Author: Khoyetsian Rose

Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA)
SDA – Service de base français
28 mars 2005

Voyage de Micheline Calmy-Rey en Turquie La conseillère fédérale
porte les attentes kurdes et arméniennes

Eclairage Par Julie Zaugg, ats

zj fb

Berne (ats) Le voyage de Micheline Calmy-Rey cette semaine en Turquie
suscite de lourdes attentes de la part des communautés dont le destin
est lié à la Turquie. Les Arméniens et les Kurdes, mais aussi les
défenseurs des droits de l’homme, lui demandent de plaider leur cause
auprès d’Ankara.

Amnesty International (AI) a adressé ces jours une lettre à la cheffe
du Département fédéral des affaires étrangères (DFAE). L’ONG y
déplore qu’Ankara n’ait pas signé le protocole facultatif à la
Convention de l’ONU contre la torture. “Nous apprécierions que vous
interveniez à ce propos auprès de votre homologue turc” Abdullah Gül,
dit la missive.

De même, AI lui demande d’attirer l’attention des autorités turques
sur le cas d’un avocat militant des droits de l’Homme dans la ville
de Tunceli, dans le sud-est kurde, victime de “menaces” de la part de
la gendarmerie locale. Mme Calmy-Rey se rendra dans cette région
mercredi, au deuxième jour de sa visite.

Deux voies

“Le voyage (dans le sud-est kurde) de Mme Calmy-Rey est très
important”, relève Deniz Alkan, porte-parole du Centre kurde des
droits de l’homme de Genève. “Elle verra ainsi ce que les gens sur
place veulent vraiment”, dit-il, soulignant que les Kurdes demandent
le respect de leurs droits fondamentaux, plutôt que l’indépendance
par rapport à la Turquie.

Ankara se trouve dans une “période de transition”, selon M. Alkan.
Confrontée à la volatilité de la situation en Irak – où vivent quatre
millions de Kurdes contre 20 millions en Turquie – et aux condition
posées par l’Union européenne pour son adhésion, la Turquie se doit
de choisir entre une voie pacifique et une voie conflictuelle pour
régler la question kurde, estime-t-il.

Or, la visite de Micheline Calmy-Rey pourrait “aider la Turquie à
faire le bon choix”, pense-t-il. De même, la tradition démocratique
et confédérale de la Suisse pourrait servir d’exemple à la Turquie,
large entité multiethnique. “Les Suisses pourraient jouer un rôle de
pont dans ce conflit”, espère M. Alkan.

Rapport de force

La conseillère fédérale pourrait aussi aborder la question du
génocide arménien avec son homologue turc. Mais Stefan Kristensen, de
l’Association Suisse-Arménie, est sceptique: “le seul langage que la
Turquie comprenne est celui du rapport de force”. A cet égard, l’UE a
un rôle important à jouer, selon lui, car elle détient la “carotte”
de l’ouverture des négociations d’adhésion.

L’ex-conseiller national genevois Jean-Claude Vaudroz, auteur d’un
postulat sur le génocide arménien accepté en 2003 par le Conseil
national, attend de Mme Calmy-Rey qu’elle “informe les autorités
turques du contenu du texte”. Le démocrate-chrétien y voit “une sorte
d’aide” à Ankara, pour qui la question arménienne est “un gros
boulet” au vu de ses ambitions européennes.

Mêmes exigences du côté du popiste vaudois Joseph Zisyadis, à
l’origine d’un premier postulat sur la question qui avait été refusé
par le parlement en 2001. Face à son interlocuteur turc, “Mme
Calmy-Rey doit être ferme sur les droits de l’Homme, les droits
syndicaux et la reconnaissance du génocide arménien”, souligne-t-il.

Le rôle des historiens

A l’inverse, Hatice Yürütücü, représentante de la communauté turque
au sein de la Commission fédérale des étrangers, appelle à ne pas
réduire les problèmes de son pays à la question kurde ou arménienne.
“Il ne faut jamais oublier que la Turquie est plus grande que la
Suisse, que sa géographie et sa culture sont autres et que les
problèmes y sont différents”, poursuit-elle.

Lorsque l’on insiste sur ces deux questions, “c’est comme si on
réduisait toute la Suisse à Zurich”, affirme-t-elle. Elle pense que
Mme Calmy-Rey n’a pas à s’exprimer sur le génocide arménien. “Il
revient aux historiens d’enquêter sur le sujet et de mettre les
choses à plat une bonne fois pour toutes”, note-t-elle.

