Author: Chaltikian Arsine

MONITORING OF PRISONS IN NKR

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
01 June 05

The Centre for Civil Undertakings operating in Stepanakert since
October 2002 directs its efforts toward forming a civil society,
developing democratic institutions and defending the basic rights and
liberties of the citizens in Karabakh. The director of the centre is
Albert Voskanian. The main direction in the work of the centre is
monitoring of prisons in Nagorno Karabakh. In 2003 the Centre got
the permission of the NKR authorities to visit the penitentiaries
and hold regular monitoring there. The results of monitoring are
reflected in the report which is extended to the Council of Europe,
the UN Commission on Human Rights, the International Red Cross, the
OSCE and other international and human rights organizations, as well
as the relevant organizations of Nagorno Karabakh. The Centre for
Civil Undertakings endorses the abolition of capital punishment in
NKR in autumn of 2003. The Prison of Shushi situated on the outskirts
of the town of Shushi, has been operating since 1995 on the basis
of the local prison (the prison was built in 1896). The prison has
been guided by the Correctional Code, the Internal Regulations and
the orders of the Police of Nagorno Karabakh. The prison institutes
5 regimes: minimum-security, medium-security, special, prison and
maximum-security. The prison was designed for 350 inmates. The jail
under the Police of Nagorno Karabakh is located in Stepanakert, near
the building of the department of home affairs of the police. The
building (built in 1989), consists of 31 lock-ups, 6 cells for 2
inmates, 3 solitary sells, and 15 administrative units. The cells
are situated along the both sides of the long corridor on all the
three floors. The jail is separated from the administrative part of
the building with bars. It was designed for 200 prisoners. It is a
minimum-security jail, as instituted by the corresponding decision
of the Police of Nagorno Karabakh. According to the director of
the Centre for Civil Undertakings, over the past two years the
situation has improved. The moral and psychological state of the
inmates is improving. There is growing trust among the inmates in
the Centre. They often tell the members of the centre about their
problems. The centre discusses their problems with the staff of
the jail to solve the problem, if possible, on the spot. “We are,
in a way, intermediaries,” says Albert Voskanian. The psychologist
of the centre constantly works with the inmates, which also produces
positive results. On the initiative of the Centre the rights of the
inmates were placed beside the list of their duties. Besides, the
centre gave a computer to the inmates of the jail. This is the first
case in the entire South Caucasus. Together with Mesrop Mashtots
University the centre organizes computer courses for the staff of
the jail (the university cooperates with the centre) who will in
their turn teach the inmates. After the courses the inmates will
take an exam and receive certificates. The centre collected books
for the prison of Shushi and the jail of Stepanakert, as well as
organized subscription of newspapers and magazines. When needed,
the centre supplies the prisoners with medicine. According to
A. Voskanian, who has visited prisons in Armenia, Georgia, one of
the Azerbaijani prisons in the Soviet Union, the penitentiaries of
Nagorno Karabakh positively differ from them, although they are far
from the European standards. A. Voskanian added that an Azerbaijani
human rights defender who visited the prison of Shushi twice stated
that the conditions in the prisons of Karabakh are better than in the
Azerbaijani prisons. However, the prisons of Karabakh, and especially
the administrative bodies need fundamental reforms. Another important
reform is the transfer of penitentiaries from the jurisdiction of
the Police to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. During
the monitoring the prisoners make complaints, usually of the prison
regime. However, in order to change the regime, it is necessary to
change the laws first. They do not complain of food. The inmates have
three meals a day, and once a month their relatives may send them 50 kg
parcels with food. If they do not have relatives, the Red Cross takes
care of them. The latest monitoring was held on May 21. The monitoring
is held once a month, but in April the Centre failed to hold it for
a number of reasons. Like during the previous visits, the members of
the Centre talked to the prisoners. The psychologist is currently
working with four inmates. According to Albert Voskanian, several
problems were solved on the spot, the others need time. The director
of the Centre is satisfied with the results of the latest meeting.

