Author: Navasardian Karapet

La Padanian, Italia
mercoledì 15 dicembre 2004

I ragazzi della Lega nel cortile dell’Europarlamento a Strasburgo:
l’Ue cerca invano di fermare la protesta

No alla Turchia, il grido dei giovani padani

IGOR IEZZI

STRASBURGO – I Turchi possono entrare in Europa, ma i Giovani Padani
non possono manifestare nel cortile dell’Europarlamamento a
Strasburgo; altrimenti spintoni, urla e manifesti strappati: l’Unione
europea, un moloch di burocrazia e inefficienza al soldo della
massoneria internazionale e dei poteri forti, ha cercato, invano, di
fermare la protesta del movimento Giovani Padani.
Inutilmente, perché le nuove leve della Lega Nord hanno comunque
portato la voce del popolo padano alle orecchie dei `potenti’ della
Ue che vogliono minare radicalmente il vecchio continente,
permettendo l’ingresso di un esercito di nemici islamici, 80 milioni
di mussulmani con un’età media di 27 anni.
Nella mattinata di ieri, circa un centinaio di aderenti al movimento
Giovani Padani e al Movimento universitario padano, ha sonoramente
bussato alle porte del Parlamento Europeo. Al grido di `no alla
Turchia in Europa’, il Mgp ha sventolato bandiere e issato i
cartelloni insieme ai ragazzi del Vlaams Belang, l’ex Vlaams Blok, e
dell’Alsace d’abord nonostante il freddo polare, 0 gradi, e la neve.
Sebbene la polizia francese avesse autorizzato il presidio nel
cortile dell’Europarlamento, la security della struttura ha impedito
l’ingresso dei giovani padani (purtroppo questi figuri non governano
il moloch continentale, altrimenti poveri turchi…) adducendo come
scusa ciò che successe due anni fa dopo un’analoga protesta sempre
dell’Mgp.
Allora un’europarlamentare diessina provocò i giovani padani, oggi la
security é intervenuta in anticipo, ferendo in maniera forse
irreparabile la democrazia.
«Un sintomo di quanto sia pericolosa e autoritaria l’Europa» ha
osservato l’europarlamentare della Lega Nord Matteo Salvini.
L’iniziativa è stata portata avanti comunque, compresa la preghiera e
la benedizione di Don Ugo alle storiche bandiere europee, quella di
Lepanto, il Sole delle Alpi e il cuore vandeano.
«Non vogliamo l’ingresso della Turchia ma il ritorno di Cristo – ha
detto Don Ugo -. Non tutta la Chiesa é caduta su posizioni
filoislamiche, cattocomuniste e progressiste. Che la Madonna ci aiuti
a schiacciare l’islamismo, speriamo che questa preghiera possa essere
ancora recitata all’ombra del campanile e non sia cancellata
dall’ombra del minareto».
Ma i servi delle lobbyes non potevano farla passare liscia ai giovani
padani. Così all’uscita dal cortile del Parlamento, i custodi del
potere hanno usato la forza, colpendo due giovani di Varese, tra cui
una ragazza. Ma era troppo tardi, la missione dei giovani padani era
stata ormai compiuta.
`Turkije is niet europees’ era lo striscione dei giovani fiamminghi,
`Turchia in Europa? No, grazie’ i cartelli dei giovani padani.
«La Padania é figlia di chi ha combattuto contro i Turchi – ha detto
Paolo Grimoldi, coordinatore federale dei giovani padani -. Non
possiamo permettere che il Paese islamico entri impunemente in
Europa. Sono estranei al nostro continente e anche se riconoscessero
il genocidio Armeno e Cipro del Nord, lo rimarrebbero: non erano, non
sono e non saranno mai europei. La Turchia è di quanto più lontano
esista dalla civiltà europea».
Un concetto ribadito da Francesco Enrico Speroni che ha spiegato come
l’unica possibilità per un maggior legame con la Turchia sia un
accordo economico. «L’Europa deve essere un’unione politica non una
società, – ha affermato Speroni – non basta pagare la quota per
entrarvi». Poi, lo stesso Speroni, ha annunciato che «domenica,
Umberto Bossi, nella sua veste di europarlamentare ha firmato la
richiesta di voto segreto sulla relazione della Turchia» «Tengono
fuori la Padania e fanno entrare i mussulmani» ha ribadito Maurizio
Parma, consigliere regionale emiliano del Carroccio presente durante
la manifestazione. «La Turchia non può entrare in Europa – ha
concluso Philip Clayes, europarlamentare fiammingo, al presidio
insieme a Frank Vanhecke, presidente del Vlaams Belang e a Spieler,
presidente degli alsaziani – , questo Paese non c’entra nulla con noi
né culturalmente né geograficamente. E non dimentichiamo le ragioni
economiche che ci spingono a contrastare una simile decisione: la
Turchia ci costerebbe 28 miliardi di euro all’anno, più di tutti i
paesi dell’Est messi insieme».

