Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

ALL MONUMENT-BUILDINGS WILL BE PRESERVED WHEN DEVELOPING MAIN AVENUE
IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MAY 23. ARMINFO. Within the coming month, Yerevan
Municipality intends to finally determine the plan of development of
the buildings in Yerevan streets Amiryan, Byuzand and Zakyan. Head of
the Department for Town Planning and Architecture of Yerevan
Municipality, Chief Architect of Yerevan Samvel Danielyan informed
journalists at a briefing today. He said that the above street were
included in the Main Avenue. Except land development, underground
development is planned there, and a relevant model has already been
agreed on with construction companies. Danielyan said that the
Department intends to develop the quarter Kond, wherein 2-5 floor
buildings will be constructed. Denielyan said that the main avenue
also embraces the 30th quarter (Firdusi street) and the territory
nearing Yerevan Cathedral of St. Grigor Lusavorich. In the center of
the 30th quarter leisure and public facilities will be built, and
dwelling houses on the perimeter. Underground urbanization will be
there and exits to Oval Park.

As regards the buildings included in the list of monuments, Danielyan
said they will be preserved. Besides, the Municipality intends to
place all the mobile historical monuments in a single territory. The
place is not specified.

To note, under the project developed by Chief Architect of Yerevan
Alexander Tamanyan in the 1930s, the Main Avenue starts from the
section of Khanjyan street near the Monument for Vardan Mamikonyan to
the street leading to the old quarters of Kond and Children Railway.

Sydney Morning Herald , Australia
May 23 2005

Economy of scale
By Helen Greenwood
May 24, 2005

Fish shops may come and go but one fresh thinker, Fisherman’s Fresh,
keeps minting ideas.

Fisherman’s Fresh

SHOP 144, WESTFIELD BURWOOD. TEL: 97456606.

Open Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm (Thu 9pm), Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-5pm.
Best buys: Atlantic salmon steaks, above, $20.99/kg; green large
prawns $24.99/kg; small snapper $14.99/kg.

Mourad Arotin, known as Mac, extols the virtues of fish as he stands
in front of the long, brightly lit counter of his shop.

“You can eat as much as you like and it’s good for you – as long as
it’s not polluted,” he begins.

“How many things can you say that about? And look at the variety. How
many varieties of beef or chicken can you get at the butcher? I’d
need a month to eat each one here in my shop. And there are so many
ways to cook it.”

He stops to take breath and it occurs to me that Arotin, an Armenian
who came to Australia in 1976, is a novelty. In Sydney, there aren’t
many fish retailers from Armenia – it’s a landlocked country, after
all.

Arotin, however, is as passionate about seafood as only a late convert
can be. He started in 1999 with a shop in Bankstown, then bought this
one in Burwood in 2000.

He began his working life as an electronics engineer who went into IT
and ended up managing a subsidiary of a US company in Dubai for six
years. When he returned to Australia, he could not rustle up a
similar, high-level job despite nearly 20 years’ experience. “My age
was against me and I was only in my early 40s,” he says.

So he looked around for a business he could franchise and came up
with the idea of fish. “Nobody at that time was franchising seafood,”
he says.

He has since learnt why: it’s hard to find franchisees who can handle
such a perishable product. He persisted for four years, then sold the
Bankstown shop in 2003 to the Di Costi chain.

He kept this shop because he loves fish. He no longer does the
filleting himself or goes to the markets but he prowls around the
display like a tiger.

At one end of the counter are the whole specimens – snapper, rainbow
trout and silver bream – favoured by Asian customers, who make up
about 50 per cent of his clientele.

There is barbounia, fancied by the Greeks and Italians; red spot
whiting, sought by the Lebanese; and the universal leatherjacket.
Prawns sell well here, both green and cooked. So do salmon steaks and
salmon sushi, as do the fillets from sea perch to ling.

He has slimy and spanish mackerel, mullet and redfish, local mussels
and blue swimmer crabs, nanato and local calamari. An old bloke gets
some squid then asks for more.

Arotin serves shoppers of habit but he likes to try new things
himself. “When I get something new, I act as though I know nothing
about fish. I throw it on the barbecue and if it comes up well, I
know it’s fail-safe and will sell.”