EVIKA BABAYAN. 01-06-2005

RUSSIA INTERESTED IN DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES IN ARMENIA

A!plus

| 18:12:44 | 31-05-2005 | Official |

Today Armenian National Assembly Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan received
head of the Russian presidential department for interregional and
cultural ties with foreign states Modest Kolerov.

M. Kolerov informed the NA chairman that he has met with
members of parliamentary groups and factions to find out their
opinion on the democratic processes in Armenia, elections of the
local self-government, constitutional changes and conduction of
referenda. On his request Arthur Baghdasaryan presented in detail
the issues referring to draft of constitutional amendments and
referendum noting that the legislative changes in Armenia are aimed
at democratization of the republic and adoption of laws corresponding
to the international standards.

The parties also discussed the regional issues pointing out to the
necessity of cooperation in various fields.

GHUKASIAN: PLACING PEACEKEEPERS IN KARABAKH OUT OF QUESTION

Pan Armenian News
31.05.2005 03:58

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Placing peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh is
out of question today. The cease-fire is being preserved there for
over 11 years,” President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Arkady
Ghukasian stated when commenting on the reports of a number of media
sources that Ukraine is ready to send peacekeeping contingent to the
Karabakh conflict zone. “The talks represent a complex process and
one cannot unambiguously say which phase there are on today. There
are no positive changes, as Azerbaijan holds a non-constructive stand:
to get everything without ceding anything,” the NKR President stated,
reported the Yerkir newspaper.

USA to ‘choose more experienced company’ to hold exit polls

Baku, May 27, AssA-Irada

Washington is ready to do its best to achieve the conduct of free
and fair elections in Azerbaijan, US Ambassador Reno Harnish told
journalists.

Harnish said the Azerbaijani government has appealed to the United
States with regard to holding exit polls during the parliamentary
elections due in November.

“The United States is particularly experienced in this area and
our government will choose a more experienced company to conduct
exit polls.”

Touching upon the authorities-opposition dialogue, the Ambassador
said that his country welcomes holding such meetings, as they are
highly important on the eve of the elections.*

Le Temps
28 mai 2005

Un sultan qui a «permis» de tuer des Arméniens

Inventée pour la réconciliation, l’Union européenne exerce à son tour
un fort pouvoir d’apaisement sur les peuples à ses marges. Si
Allemands et Français se reconnaissent maintenant du même bord,
pourquoi pas Serbes et Croates, Roumains et Hongrois…? Les «ennemis
héréditaires» trouvent un mode de relations plus conforme à leur
intérêt mutuel présent: la paix plutôt que la guerre et la
destruction. Porteuse de l’exemple, l’Union en exprime aussi la
théorie, au nom de laquelle elle peut demander à des pays candidats
l’application d’un certain nombre de règles comme, entre autres, le
respect des minorités, ethniques ou religieuses. Si les Turcs se
réconcilient avec les Grecs, y compris à Chypre, pourquoi, dès lors,
n’aborderaient-ils pas différemment leur question arménienne? C’est
tout l’enjeu de la reconnaissance officielle par Ankara du génocide
de 1915: les Européens demandent aux Turcs de s’affirmer responsables
de l’extermination d’un million d’Arméniens entre 1915 et 1922 pour
les obliger, cent ans après, à voir dans l’«Arménien» un égal absolu
du Turc, doté des mêmes droits, dont le premier, celui de vivre,
assorti d’un autre, celui d’obtenir réparation.

On comprend mieux la nécessité de cet effort psycho-politique à la
lecture du livre de Victor Bérard, réédité cette année, sur les
premiers massacres des Arméniens, entre 1894 et 1896 par ordre du
sultan Abdul-Hamid II. Ces tueries de masse, prélude au génocide,
sont rendues possibles par la sous-humanité alléguée de l’Arménien
chrétien par rapport au Turc musulman. Déshumanisée, une minorité
peut alors être pressurée, violentée, voire liquidée. Bérard écrit en
1897. Helléniste et orientaliste, il enquête à Constantinople,
s’efforçant à l’impartialité et la mesure.

