YEREVAN MUNICIPALITY MAKES STUNNING DECISION AUTHORISING OPPOSITION RALLY

A1 Plus | 21:00:27 | 14-06-2004 | Politics |

Artarutyun opposition bloc’s Press-Secretary Ruzan Khachatryan said
Monday Yerevan municipality had authorized a rally scheduled for
coming Wednesday.

This is the first time the municipality has given its authorization
to an opposition-staged rally. Before that, the opposition has been
repeatedly denied authorization.

The opposition activists explain such a precipitous shift in the
authorities conduct with the PACE approaching session and PACE
representative Yerzi Yaskernia’s visit to Armenia.

ARMENIAN PEOPLE HAVE TO DO WITHOUT NTV PROGRAMS

A1 Plus | 19:42:52 | 14-06-2004 | Social |

NTV, Russian TV channel, no longer will be retransmitted in
Armenia. Radio and Television National Commission decided Monday
to give 23 UHF, on which NTV were retransmitted once, to Armenian
government for retransmission of Russian Culture channel’s programs.

No tender has been announced for the frequency. It was given to the
government under an intergovernmental agreement made between Armenia
and Russia.

Paradise, a company that retransmitted the NTV on that frequency,
doesn’t dispute the decision and has no claims, the head of the
commission Grikor Amalyan says.
From: Baghdasarian

A1 Plus | 19:57:25 | 14-06-2004 | Official |

NAREK SARGSSYAN SACKED BY ARMENIAN PREMIER

Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan issued an order Monday
dismissing Narek Sargsyan from the post of Yerevan Vice-Mayor and
Architect General of Armenian capital.

YERZI YASKERNIA GETS FAMILIAR WITH DOMESTIC CONTROVERSY OVER CONFIDENCE REFERENDUM

A1 Plus | 19:16:02 | 14-06-2004 | Politics |

PACE Monitoring Commission member Yerzi Yaskernia, who arrived Friday
night in Yerevan to see how much Armenia has accomplished in complying
with the PACE resolution demands, has met with parliamentary groups
and fractions as part of his mission.

Yerzi Yaskernia wanted to hear opinions about confidence referendum.

The referendum couldn’t be conducted as it contradicts Armenia’s
constitution, MP Gagik Minasyan, a member the ruling coalition’s
Republican Party, said.

Members of the ruling coalition’s another party Orinats Erkir expressed
the same view.

Levon Lazarian, an MP from Dashnaktsutyun, the third member party
of the tree-headed ruling coalition, told Yaskernia people hadn’t
supported the idea of confidence referendum and the number of rally
participants had become scant because of little public support.

Dashnak Vahan Hovhannisyan said people distrusted the opposition
line and are unhappy about lack of clear program. In his opinion,
the Constitutional Court’s proposal to conduct a referendum leads to
a deadlock. The court has to confess that its proposal was nothing
more than a mere mistake.

Artarutyun fraction leader Stepan Demirchyan, MP of polar-opposite
political background and president Kocharyan’s key rival in
presidential elections, said the steps taken by the authorities to
comply with PACE demands are insufficient and aimed at deceiving PACE.

He also said criminal case against Artarutyun opposition bloc activists
are not dismissed so far, though they are released from detention.

Nothing has been done to prosecute officials having committed fraud
and violating the law during elections, despite abundant convincing
evidence.

The opposition another leader Artashes Geghamyan voiced his concern
about the situation in media field saying Armenia’s population is
deprived of receiving objective information: opposition-staged events
are not being covered in media outlets at all or distorted.

In his words, the opposition is even deprived of paid broadcasting
to air its views. He expressed regret about the fact of stripping A1+
TV Company of its broadcasting license and added today the opposition
can make public its opinion only on Azatutyun radio and through some
opposition-minded newspapers.

YASKERNIA RECEIVED BY ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER

A1 Plus | 21:32:39 | 14-06-2004 | Official |

The delegation headed by Yerzi Yaskernia was received also by Armenian
PM Andranik Margaryan.

The premier said he found an uncompromising stance taken by the
opposition on confidence referendum absolutely illogical.

Margaryan expressed hope that after meeting with all political forces
the delegation would get a real idea about the situation and its
report at the summer session would be objective,

Armenian president receives PACE officials

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
14 Jun 04

Co-rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
[PACE] continues his meetings with the Armenian leadership and the
political forces represented in the parliament.

President Robert Kocharyan today received PACE’s co-rapporteur
on Armenia, Jerzhy Jaskiernia and the Commission Secretary David
Chupina. The process of fulfilling CE commitments by Armenia, in
particular the constitutional reforms and improvement of the Electoral
Code, were discussed during the meeting.

They also discussed the issues mentioned in the PACE April resolution.
Jaskiernia said that he would prepare a report on the situation
in Armenia.

Video showed meeting.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian regulator stops Russian NTV relay, will reallocate the slot

A1+ web site
14 Jun 04

14 June: The Russian NTV channel will no longer be broadcast in
Armenia. Today the National Commission for Radio and Television [NCRT]
unanimously decided to hand over UHF channel 23, which previously
relayed NTV channel programmes, to the Armenian government for the
transmission of Kultura [Culture] TV programmes.

The frequency was not put out to tender as it was given to the
government within the framework of an intergovernmental agreement on
the transmission of TV programmes concluded between Armenia and Russia.

The frequency was transferred to the Transport and Communications
Ministry. It is not yet clear who will rebroadcast. “The company
Paradiz [Paradise], which rebroadcast NTV, has no claims on it,”
the head of the NCRT, Grigor Amalyan, said. “The government has the
right to use it at its own discretion.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Kirk’s new enterprise

Financial Times
Jun 15, 2004

Kirk Kerkorian has not lost his appetite for big rolls of the
dice. With one hand, the 87-year-old is inching towards a sale of
his Metro-Goldwyn Mayer film studio. With the other he is poised to
double up on his casino interests. MGM Mirage’s improved offer of
$71 a share – a 30 per cent premium to Mandalay Resort Group’s share
price before the approach – would catapult it to number one in the
US gaming industry.

There are regulatory concerns. MGM/ Mandalay would control 49 per
cent of hotel rooms, 44 per cent of tables and 40 per cent of slot
machines on the Las Vegas Strip. But if the market is interpreted more
broadly the combined share retreats to more reasonable levels. Any
issues are likely to be addressable through asset sales. The deal
is no knockout for Mandalay. It values the business at about 9.7
times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation,
compared with MGM’s own rating of 8.5 times. But it would drag Mandalay
investors away from the table after a great winning streak. At $71,
its shares will have risen by 130 per cent since January last year,
compared with MGM’s 43 per cent.

MGM, meanwhile, can probably squeeze out $100m of cost savings. The
deal would broaden its portfolio with Mandalay’s lower-end resorts and
get access to more property development opportunities in the strong
Las Vegas market. MGM could probably stretch to finance the $7.9bn
transaction with debt. But with its track record on integrating deals
there is clearly a chance that it will tap shareholders for some of
the chips.

Council Of Europe Monitor Ends Fact-Finding Trip To Armenia
By Gevorg Stamboltsian 15/06/2004 01:47

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
June 15 2004

A representative of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly
(PACE) met Monday with President Robert Kocharian and a string of
other senior Armenian officials to wrap up a fact-finding trip aimed
at assessing Yerevan’s compliance with democratic standards set by
the organization.

Jerzy Jaskiernia, the Armenia rapporteur of the PACE’s Monitoring
Committee, is to draft a report on whether the Kocharian’s
administration is following the recommendations contained in the
assembly’s April 28 resolution on the Armenian political crisis. He
left no indications that the report will be as critical of the
Armenian authorities as the resolution. “We will present our findings
in our report. We don’t like to make any comments during the visit,”
Jaskiernia told reporters when asked to comment on his findings.

But in separate comments on Saturday, the official hinted that the
document’s content is likely to be positive for the authorities. “I
think there is an intention by the government to fulfill that
resolution. Several of its elements have already been fulfilled,”
he said, pointing to the release of all senior members of opposition
parties involved in the three-month campaign against Kocharian.

