Author: Jagharian Tania

REPORT OF OSCE PA KARABAKH RAPPORTEUR MADE PUBLIC

PanArmenian News Network
July 19 2005

19.07.2005 03:04

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The OSCE PA Secretariat has made public the report
of Nagorno Karabakh conflict rapporteur Goran Lennmarker Invaluable
Opportunity – Some Considerations over the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict.
The mentioned report was considered in the course of the OSCE PA
July session in Washington. It received a considerable response
in both Armenia and Azerbaijan. The report notes that “the parties
have quite difference interpretations of history.” Thus an impartial
“committee on establishment of the truth and reconciliation” should
try to come to a common and unbiased understanding of the past. It is
especially important to those, who suffered and is trying to attain
justice. G. Lennmarker proposed using European integration experience
in settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Specifically, the
need of taking into account four conditions is mentioned. First:
the participating countries should realize that nothing threatens
their national security. Having a neighbor feeling safe means to
provide for one’s own security. Second: democracy, human rights and
minority rights highest standards should be observed. Non-democratic
governments are in essence unstable. Third: economic integration
provides for common strong mutual dependency on the basis of mutual
prosperity. It is the most reliable foundation for development, as
it refers to all the population. There are no reasons for citizens
of Armenia and Azerbaijan not being able to have a deserving European
standard of life. In G. Lennmarker’s opinion, Armenia and Azerbaijan
along with Georgia could try to form a joint security, democracy and
prosperity zone. Simultaneously, at least in the transition period
inspection system of demilitarized zones will be crucial. To that end
as well as to ensure monitoring and security in NK and surrounding
territories international preventive forces may be formed. As
noted by the document, restoration of roads and rail communications
linking Armenia and Azerbaijan are of exceptional importance. Lasting
ties between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, as well as Nakhichevan
and Azerbaijan should be established. Touching upon NK status G.
Lennmarker notes that Armenia and Azerbaijan finding a solution based
on common integration will much simplify the search for a solution
of the issue. In case of opening borders and forming an integrated
economy, the role of control over the territory will lose the former
importance. Thereupon, fewer disputes will arouse. Simultaneously,
Mr. Lennmarker reminded that Azerbaijan would like to provide highest
autonomy that exists in the world to NK.” “NK has to be provided an
opportunity to preserve its identity, and its populations has to be
convinced its rights will be protected by a reliable and independent
legal system within Azerbaijan. To secure any type of highest degree
of autonomy considerable financial support is necessary, which will
create additional obligations on the national budget of Azerbaijan,”
the document notes.

IT’S POSITIVE THAT AZERBAIJAN TRIES TO GIVE UP AGGRESSIVE STANCE, NKR
PRESIDENT THINKS

Karabakh issue

Azg/arm
17 July 05

President of Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Arkady Ghukasian, called
a press conference yesterday. Focusing chiefly on his meeting with
the OSCE Minsk group co-chairmen two days ago, Ghukasian expressed
readiness to answer various questions of journalists.

Answering a question about the opinion of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
reporter on Nagorno Karabakh Goran Lenmarker over connecting Karabakh
with Armenia, Ghukasian praised this valiant approach.

He emphasized that everyone who was into the settlement process got
convinced in the need to include Karabakh in the negotiations. “But
if Azerbaijan does not want to talk to Karabakh, it means it avoids
settling the confrontation”, the president said. He refused to comment
on the so-called alternatives of conflict settlement circulating in
the media, explaining that the talks are confidential.

Journalists were interested in the fate of Lachin in the possible
regulation . The president said that Lachin should not become an
object of negotiations as it is the road connecting Karabakh and
Armenia and is important for the Republic’s security.

Arkady Ghukasian agreed with the co-chairmen that the talks marked
positive shift, and Azerbaijan is trying to give up its aggressive
stance. “The key issue for us today is Nagorno Karabakh’s status,
and Azerbaijan is now discussing it with the co-chairs”, Ghukasian
pointed out. The next positive fact he mentioned is that the sides do
not avoid any more discussing issues put forward by the opposite side.