Abdul-Hamid II arrive au trône de l’Empire ottoman en août 1876 par
un coup d’Etat qui renverse son frère Mourad, trois mois après le
renversement et le suicide de son oncle Abdul-Aziz. Sultan par le
meurtre et le complot, il est lui-même entouré d’assassins ou
conjurés potentiels qu’il craint chaque seconde de sa vie. La peur
domine son règne, elle explique l’homme et ses actes. Se méfiant de
son gouvernement, Abdul-Hamid créé une administration parallèle à sa
dévotion. Implacable. Lourde. Chère. Il la paie par l’extorsion sans
merci de l’impôt. Sur le territoire qu’ils partagent avec les Kurdes
semi-nomades, dans l’Est de l’actuelle Turquie, les Arméniens,
sédentaires et plus riches, doivent acquitter leur dîme à la fois aux
Kurdes, propriétaires du sol par loi divine, et au Palais, de plus en
plus gourmand. Quand ce dernier n’obtient pas l’argent demandé, ses
préfets cessent de protéger les paysans arméniens qui sont alors
victimes des tribus kurdes trop heureuses d’en découdre avec des
rivaux plus doués pour le contrôle des pturages et des eaux.

Ce conflit, aggravé par la montée parallèle du nationalisme arménien
et du panislamisme chez les Kurdes, met fin à la cohabitation
séculaire des Arméniens et des musulmans dans l’Empire ottoman. Les
Arméniens, «nation fidèle», avaient fourni des générations de
fonctionnaires et de clercs à la grandeur de la Porte qui se
félicitait de sa propre tolérance. En moins de cinq ans, ils
deviennent suspects de déloyauté, le sultan en fait des boucs
émissaires, les livrant à la haine «ancestrale» des Kurdes, à la
cruauté de ses soldats mal payés et de tout autre criminel recruté
par tel préfet anxieux d’une récompense au Palais. Sassoun, octobre
1894: 5000 morts; Diarbakir, octobre 1894: 1000 morts;
Constantinople, septembre 1896: 5000 morts, précédés d’autres
milliers durant toute l’année 1895 dans la plupart des villes d’Asie
mineure. «Le maître a permis de tuer les Arméniens» entend-on dans
l’empire. En deux ans, cette permission coûte la vie à 300 000 êtres
humains. Cinq cents communautés arméniennes sont supprimées ou
atteintes, leurs biens volés, pillés, détruits.

«Comment, en pleine paix, un homme a-t-il pu concevoir une telle
entreprise et comment, sous les yeux de l’Europe, a-t-il pu la mener
à bien?» demande Victor Bérard. L’auteur n’est plus là en 1915 quand
les Jeunes-Turcs la portent à son terme, prenant pour eux le mot
prêté à un sbire du Sultan: «On supprimera la question arménienne en
supprimant les Arméniens.» Bérard, qui l’avait entendu en son temps,
trouvait l’idée «monstrueuse et incompréhensible pour un cerveau
européen»! Mais le XXe siècle européen ne faisait que commencer.

Victor Bérard, «La Politique du sultan, Les massacres des Arméniens:
1894-1896», Ed. du Félin, avril 2005.

The Daily Star, Lebanon
May 30 2005

Third district elections go ‘smoothly’ despite absence of voters

By Rym Ghazal and Leila Hatoum
Daily Star staff
Monday, May 30, 2005

BEIRUT: Beirut’s third district polling stations lacked the
participation of groups known to be abstaining from the elections,
while other stations received a rush of voters early in the morning,
trickling down to just a handful by the end of the day.

Armenian Tashnag Party voters abided by their party’s calls to
boycott the elections, with only 183 out of an eligible 7,128 voters
casting their ballots at the Armenian Evangelic School.

By closing time, some of Beirut’s polling stations had seen up to a
50 percent voter turnout, cut equally across gender and the various
religious sects.

Third district candidate Mohammad Qabbani, who is running on Hariri’s
list, told The Daily Star he believed the elections are “democratic
and transparent,” and said he’d been treated as a regular citizen
while voting.

