Author: Ekmekjian Janet

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Antranig Kasbarian
Tufenkian Foundation
20 Capitol Drive
Moonachie, NJ 07074
mailto:[email protected]

TUFENKIAN FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES NEW SPONSORSHIP IN KARABAGH RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM

Dr. Albert Karamanoukian joins effort to resettle NKR’s border regions

STEPANAKERT, NKR — The Tufenkian Foundation today announced a generous
gift by Dr. Alber Karamanoukian toward its ongoing efforts to promote
Karabagh’s resettlement. Dr. Karamanoukian’s gift of $20,000 will
underwrite the construction of one house and associated facilities
in Arajamough, a new village the Foundation is building in Karabagh’s
border regions.

Begun in 2004, Arajamough currently houses 25 resettlers, consisting
of 6 families, most of them refugees from Azerbaijan. The village
will welcome another 6 families this fall. The Tufenkian Foundation
is committed to building and resettling at least 6 houses per year
until the Arajamough project is completed.

“We are grateful to Dr. Karamanoukian for his generous support of
this project,” stated Antranig Kasbarian, a Program Director with
the Foundation. “Indeed, his support for resettlement extends
beyond this project and toward the larger vision of fortifying
Artsakh–particularly its vulnerable border regions–as a crucial
component of our national security.”

In turn, Dr. Karamanoukian praised the Foundation for its
efforts. “Resettling Karabagh is of vital importance, particularly
when many people still lack decent housing, facilities, and especially
jobs. I commend the Foundation’s commitment to raising the bar in each
of these fields, and urge others to join the effort to consolidate
our victories on the ground. ”

The Arajamough project features newly built houses with modern
amenities. Alongside these, the Tufenkian Foundation is providing
water, power lines, gravel roads, as well as administrative support
in bolstering the village. Future plans include animal husbandry and
land cultivation, in order to provide sustainable livelihoods and to
spur economic growth in surrounding areas.

“Our view of resettlement is an integrated one, and moves beyond the
usual humanitarian-subsistence approaches,” stated Kasbarian. “The
Karabagh war created many thousands of refugees and homeless persons;
some of these have left the area entirely, while many others
continue to eke out an existence in ruined areas amidst primitive
conditions. Under such circumstances, our very existence on these
lands remains tenuous. If we are to attract Armenians back and
solidify our presence, then clearly having a roof over one’s head
is not enough. Rather, people must gain hope that there is a future
living on these lands, which is why modern facilities, infrastructure,
and the promise of economic activity are essential as well.”

Dr. Karamanoukian is a prominent physician and businessman based in
Glendale, California. He has a long record of philanthropy toward
Armenian causes.

The Tufenkian Foundation was established in 1999 by New
York-based entrepreneur James Tufenkian. The Foundation
currently pursues a wide array of projects in Armenia and
in Karabagh, and also sponsors the “Armenian Forests” NGO,
which addresses environmental issues. To learn more about the
Foundation’s efforts, please see the Foundation’s website at
<;,
or contact Antranig Kasbarian at [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> .

###

BTC launch draws differing reactions from Armenians

Baku, May 31, AssA-Irada

Armenian officials have issued conflicting statements following the
launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline on May 25,
which sent them into panic.

“The BTC commissioning rules out the resumption of hostilities in
Upper Garabagh. We can talk of settling the conflict only in peace”,
Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanian said.

Armenian media quoted Oskanian as saying that with the launch of
pipeline, Azerbaijan will face ‘serious restrictions’.

“Azerbaijan will now be unable to start military action on its own. But
if such a decision is made, it will be opposed not only by Armenia
but the entire international community.”

The Armenian minister came out against statements that the BTC
pipeline’s bypassing Armenia’ is a defeat for this country.

“If people that believe this were present in the Armenian government,
they would turn Upper Garabagh into a subject of speculation”, he said.

“To ensure the BTC passes through Armenia, Upper Garabagh had to be
returned. But this is unacceptable”, said Oskanian.

A day after the first oil was pumped into the BTC pipe, Armenian prime
minister Andranik Markarian made a contradictory statement. He openly
expressed concerns over the BTC launch, saying that the project would
‘disrupt the balance of forces’ in the region.