Ferry from Russia delivers corn to Georgia’s Poti port
By Tengiz Pachkoria

ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 27, 2005 Sunday

TBILISI, March 27 — The first railroad ferry from Russia is being
unloaded in the Georgian port of Poti.

“The Anenkov ferryboat has come from the port of Kavkaz on Russia’s
Stavropol territory with 18 train cars onboard. The train cars carry
corn. The ferry is being unloaded,” a source in the Poti port told
Itar-Tass.

At first the ferry will make one trip per week, and the traffic will be
more intensive later. Starting from April the ferry will deliver wine,
Borzhomi mineral water, magnesium concentrates and other commodities
from Poti to Kavkaz.

Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin and Georgian late prime
minister Zurab Zhvania signed an agreement on the ferry line this
January.

President Vladimir Putin said he hopes that the ferry line will
promote regional business. “I hope that this ferry line will meet
the interests of all regional countries. This is a good step in the
right direction. It will promote business and create jobs,” Putin said.

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries also have an access
to the ferry line.

The land railroad traffic between Georgia and Russia was stopped in
August 1992 after an armed conflict in the Abkhaz autonomous republic
had begun.

Azeri officer reportedly killed in Armenian truce violation

Lider TV, Baku
27 Mar 05

Armenians violated the cease-fire regime again today. The Armenian
armed forces in Agdam’s occupied village of Qarvand fired on the
villages of Miraselli and Ciraqli [in the same district] from firearms
of different calibre.

Lider TV’s Karabakh correspondent says that the firefight started at
1700 and ended at 1745 [1200-1245 gmt]. An Azerbaijani officer was
killed in the firefight, according to the report.

Candidates hail from around globe
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Article Published: Sunday, March 27, 2005 – 12:00:00 AM PST

Election hopefuls reflect diversity

GLENDALE — City Council candidate Hovik Gabikian lived through
the shah of Iran’s monarchy, the Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime, the
Iran-Iraq war and Armenian socialism.

School board candidate Maria Prieto Rochart fled Cuba, where her
father had been imprisoned for four years for opposing Fidel Castro.

Although they appear to come from seemingly different backgrounds,
both now find themselves realizing democracy in action: They are
among more than 40 candidates seeking the eight offices on the ballot
in Glendale’s April 5 municipal election — the largest field of
candidates in the city’s 99-year history. That’s as many candidates as
ran for 17 offices on the ballot in the Los Angeles election March 8.

Aside from the sheer number of candidates, what distinguishes the
Glendale election from others is its diversity, with candidates from
Cuba, Iran, England, the Philippines, Lebanon, Germany, Armenia,
Nicaragua and Hong Kong.

It’s the American dream for those to whom America was a dream as they
grew up in countries where they were oppressed, denied basic rights
and prohibited from having a voice in government.

“When we first got here and were going through the immigrant
experience, we always put the finger of blame on the government,” said
Gabikian, a 35-year-old social worker at the Los Angeles Department
of Social Services.

“Then I realized, as I tried to understand this huge system, how it
tries to integrate people from different backgrounds and lifestyles
and ideologies in a powerful and amazing way.”

What the large turnout reflects is a thriving grass-roots democracy
in the city of 200,000 whose residents speak 67 languages, said
Harry Pachon, a professor of immigration policy at the University of
Southern California.

“What it does is it refreshes American democracy, because what you
have is persons in ethnic neighborhoods or barrios that believe in
the American system even more so than native Americans,” he said.

“It’s almost civic naivete that they believe what we Americans take
for granted.”

For most immigrants coming from countries that quash their voices and
ideas, their concept of America is simple: The land of opportunity
where anything is possible — and obtainable.

Mayor Bob Yousefian remembers when, at age 17, he arrived in New
York City from Iran, speaking only a few words of English, staring
in wonderment at the skyscrapers.

“If somebody were to walk over to me and say that one day you’re going
to be mayor of one of these cities, I’d think they were crazy because
you’re coming from a country where you either have to been born into
it or you need to be one of the privileged,” said Yousefian, now 48.

“When you’re able to accomplish such a goal, then you really realize
what America is all about. It’s all up to you. If you want it, and
you work hard for it, you can achieve it.”

