Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

International Herald Tribune

Chechnya and war through the camera

Joan Dupont IHT Tuesday, April 6, 2004

PARIS-There is a generation of filmmakers who risk their lives to expose the
terror and humiliation of war. They work independent of television and cable
news channels and are not in the business of being embedded.

Gilles de Maistre, a leading French reporter, for instance, is known for
“J’ai 12 ans et je fais la guerre” (I’m 12 years old, and I make war), an
investigation of preteen warriors that won an international Emmy.

And Mylène Sauloy is one of a handful of women to enter Chechnya
clandestinely, draped in a headscarf. “Then, I put my camera in a plastic
bag, and pile bananas on top – I could be a housewife coming back from
market,” she said.

Raised in Marrakech by a Moroccan doctor father and Russian-Hungarian
mother, the director lived in Colombia for 17 years, making films. She also
worked with de Maistre, interviewing street kids in Bogotá for a
documentary.

“One day, I read an article in Le Monde about this small rebel people in
Caucasia who resist colonization. It wasn’t a European story like Bosnia,
about ethnic racism – it was about a fight for freedom.” When the first war
broke out in 1994, she negotiated with the cultural television channel Arte
to make a film in Chechnya. “I went right from Bogotá to Grozny,” she says.

Sauloy has filmed broken families, shattered homes and a children’s dance
troupe that made it out of the country to perform in Paris but couldn’t wait
to return home to Grozny.

Her first film, “Le Loup et l’Amazone” (The Wolf and the Amazon), made from
1995 to 2000, was inspired by independent-minded women in the mountains of
Caucasia, who, legend has it, may be descended from the Amazons. “It’s a
poetic idea,” she says. The Amazon theme crops up again in her current
project, which focuses on an army of women hiding in the mountains of Iraq.

In her headscarf and long skirts, Sauloy has crossed borders into Chechnya
14 times, turning out films such as “Le 51,” about an apartment house in
Grozny inhabited Chechens, Armenians and Jews. “Grozny used to be a modern
city, like Algiers, cosmopolitan, with an intelligentsia.”

Two wars – from 1994 to 1996 and from 1999 to today – and a reign of terror
have reduced Grozny to rubble. The prewar population was less than a
million; 250,000 have been killed, 200,000 live in exile.

Sauloy’s latest film, “Danse Avec les Ruines” (Dance With the Ruins), tells
the story of a Chechen choreographer and his family who return from exile in
Turkey. “I hopped a bus with them in Istanbul, without realizing they were
really going back home. I was there when they walked into their bombed-out
house.”

She followed the troupe of 30 children – originally 60 – to Grozny and shot
the family repairing their home, fitting windows, returning to rehearsal and
to school. The children sewed their costumes and dreamed of the tour to
France, “a country where we won’t be greeted as terrorists,” in the words of
a teenage daughter.

Recently, Sauloy, 45, split her weekend between a screening of “Danse Avec
les Ruines” at the International Women’s Film Festival in Créteil, a Paris
suburb, and her own festival of films on Chechnya at the Cinéma des
Cinéastes in Paris. “Tchétchénie Criblée d’Images” (Chechnya, Riddled with
Images), as the festival was called, screened films of rare beauty, such as
“Eliso” (1928), a silent film by the Georgian director Nikoloz Shengelaya
about the first deportation of the Chechen people in 1864, under the czars.
And there were recent films like Andrei Konchalovsky’s “House of Fools”
(2002) and Sergei Bodrov’s “Prisoner of the Mountain” (1996), which show
sympathy for the predicament of the Chechen people.

In the public imagination, Chechnya has never been a popular cause but a
thorn in the side of the Russian government, and an embarrassment to Europe.
Perceived as poor refugees at best, bandits, terrorists and radical
Islamists at worst, this mountain people of Caucasia live with a terror that
takes a daily toll on both Russians and Chechens.