Speaking of the steps directed to bring together Karabakh and
Azerbaijan since the truce, Ghukasian said that the essential contact
was while signing a joined communiqué. The contacts fall on the period
before 1997 when Karabakh was a participant of the peace talks on
the sidelines of OSCE Minsk Group. Aside from this, Azerbaijani and
Artsakhi foreign ministers and parliament representatives got in
touch with each other.

President Ghukasian called untimely the “necessary stage” mentioned
by French chairman Bernard Fassie, saying that it may be needed only
after agreement is reached over key elements of the conflict.

The president excluded the possibility of making a joint announcement
with Azerbaijan at the present stage.

Is that possible, as Azerbaijan offers, to get in touch with the Azeri
community of Karabakh? Ghukasian dubbed this offer an “element of the
Azeri-run theatre”, noting that the Azeris also should make contacts
with the Russian, Greek and other communities of Nagorno Karabakh,
if we follow their logic.

Turning to other issues, Arkady Ghukasian informed that the commission
he chairs is working on the draft of the constitution of Nagorno
Karabakh. The opinion of the new forces at the parliament should
also be considered. Though the Venice Commission has stipulated
no conditions, Karabakh has to draw up a constitution in line with
European standards. The draft constitution will enter the national
Assembly by the end of this year.

By Kim Gabrielian in Stepanakert

–Boundary_(ID_gwzqMt2HGhhc9irzeWFWpQ)–

MarketWatch, NY
July 15 2005

Fighting the banality of evil
Commentary: As cultures collide, conflicts surge

By Marshall Loeb, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The scariest part of the terrorist attack
on London was the very ordinariness of the perpetrators.

They were not cold-eyed crazies from far away. Of the four known
suicide bombers, at least three had been born in Britain, raised in
Britain, schooled in Britain, employed in Britain. Two of them had
attended a local college in Leeds. One had married a Leeds woman,
had a baby, now aged eight months, and was expecting another. None
was known to have made any trouble — until now.

They reflected, as social historian Hanna Arendt said of the
rank-and-file Nazi war criminals who had so easily massacred innocent
women and children, “the banality of evil.”

But what set these terrorists off from the majority of Britons was
that they were Muslim; three had Pakistani roots, one Jamaican.
Apparently, this somehow made them feel different, and susceptible
to radical incantations.

That bespeaks a deeper and wider problem we all face. In many
countries, big and growing parts of the citizenry are segregating and
separating themselves from the broad majority. Instead of seeking
to integrate with the majority, they wall themselves off, creating
tensions that can literally explode.

The situation will only worsen because birth rates in many developed
nations are plunging. In order to stabilize their populations, and
find enough people to fill entry-level jobs, these countries need
immigrants, most of them from the Third World.

But that’s just what the majority populations do not want.

Almost overnight, large immigrant populations have risen throughout
Europe. Countries with the most liberal policies of granting political
refuge and admitting immigrants have had the most severe problems —
because so many have come flocking in.

For example: Norway. In Oslo, 7.3 percent of the population are
outsiders. Crime rates are surging, and most of the perpetrators
are newcomers.

Or take the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, TheoVan Gogh (a descendant
of the painter) was shot and stabbed to death on a busy street by a
Dutch citizen of Moroccan origin because he had made a film considered
critical of Islam by some radicals.

In Germany, which for more than 50 years has accepted large numbers of
immigrant Turks to fill low-level jobs, the Muslim population is up
to almost 6 million (out of a total 82 million) and tensions between
majority and minority are bruising.

So, too, in France, where the largely Muslim minority, primarily from
the former French colonies of Algeria and elsewhere in North Africa,
is 5 million, or 8.6 percent of the population.

The trouble is not confined to Western Europe. Almost everywhere that
different ethnic groups live side by side in this world, there has been
a long history of tension, often bloodshed and sometimes raw genocide
— as when the Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1915,
or the Nazis slaughtered 6 million Jews beginning in 1939.

