Mother See Saddened to Announce Death of Deacon Zorik Abeshian

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
November 2, 2004

Mother See Saddened to Announce Death of Deacon Zorik Abeshian

On October 31, His Grace Bishop Movses Movsisian, Primate of the Armenian
Diocese of Southern Russia, informed the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of
the murder of Deacon Zorik Abeshian. Deacon Zorik, who served in Saint
Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia
(Russian Federation), had disappeared en route to church earlier last month.

Law enforcement authorities found the dismembered body of Deacon Zorik on
October 31, at the edge of the Vladikavkaz-Alagir highway.

Condemning this heinous crime, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch
and Catholicos of All Armenians, and the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin
invite the faithful flock to offer solemn prayers to God for the eternal
rest of Deacon Zorik Abeshian, and that the soul of this devout servant of
the Armenian Church may be in peace.

We offer our deep condolences to the family and friends of Deacon Zorik, as
well as to the Armenian community of Vladikavkaz. May the Holy Spirit grant
them comfort and solace at this difficult time.

Stars, Sex and Gimmickry

Los Angeles Times
October 31, 2004 Sunday
Home Edition

VOTING;
Stars, Sex and Gimmickry;
Vampire slayers, strippers, lowriders want to lure you into the booth

by Ben Wasserstein, Ben Wasserstein is a writer in New York.

Last week, Ashton Kutcher took a break from canoodling with Demi Moore
to appear with Sen. John Edwards in Iowa and Minnesota. Each time the
“Dude, Where’s My Car?” dude charged President Bush with punking the
citizenry, receptive crowds reportedly shouted back, “True dat!”

Meanwhile, Bad Boy rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ understated “Vote or
Die!” slogan echoes through the battleground states he’s been touring.
“If you talking about flexing your power, and you ain’t flexing in the
swing states, then you ain’t flexing your power,” he told Associated
Press.

Reluctant voters have nowhere to hide these days, as Bruce
Springsteen’s “Vote for Change” tour prods them, the country musicians
of “Your Country, Your Vote” spur them and less-heralded acts use every
manner of crackpot stunt to wheedle relentlessly.

This summer’s “Just Vote” tour, for example, was powered not by
baby-boom rockers but vegetable oil, as Bay Area bands Aphrodesia and
Rock Me Pony chased down unregistered slackers in a van fueled by used
corn and soybean grease. The Armenian National Committee of America’s
pro-John Kerry tour seeks to wring votes from people with names ending
in “ian.” In the swing state of New Mexico — which George W. Bush lost
in 2000 by only 366 votes — caravans of “lowriders” will accompany
coveted Latino voters to the polls. And in Florida, transvestites have
launched a “Drag Out the Vote” campaign.

Many organizations are exporting people and ideas from solidly red or
blue states into those of a less-certain shade. For example, the
Downtown for Democracy political action committee, or D4D, is sending
hip, young New Yorkers by van to Ohio, disseminating “free designer
T-shirts, free drinks, political art and music.” New York magazine
summarized the pros and cons of D4D’s approach: “Advantages: Free
designer T-shirts, free drinks. Disadvantages: Political art and
music.”

Democrats and Republicans kicked more traditional get-out-the-vote
efforts into overdrive after the too-close vote of 2000. But if the
election is decided by a narrow margin, the media’s post-victory
spotlights are not likely to fall on the church, club and union
stalwarts who nag door-to-door or by phone bank.

Credit will more likely go to fans of the much-missed TV show “Buffy
the Vampire Slayer” who rallied voters and raised money for Kerry at a
multi-venue event they called “High Stakes” — the stake being Buffy’s
bloodsucker-killing weapon of choice.

Donald P. Green, director of Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy
Studies and coauthor with Alan S. Gerber of “Get Out the Vote: How to
Increase Voter Turnout,” says that face-to-face interactions are the
key to pumping up poll attendance. “I don’t know that making a
spectacle of it gets people to participate,” he said.

Such thinking has not deflated vote wranglers’ enthusiasm for sex and
celebrity tactics. Leonardo Di Caprio, who plays billionaire Howard
Hughes in an upcoming film, joins Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas in
trying to guilt voters to the polls as part of MTV’s “Rock the Vote.”
Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ,” is doing
the same for the evangelical “Redeem the Vote” effort. Singer Sheryl
Crow is fronting for the feminist “Get Our Her Vote.” And P. Diddy and
Ted Nugent are getting out votes for, well, the Burger King Corp. —
Slogan: “Have it your way Nov. 2.”

The “Baring Witness” campaign encourages men and women to spell out
pro-voting messages with their naked bodies. Strip clubs nationwide
have asked patrons to avert their eyes long enough to register. And the
group Votergasm encourages people to withhold sex from nonvoters for a
week after the election.

When vote encouragement becomes so frenzied, illegal tactics inevitably
come to light. And it is inevitable that fingers point to Michael
Moore. In a tour of Michigan colleges, the filmmaker offered gifts of
clean underwear and ramen noodles in exchange for promises to vote.
Because it is illegal to pay people to vote in a federal election, the
Michigan GOP urged authorities to take Moore down. A local prosecutor
demurred, suggesting her time would be better spent “prosecuting those
who are delivering cocaine to our young people rather than underwear.”

Not that a crack-for-votes campaign is out of the question. An Ohio
sheriff has reported that an NAACP National Voter Fund worker admitted
that she paid a 22-year-old in crack cocaine for the 130 completed
voter forms he supplied. Those forms came to the sheriff’s attention
because many sported false addresses and the names of Mary Poppins,
Brett Favre, Jeffrey Dahmer, Dick Tracy and other people who do not
reside in Toledo.

So there it is. By hook or by crook, more voters than usual will
probably turn up this year. Harder to gauge: How many were lured by
lowriders, how many by lite rockers, how many by lap dancers and, in
places like Toledo, how many actually exist.

BAKU: Armenian President Fails to Elaborate After ‘Time-Out’

Armenian President Fails to Elaborate After ‘Time-Out’

Assa Irada, Azerbaijan
27 Oct. 2004

Armenian President Robert Kocharian, who requested some time at the
Astana meeting of the Azeri and Armenian leaders to clarify certain
issues, has not spoken out on the issue yet, according to Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

“The time-out taken by the Armenian party in Astana has expired”,
the Minister said.

The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan has already notified the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs about this. Kocharian’s failure to elaborate
on the matter has also led to the postponement of the meeting of the
two countries’ foreign ministers originally scheduled for this month.

Armenian Leader Says Opening of Russian Border Shows “Tension Eased”

ARMENIAN LEADER SAYS OPENING OF RUSSIAN BORDER SHOWS “TENSION EASED”

Mediamax news agency
22 Oct 04

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today said that Russia’s decision
to open the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the Georgian-Russian border on
the eve of his official visit to Tbilisi was “a coincidence, but a
pleasant coincidence”.

A Mediamax special correspondent reports from Tbilisi that Robert
Kocharyan today said that the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint was closed due
to the Beslan events and the decision to open it shows that “the
tension has eased”.

The Armenian president said that he did not tend to dramatize the
situation, but he wanted the Georgian-Russian border not to close
again.

“When the border is closed, everyone loses – not only Georgia and
Armenia, but Russia as well,” Robert Kocharyan concluded.

Conserve, clean, repair: Keeping those carpets gorgeous

Dallas Morning News , TX
Oct 21 2004

Conserve, clean, repair: Keeping those carpets gorgeous

The Oriental Rug Cleaning Co., founded in 1911 by Hagop Amirkhan and
run for 30 years by his son, noted carpet expert Mirza Amirkhan, is
under the stewardship of granddaughter Ellen Amirkhan. She is a
third-generation expert on cleaning, conservation, restoration and
appraisal with a booming Texas accent. As a member of the
International Society of Appraisers (certified in Orientals), she
travels the country teaching classes on the fine art of rug cleaning
and restoration.

