Author: Toganian Liana

EXPERTS SEEK REASONABLE SETTLEMENT FOR NAGORNO KARABAKH

Azg/arm
3 Feb 05

A round table at Yerevan hotel on February 1 gathered together
representatives of a new oppositional faction (Vazgen Manukian, Paruyr
Hayrikyan and Ashot Manucharian), political experts from Armenia and
NKR to discuss the present-day viewpoints on Nagorno Karabakh issue.

Both the political figures, and the political experts stated that the
inner processes of Armenia and NKR lead to the direction that can
threaten the security of the Armenian nation.

The meeting was directed to elaborating an objective policy on the
experts’ level. The participants of the meeting said that the
establishment of the control mechanism for the decisions made by the
official institutions concerning the inner policy. The publicities of
both Armenia and Artsakh should care about the establishment of this
mechanism.

The initiators of the round table stated that our “unprotected
national interests” are caused by the fact that “the political order
shaped in Armenia and the functions of the state bodies do not
correspond with the constitutional criteria. This factor creates the
atmosphere of preferences for some groups’ interests in conducting
home and foreign policy.”

According to Ashot Manucharian, the political field of Armenia
constantly lost potential in the course of the last ten years. Both
the nation and the political elite with the political experts are
withdrawn, leaving the political area to a small group of
people. “Meanwhile, quite contrary processes are fixed in the
world. The foreign policy is shaped by the whole potential of the
society.”

The political figures envisage to organize some other meetings with
the participation of the political experts, including NKR as
well. These meetings should contribute to making more concrete and
reasonable suggestions for achieving the settlement.

By Karine Danielian

Daily Pennsylvanian, PA
Feb 1, 2005

U.S. needs draw foreign nurses away
Students, faculty lend a hand in retaining medical professionals in
developing nations
By jennie wissner

While some students think that “brain drain” refers to the way they
feel after finals week, the term has a much more devastating meaning
for Penn Nursing doctoral student Lusine Poghosyan.
Although Poghosyan, an Armenian native, is currently studying in
Philadelphia, she will soon journey back to her home country, where
she will be the first nurse in Armenia with a Ph.D.

There, she hopes to improve health care and reverse the effects of
brain drain, which results from the efforts of developed countries,
like the United States, to combat their own nursing shortages by
recruiting nurses from developing countries. Many nations tapped for
nurses, such as Armenia, are crippled by the nursing brain drain
because they lack qualified staff.

“I’m so interested to be involved in reforms in nursing … to help
Armenia move forward,” Poghosyan said.

After graduating from Penn, Poghosyan will teach more advanced
nursing education programs than Armenia traditionally offers. She
also hopes to start an administrative career in health care to
strengthen her influence on the Armenian nursing community.

Her priority is “to go back, work and enjoy my life there. I’m
working towards meeting that goal,” she said.

“I care a lot about [Armenia] and the people in it, and that is where
I think I can be helpful. I have friends and family there, and that
is my place,” Poghosyan said.

Linda Aiken, a registered nurse and the director of the Center for
Health Outcomes and Policy Research, cited two causes for the brain
drain in developing countries.

One is that “developed countries like the U.S. are not producing as
many nurses as they need, and probably not using nurses effectively,”
Aiken said.

Secondly, she said that “nursing has been underdeveloped in many
parts of world.”

Several push-and-pull factors draw international students from their
home countries into the United States, perpetuating the global
nursing shortage.

According to Aiken, factors that drive people from their home
countries include a lack of jobs for existing nurses due to a poor
economy, a poorly resourced health care system and unsafe working
conditions.

Poghosyan said that there is a high rate of unemployment in Armenia.

She also added that Armenia conducts no nursing research and that no
nurses in Armenia attain respectable administrative positions.
Because many Armenian nurses receive only a minimal amount of
training, hospitals there lack quality healthcare.

According to Poghosyan, nurses in Armenia perform more technical and
menial tasks. Physicians, not nurses, handle family and patient
education, if they pay attention to it at all.

“I’d say this is not a positive effect,” Poghosyan said. “It’s not
fair that [nurses in Armenia] do not have a voice in their own work.”

Aiken said factors that draw nurses to the United States include high
salaries, higher standards of living, respect for professional
nurses, excellent health care and the opportunities to expand
education and training.

Salimah Meghani, a doctoral student in the Nursing School and a
Pakistani native, said that a nurse on average makes “$200 a month”
in her home country. The same job in the United States can earn a
nurse up to “$3,400 in one month,” Meghani said.

According to Aiken, one issue of high concern is the migration of
nurses from Africa to the United States, which has hindered the
progress of the fight against AIDS.

“The single biggest reason why we haven’t made more advances in AIDS
[in Africa] … has been because of shortage,” Aiken said.

In Botswana, for instance, AIDS victims could not receive
antiretroviral therapy due to a shortage of health personnel.

In order to balance the global health care work force, Aiken advised
that developed countries simultaneously step up their domestic supply
of nurses and invest in nursing education around the world.

“The U.S. is using nurses trained abroad because they don’t want to
invest money in training,” Aiken said. “Until [developed countries]
develop health research policies that enable them to train enough
doctors and nurses to meet their own needs, the shortage will never
be eliminated.”

Additionally, nations short on nurses need immediate relief from
countries like the United States.

Leaders in health care should “invest in education in [developing]
countries so they have a bigger infrastructure for education and
discover other ways … to retain nurses,” Aiken said.

