Author: Kajoyan Gevork

ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTE-SCANDINAVIA
PRYLV. 7
12637 HÄGERSTEN
SWEDEN
CONTACT: SUZANNE K. HOLMQUIST, AGOP KHATCHERIAN
TEL. +46 708 809316
FAX: +46 8 645 65 92
E-MAIL. [email protected]

Net Exhibition National Archives of Norway
Riksarkivet/ Norway
——————————-

EXHIBITION TITLE
“Kvinnelige misjonsarbeidere”

Women Missionary Workers
Documenting genocide

Women Missionary Workers (WMW) was established in 1902 after the
pattern of Danish and Swedish sister organisations. WMW soon focused
on the humanitarian situation for the Armenian people, who for some
years had been subject to oppression from Turk authorities.

In 1905 the missionary nurse Bodil Biørn (1871-1960) was sent to
Armenia. First based in the town of Mezereh (now Elazig) and later in
Mush she worked for widows and orphaned children in cooperation with
missionaries from the German Hulfsbund. She witnessed the massacres of
1915 in Mush and saw most of the children in her care murdered along
with Armenian priests, teachers, and assistants. She barely escaped
after 9 days on horseback but stayed on in the region for another 2
years under increasingly difficult working conditions. After a period
at home she again went to Armenia and until she retired in 1935 worked
for Armenian refugees in Syria and Lebanon.

Bodil Biørn was also an able photographer. Many of her photos are
now in the WMF archive, which since the organisation was dissolved
in 1982 has been preserved in the National Archives of Norway. In
combination with her comments, written in her photo albums or on the
back of the prints themselves, these photos bear strong witness of
the atrocities that she saw.

During World War 1 reports out of Armenia and Kurdistan to the outside
world had to be carefully worded if they were to pass the censorship
imposed by the Turk authorities. Extracts of letters from Bodil Biørn
were published in the WMF newsletters to their members all over Norway,
and they constitute eye-witness reports of what has been regarded
as the first genocide of the 20th century. Missionaries from other
nations have made similar contributions.

But it is Bodil Biørn’s pictures of the many people that she met –
smiling and expectant in times when things looked promising, terrified
and despairing in the face of extinction – that leaves us with the
stongest impression.

–Boundary_(ID_6VR4RGRI9i3G0l51E27QHg)–

Russian military don’t rule out partial base pullout to Armenia

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 19, 2005 Thursday

MOSCOW, May 19

Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces Gen Yuri Baluyevsky
did not rule out that part of the property and armaments of the
Russian military bases in Georgia might be transferred to Armenia.

An era of change

The Messenger, Georgia
May 20 2005

Virtually all post-Soviet countries have struggled with the transition
to democracy and free market economy. That democratic development had
been slow-paced is shown by the recent upheavals in Georgia, Ukraine
and Kyrgyzstan. Regional analysts believe that it is only a matter
of time before similar changes take place in other former-Soviet
countries like Belarus, but currently the international spotlight is
on Uzbekistan, where last weekend’s protests were brutally put down.

In the euphoria arising from newly-achieved independence following the
collapse of the Soviet Union, many thought that western democracy would
be able to easily replace Communist totalitarianism. However, it soon
became clear that, with the exception of the Baltic countries, a quick
transition to democracy was unrealistic. In most countries, former
Communist nomenclature remained in power, setting up authoritarian
regimes under the guise of democracy.

Today few are under the illusion that these post-Soviet authoritarian
regimes will be able to continue to exist, and across post-Soviet
space there is a strong popular impulse for change. It is obvious that
undemocratic political systems are not able to maintain social-economic
stability. Fifteen years of such regimes has been quite enough to
inspire public protest against them. Society does not want to stand
for unfair social-economic conditions and pseudo-democracy any more.

Because the old authoritarian regimes were viewed in Moscow as
reliable allies, this impulse for democratic development is seen by
Moscow as a threat which may undermine Russian influence in the CIS.
The Kremlin’s attempts to prevent political change across the region
have come in for criticism in the Russian media. Izvestia, for example,
argues that, “Russia’s efforts to resist the processes in Ukraine
and Georgia were absolutely inadequate. It then missed the chance
to prevent such events from spreading to other former Soviet Union
countries [such as Kyrgyzstan] and now all it can do is to try to
maintain the status-quo – for example in Belarus, a country where
many feel instability is on the horizon.”

Some analysts have tended to view the political changes solely
through the lens of a post-Cold War Western-Russian struggle for
influence in the region. But attempts to see the Rose and Orange
revolutions as imposed from outside overlook the clear discontent
felt by ordinary people with the corruption, the lack of democracy,
the economic stagnation and high levels of unemployment. Russian
analyst Stanislav Belkovski was quite right when he argued on May 17
that “the revolutions in post-Soviet sphere are caused by internal
problems. External factors are of secondary importance.”