The Messenger, Georgia
Dec 15 2004

Tbilisi’s shuki shortage

A combination of problems causes city-wide blackout, and industry
spokesman warns of similar problems to come
By Keti Sikharulidze and James Phillips

Tbilisi experienced a city-wide blackout on Tuesday, with important
facilities including the metro, airport, and hospitals all losing
light for several hours during the evening.

The blackout was due to the loss of the Aragvi 220 kilovolt
transmission line into Tbilisi, which as Director General of the
Georgian State Electrosystem Joe Corbett told The Messenger, was the
result of a number of problems.

Corbett explained that a joint on the Aragvi line blew as a result of
overloading, which was itself due to the disconnection on Sunday
morning of one of the two automatic transformer boxes, ‘AT 4’ at
Gardabani, which transfer electricity from the high voltage 500 KV
lines across Georgia to the 220 KV line, owing to a defect.

“When we lose a transformer we have no backup,” Corbett says, adding
that because of a lack of maintenance over the last fourteen years,
the Aragvi line sometimes struggles to cope with levels of
electricity that theoretically it should have no problem with, as was
the case on Monday.

The autotransformer was reconnected on Tuesday evening, although PR
officer of the Ministry of Energy Teona Doliashvili notes that the
transformer will be disconnected again this weekend for scheduled
testing.

In the meantime, Tbilisi should receive a normal electricity service,
at least until another fault appears, but the GSE General Director
says that this is unlikely to be long, because the electricity system
is in such a bad state of repair, and the money to rehabilitate the
system is not available. “Georgia wants a transmission system that it
is not willing to pay for,” he complains.

Corbett says that the loss of the Aragvi line was just one of a
multitude of inter-related problems faced by Georgia’s electricity
system over the weekend.

Imports of electricity from Armenia were suspended until Sunday
evening owing to a fault on the Alaverdi line, on the Armenian side.

For several days until Sunday night, one of the units at the Enguri
hydroelectric power station was disconnected owing to another
breakdown.

There were also problems over the weekend with the high voltage
Imereti and Kavkazioni lines which transmit electricity from Enguri
and Russia.

The combination of all of these problems meant that even more
electricity had to be transferred to Tbilisi along the Aragvi line,
resulting in the city-wide blackout on Monday.

Despite the problems, however, Deputy Energy Minister Aleksandre
Khetaguri told Imedi he believes that “the emergency situation will
become better in the near future and Tbilisi will receive the same
energy once the AT 4 transformer has been repaired.”

The lack of electricity, meanwhile, has led to twice as much gas
being consumed as usual, causing a drop in pressure in the gas
system.

France raises Armenia issue ahead of EU decision on Turkey

EUbusiness
14/12/2004

Days ahead of a crucial EU decision on Turkish accession talks, Paris
has raised the highly sensitive issue of the Armenian “tragedy” — an
indication of the sharp divisions of opinion in France over Ankara’s
membership bid.

At a summit in Brussels this week heads of government from the 25
member states are to give a green light for the opening of membership
negotiations, probably some time next year, while at the same time
warning the process could take more than a decade.

On Monday French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier risked angering
Ankara when he unexpectedly announced France would ask it to
“recognise the Armenian tragedy of the start of the (last) century
… Turkey must carry out this task as a memorial.”

Asked Tuesday whether this amounted to a pre-condition for opening
talks on EU membership, Barnier this was legally not possible, but he
said it was “a question that we will raise in the course of
negotiations, and we have around 10 years to raise it.”

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have died between
1915 and 1917 in the last years of the Ottoman empire, an episode
referred to by Armenians as their “genocide”. But the government in
Ankara disputes the scale and nature of the killing.

In France, which has a large Armenian community, the “genocide” has
become a highly politicised subject. In 2001 the then
Socialist-dominated National Assembly voted to recognise that
“genocide” had occurred — prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador.

Barnier’s decision to raise the Armenia issue was being interpreted
Tuesday as a bid to reassure a French public that remains by a clear
majority hostile to Ankara’s application to join the European Union.

While President Jacques Chirac has publicly stated his support for
Turkey’s eventual membership, he is opposed by a majority of his own
Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) as well as many in the opposition
Socialists. A recent poll showed that 56 percent of the public is
against Turkish membership, compared to only 38 percent in favour.

Promising to ensure that the Armenian “tragedy” is tabled during entry
negotiations is a way of signalling to the French public that the
government has not forgotten their concerns, commentators said.