Aiken also added that the United States should use its resources to
educate foreign nurses on its own soil and then encourage them to
return to their home countries.

Poghosyan, unlike many foreign nurses, has decided to return to her
home country. But what does she think about those who do not return?

“I can’t judge those people, because I used to work with people who
did not have jobs, Poghosyan said. “I know how hard it is.”

She also added that if health care systems fail to provide
employment, nurses have a right to find the best way to live.

As a solution, Poghosyan feels that all countries “should think about
the nurses in their own country and create an environment so these
people will develop themselves and their own careers.”

KurdistanObserver.com
Jan 30 2004

Crimes against Humanity

Remembering Holocaust and Denouncing Hatred at Museum of Tolerance,
Los Angeles, CA on January 30th, 2005

Sixty years ago, this week, on January 27, the Allied Forces
liberated Auschwitz and freed what was remained of millions of people
who were condemned to be annihilated for being of a different ethnic
background. The simple goodness of mankind, which creates the true
and miraculous spirit of liberty and freedom in humanity, delivered
the gift of liberation on the day of January 27, 1945 to the
survivors of the Holocaust.

But throughout the recent history, our humanity has witnessed other
acts of crimes that parallel Auschwitz in intention but only
differing in scale. Bombing of various refugee camps, Genocide of
Armenians, Pol Pot’s crimes in Cambodia, ethnic cleansing in Rwanda,
Sudan, and Bosnia, Killing of Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria
in general and chemical bombing of Halabja in particular, killing of
civilians in the world trade center, beheadings in Iraq,
suicide/homicide bombing in the world and particularly in Israel and
Iraq, and torture and abuse of political prisoners around the world
are just few examples. These acts are to be remembered as acts of
crimes against humanity, so the power of goodness in humanity
prevents their recurrences.

Since 1945 the Jewish community has much recovered but remained the
victim of hatred and anti-Semitism in various places of the world.
More tragic is that this community has remained in a chronic conflict
with its Semitic cousins over the rights of Palestinians. A major
obstacle has been terrorizing Jewish civilians by suicide/homicide
bombing in Israel and preventing Palestinians from fulfilling their
dreams of independence with peaceful means. Fortunately through the
efforts of peace activists, finally Palestinians elected a new leader
democratically to negotiate resolving the conflict via democratic and
peaceful means.

While Palestinians are making progress, Iraqis are becoming the
victims of criminal behaviors such as suicide/homicide bombings. Many
of us did not want the war in Iraq, but wished for the removal of
Saddam in a nonviolent way. Just because we couldn’t stop the war, it
does not mean we should stop working for peace and freedom to return
to that country. We hope this upcoming election would bring peace and
justice to that country and to the rest of the Middle East. We hope
that the Kurds like other ethnicities in the Middle East gain their
right of self determinations.

There are many difficulties and despairs to overcome, but as
liberation of Auschwitz has proven, we must not give up rejecting
crimes against humanity in all its violent forms including
suicide/homicide bombing of civilians in this remembrance day, so we
could create otherwise, what could be a better, more peaceful and a
secure world for the fellowship of mankind.

Board of Directors

Kurdish-American Education Society

Southern California

January 27, 2005

Rice faces a key test in visit to Turkey
By Brian Knowlton

International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, February 2, 2005

WASHINGTON Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Ankara this
weekend for talks likely to test her fence-mending talents as much as
will her stops in Paris and Berlin. The United States and Turkey are
still trying to recover from an unusually bitter pre-Iraq war
dispute. .

After a new Muslim-dominated government blocked an urgent Pentagon
request for access to Turkish territory that would have permitted a
northern push into Iraq, some Turks called the U.S. negotiators
arrogant and peremptory; the American side appeared taken aback by the
new Muslim power centers in a long-secular country..

The strains remain vivid, according to Turkish and American officials
as well as analysts at a conference here of the American Turkish
Council and the Atlantic Council..

And as Turkey opens talks in October on European Union membership,
U.S.-Turkish ties might face further strains..

“Turkish-EU relations are at an all-time best,” said Omer Taspinar,
director of the Turkey Program at the Brookings Institute, “while
trans-Atlantic relations are going through one of their worst
patches.” So even as the Bush administration cites Turkey as a model
of the Western-oriented Muslim democracy that President George W. Bush
wants for the region – he underscored this goal in his inaugural
speech and may repeat it Wednesday in his State of the Union address –
relations between the two countries remain raw..

How bad is Turkish public opinion toward the United States?.

A current best-selling thriller in Turkey is based on the premise that
strains over Iraq escalate into a major U.S. war on Turkey, said Soli
Ozel, a professor of international relations at Bilgi University in
Istanbul. The scenario seems absurd. But a June 2003 survey by the Pew
Research Center found that 71 percent of Turks worried that the United
States was a potential military threat..

The war changed opinion dramatically. The 2003 poll found that 83
percent of Turks viewed the United States unfavorably, up from 55
percent the previous year. And 82 percent of Turks expressed
disappointment that Iraqi forces had not fought harder against the
U.S. coalition..

“Turkey is on the receiving end of America’s grand designs in the
Middle East,” said Ozel, and as a neighbor of Iran, Iraq and Syria,
the Turks would like a voice on how those designs are carried out. .

The invasion of Iraq “simply has broken the back of U.S.-Turkish
relations,” Taspinar said. .

