. But it wasn’t just high-profile bureaucratic shortcomings
that voters sought to shine a light on when they passed the measure
in 1972. The introduction to Chapter 42.17 of the Revised Code of
Washington says it should be a matter of routine: “The provisions
of this chapter shall be liberally construed to promote complete
disclosure of all information respecting the financing of political
campaigns and lobbying, and the financial affairs of elected officials
and candidates, and full access to public records so as to assure
continuing public confidence of fairness of elections and governmental
processes, and so as to assure that the public interest will be fully
protected.” Reads the preamble to the public-records statute and a
companion law, the state Open Public Meetings Act (Chapter 42.30),
passed by the Legislature in 1971: “The people of this state do not
yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people,
in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right
to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good
for them to know.”
That said, both the open-records and open-meetings laws have numerous
exemptions, many of which have been added by the Legislature over the
years, effectively chipping away at their original intent. For among
other reasons, elected bodies can hold closed, “executive” sessions
to consider such matters as those affecting national security,
real-estate transactions and contract bids, and certain personnel
matters. The meetings law also allows closed sessions to discuss
“potential litigation,” but not in the blanket sense-there has to be
an actual threat of litigation or a lawsuit. There’s no way to know
if city councils and boards and the like are adhering to the law-we
have to trust them. Actual votes, at least, must be public.
The open-records law has exemptions, too. Exempt are some material
in personnel and law-enforcement investigative files, certain records
containing personal or private financial information, and proprietary
business data and trade secrets. There are dozens more exemptions
to disclosure that are arcane and debatable, but nothing with an
effect as sweeping as last year’s Hangartner decision, which makes
it possible for a public official to send a carbon copy of an e-mail,
memo, or document to a government attorney, for no particular reason
but to keep it confidential.
If the public can’t demand access to such documents, citizens and
journalists increasingly must rely on agency employees to blow the
whistle on mis-behavior or unjustifiable secrecy. Populist Olympia
attorney Shawn Newman and the Freedom Foundation’s Jason Mercier
think one answer is a state false-claims law, similar to an existing
federal whistle-blower’s law. It could allow citizens to obtain denied
documents through court proceedings while also pursuing civil charges
against an agency. The public or government workers would have the
ability to come forward in a protected status and collect damages-
the latter a “major incentive for such citizen involvement,” they say.
Yousoufian, though, wasn’t thinking of such payoffs when he wrote a
public- records request on May 30, 1997. His inquiry was inspired in
part by his daughter, Marysia, who wondered about Safeco Field. Why
was it built next to a perfectly good stadium, the Kingdome, that
already had a roof on it? He didn’t understand it himself, so he
went looking for explanations for that and plans for the new football
stadium to replace the Kingdome. As a businessman interested in taxes
that might affect the University District hotel he has since sold,
his initial records request was for “studies indicating that the
‘fast food’ tax had not been passed on to consumers (referred to by
Ron Sims in an interview on KUOW)” and other studies on the stadium
proposal. As the bureaucracy went into full stall, the native New
Yorker became increasingly curious about the deeper backstory of
the state’s and King County’s deal with Allen. Yousoufian used his
self-described “nerd” credentials to obtain and pore over government
contracts, e-mails, and letters. The closer he got to the truth,
the harder the government pushed back, taking weeks, then months,
then years to respond to his records requests.
Instead of giving up, Yousoufian was energized by the rejections.
“They picked on the wrong Armenian!” he liked to say. He evolved from
businessman to crusading documents diver. Among other developments,
the records he unearthed helped Seattle Weekly report how billionaire
Allen engineered a deal for a $430 million stadium that wound up
costing taxpayers close to $1 billion when interest is figured in.
Allen, relying on a loan from the National Football League, paid
a comparatively small amount out of his pocket (see “After Further
Review,” Feb. 12, 2003).
Ironically, the Public Disclosure Act itself became an obstacle. When
Yousoufian rightly tried to wield its penalties to pry loose more
records, the court tamped down fines intended to inflict pain on
deceptive public agencies. His initial victory in 2001 earned him just
$25,450 based on a fine of $5 per day for each of the 5,090 days the
county stalled. He also got more than $100,000 in attorney fees.
To Yousoufian, that didn’t pay for his time nor send the right
message. He appealed. A state appeals court and then the Supreme
Court both agreed a higher penalty was necessary for the county’s
gross negligence and added 3,162 penalty days to the clock. The
original trial court now must decide, Yousoufian says in court papers,
“the third factor in the equation based on the circumstances of King
County’s failure to comply with the law, its culpability, and what
it will take to deter a large, wealthy jurisdiction like King County
from future violations.”
In a trial brief, Yousoufian’s attorneys note that the county has
now agreed the original fine should, in all fairness, be doubled-to
$10 a day. Well, if the court “is to use the full penalty scale,
and if culpability, along with deterrence, is to be the measure of
where a violation fits on the penalty scale, what would a case look
like that fell somewhere in the $85-$90 range?” the attorneys ask. “It
would be a case that looked like Yousoufian’s, a case of repeated and
prolonged gross negligence. . . . ” They point out that the Supreme
Court said King County told Yousoufian all documents had been produced
when they had not, told him archives were being searched when they
were not, told him documents were being compiled when they were not,
told him hundreds of hours were spent retrieving requested documents
when they were not, and told him only the county executive’s office
was responsible for retrieving executive documents-again, not.
Observed the high court: “When the county did make an informed effort
to find the documents, they were located and produced within a couple
of days. . . . ” As Yousoufian describes it: “I was stonewalled.” In
two weeks, he finds out how much the county spent to build that wall.
He thinks he’ll be satisfied. But he can always appeal.