The Armenian official also suggested that Iranian gas be transported
from Armenia to Europe.*

OSCE MONITORING HELD AT KARABAKH AND AZERI CONTACT LINE

Pan Armenian News
01.06.2005 05:25

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A recurrent OSCE monitoring was held at the
contact line of the Karabakh and Azeri armed forces in the region
of Fizuli near Karakhanbeily settlement. From the Karabakh party
the monitoring was group was headed by Personal Representative of
the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzuk. The Azeri side in
contrast to the Armenian did not lead the monitoring commission to
the front line. The monitoring was held according to the schedule;
no violations of the cease-fire were fixed. Today Andrzej Kasprzuk
will meet with NKR Defense Minister Seyran Shahsuvarian.

MEMBERS OF U.S. CONGRESS SPEAK OUT AGAINST TURKISH GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CONFERENCE

YEREVAN, MAY 31. ARMINFO. “The sad reality, is that when it comes to
facing the judgment of history about the Armenian genocide, Turkey,
rather than acknowledging the truth, has instead chosen to trample on
the rights of its citizens,” said U.S. Congress Rep. Pallone. Members
of Congress this week expressed outrage and disappointment at the
Turkish Government’s recent decision to quash a planned academic
conference on the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).

The event, organized by scholars from Turkey’s Bilgi, Bogazici
and Sabanci Universities, was scheduled to take place May 25-27th
at Bosphorus University. In remarks of the House floor yesterday,
Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) commented
that the government’s forced cancellation of the conference “further
affirms the speculation that the image that the Turkish Government has
attempted to create for itself is nothing more than a desperate attempt
to create a facade. Contrary to what Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan
and other Turkish officials would have us believe, the Government of
Turkey is not democratic, is not committed to creating a democracy,
is not making an effort to create better relations with Armenia and
is definitely not ready to join the European Union.”

Rep. Pallone went on to explain that the U.S. “cannot sit by and
allow any nation that we consider an ally and a nation that is
desperately seeking admission into the European Union to behave in
such a manner. To bring this development into perspective, consider
that according to current law in Turkey, dozens of U.S. Senators and
hundreds of Congressmen would be punished simply for having voted for
Armenian genocide resolutions, spoken about the lessons of this crime
against humanity or commemorated the victims of the atrocity. So,
too, would the American academic establishment, human rights groups,
the mainstream media and just about everyone else aside from the
Turkish Embassy and its paid lobbyists here in Washington, D.C.”

Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA), who spearheaded a successful effort
in 1996 to cut foreign aid to Turkey based on their ongoing denial
of the Armenian Genocide, stated: “Turkish government pressure on
historians from Bilgi, Bogazici and Sabanci Universities to cancel the
Armenian Genocide conference is yet another indication of the Turkish
government’s repression of freedom of speech and lack of respect
for academic freedom. The action exposes as a hollow gesture Prime
Minister Erdogan’s call for a dialogue between Turkish and Armenian
historians. The Turkish government’s labeling of Turkish academics
as ‘traitors’ simply for discussing the Genocide amongst themselves
underscores the need for those of us here, in the United States,
to call on Ankara to end its campaign of genocide denial.”

Urging Turkey to end its ongoing denial of the Armenian Genocide,
Michigan Republican Thaddeus McCotter argued, “Only honesty can begin
to ease the ache of this evil perpetrated upon the Armenian people,
and to further guard against a recrudescence of genocide anywhere
in our world. Thus, any delay in acknowledging and apologizing for
their nation’s abhorrent historical crime only serves to embolden
other proponents of genocide, and to implicate this generation of
Turks in the sins of the past.”

The Conference, titled “Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the
Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy,” was jointly
organized by the Comparative Literature Department of Bilgi University,
the History Department of Bogazici University and the History Program
at Sabanci University. Originally set to take place May 25th-27th at
Bosphorus University, the schedule was to include over 30 papers by
Turkish scholars from Turkey and abroad.

In the days leading up to the conference, Turkish Government officials
spoke stridently against the conference and its organizers. Turkish
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, in a speech before the Turkish Parliament
on Tuesday, went so far as to accuse the academics of “treason.” The
Minister described the conference as a “a stab in the back to the
Turkish nation.” Cicek expressed regret that, as Justice Minister,
he could not personally prosecute the organizers and participants.

The government crackdown on the conference is the most recent chapter
in the Turkish government’s 90-year campaign of genocide denial. This
effort has intensified in recent years. In 2003, Education Minister
Hikmet Cetin issued a decree making student participation in a
nation-wide essay contest denying the Armenian Genocide compulsory.
The most recent revisions to the Turkish Penal Code criminalize
references to the Armenian Genocide and the removal of troops from
Turkish occupied northern Cyprus.