His next idea is to rev up the deep-fryer and cook gourmet fish and
chips. Gourmet seafood could be his new franchise venture.

The Jamestown Foundation
Thursday, May 12, 2005 — Volume 2, Issue 93
Eurasia Daily Monitor

CIS SUMMIT: DECORATIVE, YET ACRIMONIOUS

by Vladimir Socor

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the presidents of nine other CIS member
countries attended an informal CIS summit on May 8 in Moscow, as part of
Russia’s anniversary celebrations of victory in the Second World War.
Presidents Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia and Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan
stayed away from the summit: Saakashvili did so because of Russian
stonewalling on an agreement (or presidential joint declaration) on the
withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia. Aliev stayed away because the CIS
summit’s date coincided with that of the 1993 capture of the Azeri-inhabited
town of Shusha in Karabakh by Armenian forces.

In an inauspicious curtain-raiser for the summit, Russian Security Council
Secretary Igor Ivanov publicly described the recent political changes in
Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan as “coups” (perevoroty), whereby power
changed hands in “unconstitutional” ways, with “violations of basic
democratic principles” (Strategiya Rossii, May 2005, cited by Interfax, May
5). Belarusan president Alexander Lukashenka, who is on record as sharing
that assessment, remarked sarcastically that this CIS summit, “the first
since those notorious events, will acquaint us with somebody or other ” —
i.e., the new presidents of Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. As regards the absent
Georgian president, Lukashenka termed him “too immature to understand the
essence” of the Moscow anniversary (Interfax, May 8).

Responding to Ivanov, a statement by Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
pointed out that Ukraine’s Constitutional Court and Parliament had
invalidated the fraudulent returns of the presidential election runoff and
ordered a repeat runoff, the conduct and result of which was validated by
democratic countries and international organizations (Interfax-Ukraine, May
7). Kyiv’s statement stopped short of mentioning that the Russian-led CIS
election monitoring mission had blessed the fraudulent returns and disputed
the internationally-validated ones.

Commenting on this CIS summit — the first he attended as president of
Ukraine — Viktor Yushchenko pointed out that the organization was “of
little use” to anyone (AP, May 9) and that the “CIS is history.” The
organization, he observed, lacked a project that could become the basis for
economic cooperation. Summing up Ukraine’s familiar position, Yushchenko
noted that only a Free Trade Zone, devoid of political connotations, can
begin to lay the foundation for cooperation within the CIS (Ukrainian TV
Channel Five, May 8).

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin termed the CIS in its present form a
mere “discussion club.” Moldova, he told Russian state radio, has
irreversibly chosen the European orientation as its top priority. The
country values its “historically constituted” relations with Russia, but the
relations are adversely affected by Russia’s support for the Tiraspol
secessionist regime, Voronin pointed out. He referred to the GUAM summit,
recently held in Chisinau, as an indicator of the common European
orientation of that group’s participant countries (Radio Mayak, May 8, cited
by Moldpres, May 9).

Armenia’s Ambassador to Russia, Armen Smbatian, described the CIS in the
run-up to the summit as “a transitional organization, gradually descending
into history, making room for direct bilateral relations among member
states” (PanArmenian News, April 30). His statement reflects Armenia’s
traditional policy (predating the CIS’ eclipse) of shunning multilateral CIS
undertakings and emphasizing instead its purely bilateral ties with Russia.

Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov, who very rarely attends CIS summits,
made an exception in this case to honor the memory of his father, who was
killed in the Second World War. While in Moscow, Niyazov joined Yushchenko
to finalize a Ukrainian-Turkmen proposal regarding a tripartite consortium
with Russia on the transport of Turkmen natural gas. Putin took delivery of
the document during the summit for early consideration (Interfax, May 8).

Kyrgyz Acting President Kurmanbek Bakyiev used the occasion to solicit
Russian assistance in overhauling Soviet-era industrial enterprises, idle
for more than a decade in Kyrgyzstan. Bakyiev proposed transferring such
enterprises to Russian ownership in lieu of repayment of Kyrgyz debts to
Russia. Putin seemed open to the proposal, citing the 2002 Russia-Armenia
agreements on debt-for-property swaps as a model for to be followed in
Kyrgyzstan’s case (Interfax, May 8).

