Author: Badalian Vardan

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Feb 24 2005

Of Pipes and Men

Tea Gularidze, Giorgi Sepashvili
Civil Georgia / 2005-02-24 14:05:06

Plans to Sell Trunk Gas Pipelines Stir Controversy

Negotiations between the Georgian leadership and the Russian energy
giant Gazprom over the potential sale of Georgia’s main gas pipeline
network are currently underway. The United States calls on Georgia to
excercise caution when making a final decision.

News about the government’s decision to privatize Georgia’s gas
pipeline system broke after President Saakashvili told the Italian
newspaper La Stampa on February 20 that Georgia is in fact
negotiating with Gazprom over this issue. This triggered fierce
criticism from the opposition, which questions the political
rationale behind these negotiations.

Despite the apparent determination by the Georgian government to keep
this issue of selling the pipeline on the table, US officials remain
cautious. In an interview with the Georgian daily 24 Hours, published
in Georgian on February 24, the U.S. President’s Advisor for Caspian
Energy Issues Steven Mann said said that as a sovereign state,
Georgia has the right to independently make decisions regarding
privatization, but the United States has been calling on the Georgian
leadership to use caution when making these kinds of decisions.

Mann added, that the United States has been working to secure
Georgia’s energy independence for many years and the U.S. will be
categorically against any steps which might hinder this process.

Selling of the trunk gas pipeline will contradict the plans of the
United States, which envisages the creation of alternative gas supply
sources for Georgia, Steven Mann said.

Mann also said that he has held many discussions with Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili and late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania
over this issue. While saying that the United States is not against
cooperation between Georgia and Gazprom, the U.S. official added the
latter represents an important part of Georgia’s energy sector.

Mann continued by saying that selling Georgia’s gas pipeline system
to Gazprom would reduce the selling potential of gas piped through
the Shah-Deniz project. The U.S.-backed Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas
pipeline, or the ‘Shah-Deniz project’, is part of the much broader,
BP-led oil and gas development project in the region, which also
includes the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Main Export Oil Pipeline
Project.

Nonetheless, Mann said that the Shah-Deniz project will be
implemented regardless of whether Gazprom buys Georgia’s gas pipeline
system or not.

Some observers suggested, that the recent revelation of the ongoing
talks between Georgian officials and Gazprom was intended to raise
the stakes in Georgia’s privatisation plans. Speaking with reporters
on February 22 Georgian State Minister for Economic Reform Issues
Kakha Bendukidze made it clear that Gazprom is not the only company
which can buy Georgia’s gas pipeline system.

`I think the fact that the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline is so
sensitive to these issues [of selling the trunk pipeline] means that
the Georgian gas pipeline system might have two potential buyers: one
may be the Shah-Deniz Consortium, the other – Gazprom; if one of them
wishes to gain a victory over the other, it should come and launch
talks with the Georgian government,’ said Bendukidze.

But BP, which leads the BTC and Shah-Deniz projects, has no intention
of taking part in this privatization process. `We will continue our
activities and do not intend to purchase anything,’ Tamila
Chantladze, a spokesperson for the BP Tbilisi Office, told Civil
Georgia on February 23.

In order to sell Georgia’s gas pipeline system the authorities will
have to make amendments to the Law on Privatization, which bans the
sale of facilities which are of `strategic importance’ to the
country. Georgia’s gas pipeline system is on the list of
`strategically important’ facilities. Bendukidze has been adamant
since his appointment that he sees no real meaning behind the
designation of certain facilities as `strategically important.’

A small group of opposition parliamentarians has already expressed
protest regarding the plans to sell the gas lines. `This will be a
huge mistake. This is really a strategic facility which should remain
under Georgian control,’ MP Davit Berdzenishvili, leader of the
opposition Republican Party, told Civil Georgia.

MP Davit Gamkrelidze, who chairs the New Rights-Industrialists
parliamentary faction, also called on the authorities to refrain from
selling the pipelines. `Transferring this facility to Russia will
finally destroy Georgia’s energy independence,’ he said at a news
conference on February 22.

The government will also have to convince Parliamentary Chairperson
Nino Burjanadze, who, in an interview with the Georgian daily
Rezonansi (Resonance) published on January 31, said she is
`categorically against selling the gas pipelines, especially to a
Russian company.’

Some observers say that the Georgian government, who normally take a
clearly defined pro-western stance, might be engaged in some kind of
political ‘horse-trading’ with Russia, in which Tbilisi may be
willing to give up its energy independence in exchange for the
political concessions by Moscow which are presently hindering ties
between the two countries. Above all these issues include the
resolution of the conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

`Of course it is not ruled out that a particular political deal might
take place; however, it is difficult to say what kind of deal it will
be,’ economic analyst Revaz Sakevarishvili told Civil Georgia.

