Author: Vanyan Gary

PRESS RELEASE
Fund for Armenian Relief
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Edina N. Bobelian
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

October 7, 2004
____________________

DIOCESE AND FAR WELCOME NEW U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
Leaders Discuss Partnerships and Goals

On October 1, 2004, Diocesan and Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) leaders
met with the new U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans in New York, NY
to reaffirm their partnerships with the State Department and USAID.

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian
Church of America (Eastern) and President of the FAR Board of Directors,
extended a warm welcome and conveyed the help and support of the Diocese
and FAR to the U.S. Embassy to continue assisting Armenia.

With the American Embassy in Yerevan moving to its new state-of-the-art
facilities later this fall, Ambassador Evans iterated the U.S.
government’s long-term commitment to Armenia and the Caucasus region.
Wishing to build on the tradition of his predecessors, he emphasized the
need for dialogue and communication with the Armenian-American community
to promote awareness of the situation in Armenia today.

To this end, Ambassador Evans pointed to the importance of maintaining
strong relations with the Diocese and FAR as a link between the Diaspora
and Armenia. He acknowledged FAR’s excellent track record in Armenia,
making reference to FAR’s two USAID contracts and noting in particular
the $15 million USAID contract for Karabagh.

Ambassador Evans was heavily involved in the coordination of U.S. relief
effort to the victims of the Spitak earthquake in December 1988, for
which he earned a medal and statement of appreciation from the Armenian
government. He has followed FAR’s growth to become the preeminent
Diasporan relief and development organization operating in Armenia.

“One of FAR’s goals to continue assisting Armenia is not just to bring
help but to strengthen the independent nation,” said Archbishop
Barsamian on behalf of Dr. Edgar M. Housepian, Vice Chairman of the FAR
Board of Directors, Randy Sapah-Gulian, FAR Board member, Garnik A.
Nanagoulian, FAR Executive Director, who also attended the meeting.

Mr. Nanagoulian expressed the hope that the existing relation between
FAR and the American Embassy in Armenia would continue to grow and
encouraged the possibility of further joint-partner programs. He also
presented Ambassador Evans the 2003 Annual Report and invited him to
tour FAR’s projects throughout Armenia to personally witness the
organization’s work aiding the people of Armenia.

A native of Williamsburg, Virginia, Ambassador Evans brings a wealth of
experience to his new position, having served at American Embassies in
Iran, the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Russia, and most
recently serving as Director of Office of Russian Affairs at the State
Department. His foreign languages include Russian, French, Farsi,
Czech, and he has begun taking Armenian lessons.

Ambassador Evans informed the Diocesan and FAR leaders that within his
first year of his diplomatic mission to Armenia his objectives include
continuing to work closely with the government of Armenia for the
Karabagh solution, encouraging dialogue between the governments of
Armenia and Turkey for the reopening of the borders, and introducing
volunteerism to help spur Armenia’s economic growth and alleviate
poverty, notably outside of Yerevan. He indicated that he would rely on
the Diocese and FAR to help the people of Armenia.

“The Diocese has always considered it a privilege and a duty to work
with the American Embassy in promoting communications and collaborative
efforts for the benefit of Armenia and for the U.S.,” said Archbishop
Barsamian. “If it is beneficial for Armenia, it is also good for
America.”

Dr. Sam Mikaelian, Executive Director of the Diocese, repeated the
Primate’s sentiment that the Ambassador and the U.S. Embassy should feel
free to look to the Diocese for support at anytime. “The Diocese is
ready to serve to help the Armenian and American people,” said Dr.
Mikaelian.

FAR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in New York,
with offices in Yerevan, Gyumri, and Stepanakert. For 15 years, FAR has
implemented various relief, development, social, educational, and
cultural projects valued at more than $250 million.

For more information or to send donations, contact the Fund for Armenian
Relief at 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016; telephone (212)
889-5150, fax (212) 889-4849; , [email protected].