It was Uzbek President Islam Karimov who publicly offered the most scathing
assessment, both retrospective and current, of the CIS: “cooperation in name
only,” “shallow ideas,” “all sorts of cooperation organizations that have
been set up during more than 10 years, these ill-thought games that have
today brought a major crisis to the CIS. … This time, too, the [Moscow]
meeting is likely to fail to resolve any serious issues” (Uzbek Television
Channel One, May 8).

Indeed the only result of this summit turned out to be a declaration of
intent to “consider the possibility” of adopting an agreement on
humanitarian cooperation at a follow-up CIS summit (Interfax, May 8).

–Vladimir Socor

AZG Armenian Daily #092, 21/05/2005

Armenian Genocide

BELGIAN SOCIALISTS HAVE ANTI-ARMENIAN POSITION

Soon, the Senate of Belgium is going to discuss the bill that envisages
criminal punishment for denying genocides. The point is that the bill
concerns only de jure recognized genocides. We have already mentioned
that the bill can be applied against the deniers of the Armenian
Genocide only when certain amendments are made to the document.

It is envisaged to discuss the amendments that envisage criminal
punishment for other instances, particularly, for the Belgian
federal legal bodies and the legal instances of Europe that denied
the recognized genocides.

According to the information sent to the Justice and Democracy
Federation of European Armenians, the socialist party of Belgium
has occupied an openly negative position. Trying to approve their
anti-Armenian position, the socialists state that they are against
the submitted amendments, as “one shouldn’t include such an important
idea as genocide into a criminal text.”

The socialists cynically conclude that it will be possible to apply
the current bill for “the Armenian Genocide too, when it will be
recognized by a relevant instance.”

The Justice and Democracy Federation of European Armenians believes
that this position of the Socialistic party is directly dictated by the
Turkish state, that continues the policy of denying and disregarding
the Armenian Genocide.

“In fact, the socialists are mocking at the Belgian instances and,
in particular, the Senate, equaling to zero the bills that they adopt
there,” the Federation of the European Armenians emphasized, condemning
the position of the Socialist Party that denies its own past.

The current position of the Socialists is conditioned by only
pre-electoral factors and is aimed to please thousands of Turks that
live in Brussels. The Federation calls for the legal enforcement
organizations, the Center for Equal Rights, the activists of Socialist
movement, the genocide victims’ organizations, in particular, the
Jewish, Armenian and other unions to demand from the Socialist Party
to apologize and occupy a position that keeps in line with European
values.

By Petros Keshishian

Blogcritics.org (satire)
May 20 2005

Hotel Rwanda

Posted by Richard Williams on May 20, 2005 12:35 PM (See all posts by
Richard Williams)

Hotel Rwanda
DVD from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date: 12 April, 2005

Movies like this leave my mind reeling with questions. Not just
the usual ones brought on by the horror of mankind’s actions, those
questions made pointedly by bodies on the road as far as he can see,
speedbumps on a ‘cleared road’ (cleared of the living). How could
anyone do this, to be so consumed by hatred or anger that the normal
restraints are completely absent.

Or the big questions like what makes people so different in their
response to horror that some risk their lives repeatedly to help while
others give in to what looks like mass hysteria and hack up their
neighbors? And of course the personalization of that question in:
given the same situation how would i react?

We have seen the main pieces over and over again since the British
concentration camps for the Boer women and children in 1899, the
Armenia genocide with its thousands perishing in the desert or lost in
harem sexual exploitation for a lifetime. The destruction of Yugoslavia
in an orgasm of violence, rape hotels and the eventual partitioning of
history and geography back 50 years. It has happened so many times,
in so many places that we get emotional callouses over our hearts to
protect us from the immediate horror of it all. But the survivors,
they will never heal, will never have the luxury of developing a
hard heart to the evils of mankind. They will never close their eyes
without reliving the nightmare.

