Author: Nargizian David

EUCOM leaders meet with Black Sea officials

Stars and Stripes (European edition)
Sunday, April 18, 2004

By Ward Sanderson

Officials from several Black Sea nations met with military leaders at
U.S. European Command headquarters Friday as part of an annual defense
brain trust tour.

They discussed their region, America’s role there and the weave of
treaties and security agreements the United States maintains with
countries whose coasts are lapped by the Black Sea.

The program – sponsored by Harvard University and paid for by the
Carnegie Foundation and the Defense Department – brought together some
30 generals,
diplomats, intelligence experts and scholars from Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.

Despite tensions in the region, participants in the annual Black Sea
Security Program typically don’t hash out their differences right then
and there, though officials admit regional conflicts do tweak
perspectives. Nonetheless, the sessions tend to be more an academic
series of briefings than debates.

“This isn’t the forum where anyone is going to air any dirty laundry,”
said Air Force Capt. Sarah Kerwin, spokeswoman for the U.S. headquarters
in Stuttgart, Germany.

The program visited the headquarters for the first time last year.

“Obviously it went well, because they’re here again,” Kerwin said.

According to Harvard, the group visited Bulgaria’s capital of Sofia
earlier in the week and was to fly to Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
There, they will speak with security specialists from the Pentagon,
Congress and the National Security Council.

In Stuttgart, the entourage listened to briefings on just what the
European Command is and does. Some tend toward astonishment at the sorts
of programs in which the United States is engaged in their countries,
such as humanitarian demining.

“They are not necessarily the same individuals we have regular contact
with,” said Army Lt. Col. Rosemarie Warner, the headquarters’ branch
chief for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. “Oftentimes, the programs even
come as a surprise to them.”

Relations between the Black Sea players and the United States have been
boosted by a heavy American effort to develop and modernize the
militaries there since the Berlin Wall fell.

“We have a good relationship with all of these countries,” Warner said,
“and I think they see EUCOM as a major player in the region and a
representative of the United States.”

The tweedy university feel of the program doesn’t preclude politics
entirely.

“We try to be very clear about the types of activities that we do in the
region and in our overall focus we have a couple of things that are
primary, and one of them is the war on terror,” Warner said. “We’re
trying to get everyone in the region together to have the same focus.”

The other big issue is the broad topic of security cooperation among the
Black Sea neighbors and the United States. The American headquarters
would prefer that all the players plug into the same sort of security
cooperation framework. The Harvard visit could help, U.S. officials hope.

“It encourages open dialog where they can talk to one another,” said
Navy Cmdr. Denise Newell, EUCOM’s Russia desk officer.

Cooperation can take work in the ancient neighborhood: Armenia and
Azerbaijan still are trying to stitch the wounds of an ethnically
charged territorial war during the 1990s. Moldova grapples with
separatists in Transnistria. The new Georgian government faces tension
with Russia over semi-autonomous regions with strong ties to Moscow.
Turkey and Greece long have stared at one another across the Aegean,
both distrustful of the other over the final status of disputed Cyprus.

Warner said these broilers affect participants’ views but are largely
shelved for the sake of exchange.

“For the most part, it’s a very jovial, congenial group of folks.”

Azeri daily says president’s Cyprus remarks success of diplomacy

Zerkalo, Baku
17 Apr 04

The sensational statement of President Ilham Aliyev, who said that if
the Greek Cypriot side votes against the unification of the island in
the forthcoming referendum, Azerbaijan will be one of the first
countries to recognize the independence of the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus, has caused a mixed reaction precisely in our country,
as was expected.

[Passage omitted: Minor details]

It cannot be ruled out that the statement of the Azerbaijani president
was a logical continuation of the involvement of the Turkish public in
a campaign against the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border. The
campaign was launched by [the Azerbaijani TV company] ANS with the
approval of our authorities at the highest level. Since this statement
of Aliyev demonstrated his firm position to almost the whole of the
Western world, it will be difficult for the [Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip] Erdogan government to explain to the Turkish public,
which has strong nationalistic moods in a good sense, the necessity of
opening the border with Armenia for the sake of Turkey’s membership of
the EU.

We believe that after this statement by Aliyev, Erdogan practically
cannot make further concessions on the Cyprus issue for the sake of
Turkey’s membership of the EU. The opposition is waiting for such a
mistake by Erdogan. The army, which is gradually losing its political
influence due to the reforms carried out at the request of the
European Union, will not remain indifferent. Erdogan can be simply
accused of betraying national interests, as was the case with [former
Prime Minister Necmettin] Erbakan who was accused of an attempt to
abolish secularism in Turkey. In a word, it cannot be ruled out that
the statement was an attempt to force the Erdogan government to show
more respect.

The aforesaid gives analysts grounds to believe that the Azerbaijani
president’s statement meets the country’s interests and shows that
Baku can take effective steps on the diplomatic front.

Armenian Assembly of America
122 C Street, NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:

MEDIA ALERT
April 15, 2004
CONTACT: David Zenian
E-mail: [email protected]

STATEMENT ON DEMONSTRATIONS IN ARMENIA

As the leaders of the opposition call for another round of demonstrations,
we urge restraint and calm by the opposition and the Armenian government.
Direct political dialogue is urgently required and is eminently preferable
to further confrontation. Threats of force or the use of force to change
government or to prevent peaceful protest is inadmissible.

We urge that the parliament convene to deal promptly with laws that empower
and regulate freedom of assembly and speech. It has been generally
acknowledged in Armenia and frequently noted by the international community
that current laws are not in compliance with European Union standards. It
is vital that laws meeting international standards be put in place as
quickly as possible that provide for unfettered assembly and responsible
speech.

We also urge that the Armenian government take resolute steps to protect
journalists from interference and violence as they perform their
professional duties.