Nazik Hariri, the widow of assassinated Premier Rafik Hariri, also
voted in the third district and said she wished her husband had been
“here to head the electoral campaign.”

Candidate Ghinwa Adnan Jalloul, also running on Hariri’s list for the
third district, said the elections were “well organized and there was
no need to pressure anyone to vote for Hariri’s people as so many
voters have come to the polling stations cheering for him and his
people.”

Most of the voters interviewed, whether aged 90 like Toufic Alwani,
or 25 like Rola Mohammad, came determined to vote for Hariri’s list –
with some wishing they were voting for “the man himself, Rafik
Hariri.”

Behind the scenes were the diligent pairs from the EU Election
Observation Mission (EU EOM), sent to Lebanon earlier this month to
observe the polls, along with an independent Canadian team, “the
first of its kind in Lebanon,” according to the team’s leader,
Senator Mac Harb.

“We have had complete access to everything and it has been a smooth
ride so far, and hopefully it will be the same case for the rest of
Lebanon,” said Harb.

Similar approval was given by EU observers Gerald Kristianson and
Stephano Valentino.

Valentino commented on the issue of the uncontested winnings of some
candidates in Beirut, saying: “Democracy is supposed to give
everybody the opportunity to elect the representative they find fit.”

He said he was “interested” in the recent events taking place in
Lebanon and felt the country “is making a good effort to make things
work in the right way.”

As for poll violations, Nora Mrad, one of the LADE (Lebanese
Association for Democratic Elections) observers confirmed some
violations had occurred.

One instance she cited was the lack of curtains or sufficient
barriers to vote behind in some of the electoral stations, as well as
finding lists of candidates behind the curtains which might affect
the voters’ decision.

Mrad said there had been no facilities for the handicapped and in
most of the electoral stations there had been insufficient access,
with many of Lebanon’s disabled unable to climb the numerous
staircases.

Meanwhile, Hayya Bina, a group that aims to transform Lebanon’s
confessional system into a secular one, was hard at work on Beirut’s
streets urging people to vote with a special ticket calling for a
secular country, along with their chosen ballots.

Sadly, the effort failed to attract much attention.

Agence France Presse
May 29 2005

Low turnout in Lebanon’s first vote

BEIRUT — Lebanese trickled to polling stations on Sunday in the
first elections in three decades free of Syria’s grip, with success
assured for the son of Rafiq Hariri whose murder triggered a popular
uprising against the pro-Damascus regime.

Security was tight across the capital for the first phase of the
four-round elections but after four hours of voting barely one in 10
voters had cast their ballot despite opposition calls for a high
turnout.

The polls, taking place a month after the last Syrian soldier left
Lebanese soil, are being staged under international supervision for
the first time, with over 100 European Union and United Nations
observers on the ground.

“According to the statistics I have received, turnout was somewhat
low. It was about 12 percent at 11 am (0800 GMT),” or four hours
after the polls opened, Prime Minister Nagib Miqati told a press
conference.

Leading figures in the anti-Syrian opposition, which is expected to
take the lion’s share of seats in the 128-member parliament, urged
voters to cast their ballots to ensure the results had the stamp of
legitimacy.

Results are expected from the Beirut round on Monday but the
nationwide tally will not be known until after the final phase on
June 19.

“Go to the polls because today is the defining moment to show a
united Beirut,” said Saad Hariri, anointed his father’s successor
after the billionaire businessman and five-times prime minister was
killed in a massive bomb blast in Beirut in February that triggered
months of political upheaval.

His murder heightened the pressure on Lebanon’s political masters in
Syria which finally pulled out all its troops in April after a
29-year military presence but remains an influential voice in its
smaller neighbour.

Lebanon has some three million eligible voters, 59 percent Muslim and
41 percent Christian, who will be voting for 128 parliamentary seats
to be shared equally by the Christian and Muslim communities.