Five years ago, Sauloy founded an arts association, Marcho Doryila (“Let
freedom be with you”), and recruited figures like the stage and film
director Ariane Mnouchkine and the philosopher André Glucksman to support
Chechen artists. Mnouchkine opened her Théâtre du Soleil in Vincennes, a
suburb of Paris, to the dance troupe from Grozny; at the film festival,
Glucksman led a debate after the screenings, calling Chechnya Europe’s
guilty conscience.

Sauloy started filming three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
when some interpreters, journalists and humanitarian workers also worked as
informers. Her first interpreter in Chechnya was “crazy and dangerous,” she
said, “a regular Russian Mata Hari,” which decided her to learn Russian. “I
was raised with several languages. My grandfather spoke Hungarian, and my
grandparents spoke Yiddish together. At first, I wrote out questions in
Russian, but I couldn’t understand a word of their answers until I went home
and translated.”

For Sauloy, the problem is not a Chechen problem, but a Russian one. “It’s
about dehumanization, and it’s about our silent complicity. The Chechens are
the last resistants in the Caucasian mountains, and as a filmmaker, I’m
interested in resistance, in showing what is left of humanity in wartime.”

She sees the Chechens as an endangered species living in a codified society.
Hospitality is sacred. “When I enter a Chechen home, my host sits next to
the door and seats me furthest away from the door so, if we are attacked, he
will be killed, not I.”

Sauloy balks at the way Chechens have been demonized, yet admits that the
situation has changed since the October elections, which installed a
pro-Russian Chechen government. “Before, when you crossed a Russian
checkpoint, you knew where you were. Now, there’s a Chechen militia, paid to
do the dirty work. Life is becoming more dangerous, the way it was in France
under the Occupation.”

After the first war, Saudi Arabia recruited 2,000 Chechen students, who
became hardline Islamists. “Things have changed,” she says, “since the first
woman Chechen suicide bomber blew herself up in front of Russian military
quarters, and the whole number was filmed on video.” Sauloy has talked to
the orphaned families of these kamikazes, “women who aren’t real Islamists,
but university educated, and who have adopted the look, the headscarf, the
business of reciting the Koran.”

The Chechens traditionally practice Sufism, a mystic form of religion,
“something like the whirling dervishes. But now I know dancers and actors
who never prayed before, who pray. There’s a saying, the more bombs fall,
the more beards grow.”

Now, Sauloy is making a film from a Russian soldier’s home video. “You see
his friends shoot and kill and hear him comment on what he does and sees.
That video has been sold all over. Watching people kill has become a
business.”

Her work, she insists, is more dangerous for those who help her than for
herself. “It’s not that I’m fearless, but these people, and these children,
teach me courage.”

Is her family frightened for her?

“Oh yes, they are afraid, and they are proud of me,” she said.

International Herald Tribune

Chechen rebel site says Russia’s Krasnodar gripped by “Cossack-mania”

Chechenpress web site, Tbilisi
5 Apr 04

A rebel Chechen web site has accused Cossacks in Russia’s Krasnodar of
“tyranny” and “constant wars” against ethnic minorities. Chechenpress
said that to protect themselves “against the tyranny”, representatives
of ethnic minorities are “ingratiating themselves among the Cossacks
and joining their ranks”. It added that “the regeneration of the
Cossacks’ militant psychology” was also encouraged by local
officials. The following is the text of report by Chechenpress news
agency web site entitled A “Cossack shop”; subheadings have been
inserted editorially:

There is a “Cossack shop” on Suvorov Ulitsa Street in
Krasnodar. Anyone can enter wearing ordinary European clothes and come
out in a colourful Cossack costume. In the summer this could be a silk
Cherkess coat, a beshmet quilted coat or a hood, and in winter, into
the bargain, there would also be a burka felt coat , papakha fur cap
and boots. Here, you can adorn your outfit with a sabre, dagger and
lash, and also shoulder-boards with virtually all the Cossack military
decorations. And none of the assistants will ask if you are a Cossack
or a member of any sect. Here, the laws of the market economy hold
sway – money means trade.