The containment of Iraq had been a cornerstone of America’s ties to
Turkey, a NATO partner, said Soner Cagaptay of the Washington
Institute. “It has been damaged.” A major unknown is how the situation
in Iraq, particularly northern Iraq, will evolve..

The administration hopes the unexpected success of the Iraqi elections
will give it a boost as Rice begins her trip Thursday. The elections
underscored “how important it is for all of us to encourage and
support those steps,” the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher,
said Monday..

But Turks have a series of worries..

Turkey is deeply concerned that the Kurds of northern Iraq,
strengthened by election results and with a decade’s experience of
near-autonomy, will declare independence, emboldening
separatist-minded Kurds in Turkey..

Turks believe that some in the Bush administration – including Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who led the failed access
negotiations – would not try to block an independent Kurdistan..

Many Turks say the U.S. failure to apprehend and turn over Iraq-based
Kurdish extremists of the PKK group reflects a double standard by an
administration that calls the war on terrorism a top priority. “The
PKK is the thorn in Turkey’s foot, and it needs to be taken out,”
Cagaptay said. “There’s no other way to move forward on U.S.-Turkish
relations.” .

Preston Hughes, a retired U.S. Army colonel and Turkey expert, said
that the U.S. approach on the PKK “has caused bitter frustration and
even anger at the highest levels” in Turkey..

Turks also worry about a Kurdish takeover of the northern Iraqi city
of Kirkuk, which controls great oil wealth. Taspinar went so far as to
suggest that Turkey might “go it alone in northern Iraq” if “there is
a civil war centered around Kirkuk between the Kurds, the Arabs and
the Turkmens.” Turks would also like reassurances about neighboring
Iran. “We are really waiting, biting our nails,” over the possibility
of a U.S. attack on suspected Iranian nuclear facilities, Ozel said..

What else would Turks like to hear from Rice? Clearly, analyst said,
an unequivocal assertion that the United States opposes an independent
Kurdistan and, above all, a concerted push for Israeli-Palestinian
peace. .

Taspinar’s advice: “Public diplomacy should not be seen as an
alternative to changes in policy.” .

Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, said that as EU
accession talks progress, a shift away from the United States might
widen. “Turkey’s imagination, its talent, is inevitably going to be
drawn toward Europe,” Parris said. .

While the United States and Europe may be vying for Turkish attention
and business, their hopes for Turkey largely coincide: Both want to
see it ensure the rights of ethnic Armenians and Kurds, of women and
of trade unions. And both want a resolution of the decades-old
controversy over divided Cyprus. .

As fence-mending proceeds, many Turks acknowledge that they, too, have
work to do. Cagaptay suggested that the government and elite needed to
work “to filter out the vast amount of anti-American talk” and to
counter widespread anti-American conspiracy theories..

See more of the world that matters – click here for home delivery of
the International Herald Tribune. .

< < Back to Start of Article

WASHINGTON Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Ankara this
weekend for talks likely to test her fence-mending talents as much as
will her stops in Paris and Berlin. The United States and Turkey are
still trying to recover from an unusually bitter pre-Iraq war
dispute. .

After a new Muslim-dominated government blocked an urgent Pentagon
request for access to Turkish territory that would have permitted a
northern push into Iraq, some Turks called the U.S. negotiators
arrogant and peremptory; the American side appeared taken aback by the
new Muslim power centers in a long-secular country..

The strains remain vivid, according to Turkish and American officials
as well as analysts at a conference here of the American Turkish
Council and the Atlantic Council..

And as Turkey opens talks in October on European Union membership,
U.S.-Turkish ties might face further strains..

“Turkish-EU relations are at an all-time best,” said Omer Taspinar,
director of the Turkey Program at the Brookings Institute, “while
trans-Atlantic relations are going through one of their worst
patches.” So even as the Bush administration cites Turkey as a model
of the Western-oriented Muslim democracy that President George W. Bush
wants for the region – he underscored this goal in his inaugural
speech and may repeat it Wednesday in his State of the Union address –
relations between the two countries remain raw..

How bad is Turkish public opinion toward the United States?.

A current best-selling thriller in Turkey is based on the premise that
strains over Iraq escalate into a major U.S. war on Turkey, said Soli
Ozel, a professor of international relations at Bilgi University in
Istanbul. The scenario seems absurd. But a June 2003 survey by the Pew
Research Center found that 71 percent of Turks worried that the United
States was a potential military threat..

The war changed opinion dramatically. The 2003 poll found that 83
percent of Turks viewed the United States unfavorably, up from 55
percent the previous year. And 82 percent of Turks expressed
disappointment that Iraqi forces had not fought harder against the
U.S. coalition..

“Turkey is on the receiving end of America’s grand designs in the
Middle East,” said Ozel, and as a neighbor of Iran, Iraq and Syria,
the Turks would like a voice on how those designs are carried out. .

The invasion of Iraq “simply has broken the back of U.S.-Turkish
relations,” Taspinar said. .

The containment of Iraq had been a cornerstone of America’s ties to
Turkey, a NATO partner, said Soner Cagaptay of the Washington
Institute. “It has been damaged.” A major unknown is how the situation
in Iraq, particularly northern Iraq, will evolve..

The administration hopes the unexpected success of the Iraqi elections
will give it a boost as Rice begins her trip Thursday. The elections
underscored “how important it is for all of us to encourage and
support those steps,” the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher,
said Monday..

But Turks have a series of worries..

Turkey is deeply concerned that the Kurds of northern Iraq,
strengthened by election results and with a decade’s experience of
near-autonomy, will declare independence, emboldening
separatist-minded Kurds in Turkey..