Grandfather Amirkhan fled Turkey during the Armenian genocide. To pay
for his passage, he worked as a rug cleaner for a cousin in
Cincinnati. After a year, he struck out on his own. He chose Dallas
because in 1911, fine rugs were already plentiful and experienced
cleaners were not.

In addition to rug cleaning and repair work, the Amirkhans also sell,
appraise and restore. While almost any rug can be repaired (a rug
with colors that have bled extensively is “a lost cause”), Ms.
Amirkhan is conscientious about what should and should not be done.

Repairs and restoration may mean setting in patches cannibalized from
other rugs, knotting, reweaving or remounting on a second fabric
backing. Proper technique is crucial to re-create, as closely as
possible, the original rug. Expert repair and restoration can
actually increase the value of a fairly battered rug.

To that end, Ellen Amirkhan has trained three women in the art of
knotting. “Such reweaving is charged by the job because more densely
knotted rugs are more difficult to do.” In contrast, a dog-chewed
fringe can be relatively easy to replace (about $12 a linear foot).
How best to maintain a rug? Ms. Amirkhan says that not vacuuming may
be the most damaging myth. “Eighty percent of the soil in rugs is dry
particulate matter. If you don’t vacuum, it’s like walking over
sandpaper and wears the rug out.” She also suggests going easy on
over-the-counter spotting agents: “They leave residue in the rugs.”

Finally she says, don’t think that because a rug has been sitting in
the formal living room and walked on only twice in 20 years that it
doesn’t need cleaning. “Moisture needs to be introduced,” she says,
“and it’s to places where it’s quiet that moths tend to gravitate.”

Barbara Rodriguez

Lutheran bishop to talk about state of church

The Times Union (Albany, NY)
October 16, 2004 Saturday THREE STAR EDITION

Lutheran bishop to talk about state of church

ALBANY

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson of Chicago, presiding bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will lead a discussion this
afternoon with area clergy and friends about the shape and nature of
the church in the United States and throughout the world. The meeting
with Hanson, who is also president of the Geneva, Switzerland-based
Lutheran World Federation, will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. at First
Lutheran Church, 181 Western Ave. At 10 a.m. Sunday, Hanson will
rededicate the 50-year-old sanctuary of the church. This year marks
the congregation’s 355th year. It is the oldest continuous Lutheran
congregation in North America. Also participating in the
rededication service will be the Rev. Marie Jerge of Syracuse, bishop
of the Ipstate New York Synod, ELCA.Israelis act against Jews who
spit on Christians

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government has vowed to crack down on
religious Jews who insult and spit at Christians. In a stern
statement issued this week, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz condemned
recent incidents in which Jewish seminary students, many of them
Americans studying in Israel, spat at Christian clergy during
processions through the Old City of Jerusalem. Poraz expressed
“revulsion” and called the situation intolerable, vowing to take
action to prevent future incidents.

The latest incident occurred Sunday, when an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva
student studying in the Old City spat at a cross being carried by
Armenian Archbishop Nourhan Manougian as he led a procession near the
community’s church. Jerusalem police said that a scuffle ensued
between the student and Manougian, who slapped the student after the
latter damaged the medallion the archbishop wore around his neck.

Although the practice of spitting is reportedly encouraged — or at
the very least tolerated — at certain ultra-Orthodox seminaries,
mainstream religious leaders abhor the practice. Such conduct is “a
desecration of the Divine Name” and also liable to contribute to
anti-Semitism in the Diaspora,” Rabbi Yisrael Lau, former chief rabbi
of Israel, said in a statement.

Cossack land to intern illegal immigrants?

RIA Novosti
October 21, 2004

COSSACK LAND TO INTERN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?

MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – Illegal immigration is rampant in
European Russia’s south. It is a bad headache for Alexander Tkachev,
Krasnodar territorial governor. As he sees the matter, it takes
filtration camps for aliens and stateless persons to deport illegal
immigrants quickly enough. Vladimir Yeremin, recently appointed
territorial top prosecutor, sees the governor’s point, says the Novye
Izvestia, major Moscow-based daily.

The camps, each for 150 inmates, will appear all over the
territory-in Krasnodar, Armavir, Tikhoretsk, and Temryuk on the coast
of the Sea of Azov. Each camp will cater for a particular
nationality. Ukrainians and Moldovans will be committed to the
Temryuk camp, close to a Crimea-bound ferry, Armenian nationals to
the Krasnodar, and Central Asians to several camps along the
territory’s eastern border.

“The inmates will have decent conditions. We shall put them up in
warm tents with stoves and plank floors. They’ll be able to take a
shower, share the guards’ diet, and see the doctor when necessary.
The camps will certainly need guards to keep local hoodlums off the
premises-and, certainly, as trouble-shooters if, let say, inmates of
the men’s and women’s quarters start a squabble between themselves,”
says one Colonel Gubenko.

The immigrants will be deported at their own expense or of local
people who have invited them. “We hope ethnic communities will pay
the fares. It’s easy to expel, say, a Tajik or an Uzbek-we’ll pack
them off by bus to the Russian frontier in the Astrakhan Region
nearby. But how about the Vietnamese? They’ll need air tickets-reckon
the fares!” reasons the police officer.

The territorial police board set up a 400-strong immigration
inspection force under its migration squad to supervise aliens and
their employment throughout the Kuban country.

More than 400 aliens have been deported from the Krasnodar Territory
since the year’s start, and close on 50,000 held administratively
liable.

F18News: Promises broken by continued jailing of pris. of conscience

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

================================================
Tuesday 19 October 2004
ARMENIA: PROMISES BROKEN BY CONTINUING JAILING OF PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE

This month (October), five Jehovah’s Witnesses have been sentenced to jail
terms for their conscientious objection, on religious grounds, to military
service. A sixth prisoner of conscience has been given a lesser sentence,
Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The number of imprisoned Jehovah’s
Witnesses has been brought to thirteen by these sentences, with a further
two awaiting trial on the same charges. The continued sentencing and
detention of religious prisoners of conscience clearly violates Armenia’s
previous promises to free its religious prisoners, and to introduce
alternative civilian service. The Armenian Foreign Ministry declined to
explain to Forum 18 how these latest sentences matched Armenia’s previous
promises, claiming that the issue is “outside the competence of the
Foreign Ministry”.

ARMENIA: PROMISES BROKEN BY CONTINUING JAILING OF PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Five Jehovah’s Witnesses have been sentenced so far in October to two years
of prison each, for refusing military service on grounds of conscience. A
sixth prisoner of conscience has been given a lesser sentence, Jehovah’s
Witness lawyer Rustam Khachatryan told Forum 18 News Service from the
capital Yerevan on 19 October. Called up in May, along with other Armenian
young men, all six officially lodged a request to do alternative civilian
service, but were told that such an alternative did not exist.

“Technically these sentences are correct, as all the Jehovah’s
Witnesses were called up before the new alternative service law came into
force,” Stefan Buchmayer, human rights officer at the Yerevan office
of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) told
Forum 18 on 19 October. “However, they show a certain lack of goodwill
on the part of the authorities as everyone knew that the law was coming
into force on 1 July. Besides, the right to alternative service is an
important human right – that is why our office has been following
these cases.”

On 22 June, the Armenian Parliament’s deputy speaker Tigran Torosyan, who
heads the Armenian delegation to the Council of Europe, told Jehovah’s
Witness representatives at the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly in
Strasbourg that all conscientious objector prisoners would be freed once
the new law on alternative service came into force on 1 July (see F18News 3
August 2004 ).