This latest situation surrounding the government’s decision to sell
the country’s gas pipelines is nearly identical to one which
occurred over the same issue less than two years ago.

In 2003, then-President Eduard Shevardnadze became a target of
criticism by the opposition – which, at that time included most of
the current officials – as a result of a declaration of intent over
strategic cooperation with Gazprom. Steven Mann arrived in Georgia
shortly after this hand-shake agreement was made and warned the
Georgian leadership not to undertake steps which could have
endangered the Shah-Deniz project.

But the Georgian authorities at that time signed an agreement with on
strategic cooperation for 25 years, which is still valid. It
envisages the supply of natural gas to Georgian customers and the
rehabilitation of gas pipelines, including two trunk-line gas
pipelines, one of which will be used for transporting gas to Armenia
and the other to Turkey, via the Adjara Autonomous Republic. Analysts
say that Russia is mainly interested in purchasing those pipelines
which are used for transit purposes.

Russia is currently the only supplier of natural gas to Georgia.
Although a reserve pipeline with Iran has been recently repaired, its
capacity is far below what the country requires. Iranian gas is also
nearly three times as expensive as the gas Georgia receives from
Russia.

SYNOPSIS AMERICAN COMPANY INVESTS $90 MLN TO ITS ARMENIAN BRANCH

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23. ARMINFO. “Synopsis” company has provided its
Armenian branch with program tools for designing intellectual property
units for digital, analogue and compound signal chips worth $90 mln,
“Synopsis-Armenia” company’s director Hovik Musayelyan informed
ARMINFO.

He specified that the company received 60 computer-aided design
programs worth $1.5 mln each. Musayelyan also informed that presently
the company employs 150 engineers and plans to increase the number of
enrolled students from 110 to 220. According to him, Vice-President of
Synopsis Rich Goldman will visit Armenia on March 2 and will meet with
Armenia’s President and Prime-Minister to discuss company’s
perspective plans concerned with Armenia. Goldman will also tell about
the company’s intention to establish a Benevolent Fund in Armenia.

To note, “Synoposis-Armenia” was established by “Synopsis” Inc., the
world leader of electronic design of automatized technologies, in Oct
2004 on the basis of Armenian-American Leda Design and Monterey Arset
companies. Synopsis pins its strategic plans with the development of
its Armenian branch, including the tasks to enlarge its activity
spectrum. The annual turnover of Synopsis Inc. totals about $1.2 bln.

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1) Regional ANC Office to Be Established in Middle East
2) Wall Street Journal Article about Turkey Causes Waves of Shock
3) Georgia and Russia at Impasse Says New Premier
4) Senior Official Arrested on Corruption Charges

1) Regional ANC Office to Be Established in Middle East

YEREVAN (Yerkir)–The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau has
decided to establish a regional Armenian National Committee office in the
Middle East to meet the challenges of ensuring continuity and success of
efforts commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
A fundraising banquet will be held on February 26 in Paris, chaired by
Catholicos Aram I, where upcoming projects will be presented. Public figures
and dignitaries from Armenia, Russia, Europe, and the Middle East have been
invited to attend.

2) Wall Street Journal Article about Turkey Causes Waves of Shock

ISTANBUL (Armenpress)–As the Turkish Daily “Zaman” reported recently, Robert
L. Pollock’s article titled “The Sick Man of Europe–Again,” which appeared in
the February 16 issue of the Wall Street Journal, has sent shock waves
throughout the Republic of Turkey. Given the Journal’s friendly stance towards
Turkey during the past five decades, and its senior editorial page writer’s
personal attitude about the country–Pollock described himself as a friend of
Turkey during an interview–the Turkish newspaper speculates that the article
can only indicate a major shift in American sentiment toward the republic.
In the article, Pollock states that during a recent visit to Turkey he
discovered “a poisonous atmosphere–one in which just about every politician
and media outlet (secular and religious) preaches an extreme combination of
America- and Jew-hatred that…voluntarily goes far further than anything
found
in most of the Arab world’s state-controlled press. If I hesitate to call it
Nazi-like, that’s only because Goebbels would probably have rejected much
of it
as too crude.”
Pollock fills his American audience in on the various rumors spread by
Turkish
newspapers regarding US’s presence in Iraq. “Yeni Safak,” which Pollock states
is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s favorite, has unveiled a number of
“scoops,” including reports detailing the rape and murder of Iraqi women and
children by US forces, the deployment of 1000 Israeli troops in Iraq, and the
harvesting of the innards of dead Iraqis for the eventual sale on the US
“organ
market.”
Referring to US Ambassador Eric Edelman’s difficulties in light of such
attitudes, Pollock notes, “Never in an ostensibly friendly country have I had
the impression of embassy staff so besieged. Erdogan’s office recently forbade
Turkish officials from attending a reception at the ambassador’s residence in
honor of the ‘Ecumenical ‘ Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, who resides in
Istanbul. Why? Because ‘ecumenical’ means universal, which somehow makes it
all
part of a plot to carve up Turkey.”
After describing several other such examples, Pollock ends his article
with an
ominous warning: “Turkey could easily become just another second-rate country:
small-minded, paranoid, marginal and–how could it be
otherwise?–friendless in
America and unwelcome in Europe!”
According to “Zaman,” Armenian- and Greek-Americans have provided significant
support to Robert L. Pollock, in response to his views on Turkey. A
Greek-American organization, according to “Zaman,” has also distributed copies
of Pollock’s article to members of Congress.
Among the many postings on the Wall Street Journal’s website, was one by a
reader named David Govett, who wrote: “Turkey cannot be the sick man of Europe
because it has never been a part of Europe. Ataturk’s initiatives to modernize
Turkey were as successful as Crazy Peter’s Westernization attempts on Russia.”