Former exiled Christian General Michel Aoun — who recently fell out
with Hariri and his Muslim allies in the opposition — and the
powerful Armenian party Tashnag had called for the boycott. Their
followers were roaming the streets, distributing leaflets reading:
“Do not vote.”

Even before the first vote was cast, Saad Hariri’s list had won nine
seats in Beirut when rival candidates dropped out and it is expected
to win the remaining 10 up for grabs on Sunday.

National Post, Canada
SECTION: TORONTO; Scene; Pg. TO6

Oh, Arsinee, come fly away with me…: Why won’t she just ditch that
Atom guy?

Shinan Govani, National Post

A few weeks ago, I fell in love with Atom Egoyan’s wife.

Sitting across from Arsinee Khanjian as I was, at Patachou, watching
her play a pastry like a piano, seeing her slip a strand of her hair
behind her ear, thereby revealing a river of grey at her temples, I
thought to myself: Why doesn’t she just ditch that Armenian lensman?
Come live with me in a hovel in … I dunno … Uruguay.

(Inner Voice kicking in now) Be professional, Shinan. Mention her new
movie. So, yes, Ms. Khanjian, Hogtown’s Isabella Rossellini, is in a
movie. And — surprise! — it ain’t directed by her husband. It’s a
small Canadian film called Sabah, exactly the sort of small Canadian
film we need more of. A compact romantic-sorta-comedy that transports
you into a certain world and doesn’t make a fuss. Directed by
newcomer Ruba Nadda, the story revolves around a 40-year-old
hijab-wearing Arab woman who falls in love with a “white guy” in
Toronto. It’s Romeo and Jihad! Sure, it follows the same plot as a
million star-crossed lovers stories we’ve seen before, but it does so
with assurance and pluck. And, besides, since when did stories of
star-crossed lovers ever go out of style?

So, as I sat chatting with Arsinee that fateful afternoon, I learned
a few things. And I thought I would share them:

1. Arsinee had to learn a whole Glad Bag of tricks for this movie.
Her character bellydances! She plays basketball! She even spends time
in a pool! The latter was perhaps the trickiest. She tells me that
before the shoot, she trekked out to a YMCA near Bayview and York
Mills three times a week to take diving lessons!

2. Arsinee says she’s shy and is positively spooked about making
small talk. It’s the “fear of banality” that gets her. (And, believe
me, you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Arsinee say the word
“banality” in that sonorous, actressy voice of hers.)

3. Arsinee, who’s much more open and sunny than some of her on-screen
work would make you think, did reveal something that’s right in step
with the serious thespian image we have of her and her famous
husband. She tells me that she and Atom don’t have a television in
their house and haven’t for about 15 years! (So, yes, it’s not likely
they caught the season finale of Lost this week — too bad, because
it was very good.)

After a conversation that veered every which way and that I hoped
would never end — I’m sure my IQ went up a few notches just talking
to Arsinee — we got up from our table to leave. That’s when we
realized that the room was eerily silent. Everyone had been
eavesdropping on us!

Sabah, by the way, hit theatres yesterday.

– – –

Oh, and isn’t the magazine world the bomb? Take Flare and Fashion,
two of the big Toronto style books. Both of the mags, my yappers tell
me, were vying to shoot a cover some months ago of a certain pop
princess who likes to travel with her own bento box. We’re talking
Gwen Stefani. Long story shortish: Fashion thought they were going to
get her, but Flare slithered its way in. “One of the editors at
Fashion found out at a cocktail party that Flare had already shot
Gwen,” a source tells me.

Not only that. But mehears Flare’s newish editor Lisa Tant — who
some say is a much better publisher than editor and is obsessed about
besting the competition with covers that’ll sell on the newsstands —
accomplished the Gwen grand-theft by trash-talking her rival
magazine. “She basically goes to the people in L.A. and tells them
that there is only one fashion magazine that matters in Canada,” says
the source.