Protecting the World’s Walnuts
By Marcia Wood – ARS
Food Consumer, IL
Aug 3 2005
About 60 million years ago, walnut trees began to form vast primeval
forests on our planet. Today, many of those prehistoric species are
extinct. But most that remain are safeguarded at a unique living
collection.
Headquartered in Davis, California, about a 90-minute drive north of
San Francisco, this genebank serves as America’s official collection
of walnut species-and their distant, rare, and unusual relatives.
Containing specimens from both the Old and New World, it is the
largest, most genetically diverse walnut collection anywhere.
Some 80 trees grow in containers, protected inside a screen-enclosed
greenhouse. Only 10 minutes away, 1,600 other trees prosper in neat
rows at a carefully tended research orchard.
Some Juglans regia trees from Armenia are among the collection’s
most remarkable members. That’s because of their shells, which are
somewhat larger than a golf ball. This should be a walnut-lover’s
dream, but unfortunately, the nutmeat inside the jumbo shell isn’t
any larger than usual.
Many specimens are also different kinds, called cultivars or
varieties, of J. regia, the so-called English or Persian walnut. J.
regia is the most widely marketed walnut type in the United States.
J. regia varieties are the mainstay of California’s walnut industry,
which produces nearly all of the nation’s $300 million walnut harvest.
Known formally as the ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository
for Tree Fruit and Nut Crops and Grapes, this genebank belongs
to a nationwide network of ARS-managed collections. These centers
“protect the natural genetic richness of hundreds of plant species,”
says Davis repository curator Ed W. Stover, an ARS horticulturist.
Fingerprinting Walnut Trees
The genebank serves as an invaluable resource for breeders, growers,
the nursery industry, and researchers-including, of course, ARS’s
own scientists at the repository. For instance, walnut collection
manager and geneticist Mallikarjuna K. Aradhya worked with University
of California at Davis colleagues in using samples from repository
trees to pinpoint telltale stretches of genetic material called SSRs,
or simple-sequence repeats.
SSRs are unique, natural duplications in the nucleic acids that
comprise the building blocks of genetic material, or DNA. As such,
SSRs serve as distinctive fingerprints, suitable for differentiating
among individual walnut trees within the same species. Also known as
microsatellite markers, the 14 SSRs that the scientists tested “provide
a fast, reliable means of positive identification,” says Aradhya.
Adapted from a set of microsatellite markers developed by researchers
elsewhere for accurately distinguishing one black walnut tree (J.
nigra) from another, the new assay for J. regia offers an excellent
way to prevent costly mixups at tree nurseries, growers’ orchards,
and even at the ARS walnut collection itself. The markers are an
example of how ARS investigations help everyone who is involved in
growing walnuts and preserving these magnificent trees.-By Marcia Wood,
Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.