Any weekend you will come across gentlemen who are fitted out in these
shops and who swan about with their lashes on Krasnaya Ulitsa Street ,
which is the main street in Krasnodar. The Cossacks of the Northwest
Caucasus (Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygeya) call this
town their capital. They consider it their duty to impose order on all
the populated areas, using their own, special methods. “I was struck
three times with a lash because I left my passport at home,” said the
Krasnodar tradesman, Artur Z-yan. A 30-year old refugee from Abkhazia,
Georgiy Benia, told me this: “In Sochi, three Cossacks shouted at me,
calling me a ‘black'”. I told them it was they who were blacks. They
abused me and in broad daylight started beating me with lashes and
their feet. Only one passer-by – a woman – stopped and shouted at
them to stop. I ended up in hospital for three weeks and soon left
Sochi.” A history teacher from Maykop, Aslanbey Skhalakho, told me:
“Cossacks dressed in Cherkess coats are not looked upon with favour by
Adygeys, Cherkess, Kabardinos, Balkaris or other indigenous peoples of
the North West Caucasus. The Cossacks used to have their own form of
dress, which had nothing in common with the Cherkess.

In 1861, the Russian Emperor Alexander II ordered the Cossacks to wear
such coats as a military uniform, but we, the indigenous peoples, were
forbidden to wear them. Czarism not only subjugated, but “stripped”
the indigenous peoples. We still fill resentment over this even now.”
“But we are even more annoyed by the fact that the Cossacks here, in
the Caucasus, call all the Caucasus people “foreigners” Russian
“inorodtsy” , and consider only themselves to be the indigenous
population. This is a blatant incitement to inter-ethnic discord,” he
said.

Cossack-mania

In the opinion of the Krasnodar writer, Valeriy Kuznetsov, the Kuban
area has been gripped by Cossack-mania. Representatives of ethnic
minorities are ingratiating themselves among the Cossacks and joining
their ranks. This is their way of protecting themselves against the
tyranny of the Cossacks. A tale by this writer called “The faculty of
stupidity” creates the stereotypes of a “Jew turned Cossack” and an
“Armenian turned Cossack”, and so on. “In official documents,” says
the psychologist, Sergey Kiryanov, “the Cossacks are described as a
socio-ethnic community. They are distinguished from the Slav peoples
in precisely this respect – a way of life which is subordinate to
military demands, an ability to rapidly organize the defence of their
homes, a constant readiness to attack and persecute the enemy, and the
habits and skills of life on the move.” “It was precisely these
qualities of the Cossacks which Russian Empress Yekaterina II
Catherine the Great learnt when, in a Proclamation of 30 June 1792,
she bestowed upon them the Taman peninsula and the right bank of the
Kuban river.

Regeneration of Cossacks’ “militant” psychology

Having settled here, the Cossacks waged constant wars against the
Adygeys, the Cherkess and other aboriginal tribes of the North West
Caucasus. During the years of Soviet power, the Cossacks were
subjected to repression. Their aggressive war-like mentality suffered
considerably, but over the past 15 years it has been increasing in a
geometrical progression.”

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin gave the Cossacks back their
rights. This served as a signal for the regeneration of the Cossacks’
militant psychology. It was no accident that the Cossacks took an
active part in all the inter-ethnic conflicts in the post-Soviet
space, and even in the Balkans. The Kuban Cossacks were particularly
active in neighbouring Abkhazia, fighting on the Abkhaz side. The
governor of Krasnodar Territory, Aleksandr Tkachenko, is still giving
all kinds of moral and material support to the Abkhazian. The Cossacks
are forming the opinion that Abkhazia is virtually already a part of
Krasnodar Territory, and not Georgia. I have frequently heard this
opinion among the Cossacks: “The empire will still exist while it
continues to fight and to develop.”