But after all these questions have settled down to a dull aching roar,
i am left with the idea that to honor, to remember these dead is to
strive to keep it from happening again. To understand how such things
erupt in our midst, to think about the warning signs and to struggle
to push the powers that rule to build strike forces or international
police forces or what ever it takes so that this evil leaves our midst
forever. The radio in the background, urging violence, dehumanizing
“The Other” into cockroaches, making great divisions where there were
little to none before (nose width???) certainly is significant. Mob
violence, herd mentality explains part, but what about that man on the
radio, or more importantly the few leaders behind the masks of evil,
who are they and how did society create them. And more importantly,
how do we keep trash thought from rising to the surface of society
and causing this? I see the same kind of racism, the same kind of
demonization of others, of the cockroachizition in the decline of
dialogue into nothing more than utter polarization and namecalling
around me.

As a Christian i worry that the Church which is to be the warning
voice against hidden evil, to be that prophetic voice that is
heard over the screams of victims and the shouted commands of the
evildoers does not seem to be awake and watching over the walls
of our civilization as it ought to be. I am glad to see churches
looked upon as places of refuge and doubly horrified when that refuge
turns into a cemetary when no one cares from outside, and God Himself
doesn’t seem to intervene to protect the innocent within the walls of
His house of worship. The glib answer that they are in heaven today
waiting their confrontation with their killers seems little comfort,
i wonder how the survivors handle what looks like betrayal not just
by their countrymen but from their God to whom they prayed in their
last hours of absolute madness. Can we who only have read books or
seen movies understand this? No, their stories of faith after the
storm are hidden, at least from my view. The stories of faith need
to be heard and motivate other Christians to help. but it seems that
the rich American church is not just silent but deaf and blind as well.

That brings up the complicity of the West, not just in the remnants
of a colonization that drew national boundaries that divided tribal
loyalities, that created Hutu and Tutsi, that left an economy based
more on exploitation of natural resources for the use of the west and
the personal wealth of a few indigenous military and/or political
rulers in control, then any democratic sharing for the use of all
citizens. More than a failure of nerve, of a long lasting deeply
embedded racism that divides black from white nuns and saves only the
european from the horror. But of a legacy of mentality, or a worldview
of exploitation, of the use of others for your own personal gain. For
this is the great intellectual evil leftover from colonization, now
the colonizers are black and speak the same language and act just
like the British or Belgium or French or ? that left, for when the
West left Africa it left behind ideas and a nucleus of people that
pursued policies that created the conditions ripe for exploitation
by demogues intent on becoming the next wave of internal colonizers,
the wolves feeding upon the fatten calf for themselves.

i am sorry. but even if i were to speak out for the unnumbered dead,
there appears to be no one listening to their cries at the moment
of their deaths, why should my voice matter, when compared to their
sacrifice? besides it appears that only God hears their cries.

Rev 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the
book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation;

Crimea rallies on deportation anniversary

SYMFEROPIL. May 18 (Interfax) – An all-Crimean rally commemorating
the 61st anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars, Armenians,
Bulgarians, Greeks and Germans was held in the central square of
Symferopil on Wednesday.

According to some estimates, up to 20,000 people took part in the
rally. Many of them carried posters demanding the observation of the
rights of Crimean Tatars and the adoption of a law on the status of
the Crimean Tatar people.

Speaker of the Crimean parliament Boris Deich, Crimean Prime Minister
Anatoly Matviyenko and members of the Ukrainian national parliament
attended the rally.

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
May 14 2005

World leader of Armenian meets with President Khatami

Tehran, May 15, IRNA

The Leader of world Armenians Jasliq Aram I met with President
Mohammad Khatami here on Saturday.

Presidential press affairs office reported that President Khatami
referred to current world situation and the needs of mankind for
prosperity and security.

Today, the world needs men of peace, pioneers of unity, solidarity
and religious co-existence as well as supporters of morality and
spirituality, he said.

Khatami said the followers of different religions in Iran have always
lived together peacefully and expressed satisfaction on presence of
Armenian youths in the field of culture, sport and social affairs of
the country.

