Author: Emil Lazarian

News24, South Africa
Sept 22 2004

On this day

Highlights in history on this date:

1992 – Azerbaijani-armed forces mount an offensive against the
disputed enclave Nagorno-Karabakh.

2001 – Pope John Paul II visits Kazakhstan and Armenia and cautions
against allowing September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States
to create divisions between Muslims and Christians.

1499 – Turks ravage Vicenza in Italy.

1550 – Holy Roman Empire fleet captures vessel Port of Africa at
Mehedia in Tunis, naval headquarters of Turkish corsair Dragut.

1609 – The king of Spain orders the deportation of the baptised
former Muslims known as Moriscos.

1711 – Rio de Janeiro is captured by the French.

1792 – French Republic is proclaimed and revolutionary calendar goes
into effect.

1862 – US President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation
Proclamation, declaring all slaves in the Confederate States free as
of January 1, 1863.

1914 – A German submarine sinks three British cruisers in one hour
off the Dutch coast; The German cruiser Emden shells Madras in India.

1927 – Slavery is abolished in Sierra Leone in Africa.

1940 – The Vichy French governor-general concludes an agreement that
makes Indochina the largest Japanese military staging ground in
southeast Asia.

1943 – The German battleship Tirpitz is disabled by British midget
submarines in a Norwegian fjord.

1949 – The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.

1955 – Hurricane Janet, the most violent Caribbean hurricane of the
season, causes almost 600 deaths around the islands.

1960 – A US Marine Corps DC-6 plane en route from Japan to the
Philippines crashes in the ocean 290km south of Okinawa. All 29
passengers are killed.

1965 – A cease-fire is declared in the war between India and
Pakistan, but both sides subsequently violate it.

1970 – Arab chiefs of state send envoys to meet with King Hussein and
Yasser Arafat to persuade them to find a way to contain the fighting
between the Jordanian Army and Palestinian guerrillas.

1974 – Official death toll in hurricane that swept Honduras is put at
5 000.

1975 – Sara Jane Moore fails in an attempt to shoot US President
Gerald Ford outside a San Francisco hotel.

1980 – Iraqi tanks enter Iran, marking the beginning of the Iran-Iraq
War as a full-scale conflict.

1986 – Two hijackers seize Soviet airliner at Ural Mountains airport
and kill two passengers before security agents recapture plane and
shoot the hijackers.

1988 – The government of Canada apologises for the World War 2
internment of Japanese-Canadians and promises compensation.

1989 – FW De Klerk takes over as president of South Africa.

1990 – Jordan’s King Hussein appeals to United States in televised
message to withdraw its troops from Saudi Arabia to avert “death,
destruction and misery.”

1991 – Armed opponents of Georgia’s president seize the republic’s
broadcasting studios and try to forge an anti-government coalition.

1992 – Azerbaijani-armed forces mount an offensive against the
disputed enclave Nagorno-Karabakh.

1993 – Abkhazian rebels in Georgia shoot down second passenger plane
in two days, killing 80.

1994 – Nato aircraft strike at Serbian targets near Sarajevo after UN
troops patrolling the city came under machine-gun and rocket fire.

1995 – America’s Time Warner Inc and Turner Broadcasting System Inc
announce a merger with Time Warner purchasing TBS in a deal valued at
$7.5 billion, creating the world’s largest media company.

1996 – Typhoon Violet veers into the North Pacific after killing
seven and setting off landslides that paralysed transportation in
Japan.

1997 – US President Bill Clinton, speaking at the United Nations,
announces he will submit to the Senate a treaty banning all nuclear
explosions.

1998 – Troops from South Africa and Botswana cross into Lesotho and
storm the royal palace, touching off a gunbattle with protesters.

2000 – The Court of Appeals in London rules to separate conjoined
twin girls against the wishes of their Roman Catholic parents. The
operation is certain to cause the death of one of the girls, and is
therefore forbidden by their religion.