Natalia Voutova, the Council of Europe representative in Yerevan, told
Forum 18 on 19 October that her organisation is monitoring the latest
developments. She pointed out that in 2001 Armenia committed itself to
adopting an alternative service law and freeing all imprisoned
conscientious objectors and said that these commitments have been closely
monitored since 2001. The Armenian Foreign Ministry declined to explain how
the latest sentences met Armenia’s commitments to the Council of Europe.
Vladimir Karapetian of the ministry’s Media Relations Division claimed to
Forum 18 on 19 October that the issue is “outside the competence of
the Foreign Ministry”.

This month’s new sentences bring the number of imprisoned Jehovah’s Witness
young men to thirteen, with a further two are awaiting trial on the same
charges. The continued sentencing and detention of religious prisoners of
conscience violates Armenia’s commitments to the Council of Europe, and
comes after the justice ministry finally registered the Jehovah’s Witnesses
as a religious community, after years of official obstruction (see F18News
12 October 2004 ).

Four of the new prisoners were sentenced by a court in the town of Armavir,
50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the capital: Karen Hakopyan on 7 October,
Arsen Sarkisyan on 8 October, Mher Mirpakhatyan on 13 October, and Artur
Manukyan on 14 October. Hovhanes Bayatyan was sentenced by Yerevan’s
Erebuni-Nubarashen court on 14 October. All were given the maximum sentence
under Article 327 part I of the criminal code, which reads: “Evading a
recurring call to emergency military service, or educational or military
training, without a legal basis for being relieved of this service, shall
incur a fine in the amount of 300 to 500 minimum [monthly] wages or arrest
for up to two months or imprisonment for up to two years.” They are
now being held in Nubarashen prison.

A sixth, Asatur Badalyan, was sentenced on 1 October to one and a half
year’s imprisonment by a court in Kotaik in central Armenia, but the judge
allowed him to remain at home because it was felt as a Jehovah’s Witness
his behaviour would be good. However, there are fears he will be arrested
on 20 October, Khachatryan told Forum 18. Two other Jehovah’s Witnesses
received two year prison sentences in August.

Meanwhile, the trial of Grisha Kazaryan, arrested on 17 September and being
detained in Nubarashen, is expected at the end of October. Nshan Shagiyan,
who is from Yerevan, was required to give a written undertaken on 16
September not to leave the city. His trial is due at Yerevan’s
Malatia-Sebastia court on 26 October.

Jehovah’s Witness lawyer Khachatryan told Forum 18 that all these young men
wrote to both the recruitment office, and the general public prosecutor,
explaining that they could not do military service because of their
religious beliefs (the Jehovah’s Witnesses are pacifists), but that they
were prepared to do alternative civilian service outside the control of the
armed forces. He said the recruitment office summoned each applicant, to
establish that they had actually written the application. Recruitment
office officials then told each one verbally that alternative service did
not exist and handed their cases to the prosecutor, after which criminal
proceedings were launched.

“The alternative service law has been adopted, but there is no
mechanism for doing alternative service yet,” Khachatryan lamented.
“Besides, it’s not clear that when it does come in whether it will be
genuinely civilian or not. The law doesn’t say it will be civilian.”

Khachatryan added that the autumn call-up is now underway. Four Jehovah’s
Witness young men have written to the recruitment office so far, indicating
that they cannot serve in the military on religious grounds and applying
for alternative civilian service. “Nothing has happened to them so
far,” he noted.

A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
;Rootmap=armeni
(END)

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”Russia’s Slippery Foothold in Abkhazia”

PINR – The Power and Interest News Report
Oct 18 2004

”Russia’s Slippery Foothold in Abkhazia”

n October 3, presidential elections were held in Abkhazia, a
mini-state on the Black Sea that broke away from Georgia in 1993,
after a war of independence that cost several thousand lives and
created at least a quarter million Georgian refugees (more than half
the region’s population) through ethnic cleansing. The first
contested elections in Abkhazia since it achieved de facto
independence (the mini-state is not recognized by any foreign
government), they were meant to enhance Abkhazia’s international
credibility. Instead, the elections have thrown the mini-state into
political confrontation and temporary paralysis in the wake of a
nearly even split of votes between the two leading candidates —
Moscow-backed Raul Khajimba and businessman Sergei Bagapsh.