Referring to hidden hands to stir disturbances in Lebanon, the
president praised the role of religious and ethnic leaders in
preventing crisis in that country saying “Lebanese should prove to
the world that are able to safeguard stability and security in their
country.”
Concerning the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh region, Khatami
said Iran’s stance is to rely on negotiation, and urging of peaceful
means between the parties to the conflict.

He further emphasized that the issue must not be considered as a
conflict between Muslim and Christians adding “territorial problem
can be solved through discussions and logic.”
The leader of world Armenian, for his part, expressed satisfaction of
revisiting the president and representatives of Iranian Armenians in
the Majlis.

He expressed happiness on peaceful co-existence of different
followers of religions in Iran and describing it as being among the
cherished values of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Jasliq Aram I said, religions are in danger and the followers of the
faiths must emphasize dialogue to strengthen the religion’s role in
human life.

Pan Armenian News

ROBERT KOCHARIAN MET PACE MONITORING COMMITTEE RAPPORTEURS

13.05.2005 08:19

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met with PACE
Monitoring Committee rapporteurs Jerzy Jaskiernia and Georges Colombier as
well as Committee Secretary Bonny Teofilova, RA President’s Press Service
reported. In the course of the meeting the parties discussed the process of
constitutional reforms, regional problems as well as the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict settlement.

A1plus

| 14:43:53 | 11-05-2005 | Politics |

THE POLICEMEN HINDER MEETINGS WITH DEMIRCHYAN

Stepan Demirchyan’s today’s meeting in the deaf and numbs house will not be
held. This announcement was made by the workers of the police who visited
the house this morning. They did it without any ground, simply because they
decided so.

Let us remind you that today at 6:00 p.m. Stepan Demirchyan is going to meet
the party members. We learned from Rouzan Khachatryan, information
responsible of the People’s Party that the preliminary work of the meeting
has been done – there is the allowance, and the necessary sum for renting
the area has been paid.

At the second half of the day the members of the party tries to find out and
solve the problem raised by the police. In any case Rouzan Khachatryan
announced that Stepan Demirchyan’s today’s meeting will be organized are it
was supposed to.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
05/10/2005
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://

1) Erdogan Conveys Turkey’s Regret to Russian and Polish Leaders
2) Gul Comments on Possible Erdogan-Kocharian Meeting
3) Oskanian, Minsk Group Co-chair Meeting ahead of Council of Europe Summit
4) Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Officials in Armenia
5) Tragic Fate for Northern Cyprus Armenian Monastery
6) Bush Calls Georgia ‘Beacon of Liberty’

1) Erdogan Conveys Turkey’s Regret to Russian and Polish Leaders

MOSCOW (AA)–Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is currently in
Moscow attending “Victory in Europe Day” ceremonies marking the 60th
anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, held talks with various
leaders on Monday at a lunch hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During his talks with President Putin and Poland’s President Alexander
Kwasniewski, Erdogan conveyed Turkey’s regret over their countries’ official
recognition of the Armenian genocide. Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of
Russian parliament, and the Polish parliament recently approved resolutions
recognizing the Armenian genocide.
Prime Minister Erdogan and President Putin also evaluated bilateral relations
between Turkey and Russia, and efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group aiming to
resolve the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Karabagh.
During the lunch, Erdogan also held talks with President George W. Bush,
French President Jacques Chirac, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkanende of the
Netherlands, Prime Minister Silvio Berlisconi of Italy, Prime Minister
Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, and European Commission President Jose
Manuel Durao Barosso.
Erdogan is scheduled to visit Washington, DC in June to meet with President
Bush.

2) Gul Comments on Possible Erdogan-Kocharian Meeting

ANKARA (Zaman)–Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul noted that the
possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
President Robert Kocharian may take place in Moscow or Warsaw, though there
are
no definite plans.
The two leaders, who are in Moscow participating in the celebrations of the
60th anniversary of the World War II Victory, will take part in the European
Council Summit, May 15-16, in Poland.
US State Department Assistant Secretary for European & Eurasian Affairs Laura
Kennedy commented that the US welcomes a possibility of talks. Mentioning
recent resolutions in some European countries, which officially recognizing
the
Armenian genocide, Gul called those attempts contrary to Europe’s basic
rights.