More recently, recall how the Orthodox Serbs destroyed the Muslim
Bosnians in the former Yugoslavia. Or how the Tutsis wiped out the
Hutus in Rwanda. Or how the tan-skinned Muslim majority of Sudan’s
North have been murdering the black-skinned Christian Animists of
the South.

Perhaps we can draw some warnings and lessons from this sad portrait:

— More and more groups of people — with different cultures and
clashing religions — will be thrown up against each other in the
future. That is substantially because the number of immigrants will
continue to expand, particularly in countries that need more workers
to empty the garbage, bury the dead and do other distasteful jobs.

— Countries that receive those immigrants should pay much more
attention to developing. policies to integrate them into the local
culture. Most important is to improve the schools, and require that
the newcomers learn the local language.

On these issues, the United States can give some guidance to the
rest of humankind. True, we should not boast, given our inexcusable
and sinful heritage of slavery; Until fairly recently the people who
came to America from Africa were involuntary slaves.

But still, ours is, along with Canada, one of the two most successful
polyglot immigrant nations in the world. Our immigrants benefit
America.

That is at least partly due to public policies and private institutions
that have worked together to make immigrants feel welcome, to help
educate them, meld them into the greater society, and to equip them
with the skills to rise in their jobs.

Settlement houses, often focused on aiding specific ethnic groups, have
done just that. Churches, synagogues and other religious institutions
have served to build the nation, not destroy it.

This is not to say that the attacks in London could have been avoided
if only Britain had spent more time and treasure in training those
four mad, but all-too-ordinary messengers of death.

But it is to say that many peoples in the world face an inscrutable
problem, that its roots run deep and that we had better create some
effective policies for dealing with the future waves of immigrants,
because they surely will come.

Reporter Sarah K. Wulfeck contributed to this article.

Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA)
SDA – Service de base français
5 juillet 2005

Grand Conseil vaudois Le génocide arménien formellement reconnu

Lausanne

Lausanne (ats) Le Grand Conseil vaudois a formellement reconnu mardi
le génocide arménien. Il l’avait déjà fait indirectement en 2003.

La résolution adoptée n’engage toutefois que le législatif, le
Conseil d’Etat estimant cette démarche inappropriée.

“Les divergences portent sur la forme plus que sur le fond”, a assuré
le conseiller d’Etat Jean-Claude Mermoud devant le plénum. Le
gouvernement vaudois “préfère faciliter la tche de la conseillère
fédérale Micheline Calmy-Rey”.

En outre, cette démarche n’a plus vraiment de sens, puisque le
Conseil National a reconnu le génocide arménien en décembre 2003,
estimait le Conseil d’Etat. Le gouvernement vaudois proposait au
législatif cantonal d’en rester là.

M. Mermoud a rappelé que la prise en considération de ce postulat en
2003 avait provoqué le report du voyage en Turquie de la cheffe de la
diplomatie. “Les sensibilités sont encore à vif”, a-t-il souligné.

“Contre l’oubli”

Les parlementaires ont refusé de s’aligner sur la position de
l’exécutif. La résolution a été acceptée par 86 voix contre 35 et 25
abstentions. Elle indique simplement que “le Grand Conseil du Canton
de Vaud reconnaît le génocide du peuple arménien de 1915 et honore la
mémoire des victimes”.

Cette démarche n’est pas dirigée contre le peuple turc ni contre les
autorités actuelles de ce pays mais contre l’oubli, ont souligné
plusieurs orateurs. “Le devoir de mémoire est pénible, il ne
s’enclenche pas sans impulsion extérieure”, a commenté le radical
Jean-Claude Rochat, citant l’affaire des fonds en déshérence pour la Suisse.

GEORGIAN BASE CLOSURE SHIFTS STRATEGIC BALANCE

Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR)
June 30 2005

The transfer of Russian military hardware from Georgia to Armenia may
alter the balance of forces in the South Caucasus.