Chirac is known to be worried that the prospect of Turkish admission
could sour French attitudes to the EU just ahead of a promised
referendum next year on the union’s proposed constitution, possibly
even leading to its rejection.

To reassure voters, the president has already undertaken to change the
country’s constitution so that all future applications to the EU —
including Turkey’s — would have to be approved by a national
referendum in France.

He and Barnier have also said that talks with Turkey may result in a
“privileged partnership” rather than full-scale membership — though
they insists this is France’s desired objective.

The Messenger, Georgia
Dec 10 2004

Armenia: “We should not push away our true friends”

The Armenian newspaper Aravot (Morning) interviewed a member of the
Armat Center and political analyst Stepan Grigorian who recommended
that the current Armenian government reexamine its foreign policy
approaches and be mindful of mistakes.
“You always make a mistake when you follow mistaken approaches. The
same thing took place in connection with Senator Kerry as well as
with Georgia,” he said, adding that it was a mistake for Yerevan to
initially oppose Saakashvili. He said Armenia is continuing its
mistakes in regards to Ukraine.
“Nobody forced our acting government to congratulate Yanukovich on
the victory beforehand, when even CEC had not announced its
decision,” he said. He said that serious, revolutionary processes are
under way in the Ukraine now, but Armenia together with other
“underdeveloped, totalitarian countries” Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Russia congratulated a person who according to
Ukraine’s laws was not elected president.
As Grigorian stated, Russia is unable to develop and little by little
it becomes a weak, semi-totalitarian and semi-authoritarian state
whose economy will collapse. He added that Russia has no resources to
retain its super-power status. He noted ironically that Russia was
not satisfied by the fact that in Abkhazia all the candidates on the
presidential ballot had a pro-Russian orientation.
“I agree with the fact that we should actively cooperate with Russia
and have good neighborly relations. But I am against leaders of our
country being its proteges. The millions of demonstrators in Ukraine
are the expression of a protest against Russia,” he stated.
“Our fault is that the acting authorities in our country cooperate
with those countries and political forces that vote against Armenia.
The United States always makes its decision in favor of Karabakh and
allots us financial assistance – its was exactly a U.S.
representative who suppressed unfavorable actions in the UN. But we
say – “No! Russia is better”… WE should refuse this kind of approach
in order not to push away our true friends,” he concluded.

TBILISI AND BAKU QUARREL OVER CARGOS

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Dec 8 2004

Georgian businessmen hit by a row over whether freight cars from
Azerbaijan are destined for Armenia

By Lela Iremashvili in Tbilisi and Rufat Abbasov in Baku

The Azerbaijani authorities have detained more than 900 freight
railcars travelling to Georgia in the past month, following suspicions
that they were actually en route to Baku’s long-standing enemy,
Armenia.

The row has not only cost Georgian businesses millions of US
dollars but has also damaged the traditionally good relations
between Baku and Tbilisi, which were recently cemented further by
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

Most of the freight containers, containing diesel oil, flour, liquefied
gas, grain and other items, had travelled by sea from Central Asia to
Baku, where they continued by rail. Many were heading for Georgia’s
Black Sea ports of Batumi and Poti and onwards to European markets.

While some of the freight cars were allowed to cross the frontier
last week, a significant number are still stuck at the Beyuk-Kasik
border crossing. Last month, only cargoes originating in Azerbaijan
were allowed to cross, without any explanation from Baku why the
others should be stopped.

However, Azerbaijani ambassador Ramiz Hasanov was invited to the
Georgian foreign ministry to discuss the issue, he told the media that
Baku suspected that freight was passing through Georgia to Armenia,
in contravention of an agreement his government signed with Tbilisi
in June forbidding the transit of goods to a third country “contrary
to their national interests”.

“Azerbaijan has its own national interests in connection with this
issue,” Hasanov said, referring to its bitter dispute with Armenia over
Nagorny Karabakh. “How would [Georgia] react if Azerbaijan delivered
fuel or other cargo to [the disputed territories] Abkhazia and South
Ossetia? That would damage the national interests of Georgia.”

Azerbaijani prime minister Artur Rasizade told IWPR that he had
evidence that several freight carriages transporting oil products
were indeed intended for Armenia.

Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania has tried to play down the
incident, telling journalists that he saw no reason to “dramatise”
the situation. “We are working with the Azerbaijani side and I am
sure that we won’t have any problems,” he said.

In an attempt to resolve the situation, Georgian Railways’ commercial
director Ramiz Giorgadze travelled to Baku, while officials from the
Azerbaijani customs committee visited Tbilisi and checked the freight
cars’ documentation. Those that were given the all clear by customs
officials were immediately allowed to cross into Georgia.

Georgian officials said that none of the detained freight cars were
travelling to Armenia, although David Onoprishvili, chairman of
Georgian Railways, conceded that this had happened before.