3) Georgia and Russia at Impasse Says New Premier

By Arkady Ostrovsky

TBILISI–Relations between Russia and Georgia have reached a stalemate that
jeopardizes Georgia’s efforts to restore stability and its territorial
integrity, Zurab Nogaideli, the country’s new prime minister, has told the
Financial Times.
Georgia’s 15-month-old government, installed after a popular uprising ousted
president Eduard Schevardnadze, is struggling to regain control over the
break-away regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia–both backed by Russia.
US President Bush told European leaders this week that Georgia was one of the
countries that needed assistance in developing democracy.
But Russia, which still has military bases in Georgia, has strongly opposed
Tbilisi’s efforts to establish control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Moscow
has also used combative language in relation to Georgia, accusing it of
harboring terrorists from neighboring Chechnya.
In his first interview since taking office, Nogaideli said a recent visit by
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, had failed to achieve a breakthrough
in the relationship between the two countries, which has turned increasingly
sour during the past year.
Nogaideli, former finance minister in the government of Zurab Zhvania, who
died of carbon monoxide poisoning this month, had said: “For us the most
important problem in the relationship with Russia is the resolution of
conflicts on our territory. We want to solve the issue of territorial
integrity
peacefully. But everyone understands that without Russia’s good will, it will
be impossible.”
Lavrov’s visit was overshadowed by a diplomatic spat after the Russian
foreign
minister declined an invitation to lay flowers at the memorial for Georgian
soldiers who died in a military conflict with Abkhazia in the early 1990s.
However, in an interview on Russian television last weekend, Lavrov indicated
that Russia no longer considered Georgia to be under his country’s hegemony.
Both Ukraine and Georgia, he said, were “absolutely sovereign, absolutely
equal
states in the new geopolitical architecture.”
Georgian politicians said there was a risk that Russia would test its strength
against Georgia to compensate for its failings in Ukraine.
One senior official said: “There is a real danger that Georgia will become a
foreign-policy Yukos for Russia, designed to demonstrate its strength.”
Russia suffered a humiliating defeat when it failed to influence the outcome
of Ukrainian elections last year and its tough stance towards Georgia is seen
as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to prove its influence in the former Soviet
space.
However, while the official relationship with Moscow has been difficult,
Georgia has managed to attract Russian investment. “We find talking to Russian
investors easier than talking to the Russian government,” Nogaideli said.

4) Senior Official Arrested on Corruption Charges

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–A former high-ranking official at the Armenian Finance
Ministry who was in charge of overseeing the use of public funds by various
government agencies has been arrested on corruption charges, state prosecutors
announced on Wednesday.
The spokesman for the Prosecutor-General’s Office, Gurgen Ambarian, said that
Levon Shahinian, who headed the ministry’s financial oversight department, was
charged the previous night with large-scale fraud that allegedly allowed
him to
pocket about 40 million drams ($85,000). He said the money was meant to be
paid
to two private auditing firms.
Under Armenia’s Criminal Code the accusations carry between four and eight
years’ imprisonment.
Ambarian alleged that Shahinian forged “financial agreements, reports and
other documents” to defraud the auditors, but refused to detail the
accusations. It was also unclear if the suspect has pleaded guilty to the
charges.
Shahinian, who headed the Finance Ministry department since 2001, was
relieved
of his duties a week ago “at his own request,” according to a ministry
spokesman.
The department inspects ministries and other government agencies that are
financed through the state budget. Some of them are audited by private firms
contracted by the government.