Turks believe that some in the Bush administration – including Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who led the failed access
negotiations – would not try to block an independent Kurdistan..

Many Turks say the U.S. failure to apprehend and turn over Iraq-based
Kurdish extremists of the PKK group reflects a double standard by an
administration that calls the war on terrorism a top priority. “The
PKK is the thorn in Turkey’s foot, and it needs to be taken out,”
Cagaptay said. “There’s no other way to move forward on U.S.-Turkish
relations.” .

Preston Hughes, a retired U.S. Army colonel and Turkey expert, said
that the U.S. approach on the PKK “has caused bitter frustration and
even anger at the highest levels” in Turkey..

Turks also worry about a Kurdish takeover of the northern Iraqi city
of Kirkuk, which controls great oil wealth. Taspinar went so far as to
suggest that Turkey might “go it alone in northern Iraq” if “there is
a civil war centered around Kirkuk between the Kurds, the Arabs and
the Turkmens.” Turks would also like reassurances about neighboring
Iran. “We are really waiting, biting our nails,” over the possibility
of a U.S. attack on suspected Iranian nuclear facilities, Ozel said..

What else would Turks like to hear from Rice? Clearly, analyst said,
an unequivocal assertion that the United States opposes an independent
Kurdistan and, above all, a concerted push for Israeli-Palestinian
peace. .

Taspinar’s advice: “Public diplomacy should not be seen as an
alternative to changes in policy.” .

Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, said that as EU
accession talks progress, a shift away from the United States might
widen. “Turkey’s imagination, its talent, is inevitably going to be
drawn toward Europe,” Parris said. .

While the United States and Europe may be vying for Turkish attention
and business, their hopes for Turkey largely coincide: Both want to
see it ensure the rights of ethnic Armenians and Kurds, of women and
of trade unions. And both want a resolution of the decades-old
controversy over divided Cyprus. .

As fence-mending proceeds, many Turks acknowledge that they, too, have
work to do. Cagaptay suggested that the government and elite needed to
work “to filter out the vast amount of anti-American talk” and to
counter widespread anti-American conspiracy theories..

ANSA English Media Service
January 25, 2005

IRAN-AZERBAIJAN: ALIYEV VISIT MARKS NEW AGE IN RELATIONS

TEHRAN

By Alberto Zanconato

(ANSA) – TEHRAN, January 25 – Iran and Azerbaijan, both
oil-rich Shiite countries on the Caspian Sea but divided by
contrasts in interests were trying to turn a new page in their
relations as Azeri President Ilham Aliyev visited Iran on Tuesday.

Tehran and Baku should remain side by side, Supreme Leader of
the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Aliyev on
receiving him in Tehran.

Aliyev is on a state visit to the Islamic Republic only five
months after Iranian President Mohammad Khatami visited
Azerbaijan.

The bilateral relations were strained for several years, both
for the support which Tehran gave Armenia in the war for Nagorno
Karabakh, an enclave of Armenian majority in Azeri territory,
and for the division of the waters in the Caspian Sea, 13 years
after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

The problem on the partition of the oil and gas deposits in
that basin brought the two countries on the brink of an armed
conflict four years ago when an Iranian military unit intervened
to block drilling by the Azeris in a contested sea territory.

“All the problems, including the one on the Caspian Sea, can
be resolved in a amicable way,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

He warned Azerbaijan to beware of efforts of foreigners to
ruin the bilateral relations. That was a reference first of all
to the United States but also to Israel with which Baku has good
relations.

Azerbaijan keeps good relations also with Britain given the
fact that oil giant BP will lead the consortium of companies
which will exploit the Azeri oil. That deal should bring in the
next few years up to $90 billion to the country of eight million
which went out devastated from the disintegration of the USSR
and the war for Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia.

It is exactly on the Nagorno Karabakh issue that the
bilateral relations could make a decisive improvement.

Receiving his guest, Khatami used hard words to defend Baku’s
right to regain control of that enclave where more than 10 years
ago the Armenian majority proclaimed an “independent republic”
which no one has internationally recognised.

Answering a question of an Azeri journalist who compared the
Armenian occupation of Nagorno Karabakh with the Israeli
occupation of the Palestinian Territories, Khatami said there
were obvious differences but the occupation of only one
centrimetre from other’s territory should be condemned and the
international community should help put an end to the occupation.

That statement was a decisive step ahead after Baku had
accused Tehran for years of having lined up with a Christian
country in a conflict against a Muslim Shiite nation which cost
Azerbaijan at least 30,000 deaths and one million refugees who
moved to other parts of the country.

The war and the fall of the USSR made the Azeri gross
domestic product (GDP) fall by 60 percent between 1990 and 1995.

Aliyev thanked the Iranian authorities but also underlined
the complexity of the issue when he wished peace and stability
would return to the region but only after the rights of the
Azeri people will be recognised.

Azerbaijan has still to settle the issue on the Caspian Sea
with Iran which has not recognised the agreements between
Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan to which Turkmenistan could
also join.

Tehran was further annoyed by Azerbaijan’s decision to export
crude oil via a pipeline for $3 billion which will run through
Georgia and arrive at Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. That project
which has to start operation next summer excluded Iran as a
possible route for Azerbaijan’s oil sales abroad. (ANSA).