Cossack patrols

Highly disciplined militarised structures, built on a social basis and
headed by atamans, have been created in all the Cossack villages,
settlements and towns. The so-called Cossack patrols, ostensibly to
help the police, which are carried out in residential areas, are a
blatant form of interethnic confrontation. In the markets, railway
stations, telephone booths and other areas where people congregate,
the Cossacks detain and search mainly “people of Caucasus
nationality”. If there is the slightest resistance these documentation
checks end in a flogging. Whereas over the past 7-8 years these
so-called Cossack patrols have been largely a substitute for the
police, the tactics have now changed somewhat.

The ataman of Cossack troops, Gen Gromov, ordered his subordinates
“not to Cossackize”. Asked by a journalist of the Mayak Kubani Beacon
of the Kuban radio station what he meant by this, the general replied:
“This means not being distracted by petty things, not showing off, and
always being at combat readiness.” The writer of these lines explained
in a conversation with rank-and-file Cossacks that the day was not far
off when they will have to “drive the blacks – the so-called
foreigners -from the Kuban”.

Refugees

In the same interview, Gen Gromov said plainly, and without a trace of
diplomacy, that the “Cossacks have nowhere to tread on Kuban land”. As
a result of interethnic clashes in the Fergana valley of Uzbekistan,
Baku, Sumgait, Karabakh, Abkhazia, Tskhinvali and other places of
post-Soviet space, there has been a flood of refugees into Krasnodar
Territory, although this number is tiny compared with the territory’s
population of nearly six million. There are only 30,000 Armenians
registered here. There are the same number of Meskhetian Turks from
Fergana, as well as about 10,000 Georgian refugees, and even less
representatives of other ethnic groups.

It would be a gross exaggeration to claim that there was an abundance
of “foreigners” in the territory. “Armenian merchants appeared in the
Kuban long before the Cossacks,” Armenak S., a teacher, says, “but now
we are treated as aliens. One of my people wanted to buy a patch of
land in the Dubinok area of Krasnodar, but the local Cossacks held a
protest rally and forced the local authorities to abolish the act of
buying and selling. “We are outlawed,” says an activist of the
Meskhetian Turk community, Dursun Z. “We are not registered in the
towns or the villages, we have no rights and they can extradite us at
any time.” If one bears in mind that the Russian Federation is
considered to be the legal successor of the USSR, then the situation
cannot be considered normal. But Cossack Gen Gromov is proud of the
fact that the Kuban Cossacks have managed to “uphold their rights” not
to permit the registration of the Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar
Territory.

“The Don Cossacks in Rostov Region,” the general says, “made a mistake
when they allowed the authorities to register the Meskhetian Turks on
their territory, but we have managed to avoid this.” It might appear
that the general was overstepping his role, but that is the absolute
truth. The Kuban Cossack army in the territory virtually duplicates
the power-wielding bodies, and in the majority of cases, when it is a
matter of inter-ethnic relations and migration processes, it acts much
more brutally than them. It could be said that in these instances the
Cossacks run the law-enforcement and administrative bodies. “This
do-as-you-please attitude to the Cossacks was created when the
well-known nationalist and anti-Semitist Nikolay Kondratenko was
governor of the territory,” says the writer, Sergey S. “The Cossacks
still refer to him as “batka”, in other words, ataman.”

Governor Tkachev

The present governor of the Territory, Aleksandr Tkachev, is his
pupil. His convictions are the same as his predecessor. He also openly
helps the Abkhaz separatists and indulges in Cossack nationalistic
behaviour. I learnt from confidential sources that Tkachev allocated
from the budget a multi-million sum (in roubles) to the semi-legal
Cossack “Volchya sotnya” “Hundred wolves” unit. Its main task, as in
Czarist times, is to suppress the “foreigners”. The unit uses this
money for what amounts to a terrorist-saboteur training programme. “I
am often able to visit all the republics and territories of the
Caucasus,” said Alt T., a scientist from Maykop, “and I have never
seen such chauvinism and nationalism as in Krasnodar
Territory. Thinking about this, I came to the conclusion that this is
a syndrome of fear.

