Sydney Morning Herald
July 18 2004
Editor’s murder adds to slaughter of journalists in Russia
Moscow: The editor of a Russian arts magazine has been found stabbed
to death, police said at the weekend.
“The body of journalist Pail Peloyan, with knife wounds to his chest
and bruises on his face, was found on Saturday,” the RIA Novosti news
agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.
He was found on the side of the MKAD highway that encircles the
Russian capital, police said.
Peloyan was the editor of Armyanski Pereulok (Armenian Lane), a
Russian-language magazine of literature and the arts.
His death follows that of Paul Klebnikov, an American citizen and
editor of the Russian Forbes magazine, who was shot dead as he left
his northern Moscow office on July 9.
Following that murder, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists
called on President Vladimir Putin to move against a “climate of
lawlessness” in which 15 journalists have been killed in Russia
during the past four years.
“Klebnikov is the 15th journalist killed in connection with his work
during your tenure,” the committee said in a statement.
“No one has been brought to justice in any of the slayings, creating
a sense of impunity that endangers all journalists and undermines
your democracy.”
The failure to solve any of the journalists’ murders over the past
four years is “a testament to the ongoing lawlessness in Russia and
your failure to reform the country’s weak and politicised criminal
justice system”, it added.
Klebnikov, 41, had arrived in Moscow with a spirit of civic reform.
His killing has raised troubling questions for Russia.
“The country can build skyscrapers and solve international conflicts
and even win tennis tournaments,” said Peter Klebnikov, one of his
brothers. “But so long as it’s considered completely normal to
resolve disputes and kill a person who is interfering with the way
you want to live, this country is ailing.”
Klebnikov’s work – informed and sometimes brazen – inserted him
squarely into the worlds of Russian business, crime, power and
wealth.
A foreign investor interviewed for two stories by Klebnikov, William
Browder, said: “If somebody feels safe enough to kill the editor of a
major Western magazine, we have anarchy in Russia.
“It makes Putin look like a weak man,” he added.

Equatorial Guinea pledges fair verdict on jailed Armenian pilots
Arminfo
17 Jul 04

YEREVAN
A delegation of the Armenian Foreign Ministry has returned from
Equatorial Guinea.
The Armenian ambassador to Egypt, Sergey Manasaryan, and the head of
the state protocol service, Gevorg Petrosyan, were on a two-week
mission to Equatorial Guinea from 30 June to 13 July, the Armenian
Foreign Ministry press service told Arminfo. The aim of the visit was
to conduct negotiations on the release of the detained Armenian
pilots.
The members of the delegation had meetings with Equatorial Guinea’s
justice and health ministers, prosecutor-general and state secretary
of foreign affairs. Manasaryan and Petrosyan also met the Armenian
pilots.
Following the negotiations, the conditions of detention were improved
and the necessary medicines were given to them. The pilots were also
given an opportunity to contact their relatives in Yerevan by
telephone.
The top officials of Equatorial Guinea assured the Armenian delegation
that the case of the pilots will be considered impartially and a fair
verdict will be delivered.
The pilots are in a satisfactory physical and moral state. After the
delegation returned to Yerevan, Manasaryan met the pilots’ relatives.

Armenia hands over facilities, land to Russian military base
Arminfo
17 Jul 04

YEREVAN
Col-Gen Mikael Arutyunyan, chief of the general staff of the Armenian
armed forces, and Igor Gromyko, adviser to the Russian ambassador to
Armenia, today signed a document on the activities of the Russian
military base in Armenia. The agreement on the deployment of the
Russian military base in Armenia for a period of 25 years was signed
in 1992.
In line with the document, Armenia is handing over to Russia
facilities and plots of land required by the 102nd Russian military
base and Russia will own them for a limited period of time. Armenia
will get back the plots of land that the Russian military base no
longer needs.