BULGARIA ADVOCATES PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT

YEREVAN, JANUARY 25. ARMINFO,. Bulgaria advocates peaceful settlement
of the Karabakh conflict, Bulgarian MP Remzi Osman said during the
Monday meeting of Bulgarian and Azeri MPs.

Bulgaria advocates peaceful settlement of all conflicts including the
Karabakh one. “We pray that this conflict be settled by our next
meeting,” Osman said.

The member of the Azeri-Bulgarian parliamentary friendship group Elman
Mamedov urged the Bulgarian MPs to take up a fair position on the
issue. “I don’t say that Bulgaria should support Azerbaijan in he
settlement but your country should assume a fair position on the issue
which will contribute to its early resolutions.”

Mamedov reminded the Bulgarian MPs that the UN has made 4 resolutions
on the issue which “the Armenian side ignores.” “The UN in its turn
closes its eyes on this negligence. This is inadmissible.”

“OUR HOUSE” FOURTH NATIONAL EXHIBITION TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN IN FEBRUARY

YEREVAN, January 21 (Noyan Tapan). “Our House” fourth national
exhibition will be held in Yerevan from February 25-27. According to
the “Expomedia” organization, the organizer of the exhibition, over 40
companies of Armenia and foreign countries will participate in the
exhibition. Building materials, samples of design and interior will be
presented at the exhibition. The purpose of the exhibition organized
with the support of the Yerevan Mayor’s Office, the RA Ministry of
Urban Development and the RA Chamber of Commerce and Industry is to
help the potential client to make right choice, inform the specialists
about new building materials and achievements, contribute to the
carrying out of joint projects. According to “Expomedia”, each visitor
has an opportunity to vote and choose the best company on three
nominations. All the participants will receive official diplomas, and
winners will receive prizes during the closing of the exhibition.

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say. Part A (Russia)
January 17, 2005, Monday

DIPLOMACY WITH THE BRAKES OFF

SOURCE: Newsweek Russia, No. 1, January 2005, pp. 28-32

by Alexander Baunov

All the diplomats we approached for comments agree that Russia’s
foreign policy has become less diplomatic over the past year; and
this change was not prompted by the Foreign Ministry or the new
minister, Sergei Lavrov, though he has a reputation for being bold
and decisive. Its origins should be sought higher: there are plenty
of bold people in the Kremlin too.

Diplomats name three reasons behind the Kremlin’s change of attitude.
Firstly, the state’s economic position has grown stronger.

Andrei Kozyrev, former foreign minister: “These days, foreign policy
is backed by an unprecedented sense of a strong financial position.
In my day, we were working in an entirely different situation. Of
course, the IMF didn’t dictate terms directly, but the borrowing
situation did have an impact.”

Russia’s Stabilization Fund, which already contains almost $20
billion, is viewed in the European Union as a foreign policy tool. A
European Commission official in Moscow shared these concerns: “All
Russia has to do is drop a hint about how it wishes to invest part of
this money – and it can cause a shift in global markets.”

The second reason is that although the West is “drawing closer” all
the time, physical proximity still isn’t translating into real
warmth. One career diplomat told us: “Having made substantial
concessions to the West on several occasions, we formed the
impression that we are entitled to some compensation: we refrained
from raising obstacles for them, and now we can do something for our
own benefit.” The number of concessions made to the Americans was
particularly high, from the “temporary” US military bases in Central
Asia to the UN resolution permitting a temporary occupation of Iraq.

Russia also made some concessions to Europe, agreeing to accept EU
expansion without extra compensation and ratify the Kyoto Protocol,
which was ineffective without Russia’s participation. In exchange we
got Europe’s permission to join the World Trade Organization, an
increase in metals export quotas, and some other pleasant trifles.
But since then, according to diplomats, relations with the European
Union have been deteriorating to the point of collapse: neither side
expected such a clash over Ukraine.

Yet everything was heading in that direction. One diplomat told us:
“In private meetings, this is how they talk to us: you’re a civilized
country, and we are civilized countries, but we’re surrounded by some
kind of savage tribes – the Trans-Dniester region, Nagorno-Karabakh,
Abkhazia, and so on – so let’s get together like cultured people and
regulate all of that. But it’s perfectly obvious to us that all they
want to do is gain access to our territory, while not allowing us any
access to their conflict zones.”

Many decision-makers in Russia grew bold enough to assume that the
West would now permit Russia to do something for its own benefit. So
when the West didn’t permit this after all, the Kremlin’s annoyance
knew no bounds. The European Union bore the brunt of it. The
embarrassed Greeks, for example, had to listen nervously to President
Putin’s words: “We have normal visa procedures with Turkey, and I’ve
used them myself: I got my passport stamped at the airport, and was
able to enter the country. But it’s extremely difficult to enter
Greece.” The Greeks didn’t like these words; until now, Russia had
spoken to them more diplomatically, avoiding any direct comparisons
with Turkey, their age-old enemy.

At his December press conference, Putin was entirely unrestrained.
Never before had he answered foreign policy questions in such
forthright, undiplomatic language. According to him, the leadership
of Georgia is in the pay of George Soros; and he accused the United
States of seeking to gain power “over equals.”

The third reason concerns Russia’s successful foreign policy
exercises in Asia. The Foreign Ministry views the “all-inclusive
regulation of relations with China” as its major diplomatic
achievement for 2004. Relations with China had appeared to be
irreparably damaged by the drawn-out negotiations over building a
huge oil pipeline from the promising oil-fields of Eastern Siberia.
Last spring, when rumors spread that the Siberian pipeline would run
to the port of Nakhodka, at Japan’s request, rather than to China,
the usually-dull pages of Chinese newspapers were suddenly swept with
more grievances against Russia than at any time since Khrushchev
recalled our specialists from China in the late 1950s.