The Cossacks are evidently afraid of the retribution of the Caucasian
peoples whom they have been destroying for three centuries. I can find
no other explanation.” On Krasnaya Ulitsa, in the very centre of
Krasnodar, next to the “Zimnyy Sad” Winter Garden Cafe, hangs a sign
in indelible paint: “Churka, clear off home, today I am a snake!”
“‘Churka’, in the local street jargon, means ‘non-Russian’. One can
see the following signs on walls and fences, too: “Death to the
peasants!”, “Death to the foreigners!”.

On Kommunarov Ulitsa there is another sign on a concrete wall: “Rus,
arise! The enemy is in our land.” As to who the enemy is, there is no
need to explain, one feels. To complete the picture there are the
regular gatherings of members of the local branch of the all-Russian
chauvinistic party “Russian National Unity”. They gather at the
“Zimnyy Sad” Cafe and hand out leaflets and brochures with
anti-Semitic and nationalist content to the passers-by. The pet
subject of their discussions is substituting the republic and
autonomous regions with guberniyas provinces run by governors . It has
to be said that Putin is systematically implementing this task, having
already abolished two autonomies in Russia.

Eduard Sergiyenko, for Chechenpress. 05.04.04

A1 Plus | 17:25:41 | 05-04-2004 | Politics |

DASHNAKS SPEAKING ON POLITICAL SITUATION IN ARMENIA

Dashnaktsutyun, one of the ruling coalition parties, issued a statement on
Monday saying the opportunity to make amendments through consensus to the
Constitution and the Electoral Code could constitute favourable ground for
softening political situation in Armenia.

“The coalition should be guarantor of dialogue”, the party member Armen
Rustamyan cited the statement at a news conference.

Before issuing the statement, the party said tension run higher in the
republic and escalated into open confrontation.

Rejecting the idea of power handover, Rustamyan, at the same time, said it
would be better to comply with the opposition demand to conduct confidence
referendum in order not to aggravate the crisis.

Another Dashnak Levon Lazarian said the opposition uncompromising stance
can lead to serious shocks and the authorities must make their step.

—

Armenian TV head denies “political subtext” behind programme suspension

Arminfo
3 Apr 04

YEREVAN

The head of the [Armenian] Kentron TV (Centre) and leader of the
United Workers’ Party, Gurgen Arsenyan, has denied a statement by the
opposition Anrapetutyun (Republic) Party explaining the suspension of
Kentron’s Tesankyun programme by pressure put by the presidential
apparatus on the leadership of the TV channel.

In an interview with Arminfo, he said that the decision to suspend the
TV programme was taken earlier and that there is no political
subtext. “The time has come for Kentron to show more serious
analytical programmes. “It would not be right to resort to satire now
when the political situation in the country is so difficult and
tense,” he said.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
April 3 2004

Genocide scholars to speak at library

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE – Local scholars will examine U.S. policy in the
face of three 20th century genocides – the Armenian genocide, the
Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide – at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the
Glendale Central Library, 222 E. Harvard Street.

The United Nations has designated Wednesday as an international day
of reflection, and Yom Hashoah, the day of remembrance for Holocaust
victims, is April 18, and the Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day is
April 24.

Jackie Karuletwa-Kakiza, the Rwandan trade representative to
California; Arlene Lazarowitz, Director of Jewish Studies at Cal
State Long Beach; and Levon Marashlian, a history professor at
Glendale Community College, will participate.

Reservations are required. For reservations and information, call
(626) 744-1177 ext. 23, or register online at
Calendar.

Josh Kleinbaum

RIA Novosti, Russia
April 2 2004

SOCHI-TBILISI-YEREVAN RAILWAY LINE TO BE RESTORED?

TBILISI, April 1, 2004. (RIA Novosti). Armenian Defense Minister and
Security Council Secretary Serzh Sarkisyan is to pay a two-day visit
to Tbilisi. He is to discuss the restoration of railway communication
on the route Sochi-Tbilisi-Yerevan and regional security issues.