The Georgian customs department told IWPR that the issue had only
become relevant after the inter-governmental agreement signed by the
two nations came into force on November 22.

Customs officials have said that Georgia would no longer re-export
cargos to Armenia, in line with Azerbaijani requests.

However, Georgia’s deputy minister of economic development Geno
Muradian argued that there was no legal basis for stopping most of
the cars, even if they did proceed to Armenia.

“Wheat and oil are not military cargos, and cannot threaten the
security of a country. If they end up in Armenia, it won’t be a
tragedy,” he said.

“For a long time transit, cargos from Azerbaijan have not officially
been going to Armenia,” Muradian went on. “But business has its own
laws, and a businessman who receives goods in Georgia will find ways
to send them on to Armenia if he wants to.”

Officials in both countries are now debating what harm the row has
done to relations.

Georgian economic expert Giorgi Khukhasvili said, “Azerbaijan is our
strategic partner, our countries are fully integrated with regard to
transit shipments, and without Azerbaijan, Georgia’s transit functions
are worth nothing.”

However, Baku political analyst Rasmi Agayev argued in an article in
the Obozrevatel newspaper that the two nations’ strategic partnership
“is no more than a declaration”, and criticised Tbilisi for its “double
standards” in not supporting Azerbaijan over the Karabakh dispute.

Georgian businesses are being tight-lipped about what the dispute
has cost them, although losses are believed to run into millions
of dollars.

Vano Mtvraralashvili, head of the Union of Producers, Importers and
Consumers of Oil Products, said many Georgian importers whose products
had been delayed on the border for a month had asked him for help.

For example, said Mtvraralashvili, one firm was trying to import 1,200
tonnes of diesel oil from Turkmenistan, where prices were cheaper.
Despite having all the documentation to prove that the oil was intended
for Georgia’s domestic market, it was not being allowed through.

“If the Azerbaijanis had doubts about Georgian companies, then why
didn’t they stop the cargoes on the Turkmen-Azerbaijani border?”
complained Mtvraralashvili. “Now they’ve paid Baku fees for a transit
that they can’t complete.”

In any case, he said, Armenia would not be bereft of petroleum products
because it also used other transit routes.

Both governments now say they are confident that full freight traffic
will be restored in the next few days. But the deeper implications
of this row may have a much more lasting effect.

Lela Iremashvili is a correspondent with Black Sea Press news agency
in Tbilisi. Rufat Abbasov is a correspondent with Reuters in Baku.

Hungarian police sue jailed Azeri officer for putting up resistance

Sarq, Baku
7 Dec 04

Excerpt from report by Azerbaijani newspaper Sarq on 7 December
headlined “The Hungarian police officers have put physical pressure
on Ramil Safarov” and subheaded “There are reports that another action
has been taken against our officer”

Another lawsuit against Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov [charged
with killing his Armenian counterpart during a NATO course in Hungary]
has been lodged with the Budapest city court, his lawyer Adil Ismayilov
has told Sarq.

The lawyer said that an incident took place between our officer
and Hungarian police officers when Safarov was held in a remand
centre. Safarov came under physical pressure during the incident. The
police officers filed a suit against Safarov, saying that he had put
up resistance. Ismayilov also added that the defendant has also filed
a reciprocal suit over the physical pressure he had faced.

[Passage omitted: reported details]

Ismayilov denied the reports that another action had been taken
against Safarov since he had attempted to kill another Armenian
officer. He said that Safarov’s deeds will be assessed within the
framework of the legal proceedings instituted into the killing of
[Armenian officer] Gurgen Markaryan.

RA NA CHAIRMAN MEETS IN SAINT PETERSBURG WITH PACE VICE CHAIRMAN,
CHAIRMAN OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF BELARUS’ PARLIAMENT AND WITH
SERGEI MIRONOV

SAINT PETERSBURG, December 4 (Noyan Tapan). Armenia is actively
working to honor its commitments towards the Council of Europe and the
honoring of the commitments will be completed in 2005 by the
constitutional reforms. The RA National Assembly Chairman Artur
Baghdasarian told this to the PACE Vice Chairman Ionas Chekuolis
during the December 3 meeting in Saint Petersburg. The sides also
discussed the issue of organizing discussions on the regional problems
under the aegis of PACE, issues of developing the European
integration, as well as the issues of developing relations between
Armenia and the Baltic states. I. Chekuolis qualified PACE – RA NA
relations as model ones in terms of honoring the commitments. It was
noted that increasing the cooperation in all formats will promote
Armenia’s Eurointegration, while bringing the Armenian legislation
with the CE standards was considered an important problem whose
solution may be helped by the Baltic states that express readiness to
assist. According to the NA PR Department, Artur Baghdasarian also had
a meeting with Vladimir Konopliov, Chairman of the House of
Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of
Belarus. The issues of strengthening the Armenian-Belarusian
interparliamentary relations were discussed. The interparliamentary
cooperation commission’s work was pointed out as important: Konopliov
noted that starting from mid December the commission will be formed in
the newly elected parliament, and a co-chairman will be appointed at
the level of the parliament’s vice chairman. The sides stressed the
importance of the implementation of the agreement on cooperation,
which was signed in February in Minsk, as well the cooperation in
international structures. The RA NA Chairman met with Chairman of the
Federation Council of the RF Federal Assembly Sergei Mironov. The
sides discussed the issues related to development of the inter-state
relations, attached importance to the interparliamentary cooperation.