Armenian Assembly of America
April 15, 2004

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide
organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian
issues. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

###

NR#2003-040

RFE / RL Feature Articles

Wednesday, 14 April 2004

Armenia, Georgia Battle Dissimilar Crises

By Richard Giragosian

Washington, 14 April 2004 (RFE/RL) — The South Caucasus once again faces
the threat of instability as the still-fragile Georgian and the
well-entrenched Armenian governments each face escalating internal
challenges. There are key differences, however, between the Georgian and
Armenian situations that suggest very different trajectories for the two
countries.

First, there is a fundamental difference in the nature of the threat faced
by each state. The immediate challenge to the Georgian government posed by
its ongoing confrontation with the assertive leadership of the autonomous
region of Adjaria is only one aspect of a much greater challenge that
constitutes a serious test of legitimacy and authority for the struggling
Georgian state. That threat is further magnified by the loss of territorial
control over the breakaway unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, and by the steady erosion of authority from the central government
to the regions. Resolving the confrontation with Adjaria is therefore just
one step toward the larger task of reversing this devolution of power and
strengthening Georgian sovereignty by restoring central-government control
over the entire country.

In neighboring Armenia, by contrast, the political opposition is seeking to
dislodge a powerful government apparatus. Unlike the threat to the Georgian
state, the Armenian crisis is more a competition between elites and less a
threat to state authority, although the reaction of the Armenian leadership
undoubtedly creates doubt about the durability of its legitimacy.

The second key difference between the two crises lies in the nature of the
two regimes. Despite a superficial similarity, the political situation in
Armenia today is significantly different from that in Georgia in late 2003,
when President Eduard Shevardnadze was forced from power in a peaceful “Rose
Revolution.” The Georgian transition was unique and holds no real lessons
for Armenia. Regime change in Georgia was the result of a complicated
combination of factors, very few of which are present in Armenia. Most
importantly, the outcome in Georgia was due as much to the weakness of the
state as to the strength of civil society. It was, in other words, a
combination of a power vacuum and a weakened state that presented the
opportunity for the peaceful advent to power of a group of young pro-Western
politicians headed by former Justice Minister Mikheil Saakashvili.

In Armenia, however, the reverse is true. A strong and assertive state is
exercising, without restraint, its powers of control and intimidation
against a traditionally marginalized opposition. The Armenian regime also
differs from its Georgian counterpart in its reaction to the confrontation.
By resorting swiftly to force and coercion, the Armenian leadership has
contributed to a cycle of violence and an “arrogance of power” that can only
bolster the opposition in the long run. But even with the potential of
Armenian civil society, there is no easy or open avenue to confront the
government, despite the illusion of the opposition’s demands for impeachment
and sporadic demonstrations in the streets.

Yet the political situation in Armenia today is more complex than a simple
confrontation between the Armenian government and the political opposition.
There are a number of internal fault lines running through Armenian society
that could determine the course of the opposition-government political
standoff.

Politics in Armenia is increasingly expressed in a contest between
entrenched elites on the one hand, and a ruling elite happy to rule but
hesitant to govern and an opposition whose appeal lies in the personalities
of its leaders rather than its platform, on the other. This competition of
elites is marked by a struggle for control over the country’s limited
resource base and economic assets, a struggle in which the political
opposition is also a well-established player. The largest and most
significant group excluded from this competition for wealth is the majority
of the Armenian population, which remains impoverished and disenfranchised
from the real political process.

It is this divide between the ruling and aspiring political elite and a
frustrated although largely apathetic and weary Armenian population that
serves as the one potential advantage for the opposition. By tapping
widespread general frustration and mistrust of the incumbent leadership, the
opposition hopes to galvanize their campaign against President Robert
Kocharian as an avenue to power. There is no guarantee, however, that once
in power, the opposition would be any better, or any more honest, than the
government it superseded. More unites the authorities and the opposition
than divides them, and the real struggle in Armenia is for power, not
democracy or social justice.

The fate of democracy in Armenia is, in fact, very much in danger; and the
real challenge to Armenian national security comes from within, not from any
external threat. And as in the case of much of the Caucasus, the Armenian
people remain hostage to the petty politics and shortsighted governance of
their so-called leaders. In many ways, both the state and the opposition are
seeking to rule out of self-interest, instead of seeking to govern in the
national interest. Moreover, the Armenian leadership, through its use of
harsh repression, mass detentions, and the arrogant demonstration of its
“disdain for democracy,” is actually only legitimizing the politics of the
opposition while undercutting its own, waning legitimacy and authority.

But the most important point is that the true test of the stability and
legitimacy of the Armenian government rests in its handling of the current
crisis. The Armenian government might well be the author of its own demise,
by overestimating and overreacting to the perceived threat posed by the
opposition

A1 Plus | 14-04-2004

COMING SOON…

On April 15 at 6:00 PM the meeting of defense organizations over breach of
human rights in Armenia will take place in Freedom Square

On April 16 at 6:00 PM joint Opposition rally will take place in Freedom
Square

ZORYAN INSTITUTE OF CANADA, INC.
255 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, Canada M3B 3H9
Tel: 416-250-9807 Fax: 416-512-1736 E-mail: [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: GEORGE SHIRINIAN
DATE: April 14, 2004 Tel: (416)
250-9807

PROF. DADRIAN’S WORK ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE PUBLISHED IN TURKEY

Istanbul – The Turkish Belge Publishing House has just released a volume of
studies by internationally renowned scholar, Prof. Vahakn N. Dadrian,
Director of Genocide Research with the Zoryan Institute. This collection
contains three monographs and five journal articles on the World War I
Armenian Genocide and is the first of a two-volume series Belge has
projected for publication. The translations from English into Turkish were
done by the Turkish intellectual Attila Tuygan. It is hoped that the
publication of this new book will contribute to establishing a common body
of knowledge on Armenian-Turkish history for Turkish civil society.