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The Messenger
Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Cargo accumulating on Azeri border
By M. Alkhazashvili
Azerbaijan continues to delay cargo bound for Georgia as it crossed the
border between the two countries, on the grounds that part of that cargo,
they suspect, may be then transported to Armenia.
Georgian importers report they are losing millions of dollars as a result of
the hold-up, but they are not the only ones losing out: the dispute is
seriously undermining the reputation of the TRACECA (Transport Corridor
Europe-Caucasus-Asia), the functioning of which is also very important for
Azerbaijan. Local importers are demanding Georgian officials to intervene in
the settlement of the issue.
Blocking of cargo trucks bound for Georgia first became a problem in 2004.
Azerbaijani legislation forbids the transit of cargo to any other country if
it is then forwarded on to Armenia. An agreement was signed between
Azerbaijan and Georgia on June 14 last year, according to which it was
forbidden that cargo transported form Azerbaijan to Georgia be then exported
to Armenia. The agreement was finally ratified on November 22.
The existence of this agreement has not stopped the Azeri side from
currently preventing more than 700 rail wagons from crossing the
Georgia-Azerbaijan border. Only when Baku is assured that the cargo will not
be forwarded to Armenia will the trucks be allowed to proceed into Georgia.
The Georgian side is seeking to speed up the process, and part of the
cargo – some 400 rail wagons – have now crossed the border. 316
Georgia-bound wagons remain, however, including 195 loaded with wheat, 36
with liquid gas, 6 with distillates, 2 with flour and 2 with oil, reports
Rezonansi. Georgian officials state that none of the cargo is destined
ultimately for Armenia.
Apart from the rail trucks, road vehicles are also being held at the border,
bringing the total value of cargo not permitted to cross the border to
nearly USD 10 million, according to newspaper Akhali Taoba.
Although the official reason for holding the cargo is that it might be then
transported to Armenia, other reasons for the Azeri decision have been
speculated, including Georgia’s decision to move to Euro-standard petrol,
which is not produced in Azerbaijan, although the introduction of this rule
has been postponed for a year, giving Azeri factories time to change to
producing petrol which meets European standards.
Oil importers believe the main reason for suspending the cargo is an
internal disagreement with Azerbaijani oil producers, reports the newspaper
Rezonansi, while another version is that it represents Azerbaijan’s response
to Georgian efforts to stop contraband from entering the country. Analyst
Gia Khukhashvili, meanwhile, believes Russia may be behind the disagreement
between Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact is that the disagreement is
seriously harming businesses on both sides of the border.

THERE ARE NO SERIOUS TALKS WITHOUT CONCESSIONS: VLADIMIR KAZIMIROV

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21. ARMINFO. Azerbaijan demands that international
attention be paid to the issue of occupied territories rather than the
gist of the Karabakh problem, says Vladimir Kazimirov, former Russian
co-chair, says in his article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Kazimirov says that the Prague Process of the Armenian-Azeri foreign
ministerial talks is a nice label for the impatient. In fact this is
just rare meetings of the two FMs with the presence of the OSCE Minsk
Group who are instructed to facilitate talks between the conflicting
parties. The Minsk Process has brought the parties to nowhere and it
is not clear yet where the Prague Process is leading them to. They may
very well find another capital soon for a next stage in this endless
process.

There are no serious talks without concessions, says Kazimirov noting
that neither Armenian nor Azeri presidents have so far started
preparing their societies for concessions – on the contrary for many
years they have persuaded them that they will get rather than give.
Afraid of sitting down at the negotiating table in the last months
Azerbaijan has chosen the alternative of political propaganda at
international organizations. Hoping for compassion Baku is showing
just the hard consequences of the conflict.

As for PACE it takes the problem superficially – they do not care to
go as deep as to see how it all happened, who sought to solve the
problem by force, why the war was so long. There would be no
occupation if the conflict was solved by political means. Kazimirov
slates the Russian delegates who did not even open their mouths when
PACE ascribed to OSCE what was in reality achieved by Russia – the
1994 cease fire.

Kazimirov notes that if Mar 2 the FMs agree to move on stage by stage
but with package elements the sides will soon face the problem of
guaranteeing exclusively peaceful settlement for the conflict. It was
not by chance that in a recent meeting Pres.Putin told Pres.Aliev that
the Karabakh knot should be entangled by worthy means and that
security should be ensured in the region. The Azeri-proposed phased
scenario cannot be effected without no-war guarantees by the
conflicting parties. Only naivety can urge them to resume war just
because they believe they are at advantage at the moment.