Armenia concerned over regional railway project
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 3 2005
Baku, August 2, AssA-Irada — Armenian officials have expressed strong
concerns over the planned construction of the Gars-Akhalkalaki railway
within a regional railway project.
Armenian news agencies quoted Minister for Transport Andranik Manukian
as saying that the project is allegedly unsuitable not only for
Armenia but also the entire region.
Manukian termed the construction of the Gars-Tbilisi-Baku railway
through Gumru (Armenia) more appropriate and apparently wants his
country to get out of self-isolation in an indirect way. “By all
means, we try to convince the parties interested in building the
Gars-Akhalkalaki railway that the project is inefficient,” he said.
Manukian said that the project has allegedly not been approved as a
part of the TRACECA route, unlike the Gars-Gumru road.
“Armenia will be able to receive cargoes through the Gars-Gumru route
the day after the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border.” Manukian
also said that the Armenian side is ready to forward proposals on
favorable transit tariffs to Turkey.
Azerbaijani, Turkish and Georgian presidents signed a declaration
establishing the Gars-Tbilisi-Baku international transport corridor
in Baku on May 25, 2005. The project envisions constructing the
Gars-Akhalkalaki railway.
68 km of the railway worth $500 million goes through Turkey and 30
km via Georgia. The railway is to be commissioned late in 2008.
The three countries’ transport ministers are expected to gather late
in August to discuss the railway construction.*

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT VICE-SPEAKER: THE ONLY WAY FOR STABLE DEVELOPMENT IS EUROPEAN
ARKA News Agency
Aug 3 2005
YEREVAN, August 2. /ARKA/. The only way Armenia has for stable
development is European way, Armenian National Assembly Vice-Speaker
Tigran Torosyan said at Constitutional Guarantees of Stable Development
round-table discussion held Tuesday in Yerevan. In his words,
the republic’s geopolitical position and current challenges don’t
allow it to fall into soviet-era-like isolation. In his opinion,
Armenia Eurointegration process went on at a sluggish pace in
2004-2005. Torosyan sees the current constitution as the main obstacle
for that. He thinks although Armenia finds itself behind Poland, Czech
Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Baltic countries having reach
experience of democracy gained in pre-soviet epoch, the republic was
capable not to stay behind Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia. Torosyan
says that today, when a group of countries joined the European Union
and another group of countries became the EU aspirants, Armenia
found itself outside this row and the main obstacle is the current
constitution. Level of economic freedom in Armenia exceeds that in
some EU member countries. The Vice-Speaker noted that Armenia is
the only country, where gap between economic freedom and democracy
is so wide. In his explanation, the present constitution is not
hobbling economy, but barring democracy from developing. That’s why
constitutional reforms are so needed, Torosyn said. M.V. -0—
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia’s national-judicial staff debate constitutional amendments to underpin sustainable development
Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE)

Aug 3
/noticias.info/ YEREVAN, 2 August 2005 – Judges, prosecutors, and
staff members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court met today in Yerevan
to discuss constitutional guarantees for sustainable development in
the country.
The event, which was organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan together
with the United Nations Development Programme, among others, was
aimed at introducing key principles of sustainable development to the
participants, highlighting the need to incorporate these principles
in the Armenian constitution. The participants also discussed aspects
of the Aarhus process as well as the UN Millennium Goals relevant
to Armenia.
“Meaningful discussions about sustainable development are of particular
importance at the current stage, when the draft constitutional
amendments are being finalized,” said Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin,
Head of the OSCE Office. “Such debates make sure that these essential
principles are incorporated in the main body of Armenia’s legal
framework.”
The Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Gagik Harutyunyan, also
welcomed the initiative. “Such meetings serve as an inspiration for
future work in this field,” he said.
Karine Danielyan, President of the Association for Sustainable
Development and Chairperson of the UN Environmental Programme’s
National Committee, welcomed the event as a further step to take into
account international expertise and the principles of sustainable
development in the process of amending the Constitution.
The event was co-organized as a joint contribution to the UN Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development by Armenia’s Aarhus Centre, the
Association for Sustainable Development, and the NGO, Constitutional
Rights Centre.

CE YEREVAN OFFICE TO PRESENT ITS ASSESSMENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
ARKA News Agency
Aug 3
YEREVAN, August 2. /ARKA/. The Yerevan office of the Council of
Europe (CE) will present its assessments of the draft amendments to
the RA Constitution. The US Embassy in Armenia reports that Resident
Representative of the CE Secretary General to Armenia Boyana Urumova,
British Ambassadress Armenia Torda Abbot Watt, Head of the OSCE
Yerevan office Vladimir Pryakhin, and UA Vice-Ambassador to Armenia
Entony Godfry will present their assessments as well. P.T. -0–