It was the absence of freedom in her native Cuba that prompted Rochart
to get involved in the community in which she now lives — and where
she realizes it’s a privilege to be able to vote.

“I have a very keen interest in politics and to be involved on a
local level and make a difference in our community,” said Rochart, 41.

“And because I come from a dictatorship, over here we take free speech
and all the things that come with the freedom here for granted.”

Gabikian, one of 19 candidates for four City Council seats, said he
wanted to run to serve as an example to other immigrants to take a
more active role in their community.

There are also nine candidates for three seats on the school board
and nine running for city clerk.

As with the Irish, the Italians and the Polish decades before, the
large number of candidates could also indicate the political maturation
of the ethnic groups, who traditionally start their political careers
by voting, then running for local office.

It’s especially true for the Armenians, who account for seven of the
18 City Council candidates, five of the nine school board candidates,
four of the nine city clerk candidates — and 25 percent of the
city’s population.

Diversity among elected officials in California is already becoming
more common and will only continue to grow as populations become more
diverse, said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of California Target Book,
a nonpartisan report analyzing political campaigns and races.

Hoffenblum cited the change in the state Legislature, where 15 years
ago there were six Latinos and there are 27 now.

“It’s phenomenal. We’re on the cusp of possibly electing a Latino for
mayor of Los Angeles and you’re seeing more and more of it. I mean,
look at Arnold,” he said, referring to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“One of the reasons they’re here in America is the right to vote
and to determine one’s own agenda. What new immigrants particularly
recognize is the power government has over them and the best way to
achieve that power is to go and get elected.”

Victor King, seeking re-election as a Glendale Community College
trustee and the first Asian-American elected official in Glendale
history, said that his cultural background never informed his decision
to run for the position.

But, the Hong Kong native said, his experiences allowed him to feel
sympathetic to the plight of new immigrants and the challenges they
face in their adopted country.

Historically, Glendale has been a haven for the displaced — from
those escaping the Dust Bowl in the 1930s to those fleeing strife in
the Middle East in the 1980s — King said, so he’s not surprised that
the election boasts such a large number of diverse candidates.

“There’s a profound connection between the two. Glendale has
traditionally been a place for people who come hoping for a better
life,” he said. “From the Midwest to the Middle East, Glendale has
been a place where newcomers have been welcome.”

Naush Boghossian, (818) 546-3306 [email protected]

When weeping for religious martyrs leads to the crucifixion of
innocents

The Independent – United Kingdom
Mar 26, 2005

Robert Fisk

`About suffering,” Auden famously wrote in 1938, “they were never
wrong,/ The Old Masters: how well they understood/ its human
position; how it takes place/ While someone is eating or opening a
window/Or just walking dully along.” Yet the great crucifixion
paintings of Caravaggio or Bellini, or Michelangelo’s Pieta in the
Vatican – though they were not what Auden had in mind – have God on
their side. We may feel the power of suffering in the context of
religion but, outside this spiritual setting, I’m not sure how
compassionate we really are.

The atrocities of yesterday – the Beslan school massacre, the Bali
bombings, the crimes against humanity of 11 September 2001, the
gassings of Halabja – can still fill us with horror and pity,
although that sensitivity is heavily conditioned by the nature of the
perpetrators. In an age where war has become a policy option rather
than a last resort, where its legitimacy rather than its morality can
be summed up on a sheet of A4 paper, we prefer to concentrate on the
suffering caused by “them” rather than “us”.

Hence the tens of thousands of Iraqis who were killed in the 2003
invasion and subsequent occupation, the hundreds of thousands of
Vietnamese killed in the Vietnam war, the hundreds of Egyptians cut
down by our 1956 invasion of Suez are not part of our burden of
guilt. About 1,700 Palestinian civilians from the Sabra and Chatila
refugee camps – equal to more than half the dead of the World Trade
Center – were massacred in Lebanon.

But how many readers can remember the exact date? September 16-18,
1982. “Our” dates are thus sacrosanct, “theirs” are not; though I
notice how “they” must learn “ours”. How many times are Arabs
pointedly asked for their reaction to 11 September 2001, with the
specific purpose of discovering whether they show the correct degree
of shock and horror? And how many Westerners would even know what
happened in 1982?