The PACE resolution deplored the government crackdown launched in
response to that campaign. It warned that the Armenian government must
immediately free all individuals arrested for their participation
in the opposition protests and investigate “human rights abuses”
or face the possibility of PACE sanctions next September.

However, the main focus of Jaskiernia’s meetings in Yerevan was the
idea of a referendum of confidence in Kocharian which was floated by
the Armenian Constitutional Court in the wake of last year’s disputed
presidential election. Government officials reiterated their view that
the proposal was not binding for the executive branch and did not stem
from the country’s constitution. Jaskiernia seemed to agree with them.

The opposition leaders, already enraged by Jaskiernia’s repeated
statements that serious fraud reported during the presidential election
did not affect its outcome, reacted with irritation. “Decisions of
the Constitutional Court are not subject to discussion by Armenian
politicians, let alone Jaskiernia,” one of them, Aram Sarkisian,
told RFE/RL.

Artashes Geghamian, another opposition leader who met with Jaskiernia,
complained that the PACE mainly met with various-level government
officials while in Yerevan, arguing that he could have familiarized
himself with their position without leaving Strasbourg. “I warned
him that if yet another subjective monitoring [of the situation] is
carried out, it will further deepen the socioeconomic and political
crisis in Armenia,” Geghamian said.

The opposition also renewed its allegations that the publication
earlier this month in Yerevan of Jaskiernia’s book about the PACE,
which was sponsored by the Armenian parliament, amounted to a political
kickback which was meant to influence the content of his upcoming
report to the Strasbourg assembly. “I don’t think the Armenian public
couldn’t wait to read the book by the PACE rapporteur,” said Victor
Dallakian of the Artarutyun alliance. “I consider that an example
of corruption.”

Jaskiernia has denied any conflict of interest between his PACE
position and the promotion of his writings. He argues that he had no
material gains from the book’s translation to the Armenian language.

Armenia: Opposition To Continue Rallies
By Ruzanna Khachatrian and Hrach Melkumian 15/06/2004 01:55

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
June 15 2004

The leadership of the Artarutyun alliance, Armenia’s biggest opposition
group, reaffirmed on Monday its intention to continue anti-government
demonstrations in Yerevan despite a clear loss of momentum its campaign
for regime change.

The bloc’s leaders said the next rally, scheduled for Wednesday, will
go ahead as planned. But it remained unclear whether the opposition
will urge supporters to march towards President Robert Kocharian’s
residence or elsewhere in the city center. They said the decision
will be made during the protest jointly with their allies from the
National Unity Party (AMK).

The two opposition forces had for weeks been promising to lay siege
to the presidential palace. The first such action ended in violence
on the night from April 12-13 when riot police used force to disperse
a crowd of more than 2,000 people.

At their last rally on June 4 the opposition leaders effectively
abandoned their plans for another “decisive action,” arguing that
they have so far failed to pull crowds big enough to resist security
forces. The move led local observers to conclude that the three-month
campaign to oust Kocharian has failed.

But speaking to RFE/RL over the weekend, the two most popular
oppositionists said they are determined to continue to fight
against what they see as an “illegitimate” regime.” “This is a
difficult process,” Artarutyun’s Stepan Demirchian said. “There may
be different phases, different manifestations. But the process is
certainly irreversible.”

“Illegalities, arbitrary use of force naturally have a depressing
effect on the people. But this does not mean that the opposition
movement is fading away,” AMK leader Artashes Geghamian agreed.

Another prominent opposition figure, Victor Dallakian, said the
opposition made unspecified “tactical mistakes” in its drive for
power, but insisted that its overall strategy of regime change is
justified. But fellow lawmaker Arshak Sadoyan said that the mistakes
were “serious.” He said the opposition should have opted for a more
“muscular struggle” in the face of a tough crackdown unleashed by
the authorities.

Wednesday’s rally is likely to be first opposition action sanctioned
by the authorities. The organizers formally notified the Yerevan
mayor’s office of the planned gathering in accordance with a new
Armenian law. The municipality has voiced no objections yet.

Opposition officials attributed the effective permission to the
presence in Yerevan of a delegation from the Council of Europe.