As far as it is known, this is the first time that a collection of Dadrian’s
in-depth and multi-faceted studies on the Armenian Genocide, with all their
extensive footnotes, have appeared in Turkey in the Turkish language. As the
publisher has stated, one of the many aspects of the significance of this
publication derives from the fact that the primary sources and data that
Dadrian relies on are mainly authentic Ottoman-Turkish documents; they are
complemented and reinforced by extensive use of the state archive documents
of Imperial Germany and Imperial Austria-Hungary, Turkey’s staunch wartime
Allies.

Another aspect to this new book’s significance is the fact that discussion
of the Armenian Genocide is still a taboo subject in Turkey. In 1995, the
same publishing house had issued a Turkish language edition of Dadrian’s
legal analysis of the Armenian Genocide, which originally appeared in the
Yale Journal of International Law under the title “Genocide as a Problem of
National and International Law: The World War I Armenian Case and its
Contemporary Legal Ramifications” (vol. 14, no. 2, 1989, pp. 221 – 334). The
Turkish authorities prosecuted the publisher, the late Ayshe Zarakolu, for
that publication. She was convicted by Istanbul’s State Security Court on
charges of “incitement to enmity based on racial and religious differences”
(Clause 2 of Article 312 of the Penal Code), and accordingly faced a heavy
fine and long-term imprisonment. However, a petition to the Turkish Appeals
Court, signed by a dozen American academics from a variety of U.S.
universities, proved instrumental for overturning the verdict of the
Security Court some three years later. The prosecution tried to have this
acquittal reversed, unsuccessfully. In that petition, the American scholars
defended the publication by emphasizing, on the one hand, the impeccable
academic credentials of the author, and, on the other hand, by questioning
“the standards of fairness and justice in democratic Turkey.”

More recently, the Turkish Government seems to be renewing its pressure on
the Armenian Genocide issue. In May 2003, it required all public employees
to attend a mandatory seminar on “The Baseless Armenian Genocide
Allegations.” When some teachers at one such seminar in Elbeyli district
simply asked questions about the Genocide, the meeting dissolved in an
uproar. The government prosecutor indicted six teachers, and one was jailed
briefly, then released on bail. The teachers were to be tried on charges of
instigating social unrest. The teachers’ union has mounted a vigorous legal
defense.

In such a highly charged atmosphere, it is hoped that such sound, reliable,
academic studies as represented in this book will help provide factual
information for rational discussion.

Several thousand copies of that publication have already been distributed in
academic circles, as well as public sectors, in Turkey’s three major cities:
Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara. This new volume comprises the following
important studies.

1) The Convergent Roles of the State and Government Party in the
Armenian Genocide. (From Studies in the Armenian Genocide. Eds.
Chorbajian and Shirinian. 1999).

2) Party Allegiance as a Determinant in the Turkish Military’s
Involvement in the World War I Armenian Genocide. (From Revue du Monde
Arménien Moderne et Contemporain, vol. 1, no. 1, 1994).

3) The Role of the Turkish Military’s Involvement in the Destruction of
Ottoman Armenians. (From Journal of Political and Military Sociology, vol.
20, no. 2, 1993).

4) The Role of the Special Organization in the Armenian Genocide during
the First World War. (From Minorities in Wartime. Ed. P. Panayi. 1993).

5) The Role of Turkish Physicians in the World War I Genocide of the
Ottoman Armenians. (From Holocaust and Genocide Studies vol. 1, no. 2,
1986).

6) The Armenian Genocide: An Interpretation. (From America and the
Armenian Genocide of 1915. Ed. J. Winter, 2003).

7) A Textual Analysis of the Key Indictment of the Turkish Military
Tribunal Investigating the Armenian Genocide. (From Journal of Political and
Military Sociology. Special Edition on Collected Essays by Vahakn N.
Dadrian. Vol. 22, no. 1, 1994.)

8) The Turkish Military Tribunals Prosecution of the Authors of the
Armenian Genocide: Four Major Court-Martial Series. (From Holocaust and
Genocide Studies vol. 11, no. 1, 1997).

CENN – APRIL 13, 2004 DAILY DIGEST
Table of Contents:

1. Became a Member of the `Caucasus Environmental Society’
2. Georgia Integrated Coastal Management Project — Request for
Expressions of Interest no. CQ-12: `Development of Tourism
Infrastructure and a Visitor Management Plan for Kolkheti National Park’

3. Announcement on the NGO Brussels Statement
4. Seminar for the Journalists who Cover environmental Issues
5. Ecology and Society Proudly Announces the 2004 Ralf Yorque Memorial
Competition
6. Global Ban on GM trees
7. Vacancy Announcement World Vision International in Georgia — Program
Officer
8. BTC Expected to be Ready in 2005
9. Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum Gas-Main Pipes to Arrive at the End of Week
10. First Scientific-Practical Conference on Prospects of Tourism Held
11. Third Azerbaijan International Exhibition `Tourism and Travel’ Due
12. Cold Reality: Nature (again) Turns a Brutal Breath to Village
Farmers

1. BECOME A MEMBER OF THE `CAUCASUS ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY’
Dear users of CENN services!

This is to inform you that due to necessity of financial sustainability
of CENN activities in the long run, we are introducing a number of
innovations in CENN services (Internet services and online products of
CENN – daily digests, bulletins` archive, full online versions of
magazines, GIS database of nature resources of the Caucasus region,
environmental legislation of the South Caucasus States in national
English and Russian languages, etc.) for different types of members to
set force from April 1, 2004.

Only the members of the `Caucasus Environment Society’ will enjoy the
full range of our services. They will receive free of charge our
magazine `Caucasus Environment’, get free legal and environmental
consultancy, free access to CENN databases, maps, resources, etc.