“The Sochi-Tbilisi-Yerevan railway line is highly important for us
because this is the only road linking Armenia and Russia,” Mr.
Sarkisyan told journalists at Tbilisi’s airport.

“During President Mikhail Saakashvili’s visit to Yerevan we asked the
Georgian side to help the restoration of railway communication. He
considered our request with understanding and we hope to achieve
success,” he noted.

According to Serzh Sarkisyan, at issue will be regional security
problems, the reduction of railway tariffs and cooperation between
the Georgian and Armenian security councils.

KYRGYZ PRESIDENT, CIS SECURITY CHIEF DISCUSS COLLABORATION

AKIpress news agency web site
30 Mar 04

BISHKEK

Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev met Nikolay Bordyuzha, the
secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO
of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia),
in Bishkek today.

The secretary-general informed the Kyrgyz president of the work done
by the organization and of the process of preparations for a regular
session of the Collective Security Council. An exchange of views on
the Kyrgyz Republic’s ideas about the CSTO’s practical activities was
held during the talks.

The Kyrgyz president said the CSTO began its first practical
activities in Kyrgyzstan in 1999-2000, proving to everybody that
collaboration within this organization is a must.

Kyrgyzstan is accurately honouring all its commitments before this
organization, the president said. The fully-fledged aviation component
of the CSTO’s rapid-reaction forces (Russian air base in Kant), which
is now operating, is a glaring example of this.

The president praised efforts by the CSTO to boost collaboration with
such organizations as the Eurasian Economic Community (members are
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan) and the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

(Passage to end omitted: Nikolay Bordyuzha met Kyrgyz Speaker Abdygany
Erkebayev yesterday)

OPPOSITION RALLY IN GYUMRI ENDED IN DISORDERS AND ARRESTS

29.03.2004 18:49

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Sunday rally of the Justice opposition bloc in Gyumri
ended in disorders and arrests. As representative of Hanrapetutyun party, MP
Smbat Ayvazian told Arminfo agency, a group of women with anti-opposition
placards tried to wreck the rally. The opposition activists took the
placards away and forced them out of the area. Some young people trying to
defend the women started a fight. Ayvazian says that the police arrested
exclusively oppositionists. In his words, 4 representatives of the
Hanrapetutyun party are in custody at present.