With a small population of which ethnic Abkhazians are the third
largest group after Russians and Armenians, and suffering from
economic sanctions and a Georgian blockade, the mini-state has
depended for its existence on Russian economic support and military
protection in the form of “peacekeepers” from the Confederation of
Independent States. The United Nations also monitors the stand-off,
but Russia plays the decisive role in maintaining the status quo,
pending the restart of stalled negotiations between Abkhazia and
Georgia, which seeks support from the Euro-American alliance, which
backs Georgian claims to sovereignty over Abkhazia.

Abkhazia has strategic importance for all of the interests involved
in its fate. Fearing extermination as an ethnic group with its own
territory, the Abkhazians are determined to do anything possible to
preserve their tenuous hold on independence. The pro-Western Georgian
regime of President Mikhail Saakashvili, which must attempt to
satisfy nationalist sentiment, is equally committed to bringing
Abkhazia under Tbilisi’s control and repatriating Georgian refugees.
The Euro-American alliance wants to contain instability in the
Transcaucasus so that oil supplies from the Caspian Sea are secure as
they flow through Georgia, which is at the center of the Baku-Ceyhan
pipeline. The West is also interested in thwarting attempts by Russia
to reassert influence in the Transcaucasus, which it lost after the
fall of the Soviet Union. Russia, in contrast, is using Abkhazia as a
means to gain a foothold in the Transcaucasus and check Euro-American
bids for hegemony in the region.

Within this pattern of conflicting interests, Russia is the only
actor in the position to alter the status quo decisively — Moscow
can choose to deepen its support of Abkhazia, even to the point of
recognizing its independence officially, or it can move toward a
settlement that would restore Georgian sovereignty over the
mini-state in return for a greater share of influence in the
Transcaucasus. From the geostrategic perspective, Abkhazia is a test
of Russian power — all the other actors are locked in their
positions by virtue of their perceived interests relative to the
regional balance of power, whereas the course of action that would
maximize Russian power is an open issue that divides Moscow’s
security establishment.

Russia’s Shaky Foothold

The international status of Abkhazia was determined officially by a
1999 declaration at the Istanbul summit of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, signed by Russia, the United
States and European powers, that affirmed “strong support for the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia” and branded earlier
presidential elections in Abkhazia as “unacceptable and
illegitimate.” Although Moscow has abided by the declaration to the
extent that it has maintained a public stance in favor of a
negotiated settlement that would restore some form of Georgian
sovereignty, its actions on the ground have supported the
mini-state’s independence.

Moscow’s “two-track policy” worked effectively to prolong the status
quo until Georgia’s 2004 “Rose Revolution” that brought Saakashvili’s
pro-Western and nationalist regime to power. Tbilisi’s posture of
calling for a diplomatic settlement that would grant Abkhazia
“generous autonomy” and simultaneously threatening force against the
mini-state if it did not meet Georgian demands has caused rethinking
in Moscow.

It is undisputed that Sukhumi is a client of Moscow. Approximately
three-quarters of Abkhazia’s residents have Russian citizenship and
passports, the mini-state uses the ruble rather than the Georgian
lari as its currency, Russian investments and Russian tourists to its
Black Sea beaches (400,000 in the past year) are essential to its
faltering economy, and Moscow provides pensions to many Abkhazians.
With more than half its population unemployed and endemic crime as a
result, the Sukhumi regime would collapse without Moscow’s economic
support and military presence.