It’s also about living memory – and also, I suspect, about
photographic records. The catastrophes of our generation, or of our
parents’ or even our grandparents’ generation – have a poignancy that
earlier bloodbaths do not. Hence we can be moved to tears by the epic
tragedy of the Second World War and its 55 million dead, by the
murder of six million Jews, by our families’ memories of this
conflict – a cousin on my father’s side died on the Burma Road – and
also by the poets of the First World War. Owen and Sassoon created
the ever-living verbal museum of that conflict.

But I can well understand why the Israelis have restructured their
Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem. The last survivors of Hitler’s death
camps will be dead soon. So they must be kept alive in their taped
interviews, along with the records and clothes of those who were
slaughtered by the Nazis. The Armenians still struggle to memorialise
their own 1915 Holocaust of one and a half million at the hands of
the Ottoman Turks – they struggle even to keep the capital H on their
Holocaust – because only a pitiful handful of their survivors are
still alive and the Turks still deny their obvious guilt. There are
photographs of the Armenians being led to the slaughter. But no
documentary film.

And here the compassion begins to wobble. Before the 1914-18 war,
there were massacres enough for the world’s tears; the Balkan war of
1912 was of such carnage that eyewitnesses feared their accounts
would never be believed. The Boer war turned into a moral disgrace
for the British because we herded our enemies’ families into
disease-ridden concentration camps. The Franco-Prussian war of 1871 –
though French suffering was portrayed by Delacroix with stunning
accuracy, and photos survive of the Paris Commune – leaves us cold.
So, despite the record of still photographs, does the American civil
war.

We can still be appalled – we should be appalled – by the million
dead of the Irish famine, although it is painfully significant that,
although photography had been invented by the mid-19th century, not a
single photograph was taken of its victims. We have to rely on the
Illustrated London News sketches to show the grief and horror which
the Irish famine produced.

Yet who cries now for the dead of Waterloo or Malplaquet, of the
first Afghan war, of the Hundred Years’ War – whose rural effects
were still being felt in 1914 – or for the English Civil War, for the
dead of Flodden Field or Naseby or for the world slaughter brought
about by the Great Plague? True, movies can briefly provoke some
feeling in us for these ghosts. Hence the Titanic remains a real
tragedy for us even though it sank in 1912 when the Balkan war was
taking so many more innocent lives. Braveheart can move us. But in
the end, we know that the disembowelling of William Wallace is just
Mel Gibson faking death.

By the time we reach the slaughters of antiquity, we simply don’t
care a damn. Genghis Khan? Tamerlane? The sack of Rome? The
destruction of Carthage? Forget it. Their victims have turned to dust
and we do not care about them. They have no memorial. We even
demonstrate our fascination with long-ago cruelty. Do we not queue
for hours to look at the room in London in which two children were
brutally murdered? The Princes in the Tower?

If, of course, the dead have a spiritual value, then their death must
become real to us. Rome’s most famous crucifixion victim was not
Spartacus – although Kirk Douglas did his best to win the role in
Kubrick’s fine film – but a carpenter from Nazareth. And compassion
remains as fresh among Muslims for the martyrs of early Islam as it
does for the present- day dead of Iraq. Anyone who has watched the
Shia Muslims of Iraq or Lebanon or Iran honouring the killing of
Imams Ali and Hussein – like Jesus, they were betrayed – has watched
real tears running down their faces, tears no less fresh than those
of the Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem this week. You can butcher a
whole city of innocents in the Punic War, but nail the son of Mary to
a cross or murder the son-in-law of the Prophet and you’ll have them
weeping for generations.

What worries me, I suppose, is that so many millions of innocents
have died terrible deaths because their killers have wept over their
religious martyrs. The Crusaders slaughtered the entire population of
Beirut and Jerusalem in 1099 because of their desire to “free” the
Holy Land, and between 1980 and 1988, the followers of the Prophet
killed a million and a half of their own co-religionists after a
Sunni Muslim leader invaded a Shia Muslim country. Most of the Iraqi
soldiers were Shia – and almost all the Iranian soldiers were Shia –
so this was an act of virtual mass suicide by the followers of Ali
and Hussein.

Passion and redemption were probably essential parts of our parents’
religious experience. But I believe it would be wiser and more human
in our 21st century to reflect upon the sins of our little human
gods, those evangelicals who also claim we are fighting for “good”
against “evil”, who can ignore history and the oceans of blood
humanity has shed – and get away with it on a sheet of A4 paper.