2001 – Pope John Paul II visits Kazakhstan and Armenia and cautions
against allowing September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States
to create divisions between Muslims and Christians.

2002 – An appeals court in the Hubei province of China overturns
death sentences imposed on five members of a banned Christian sect in
December 2001, and orders a retrial.

2003 – The UN and UNAIDS, its Aids programme, issues a progress
report on how member nations were adhering to commitments made during
a June 2001 UN special session on HIV/Aids. It finds that the goals
set by the UN will not be met in many countries unless there is a
significant increase in global commitment

ArmenPress
Sept 22 2004

RESPONSIBILITY FOR KARABAGH RESOLUTION LIES WITH ARMENIA AND
AZERBAIJAN, US MINSK GROUP CHAIRMAN SAYS

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS: In a Monday interview with the
Russian Service of the BBC, Steven Mann, the US cochairman of the
OSCE Minsk Group, said both Armenia and Azerbaijan are experiencing
now a bigger domestic stability, giving the Minsk Group a good
opportunity to resume the conflict’s scrutiny.
According to Mann, after presidential elections in both countries
there are now all possibilities for resuming talks. In response to a
question about the existence of political will in both capitals, Mann
said the Group met with Robert Kocharian of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev
of Azerbaijan on the sidelines of a CIS summit in Kazakhstan to try
to assess it.
“We are telling both sides that the time is not on their side and
the longer the resolution is protracted the worse,” he said,
explaining that Armenia it is being left out of virtually all
regional projects. “New pipelines, highways and railways are being
built detouring Armenia and depriving it of possible economic
benefits. The country is paying a big cost for maintaining its army,’
he said.
“As to Azerbaijan, a significant portion of its land is under
occupation and there is almost a million of refugees and displaced
persons and the longer the conflict drags on the more chances that it
will transform into a constant state of affairs that does not suit
this country,” Mann said.
According to him, there are two more negative aspects of the
conflict. The first is that a generation of young men and women is
growing in both countries looking at the opposite side as an enemy
and the second is that the stalemate situation promotes development
of radical feelings. “The longer the absence of progress the more are
chances for radicals to come to power in 5, 10 or 15 years,” he said.
Steven Mann then called on political leaders in both countries,
including also the opposition, to unite efforts for legitimizing the
idea of negotiations, the idea of a compromised solution and to
encourage dialogue, which he said is in the strategic interests of
all the sides.
In conclusion Mann said the Minsk Group is not mandated to impose
a resolution , neither to act a judge between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
but to create an environment in which both sides could conduct
serious peace talks and help them to arrive at a mutually acceptable
peace formula. “The responsibility for the conflict solution lies
with Armenia and Azerbaijan and this fundamental approach cannot be
dodged ,” he said, adding that the governments of Russia, France and
USA, the Minsk Group cochairmen countries, are genuinely interested
in the regulation of the conflict. “We shall do everything in our
power to support the final decision of the sides,” he said.

Washington Times, DC
Sept 20 2004

Response gone awry

By Ariel Cohen

Three days after the tragedy of Beslan ended, we sat for more than 3½
hours with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Between picking up the pieces of the worst terrorist attack to
date in Russia and planning a massive power consolidation, the
energetic Russian leader still found time to meet with leading
Western scholars and journalists, answering our questions at length,
totally unscripted.
Unfiltered, Mr. Putin was a strange mix of tough pragmatism and
Soviet nostalgia. He was shaken by Walkie-Talkie intercepts of
terrorists shooting children in Beslan “for fun” and by the horrible
conditions in northern Russian camps to which Josef Stalin exiled the
Chechens 60 years ago. “The first Chechen war was probably a
mistake,” Mr. Putin said. But what about the second war he started in
1999?