Quelle moxie! But you wanna know what else? After Fashion lost
Stefani, they turned their sights on a lesser celeb. Or so they
thought. They got Katie Holmes. Of course, they didn’t know all those
months ago that pretty soon she’d be embarking on some risky
business. As the news broke about Katie and Tom Cruise, Fashion’s
cover with Katie was just hitting the stands. Sweet revenge, perhaps?

Both Flare’s cover with Gwen and Fashion’s with Katie are out this
month. The former looks great. The latter’s got heat. And, for
Fashion head girl Ceri Marsh, what a nice wedding present to herself!
Word has it that the dark-haired editor is getting hitched in
Vancouver this weekend, and that the sorority of Toronto fashion
media babes will be on hand. Names like Viia Beaumanis, Tralee
Pearce, Leah McLaren and Rebecca Eckler float to mind.

– – –

I see, I hear…

That Jean Chretien was at Biff’s on Tuesday night. No doubt, having
the gloat special…

That Chilean wordsmith Isabel Allende has given her two magic-realist
thumbs up to a Toronto novel. Joseph Boyden’s buzzed-about Three Day
Road is her pick for the Today show’s monthly book club….

That it may be time to break out the crocodiles. Lacoste is throwing
a party on Wednesday for those in-town fashionistas who’ve got a
Michael J. Fox-in-Family Ties complex…

– – –

And how about this one?…

Bruce Willis, here shooting 16 Blocks, walks into the bar at the Four
Seasons last week. Not inconspicuous. Walks up and down, making
die-hard eye contact with every lovely in the room. Including the
chick at the centre of a bridal shower thingie at the back. When she
sees him, and he sees her seeing him, she rips off the sash she has
on over her dress. Necks crane. Snickering is heard. The words
written on the now-abandoned sash? “Bride-to-Be”!

– – –

Oh, and….

When I was in New York last week for the Daytime Emmys — I love
partying with soap stars, don’t you? — I had a quick pizza lunch
with the divine Measha Brueggergosman. She’s the Toronto opera-tor
who’s performing at Roy Thomson Hall this week. Debuted at Carnegie
Hall not long ago. Is about to go big, I predict. You can see the
hunger in her eyes. She wants to be a star.

And, oh that hair! Her grand black diva mane is as much an instrument
as her voice. And she let me in on a secret. It looks particularly
good now because Measha stopped shampooing six months ago. “It
changed my life,” she told me dramatically, adding that shampoo was
killing her hair. She now uses a special scalp product called No Poo
and has a special dealer in New York for it!

And now you know.

– – –

Psst….

If you haven’t yet, read Marci McDonald’s cover story in the new
Toronto Life about power-mates Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman.
It’s certainly dishy, and not entirely flattering. And despite
murmurs to the contrary, the issue hasn’t been banned from Reisman’s
Indigo/Chapters stores. In fact, we hear, when a buyer went into the
Manulife Indigo asking if they had a copy, an eager sales type
actually asked, “You mean the one about Heather?”

GRAPHIC:
Colour Photo: Mongrel Media; Arsinee Khanjian stars in Sabah, a sort
of Romeo and Jihad movie.;
Colour Photo: NO POO FOR HER DO: Measha Brueggergosman.;
Colour Photo: (Katie Holmes)

Pan Armenian news

HEAD OF ARMENIAN MOD: `WE COME FOR STRENGTHENING RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE IN
ARMENIA’

26.05.2005 08:03

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `We come for strengthening of the Russian military base
located in Armenia from the point of view of increase of the armament
reserve,’ Armenian Defense Minister Serge Sargsian stated, noting the matter
does not concern the transit of Russian military equipment from Georgia to
Armenia yet, it only concerns armament. `The matter does not concern
military equipment yet. However, if we are going to discuss it, this will
not mean the forming of a new Russian base in Armenia,’ the head of the
Armenian MOD accentuated, Regnum news agency reported. It should be noted
that Russia and Georgia have virtually come to an agreement over the fate of
the two Russian bases located in Akhalkalaki and Batumi. As Georgian FM
Salome Zurabishvili stated, the agreement on the time of withdrawal of
Russian military bases should be reached in the near future. `I think we
will come to an adjusted text soon, as only two questions referring to the
dates are only open,’ Zurabishvili stated.

Town Hall, DC
May 26 2005

New Oil Pipeline ‘Advances Cause of Freedom, Bush Says

(CNSNews.com) – In a major achievement for the Caucasus and a
strategic victory for the U.S., one of the world’s longest oil
pipelines has come on line, providing the region with its first
outlet to world oil markets that bypasses Russia.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline “can help generate balanced
economic growth, and provide a foundation for a prosperous and just
society that advances the cause of freedom,” President Bush said in a
message, read by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman at the inauguration
ceremony Wednesday.

Just short of 1,100 miles long, the buried pipeline will by the
year’s end funnel one million barrels of oil a day, traveling at two
meters per second, from Azerbaijan on the landlocked Caspian Sea, via
Georgia, to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

The project is strongly supported by the U.S., while Russia has
opposed it, favoring an existing route for Caspian Basin oil via the
Russian Black Sea port of Novorosiisk — a route that provides Russia
with transit revenues and bypasses both Georgia and Turkey.

Although the Bush administration has been cautious not to antagonize
Moscow — which has seen its influence sharply wane on its
southwestern flank — the State Department hailed the pipeline
opening as “a major success for the U.S. goal of enhancing and
diversifying global energy supplies.”

Not only will the BTC break Russia’s virtual monopoly on regional
energy export routes, it will also boost supplies from non-OPEC and
non-Middle Eastern sources. Oil will come both from Azerbaijan’s
offshore fields and from Kazakhstan, the giant republic east of the
Caspian Sea.

The ceremony near Baku, the Azerbaijan capital, was attended by the
presidents of Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and guests
including the head of British energy giant BP, which holds the
largest stake (30 percent) in a consortium running the pipeline.
Other major shareholders include Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR
(25 percent and U.S. Unocal (almost nine percent).

An expected Russian attendee, President Vladimir Putin’s
representative for international energy cooperation, failed to turn
up. The Interfax news agency said the Kremlin cited illness.

Listing the benefits Washington sees in the project, the State
Department said it would reinforce the sovereignty and prosperity of
Azerbaijan and Georgia and further integrate the two into the
international free market economy.

“The BTC pipeline will also enhance Turkey’s emerging role as an
energy transportation hub and help reduce oil tanker traffic
congestion in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits,” it added,
referring to the narrow waterways tankers now have to navigate to
exit the Black Sea en route to the Mediterranean and world markets.

Bolstering the participating states’ independence from Russia, the
launch of the pipeline marks a further shift in geo-political
alliances in a region that formed part of the Soviet empire before
its disintegration in 1991.

In 2003, Georgia’s “Rose Revolution” replaced a pro-Moscow
administration with a pro-Western one under President Mikhail
Saakashvili.

Bush’s recent visit to Tbilisi cemented strong relations between
Georgia and the U.S., which is also backing Saakashvili’s call for
Russia to remove two remaining Cold War-era military bases from the
small country.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan still are ruled by autocratic regimes
relatively friendly to Moscow, under presidents Ilham Aliyev and
Nursultan Nazarbayev, respectively. Nonetheless, Nazarbayev’s
last-minute announcement that the BTC will be used as one export
outlet for oil-rich Kazakhstan is likely to upset Russia further.

Construction on the $3.6 billion project began in 2003, almost a
decade after the idea was broached.

Among concerns raised over the years was the security issue —
related to Chechen terrorists hiding out in Georgia and to the
long-running Azerbaijan-Armenian dispute over an enclave called
Nagorno-Karabakh — and environmentalists’ worries about the impact
of a potential accidental or terror-related oil spillage.

On Monday, Georgia’s government said the three BTC countries were
concluding a mutual-assistance agreement in case of security or other
threat to the pipeline.

According to BP’s head office in the UK, just filling the length of
the pipeline will require ten million barrels of crude oil, and it
will take about six months for the flow to reach the Turkish end for
the first tanker loading.

A gas pipeline is also under construction, following the same route.