CENN – DECEMBER 1, 2004 DAILY DIGEST
Table of Contents:
1. Con-Tract of the Century
2. The Summit of the Ministers of Environment of Caspian and Black Sea
Regional States Commences in Istanbul
3. Exxon/Mobil Drilling Another Well
4. WB Finances Reconstruction of Irrigation System in Azerbaijan
5. No Emergencies Recorded for the Last Day Because of Snowfall in
Armenia
6. World Vision Renovates Four Health Posts in Lori Province
7. An International Workshop on Social Monitoring Opened in Yerevan
8. RA Parliament Passes the Draft Law on Higher and Post Graduate
Education
9. Yerevan Municipality Moves to New Building
10. Journalists Create “Caucasian Club”
11. Armenia To Start Building Iran Gas Pipeline
12. Armenian Rivers are Not As Polluted as Azerbaijan Alleges
13. African NGOs Boycott World Bank Meeting
14. 2nd International Congress and Innovation Fair

1. CON-TRACT OF THE CENTURY
Michael Gillard, 29 November 2004

Page: 1/7
A SpinWatch investigation

How BP tried to cover-up up its flawed operations in the Caspian that
could lead to an environmental disaster. The investigation also reveals
breaking news that the first bank consortium led by Italy’s largest
bank, Banca Intesa, has pulled out over concerns about safety flaws and
reputation risk.

The Con-tract of the Century

A special investigation for Spinwatch by Michael Gillard

The full text is available on the following address:
CON-TRACT OF THE CENTURY.doc

2. THE SUMMIT OF THE MINISTERS OF ENVIRONMENT OF CASPIAN AND BLACK SEA
REGIONAL STATES COMMENCES IN ISTANBUL

Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
November 25, 2004

The Summit of the Ministers of Environment of the states of the Caspian
and Black seas region, devoted to questions of ecology,` Caspian and
Black Sea Ecology 2004′ in which delegations from Turkey, Russia, Iran,
Romania, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Georgia take
part, representatives of the international and regional oil-and-gas,
transport and tanker companies, a number NGOs, has started in Istanbul.

The employee of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources Rasim
Sattarzade represents Azerbaijan at the Summit.

As was informed to AzerTAj in the Ministry of Ecology and Natural
Resources, participants of Summit with a view of development of regional
interstate and industrial cooperation on preservation of the environment
will consider a number of questions influencing on ecological system of
region. Besides, during the meeting, discussed are expected questions of
development of ecologically safe methods and technologies of
investigation and oil recovery and gas and transportation of power
resources in the Caspian-Black Sea region.

According to Turkish mass media, one of the basic questions of the
Summit is discussion of the program of navigation in the Bosporus and
Dardanelle passages, carried out now by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and the ministry of environment and forestry of Turkey. The program
stipulates monitoring the problem of transport congestion, caused by
passage of tankers through the Bosporus and Dardanelle, and also
research of alternatives to working rules of transit of passages.

3. EXXON/MOBIL DRILLING ANOTHER WELL

Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
November 29, 2004

After drilling an exploratory hole in the Zafar-Mashal field,
Exxon/Mobile Company is going to start drilling the first test hole in
the Nakhchivan structure. The cost of drilling works in the Zafar-Mashal
field were the highest in the Caspian Sea. It cost $150 million.

To remind, the Company holds 8 percent stock at the ACG full-fledge
development project.

4. WB FINANCES RECONSTRUCTION OF IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN AZERBAIJAN

Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
November 29, 2004

World Bank finances $42-million `Rehabilitation & Completion of
Irrigation and Drainage Infrastructure’ project in Azerbaijan.

The project aims at prevention the decline in supplying water in Baku
City, eliminate further deterioration of the supply of irrigation water
to approximately 86,000 hectares along the Samur-Apsheron Canal; and
improve drainage and reduce water logging and salinity on approximately
36,500 ha along Main-Mugan Collector.