All membership fees support the CENN magazine’s mission of expanding
environmental knowledge on the Caucasus and are considered as charitable
contribution to the production of the regional magazine.

We welcome you to become a Member of the `Caucasus Environment Society’
by registering online:

Annual membership fee for Caucasus citizens/organizations $19, for
international members – $39. Shipment cost included.

For any questions or queries regarding membership and future usage of
online services:

Contact person: Catherine Nakashidze
Tel: +995 32 92 39 46
Fax: +995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

2. GEORGIA INTEGRATED COASTAL MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Request for Expressions of Interest no. CQ-12:
`DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE AND A VISITOR MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR
KOLKHETI NATIONAL PARK’

Integrated Coastal Zone Management Centre (ICZM Centre) – an
implementation unit of the World Bank financed Georgia Integrated
Coastal Management Project invites eligible consultants to indicate
their interest in undertaking the above mentioned consulting services.
Interested consultants must provide information indicating that they are
qualified to perform the services (brochures, description of similar
assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of
appropriate skills among staff, sample set of architectural drawings of
earlier assignments of small-scale green architecture, etc).

A consultant will be selected based on the Qualifications Method.
Interested consultants may obtain detailed information via email and at
project’s website

Expressions of interest must be delivered to the address below by April
20, 2004.

ICZM Centre
2nd Floor, 87 Paliashvili Street, Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel/Fax: +995 (32) 25-20-50 (office)
Mobile: +995 (99) 54-66-16
Internet:
E-mail: [email protected]

3. ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE NGO BRUSSELS STATEMENT

The Women for Green Way for Generations, Armenian Women for Health and
Healthy Environment, Future Generation Union and Lore Eco-Club NGOs made
an announcement on the NGO Brussels Statement, developed in December
2003 in Brussels during the NGO Strategy Meeting: Making the Environment
Work for Our Children’s Health conference. The event brought together 70
representatives from 50 international, European and national
environmental and health citizens organizations, during which
representatives discussed their ideas, demands and suggestions for the
Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health to be held in Budapest
in June 2004. The NGO Brussels Statement will be followed up with an NGO
and Civil Society Declaration to be presented in Budapest. The statement
covers various issues primarily concerning genetically modified
organisms, chemicals, water and food, air pollution, sustainable
development strategy, role of health professionals, etc.

For more information on the statement, visit the
website
Or contact:

Armenian NGOs:
Karine Manukyan of Women for Green Way to Generations NGO E-mail:
[email protected] Karine Grigoryan of Future Generation Union NGO
E-mail: [email protected] Elena Manvelyan of Armenian Women for Health
and Healthy Environment NGO E-mail: [email protected] Andranik Melikjanyan
– Lore Eco-Club NGO E-mail: [email protected]

4. SEMINAR FOR THE JOURNALISTS WHO COVER ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Dear colleagues,

OSCE and Aarhus Center is organizing seminar for the journalists who
cover environmental issues, on 28-29 April in Tsakhkadzor.

The deadline for submission of applications for participation is 20
April. Only 20 journalists could be accepted.

For the detailed information please contact:

Ms. Gohar Avagyan
Senior Press and Public Information Assistant
OSCE Office in Yerevan
Tel: (374 1) 541062, 545845, Mob: (374 9) 436389
Fax: (374 1) 561138
Email: [email protected]
URL:

5. ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY PROUDLY ANNOUNCES THE 2004 RALF YORQUE MEMORIAL
COMPETITION

“Novel Approaches of Integrative Science for the Future”

Ecology and Society invites manuscripts to participate in a competition
that exploits novel ways of performing integrative science and policy
research. The annual ‘Ralf Yorque Memorial Prize’ of 5,000 Euro will be
awarded to the most novel paper that:

1) Integrates different streams of science to assess fundamental
questions in the ecological, political, and social foundations for
sustainable social-ecological systems, and

2) Employs unique advantages of electronic publishing and facilities of
the WEB to help communicate complex ideas simply.

The contributions of the winner and others that pass the normal
peer-review process will be published in E&S. We want to see your novel
ideas of scientific endeavors for the future. Simply indicate if the
paper submitted is intended for the Ralf Yorque Competition and state in
a cover letter why you think the manuscript is eligible for the
competition (e.g. what is novel about the submission, and how is the web
being used?).

E&S wants help from researchers and practitioners who would like to push
the limits of how scholarly research is communicated and is conducted.
We have had some successful contributions, but not enough.

For example, E&S has published novel integrated models of
social-ecological systems including models for exploration by the
readers themselves. There were two excellent winners of the first Ralf
Yorque Competition that featured good science and good use of the Web
(Cumming 2002, Peterson 2002). E&S also published novel ideas on
integrative science like an immune system perspective of ecosystem
management (Janssen 2001), or on approaches that produce real surprises
when ecological, economic and decision systems are linked (Carpenter et
al. 1999).

However, we also experience that interdisciplinary science is often
promoted in words and not in practice. Young scholars derive many
incentives to specialize in certain disciplines, and experience few
incentives to be creative in combining insights from various scientific
disciplines and performing science in nontraditional ways. We ask our
readers to be part of an effort to stimulate novelty and creativity of
new ways of performing science.

Manuscript submissions, while exploring new ways of science should
include a balance of novelty and content. Each submission will be
peer-reviewed for content and assessed by a panel of judges for novelty.

Full details for submission to this competition can be found at
The deadline for
submissions is JUNE 30, 2004.