This will require both material guarantees (demilitarization,
withdrawal of troops from occupied districts) and international
involvement. This in its turn will require serious changes in the
words and actions of Azerbaijan who regularly comes out with military
threats and boasts of its growing military expenses but complaining at
the same time of the privations of a million of Azeri refugees. As for
the Armenians they should renounce their “territories for status”
stance. The Karabakh problem should be voted on by the Karabakh people
rather than haggled on by the sides.

There are many examples: voting was Quebec rather than Canada, Eritrea
rather than Ethiopia, Eastern Timor rather than Indonesia.

Kazimirov says that very complicated problems are on the negotiating
table now – they will suffice for many years of intensive work even if
no additional difficulties are found by propaganda machine.

“UZDUNROBITA” STOPS COOPERATION WITH KARABAKH TELECOM, AZERBAIJANI
MASS MEDIA SAY

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21. ARMINFO. The National Mobile Network Operator of
Uzbekistan, “Uzdunrobita” company, has stopped cooperating with
Karabakh Telecom under the bilateral inter-national Roaming Service,
Day.az report.

According to the source, Azerbaijani diplomats have achieve this in
Tashkent after they addressed an official letter of the Embassy to the
operator-company in connection with the given issues and materials on
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. It should be noted that since 2002, the
National Operator of NKR, Karabakh Telecom, has invested in
development of the cellular network of the country $15 million. The
winner of the contest for “the second” mobile network operator of
Armenia, the subsidiary structure of Karabakh Telecom, K-Telecom,
plans to invest 100 mln EUR in creation of its own network of mobile
communication in Armenia at the initial stage.

Russian foreign minister says he hoped to visit Georgian PM’s grave

RTR Russia TV, Moscow
17 Feb 05

[Presenter] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is on a visit
to Armenia, today reacted to criticism which the Georgian leadership
had levelled against him on the eve of his trip to Georgia.

Tbilisi expressed dissatisfaction over Moscow’s refusal to include
in the agenda a visit to a memorial to Georgian soldiers, killed in
battles for the country’s territorial integrity.

Here is what Sergey Lavrov said on this score.

[Lavrov] The memorial to those fallen in the course of the wars
in Abkhazia and Ossetia, I mean a visit to it would, undoubtedly,
require complex political commentaries. We grieve for all the victims
of these wars, on both sides. I would particularly like to note
that my plans, my personal plans, included a visit to the grave of
[the recently-assassinated Georgian Prime Minister] Zurab Zhvania,
to pay homage to his memory, to lay flowers on his grave. He is a man
who has done a very great deal in order for the Abkhazian and South
Ossetian conflicts to be settled exclusively by peaceful means.

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1) 90th Anniversary Commemoration Committee Finalizes Programs
2) Russian FM Discusses Bilateral Ties, Karabagh in Armenia
3) Tbilisi Incident Concerns Javakhk Armenians
4) Christian Minority in Azerbaijan Gets Rid of Armenian ‘Eye Sore’

1) 90th Anniversary Commemoration Committee Finalizes Programs

LOS ANGELES–This year marks the 90th Anniversary of first genocide of the
Twentieth Century–the genocide against the Armenian people. This page in
history–the annihilation of close to two million Armenians –will be
marked by
Armenians throughout the world.
The Armenian-American community of California, which has traditionally
organized an array of events during the month of April, and specifically
between April 17-24, will this year commemorate the Genocide’s 90th
Anniversary
by hosting a series of events jointly organized by over two dozen Armenian
political, cultural, and religious groups. With the recent addition of the
Organization of Istanbul Armenians, the Iraqi Armenian Community, and the
Armenian Youth Movement, the number of member groups of the United Armenian
Genocide 90th Anniversary Commemoration Committee of California, grew to 26.
The United Young Armenians, however, left the coalition.
Having begun its work in 2004, the Committee has nearly finalized its agenda,
and has resolved to mark the 90th Anniversary through:
– Organizing a large-scale cultural event;
– Hosting a commemoration in Sacramento with the participation of State-level
elected officials and government representatives;
– Organizing a demonstration adjacent to the Turkish Consulate of Los
Angeles;
– Hosting a requiem service at the monument, dedicated to the memory of the
Genocide’s victims, in the City of Montebello.
– Hosting requiem services at all Armenians churches throughout the State;
– Organizing a community-wide event, concluding the series of commemorative
events.