The project is implemented by the Melioration and Water Industry Agency
of the Agriculture Ministry of Azerbaijan.

5. NO EMERGENCIES RECORDED FOR THE LAST DAY BECAUSE OF SNOWFALL IN
ARMENIA

Source: ARKA, November 24, 2004

No emergencies were recorded for the last day because of snowfall in
Armenia, as Colonel Nikolay Grigoryan Head of Armenian Department of
Emergency Situations stated. In his words all roads are in working
conditions except the Selim pass and Bagratashen bridge. He mentioned
that due to icy roads a car accident was recorded in Vayots Dzor without
human casualties. There were breakdowns on electric lines in Aragatsotn
marz, while they were removed and the electricity was restored.

6. WORLD VISION RENOVATES FOUR HEALTH POSTS IN LORI PROVINCE

Source: ArmenPress, November 25, 2004

On Wednesday, November 24, World Vision Armenia celebrated the opening
of the renovated health posts in four rural communities in Lori Marz.
The ceremony took place at 12:00 PM at the health post in Norashen
village and was followed by a visit to Sarchapet, Artsni and Saratovka
communities where World Vision and Support to Communities (STC) has
completed the renovation of the local health posts.

Renovation of the health posts was done in the framework of the Support
to Mobile Medical Teams program, a five-year project funded by US Agency
for International Development and World Vision and targeting 57 rural
communities in Gegharkunik, Lori Tavush and Syunik marzes.

The program aims to provide medical services to the population of remote
communities (serving 32,000 people), increase access of vulnerable
children and their families to a healthy and balanced diet, conduct
health education and promotion among population, establish revolving
drug funds, conduct primary health care trainings and work closely with
policlinics, hospitals and health posts to increase levels of care.
World Vision Armenia works closely with its local partners including STC
and the Scientific Association of Medical Students of Armenia.

Since May 2004 over 12,600 people in 25 villages of Lori and Gegharkunik
regions have benefited from this program. Four Mobile Medical Teams
regularly visited remote communities, providing qualified health care
services to the residents.

As a part of the program activities focused on strengthening
community-based health structures in villages, World Vision Armenia
together with STC started the renovation of the health posts in 11
villages of Gegharkunik and 5 villages of Lori from which renovation of
four Lori health posts has been completed.

Next year the program will start to deliver primary health care to
vulnerable children and families in Syunik and Tavush regions.

“By the end of the program, villages will have benefited from five
years of MMT visits, and will also have primary health care structures
and community knowledge strengthened in a sustainable manner.” says
Julian Srodecki, WV Armenia Operations Director.

7. AN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON SOCIAL MONITORING OPENED IN YEREVAN

Source: ARKA, November 24, 2004

Today, at the Yerevan Marriott Hotel, the Government of Armenia and
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) opened a three-day
international workshop on Strengthening the Capacity for Social
Monitoring in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): Millennium
Development Goals (MDG) and Poverty Reduction Strategic Papers (PRSP).
Senior representatives of the Government of Armenia, UN Agencies and
offices in Slovakia, the United States of America, and Switzerland,
international and local organisations, Governors’ Offices, as well as
distinguished experts from Poland, Tanzania, Albania, Kazakhstan, and
other countries are participating in the workshop.

The main objective of the regional workshop is to share experiences on
social monitoring and identify the steps that are needed to establish
comprehensive national social monitoring systems. The workshop also aims
at strengthening the capacity of participants by: a) exchanging
experiences and discussing case studies in the field of social
monitoring, with a special focus on methodologies and indicators; b)
reviewing linkages between MDGs and PRSPs in the CIS; and c) discussing
mechanisms for building partnerships in social monitoring. UNDP office
to Armenia was founded to 1993. Total cost of UNDP programs in Armenia
makes $11 million.

8. RA PARLIAMENT PASSES THE DRAFT LAW ON HIGHER AND POST-GRADUATE
EDUCATION

Source: ARKA, November 25, 2004

The RA Parliament passed in the first reading the draft law On Higher
and Post-Graduate Professional Education. The law is called to regulate
the state policy in these areas, as well as the organizational-legal and
financial-economic issues. The law includes the protection of citizens’
right to obtain corresponding education, its availability, continuous
education, ensuring of competitiveness, transparency and publicity, as
well as recognition of diploma and qualification degrees of Armenian
higher and post-graduate education in European countries.

The draft law also sets the state standards and educational programs of
higher and post-graduate education, terms and forms of education,
qualification degrees, as well as the order of entering a higher
education and post-graduate institutions, as well as the order of their
registration and management.

The draft law provide for two-degree system of higher education
(Baccalaureate and Magistrate). Every higher educational institution
(public or private) will grant its own diploma. In addition, the best
students and needy students will be able to receive student
scholarships.