Aliyev content with OSCE fact-finding mission’s report

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 23 2005

Baku, March 22, AssA-Irada — President Ilham Aliyev said he is
content with the OSCE fact-finding mission’s report on the illegal
settlement of Armenians in the occupied regions of Azerbaijan, as it
includes all the evidence provided by the Azerbaijani side.

“More than ten thousand illegally settled Armenians must be immediately
and unconditionally withdrawn from the occupied regions.” President
Aliyev said that Armenia’s position on the Upper Garabagh issue is
weakening, as Armenians have been misleading the world community for
many years.

The President termed Armenia’s failure to achieve its goals as a result
of Azerbaijan’s successful diplomacy. “We take every step based on
a substantiated policy. They are helpless before this. Until they
realize this, their situation will further worsen,” Aliyev added.*

ARA ABRAHAMIAN: WE NEED CLEAR PERCEPTION OF ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Azg/arm
22 March 05

– What do you expect from President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Armenian?

– Important decisions are, as a rule, being prepared before high-level
meetings. Many institutions are usually engaged in such kind of
preparations and the mass media is informed as well. As far as there
is no such sprightliness in political and media sphere then we can
scarcely expect any major solution.

– Why does the breakthrough in Armenia-Russian economic relations
keep us waiting?

– To achieve that breakthrough we need a united team of politicians,
businessmen, experts and journalists of both countries in order
not only to outline the spheres of cooperation but also control
confirmation of agreements in the parliaments, preparation and
realization of governmental decisions as well as working out an order
of financing projects and election of business structures supporting
the projects.

– What’s the activity of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic
Cooperation co-chaired by Sargsian and Levitin?

– There is indeed such a commission, and it is rather active. I
deeply appreciate what Serge Sargsian is doing there. The co-chairs
are in good business relations. There are already some results. But,
as I mentioned, economic relations should not be limited by what is
done on parliamentary or presidential level. We need all other levels
of cooperation I mentioned after bilateral agreements are signed in
order to bring the issue out from political to practical sphere.

– Is that the reason why the enterprises handed over to Russia for
Armenia’s debt lie idle?

– That’s right. I already had the chance to say that the agreements of
transition do not contain concrete obligations for Russian authorities
to modernize those enterprises and do not set deadlines for their
exploitation The Russian side has not set a company that would be able
to attract investors and to rebuild those enterprises. Armenia should
be more persistent in this issue as it’s not crucial for Russia to get
those enterprises working. They are more of political importance for
Russia, as it will show that Armenia is primary for Russia’s foreign
policy as a whole.

By the way, there is such a problem in the sphere of providing
the Armenian diamond polishing factories with diamonds. There are
agreements with presidents’ signatures but Alrosa is very unsteady
in provision. I think the presidents could agree that Alrosa signed
an agreement with the Armenian company on diamond provision including
provision measure, terms and sanctions of international courts in case
one of the sides neglects obligations. I am sure that Alrosa would
not dare overlook items in the agreement under threat of sanctions.

– What are the issues that will likely top Putin’s visit agenda?

– Besides the concrete economic issues I mentioned, I think that
would be expedient to discuss Armenia’s role in Russia’s regional
strategy especially given Russian-Turkish (goods turnover being
$9 billion) and Russian-Azeri (goods turnover being $1 billion)
economic and military cooperation. I view of growing influence of
Turkey and America in Azerbaijan and Georgia, the Armenian side has
to be concerned with the threat of being politically isolated. The
Armenian side has to give its own clear definition to Armenian-Russian
strategic partnership. Apparently, Russia has to clearly display
its interest towards Armenia by strong economic presence as well as
highlighting Armenia’s privileged role in bilateral relations with
the region’s states.

Russia has to definitely make understand that it does not apply the
same yardstick to the countries of the South Caucasus and Turkey, and
that Armenia’s privileged position in economic and military relations
should be clearly worked out and make known either to the region
or to the whole world. The two countries need a clear regulation of
transportation in order to prevent Armenian citizens and goods from
being maltreated and discriminated as it happened last year when the
Armenian vehicles were blocked on the Russian border.