Yet there was a fairy-tale ending to all this: China received some
islands on the Amur River, and the right to send 500,000
guest-workers into Russia, and a border treaty which had been
disputed for a century, and two dozen other long-term agreements. And
the West is now being given some undiplomatic hints to the effect
that Russia has a special relationship with China. That means a lot,
these days. Russia’s relations with India are also good; the new
Indian government is prepared to cooperate with us, just as the old
government was.

The Kremlin is also seeking access to some new “Asian markets.” It
has attempted to repeat the successful “China scenario” in relations
with Japan, by once again offering Japan half of the disputed South
Kurile Islands. The Japanese refused. When asked if this is an
embarrassment, a Foreign Ministry official replied: “Everything will
remain as it is: trade continues, we have the islands, and we have
the pipeline to be built to Nakhodka. It’s the Japanese who need to
think things over.”

For the Kremlin, 2004 ended on a positive note. German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder “forgave” Putin following Russia’s quarrel with the
European Union over Ukraine. None of the US State Department’s
comments about Ukraine and the YUKOS affair disrupted the friendship
between Schroeder and Putin.

Finally, the heroes of another of the Kremlin’s “special operations”
returned to Russia from a prison in Qatar: the two agents who killed
Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. Now, according to diplomats, Russia can demand
compensation from the West again; or at least ask the West to stop
interfering with Russia’s actions within the CIS.

Translated by Pavel Pushkin

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Jan 13 2005

ARMENIANS FEAR FOR THEIR RIVER

The pollution of the River Debed is causing manifold problems in
northern Armenia.

By Anush Sarkisian in Vanadzor

On rainy days the waters of the river flowing through the town of
Vanadzor are a jumble of murk and dirt. Even when the sun is shines,
the river looks dirty and its foamy waters throw plastic bottles and
other objects onto the bank.

The River Debed, one of Armenia’s longest rivers, runs through
northern Armenia into Georgia. Three of its tributaries flow through
Vanadzor, the third largest city in the country and one of its main
industrial centres. And many locals are worried that the pollution of
the Debed is threatening the future of their region.

“Seventy five per cent of Armenia’s water resources flow out of the
country,” Vartan Malakian, an environmental expert with the government
of the surrounding Lori region. “What’s happening to this river is a
catastrophe. The Debed is a mirror of the region and its economy, and

shows how much the people of Lori care about standards of industry and
everyday health.”

Malakian is also a member of the newly formed Public Committee for the
Debed River Basin, which is seeking to highlight the problems of the
river. Everything in the region revolves around the river he says,
pointing out, “The Debed has been the principal source of life for the
region for decades, providing water supply, irrigation, fish and
drinking water.”

Edik Ovsepian, the regional government press spokesman, warned that
the poor state of the river was hindering economic growth and
construction projects and discouraging tourism. He pointed out that
this was not a new problem but a legacy of Soviet heavy industry.

Yet Garnik Tumanian, 47, a construction worker from Vanadzor, said
things have been getting worse not better. “I grew up in the village
of Dsekh on the Debed,” he said. “All my childhood memories are
associated with fishing, picking blackberries and Cornel cherries in
the woods by the river. But in recent years, whenever I take my family
to the country, I wouldn’t let the kids go near the water.

“There is all sorts of pollution in it. Locals have always dumped
their rubbish [there], but recently a lot of new recreation spots and

restaurants have been built on the banks. Sometimes restaurateurs
build their toilets right on the river.”

Pollution from a number of factories is already having deleterious
health effects, says Karine Mirzoyan, head of the local hygiene and
epidemiology inspectorate. People who bathed in the rivers in summer
were suffering ill effects and in Alaverdi the ACP factory was
emitting dangerous levels of sulphur into the atmosphere, much of
which ended up in the river.

“This of course can be stimulate diseases of the respiratory tracts,”

said Mirzoyan. “To some extent this is why Alaverdi has the highest
rate of TB in the Lori region.”

A number of environmental organisations have been raising the alarm.
Two years ago, shoals of dead fish were spotted at the point where the
rivers Dzoraget and Pambak merge. There was no official explanation,
but environmentalists concluded that the fish had perished as a result
of the Vanadzor-based Prometei Khimprom chemicals factory dumping raw
waste into the river.

Prometei Khimprom was one of Armenia’s largest industrial complexes in
Soviet times and a prime polluter in the region, and its ownership

has changed hands many times since then.

“What actually happened was that the most recent owner, a Moscow-based
businessman named Senik Gevorgian, tried to start ammonia production
at the factory,” explained Artur Sakunts, a chemist and chairman of
the Vanadzor Helsinki Assembly human rights group. “Due to lack of
controls, the factory produced more ammonium than it could safely
store, while emitting poisonous gasses and dumping raw chemicals in
the river.”

Sakunts also said no privatisation agreements have ever mentioned the

pollution issue, so no one can be held responsible.

An employee of the factory who declined to be named denied that the
factory had dumped ammonium, while government spokesman Ovsepian said

he hoped the new owners of the factory would help finance the cleanup

of the river.

Rafik Kazinian, head of the Alaverdi Green Union and former parliament
deputy, is sceptical about these promises. He himself has personal
experience of the state of the Debed.