It is still difficult to say how long the Russian base will stay in
Armenia, for 25 year, or for a shorter or longer period, Arutyunyan
said. The two countries will decide this, he said. Armenia needs the
Russian military base today and the base should be strong and
efficient. It is difficult to remember the West ever protesting
against the Russian military bases in Armenia, he said.
He added that five Armenian officers will take part in NATO’s
forthcoming exercises in Azerbaijan and will occupy various positions
in the manoeuvres. Armenia’s involvement in the exercises must be of
full value – Armenia’s flag must be raised and national anthem played,
Arutyunyan said.
In turn, Gromyko said that there is no need to guess how long the
Russian base will stay in Armenia. It will stay in Armenia as long as
it suits Armenia and Russia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Ra¤ola keeps Armenian GM within reach
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Jul 19, 2004
Standings after round 4:
4.0 pts.-GM Karen Movsziszian (Armenia); 3.5-NM Yves Ra¤ola (Philippines), GM
Aleksander Delchev (Bulgaria), GM Vladim Burmakin (Russia), GM Mikhail Suba
(Romania), IM Yuri Gonzales (Italy), IM Fernando Braga (Italy), IM Ioan Cosma
(Romania), IM Petr Velicha (Czech Republic), IM Herman Van Riemsdijk (Brazil),
IM Bernd Kohlweyer (Germany); 3.0-GM Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba), IM Ronald Bancod
(RP), IM Jayson Gonzales (RP).
FILIPINO National Master Yves Ra¤ola outplayed Spain’s Jose Luis Ramon Perez
in the third round and then halved the point with Cuban International Master
Yuri Gonzales in the fourth to share second place with 10 others yesterday in
the Balaguer International Open chess tournament in Spain.
Ra¤ola, the former national junior champion who is eyeing his third and final
IM norm in the event, pushed his output to 3.5 points, half a point behind
undefeated pacesetter Grandmaster Karen Movsziszian of Armenia.
Ra¤ola shared second place with super GM Aleksander Delchev of Bulgaria, GM
Vladim Burmakin of Russia, GM Mihkail Suba of Romania, IM Fernando Braga of
Italy, Ioan Cosma of Romania, IM Petr Velicha of Czech Republic, IM Herman Van
Riemsdijk of Brazil and IM Bernd Kohlweyer of Germany.
The bunch stood another half point in front of a big group that includes
Filipino IMs Jayson Gonzales, who drew his third- and fourth-round matches,and
Ronald Bancod, who lost his fourth-round match to Delchev.
Filipina Winona Tan shared 56th place with 37 others at 2.0 points.Marlon
Bernardino

The Seattle Times
Sunday, July 18, 2004 – Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
Knock on the door old Soviet-era leaders dread
By Kim Murphy
Los Angeles Times
MOSCOW – If you are one of the world’s dwindling number of old Soviet-era
leaders, trapped in your villa with the annoying winds of democracy blowing
in the streets outside, there might be worse things than having longtime
Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov knock on your door.
But not many.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic got the Ivanov knock on Oct. 6,
2000, right when he was counting most on Russia’s support against the wave
of opposition supporters who were in the streets proclaiming the victory of
his popularly supported rival, Vojislav Kostunica. Within hours of meeting
with Ivanov, the Serbian dictator conceded defeat.
Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia heard it on Nov. 23, 2003, when Ivanov
delivered the news that Russia feared that bloodshed could result from the
Georgian president’s standoff with the forces of the “rose revolution”
unfolding in the streets outside. Shevardnadze, within hours, bowed to the
inevitable.
By early May, another standoff was brewing in the Black Sea region of
Adzharia, where longtime Moscow ally Aslan Abashidze repeatedly proclaimed
his intention never to back down in his standoff with the new,
democratically elected Georgian authorities. Then Ivanov darkened his door.
Abashidze left on Ivanov’s plane for Moscow that night.
Speech to old allies
As the aircraft rose through the Georgian darkness, Ivanov poured the
now-former Adzhari leader a glass of whiskey. He told him whatever it is
that the Russians tell old allies whose relationships have grown
inconvenient – no, impossible – in a world in which Russia is no longer a
superpower.
Increasingly, Russia has been forced to rethink old relationships, faced
with NATO’s expansion into former Soviet republics; democratic movements
springing up in countries including Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia
and Yugoslavia, and the United States establishing diplomatic and military
foothold from Central Asia to the Baltic Sea.
Ivanov’s role as the Terminator of Russian diplomacy underscores an
important shift that has occurred in its foreign policy in the past decade,
as Russia has moved from playing the role of global powerbroker to focusing
on its “near abroad,” the former Soviet republics around its borders whose
futures it sees as inextricably linked with its own.
Ivanov has also championed the move to supplant the confrontational dialogue
with the United States that characterized the Cold War with an attempt to
form global alliances against what he sees as the common threat of
international terrorism.
That meant that Shevardnadze, with whom Ivanov worked years ago in Moscow
when both served under the same government, had to be held accountable not
only to popular democratic forces, but for years of reluctance to crack down
on Chechen separatist rebels who had used Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge as a base
for attacks on Russia.
Outlived usefulness
It meant recognizing that Milosevic had outlived any usefulness to Russia,
said Gleb Pavlovsky of the Effective Policy Fund, a political-strategy group
with close ties to the Kremlin.
“What kind of guarantor was he of Russia’s national interests?” Pavlovsky
said. “Russia’s historical clout in the Balkans was being sacrificed (by
Milosevic) for the sake of the interests of a number of shadow-economy
corporations that traded in weapons, cigarettes and gasoline. … Milosevic
failed to become a donor in Russia-Yugoslav relations. He was only a
beneficiary of Russia’s political gifts.”
Ivanov’s role as “an angel of political death” called on to deliver “the
political version of euthanasia” underscores what Oriel College-Oxford
lecturer Mark Almond, in a recent Moscow Times commentary, thinks is
Russia’s attempt to eliminate anything that ultimately could impair control
over its most significant economic resource, oil and gas.
As the United States opens military bases near the Caspian Sea and eases in
friendly leaders along a key oil pipeline route in Georgia, “Russia’s own
energy resources are falling under the shadow of U.S. power, and the routes
to export Russian oil or gas, independent of Washington’s sphere of
influence, are narrowing,” Almond said.
The “Ivanov retreat” in Tbilisi and Adzharia allowed Moscow to address a
source of instability directly on its southern border. A failed state in
Georgia, or civil war between the Georgian capital and a rebellious republic
such as Adzharia, easily could spill into Russia’s troubled southern
republics. A new Georgian government hostile to Moscow likewise could foment
trouble there.
Although it is “a normal reality” that these nations pursue their own
expanded relations with the United States, Ivanov said, “At the same time,
we would consider it wrong and contradictory to our interests to … start
pushing Russia away from this space.
If the United States thinks that it is correct to declare the zone of the
Caspian Sea as a zone of their vital interest, then I do not need to explain
that Russia has many more grounds to claim the entire … (region) as the
zone of our vital interest, because it is the zone which passes all around
or borders.”
Russia has kept many of its former republics dependent on Moscow by becoming
a key supplier of oil and natural gas, literally capable of keeping the heat
turned on in satellite nations including Belarus.
With Shevardnadze, Ivanov said, he never attempted to force the Georgian
president to step down. “The term ‘resignation’ was never featured in my
consultations with Shevardnadze or with the opposition leaders. I did not
persuade Shevardnadze to resign. … It would have been senseless, knowing
Shevardnadze, with whom I had worked for six years as an aide. The decision
he made was made by himself, when I had already left Tbilisi.”
In Adzharia, the oil-rich region of Georgia that had maintained close ties
to Russia even after Georgian independence, Ivanov said he made it clear to
Abashidze that a crisis was possible if he did not come to terms with
Georgia’s newly elected leader, Mikhail Saakashvili.
“And after the consultations, Mr. Abashidze came in and said to me that he
had only two ways: either to leave the country and thus avoid bloodshed, or
to resort to armed resistance, which would lead to … loss of human life.
And he said, ‘In the interests of my people, I have made the decision to
leave the country.’ And we got on the plane and flew away.”
The real issue for Russian diplomacy, some analysts suggest, might be
whether it manages to go the next step, from easing out the old dictators, a
role in which Moscow now seems quite adept, to forming strategic alliances
with the pro-democracy movements angling to take their place.
In countries such as Ukraine and Belarus, said Andrey Kortunov, vice
president of the Eurasia Foundation in Moscow, “The question is, at what
point is Russia ready to revise its position and take risks by supporting
the more radical, more progressive and more flamboyant candidates?
“Probably, for something like this, you need someone who will be more
willing to take risks than Ivanov, someone ready to step down to a new
generation of leaders.”
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

Armenian president dismisses deputy prosecutor-general
Arminfo, Yerevan
17 Jul 04
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has signed a decree dismissing
Zhirayr Kharatyan from the post of deputy prosecutor-general as he has
reached the age limit, the Armenian news agency Arminfo has said.
With the same decree, the president also reshuffled various district
prosecutors.

Ex-president using opposition to return to power – Armenian aide
Hayots Ashkharh, Yerevan
17 Jul 04
All the post-election actions of the opposition are guided by
Armenia’s former ruling party and ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
the adviser to the Armenian president for national security issues,
Garnik Isagulyan, has told Hayots Ashkharh newspaper. The forces
within the radical opposition come forward only with their own
leaders, each of them remains a leader only for his own party and
circle and cannot influence the processes or adopt decisions. The
experienced functionaries of the former ruling party, as well as
foreign forces, which have certain interests in Armenia, could not but
notice this situation and made the best use of the fact that the
radicals were not united and lacked an ideology, Isagulyan said. Now
they are trying to delude the radicals into thinking that the
opposition has no charismatic leader, and in this case, the leader can
be only ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, he said. The following is
the text of Gevorg Arutyunyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Hayots
Ashkharh on 17 July headlined “The former president will not keep
quiet for a long time”. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:
An interview with the president’s adviser on security issues, Garnik
Isagulyan.
Opposition leader’s post vacant
Hayots Ashkharh correspondent The opposition leader’s post is in fact
vacant. Can the factor of the former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan
unite the opposition around the Armenian Pan-National Movement APNM ?
Garnik Isagulyan It was clear from the very beginning that all the
post-election actions of the opposition are guided by the APNM. In
fact, the whole intellectual potential of the opposition and people
who have certain political experience are concentrated in the APNM.
The forces within the radical opposition come forward only with their
own leaders. It is not accidental that each of them: the leader of the
National Unity Party NUP , Artashes Gegamyan, the leader of the
People’s Party of Armenia PPA , Stepan Demirchyan, and the leader of
the Anrapetutyun Republic Party, Aram Sarkisyan, remained a leader
only for his own party and circle. Incidentally, low-level party
leaders could not influence the processes or adopt decisions.
Naturally, the experienced functionaries of the APNM, as well as
foreign forces, which have certain interests in Armenia, could not but
notice this situation. Only these forces made the best use of the fact
that the radicals were not united and lacked an ideology. Today they
are trying to delude the radicals and those who are displeased into
thinking that the opposition has no charismatic leader, and in this
case, the leader can be Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who is well-known in the
world, has preserved his influence on the country’s domestic political
life, and has a strict position and options for settling the problems
of Armenia.
It is also hinted that by promising some post to the party leaders, he
will unite the opposition forces and also drum up serious support from
the external world. That is, there is a situation in which the aim is
to persuade everybody that the opposition may win if Ter-Petrosyan
returns.
Pan-national offensive
Correspondent Mr Isagulyan, do you not think that this programme
contains serious elements that break state stability and security?