When asked whether he would have a meeting with President Kocharian, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “There is not a scheduled meeting now.
There is not such a demand…however, I see no reason why we shouldn’t meet in
the future.”
“As you know, Turkey is one of countries which recognized Armenia after
disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. But there are no
diplomatic relations between the two countries. If Armenia fulfills its
duties,
Turkey will do what is required for a fair and lasting solution in terms of
balances in the region,” Erdogan said.
Indicating that Turkey opened its air space to Armenia, he said, “We have
a positive attitude towards Armenian citizens in the country. We expect
Armenia
to overcome its problems with Azerbaijan.”

3) Oskanian, Minsk Group Co-chair Meeting ahead of Council of Europe Summit

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–OSCE Minsk group co-chairmen from Russia, US, and France
will meet with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian on May 14, a day before the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan are rumored to meet in Warsaw, on the
sidelines of a Council of Europe summit.
Oskanian said on Monday that he could not say with certainty whether the
meeting of the presidents would take place, but added that is a preliminary
agreement to that effect.
“Though we have not established direct contacts with the Azeri side, the
meeting is very likely to take place,” he said.
Oskanian also voiced disapproval at Azeri president Ilham Aliyev’s
decision to
not attend a CIS summit that took place Moscow on May 8, where he was expected
to meet with Kocharian. “Just a few days ahead of the Warsaw meeting, when
both
sides hold hopes for progress for the stalled talks, the Azeri leader’s
decision reveals Baku’s reluctance to move forward in regulating the
conflict,”
Oskanian said.

4) Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Officials in Armenia

YEREVAN (PanARMENIAN.Net)–Two rapporteurs from the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE) arrived in Armenia on Tuesday to hold a series of
meetings with foreign and local officials.
PACE Monitoring Committee Rapporteurs Jerzy Jaskiernia and Georges Colombier,
as well as Committee co-secretary Bonnie Theophilova-Permaul, will meet with
ambassadors of the EU countries to Armenia, the head of the OSCE Office in
Yerevan, as well as representatives of international and non-governmental
organizations, and representatives of national minorities of Armenia.
Meetings are also planned with President Robert Kocharian, Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian, Parliament Speaker Artur Baghdasarian, members of the
Temporary Commission for Integration into European Structures, the
parliamentary delegation to PACE, as well as Armenia’s prime minister, and
ministers of defense and justice.

5) Tragic Fate for Northern Cyprus Armenian Monastery

YEREVAN (Combined Sources)–Citing an April 17 story in Yeniduzen newspaper,
published in Northern Cyprus, the Armenian foreign ministry said the Armenian
Saint Makar monastery, which was previously turned into a cafe, will now
become
a hotel, according to its new owner Dervish Sonmezler.
Situated in the mountain range of Pentadaktylos and well-known for its
monastic order, the 10th century monastery is considered to be one of the
holiest shrines of the Armenian people.
Before the Turkish occupation of the Northern Cyprus, the monastery was
one of
the favorite destinations for local Armenians, but now inaccessible to
Christians. All manuscripts and other relics kept there were plundered and
sold. Further destruction of the monastery was prevented after intervention by
the Republic of Cyprus, the Armenian Church, and international organizations.
Following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and the occupation of 37 per
cent of its northern territory, the regime denied access to Armenians to the
monastery, now partly destroyed.
On April 27, 1998, the joint parliamentary committee Cyprus-European Union
protested to UNESCO a decision by the Turkish Cypriot regime to convert the
monastery in into a hotel.
In a letter addressed to UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor, Chairman of
the delegation to Parliamentary Committee, Philippe Monfils said the
conversion
of the Saint Makar monastery into a hotel alienates “an ancient Armenian
religious site from its spiritual purpose.”
Monfils said in his letter to Mayor, the conversion of Saint Makar into a
hotel “is a violation of the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural
Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the Declaration of the Principles
of International Cultural Cooperation, adopted by the General Conference of
UNESCO.”