The question for Moscow now is what to do with its preponderant
influence in Abkhazia. That question becomes relevant because
Tbilisi’s tilt toward the West has altered the balance of power in
the Transcaucasus, disadvantaging Russian interests. The more
assertive that Tbilisi becomes, the more pressure Moscow is under to
move Abkhazia out of its state of limbo. The Euro-American alliance,
which wants the conflict resolved diplomatically in Georgia’s favor,
is a restraining influence that forestalls military action by
Tbilisi, but it also emboldens Tbilisi to count on its demands
eventually being met.

Moscow decision makers are, in general, divided into factions that
still hold out for some accommodation with the West and others that
believe that Russia needs to go it alone and rebuild its spheres of
influence wherever possible. The debate is complicated by the
contradiction between Russia’s appeal to its sovereignty in Chechnya
and its de facto opposition to Georgia’s similar claims. The
two-track policy toward Sukhumi is an example of how the broad
division of Russia’s political class on the country’s strategic
doctrine often results in compromises and stalemating positions.
Tbilisi’s pro-Western orientation has provided opportunities for
Moscow hardliners to gain some leverage over their opponents and to
press their “neo-imperialist” vision of Russia’s strategic future.

Evidence of increasing power for Moscow’s hardliners is the opening
up in September of direct rail traffic between Russia and Abkhazia.
The move was met with charges from Tbilisi that Moscow was attempting
to “annex” the mini-state. Moscow replied that Tbilisi’s assertive
position threatened to ignite a general war in the Caucasus. Russian
President Vladimir Putin made it plain that neither economic nor
military pressure would resolve the problem of Abkhazia and blessed
the rail link. Moscow’s stand is that the rail link will improve
trade in the Caucasus, which skirts the sovereignty question.

In addition to weakening the economic blockade of Abkhazia
significantly, Moscow also approved of the presidential elections
there, against the position of the United States and European powers
that they were illegitimate. Successful competitive elections would
have enhanced Sukhumi’s claims to legitimacy, open the way to the
possibility of formal recognition, or at least some associated status
for the mini-state with Russia or with the alliance of Moscow and
Belarus. As it turned out, the elections ended in confusion and
indecision, marking a setback, though not a defeat, for Moscow’s
hardliners.

Abkhazia’s Elections

Abkhazia’s continued close relations with and dependence on Russia
was not an issue in the recent presidential elections. The population
of Abkhazia that remained after the expulsion and flight of its
Georgian majority has been firmly in favor of outright union with
Russia, some kind of formal association with it or regularized
independence under Russian protection. That consensus is rooted in
the preference of the ethnic Russian and Armenian segments of the
population for Russia over Georgia, and most of all, an ethnic Abkhaz
resistance to Georgian rule that is based on historical experience.

Although Georgian and Abkhazian claims are traced by their advocates
through competing histories dating back to the Middle Ages, the
proximate situation triggering the present conflict was the change in
Abkhazia’s status in the Soviet Union under Stalin’s regime in 1931
from an autonomous republic in its own right to an autonomous
republic of Georgia. Under Stalinist rule, Georgians were encouraged
to settle in Abkhazia, and Abkhazian culture, which had only acquired
a written alphabet in the late nineteenth century, was downgraded.
When the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, Georgian nationalists led
by Zviad Gamsakhurdia took control of the new state, proclaiming a
“Georgia for the Georgians” policy. Fearing ethnic extinction or at
least subjection, the Abkhazians resisted, resulting in the 1992-1993
war of independence, won by Abkhazia with the help of fighters from
related Caucasian peoples — notably the Chechens — and support from
Moscow.

With the Russian-Chechen conflict intensifying, the Chechens tilted
toward Georgia, leaving Abkhazia with only Moscow’s de facto backing.
All five candidates in the recent election pledged loyalty to Moscow,
reflecting the anti-Georgian consensus in the mini-state. Their only
differences, if any, hinged on vague distinctions between the kind
and degree of “independence” that Abkhazia should enjoy.