Isagulyan It certainly does and the main reason for this is that in
fact, no personnel changes have taken place in the middle and higher
echelons of the authorities. Not only did people who had designs on
serious posts in the 1990s and occupy influential positions today
preserve what they had under the former authorities, they also
accumulated serious capital and are playing a certain role in the
economy. It is not so important for these people who combined
authority and capital, who the country’s president will be and what
his position on the state and nationwide problems will be? For these
people, the authorities’ attitude towards them is the only important
condition.
This is what the APNM and its propagandists are promoting today,
saying that they will be very loyal to all those who had posts earlier
and remain today and that they will continue to work and influence the
economy. At this stage of the domestic political developments, only
these factors lead the APNM to reject the role of a hidden ideological
leader and refuse to come forward openly and with its own leader.
Certainly, they will also unite around themselves the radicals who
have experience in street fighting, as there will be a demand to
increase speculation on social and economic difficulties, which they
will not be able to do having the burden of the past. In short,
everything is being done for creating a serious base for a
pan-national offensive in autumn.
Ter-Petrosyan will not keep quiet for a long time
It is not accidental at all that the leader of the PPA, Stepan
Demirchyan, has been invited to a meeting of the US Democratic
Party. During his trips abroad and his meetings with diplomats here,
this leader said many times that it would be better if the opposition
was loyal to Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his possible return. In case of
support, Demirchyan was also promised financial aid, which will make
it possible to carry out the desired change of power.
Foreign forces have an undisguised interest here, because if power
changes and Levon Ter-Petrosyan returns, they will be able to
implement all their interests incomparably better, which will
certainly not be in favour of Armenia. I do not think that after
intensifying his activities in autumn, Levon Ter-Petrosyan will keep
quiet for a long time. At some point he will reply to the calls for
his return, but as an experienced person, he will not immediately
announce his political resurrection. It is evident that the current
hints in the APNM press are co-ordinated with the former president and
contain hidden tendencies.
Correspondent Can the article in the Armenian Report, which the
pro-APNM press is trying to present as an official American view, be
one of these hints?
Isagulyan Indeed, the American press occasionally touches on Armenia’s
foreign and domestic policy and our problems, but they never use harsh
expressions like the Armenian Report does. This publication cannot be
regarded as an official view. This is simply a propaganda method, as
society does not even know what kind of publication and whose
mouthpiece it is. Simply, they are trying to create an opinion that
the American press is criticizing Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
and sees the alternative only in Levon Ter-Petrosyan. It is evident
that the above article also finds room in the APNM’s strategy and
propaganda. All this creates a demand for a very serious
counteraction. If we do not take the necessary measures in time, then
it will be more difficult to control the reality later.

“TURKEY’S CHAIRMANSHIP AT PACE PRVENTED BY ARMENIA”
Stated Foreign Minister of Cyprus
Azg/AM
17 July 2004
Haruth Sasunian, publisher of “The Californian Curier’ , has informed
in the July 14 issue of Azg about the decision of the Turkish
Government to give up its determination to take up PACE chairmanship,
conditioning it by RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian’s statement
saying that Armenia wil exercise its right for veto against Turkey’s
candidacy.
This gave Sasunian to make conclusions about the Armenian diplomatic
victory and the failure of Turkey and the U.S. in their attempts to
exert pressure on Armenia. His conclusion was affirmed by Hathem
Jabbarlu, employee of te Eurasian Center for Strategic Researches in
Ankara, in his article “ArmeniaConducts More Dynamic and Succesful
Policy, Particularly against Turkey andAzerbaijan” that was published
in translation in the previous issue of Azg.
As for the conclusion made by Haruth Sasunian, it is also affirmed by
Yorgo Yakovo, Foreign Minister of Cyprus. According to data provided
by Anatolu agency, he denied the statements of the Greek press that
“Cyprus prevented Turkey’s candidacy for Chairmanship at PACE”, saying
that “though we were not going to support a country that refuses to
compline its commitments, cyprus has done nothing to prevent Turkey’s
candidacy for Chairmanship at PACE.” Then he added the Turkey’s
candidacy for chairmanship at PACe was prevented by Armenia’s threat
to excersise its right for veto.