6) Bush Calls Georgia ‘Beacon of Liberty’

TBILISI (Reuters)–President Bush on Tuesday saluted Georgia’s fledgling
democracy as a “beacon of liberty” and backed efforts by the ex-Soviet
republic
to regain sovereignty peacefully over two pro-Moscow separatist regions.
But during a 19-hour visit in which he was acclaimed by cheering crowds, Bush
significantly avoided open backing for his host, President Mikhail
Saakashvili,
in his demand for the speedy closure of two Russian bases on Georgia soil.
“The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy. But you will not travel it
alone,” Bush told at least 60,000 people at Freedom Square, focus of a “Rose
Revolution” that installed Saakashvili’s pro-Western government almost 18
months ago.
The crowd, squeezed into the square and flowing beyond it, responded
enthusiastically to the first visit by a sitting US president to the
mountainous Caucasus state.
Groups of people sat behind the podium wearing red, white and blue outfits to
form the US flag and the red-and-white Georgian banner as Bush recalled
Georgia’s long independence struggle that led to its “people’s power”
revolution.
“You gathered here armed with nothing but roses and the power of your
convictions, and you claimed your liberty. And because you acted, Georgia is
today both sovereign and free and a beacon of liberty for this region and the
world,” Bush said.
He said Washington encouraged Georgia’s closer cooperation with NATO,
something Russia finds uncomfortable for a country in its own backyard and
which it once ruled.
And, in what appeared to be a swipe at Kremlin support for the two rebel
Georgian regions, Bush said: “The territory and sovereignty of Georgia must be
respected by all nations.”
Saakashvili has made the return to Tbilisi’s control of separatist South
Ossetia and Abkhazia central to his government’s program to lift Georgia
out of
years of decline.
Introducing Bush, the US-educated Saakashvili hailed “the history of a small
but unbreakable nation’s fight for freedom” and thanked the United States for
standing up for Georgia.
The Caucasus is home to a string of local conflicts arising from the collapse
of the Soviet Union. Georgia borders Russia’s troubled Chechnya region and is
on the route for a US-backed pipeline linking Caspian Sea oilfields to world
markets.

“PHONE ANY TIME”

Bush told a joint news conference with Saakashvili the Georgian leader could
phone him any time to seek his help on the disputes but suggested he also work
with international bodies such as the United Nations to resolve the issue
peacefully.
“The (Georgian) president has put a way forward that encourages autonomy and
self government but does not encourage dividing up this great country. This
seems to me…to be a very reasonable proposition,” Bush said.
He said the disputes should be resolved between the Georgian government and
the
separatist regions. “The United States cannot impose a solution nor would you
want us to.”
At the news conference, Bush avoided support for Georgia in its dispute with
the Kremlin over the Russian bases on its soil, which Saakashvili has likened
to an occupation.
Bush said he had discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin,
who had replied that his government was working to fulfill its obligations
under an earlier agreement.
“I think…that is an important commitment for the people of Georgia to
hear,”
Bush said in remarks likely to disappoint Saakashvili.
Bush arrived in Georgia on a four-nation European tour that also took in
Latvia, the Netherlands and Russia, where on Monday he joined Putin and
over 50
other world leaders to mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi
Germany.

Saakashvili snubbed Moscow’s lavish World War II anniversary party in protest
over Russia’s failure to agree on withdrawal of its bases, which house some
3,000 troops.
In his speech in bright sunshine at Freedom Square, formerly known as Lenin
Square, Bush said Georgia’s freedom struggle had inspired peoples ranging from
Ukraine to Iraq and Kyrgyzstan.
The crowd reacted ecstatically, waving banners including “Mr. George W. Bush,
you can save Georgia.”
“It is great that the president of a superpower has come to visit us,” said
Nana Razmadze, a 54-year-old teacher. “We hope that things will get better for
us and we can move forward. I think that from now on the world will look on us
differently.”
“This is a visit that should go down in history,” said 46-year-old Merab
Getsadze. “It’s been 200 years since Georgia was visited by such a
high-ranking
person. We hope we will be able to solve a lot of problems after this visit,”
he said.

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