By Irakly Aladashvili in Tbilisi and David Petrosian in Yerevan

On May 30, after years of disagreements, Georgia and Russia finally
agreed on a timescale for Moscow to close its two remaining military
bases in Georgia. Moscow and Tbilisi are now negotiating the technical
details of the pullout – and the critical issue of what will become
of the significant numbers of Russian tanks in Georgia.

The Russian bases at Akhalkalaki and Batumi are to close up by the end
of 2008. Russia plans to transfer some of the equipment now stationed
there to its military base in Gyumri in neighbouring Armenia.

Although Georgian officials have hailed the pullout agreement as a
landmark, some observers believe the transfer of more Russian armaments
to Armenia could upset the already fragile balance of forces between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. The neighbours are still involved in a long
conflict over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh territory and lands
adjacent to it.

Peace talks to end the decade-old conflict have dragged on for years.
Recently, Azerbaijan, which lost 14 per cent of its territory to ethnic
Armenian forces in the fighting, has shown increasing impatience with
the situation.

The relocation of military hardware from Russia’s bases in Georgia to
sites in Armenia has been greeted with more concern in Azerbaijan.
President Ilham Aliev says his country will raise defence spending
by 70 per cent as a result. Azerbaijan has often accused Russia of
covertly backing Armenia in the conflict.

“It is true that this hardware is not being handed over to Armenia
but remains at the disposal of the Russian base,” President Aliev
said on June 25 as he addressed graduates at the Azerbaijani Higher
Military School. “However, it will nevertheless be transferred to
Armenian territory – and we have had to take proper steps, which we
did by increasing defence expenditure in the budget.”

According to the Military Staff of the Russian Troops in the
Transcaucasus, at the beginning of 2005, there were 1,700 military
personnel stationed at Batumi. In addition, the base had 31 tanks,
131 armoured fighting vehicles, AFVs, and 211 other vehicles, and 76
large-calibre artillery systems.

The base at Akhalkalaki had 1,800 personnel, 41 tanks, 67 AFVs and
61 other vehicles, and 64 large-calibre artillery pieces.

Three trainloads of weapons and munitions, including chemical and
nuclear warfare protection gear as well as anti-aircraft missiles,
have left the Batumi base for Gyumri since the agreement was signed.
Under the terms of the deal, around 40 per cent of Russian equipment
in Georgia is supposed to be relocated to Gyumri.

Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov said the relocation did not
mean that Armenia or Russia would exceed international agreements
governing arms restrictions in the Caucasus. And, on an official level
at least, Yerevan says the relocation is a normal measure regulated
by treaty obligations.

Some argue that Armenia needs the boost in weaponry on its territory
that the closure of the Russian bases in Georgia will give it.

One Georgian expert predicted that in the event of a resumption of
hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia would try to
prevent new overland shipments of Russian armaments reaching Armenia
through its territory. “If the armed conflict between Armenia and
Azerbaijan is resumed, it may be assumed that Georgia will try to
maintain complete neutrality and will not allow the Russian military
to deliver additional ammunition to Yerevan,” said the expert, who
did not want to be named.

“However, it will be first and foremost Armenia that will suffer
from Georgia’s neutrality, as it will find itself under an almost
total blockade.”

“Today, the only thing that Yerevan – whose economic potential cannot
be compared with that of Azerbaijan — can think about is replenishment
of the stocks of Russian military equipment and ammunition.”

However, a number of experts in Armenia believe that the relocation
of Russian heavy armaments to Armenia will reduce Yerevan’s security,
not increase it.

Anatoly Tsyganok, a professor at the Academy of Military Sciences,
said, “All the control units for Russian anti-aircraft systems in
this region are currently in Georgia. Moscow reinforced them not
so long ago, in 2003 and 2004, as it considered it possible that
unsanctioned missiles could be launched from the south, perhaps Iran,
aimed at Russia.

“The impending elimination of these units will sharply reduce control
over the entire system. As a result, not only Russia but also Armenia
will encounter new problems.”

Four Russian military bases remained in Georgia in the early 1990s
when the Soviet Union collapsed. In 2001, in pursuance of agreements
reached at an OSCE summit in 1999, Russia gave up the Vaziani base
located near Tbilisi and the Gudauta base in Abkhazia.