About ten years ago, Kazinian arranged for 15 truckloads of minnows to
be released into the Debed. “We had hope to revitalise the fish
population in seven to eight years, but instead the fish had all been

killed by poisonous emissions,” he said. “No fish can live in a river

that has been turned into a sewer.”

So far there has been only one initiative aimed at cleaning up the
river, a short-lived programme administered by the US company
Development Alternatives Inc. or DAI. The programme resulted in the
formation of the public council that now has the right to inspect
industrial facilities.

Local experts say the scale of the problem is much wider. “Can you
imagine a whole city without rubbish bins,” said Suren Eritsian,
managing director of Blagoustroistvo Alaverdi, the local waste
disposal company. “Where were the locals supposed to dispose of their
rubbish?

The river, of course. The problem is now being solved. A designated
municipal dumping site has been assigned eight kilometres from
Alaverdi, where the garbage is buried in the ground.”

But Eritsian said the city needs millions of dollars in investment
before its problems are solved, “We need new waste treatment
facilities on the river; we need to replace our decrepit sewers,
rebuild the water supply system, and set up waste disposal facilities
in the villages. Major polluters, such as industrial enterprises, must
build their own environmental systems. No one has been held
responsible for what is going on.”

As the solutions for these manifold problems all depends on money,
hopes are now being pinned on the US government’s Millennium Challenge
programme. The Armenian government is hoping to receive up to 900
million dollars from the initiative, much of which would be channelled
into water and environmental projects.

Anush Sarkisian is deputy editor of the Loru Marz newspaper in
Vanadzor.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
01/13/2005
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1) Public Organizations Appeal to Guarantee Rights of Azerbaijan’s Armenians
2) Armenian, Russian Relations Remains Priority for Both Countries
3) US-Armenia Parliamentary Group Meets with German Marshall Funds’ Delegation
4) New Abkhazia President Pledges Close Moscow Ties
5) Hamazkayin to Mark 1600th Anniversary of Armenian Alphabet

1) Public Organizations Appeal to Guarantee Rights of Azerbaijan’s Armenians

Marking the 15th anniversary of massacre of Armenians in Baku, Azerbaijan, a
line of public organizations appealed to citizens, as well as to the
government
of Armenia, on Thursday, to do their utmost to guarantee the safety and the
rights of those Armenians still living in Azerbaijan.
Recalling the barbarity of 1990 pogroms against Armenians in Baku, Armenia’s
Policy Research Academy, the Shahumian, Ketashen Compatriotic Union, the
Center
for Advancement of a Civil Community, among other organizations state that the
plight of Azerbaijan’s Armenians–the Azeri government’s policy of
repression–has not properly been introduced to the international community in
the fifteen years since those massacres.
They call on Armenian intellectuals, government forces, non-governmental
organizations, and political forces to work together to unite efforts, and do
guarantee the human rights of Armenians still living in Azerbaijan.
In November and December 1988, a wave of Armenian pogroms swept Azerbaijan.
The worst took place in Baku, Kirovabad (Ganja), Shemakh, Shamkhor,
Mingechaur,
and Nakhichevan. The Soviet press described how, in Kirovabad, perpetrators
broke in a hospice for the elderly, captured and subsequently killed 12 old
Armenian men and women, including several disabled ones. In the winter of
1988,
all Armenians were deported from dozens of Armenian villages in Azerbaijan.
The
same fate befell more than 40 Armenian settlements in the northern part of
Karabagh–outside the borders of the autonomous region which was demanding
self–determination–including the mountainous regions of Khanlar, Dashkesan,
Shamkhor, and Kedabek provinces. The 40,000 Armenians of Azerbaijan’s third
largest city, Ganja, were also forcibly removed from their homes. When it was
over, there were less than 50,000 Armenians left in Baku, out of a total
population of 215,000.
Throughout 1989, sporadic attacks, beatings, looting, and massacres in Baku
reduced that number to 30,000–mostly the elderly who could not leave Baku. By
early January 1990, Armenian pogroms in Baku intensified and became more
organized. On January 13, a 50,000-strong crowd left a rally, broke into
groups, and started methodically, house by house, ‘cleansing’ the city of its
Armenians. Pogroms continued until January 15. The total number of casualties
during the first three days amounted to 33 people. The Soviet press had daily
reports of indescribable horror–dissecting bodies, ripping open the abdomens
of pregnant women, burning people alive–with a daily tally of murders in full
view of the authorities.
Russia’s Soyuz magazine reported that one man was literally torn apart, and
his remains thrown in a garbage container. According to various sources,
several hundred Armenians were killed. The remainder, mostly older Armenians,
were forcibly removed–with many dying during and after deportation. Pogroms
continued until January 20 when army troops were brought to Baku. By then, the
city was fully ‘liberated’ from ‘Armenian elements’ except for a couple of
hundred Armenians in mixed-marriages. During the military conflict over
Karabagh, the latter were literally ‘fished out’ for exchange with Azeri POWs.