Mr. Putin repeatedly bemoaned the passing of the Soviet “great
power” – 13 years after its demise. He recognized Soviet ideology
suppressed real ethnic conflicts, and that new secure borders have
not been erected. Yet he also questioned the sovereignty of
neighboring countries such as Georgia. Today, Russia is slowly
absorbing its constituent parts, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while
thwarting Chechen bids to secede.
President Putin missed an opportunity to reach out to the U.S.
after the horror of Beslan. In response to my question, he launched a
long tirade about the Soviet Union and United States releasing the
jinni of terror from its bottle.
He believes the Western powers want to keep Russia down by
supporting Chechen separatism, noting Britain and the U.S. granted
asylum to some Chechen leaders, and that Western intelligence
services maintain contacts with Chechen fighters.
As an intelligence professional, Mr. Putin should appreciate the
difference between information gathering and operational support.
Instead, he overstated his view of the West’s desire to create an
irritant for Russia. In an earlier speech to the nation, Mr. Putin
went further, saying foreign powers are interested in dismembering
Russia and neutralizing it as a nuclear power. Nevertheless, he is
open to antiterrorism cooperation, and indicated “professionals” on
both sides are thus engaged.
President Putin left enough common ground to believe cooperation
is possible with the West in the war on terror. He called President
Bush a “good, decent man,” a reliable and predictable partner,
someone he can “feel as a human being.”
From his remarks, it is clear Mr. Putin genuinely likes George
Bush and wants him re-elected, something media at the event
studiously ignored. After all, doesn’t John Kerry say foreign leaders
are support him?
Mr. Putin three times mentioned Russia, the U.S. and Western
Europe belong to “Christian civilization and European culture,” to
which a prominent French writer for Le Monde commented maybe Russia
does but not the United States.
Mr. Putin has the global geopolitics right, especially when it
comes to connections between the Chechen and other radical Islamist
terrorists in the Northern Caucasus, to global jihadi sources of
funding, political-religious indoctrination and volunteer recruitment
and training.
He criticized the West for allowing fund-raising for the Chechen
cause from Michigan to London to Abu Dhabi, but seemed unaware the
U.S. Treasury recently busted Al Haramain, a Saudi global “charity”
connected to Osama bin Laden, involved in supporting the Chechens.
Mr. Putin also correctly noted the West shouldn’t want to see
terrorists come to power anywhere on Earth, should not demand anyone
negotiate with child killers, and that it is not in Western interests
to see the Russian Federation dismembered.
It is the Russian president’s actions after Beslan, more than his
rhetoric, which point to missed opportunities in the wake of Russia’s
September 11. Instead of revamping, retraining and reorganizing
Russia’s antiterrorist and security services, Mr. Putin has opted for
massively recentralizing power. In doing so, he is taking the country
back to a future reminiscent of the czarist era. Mr. Putin
essentially is applying the 19th century Russian imperial model and
the Soviet security state apparatus to a 21st century state rife with
terror and corruption.
Nostalgia for the Soviet past may beget new authoritarianism, as
Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev warned in their Sept.
16, 2004 interviews. In this crisis, the Russian president has
empowered himself and his inner circle, not the people of Russia.
Presidential appointment of Russia’s 89 regional governors instead of
popular elections, and establishment of a disempowered and toothless
“public chamber” to oversee security services instead of effective
civilian controls will not solve Russia’s terrorism problems.
The security services that failed to prevent or resolve the
Beslan tragedy and Mr. Putin has not reformed after five years in
office are still a Soviet-style, quasi-totalitarian political control
mechanism. They are not the hat Russia needs to wear in confronting
modern local and global terrorism.
Islamist jihadi terrorism is a new enemy – not the old enemy of
the Cold War. In response, Russia’s antiterror approach needs
rethinking and revamping, with new structures for the 21st century
set up to deal with global terrorism.
A new anti-terror doctrine and effective organizational structure
to coordinate intelligence and operations are needed. The U.S., Great
Britain and Israel can offer help. The time for cooperation against a
common enemy is now.
The Bush administration, however, faces a real challenge in
Russia’s questioning of Georgia’s sovereignty in the Caucausus and
playing fast and loose with her post-Soviet borders.
By trying to pull South Ossetia and Abkhazia into Moscow’s orbit,
the Kremlin also may strengthen Chechen separatism. This policy opens
the doors to revising other borders, such as Northern Kazakhstan,
Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, and even Nagorno-Karabakh.
Undermining the territorial integrity of neighbors is unacceptable to
the U.S. and dangerous for Russia.
In crises, countries and leaders fall back on their time-tested
political instincts and patterns. Mr. Putin’s recentralization proves
Russia after its barbaric terrorist trauma is no exception.