As Rezonansi reports, Belkovski went on to argue that similar
political changes can be expected elsewhere in post-Soviet space. He
believes that Armenia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan are the most likely
to experience velvet revolutions, and that Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbaev will try to avoid revolution by passing reforms. Azerbaijan
and Russia, he believes, are less likely to witness such political
upheavals, while Turkmenistan and Belarus are less likely still.

Many analysts would disagree with his prognosis regarding Belarus,
however, which many believe will be the next to fall to revolutionary
change. Whether this will be velvet or not analysts are unsure,
several arguing that the authorities will not hesitate in using
force in an effort to hold on to power. This has, of course, been
the case in Uzbekistan, and it is unclear at the moment what effect
that bloody crackdown on protests, which left several hundred dead,
according to reports, will have on pro-democracy movements elsewhere.

Such processes of change in other CIS countries are clearly very
important for Georgia. What happens in neighboring Armenia and
Azerbaijan is clearly of the greatest importance for Georgia,
especially if any future political change there was to create the
conditions for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
something which would completely alter the geopolitical situation in
the South Caucasus.

Shahumian-Getashen Society plans applying to European Court

20.05.2005 18:00

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The Shahumian-Getashen Society will apply to the
European Court of Human Rights to seek the restoration of the rights
of the families forced out from the Shahumian and Getashen regions
of Azerbaijan, Armenpress reported.

Edik Balayan, the chairman of the Society, said that four cases already
filed against Azerbaijan with the court are in the preliminary stages
and in case they are successful, more cases will be filed, Over 20,000
people — Armenians, Jews, Russians, Greeks — were forcefully deported
from the regions in question.

DAI-ASME TO HOLD ARMENIAN WOMEN IN BUSINESS-2005 TRADE SHOW

Armenpress

YEREVAN, MAY 20, ARMENPRESS: The Armenia SME Market Development Project
(DAI-ASME)said in a press release that some fifty business women from
all over Armenia will be exhibiting their products and services at
the Armenian Women in Business 2005 trade show organized by a USAID
funded Project, DAI-ASME, in cooperation with LOGOS Expo Center,
on May 27-28 at the Artists’ Union building in central Yerevan.

The following sub-sectors will be included: food products,
textile/garments, stone processing, applied arts, souvenirs, handmade
rugs, publishing, consultancy, training, hotel and restaurant services
and more.

The event is designed to build a better awareness of Armenia women’s
business potential; to expand their local and international market
opportunities, to contribute to the formation of business to business
relationships, and to encourage thousands of other women willing to
make a difference in their lives and build a better future for their
families and their country – Mother Armenia.

While celebrating Republic Day, the show will also honor the courage
and creativity of Armenian women that have chosen to fight unemployment
and depression by voting for action and creative work. With “Baking
Lavash”, an amazing masterpiece of Minas, all Armenians’ favorite,
chosen as the best symbol for this event, the organizers wish to
enhance the uniqueness and colorful diversity of products made by
Armenian women. Just as the famous artist “put the color back into
painting”, with all the splendor of the sparkling blue, yellow, green
and red, women of Armenia have brought back the sonorous colors of
natural food taste, multi-sector product variety and unfading tradition
into the marketplace of our country. Armenian Women in Business 2005
will attract both international and local buyers representing hotels
and restaurants, supermarkets, finance institutions, state authority
representatives, business community, international donor/development
project representatives, relevant universities’ female students,
regional business centers, business service providers, international
business representatives, tourists, etc.

The official opening ceremony will start at 1 PM on May 27. The
first day will be organized as a production exhibition open to
businesses/traders, investors only (entry by invitations /business
cards/prior registration, 11 AM to 6 PM.) The second day will be
set as a trade fair with product sales, open to general public (11
AM to 6 PM.) A very important aspect of the trade show will be a May
28 meeting in the 3rd floor conference hall of the Artists Union at
Abovyan 16, 2 PM to – 3 PM, arranged for start-up and pre-start-up
businesses and relevant university female students with the much more
experienced women leaders and businesswomen exhibiting their products
and services at the trade show. DAI-ASME was launched on September
15, 2000, and will continue until September 30, 2006. This effort is
funded by the US Government’s Agency for International Development
(USAID). ASME is implemented by Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), a
private consulting firm based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. The Project
mission is: To increase employment in Armenia through the development
of profitable and dynamic private enterprises.