I think that Armenia should join the talk process over Russian military
base’s withdrawal from largely Armenian-populated Akhalkalaki and over
keeping balance of force in the region in general. It is directly
linked with Armenia’s security given latter’s relations with Turkey
and Azerbaijan.

– It’s rumored that you make efforts to release the Armenian pilots
from jail in Equatorial Guinea. Is that true?

– Indeed I had a conversation with the foreign minister Vartan
Oskanian to coordinate our steps. As a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, I
am mobilizing all my international contacts to find the most optimal
variant for releasing our compatriots and send them back home. The
issue is somewhat neglected though. I went into this being late but
hopefully we can reach a positive result by the united efforts of
the Armenian diplomacy and my personal international contacts.

– What concrete steps have you taken in this direction?

– I flew in Rome and sought after the Pope’s signature on a letter
to the president of Equatorial Guinea with an appeal to release the
Armenian pilots. After that, I met the Director-General of UNESCO,
Mr. Matsuura, in Paris. He also signed a letter on his and on behalf
of UNESCO to the Guinean president asking to release the Armenian
pilots. Proper UN representatives are also into this; a similar letter
with Kofi Annan’s appeal is being prepared. I met the high-ranking
representatives of Equatorial Guinea in Paris, and we discussed
conditions of releasing the Armenian pilots.

Considering poor health of some detainees, I stressed on the soonest
release of the sick pilots.

I hope that we will have positive results.

– As we round off, I cannot help asking about your relations with the
Armenian authorities, particularly with President Robert Kocharian,
with Armenian political parties and their leaders and about your plans
concerning the presidential elections in Armenia. The question is
that there are various rumors over all these issues in the Armenian
mass media and political circles.

– Let me answer step by step. I am in normal relations with the
Armenian authorities. I would call it partnership. During my last
meeting with the President I informed him about our plans to carry out
a series of arrangements onoccasion of the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. The President agreed that many vital for Armenia
issues will hardly find solution without tightening ties with the
Diaspora. I hope our cooperation will become more fruitful in future.

Concerning my relations with politics and political parties in
Armenia, I should say that I am in good relations with either
centrist or oppositional parties and their spearheads. The aim of
the World Armenian Congress and the Russia’s Union of Armenians is
to see Armenia stable, and we use our contacts to foster political
stability in the republic. We carry out different arrangements with
different parties. We cooperate in equipping Armenian schools with
computers with some parties and perform benevolent programs with
the others. With the Armenian Revolutionary Party we discussed the
possibility of opening offices for lobbying activities in a number
of European capitals in regard to Turkey-EU talks and its EU bid.

I declare that we never meddled in the elections in Armenia by
financing this or that party, and statements in the political circles
and in the mass media are groundless.

As to my plans over presidential elections in Armenia, I should say,
as I mentioned in a press conference during my last visit, that I will
be actively involved in this elections siding the candidate that will
put forward a clear program of the country’s economic growth. Not a
bunch of good wishes but concrete measures, the financial source and
a team that will accomplish all these. Besides, the candidate should
have a comprehensive foreign policy program on Nagorno Karabakh issue,
on coming to terms with Turkey and Azerbaijan. If there is such a
person among the candidates, I will do all possible to support him.

We always spurred consolidation of all political forces for the sake
of nationwide issues’ solution. We think also that elections of every
level should be held within the terms set by the constitution and
legislative acts. Prescheduled elections are the result of either
unstable inner political situation or emergency. I would not like
to see Armenia in either of these situations. Moreover, I think that
all kinds of colorful revolutions are not designed for us.

– Do you see any such politician today?

– I think it’s early to speak of that. This issue will come to the
practical level in a year, then we’ll go into details.

New York Post

TWO MORE ARRESTS IN ARMS PLOT

By CARL CAMPANILE

March 19, 2005 — Two Armenians were busted as part of a multimillion-dollar
plot to ship shoulder-to-air missiles into the United States that could be
used by terrorists to shoot down airplanes, federal authorities announced
yesterday.
Eighteen other people involved in the scheme were arrested earlier this week
in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

“There have been two additional arrests made by Armenian authorities based
on information we provided them concerning the supply of weapons,” Assistant
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Lawsky said during a hearing yesterday in Manhattan
federal court.

“This just shows that the plot wasn’t just talk. These were real weapons
with real people planning to ship them,” Lawsky said.