Ariel Cohen is research fellow in Russian and Eurasian studies at
the Heritage Foundation. He had tea Sept. 6 with Russian President
Vladimir Putin and a group of foreign policy experts.

NATO Cancels Its War Games in Azerbaijan

RIA OREANDA
Economic News
September 17, 2004 Friday

Baku. Appeared in Russian in Moscow’s ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA. NATO has for
the first time in its history cancelled its military exercises slated
to begin on September 13 on the territory of Azerbaijan as part of the
Partnership for Peace Program. Notably, NATO was forced to do so not
because of some natural or man-caused calamities or refusal of one of
the parties to participate, but because the Azerbaijani authorities
refused to issue visas to the Armenian military. Exercises as part
of the program Cooperative Best Effort 2004 were formerly stages in
Armenia and Georgia, and were designed to practice the key aspects
of peacekeeping operations. In line with the unchangeable “principle
of parity” the exercises were to be held in Azerbaijan as well. The
principle of parity has been violated this time, forcing NATO to cancel
the exercises, read a NATO press release. The scandal the erupted
over these war games began long before their cancellation and lasted
for over nine months. Back in January Armenia’s representatives were
unable to attend a conference in Turkey that preceded the exercises
also for lack of visas. But Yerevan was determined not to give up,
making consistent efforts to participate in the maneuvers, albeit to
no avail.

THERE IS NO MONEY TO RECONSTRUCT ROADS

A1 Plus | 20:08:46 | 15-09-2004 | Politics |

The highways of republican importance are somehow reconstructed
whereas the roads out of main highways are impassable. This problem
alarmed MP Manvel Ghazaryan.

Communication and Transport Minister Andranik Manukyan announced that
the 1560 kilometer ways of interstate importance are reconstructed
and are up to international standards. According to him, only 30 %
of 1830 kilometer routes of republican importance is repaired, and
5900 kilometer-long regional and local roads are in a sad state.

Mr. Manukyan reminded that World Bank finances construction of the
roads of interstate and republican significance and the budget hasn’t
had enough sums for the local roads. But about 2 milliard and 300
million drams have been allotted for restoration of the local roads.

“Within “Millennium Challenges” Armenian Government together has
introduced a project of $ 137 million for reconstruction of 2989
kilometer-long routes. Armenian Government tries to get credit of $
20 million from the credit companies for that purpose. The problem
exists and it must be solved”.

Land of Law MP Vram Gyurzadyan posed Andranik Manukyan a question on
arbitrariness in the filed of inter-city taxi route. “After winning
the tenders the transporters or their owners increased the fare
without permission from 1000 drams to 1200”, he says.

Gyurzadyan’s question enraged Manukyan. He said Gyurzadyan could have
told him about the problem earlier instead of raising the question
in Parliament, and then promised those guilty of arbitrariness will
be punished.

ISN, Switzerland
Sept 15 2004

Azerbaijan far from NATO after exercise cancelation 15.09.2004

Certainly, the prediction by one Western analyst that “Azerbaijan
will enter NATO by 2005”, which made headlines in the Azeri press in
July 2002, now seems overly optimistic.