Some observers say the two bases that were left lost any real strategic
value for Russia.

“The two bases remaining on Georgian territory were then deprived of
the main component – the airfield in Vaziani,” said Koba Liklikadze,
an observer on military affairs. “As there was no railway line to reach
them, the Batumi and Akhalkalaki bases found themselves blockaded and
encountered problems with the transportation of military contingents,
fuel, and weapons.”

Moscow and Tbilisi had been negotiating on the closure of the Batumi
and Akhalkalaki bases since 1999. The Georgians had maintained that
itn could be done in three to four years, while Moscow initially
demanded 17 and later 11 years.

Talks on closing the bases were significantly stepped up after
President Mikheil Saakashvili and his team came to power in Georgia.

Georgian defence minister Irakly Okruashvili said that the agreement
to close the bases marks the end of 200 years of a Russian military
presence in Georgia.

However, the question is whether Georgia will become a “demilitarised
zone”, as its leadership has said it wants, or join NATO, to which
the government also aspires.

This question particularly worries the almost 100,000-strong Armenian
community in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, as the Akhalkalaki military
base located there is not just the only source of jobs for the locals,
it is also viewed as a guarantor of security against NATO member
Turkey – located right across the border.

Some Armenian security officials are disappointed with the
Russian-Georgian agreement to liquidate the bases, seeing it as a
capitulation by Moscow.

“Moscow has given in to a weak country [Georgia], failing to protect
any of the diplomatic, economic, and military issues linked to its
national security, as well as the matters relating to its sole ally
in the region, Armenia,” an Armenian expert close to the government
who asked to remain anonymous told IWPR.

Irakly Aladashvili is a military observer for the Kviris Palitra
newspaper in Tbilisi. David Petrosian is a political observer for
the Noyan Tapan news agency in Yerevan

UN discussions on Garabagh conflict ‘will depend on peace talks’

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
June 28 2005

Baku, June 27, AssA-Irada — Azerbaijan is still to ascertain whether
or not the a draft resolution on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper Garabagh
conflict will be put on discussion at the UN General Assembly in
August, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said.

Mammadyarov said the discussions will depend on the process of peace
talks. “If we achieve progress in talks, the situation will certainly
change. In this case, we will re-work the document,” he said.

Azerbaijan achieved putting the issue of illegal settlement of
Armenians in the occupied regions of Azerbaijan on the UN General
Assembly agenda in 2004. The discussions were followed by a visit of
the OSCE fact-finding mission to Upper Garabagh.*

BAKU Today, Azerbaijan
June 24 2005

PACE committee on Karabakh to meet Thursday

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe committee on
Nagorno Karabakh will meet for the first time on Thursday.
On the first day of the PACE session, Wednesday, PACE approved the
composition of its temporary committee. It comprises parliament
members from Baku and Yerevan, chairs of separate PACE committees,
and the rapporteurs on Azerbaijan and Armenia, a representative of
the Azeri delegation at PACE Asim Mollazada said.

Mollazada, who chairs the organization committee of the Democratic
Reforms Party, will represent the Azerbaijani opposition at the PACE
committee.

VARDAN OSKANIAN: ARMENIA IS WILLING TO DEVELOP ITS RELATIONS WITH
PEACEFUL, UNITED AND DEMOCRATIC IRAQ

YEREVAN, June 24. /ARKA/. Armenia is willing to develop its relations
with peaceful, united and democratic Iraq. According to RA MFA Press
Service, RA Minister of Foreign Affairs Vartan Oskanian stated about
it at the international conference on Iraq in Brussels. “Only 200
miles separate the capitals of our states, and we are most interested
in cooperation”, he said. Oskanian highly appreciated the fact of
holding a conference, adding that it’s very important for Iraqi
people, which must be aware of consistent involvement of the
international community in restoration of Iraq. “This makes sides
interested to apply more efforts to restore the country”, he
said. Oskanian added that even such small countries with moderate
possibilities and symbolic participation like Armenia understand the
value of moral support by interested observers. “Being a Minister of
Foreign Affairs of the country, which undergoes difficult transition
period, I can assure that due to consistent economic support and
long-term investments, the society will begin to believe in prospects
of peace and democracy”, he said.