The election was primarily fought over economic issues, revolving
around the power of different factions in economic institutions. The
two leading candidates represented different factions, with Khajimba
leading the existing power structure and Bagapsh calling for
“reform,” which he promised would not affect existing property
relations. This division, which had less to do with policy than
personnel, made Khajimba the clear favorite, because he had been the
only candidate to be granted a meeting with Putin, including a photo
opportunity. Khajimba, an ex-K.G.B. agent and prime minister of
Abkhazia under the outgoing regime of Vladislav Ardzinba — who had
governed the region from the Soviet era — was seen as Moscow’s man
and he was given campaign support by Moscow political operatives.

Khajimba’s opponent Bagapsh had also been an official in the Soviet
regime and was currently head of the national energy company. He had
formed a coalition of opposition groups, including the following of
Alexander Ankvab, a popular ex-interior minister of Abkhazia, who had
been excluded from candidacy on a technicality.

The election was far closer than analysts expected and was marred by
charges of ballot rigging and intimidation, especially in the Gali
district, which has a large Georgian population, among which are
repatriated refugees. After a week of confusion and a revote in Gali,
which the leading candidates agreed to, although it violated the
mini-state’s constitution, the Central Electoral Commission declared
Bagapsh the winner with 50.08 percent of the vote, triggering the
resignation of three of its members, a suit by Khajimba challenging
the election’s validity and Ardzinba’s refusal to countenance its
results. The fate of the election is now in the hands of Abkhazia’s
Supreme Court.

Analysts attribute Moscow’s failure to have its candidate score a
clear-cut victory to heavy-handed campaign tactics by Khajimba’s
Russian operatives, especially a pop concert on the eve of the
elation, which many voters considered a crude attempt to pander to
them for support. As the situation stands, however, Moscow has not
lost much ground from the election fiasco. Both Bagapsh and Khajimba
remain pro-Moscow and, although each warns that the other is flirting
with civil war, Abkhazian dependence on Russia and unity against
Georgia will probably contain any fratricidal tendencies. At most,
the hardliners in Moscow have lost the aura of legitimacy that they
wanted for the mini-state, and they still even might gain that if the
judicial system successfully resolves the electoral conflict.

Conclusion

In light of Euro-American reluctance to do any more than urge a
negotiated resolution to the Abkhazia problem that asserts Georgian
sovereignty, while refraining from backing that position militarily
or economically, Moscow is free to experiment with a neo-imperialist
policy in the Transcaucasus, attempting to keep Chechnya in Russia
and Georgia out of Abkhazia.

At the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on October 11,
Russian delegate Alexander Fomenko argued that Abkhazia was not
historically part of Georgia, but was a “gift” from Stalin, echoing
the Abkhazian “historical argument” for independence. Moscow’s more
assertive posture toward the West is a sign that it is beginning to
dig in for a protracted confrontation in the Caucasus that will test
its will and the resolve of the West.

Report Drafted By:
Dr. Michael A. Weinstein

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR) is an analysis-based
publication that seeks to, as objectively as possible, provide
insight into various conflicts, regions and points of interest around
the globe. PINR approaches a subject based upon the powers and
interests involved, leaving the moral judgments to the reader. This
report may not be reproduced, reprinted or broadcast without the
written permission of [email protected]. All comments should be
directed to [email protected].

Kocharyan, Levitin discuss development of transport

Kocharyan, Levitin discuss development of transport
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 14, 2004 Thursday

YEREVAN, October 14 — Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin met
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan on Thursday to discuss a wide
range of issues relations to bilateral cooperation.

Special attention was riveted to the development of the transport
infrastructure, the presidential press service told Itar-Tass.

Kocharyan stressed that the Russian-Armenian inter-governmental
commission on economic cooperation was an important mechanism of
relations between the two countries. The commission has always worked
effectively, the president said.

A meeting between Igor Levitin and Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan touched on the soonest technical re-equipment and resumption
of the activity of enterprises, which had been handed over to Russia
to pay debts.

According to the Russian minister, concrete agreements reached during
the meetings in Yerevan will be added and then discussed as part of
the commission’s session to be held in Moscow.