By Liz Fuller for RFE/RL

NATO’s Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises, scheduled to take place
in Azerbaijan on 14-27 September, have been canceled, according to
a NATO press release of 13 September. “We regret that the principle
of inclusiveness could not be upheld in this case,” the press release
stated, without elaborating. But Lieutenant-Colonel Ludger Terbrueggen,
who is a spokesman for NATO military command, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service the same day that “the reason…is that Azerbaijan did not
grant visas to soldiers and officers of Armenia.” Since January, Baku
has sought repeatedly to thwart the planned Armenian presence at this
year’s Cooperative Best Effort maneuvers. Three Armenian military
officers who tried to travel to Baku in early January first from
Turkey and then from Georgia to attend a planning conference for the
maneuvers were prevented from doing so. In June, members of the radical
Karabakh Liberation Organization (QAT) picketed, and then forced their
way into, a Baku hotel where two Armenian officers were attending
a second planning conference in preparation for the exercises. Five
of those QAT activists were arrested and sentenced in late August to
between three and five years’ imprisonment on charges of hooliganism,
violating public order, and obstructing government officials. Those
verdicts triggered protests from across the political spectrum,
fueling public opposition to the Armenians’ anticipated arrival.

Lost opportunity

In April, Azeri President Ilham Aliev assured Deputy Commander of the
US European Command General Charles Wald that there were no obstacles
to the Armenian participation in the September war games. Other
visiting US officials also sought to impress on Azerbaijan the
importance of allowing the Armenian contingent to attend. But in recent
weeks, the Azeri government has made increasingly clear its hostility
to the planned Armenian participation. On 27 July, the independent
ANS TV quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov as saying that Baku
has stipulated that only non-combat personnel – military journalists,
public-relations officials, and military doctors – would be permitted
to attend, and that the number of Armenian participants would be
limited to three. On 4 September, however, Armenian Deputy Defense
Minister Major General Artur Aghabekian said seven Armenian officers
would take part in the exercises, while the number denied visas by the
Azerbaijani Embassy in Tbilisi was given as five. The opposition daily
Azadlig on 10 September quoted Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov as
saying that Azerbaijan would not grant visas to the Armenians. And on
10 September, the Azeri parliament adopted an appeal to NATO Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to retract the invitation extended to the
Armenian side, citing what it termed Armenia’s aggression and policy
of ethnic cleansing. The parliamentarians argued that the presence
in Baku of Armenian military personnel could aggravate tensions in
the region. President Aliev stated while visiting the Barda region
on 11 September, “I do not want the Armenians to come to Azerbaijan”.

NATO’s double standards?

In an apparent last-ditch effort to persuade Baku to abandon its
obstructionist approach, de Hoop Scheffer met with Azeri Foreign
Minister Mammadyarov and his Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanian in
Brussels on 13 September for talks. Oskanian subsequently praised the
NATO decision to call off the exercises, adding at the same time that
he regrets the “lost opportunity for regional cooperation”. Armenia
hosted the NATO Cooperative Best Effort-2003 exercises, in which
some 400 troops from 19 countries, including the US, Britain,
Russia, Georgia, and Turkey practiced routine peacekeeping
exercises. Azerbaijan declined to participate. In February 2004,
a junior Azeri officer attending a NATO-sponsored English language
course in Budapest hacked a sleeping Armenian fellow student to
death with an axe. The full impact of Azerbaijan’s violation of
NATO’s “principle of inclusiveness” and of NATO’s ensuing decision
to cancel the planned exercises is difficult to predict. The move
is likely to corroborate many Azeris’ conviction that NATO is guilty
of double standards and bias towards Armenia. It may also give rise
to a certain coolness between Brussels and Washington, in light of
persistent rumors that the US is considering Azerbaijan as a possible
location for a rapid-reaction force. Certainly, the prediction by one
Western analyst that “Azerbaijan will enter NATO by 2005”, which made
headlines in the Azeri press in July 2002, now seems overly optimistic.

EU: PRODI TO VISIT SOUTH CAUCASUS REGION

ANSA English Media Service
September 15, 2004

BRUSSELS

(ANSA) – BRUSSELS, September 15 – European Commission President Romano
Prodi will make an official visit to Azerbaijan on September 17,
Georgia on September 18 and Armenia on September 19, the EC reported.