Dr. Marco A. Janssen
Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental
Change
Indiana University
408 North Indiana Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47408-3799
USA
Voice: (812) 855 5178
Fax: (812) 855 2634
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

6. GLOBAL BAN ON GM TREES
People´s Forest Forum

Dear you

This is a message for ECA-WATCH NGO’s around the world. We ask your
partisipation and support for this dynamic Internet action:

Please sign the petition Global Ban on GM trees on this campaign site:

There is now more than hundred GO’sand more that thousand individuals
who have signed the petition which should be presented for UN Forum on
Forest on next May.

We hope that in these last 20 days the amount of signatories would still
rapidly grow and we hope the support for that also by your ECA-WATCH
network.

We have also opened several general forest workshops and countryforum
where we are collecting material and preparing other initiatives and
reports for UNFF. Be free to make your contributions on these workshops:

Campaing coordination
People´s Forest Forum
Global Ban on GM trees

7. VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT WORLD VISION INTERNATIONAL IN GEORGIA — PROGRAM
OFFICER
DUTY STATION: TBILISI

Employer: World Vision International in Georgia
Position Title: Program Officer
Reports to: National Director
Job Reference Number: WVI-G-NO-PO
Program: National Office.

Purpose of position:

To provide the National Office and Program Managers with technical
assistance in the design, funding, and evaluation of programs, including
proposal writing. To provide communications support for internal and
external audiences with a focus on the World Vision Partnership.

Major responsibilities:

§ Prepare concept papers, program proposals, grant requests and
narrative reports for major international and private donors and World
Vision Support Offices.
§ Support the National Director and project managers in the following
areas of program cycle management: research, needs assessments, project
design, program plans, proposals, and monitoring &n evaluation of
development programs in Georgia.
§ Ensure that timely and well-written program documents and reports meet
donor criteria for provision of funding.
§ Support the National Office in establishing and maintaining ongoing
liaison with Support Offices, NGOs, UN entities, the Government of
Georgia, and donor representatives.
§ Ensure that all community development initiatives are consistently
integrated in the overall framework of WV Georgia’s national strategy,
with an emphasis on assistance to children and the most vulnerable
groups in Georgia.
§ Provide program capacity building for program managers and national
office staff.

Knowledge, skills and abilities:

The following knowledge, skills, and abilities may be acquired through a
combination of formal schooling, self-education, prior experience, or
on-the-job training.

§ At least 3 years work experience in community development
§ Experience in the preparation and successful attainment of
international grants
§ Experience with USAID, CIDA, EU program design is a plus
§ Knowledge of the program development cycle
§ Excellent written & spoken English, fluent Georgian & Russian
§ Excellent analytical, writing, and public speaking skills
§ Ability to work under pressure, in a team, and for long hours if
required
§ Willingness to travel throughout Georgia up to 25% of work hours
§ Excellent computer skills with proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel

§ Strong interest and understanding of issues related to poverty, civil
society, health, child & youth development
§ Thorough understanding of the historical, cultural, political &
socioeconomic situation in Georgia
§ University degree in international development, sociology, economics
or other related subject.
§ Master’s degree a plus
§ Overseas experience is desirable.

To Apply:

If you meet the requirements, please send a cover letter and a detailed
CV in English, (please ensure that you quote the position title
(WVI-G-NO-PO) and that CV includes names and contact details of 3
referees) to:

WVI in Georgia
11 Janashia Street, Tbilisi 0179
E-mail: [email protected]

No deadline for this application.

Note: Only the strongest candidates will be contacted for the test and
interviews. Incomplete application will not be considered. No phone
calls will be accepted.

8. BTC EXPECTED TO BE READY IN 2005

Source: Caspian Region’s Weekly Business, Caspian Business News, March
13, 2004

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline will be ready for use in the
first half of 2005, David Woodward, president of British Petroleum
Azerbaijan, said in Tbilisi last week after a meeting between an Azeri
delegation and Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.

9. BAKU-TBILISI-ERZERUM GAS-MAIN PIPES TO ARRIVE AT THE END OF WEEK

Source: Information Agency Sarke, April 8, 2004

A vessel loaded with pipes for Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline is to
arrive at the Batumi port on April 11, Sarke has been told in the
Georgian International Oil Corporation (GIOC). It will supply 3,200
pipes, which are around 37 km in length

10. FIRST SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL CONFERENCE ON PROSPECTS OF TOURISM HELD

Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
April 7, 2004

The first scientific-practical conference `On prospects of development
of tourism in Azerbaijan Republic’ was held at the Center of scientific
researches on problems of youth under the ministry of youth, sports and
tourism.

Chief of the science and education department of the Ministry Firudin
Gurbanov, speaking of the key goals of the Conference, noted that last
years in Azerbaijan a great attention is paid on the internal tourism. A
state Program on development of tourism has been adopted. Currently,
Azerbaijan holds one of the last points in the world on the number of
foreign tourists. The major problem in this field is low level of
tourist infrastructure and service personnel.

At the Conference, passed in two sections, were delivered some 40
lectures, exchanged views on issues of preparing relevant methodic
recommendations in this field.

11. THIRD AZERBAIJAN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION ` TOURISM AND TRAVEL’ DUE

Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
April 7, 2004

On April 7, 2004 was held a press conference devoted to opening of the
Third Azerbaijan International Exhibition `Tourism and travel’ (AITF
2004) in the International Press Center.

Director of Company Iteca Caspian Farid Mammadov, opening the event, has
thanked representatives of the ministry of youth, sports and tourism of
Azerbaijan for support in preparation of the exhibition, having noted,
that the organizer of action is the British exhibition company ITE Group
Plc and its exclusive partner on the Caucasus, Company Iteca Caspian,
and official support to the exhibition is rendered also by the World
Tourist Organization, the Union of Development of the Tourist Industry
of Azerbaijan and Commercial and Industrial Chamber of Azerbaijan.