2) Armenian, Russian Relations Remains Priority for Both Countries

Russian DM says Armenia remains Moscow’s key ally in the region

WASHINGTON, DC (Combined Sources)–Russian defense minister Sergey Ivanov
affirmed that Armenia remains Russia’s key ally in the South Caucasus.
Ivanov, who is in Washington, DC meeting with US Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, said during a news conference, “Armenia is home to a big Russian
military base and we have very close economic and cultural ties with Armenia,”
adding that Russia and Armenia are members of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO).
Concerning Russia’s relations with Armenia in the context of Kremlin’s
growing
ties with Turkey, Ivanov said Armenia is a sovereign state and decides its
foreign policy priorities independently.
In Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian’s 2004 Armenian foreign policy report,
meanwhile, the development and strengthening of relations with the Russian
Federation remained a priority as well.
The document noted that Russia and Armenia continued to develop and expand
bilateral cooperation in all areas including military-technical, economic, and
humanitarian efforts, as well as within the framework of the Commonwealth
Independent States (CIS) and CSTO.
It also highlights official visits by state representatives from both
countries, including President Robert Kocharian’s trip to Russia, and the
Russian State Duma and Federation Council chairmen Sergei Mironov and Boris
Gryzlov’s visit to Armenia.
The foreign policy report also states that issues of military-technical
cooperation between the two countries were discussed during Ivanov’s visit to
Armenia, as well as during the first meeting of the Russian-Armenian
intergovernmental committee on military-technical cooperation held in
September
2004.
In an effort to expand economic cooperation between the two countries, the
Armenian-Russian Business Association was created, and currently has 100
members.
A railroad ferry between the ports of Poti (Georgia) and Kavkaz (Russia) will
play an important role in the increase of trade turnover between Armenia and
Russia. The implementation of this project will significantly decrease the
cost
of transportation.

3) US-Armenia Parliamentary Group Meets with German Marshall Funds’ Delegation

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–The US-Armenia Parliamentary Group met on Wednesday with
a delegation of US congressmen and representatives of the German Marshall Fund
(GMF), who are in Armenia on a fact-finding visit.
Greeting the guests, head of the US-Armenia parliamentary group Levon
Mkrtchian, praised the work of the Marshall Fund, as well as underscored the
development of inter-parliamentary ties.
During the meeting, regional issues and Armenia’s foreign policy were
discussed.
The German Marshall Fund of the United States is an American public policy
and
grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and
understanding between the United States and Europe.
GMF does this by supporting individuals and institutions working on
transatlantic issues, by convening leaders to discuss the most pressing
transatlantic themes, and by examining ways in which transatlantic cooperation
can address a variety of global policy challenges.
Founded in 1972 through a gift from Germany as a permanent memorial to
Marshall Plan assistance, GMF maintains a strong presence on both sides of the
Atlantic.

4) New Abkhazia President Pledges Close Moscow Ties

SUKHUMI (Reuters)–The winner of Moscow-backed elections in the rebel Georgian
region of Abkhazia pledged close ties with Russia on Thursday and refused any
deal that would return sovereignty to Tbilisi.
Soon after official results of the re-run on Thursday declared him the new
president, Sergei Bagapsh told a news conference, “Foreign policy will only be
directed towards integration with Russia.”
Russia called instead for talks between Abkhazia and Tbilisi now that the
political turmoil that followed the original disputed poll in October had
ended.
“We have always emphasized that the sooner the situation was regulated, the
sooner conditions could be created for talks between Tbilisi and Sukhumi on
Georgia-Abkhazia regulation,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “I
believe that now the issue has apparently been concluded, it will be possible
to renew such talks.”
Georgia, a Caucasus state whose democratic revolution in 2003 inspired
Ukraine’s recent election of a pro-Western leader, accuses Russia of meddling
in its internal affairs by backing Abkhazia’s separatist government.
The dispute is a major hurdle to friendly relations between the two ex-Soviet
neighbors.
Official results gave the former businessman a landslide win. His victory in
the October poll was disputed by local officials, who favored his
Moscow-backed
rival Raul Khadzhimba.

DEADLOCK

The disputed poll caused months of political deadlock which ended only when
Russia forced a resolution by closing the border, Abkhazia’s only land
route to
the outside world. Bagapsh then agreed Khadzhimba could run as his deputy.
“Sergei Bagapsh, standing for the post of president, won 90.1 percent of
votes
from voters taking part. His opponent won 4.5 percent,” said Batal Tabagua,
election commission head.
Abkhazia won effective independence from Georgia in a 1992-93 war, but its
economy is still devastated. Once-grand buildings in the capital Sukhumi are
pitted with bullet holes and stand open to the sky.
Russia props up the economy by paying pensions, giving out passports and
allowing cross-border traffic.
Georgia, home to 200,000 ethnic Georgian refugees who fled the war, has
pledged to regain control over Abkhazia, as well as over another rebel region,
South Ossetia.
But Bagapsh said he would not compromise to improve frozen relations with
Tbilisi.
“Abkhazia will hold dialogue with Georgia mediated by Russia and the United
Nations only on an equal basis,” he said.

5) Hamazkayin to Mark 1600th Anniversary of Armenian Alphabet

LOS ANGELES–In a press release issued on Wednesday, the Hamazkayin Cultural
Organization’s regional executives of the United States and Canada announced
that they are planning a series of joint events to mark the 1600th anniversary
of the founding of the Armenian alphabet.
“During 2005, Armenian communities around the world will mark the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide, and the 1600th anniversary of the
Armenian alphabet–both of which have great political and cultural
significance
to the Armenian people. While the recognition of the Armenian genocide sits at
the forefront of issues advanced by Armenians in Armenia and throughout the
diaspora, the Armenian alphabet symbolizes the essence of Armenian culture,”
noted the organization’s statement.
Asbarez will keep the community posted about Hamazkayin’s upcoming events.

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