Prodi’s meetings will be focused on the European rapprochement policy
as regards the South Caucasus region as well as on bilateral relations
between the countries and the EU.

The EC President is to appeal to the three governments to press on
with the reform process.

The official visit follows a decision of the European Council taken on
June 14 to include the three countries in the European rapprochement
policy. (ANSA).

Group of Parliament Members Not To Attend Session Tomorrow

Baku Today
12 Sep 2004

12/09/2004 20:48

Executive Power of Baku replied to demand letter of Popular Front
party of Whole Azerbaijan claiming to hold picket protesting visit of
Armenian officers to attend “Cooperative Best Effort” NATO trainings
in Baku.

The response was positive with corrections. City hall gave permission
to hold the picket in front of Khatai cultural center, nearby Khatai
subway station instead of Narimanov cinema theatre shown in the letter.

Action will take start at noon on September 12. Party chairman Gudrat
Hasanguliyev informed ANS group of parliament members will not attend
parliament session in protest against visit of Armenian officers.
They are Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Alimammad Nuriyev, Rufat Agalarov and
Mais Safarli. The list might increase as talks with other parliament
member are underway.

Cancellation of NATO drills Azeri people’s success – TV

ANS TV, Baku
13 Sep 04

NATO has postponed the military exercises that were due to start in
Baku on 14 September, a representative of NATO’s information centre
in Baku, Vaqif Dastgahli, has told ANS.

He said the information would be confirmed officially.

Armenian officers were invited to attend the military exercises within
the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme. In fact,
the invitation angered the Azerbaijani public a lot.

Thus, the Azerbaijani public led by the president has managed to
protect our state independence. This was not the first time in our
latest history when our independence had been endangered by the now
failed NATO event. History shows that the young Azerbaijani state has
faced and may still face more trials like that. What happened has
also demonstrated that the Azerbaijani people and their government
can be together at most critical moments.

ARMENIA THIS WEEK
Monday, September 13, 2004

NATO CANCELS AZERBAIJAN EXERCISES OVER ARMENIA’S EXCLUSION
The U.S.’ military commander in Europe was forced this Monday to cancel the
Cooperative Best Effort (CBE) 2004 exercises planned to take place in
Azerbaijan from September 13-27, accusing the host country of violating NATO
principles. The last minute cancellation by the Supreme Allied Commander in
Europe (SACEUR) Gen. James Jones is without recent precedents and came after
months of Azeri efforts to exclude Armenia from the exercises conducted
under the NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program.

A statement issued by the NATO spokesman said that “all PfP exercises are
agreed and conducted on the principle of inclusiveness for all Allies and
Partners which wish to participate. Nations participating in Cooperative
Best Effort 2004 agreed and have supported the exercise based on this
principle. We regret that the principle of inclusiveness could not be upheld
in this case, leading to the cancellation of the exercise.” Set up in 1994,
the PfP aims to promote defense cooperation between NATO and Partner
countries, reinforce stability and reduce the risk of conflict through
exchanges and joint exercises, such as CBE-2004. Georgia and Armenia
successfully hosted similar exercises in 2002 and 2003.

Armenia was due to send several officers to take part in CBE-2004, but they
were refused permission to enter Azerbaijan. Azeri officials had similarly
barred Armenians from taking part in the first planning event in Baku last
January. The U.S. State Department expressed its “disappointment” over the
development at the time, while Armenia condemned Azerbaijan’s behavior and
urged NATO to “demonstrate a principled stance.” The co-chairs of the U.S.
Congressional Caucus on Armenian issues, Representatives Joe Knollenberg
(R-MI) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), urged NATO leadership to move exercises to
another country should Azerbaijan continue to insist on excluding Armenia.