United Armenian Genocide 90th Anniversary Commemoration Committee of
California

2) Russian FM Discusses Bilateral Ties, Karabagh in Armenia

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with President
Robert Kocharian and other Armenian leaders in Yerevan Thursday on an official
visit which focused on bilateral relations and the Karabagh conflict.
The talks were also aimed at preparing for Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s upcoming visit to Armenia, his country’s main regional ally.
“We expect a very busy year for our partnership and allied
relationship,”
Lavrov said at the end of the one-day trip. “We have to implement agreements
reached by the [Russian-Armenian] inter-governmental commission on economic
cooperation last December. We agreed to accelerate implementation of all
issues
agreed by the parties so that our presidents can see… that their decisions are
put into practice.”
“There are no problems in our relations. But because those relations are
constantly developing, they need constant attention,” he added.
“We are happy with the results of the visit. I believe that it will give
an additional impetus to our relations,” Oskanian said for his part.
Kocharian told Lavrov that he is satisfied with the current state of
bilateral ties and hopes that Russia will help to lift transport blockades
resulting from the unresolved ethnic conflicts in the South Caucasus.
The Karabagh conflict was a major theme of the talks. “We hope that the
Prague process of regular meetings between the foreign ministers of Armenia
and
Azerbaijan will bear fruit,” Lavrov said. “The co-chairs of the OSCE’s Minsk
Group are ready to foster that. We will do our best to make sure that the
process progresses successfully.”
“Sergei Lavrov is a minister who probably knows more [about the Karabagh
peace process] than I,” Oskanian joked at their joint news conference,
underlining Moscow’s role as a key international mediator. He announced that
his next meeting with Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Prague will
take place on March 2.
Economic issues were another subject of discussions, with Kocharian and
Prime Minister Andranik Markarian again calling on the Russians to speed up
work on reactivating four of five moribund Armenian enterprises which were
handed over to them two years ago in payment for Armenia’s $100 million debt.
Markarian also expressed concern at Russia’s plans to finance a new railway to
Iran that would bypass Armenia and run through its arch-rival Azerbaijan
Lavrov, who revealed to reporters last year that his father was a
Tbilisi-born Armenian, assured Markarian that “Russia will take into account
Armenia’s interests and will not take any steps that would damage them,”
according to an Armenian government statement.

3) Tbilisi Incident Concerns Javakhk Armenians

YEREVAN (Combined Sources)–Voicing concern over a recent incident in Tbilisi
involving the desecration of Armenian gravestones, the Javakhk Union of
Georgian Armenians sent a letter to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili,
urging him to take measures to preserve Armenian cultural monuments in
Georgia.
On February 8, Armenian gravestones from the St. Virgin Church in Tbilisi’s
Norashen district were removed and replaced with Georgian ones. A Georgian
priest also told the Armenian clerics to pray in Armenia because “this church
is ours now.”
The 15th century church’s ornaments made by the Hovnatanyans are still
preserved. Head of the Georgian-Armenian diocese Archbishop Vazgen
Mirzakhanyan, said he is concerned that the next incident will involve
vandalism of the church.

4) Christian Minority in Azerbaijan Gets Rid of Armenian ‘Eye Sore’