Speaking about Armenia’s presence in Iraq, he noted that “the country
is rich with natural resources”. According to him, they speak not only
about the resources under ground, but also wealth of the national
diversity. “Ancient and large in number Armenia community of Iraq is a
part of that variety, and we are aware that together with other Iraqi
people they hope to have their input in prospering and peaceful future
of the country”, he said.

Oskanian left for Brussels by the invitation of the US Secretary of
State Condoliza Rice and EU Council Secretary-General Javier
Solana. The conference on Iraq in Brussels was organized at the
initiative of the USA, EU and Iraq. Delegations from 85 countries of
the world and largest international organizations will take part in
it. A.H.-0-

Armenpress

KOCHARIAN MEETS ARMENIAN STUDENTS IN MOSCOW

MOSCOW, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian met
yesterday in Moscow with a group of Armenian students majoring at Russian
universities. Some 5,000 ethnic Armenian students are believed to study at
Moscow-based higher education establishments, 15 percent of them are
Armenian citizens.
The meeting was organized by Armenian embassy in Russia and the
Association of Armenian Students of Moscow State University. The president
had a frank talk with students and answered their questions, focusing on the
Karabakh problem, Turkish-Armenian relations, domestic issues.
In response to a question about the advisability of building an
Iran-Armenia railway, Kocharian said there was no need for it as there is a
railway connecting Armenia with Iran through Azerbaijan’s exclave
Nakhichevan. “As soon as we resolve the dispute with Azerbaijan this road
will resume its operation,’ he said

REQUIEM SOLEMNY PRESIDED BY CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS AT SOGHOMON
TEHLERIAN’S GRAVE

FRESNO, JUNE 22, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. As it was already
stated, on June 15, in Sacramento, within the framework of a pastoral
visit to the US Western Deocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians met with Arnold Schwarzenegger,
the Governor of California, the city authorities, law-makers and
senators of the state, including Senator Chuck Puchigian, of Armenian
origin. Before leaving for Sacramento, on June 14, the Catholicos of
All Armenians visited the California State University of Fresno where
there is an Armenian Studies Department as well. John Welty, the
President of the CSU Fresno Campus mentioned that there are students
of the Armenians origin at the University and it has numerous ties
with Armenia. Welty decorated His Holiness with the highest order of
the University. Then addressing his blessing to professors’ staff and
students of the University, the Catholicos of All Armenians presented
in details the mission of the Armenian Church and the present
achivements, particularly in the sphere of education. His Holiness
Karekin II appriciated services of the University in the issue of
bringing up and education of the youth, expressing his satisfaction
with the continual respect and love towards the Armenian people and
the Armenian Church. On the same day, Archbishops Nerses Pozapalian
and Vache Hovsepian, members of the retinue of the Catholicos of All
Armenians and ones of the elderly churchmen of the Mother See, and
clergymen of the deocese visited the old-aged pensioner’s home of
California. As Noyan Tapan was informed from the Information Center of
the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Catholicos of All Armenians
had a meeting with Roger Monteroy, the Fresno Mayor at the Mayor’s
Office on June 13. His Holiness mentioned that Armenians settled down
in Fresno after the 1898 Hamidian massacres and the 1915 Armenian
Genocide. The Catholicos of All Armenians also expressed his gratitude
to the state authorities of California and expressed a hope that once
the United States will recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide.

Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians visited the Armenian community
school of Fresno where about 100 pupils study. On the same day, in
Fresno, a requiem was presided solemny by the Catholicos of All
Armenians at the grave of Soghomon Tehlerian. At the end of the
requiem, His Holiness preached about justice and Armenians’ invincible
soul, gifting his blessing to united pious Armenians.