NKR NA AUDIT INSPECTION CHAMBER

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
16 May 05

On May 13 the meeting of the Audit Inspection Chamber of the NKR
National Assembly conducted by the chairman of the chamber Arkady
Soghomonian took place. The question under consideration was the
results of the audit inspection in the NKR Ministry of Justice,
which lasted from March 28 to April 5. The minister of justice Robert
Hayrapetian was invited to take part in the meeting. The objective of
the audit inspection was to find out the effectiveness, relevance and
legality of the budget spending of the ministry in 2004, as well as
its conformity with the NKR laws and norms. The leading expert of the
chamber Henrik Ghazarian presented the audit report. The chairman of
the Audit Inspection Chamber read the draft conclusion of the board.
In 2004 the actual expenses of the ministry comprised 94 per cent of
the budget estimate, or 4 million 508 thousand drams less. Besides
the state budget means, off-budget means were used from the sums
confiscated by the department of law enforcement. The off-budget means
were mainly spend on acquisition of stationery, inventory, equipment
and transport. At the same time, the mentioned spending contained
a breach of the standards maintained by the Ministry of Finance and
the former State Department of Justice in November 2000. The audit
inspection revealed that in the ministry control on the mentioned
costs is weak. What is more, the control of the Ministry of Finance
and Economy on the off-budget spending of the Ministry of Justice is
weak, too. After the discussion of the facts and observations the
board of the Audit Inspection Chamber confirmed the report and the
conclusion of the board.

AA.
16-05-2005

RF AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA TO CONTRIBUTE TO DEVELOPMENT OF COOPERATION

YEREVAN, May 19. /ARKA/. The newly appointed RF Ambassador to Armenia
Nikolay Pavlov has presented copies of his credentials to RA Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan. The press and public relations department,
RA Foreign Office, reports that Minister Oskanyan congratulated
Pavlov on his appointment and wished him success in his mission. The
Minister pointed out that after the recognition of Armenia’s
independence Armenian-Russian relations have had a character of
strategic partnership. “We are closely cooperating in all spheres,
but we still have to much,” Oskanyan said.

In his turn, Ambassador Pavlov made a high appraisal of the bilateral
relations, expressing his willingness to contribute to the development
of cooperation in all directions. P.T. -0–

ARMENIAN PARTY POSITIVELY ESTIMATES KOCHARIAN-ALIYEV WARSAW MEETING AND REFUTES STATEMENTS ABOUT RETURNING REGIONS TO AZERBAIJAN

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian party positively
estimates the last meeting between Armenian and Azeri Presidents
in Warsaw. This was one more step forward in the direction of
settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Hamlet Gasparian, RA
Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson, declared this while estimating
by the request of mass media the last meeting between Armenian and
Azeri Presidents held within the framework of the Warsaw summit of
heads of CE country-members. The Presidents’ meeting, the spokesperson
mentioned, enables to continue discussing the issue at Ministers level,
within the framework of Prague process. According to Hamlet Gasparian,
the Warsaw meeting was also positively estimated by the international
community, in particular, by OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairman countries. He
reported that the Minsk Group Co-chairmen are already working in the
direction of organizing the forthcoming round of negotiations. As for
Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadiarov’s statement as if “Armenia
is ready to return 7 occupied regions, the problem is only in time,”
according to the FM spokesperson, “Azeri party’s statements about
return of regions controlled by Armenian forces don’t correspond to
reality at all.”

Armenia denies Yerevan to hand seven Karabakh districts over to Baku

Mediamax news agency
18 May 05

Yerevan, 18 May: The press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry,
Gamlet Gasparyan, today denied the statement by Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov that Armenia is ready to return seven
districts that are under Armenian control.

Gasparyan described Mammadyarov’s statement as “wide of the mark”,
the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry told Mediamax new
agency today.

At the same time, the press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry
said that the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents
in Warsaw [on 15 May] has created an opportunity for continuing
negotiations between the sides within the framework of the Prague
process.

[Passage omitted: reported details]

ALIYEV: BAKU STAND IN KARABAKH PROBLEM UNCHANGED

Pan Armenian News
17.05.2005 06:44

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The stand of Azerbaijan over the issue of
settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is unchanged, Azeri
President I. Aliyev told journalists when commenting on the talks
with Armenian leader R. Kocharian in Warsaw on Sunday, reported the
Yerkir newspaper. In an interview aired by all Azeri TV channels
Aliyev noted that “the parties continue negotiations,” however,
“according to a mutual agreement, the details of the meeting will not
be made public.” The Azeri Presidents reported the outcomes of the
talks with R. Kocharian to Turkish Prime Minister R. Erdogan, with
whom he met the same day. At the same time Azeri FM E. Mamedyarov,
who took part in the talks, noted that “the negotiations have not
reached a radical turn,” “the parties discussed matters of settlement
within the Prague process.”