SERGE SARGSIAN AND RF NEWLY APPOINTED AMBASSADOR TO RA DISCUSS CURRENT
ISSUES AND DEEDS OF ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN RELATIONS

YEREVAN, MAY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian-Russian relations, both in
economy and military spheres are at rather high level at present
though they still have great potential of development. Serge Sargsian,
the Secretary of the National Security Council attached to President
of the Republic of Armenia, the Defence Minister, the Co-Chairman of
the Intergovernmental Committee of the Armenian-Russian Economic
Cooperation stated this, receiving Nicolay Pavlov, the newly appointed
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation
to the Republic of Armenia on May 25. The Minister expressed hope that
during Pavlov’s tenure, those relations will strengthen even more and
become wider. The newly appointed Ambassador assured that he will do
his best to support cuntinuous development of the present wide
cooperation between the two states. As Noyan Tapan was informed from
the RA Defence Ministry’s Press Service, current issues and deeds of
the Armenian-Russian cooperation were also discussed, opinions were
exchanged around lattest regional and international developments.

YEREVAN, MAY 28. ARMINFO. “Unity Round dance” began in Armenia
Saturday.

According to the lists of the organizers, 350,000 people had to take
part in the arrangement, but in actual fact the number of the
participants totaled 500,000. At the same time it was planned that
160,000 people would be enough for taking part in the unity round
dance. The presidents of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,
representatives of Armenian Government, headed by Defence Minister
Serge Sargsian and deputy corp take part in the event. The presidents
of the two countries took part in the round dance of unity near the
village of Hartavan, where they arrived by a helicopter after taking
part in the arrangement in the historical complex of Sardarapat.

Numerous guests from abroad had arrived to take part in the
arrangement. According to the organizers of the arrangement, guests
from all the communities of the Armenian diaspora, as well as from NKR
and the Armenian-populated region of Georgia Samtskhe-Javakheti had
arrived to take part in the round dance. Catholicos of All Armenians
Garegin II gave blessing to the participants of the roundtable, where
representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church took part as well.

The representatives of the Armenian diaspora, who could not take part
in the unity round dance, have decided to organize small round dances
in their countries. The arrangement was organized charitable and
nongovernmental organization and is not finances by governmental
funds. The organizers say that the Unity Round dance symbolized the
unity of the Armenian nation.

—
.am mailto:[email protected]

Agence France Presse
27 mai 2005 vendredi 3:32 PM GMT

Arménie: le projet de Constitution doit être modifié (Conseil Europe)

STRASBOURG (Conseil Europe)

Le projet de Constitution, adopté en première lecture par l’Assemblée
nationale arménienne le 11 mai dernier, “nécessite des modifications
substantielles” pour atteindre les critères européens, a estimé
vendredi une commission du Conseil de l’Europe.

La commission de Venise, l’organe consultatif de l’organisation
paneuropéenne sur les questions constitutionnelles, a souligné dans
un communiqué que le texte adopté ne tenait que “très partiellement
compte des commentaires” des experts européens.

“Si le texte ne reflète pas entièrement les avis de la commission de
Venise, le processus de réforme constitutionnelle, dans son ensemble,
ne permettrait pas de rapprocher l’Arménie des valeurs européennes et
d’atteindre l’objectif d’une intégration européenne plus avancée”,
poursuit la commission.

La commission pointe notamment “la nécessité d’équilibrer les
pouvoirs entre le président et le Parlement – ce qui implique un rôle
plus fort de l’Assemblée nationale -, de garantir l’indépendance du
pouvoir judiciaire et d’assurer que le maire d’Erevan soit élu, au
lieu d’être nommé par le président”.

Des représentants de cette commission se rendront en Arménie le 2
juin afin de discuter de ces questions avec les autorités
arméniennes.

The Gazette (Montreal)
May 27, 2005 Friday
Final Edition

Judge scorches CIBC branch manager: Denounces failure to contact
fraud victims. Trial for Montreal couple who unknowingly guaranteed
losses of strangers nears verdict

PAUL DELEAN, The Gazette

The lawyer defending CIBC Wood Gundy’s seizure of $1.4 million from a
retired Montreal couple who unknowingly guaranteed the trading losses
of complete strangers got a thorough grilling yesterday from Superior
Court Judge Jean-Pierre Senecal.

As CIBC lawyer Bernard Amyot presented closing arguments in the
five-month-old trial, Senecal intervened for clarification on several
key points.

He drew attention to the failure of CIBC branch manager Tom Noonan to
actually phone or meet with retirees Haroutioun and Alice Markarian
in the years before the brokerage took their money using guarantees
obtained by former broker Harry Migirdic, an admitted fraudster. (The
Markarians are suing the CIBC for the return of the $1.4 million,
plus $10 million in punitive damages).