More than 70 companies from 18 countries of the world attend the event.
F. Mammadov has emphasized, that alongside with the commercial
organizations, at the exhibition, have stands the corresponding
ministries of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine, Dagestan, Austria and Egypt.
According to director of the Iteca Caspian, the general area of the
exposition has increased for 55 percent, in this connection the
exhibition is carried out in the Sports -Concert Complex after Heydar
Aliyev.

The companies from France, Egypt, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, Kazakhstan,
Malta and Switzerland will accept the most active participation in AITF
2004, and representatives of Seychelles and Thailand have arrived on the
exhibition for the first time.

Specially will arrive here, the regional representative of the World
Tourist Organization on Europe Luigi Kabrini.

In turn, the representative of central administrative board of tourism
of the ministry of youth, sports and tourism of Azerbaijan Khanoglan
Gulaliyev has noted, that the policy of open doors pursued by the
leadership of the Azerbaijan Republic, and also successful economic
reforms allow citizens of our country to expand sphere of the dialogue
with the world community. First of all, it concerns to development of
tourism, both foreign, and internal.

H. Gulaliyev underlined the importance of the state program of social
and economic development of regions on 2004 – 2008, confirmed with the
recent Decree of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic. He noted that
exhibition AITF will bring in the essential contribution to
popularization not only international, but also internal tourism, and
would open remarkable sights of Azerbaijan for visitors of the country,
and also create conditions for establishment and expansions of business
contacts in the international tourism.

The number of foreign visitors, which are interested in Azerbaijan, its
history and culture, national features, and traditions of its people,
from year to year grows. Tourist exhibition AITF organized on the eve of
summer is called to develop new business contacts and partnership, to
involve the new international companies in the country, thus, to
increase a stream of foreign investments, and also to give opportunity
of choice of places of rest to larger audience of the population.

12. COLD REALITY: NATURE (AGAIN) TURNS A BRUTAL BREATH TO VILLAGE
FARMERS

Source: ArmeniaNow, April 9, 2004

A cold snap last week has created havoc for some farmers and disaster
for others in the Ararat Valley and beyond, whose fruit trees blossomed
too soon for their own good.

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to release a damage report next week,
but already it is expected that this will be another poor year
especially for Armenian apricots. Apricot crops were below average the
past three years due to a harsh winter and floods.

Grapes, nuts, tomatoes and most fruits are expected to suffer from the
April frostbite that came after a late-March tease of unusually warm
temperatures.

The head of Plants Cultivation Department of the MinistrA of Agriculture
Garnik Petrosyan, says that in addition to damage in the fertile Ararat
valley, trees have also suffered in Vayots Dzor, Kotayk, Aragatsotn and
Lori regions.

Vardan Aghajanyan has a 170-square meter greenhouse, where nothing is
green now. He took a $3,500 bank loan to finance his tomato crop.

“I would have had tomatoes in the beginning of May and I could have sold
them for 250-500 drams (about 45-90 cents per kilogram) and that was to
be my income,” Aghajanyan says. “Each plant would have provided me with
a one-dollar profit, but nothing is left.”

Petrosyan says the government should find a way to compensate.

“Taking into account the fact that apricot crops have been damaged for
three years and the fact that people who grow apricots could be using
lands for other purposes, we think the government must free them from
paying land tax,” says Petrosyan.

But farmers such as Hayk Barseghyan of the Dasht village of Armavir
region are not thinking about tax, so much as lost crops.

“We ran out of firewood. We burnt everything we had,” he says, referring
to efforts to warm the trees with smoke. “We covered our greenhouses
with cellophane two times. We used all clothes and rags we had:
blankets, carpets. We covered greenhouses with everything we could find
but everything was inn vain as we couldn’t save them.”

Hayk’s mother, 65-year-old Nunufar Barseghyan sits, crying, under a
flowered apricot tree, which has been frostbitten.

“I’ve been living in this village for 46 years but I never saw something
like this. How could temperature fall from +27, +30 to – 11 in April?
This was God’s punishment,” she says.

With difficulty she opens the door of a greenhouse, where she planted
seedlings of cucumber and gord. Plants are dead with their tops hung
down onto gray ground. One candle is placed next to every cultured
plant.

“During the whole night we were lighting candles,” Nunufur says. “Can
you imagine how many boxes of candles we lit? We wanted to keep warmth
in such a way but everything was in vain.”

They lost about $350. Hayk says they took money from the bank and left
gold as a deposit. The land is their only source of income.

And their fate is shared by most of the 800-900 villagers of Dasht.
About 60 percent of the 153 hectare area is given to gardening.

“This was God’s punishment.” Village head Hrant Petrosyan worries.
“Nothing is left,” he says. “Windows of houses were covered with 2-3
millimeters of ice ice. How could flowered trees survive in such
conditions?”

According to specialists, such cold temperatures in Ararat Valley
haven’t been registered within the last 100 years.

Villager Volodia Gevorgyan says his village has even lost potatoes that
were planted 10 centimeters deep.

“We won’t have even mulberries,” he says. “Our hope for the entire year,
everything that must have helped us to live, has disappeared.”

—
*******************************************
CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)

Tel: ++995 32 92 39 46
Fax: ++995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

SFGate.com
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Books

Haunted by visions of massacre, an Armenian trolls cafes of Beirut

Reviewed by Allison Block

The Daydreaming Boy
By Micheline Aharonian Marcom
RIVERHEAD; 212 PAGES; $23.95

On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman government ordered the systematic
massacre of the Armenian population. Within a year, roughly 90 percent
of Armenians were beaten, stabbed, burned or starved to death. Despite
overwhelming evidence that the Turkish government killed nearly 2
million Armenians, there are still those who claim that the first
genocide of the 20th century never occurred. In “The Daydreaming Boy,”
the follow-up to the critically acclaimed “Three Apples Fell From
Heaven” (2001), Micheline Aharonian Marcom powerfully rebuts deniers
with a piece of historical fiction that is beautiful, brutal and
unsettling until the end.