Last June, the Azeri leadership appeared to have come around on the issue
with President Ilham Aliyev pledging that no hurdles to Armenian
participation would be put up. Two Armenian officers then attended the
exercises’ final planning conference, which proceeded despite disruption
caused by government-linked protestors. Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Araz
Azimov said at the time that his government was forced to acquiesce to the
Armenian presence or “risk cancellation of the exercises and cooling of
relations with NATO.”

Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov said that Azerbaijan should implement its
obligations. The Azeri government-controlled courts went as far as to issue
tough prison sentences against radicals who disrupted the NATO event in
June, although President Aliyev hinted that the decision would be overturned
on appeal. Even the Turkish envoy in Baku Ahmet Unal Cevikoz urged
Azerbaijan not to put up obstacles. Citing diplomatic sources last week, an
Azeri paper reported that Baku had agreed to an Armenian presence.

But on Friday, the Aliyev-controlled Azeri Parliament issued a written
protest to the NATO Secretary General demanding that Armenia be excluded and
Aliyev himself said that he “does not want” to see Armenians in Baku. He
further reiterated his view that all contacts with Armenians should be
limited to meetings between the two countries’ Presidents and key ministers,
saying that all other contacts are “inappropriate.”

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, who met NATO Secretary General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer this Monday, expressed regret over Azerbaijan’s stance
describing it as a blow to regional cooperation, but he also welcomed NATO’s
principled position. Scheffer agreed that the Azeri approach was
inadmissible. Oskanian was in Brussels to discuss Armenia’s expanding
cooperation with NATO and for the annual talks with the European Union
leaders. Last week, Armenia appointed Samvel Mkrtchian, previously the
Foreign Ministry’s Europe Director, as its Ambassador to NATO. (Sources:
Arm. This Week 1-16, 2-27, 4-2; 6-25; Arminfo 9-10, 13; Trend 9-10; Azertag
9-11; Express 9-11; NATO 9-13)

RUSSIA HOSTAGE TRAGEDY THREATENS TO UNDERMINE REGIONAL STABILITY
Armenia rushed to provide emergency aid to the victims of the gruesome
hostage taking in Russia, in which several hundred hostages, mostly
children, died. Armenian officials, including Defense Minister Serge
Sargsian, also expressed anxiety that the Caucasus region was becoming
increasingly unstable.

Terrorists linked to the Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev occupied a
school in the southern Russian town of Beslan (North Ossetia), taking over
1,000 children, their parents and teachers hostage on September 1,
traditionally celebrated as the first day of school. Most of the deaths
occurred as bombs set up by the terrorists went off during negotiations with
Russian emergency workers. Basayev had previously led a similar raid on a
hospital in southern Russia in 1995, and earlier fought on the Azeri side in
Karabakh.

In a massive outpouring of sympathy for the Beslan victims, Armenians
donated blood and thousands brought flowers, candles and toys to a makeshift
memorial at the Russian Embassy. Armenia’s Consul in southern Russia Ararat
Gomtsian reported that of 33 ethnic Armenians taken hostage, nine died and
seven remained unaccounted for. Meanwhile last week, businesses owned by
ethnic Armenians and other Caucasus natives became targets of violence in
the Russian city of Yekatirinburg. (Sources: Armenpress 9-8; Baltic News
Service 9-8; ArmeniaNow 9-10; Itar-Tass 9-10; Turan 9-10)

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In The National Interest
September 1, 2004

Commentary: By the World Forgot: Realpolitik and the Armenian Genocide
By Nir Eisikovits

Between 1915 and 1916, through a campaign of slaughter and deportation, the
nationalist ‘Young Turk’ government of the Ottoman Empire killed over 1
Million Armenians. To this day, Turkey refuses to accept responsibility for
this genocide, claiming that the number of casualties was far smaller and
that most had been killed in fighting between the parties rather than in
one-sided massacres. It seems that Turkish genocide-deniers are now
receiving assistance from an unexpected source. In a recent article, the
Israeli daily Haaretz reported that several Jewish groups in Washington have
been involved in blocking attempts to procure Congressional recognition of
the atrocities.

