ARMENIA THIS WEEK

Monday, February 1, 2005

In this issue:

NKR hosts international monitors

Kocharian meets Pope John Paul II, Italian leaders

Armenian leaders take part in Auschwitz commemoration

NKR HOSTS INTERNATIONAL MONITORS

French, Russian and U.S. envoys who have led the Karabakh mediation
efforts joined by officials from four other Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) states, arrived in the region over the
weekend to inspect areas that have served as a security buffer for
Karabakh since 1993. The monitoring mission, proposed by the mediators
and agreed to by the conflicting parties last year, seeks to determine
the number and nature of Armenian settlements in formerly Azeri areas
under Armenian control.

Meeting with the delegation, Karabakh’s President Arkady Ghoukasian
welcomed their mission, suggesting that it could finally put to rest the
many Azeri claims about Karabakh. Azeri officials had refused to endorse
of similar monitoring in the past. The mission was agreed to last
November after Azerbaijan, succumbing to international pressure, agreed
not to press for a pro-Azeri United Nations resolution with support from
members of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

Azerbaijan has backed off serious negotiations over Karabakh’s status,
with its President Ilham Aliyev saying last year that he was not “in a
hurry” to settle the conflict. Instead Aliyev has called for
intensification of what his officials have described as “information
war” against Armenians in all international venues. The Azeri president
has also significantly boosted spending for the country’s military
forces, long plagued by under-funding and disarray, in an effort to
substantiate his frequent threats to unleash a new war in Karabakh.

Karabakh Defense Army Commander General Seyran Ohanian said last week
that judging by military intelligence reports, “Azerbaijan is not
prepared to start hostilities.” Nevertheless, his command was taking
Azeri threats seriously. Ohanian told a press conference that his forces
made significant progress in improving their defense posture and were
prepared to undertake retaliatory operations should fighting resume.
(Sources: Armenia This Week 11-1; Mediamax 1-26; RFE/RL Armenia Report
1-26; Noyan Tapan 1-27)

PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN VISITS WITH POPE JOHN PAUL II, ITALIAN LEADERS

Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian completed a three-day official
visit to Italy and the Vatican last week. Meeting with Kocharian, Pope
John Paul II underscored “friendly and respectful relations between the
Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church.” Armenia, having
adopted Christianity in 301 AD, some years before Rome, has had an
independent church since 451 AD. Relations between the two churches have
grown closer since a 1996 joint declaration that addressed theological
differences. Earlier this month, Pope John Paul II blessed the statue of
the Armenian Church founder, St. Gregory the Illuminator, that has been
placed among the founding saints that surround the exterior of St.
Peter’s Basilica in Rome. John Paul II, who visited both Armenia and
Azerbaijan in recent years, also expressed hope that “true and lasting
peace” comes to Nagorno Karabakh.

Kocharian also held talks with Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, discussing ways to expand
bilateral economic relations. Armenia’s trade with European Union member
countries has increased substantially in recent years and it now makes
up the largest share of Armenia’s overall foreign trade, but bilateral
trade with Italy stood at just $68 million last year. Kocharian was
accompanied by Trade and Agriculture ministers who met with Italian
businessmen and encouraged them to invest in Armenia. (Sources: Armenia
This Week 10-5-01, 9-6-02; Arminfo 1-28, 2-1; Zenit.org 1-28)

SENIOR ARMENIAN OFFICIALS TAKE PART IN AUSCHWITZ COMMEMORATION

Prime Minister Andranik Margarian and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
last week traveled to Poland and New York, respectively, to pay respect
to victims of the Holocaust. Margarian took part in ceremonies at the
site of what was the largest Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, in
present-day southern Poland, and subsequent conference on the theme in
Krakow. Last week marked the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation
by Soviet forces towards the end of World War II. Up to 6 million
civilians, most of them Jews, but also Russians, Poles, Gypsies and
homosexuals, died in the Holocaust, up to 1.5 million at Auschwitz
alone.

Oskanian joined counterparts from Germany, Israel and several other
states at the United Nations special session on the liberation of
Auschwitz. The U.S. was represented at the UN by Deputy Defense
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who lost most of his extended family in the
Holocaust, and by Vice-President Dick Cheney in Poland. At the UN,
Oskanian, himself a descendant of Genocide survivors, urged the
international community not to turn a blind eye to continued ethnic
persecution around the world and to undertake immediate action to stop
the ongoing genocidal campaign in Darfur. Speaking of the Holocaust, the
Armenian Genocide and other crimes against humanity, Oskanian stressed
the need for both the victims and perpetrators to transcend the trauma
by renouncing such evils and summoning the good will to forgive.
(Sources: Armenian Foreign Ministry 1-24; Reuters 1-25; Mediamax 1-31)

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress