Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan,
1 Nov 2006 p 3

PAPER REPORTS RIFT BETWEEN ARMENIAN FUND, KARABAKH LEADERSHIP
by Kristine Khanumyan’s

"The rift between the foundation and the NKR is widening"

The rift is widening between the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund [HAAF]
and the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh Republic]. The reason is the low
quality of the North-South road [in Nagornyy Karabakh funded by the
HAAF]. Lots of complaints are coming from Karabakh. Both the HAAF and
the NKR authorities, which are responsible for the quality of the road,
point at each other. That is to say, both are trying to get away with
murder and leave the Karabakh residents face-to-face with the problem.

The HAAF is trying to hold the NKR authorities responsible for
everything. At a recent news conference, the executive director of the
HAAF [and former NKR foreign minister], Naira Melkumyan, said that they
were not responsible for the roads whose guarantee had expired. She
also made one more interesting statement. She said that before 2005
there was no word about the low quality of the North-South road
(although those sectors of the road were put into operation earlier)
but that statements were made later saying that the roads had been
in bad repair since 2004.

As a result, the problem was discussed at the trustees’ council after
which the president of the trustees’ council, [Armenian President]
Robert Kocharyan, said that the cases of the companies which carried
out low-quality work should be referred to the prosecutor’s office.

In brief, Kocharyan "gave his approval" for the sending of the cases
of several persons close to Gukasyan to the prosecutor’s office. But
until today no action has been taken against companies such as Vrezh or
Chanshin although their cases were sent to the prosecutor’s office in
May, but this could be predicted. A few days ago the HAAF was asked
to submit some clarifying papers.

This time round a tougher approach has been taken towards the
programmes implemented by the HAAF in Karabakh, in particular the
asphalting of the roads was considered to be of poor quality.

Melkumyan said that she did not agree with this assessment and asked
who could assess the quality of asphalt. We should tell the HAAF
leadership that the dean of the architecture department of the State
University of Architecture, Artur Tovmasyan, is the person.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM IN KARABAKH SET FOR DECEMBER 10

Armenpress

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS: Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arkady
Ghukasian has decreed today to set December 10 of 2006 as the date
of the constitutional referendum.

On November 1 the Nagorno-Karabakh National Assembly (parliament)
approved the draft Constitution in the second reading. The draft was
approved by the overwhelming majority of deputies, with one "against"
and one abstention.

On December 10, 1991 a referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh with
99.8 percent of voters supporting Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence
from Azerbaijan.

AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY IS NOT RELATED TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH REPUBLIC

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 1 2006

After the meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan
in Paris the Azerbaijani side did not state anything for several
days. Apparently, they were evaluating the results. And seven days
later the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev suddenly gave a news
conference and made several significant statements. With regard to the
Karabakh issue he said that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
is not a subject of the talks, and all Baku can give to Karabakh is a
status of autonomy. In fact, Aliyev outlined the stiff borders of the
"compromise" acceptable for Baku before the meeting of the foreign
ministers in Brussels on November 14. Although the foreign minister of
Azerbaijan Mammedyarov followed him and tried to mitigate the words of
the president. He mentioned that the mediators take into consideration
not only the standpoint of Azerbaijan but also that of the other party.

Commenting on the statements of the Azerbaijani president, the deputy
foreign minister of NKR Masis Mayilyan said that the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan has nothing to do with Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic. "Two independent states emerged in the territory of former
Soviet Azerbaijan, the Republic of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic. NKR was established in accordance with all the international
standards. And in this sense the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
cannot be a subject of the talks. The fact that the world recognized
the results of the referendum in Azerbaijan and did not recognize the
results of the referendum in Karabakh allowed Azerbaijan to claim to
Karabakh and use military force," said Masis Mayilyan.

The deputy foreign minister also commented on Ilham Aliyev’s statement
that if the independence of Karabakh is recognized, the Armenians
living in other countries will also claim independence.

Masis Mayilyan says the people of Karabakh have never been diaspora.

This territory has always been controlled by the Armenians, therefore
this comparison is absurd, says Masis Mayilyan.

CHIEFS OF GENERAL STAFFS OF ARMED FORCES OF CSTO COUNTRIES TO HOLD CONSULTATIONS IN MOSCOW

ArmRadio.am
02.11.2006 10:27

Working consultations of Chief of General Staffs of Armed Forces
of CSTO member states will be held in Moscow today. The Armenian
delegation is headed by Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces
of the Republic of Armenia, RA First Deputy Defense Minister,
Colonel-General Mickael Harutynyan. The agenda of the consultations
includes CSTO coalition army building by 2010, the format of the
mechanism of cooperation of the CSTO joint Staff and General Staffs
of member countries, military-technical cooperation, joint training
of specialists.

ARMENIA WOOS GEORGIA AHEAD OF UN DISCUSSION OF FROZEN CONFLICTS IN CIS

Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
Nov 1 2006

Yerevan, 1 November: The Armenian and Georgian foreign ministers,
Vardan Oskanyan and Gela Bezhuashvili, today met in Moscow on the
sidelines of a session of the council of foreign ministers of the
Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organizations’ member countries.

The foreign ministers of the two counties "discussed issues of
bilateral relations, the influence of the Russian-Georgian relations
on the region and the possibilities of softening the current tension,"
the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry told Mediamax today.

Oskanyan and Bezhuashvili also discussed the issue of signing the
action plans by Armenia and Georgia within the framework of the
European Union’s Neighbourhood Policy scheduled for 14 November. The
ministers said that the beginning of implementation of the action
plans will deepen cooperation between Armenia and Georgia towards
the European integration.

"The sides also exchanged views on issues of settling regional
conflicts, and in this context, they discussed eliminating possible
consequences of the initiatives [on the frozen conflicts] by GUAM
[regional alliance of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova]
member countries in the UN", the press service of the Armenian Foreign
Ministry said.

ARMENIA: VIOLATION OF FISHING BAN THREATENS LAKE SEVAN
Marianna Grigoryan

EurasiaNet, NY
Nov 1 2006

Armenian scientists are charging that violation of a ban on fishing for
whitefish poses a severe challenge to the eco-system of Armenia’s Lake
Sevan, the largest alpine lake in the Caucasus and one of Armenia’s
best-known natural landmarks. In response, the government has pledged
to tighten the ban as of mid-November, but local villagers remain
skeptical, saying that their livelihoods depend on the fish.

Lake Sevan’s famous whitefish, or sig, helped Armenians overcome
food shortages during the energy crisis of the early 1990s, but have
since become threatened with extinction from over-fishing. Unclear
environmental policies on the fish and a lack of economic alternatives
for local fishermen have further complicated matters.

In 2005, the National Academy of Sciences’s Institute of Hydroecology
and Ichthyology and a group of Russian scientists determined that the
number of Lake Sevan whitefish had decreased by 17 times compared
with 1983 levels. While in the mid-1980s the lake contained more
than 11,000 tons of whitefish, supply now stands at only 625 tons,
according to the findings.

To correct the problem, the Ministry of Environmental Protection
introduced a year-long ban on commercial fishing of whitefish in
February 2006, but little attention has been paid to it, fishermen
and scientists say. Blame is placed on the hard-scrabble economic
conditions in the villages surrounding the 1,360-square-kilomter lake.

"Let them give people jobs and we will not fish," said Garik Avetisyan,
a middle-aged fisherman. "What shall we do? Die or what?

If there’re no fish, [our] families will die."

Scientists, many of who favor a long-term ban on fishing for whitefish,
say that the difficult living conditions will only grow worse if the
whitefish population does not increase. In that case, large-scale
commercial fishing may soon become impossible, too. The period from
November through December, when the whitefish spawn, is particularly
critical, they say.

"Only one generation of whitefish remains in the lake today, instead
of several generations in the past," said Boris Gabrielyan, deputy
director of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia’s Institute
of Hydroecology and Ichthyology. "The whitefish is not given time to
spawn and propagate. It is not allowed to do that."

"Our ongoing research this year shows that the situation has become
worse as compared to last year," Gabrielyan continued. "If poaching
continues at the same pace, whitefish will vanish as a commercial
fish type. Whitefish resources have been exploited to an inadmissible
degree."

Meanwhile, as the whitefish population declines, the lake’s eco-system
is beginning to change. Gabrieylan charges that the increased presence
of organic materials on which the fish feed is turning the lake into
a swamp.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has dismissed the claim,
however.

"There can be no discussion about swamps. There is no such thing,"
Artashes Ziroyan, head of the ministry’s Bio-Resources Management
Agency, said. "True, the amount of whitefish in the lake is not
considered sufficient, but together with colleagues from the interior
ministry and other departments, we will manage to preserve the
whitefish [population] during the period of the fishing ban."

Despite the ban, whitefish and its caviar can still be found in
markets and shops.

In Yerevan, which is the largest market for whitefish, prices for
the fish have risen by at least several hundred percent in the last
few years. Whitefish now sell for between 300-500 drams, or roughly
$0.68 – $1.14, per fish in the capital’s markets, and rank among
shoppers as one of the most popular fish.

"The fish is a very useful product," Amalia, a seller at one of
Yerevan’s markets, explained to her customers. Although formerly
whitefish was affordable for nearly everyone, she continued, that
situation has changed within the past few years. "It is in short
supply. That’s why prices for it have gone up."

Commenting on the situation this summer, Minister of Environmental
Protection Vardan Ayvazyan argued that the declining whitefish
population is not "an environmental problem," and suggested that
the ministry can do little in the face of persistent fishing by
economically deprived residents.

"In many cases, our orders are not obeyed, and no minister can say
that during his time in office the control of fishing at Lake Sevan
was good," Ayvazyan told reporters at a press conference. "In reality,
there is a great problem of poverty [there]. Don’t you pity these
people [who live there]?"

Ministry officials say that they will work with the interior ministry
to monitor the lake regularly and watch for whitefish fishermen.

Illegal catches are usually seized, with a report then issued to
the media.

But along the lake itself, some fishermen show little concern about
the ministry’s promises. "There is no ban," they say, smiling. "There
is a way around everything."

Nonetheless, young fishermen pushing a metal boat out onto the sky-blue
lake say that they know the whitefish is under threat.

"When we fished whitefish three or five years ago, we pulled 300-400
kilograms of it with just two sweep-nets," said 24-year-old Garik
Stepanyan, who has been fishing Lake Sevan for six years. "Now I have
11 sweep nets and if I catch 100 whitefish a day, I will consider
that a good day."

Even with stricter enforcement of the ban, local fishermen say that
they will continue to fish. Other options for economic survival
are few.

"We know that it is not allowed to fish whitefish," commented
43-year-old Tigran Khugoyan, a fisherman from the village of Noratus
on the lake’s western shore. "But if your child is hungry and there
is no job, the lake and fishing remain your only hope."

Editor’s Note: Marianna Grigoryan is a reporter for the Armenianow.com
weekly in Yerevan.

SITTING OF BSEC COUNCIL OF FOREIGN MINISTERS TO BE HELD IN MOSCOW

ArmRadio.am
01.11.2006 10:21

The 15th sitting of the Foreign Ministers Council of the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation Organization (BSECO) member states will be held
in Moscow today.

Armenia will be represented by Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. The
meeting will be chaired by RF Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey
Lavrov. Participants of the sitting will sum up the results of Russia’s
presidency over BSECO, particularly the results of meetings of the
Ministers of Emergency, Energy, Transport, Information Technologies
and Communications.

The Foreign Ministers will be presented information about the activity
of BSEC structures – BSEC Parliamentary Assembly, BSEC Council of
Foreign Ministers, Black Sea Bank for Trade and Development, the
International Center for Black Sea Research.

Georgia and Russia have agreed to arrange the meeting of the Foreign
Ministers of the two countries.

ITB STARTS PROVISION OF "MULTICURRENCY" DEPOSIT SERVICES

Noyan Tapan
Oct 30 2006

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. Since October 1, the International
Trade Bank (ITB) has provided a service of new kind – "multicurrency"
deposit service. Noyan Tapan was informed from ITB that the peculiarity
of this type of depositing is that by signing one contract with the
bank, the customer has the opportunity to deposit his/her savings in
one or three currencies (Armenian dra ms, US dollars and euros) at
the same time. This allows to protect one’s savings from devaluation
and inflation thanks to exhanging the money saved in one currency
for another. There are three types of multicurrency deposits at the
bank: time, cumulative and cumulative with the opportunity of partial
repayment. The term of time deposits is 365 days, the term of two
other deposits is 365-730 days.

REFUGEE ISSUE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED PROCEEDING FROM REALITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.10.2006 17:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Nagorno Karabakh’s condition is beneficial as
compared to the other unrecognized states. It has a security zone or
"seized territories", Chief of the Department of CIS Countries of
the Russian Institute of Strategic Research, Candidate of Historical
Sciences Alexander Skakov said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net. In
his words, it would be hard to preserve the current status quo, since
the powers interested in its violation are too influential. "Azerbaijan
is rapidly gaining financial, economic, military and demographic
resources and Armenia should reckon with it. A serious choice between
war and compromise should be done. Neither of the sides is ready to
choose," he remarked.

The Russian analyst considers that in future with the presence of good
will it can be possible to speak of the formula of "peace and status
in exchange for territories", that is of the establishment of a new
border of independent Karabakh. "I perfectly know that Stepanakert
will not compromise over Lachin and Kelbajar, but there are other
regions which are not so problematic to cede. As for the refugee
issue, there are well known approaches to exchange of population,
territories and material compensations. Modern history records no
single case of complete return of refugees.

When resolving it one should proceed from reality but appeal to the
graves of the ancestors. It’s possible to achieve progress with good
will and mediation. Of course, it does not mean that the problem of
Nagorno Karabakh may be settled in 2006 or 2007. The process will be
long. Talks always take more time than war does," Alexander Skakov
underscored.

He also remarked that the sides should stop appealing to history. Each
side has its arguments. To decide who is right one should be not
only a historian but also an impartial specialist of the issue. "Now
it resembles dialogue of two deaf people. No one in the West or in
Russia is intends to of into details. The ethnic right to the territory
confirmed by history is not absolute and obligatory for us. Proceeding
from the logic of ethnic right for territory Russia should demand
Crimea from Ukraine and give Eastern Prussia to Germany. European
states, not to mention the U.S., experience the same problems. Similar
situation is the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts,"
the expert said.

AMONG THE INTELLECTUALOIDS
Immanuel Kant for Dummies
By James Bowman

American Spectator
Oct 30 2006

The most fundamental of all the liberal principles handed down to us
from the Enlightenment and the very cornerstone of our civilization
is the "categorical imperative" of Immanuel Kant: namely, that one
cannot act on that maxim which one cannot will to be universal. In
other words, if it’s OK for me to do it, it has to be OK for everybody
to do it. If it’s not OK for everybody to do it, then it’s not OK
for me to do it either. This principle is so deeply ingrained in us,
along with the contempt we feel for what we call " hypocrisy" when
people violate it, that we take it for granted. I was having dinner the
other night with a learned and cultured man, an internationally famed
historian of somewhat conservative tendencies, when the conversation
turned to the North Korean nuclear test. "What I just can’t get past,"
this man said, "is that we are saying it’s OK for us to have nuclear
weapons, but it’s not OK for the North Koreans or the Iranians."

Glen Suarez of London writes in a similar vein to the Times: "How can
we condemn North Korea for seeking to acquire nuclear weapons when we
possess them and say that we wish to upgrade them? How can Tony Blair
condemn the North Korean regime for ‘disregarding the concerns of
neighbours and the wider international community’ when he and George
Bush did the same when invading Iraq?" Neither of these men mention
Kant, but of course it was the Kantian principle they were appealing
to as an absolute bar against efforts by leaders in America or Britain
to prevent potential terrorist states or backers of terrorists from
acquiring nuclear weapons or doing other things which might pose a
threat to their countries.

A moment’s thought will show us that the Kantian principle cannot
apply in international relations, at least not unless we are prepared
to adopt a thoroughgoing pacifist and (I would say) suicidal policy
by disarming and disbanding our armed forces and refusing to fight
against those who wish us harm. So long as we admit that a nation has
the right to defend itself, we must also admit that it is necessary
to adopt a different standard for ourselves and for our enemies. It
is OK and probably unavoidable for us to bomb them, for example, while
it is very definitely not OK for them to bomb us. Leave aside for the
moment the question of whether or not it can be right to bomb them, if
we are to fight them at all and so preserve ourselves, our people and
property and our way of life, we must be prepared to do things to them
that we should not hesitate to deplore if and when they did them to us.

The Kantian principle really has its origins in the revolutionary
Christian notion that it is wrong for us to consider ourselves ahead
of other people. We should put our duty to others first — or at least
treat them no worse than we treat ourselves. Under the old Christian
dispensation, it was recognized that this kind of saintliness had to
be reserved for, well, saints, and those who chose to live lives that
were not of this world. They belonged, to use the Augustinian imagery,
to the City of God rather than the City of Man.

But the Enlightenment began with the idea that that kind of saintliness
ought not to be reserved for a special few but ought to be expected
of, even required of, everybody. That’s hard enough to live up
to in our personal lives. To live up to it in matters of war and
peace and international relations is impossibly utopian — unless,
of course, you’re a pacifist and are prepared to give up the right
of self-defense.

****

The Nobel Prize for literature given this year to the Turkish novelist
Orhan Pamuk caused some of his fellow Turks great annoyance.

"The prize was not given to Pamuk for being a writer, nor to his
works," said the conservative Kemal Kerincsiz who advocated prosecuting
Pamuk "for directly insulting the Turkish nation" over the wish to
acknowledge genocide practiced by the Turks against the Armenians
in 1915. When Pamuk was prosecuted (he got off on a technicality),
he denied that he had insulted Turkey. "But what if it is wrong?" he
said. "Right or wrong, do people not have the right to express their
ideas peacefully." Ah! But in an honor culture of the sort that still
holds sway in Turkey and other historically Islamic nations, the insult
is not dependent on right or wrong. This is a question subordinate to
that of honor or dishonor, and the charge itself, irrespective of its
truth or falsity, brings dishonor on the nation. In such a culture,
it remains true as it once was in ours, that if a bad act is not made
public to the shame of the doer, then it didn’t really happen.

I wonder, too, if Mr. Pamuk’s profession makes him vulnerable to this
kind of misunderstanding. The novelist almost by his very existence
must privilege the individual psyche over the demands of the group
when they come into conflict. A novel without psychological reality
— as opposed to the honor culture’s demand for conformity with which
that reality is bound to come into conflict — is not really a novel at
all. Novels and novelists naturally belongs to our Western, post-honor
world, which is why there are so few novelists in the Islamic one
and why those there are, like Mr. Pamuk or the late Naguib Mahfouz
are so often in trouble and even risk their lives merely to continue
doing what we take it for granted novelists should do — that is,
in Mr. Pamuk’s own phrase "to express their ideas peacefully." It
sounds reasonable to us, but not to those whose world-view is formed
by honor in this basic, even primitive form.

James Bowman is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy
Center, media essayist for the New Criterion, and The American
Spectator’s movie critic. He is the author of the new book, Honor:
A History (Encounter Books).

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