The two Armenians arrested were Vahajn Yeribekyan, 25, and Razmik
Barsenghyan, 32.

It is believed that the pair had photographed rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, shoulder-to-air missiles and other Russian weapons they planned
to smuggle into the United States through co-conspirators here.

What they didn’t know is that the FBI had conducted a sting on arms
smuggling, and the buyer they were dealing with was an informant.

The investigation continues. “We are working with our counterparts overseas
to get the weapons,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley said.

PanArmenian News
March 18 2005

ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF LEBANON PREPARING FOE EVENTS DEDICATED TO
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 90-TH ANNIVERSARY

18.03.2005 07:53

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian community of Lebanon is preparing for
events dedicated to the 90-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
the organizing committee composed by representatives of all the
religious Armenian organizations as well as political parties and
institutions reported. In the words of the initiators, this date will
give an impulse for joining efforts and more efficient work directed
to the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and
restoration of rights of Armenians in their historical land – Western
Armenia.

Economy and politics prompt Armenian fears at Russian withdrawal from Georgia

Aravot, Yerevan
15 Mar 05

Text of Naira Mamikonyan’s report in Armenian newspaper Aravot on 15
March headlined “Georgia trying to get rid of Russian military
bases. This implies social problems for Javakheti Armenians”

“As before, this year too the Armenian community of Georgia is going
to mark the anniversary of the Armenian genocide. On 24 April we will
gather in the Tbilisi pantheon, raise a cross stone and hold a liturgy
in memory of the genocide victims,” Georgia’s deputy economy minister,
Genadi Muradyan, said, commenting on claims raised at last Sunday’s
[13 March] rally in Akhalkalaki. He noted that the Georgian
authorities would also attend the event.

To recap, during recent discussions on the withdrawal of Russian
military bases from Georgia, the Georgian parliament issued an
ultimatum (reported by the Russian media) to specify the withdrawal
time by 15 May. If the response fails to please the Georgian
authorities, they will impose sanctions and deny entry visas to
Russian soldiers.

“We are against aggravating relations with Russia. This is being done
so that both Russia and Georgia can find mutually acceptable and
profitable ways of withdrawal,” Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
said.

Russian media say that while the population of Batumi will not suffer
much from the withdrawal of the Russian military base, the situation
in Akhalkalaki will be quite different. The withdrawal of the military
base from this mostly Armenian region may seriously worsen social and
economic conditions there. Of course the Russian authorities, who have
never been against the Armenians pulling chestnuts out of the fire for
them, are now heavily relying on the support of the Akhalkalaki
Armenians and are probably not mistaken.

Some 10,000 people rallied in Akhalkalaki on Sunday [13 March],
signing, at the initiative of the One Javakhk NGO a demand that the
Georgian president and parliament should not only recognize the
Armenian genocide, but should also refuse to withdraw the Russian
military base from Akhalkalaki as “its presence ensures stability and
economic prosperity for the region”.

Commenting on the situation, Genadi Muradyan said that in fact there
were 3,000-4,000 and not 10,000 at the rally. As for the withdrawal of
the Russian military base, this was more of a social issue. “There are
people working at the base and if the troops are withdrawn they will
lose their jobs. But President Saakashvili spoke on Monday and said
that nobody in Javakheti will be left jobless, everybody will have
work and that they are drafting social and economic programmes for
Samtskhe Javakheti and, particularly, for Akhalkalaki.”

Asked if this response would satisfy the Akhalkalaki Armenians or if
the issue was political rather than social, Muradyan said: “Everything
is mixed up there and it is difficult to say for sure. An Armenian MP
in the Georgian parliament, Hamlet Movsesyan, said on Monday that the
Akhalkalaki Armenians were concerned lest the Russian bases be
replaced by other foreign, particularly Turkish, troops. They are
afraid of Turkey, as they still remember the Armenian genocide. But
the Georgian authorities gave assurances that there will be no foreign
troops in Georgia in general and in Akhalkalaki in particular.”

Asked if the Javakheti Armenians’ support for Russia in the matter
might generate anti-Armenian tensions in Georgia, Muradyan said: “We
should do our best to prevent tensions. We are raising these issues
before the Georgian government and, acknowledging that this is their
problem, we point out that they should do something to settle the
social problems of the 1,200 people working at the base. I think that
the people have the right to express their opinion on such crucial
issues,” Muradyan said.