By Simon Ostrovsky

(AFP)–When a Christian people in this predominantly Muslim republic ground
away the Armenian inscriptions from the walls of a church and tombs last month
to erase evidence linking them to Azerbaijan’s foe [Armenia], they thought
they
had the interests of their small community in mind.
But now the tiny Christian church in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan
has become the focus of a big scandal as the Udi minority struggles to find
its
identity in an ideological minefield. The church, which has not been used
since
Azerbaijan became part of the Soviet Union, has become the center of a dispute
between the Norwegian backers of the reconstruction, who consider the
alterations to be vandalism, and the Udi community.
“We have no God, our people lost their religion under communism and this
church is our only hope of reviving it,” said Georgi Kechaari, one of the
village elders who doubles as the ethnic group’s historian.
“But we live in Azerbaijan, and when people came into the church and saw
Armenian letters, they automatically associated us with Armenians,” he said.
The Udi, who once used the Armenian alphabet, have struggled to separate
their
legacy from that of their fellow Christians, the Armenians, who fought a war
with Azerbaijan and have been vilified here.
Since the beginning of the conflict with Armenia over Mountainous Karabagh,
which erupted just before the break-up of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has rid
of nearly everything associated with Armenia in has been wiped away, although
hundreds of thousands of Armenians lived here before the war that ended in a
cease-fire in 1994.
Armenian-sounding city names have been changed, streets named after Armenians
have been replaced with politically correct Azeri surnames, while Soviet
history glorifying Armenian communist activists has been rewritten in school
textbooks. But the white stone church in Nij, some two centuries old, had not
been tampered with until the Udi undertook to reconstruct it with help from
the
state financed Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise (NHE).
“It was a beautiful inscription, 200 years old, it even survived the war,”
Norway’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Steinar Gil told AFP. “This is an act of
vandalism and Norway in no way wants to be associated with it.”
But the Udis insist they erased the inscriptions to right a historic wrong.
Kechaari alleged that the Armenian inscriptions, which stated that the Church
was built in 1823, were fakes put there by Armenians in the 1920s so that they
could make historical claims to it.
The Udis are the last surviving tribe of the Caucasus Albanians, a group
unrelated to the Mediterranean Albanians, whose Christian kingdom ruled this
region in medieval times before Turkic hordes swept in from Central Asia in
the
13th and 15th centuries. They number under 10,000 people and Nij is the only
predominantly Udi village to survive to this day, and although they call
themselves Christian, there is little that Christians from other parts of the
world would find in common with them.
The Udis have not had a pastor for nearly a century and celebrate Islamic
holidays together with their Muslim neighbors. But while the Udis soul search
for an identity, Azerbaijan has used their legacy to strengthen its claims to
Karabagh.
Armenians argue that the multitude of churches in the occupied region proves
that they as a Christian people can lay a historic claim to it. But Azeris,
who
consider themselves to be the descendants of Albanians who were assimilated
into a Turkic group, say the area is rightfully theirs because the churches
were actually built by their ancestors the Albanians.
To the Udi, who used Armenian script when their church was built, toeing the
official Azeri line has become more of a priority than historical accuracy.
The
perception that they are one with the Armenians has meant that there has been
little trust from the authorities; Udi men for example were only allowed to
start serving in the Azeri Army two years ago.
But their use of power tools to fit the status quo took their Norwegian
sponsors by surprise. “They think they have erased a reminder of being
Armenian…instead they have taken away the chance to have a good image when
the church is inaugurated,” the director of the NHE in Azerbaijan, Alf Henry
Rasmussen said, adding that a visit to the church by Norway’s prime minister
will probably now be canceled.
“Everyone will stare at the missing stones. I’m not quite sure if we can
continue our work there,” Rasmussen said.

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–Boundary_(ID_QjS5LRMjJqU2iEtvGkqsWw)–

Russian company buys Armenian power grid – agency

Regnum, Moscow
12 Feb 05

[No dateline as received] In November last year Regnum news agency
reported about talks between the British trade and industrial concern
Midland Resources Holding Ltd and the RAO UES (Russia) [Russia’s
power grid monopoly Unified Energy System] on the sale of the Armenian
power grid. The press secretary of the Armenian power grid, Margarita
Grigoryan, officially denied reports from a well-informed source in
the company that the Russian holding would become the owner of the
Armenian power grid in January 2005.

Meanwhile, Yerevan-based newspaper Aykakan Zhamanak reported on 12
February that a subsidiary of the RAO UES of Russia, Inter RAO UES,
has bought the Armenian power grid from Midland Resources for 80m
dollars. The deal will be officially made public in April 2005, the
newspaper noted. Aykakan Zhamanak noted that the World Bank is roundly
against handing over the Armenian power grid to Russia. The newspaper
also alleged that “after the sale of the Armenian power grid, Russia
will not be the only one to control them”. [Sentence as published]

To recap, an agreement on the sale of the Armenian power grid was
signed in Yerevan on 26 August between the Armenian government and
the British trade and industrial concern Midland Resources Holding
Ltd. In accordance with the document, 80.1 per cent of the Armenian
power grid shares were sold to the concern for 37.15m dollars. The
British company was to pay 12.15m dollars for the shares and to
allocate another 25m dollars to the Armenian budget to cover the
Armenian power grid’s debts and to pay wage arrears.

The RAO UES of Russia owns the Sevan-Razdan cascade of hydro-electric
power plants and the Razdan thermoelectric power plant and controls
finances of the Armenia Nuclear Power Plant. The RAO UES set up the
International Energy Corporation closed-type joint-stock company in May
2003 for the management of the Sevan-Razdan cascade of hydro-electric
power plants, which was handed over to Russia to cover part of the debt
for the nuclear fuel delivered for the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant.

Finances of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant have been placed in
trust management of Inter RAO UES, a subsidiary of the RAO UES,
(60 per cent of shares) and Russia’s state nuclear power holding
Rosenergoatom (40 per cent) for five years.

Probably, the sale of the Armenian power grid should be viewed in
the context of the RAO UES’ attempt to synchronize the power grids
of the entire region, including Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Taking account of the fact that after the commissioning of the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, Armenia will export electricity to Iran
in exchange for the supplied gas, which is outlined in the major
agreement, the issue of synchronizing the Armenian and Iranian power
grids could also emerge on the agenda. Since the RAO UES is also the
owner of Georgia’s major power facilities, one can say that the RAO UES
is striving to synchronize the work of the power grids of the whole of
the region, including Armenia, Georgia and even Turkey in the future.