In recent years, several authors, including the late Samuel Weems, a
disbarred Arkansas judge and district attorney and zealous defender of
Turkish causes, have written books dismissing the Armenian genocide as
just another horrible consequence of war. The Turkish government has
used the cover of World War I to justify its actions, while, in
reality, the genocide was committed in front of the eyes of officers
of the German military, war allies of Turkey. (Hitler would later
imitate some of the Turkish techniques.)

The Turkish government tried to destroy all evidence of the genocide.
Soldiers burned Armenian churches, destroyed records and buried bodies
in mass graves with no markings. Acknowledgement of the historical
truths, however, is everywhere in evidence. In 2002, the European
Union voted to forbid entry to Turkey until it recognizes the Armenian
genocide. This year, the U.S. government reportedly plans to send
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Yerevan, Armenia, to
help normalize Turkish-Armenian relations.

In her breathtaking first novel, “Three Apples Fell From Heaven,”
Marcom, a Saudi Arabia-born Armenian raised in Los Angeles, crafted a
complex tapestry of characters and stories set in the time of the
genocide. Her follow-up effort focuses on the aftermath and revolves
around the experiences of one man: Vahé Tcheubjian, a middle-class
Armenian businessman in 1960s Beirut. Tcheubjian and his wife,
Juliana, appear to have an idyllic life, soaking up the sophisticated
culture that marked the pre-civil war city as a cosmopolitan capital
on the Mediterranean, the “Paris of the Middle East.” But inside,
Tcheubjian is an emotional train wreck — racked by memories of escape
from the campaign of genocide that killed his family and years endured
in a brutal Armenian orphanage. In the wake of a cold, loveless
childhood utterly devoid of human touch, Vahé seeks refuge in an
outrageous and graphic imaginary life that brings him to the verge of
a nervous breakdown, just as Beirut, the city he has come to adopt as
his home, edges toward destruction.

Vahé doesn’t just embrace fantasy; he fastens onto hallucinations
with a white-knuckle grip. His days are spent in a state of suspended
reality; smoking cigarettes while he lies on the cool linoleum floor
of his kitchen, Vahé harbors lustful thoughts about Béatrice,
the adolescent servant girl downstairs, and whores like sweaty
Rita. His erotic visions are inevitably oedipal; the “her” to whom he
refers could be either his late mother or a lover: “And I was there,
on her belly. Me as a babe, but not a babe … my chin hairs,
sideburns, but in miniature, and I was lying on her belly, stretched
out on top of her, breast to pubis, suckling. My hands holding her
breasts, pulling the nipple into my mouth.”

Forever haunted by the specter of Vostanig, a fellow orphan who
endured unconscionable abuse, Vahé walks the streets of Beirut,
lingers at street cafes and makes regular visits to the zoological
garden, where he smokes cigarettes with a monkey named Jumba, whose
caged world reminds Vahé of his own. Deep down, Vahé knows that
neither he nor Juliana can ever escape the harsh truths of their
history: “You erased the past from your voice, you smoothed your skin
with expensive creams, you removed the hairs from your limbs, the high
heels, the tight jacket, tight coiffure, and it was never enough, my
darling, was it, to make us different, better than who we were?”

Marcom’s seamless, ethereal prose is suffused with raw emotion; there
is heartbreak on every page, but also hope. Vahé, is, above all, a
survivor, who has seen the worst the world can offer and still manages
to go on with his life. The opening scene of “The Daydreaming Boy”
replays Vahé’s memory of the day he and his fellow orphans were
treated to a rare visit to the Mediterranean Sea. “Clothes stripped
and bodies for the sun and sea and we run like the djinn,” he
remembers. “We learn to swim and our bodies float in the salty air and
the sun shines on this skin; we wait for the fleshy sores to heal in
the briny warmth.” As the novel reaches its devastating conclusion,
the physical wounds of the young orphan Vahé have long mended, but
the grown man’s psyche remains ravaged beyond repair. His is a past
too devastating to transcend or escape. –

Allison Block is a writer in Solana Beach, in San Diego County.

ArmenPress
April 8 2004

STANDOFF BETWEEN AUTHORITIES AND OPPOSITION ESCALATES FURTHER

YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS: In a move that is expected to raise
further the confrontation between Armenian authorities and the
opposition, leaders of the two major anti-government forces rejected
today proposals for starting a dialogue and diffuse the escalating
tension.
Stepan Demirchian, the leader of the Ardarutyun (Justice) alliance
argued that the only chance for a dialogue was the inclusion of a
motion on a national referendum on confidence in the incumbent
president on the parliament’s agenda, as was suggested by the
country’s Constitutional Court in the wake of last year’s contested
presidential election.
In a reference to parliament chairman, Arthur Baghdasarian’s
Wednesday offer to start a `dialogue’ with the opposition, Artashes
Geghamian, the leader of another major opposition party, National
Unity, said he had met with the parliament speaker “to say that we
are prepared for a dialogue on ways for transfer of power without
upheavals through a referendum.” He added that the proposal was
rejected by Baghdasarian.
Aram Sarkisian, the leader of the radical opposition Hanrapetutyun
(Republic) party, a component of the Ardarutyun bloc, welcomed the
readiness of the coalition forces for a dialogue. “This shows that
these parties are concerned with the future of the country and we
hail it,’ he said.