9. YEREVAN MUNICIPALITY MOVES TO NEW BUILDING

Source: ArmenPress, November 26, 2004

Armenian president Robert Kocharian praised today the companies that
have built the new building of the Yerevan municipality, saying after a
stroll that he was satisfied with both the quality of the work and the
speed with which it was accomplished.

Speaking to reporters, Kocharian said the municipality staff should work
now more effectively to tackle the citizens’ problems without red tape
and delays. “The idea of one window should be implemented in the
municipality that has to ensure uninterrupted function of all city
services,” the president said, adding that complains that the
municipality does not have good conditions for work will be unjustified.

The construction of the building was started yet in 1980 but was
suspended after 1991 and resumed only in 2003. The new municipality
building will also house the Yerevan History Museum.

The new five-storey building has a total of 13,500 square meters of
space. It cost is 3.1 billion drams.

10. JOURNALISTS CREATE “CAUCASIAN CLUB”

Source: ITAR-TASS News Agency, November 26, 2004

A new public organization of journalists – the Caucasian Club, has been
established on Friday under the auspices of the International Federation
of journalist unions and the Union of Russia journalists. The goal of
the new organization is to make a positive contribution to the coverage
of international problems and in the long run to the stabilization of
the situation in the Caucasus.

Journalists from Moscow, Chechnya, Dagestan, North Ossetia, the
Krasnodar territory, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia were among the first
to join the Caucasian Club, which is open to new members to join.

The main credo of the new Club is strict objectivity, impartial coverage
and delicacy when covering ethnic problems, Besides. The Caucasian Club
will discuss economic and social problems of the Caucasus, integration
of national Diasporas, problems of ethnic crime.

11. ARMENIA TO START BUILDING IRAN GAS PIPELINE

By Hrach Melkumian

Armenia will start on Tuesday the long-awaited work on a key section of
a strategic pipeline that will allow it to import Iranian natural gas in
two years from now, officials said on Monday.

Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, Energy Minister Armen Movsisian and
his Iranian counterpart will lead an official ceremony in Agarak, a
small town near the Iranian border, dedicated to the event. The
construction of the pipeline’s 100-kilometer stretch passing through
Iranian territory reportedly got underway last year.

`We are talking about the construction of the first 40-kilometer section
of the pipeline which, as you know, will be built with a $30 million
loan provided by the Iranian side,’ Lusine Harutiunian, the spokeswoman
for the Armenian Energy Ministry, told RFE/RL. `We plan to complete the
construction by January 1, 2007.’

The loan was formally extended during Iranian President
MohammadKhatami’s September visit to Armenia when the two neighboring
states signed a final agreement on the project after a decade of
negotiations. The deal was finalized during Iranian Oil and Gas Minister
Bizhan Zangane’s talks in Yerevan last May.

The Armenian government says the pipeline will bolster Armenia’s vital
relationship with the Islamic Republic and provide it with an
alternative source of natural gas which generates about 40 percent of
its energy. The economically struggling country presently imports the
fuel from Russia through an aging pipeline running across Georgia.

The 42-kilometer section of the new pipeline will run from the Iranian
border to the southeastern town of Kajaran through one of Armenia’s most
rocky terrains. A mountain pass near Kajaran is the highest in the
country.

Armenia is due to repay the Iranian loan with energy supplies. The two
governments already engage in a seasonal swap of electricity and plan to
boost it dramatically with a second high-voltage transmission line
linking their power grids. Harutiunian said Armenian and Iranian
officials will inaugurate the line at a separate ceremony on Tuesday.

12. ARMENIAN RIVERS ARE NOT AS POLLUTED AS AZERBAIJAN ALLEGES

Source: ArmenPress, November 29, 2004

Armen Saghatelian, the head of a center for ecological and noospheric
studies, an affiliation of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, denied
Azerbaijan’s allegations that rivers flowing in from Armenia are
polluted heavily with radioactive substances.

The center will accomplish next December a project for monitoring of the
South Caucasian rivers, assisted by NATO and OSCE Yerevan office.
Saghatelian said samples of water from 13 rivers running across Armenia
to Azerbaijan are taken once a month to check the volume of their
contamination. Similar work is done in Azerbaijan and Georgia and the
data is collected in one center.

He said NATO provides funds for purchase of necessary equipment while
the OSCE office helps to carry out field work.

He said NATO helps also to buy scale spectrometers to decide the volume
of radioactive substances in the rivers, which he said is important to
deny Azerbaijan’s accusations that Armenia pollutes the rivers with such
elements. The project has been carried out in the South Caucasian
republics since 2003 and its overall budget is 500,000 euros.