Caucaz.com, Georgia
Feb 14 2005

Toward a normalization of Azerbaijan-Iran relations

Gilles Riaux’s Column

By Gilles RIAUX, PhD student at the French Geopolitics Institute –
Paris 8 University in Paris
On 14/02/2005

The recent visit to Iran of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, from
Janurary 24th to 26th 2005, confirms the rapprochement between Tehran
and Baku. Not only did he meet with the Iranian president Mohammad
Khatami whom the presidential term of office will be ending soon, but
Ilham Aliyev also met with le Guide Ali Khameney and Ali Akhbar
Hashemi Rafsandjani – two of the most influent men of the Islamic
Republic of Iran.
Among the topics discussed the major ones were the condemnation of
the Armenian occupation in Nagorno-Karabagh, the strengthening of
economic bonds and the cooperation for fight against terrorism, drug
trafficking and organized crime.

Furthermore, this visit was a follow up to the one of Khatami in Baku
in August 2004. This visit ended up on the opening of a consulate of
the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tabriz and the signing of agreements
for the improvement of communication infrastructures and energetic
cooperation between the two countries. Those two official meetings
show, if not proove, the undeniable rapprochement between Baku and
Tehran – rapprochement initiated by Heydar Aliyev’s visit to Iran,
early 2002.

And yet over the 90’s, there was an obvious distrust between the two
capitals. This distrust was at its strongest point in July 2001 when
an Iranian military ship demanded an oil prospecting ship coming form
Azerbaijan to get away from the Iran territorial waters.

At the beginning, Iran saw USSR’s fall as a way to expand its
influence in Central Asia and Caucasus, by taking advantage of their
religious and cultural common history. Until it was conquered by the
Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century, the current
territory of the Azerbaijani republic was an integral part of Iran.
There the major ethnic group of the population is Shiite (the
Azeris), which is also the main minority in Iran.

However, the new and weak republics of Central Asia and Caucasus
choose to strongly assert their national indentity so as to prevent
any foreign interference. The new president of the Republic of
Azerbaijan, Abulfaz Elçibey, takes a nationalist stance, especially
agressive toward Iran. He asks for an Iranian Azerbaijan to secede
from Iran, and for the creation of a great Azerbaijan of which the
capital would be Tabriz.

It is then that Tehran decides to actively support Armenia for the
Nagorno-Karabagh conflict, in order to defuse a possible secession of
Iran’s Azeris and to weaken the republic of Azerbaijan. Officially,
Iran takes a neutral stance but as its Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Mahmud Vae’zi, admitted it, Iran’s support to Armenia is dictated by
domestic issues (source ). The Islamic
Republic turns for good its revolutionary project into a strict
realism regarding its Foreign policy.

The coming of power of apparatchik Heydar Aliyev marks a turning
point for Azerbaijan. He trades the hazardous nationalist policy of
his predecessor for a realism inherited from a long experience of the
Soviet system. From this point, he has to bring back on its feet a
country which is then on its knees and weakened by a territorial
conflict lost for good.

So as to succeed in his project to turn Azerbaijan into « a new
Kuwait », Heydar Aliyev has first to work on the issue of oil
exportations, in order to provide a stable environment by improving
its relations with the region’s power. Once the difficult BTC oil
pipeline project passed, Tehran gets that it would never become a
mandatory partner for Azerbaijan. Indeed despite Iran’s outstanding
location, the USA would never have accepted that Caspian Sea oil
transit through the territory of the Islamic republic.

It may be difficult sometimes to understand the Iranian Foreign
Policy, this one resulting from arrangements between the different
factions in power. However, Iran being surrounded by the USA and
ethnic minorities – primarily Azeris – developing cultural claims,
Tehran is now inclined to improve its relations with Baku.

This improvement is both following the domestic, and the foreign
line. And for Iran taking part in stabilizing Caucasus, by the
resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or the fight against the
different smuggling that destabilize the region, has become necessary
since this country wants to be a regional power. It is also a way to
loosen the American grip.

Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Tabriz, the new Consulate of the Republic of
Azerbaijan, as well as the mausoleum of Sharyar – key figure of the
Azeri litterature in Iran, is also helping the domestic line. It gave
the opportunity to bring to Iran’s Azeris goodwill tokens for their
cultural claims, and to limit the radicalization of Azeri
nationlists.

But this apparent normalization conceals still pretty poorly the
difficulties met by two States which choose a realistic Foreign
Policy. The position towards the United States and the legal status
of the Caspian Sea are still the major disagreements which prevent a
strong alliance between Azerbaijan and Iran.

–Boundary_(ID_6dSEMU8kYe8EXY+zDO6D7A)–