Azat Artsakh – Repubic of Nagorno Karabakh
March 24, 2004

IDEA OF COMMON STATE IN CYPRUS

On March 7-14 the group of 19 Armenian and Azerbaijani journalists
visited Cyprus. The visit was organized by the press clubs of Yerevan
and Baku within the framework of the program `The possibilities of
settlement of the Karabakh conflict: evaluations of experts and
coverage in the mass media’. The implementation of the project was
assisted by the network program of the mass media of the Open Society
Institute. The organization of the visit was favoured by the office of
press and information of the Ministry of Home Affairs of Cyprus, the
press service of the embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Russia, the
chairman of the union of journalists of Cyprus Andreas Kannauros, the
press and information service of the government of North Cyprus. The
aim of the visit of the representatives of the mass media of Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Nagorni Karabakh was to observe the problem of Cyprus
from inside and also an attempt to compare with the actualities of our
region. According to the editor of the `Weekly Bulletin’ of the
Yerevan Press Club Elina Poghosbekian, `The changing atmosphere of
both the north and the south of Cyprus inspire optimism. It is more
difficult to foresee whether we the Armenian and Azerbaijani
journalists who appeared on the hospitable island of Aphrodite will be
able `to learn to walk again’. Thus, it is too early to draw parallels
with the South Caucasian actualities. The other aim of our visit was
the discussion of ways of further cooperation between the mass media
and the unions of journalists of these countries.’ The history of
negotiations for the unification of North and South Cyprus started in
1947 is apparently approaching its end. If on March 22 the direct
dialogue between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and
the Turkish community of the island does not have any results, then
within the framework of the project of the Secretary General of the UN
Kofi Annan the negotiations will involve the guarantor countries
Greece and Turkey. In case of failure in that stage too Kofi Annan
will extend his final suggestions. And if this program is not accepted
by the parties either, the question will be solved by a referendum in
the north and the south of the island, which will probably be held on
April 21. The thing is that after the military coup in Athens on April
21, 1967 and the seize of the power by the `black colonels’ on July
15, 1974 an attempt was made to unite Cyprus and Greece, which was
followed by the deployment of Turkish forces in the island. On April
23, 2003 free moving was allowed by the so-called `green’
(demarcation) zone. According to the spokesman of the government of
the Republic of Cyprus Chrisostomides, after opening the border every
day about 10 thousand Turkish and Cypriot people cross it, and during
all this period no skirmish has been reported. Free passage has
enabled the Turks of Cyprus to receive the passport of the Republic of
Cyprus. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of
Cyprus, since April of 2003 13.5 thousand people for the North have
received passports. Since May 1, 2004 the Republic of Cyprus will
become a member of the European Union and consequently the borders of
free passage will be enlarged considerably. However the home minister
of the Republic of Cyprus pays no less importance to the fact of local
significance: since April of the same year 34 thousand Turkish
Cypriots have received internal passports. According to him, only in
their archive there are data concerning issuing such passports to 115
thousand Turkish Cypriots. `Our meeting with the prime minister of the
internationally non-recognized state of the Turkish republic Mehmet
Ali Talat took place on the eve of his visit to Ankara where he was to
have consultations with the government of Turkey. Turkey is the only
country which has officially recognized the Turkish Republic of
Cyprus,’ writes Elina Poghosbekian. The prime minister confesses that
the situation that North Cyprus is not recognized yet cannot last any
longer. Nothing good may come out of it if South Cyprus is admitted to
the European Union whereas the north is not, he added. The president
of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus Rauf Denktas has radical
position and demands founding a confederation of two independent
states. The variant of Rauf Dengtas is absolutely unacceptable for the
Greek Cypriots, however, as prime minister Talat mentioned, there are
questions seriously bargained for. There is the question of the fate
of the settlers from Turkey, who outnumber the native Cypriots, to be
solved. Their exact number is not known; according to the Greek party,
their number is 125-130 thousand, whereas the Turkish party says they
form 35 % of the 200 thousand population of North. Of the people
settled in the island who may stay and who will have to leave after
receiving a compensation? What will be the size of the compensation?
What will be with the further presence of the foreign forces (Turkish,
British and Greek) in the both parts of the island? The home minister
of the Republic of Cyprus Christu assures that the unification will be
through economic relations, which are becoming more effective after
opening up the `green’ zone. `In my opinion, the unification will
require 6 million pounds. One thing is clear: without donors we cannot
supply the living of the population,’ said Christu. The annual income
of the Cypriot Greeks (16 thousand dollars per capita) surpasses the
annual income per capita of not only the Cypriot Turks but also of the
`old’ members of the European Union Greece and Portugal. Will the
Greek community say `yes’ during the referendum? The home minister of
the Republic of Cyprus is convinced that the economic relationships of
the communities with the institutional circles established by the
European Union will enable a rapid settlement of the problem. `Having
a bitter but instructive experience of co-existence we will again
learn to walk.’ The `star time’ of Cyprus is expected on May 1. Will
it on this red date of the calendar enter the European family united
or the 30 years of division will last? Little time is left. We will
only add that in Cyprus Karabakh was represented by the members of the
Stepanakert press club Gegham Baghdassarian and Narineh Aghabalian.

NAIRA HAYRUMIAN

Armenian ministry denies reports of “security measures” in nuclear plant

Noyan Tapan news agency
25 Mar 04

YEREVAN

The press service of the Armenian Energy Ministry has denied rumours
in the press that extraordinary security measures have been taken on
the Armenian Nuclear Power Station since the middle of the last week.

The press service told Noyan Tapan news agency that the Armenian
Nuclear Power Station will be refuelled again in summer.