“Why didn’t he (Noonan) make a call?,” the judge asked.

Amyot said he sent letters instead.

“Is there any better way to facilitate fraud than do everything on
paper?” Judge Senecal commented, later adding “if it had only
Noonans, CIBC would be bankrupt.”

He also wondered why CIBC had never contacted Sebuh Gazarosyan, whose
account (guaranteed by the Markarians) was $1 million in the hole.
Gazarosyan was Migirdic’s uncle in Turkey and only a figurehead.

“If I’m a branch manager, and a client I don’t know owes $1 million,
I think I’d be interested in meeting him,” Senecal observed. “He owes
$1 million to CIBC, but the branch manager never meets him. How is
that possible?”

Amyot agreed that if calls had been made, the fraud would have been
detected sooner, but maintained the Markarians had deactivated CIBC’s
internal checks and balances by signing guarantee confirmations year
after year.

Senecal also zeroed in on wording in the CIBC defence mentioning that
Migirdic and Markarian both were members of Montreal’s tight-knit
Armenian community and giving the impression they were somehow
complicit.

“Why this reference to them being in the same community? Why insist
on that?” the judge asked.

Amyot said CIBC never alleged there was an Armenian plot, but there
could have been. “Was it a possibility? Yes. There’s nothing racist
in saying that.”

The trial is expected to conclude today.

Press Release – International Monetary Fund
May 26 2005

US$34.2 Million Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility Arrangement for the
Republic of Armenia.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved
a three year, SDR 23 million (about US$34.2 million) arrangement under the
Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) for the Republic of Armenia to
support the government’s economic program through 2008. The decision will
enable the Republic of Armenia to draw an amount equivalent to SDR 3.28
million (about US$4.9 million) from the IMF immediately.

Following the Executive Board’s discussion, Mr. Agustín Carstens, Deputy
Managing Director and Acting Chair, said:

“Armenia’s economic performance continued to be strong in 2004 and early
2005. Real GDP grew strongly, mainly driven by a boom in agriculture and
construction, while inflation fell, aided by an appropriately tight monetary
policy and the continued appreciation of the dram. Encouragingly, poverty
and inequality indicators have improved notably in recent years, owing
mainly to higher salaries, private transfers from abroad, and state social
assistance.

“The authorities’ new three-year PRGF-supported program aims at
consolidating macroeconomic stability, generating additional domestic
resources to finance poverty-reducing and growth-enhancing expenditures, and
boosting private sector activities. Tax and customs administration reforms,
the heart of the program, will focus on raising domestic resources in a
transparent and nondiscretionary manner, thereby helping to create a
business climate conducive to economic activity and strengthening the tax
base, which will be needed as external aid flows diminish over the medium
term.

“The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) will continue to focus on maintaining
price stability, amid strong capital and remittance inflows. The CBA will
maintain the flexible exchange rate regime, while enhancing the instruments
for sterilizing capital inflows. Fiscal consolidation over the medium term
will facilitate containing the monetary effect of capital inflows.

“The program envisages financial sector reforms. The authorities will
strengthen banking supervision and improve corporate governance,
particularly of banks, to expand financial intermediation. They will step up
the pace of reforms in the nonbank financial sector, including by
implementing an appropriate supervisory and regulatory framework in the
insurance sector. The authorities are determined to address remaining
problems in the energy and water sectors, with the support of the World
Bank,” Mr. Carstens stated.

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 26 2005

RUSSIA NEEDS A STABLE CAUCASUS
16:08

MOSCOW (Sergei Markedonov for RIA Novosti) – The Russian military
presence in Georgia has become the key issue of the Caucasian Big
Game in the last few months.

Discussions of the timeframe and speed of their withdrawal from
Georgia overshadowed the problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

But the Russian presence (including military) in the South Caucasus
is not an element of its “imperial resurgence.” Ensuring stability in
the former Soviet republics of the Transcaucasus is a fundamental
condition of Russia’s peaceful domestic development and the
preservation of its integrity.

Russia is a Caucasian state because ten of its Federation members are
located in the North Caucasus. Another three (Volgograd and Astrakhan
regions and the Republic of Kalmykia) are part of its South Federal
District and have become involved in the Caucasian socio-economic,
political and cultural projects in the last decade. The territory of
Russia’s North Caucasus is bigger than the independent states of the
South Caucasus.