This involvement was much more proactive last year than it is now, but, to
quote the article, “a central activist in a Jewish organization involved in
this matter clarified that if necessary, he would not hesitate to again
exert pressure to ensure the resolution is not passed and the Turks remain
satisfied.” Surprising? Not really. Israel has systematically refrained
from recognizing the extermination of Armenians. Senior officials, including
former foreign minister Shimon Peres, have spoken of a “tragedy,” which
“cannot be compared to genocide.” The position taken by Israel and some
Jewish organizations is animated by two considerations. One has to do with
the uniqueness of the Holocaust. The other is pure realpolitik. Let us
examine these in turn.

Recognizing the Armenian genocide, so the first argument goes, could eclipse
the singular magnitude of the crimes perpetrated against the Jews during
World War II.[1] This claim is both morally warped and empirically
unfounded. It is morally warped, because we Jews do not have a monopoly on
pain. Our catastrophes are not in a separate category; we do not feel any
more agony for the obliteration of our families than others do. When
Armenians are pricked, they bleed; when they are poisoned they die.[2] If
human suffering is essentially democratic, Jews cannot, simultaneously,
attack those who deny the Holocaust and assist others who deny the Armenian
genocide. The concern for the legacy of the Holocaust is empirically
unfounded, because other cases of genocide have been recognized without the
Holocaust being forgotten or sidelined. The massacres by the Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia and the Tutsi by the Hutu in Rwanda are now universally
acknowledged. Such recognition has not eclipsed the discussion of Nazi
atrocities. It has, rather, served as a reminder that human cruelty is as
much a reality now as it was in 1915 and 1939.

As for realpolitik, Israel sees Turkey as an all-important strategic ally in
the Middle East – a moderate democratic Muslim state in a region where both
moderation and democracy are in short supply. Thus, keeping the Turks happy
is taken to be an essential Israeli interest. Two observations are in order.
First, the appeasement of Turkey does not seem to be working. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently accused Israel of “state terrorism” and
compared its policies towards Palestinians to the actions of the Spanish
Inquisition against Jews. Turkey is said to have rolled back planned
contracts to purchase military equipment from Israel and is now
reconsidering a planned deal to transport 15 Million cubes of water annually
to the water-poor Jewish State. Apparently we have sold our moral integrity
in vain. Second, realism in international affairs, with all its merits, must
be subordinate to a nation’s most basic principles rather than dictate them.
In the case of Israel, the most deep-seated of those principles is that the
state was founded as a barrier against genocide, as a safe-haven for Jews
the world over to protect them from future persecution. The refusal to
recognize other cases of genocide undermines this fundamental tenet. It
provides invaluable ammunition to those who claim that history is written by
the victors. If that position takes hold, no group, including the Jews,
would ever be safe from hounding, and Israel would have undermined the main
reason for its own existence.

On August 22, 1939, days before the Nazis invaded Poland, Hitler addressed
his military chiefs in Obersalzburg. “The aim of war is not to reach
definite lines,” he told them “but to annihilate the enemy physically. It is
by this means that we shall obtain the vital living space that we need.” He
then went on to ask them a rhetorical question: “Who today still speaks of
the massacre of the Armenians?” The Israeli government, for one, does not.
History, it would seem, has a cruel sense of humor.

Nir Eisikovits, an Israeli attorney, is completing his Ph.D. in legal and
political philosophy at Boston University.

[1] In early 2002, after Israeli ambassador to Georgia and Armenia Rivka
Cohen rejected any comparison between the Holocaust and the Armenian
Genocide, Israel’s foreign ministry released a statement including the
following text: ” …Israel asserted that the Holocaust was a singular event
in human history and was a premeditated crime against the Jewish people.
Israel recognizes the tragedy of the Armenians and the plight of the
Armenian people. However, the events cannot be compared to genocide. This
does not in any way diminish the magnitude of the tragedy.”

[2] W. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1.