By Hakob Chaqrian

Zaman, Turkey
July 18 2004
‘Anti-Turkey’ Alain Juppe Resigns in France
General President of the Unity of Public Movement (UMP) in power in
France, Alain Juppé, has resigned. The President, who is not
sympathetic to Turkey’s European Union (EU) membership, was expected
to visit Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A suit was filed against Juppe for financial irregularities during
the time Jacques Chirac was Mayor of Paris. Juppe was found guilty
and as part of his sentence he is barred from public office for 10
years. The resignation of Juppé, known as the right hand of Chirac,
is interpreted as Chirac losing his grip on power.
Minister of Economy Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the names as a candidate
for the leadership of the party, is not sympathetic towards Turkey
either. Chirac asked Sarkozy, expected to be his biggest competitor
in the 2007 Presidential election, to resign.
Sarkozy, who seems to have obtained the support of most of the
Parliament, has become strong. Some French diplomats speaking to
Zaman have reported that Armenian Patric Deveciyan would be the Prime
Minister provided Sarkozy became President.
It is declared that Chirac found Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin
suitable for the leadership of the party.
07.18.2004
Ali Ýhsan Aydýn, Paris

ABS CBN News, Philippines
July 18 2004
Rañola unbeaten in four rounds
By Manny Benitez
TODAY Chess Columnist
Filipino National Master (NM) Yves Rañola defeated Spanish NM Jose
Luis Ramon Perez in the third round and drew with Cuban International
Master (IM) Yuri Gonzales in the fourth to tie for second to 11th
places with 10 others in the Balaguer International Open chess
tournament in Spain.
In first place was Grandmaster Karen Movzsizsian of Armenia, who had
a perfect 4.0 points.
IM Jayson Gonzales, however, settled for two straight draws, while IM
Ronald Bancod had a win and a loss in the third and fourth rounds.
Both had 3.0 points to stay half a point behind the runners-up.
Both Rañola, who is campaigning for his third and final IM norm, and
Gonzales remained unbeaten after four rounds.
The Tai Yuan Grandmasters chess tournament, meanwhile, got off to a
flying start for Alexey Dreev of Russia and Nigel Short of England,
who both won their first assignments, with White against Chinese GMs
Ye Jiangchuan and Xu Jun, respectively, over the weekend.
Three other first-round games in the 10-player event ended in draws
— Bu Xiangzhi vs Zhang Zhong, both of China, in 31 moves of an
English Symmetrical duel; Smbat Lputian of Armenia vs Xie Jun,
China’s former world women’s champion; and Ni Hua of China vs Joel
Lautier of France.
Dreev beat Ye in 49 moves of a King’s Indian, Saemisch variation,
while Short taught former Asian continental champion Xu a lesson in
55 moves of a Sicilian Najdorf.
Meanwhile, defending champion Alexander Morozevich of Russia is the
odds-on favorite to win the Biel Grandmasters Tournament, which gets
under way in the Swiss city on Monday (Tuesday in Manila).
Another favorite is past world champion Ruslan Ponomariov. The other
players in the super event are Etienne Bacrot of France, Krishnan
Sasikiran of India, Luke McShane of England and Yannick Pelletier of
Switzerland.
The GM contest is part of the celebration of the annual chess
festival in Biel city, also known in the predominately
French-speaking Swiss canton as Bienne.
In Tuguegarao, Manila bets Froilan Bolico III and Michael Adarlo
zeroed in on the top two North Luzon leg berths by posting their
fifth straight victories in the Shell National Youth Active
Championships.
The top-seeded Bolico trounced Baguio City’s Alex Siblagan, while
Adarlo beat another Manila player, Carl Espallardo, to emerge the
only unbeaten players in the juniors (20-under) division of the
two-category tournament.