Nearly all ethnic-political conflicts in South Russia are closely
connected with conflicts in the former Soviet republics of the
Transcaucasus and vice versa (the Georgia-Ossetia and the
Ossetia-Ingush conflicts, the Georgia-Abkhazia confrontation, the
Chechen problem, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and the difficult
relations between the “indigenous” population of the Kuban and
Stavropol territories and migrant Armenians).

Besides, the Russian North Caucasus and the states of the South
Caucasus have a common problem of “divided nations” (Lezghinians,
Ossetians and Avars) and persecuted nations (Meskhetian Turks).

Hence, security in the Russian Caucasus cannot be ensured without
restoring stability in the neighboring Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia took
over the burden of geopolitical leadership in the former Soviet area.
The Collective Security Treaty of May 15, 1992, signed by the
Caucasian powers Russia and Armenia (Azerbaijan and Georgia acceded
to it later) became an attempt to develop an integration strategy in
the sphere of security.

But the treaty failed to become an effective instrument of the
Caucasian geopolitics. The leaders of Georgia more than once spoke of
its declarative nature. Azerbaijan believes that the problem of
Nagorny Karabakh was provoked by the Armenian aggression and hence
views the CST as ineffective for ensuring its territorial integrity
and security.

Peacekeeping operations, which Russia undertook in the 1990s, became
more effective instruments of the Russian influence in the South
Caucasus. Russian peacekeepers have been maintaining peace in the
zone of the Georgia-Ossetia conflict since July 1992 and in the zone
of the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict, since July 1994. In autumn 1993,
the units of the Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus helped
stop the civil war in Georgia between the supporters of Eduard
Shevardnadze and the deposed president Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

The Russian peacekeeping operations in the region proved to be much
more effective than comparable actions of the U.S. and its allies in
Somalia, Rwanda and Kosovo.

The Russian military facilities in Georgia were mostly located in
problem regions, which complicated, to a degree, Russia-Georgian
relations. The bases were deployed in Batumi (Adzharia), Akhalkalaki
(Dzhavakheti), Vaziani and Gudauta (Abkhazia; the provisional capital
of the self-proclaimed republic in 1992-1993).

Georgia viewed the Russian military presence as the bridgehead for
the Kremlin’s neo-imperial policy. In 1997, Georgia adopted the law
on the protection of the border, under which Russian border guards
were obliged to hand over their functions to their Georgian
colleagues. The Russian “border” presence in Georgia was discontinued
in 1999.

At the Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (November 1999), Russia and Georgia agreed on
the withdrawal of Russian bases. These Istanbul agreements were
formalized as the official supplement to the Treaty on the
Conventional Forces in Europe.

The current aggravation of Russia-Georgia relations is connected with
the bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki. The importance of the Batumi
base for Russia’s policy is close to zero, but an accelerated
withdrawal of the Akhalkalaki base will create quite a few problems.
The base is located in the Samtskhe-Dzhavakheti region populated by
Armenians, who view the Russian presence as a guarantee of personal
and ethnic security.

The Russian diplomatic inaction with regard to the Akhalkalaki base
is shocking. The Russian presence there is not a military but a
political question. If we leave Akhalkalaki, we will lose the trust
of the Armenian population of the Transcaucasus.

This issue can and should be presented not as a Russia-Georgia
conflict but as a problem of Georgia-Armenia relations. We could
apply the methods of Mikhail Saakashvili and elevate the problem to
the international level, involving influential Armenian lobbyists in
Europe and the U.S. and the Yerevan authorities. Regrettably, the
same policy was pursued with regard to the two bases and so
withdrawal from Akhalkalaki is inevitable.

But the issue of Russian military bases has one more crucial aspect.
The withdrawal of Russian troops from the South Caucasus would not
encourage an intensive post-conflict settlement in the zones of
ethnic conflicts there. The Georgia-Abkhazia, Georgia-Ossetia and
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflicts can be mothballed but will not be
settled until the leaders of the independent Caucasian states offer
their people a new political agenda and new forms and methods of
national development.

Worse still, withdrawal from Akhalkalaki is fraught with
Georgia-Armenia contradictions. The potential refusal to send Russian
peacekeepers to the zones of Georgia’s conflicts with Abkhazia and
Ossetia can provoke a new round of ethnic tensions. In a word,
demanding a speedy liquidation of the Russian military presence
without filling the gap with a substantiated security policy does not
promise a tranquil future to the Greater Caucasus.

Sergei Markedonov, candidate of history, is head of the department of
ethnic relations at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and
may not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.