Geology, Oil and Gas Potential, Pipelines, and the Geopolitics of the
Caspian Sea Region

Ocean Development & International Law
35:19-40, 2004

BY PHILIP D. RABINOWITZ, MEHDI Z. YUSIFOV, JESSICA ARNOLDI, EYAL HAKIM
Department of Geology & Geophysics
Texas A & M University
College Station, Texas, USA

EXCERPT

Legal Issues in the Caspian Sea

The exporting of fossil fuels from the Caspian region will require the
development of pipelines that traverse political boundaries. There are
many scenarios for pipeline routes, as discussed above, each having
both political and economic problems. What is discussed below are the
current legal status of the Caspian Sea and the regional conflicts
that pose political risks that must be taken into consideration before
decisions are made. Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, treaties
of 1921 and 1940 established an exclusive 10-mile fishing zone for the
Soviet Republics and Iran and referred to the Caspian Sea as the
Soviet-Iranian Sea. However, these treaties did not cover ownership of
seabed boundaries or which state had jurisdiction respecting oil and
gas exploration. In the post-Soviet era, conflicting approaches have
been proposed to dividing the offshore regions among the five
independent countries bordering the Caspian Sea. Some important
agreements have been reached, but there are still a number of
outstanding problems. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea (UNCLOS) provides that a state may claim a 12-nautical-mile (nm)
territorial sea and a 200 nm exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The
Caspian Sea is not wide enough to allow for the full extent of 200 nm
EEZs for states on opposing coasts. The threshold legal question is
how the Caspian Sea is to be classified. If the Caspian Sea is
classified as a sea, then UNCLOS is applicable; however, if it is
classified as a lake, then UNCLOS is not applicable and the Caspian
Sea is free of the international rules governing oceans (Oxman,1996;
Sciolino, 1998).

The initial Russian position, addressed to the UN General Assembly in
1994, was that international ocean law, particularly those pertaining
to territorial seas and EEZ, do not apply since the Caspian is a
landlocked body of water without natural links to the worlds’ oceans
(Gouliev, 1997). Their position was that there are no grounds for
unilateral claims to areas of the Caspian and that the entire sea is a
joint venture area (a “condominium” approach). The implications are
that any activity with respect to utilizing the seabed by one country
encroaches upon the interests of all the other bordering countries. In
1996 Russia softened their position by suggesting the establishment of
a 45 nm EEZ for all littoral states with joint ownership beyond the 45
nm limit.

The Azerbaijan position differed considerably from that of the initial
Russian position. Azerbaijan claimed that the Caspian Sea falls within
the jurisdiction of the international Law of the Sea. Using this
approach, a median line is drawn using the shores with the coastal
states having full sovereignty in their respective sectors. In 1997,
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, as between themselves, agreed to an
approach based on the median line principle. Russia and Kazakhstan in
1998, and Russia and Azerbaijan in 2001 also agreed to this approach
to delineate their respective offshore areas. Thus, Russia,
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have agreed to divide the seafloor into
sectors or zones between corresponding neighboring and oppositely
located states.

Turkmenistan agrees to this approach in principle, but not in method,
claiming that application of a median line does not take into account
the peculiarities of the shore line, in particular, the potentially
oil rich Absheron Peninsula that is presently claimed by
Azerbaijan. Iran, however, still disagrees with any division of the
Caspian using median lines. Iran originally favored the “condominium”
approach but later considered dividing the Caspian into five equal
areas with each state having sovereignty over 20% of the seabed
resources and water. Utilizing median lines, Iran’s sector of the
Caspian does not have the potential fossil fuel resources. Iran’s
method of dividing the Caspian gives them not only a larger share of
the Caspian Sea than the median line approach but as well would place
potential oil-rich seafloor regions claimed by Azerbaijan in their
sector (Croissant, 1998; U.S. Energy Information Administration,
2001).

Because of the above disagreements, there are conflicts between
Azerbaijan and Iran. In 1999, Azerbaijan accused Iran of licensing
Royal Dutch Shell to do seismic exploration in an area the Azeri
government claimed was in their sector. In July 2001, the Iranian Oil
Ministry issued a warning to foreign energy firms not to work with the
other four Caspian states in the disputed areas of the Caspian
Sea. The day after the warning was issued, Iranian ships intercepted a
British Petroleum (BP) seismic exploration ship (the Geofizik-3) that
was undertaking exploration in the Araz-Alov-Sarq fields in the South
Caspian Basin. These fields, located ~90 miles southeast of Baku,
Azerbaijan, were licensed by the Azeri government to a BP consortium
and are in a region over which Iran claims sovereignty. This incident
was the first overt military act in the Caspian Sea since the breakup
of the Soviet Union (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2002).

According to Dr. Elmar Mamedyarov, Charge d’Affaires, Embassy of
Azerbaijan, the dispute between Iran and Azerbaijan regarding the
legal status of the Caspian is a “component of the tension that has
arisen in the area” (Calabrese, 2001). This tension includes the
Iranian support of Armenia in the conflict over Nagorno-Karakh, a
highly contentious region, and one that pits Armenia and Azerbaijan in
a state of “cold war.”

The U.S. presence and influence in Azerbaijan has also fueled tension
in the region, especially since Iranian companies are excluded from
U.S. energy projects in the Caspian. Conflicts regarding seabed
sovereignty also exist between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Though as
noted earlier Turkmenistan has agreed in principle with Azerbaijan,
Russia, and Kazakhstan respecting use of a median line to divide up
the seabed, exactly where to draw this line has created a major
dispute with Azerbaijan. The Absheron Peninsula of Azerbaijan juts
into the Caspian Sea. Because of this coastline “anomaly,” strict
application of a median line gives Azerbaijan more of the mid-Caspian
than Turkmenistan would agree to cede. Turkmenistan claims the border
should lie on a line drawn using the shores of the two states lying
opposite. This would give Turkmenistan a larger share of the
mid-Caspian, an area where there is significant oil potential (the
Serdar/Kyapaz oil fields). Though considerable rhetoric has arisen
between the two countries, hostilities have thus far been
nonexistent…

Copyright: Taylor & Francis Inc.