13. AFRICAN NGOS BOYCOTT WORLD BANK MEETING

PRESS RELEASE November 30, 2004

Source: [email protected], November 24,
2004

ACCRA, November 30, 2004 – Today, organisations from across the African
continent are boycotting a consultation meeting in Nairobi organized by
the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group. The
organisations claim that the consultation is ill prepared, rushed and
untransparent, and will not provide a meaningful venue for input. Civil
society demanded more time, more outreach, more translation, more
information and more engagement, but did not get an adequate response.

The IFC is meeting in Nairobi today to discuss new social and
environmental standards. The institution is the private sector arm of
the World Bank Group, providing financial support for large
corporations, including AngloGold Ashanti in Ghana. Many of IFC’s
projects around the world have polluted rivers, displaced people,
increased corruption, abused human rights and contributed to climate
change. Benefits are rarely shared with the communities that are
affected.

African NGOs including Friends of the Earth, Third World Network and
CIVICUS claim in a statement that `the framework for the Bank’s
involvement in Africa’s extractives has been inadequate and unbalanced
to meet the developmental priorities and needs of the people and
communities.’

Under pressure of transnational corporations, the IFC plans to weaken
its standards, thereby endangering people and the environment even
further. Noble Wadzah of Friends of the Earth Ghana said: `IFC’s new
standards for social and environmental matters will not be binding upon
corporations. While the current policies are weak already, and
implementation is problematic, voluntary codes are unacceptable. It
would imply that foreign corporations can ruin our resources and
livelihoods as they please, while not being accountable. What do we
stand to gain? It is time that the World Bank Group reconsiders the way
it is doing business and starts to protect people instead of profit.’

The African statement follows boycotts of consultations of the IFC
review in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Manila (Philippines) and London
(United Kingdom). Later this week, groups will be protesting outside the
IFC consultation meeting in Paris, France.

For more information, contact:
Noble Wadzah, Friends of the Earth Ghana: 0233 51 23 12
Abdulai Darimani, Third World Network: 0233 50 36 69

Position Statement of African Civil Society Organisations for the IFC
Safeguard Policy
Review Consultation in Africa, November 29-30, 2004 is available on the
following address: Statement of
African Civil Society Organisations for the IFC Safeguard Policy.doc

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14. 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS AND INNOVATION FAIR

“SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT IN ACTION”
19th – 20th September 2005, University of Geneva

For the more detailed information please visit:

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

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

Russia: Moscow hosts first international antiterrorist Media Forum

Channel One TV, Moscow
2 Dec 04

[Presenter] The inaugural plenum of the international antiterrorist
Media Forum is taking place in Moscow today. Its founders include the
secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organization [CSTO
members are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan], the Nezavisimaya Publishing Group, the National
Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters and the Russian Union
of Journalists.

In the opinion of Nikolay Bordyuzha, CSTO secretary-general, the Media
Forum should be a staunch ally to the law-enforcement bodies in
fighting terrorism and the drugs threat.

[Bordyuzha] As I see it, we need to set up a single information field
to counter these challenges, but across all the area covered by the
CSTO which is, as you know, six states. All these states are worried
by the same problems: political and religious extremism, terrorism and
drugs. We can now take a coordinated approach to work to consolidate
society against these.

As I understand it, the most important issue is having a very firm
link between the information departments of the law enforcement bodies
and the media community.

PRESS RELEASE
Joint Committee
90th Anniversary Commemoration of Genocide
Contact: Iris Papazian (212-689-7810)
Chris Zakian (212-686-0710)

November 29, 2004

JOINT COMMITTEE OF ARMENIAN AMERICAN ORGANIZATIONS FORMED
TO COMMEMORATE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF GENOCIDE

NEW YORK, NY-Under the auspices of Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of
the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, and Archbishop Oshagan
Choloyan, Prelate of the Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of
America, a committee has been formed to organize a pan-Armenian American
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide’s 90th anniversary. As currently
planned, the commemoration will take place in New York City on Sunday, April
24, 2005.

The joint commemorative committee convened its first meeting on October
21st. Roy Stepanian of St. Mary’s Armenian Church, Livingston, NJ and Ken
Sarajian of Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church, Ridgefield, NJ have
been appointed by the Diocese and the Prelacy to serve as co-chairs. With
the attendance and support of major Armenian-American groups, the committee
began its work.

“The commemoration of the Armenian Genocide presents us the opportunity to
remind the world and re-educate our community of not only the Genocide, but
its aftermath that is felt today,” said Archbishop Barsamian.

“We need to bring the Armenian community in the eastern United States
together in New York City on April 24, 2005, to bear witness to this crime
that continues today,” said Archbishop Choloyan.

The committee’s next tasks will be the formation of subcommittees to plan
specific events, prepare educational and press materials, and begin
fundraising to underwrite the commemoration.