— 10/7/04

E-mail photo available upon request.

CAPTION: Diocesan and FAR leaders met with the new U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia John Evans on October 4, 2004: left to right, front row: Bishop
Vicken Aykazian, Diocesan Legate and Ecumenical Officer, U.S. Ambassador
to Armenia John Evans, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) and President of the
FAR Board of Directors, Randy Sapah-Gulian, FAR Board member, back row:
Dr. Edgar M. Housepian, Vice Chairman of the FAR Board of Directors,
Garnik A. Nanagoulian, FAR Executive Director, and AaronO: <Sherinian,
Political Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Armenia.

The Republican Springfield, MA 01103

Tutoring volunteers spark ESL program

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Once a week, Mary Omartian travels to foreign lands.

Her one-hour journeys to Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Puerto Rico, Colombia,
Korea, Thailand, or wherever her bilingual students come from, started three
years ago when Omartian, an administrative assistant at Springfield Technical
Community College, joined Adopt-an-English as a Second Language-Student program
in which faculty and staff volunteer to meet with English learners for
informal conversation.
“I don’t know what the students are getting,” she laughs. “I am getting a lot
out of it, and that’s why I do it.”
A Springfield resident, Omartian grew up in “a European home,” where, along
with English, she was learning Armenian, the native language of her parents,
who came to America in 1915 from what is now eastern Turkey. They fled what
was probably the first genocide of the 20th century when more than a million
Armenians were killed due to Ottoman Empire policy.
Omartian said the tutoring “is a chance to learn more about the world. I
travel to foreign lands with these children. And they keep me young.
“Primarily, it’s learning about each other personally. We just sit down and
talk. I tell them a little bit about myself, and then they open up and I ask
them if they have families and about their country. And they ask me questions.
It’s just to make them feel comfortable to be here, just get them to speak
freely.
“The kids” are wonderful students who “are happy to be here and very
committed, very dedicated, very bright, very anxious to learn.
“And it’s fun. … Oftentimes, they can’t think of the English word and start
chattering to each other, start thinking out loud, helping each other around
and then they respond with the proper word,” Omartian said.
While the talks are good for their oral comprehension, her students are
getting much more because Omartian makes you feel at ease right away, which is
something vital for chatting with friends.
“In our Adopt-an-ESL-Student effort, last spring we had 23 volunteers, mostly
from the faculty and staff, meeting with 50 students,” said Setta McCabe,
director of publications at STCC. “There are volunteers from all over campus –
senior administrators, faculty in many different academic programs, ad
ministrative assistants, as well as other students. … They are such wonderful people.”
Regina “Jill” Mendez, the faculty member who organizes the
Adopt-an-ESL-Student program, said they also have a few volunteers from the community, some of
whom have been helping out year after year.
“It’s really like a conversation with a friend,” said Lyudmila Kolesnik, 21,
of West Springfield, who came from Ukraine two years ago and is taking an ESL
course at the college. “We are talking about everything. It’s fun and it
just makes the time fly by.”
“I like the program and the tutoring part very much,” said Inna Dudkina, 33,
of West Springfield, adding that when she came to America a year ago from
Ukraine, she barely could speak the language. “All the teachers are very patient and really friendly.”
The ESL program “prepares our students to enter the programs that they want
to,” said department chairwoman Pam Greene. “If someone comes into the program
without any background – and we do accept students who have absolutely no
knowledge of English into the program – our four semesters allow them to be
proficient enough to really depend on themselves and to participate fully and
satisfactorily in their classes.”
Alex Peshkov, a staff writer for The Republican, emigrated to Western
Massachusetts from Arkhangelsk in 2002. His column focuses on the Russian-American
community. He can be reached at [email protected]

Dido Sotiriou

The Times (London)
September 29, 2004, Wednesday

Dido Sotiriou, writer, was born on February 18, 1909. She died on
September 23, 2004, aged 95.

Writer whose bestselling Farewell Anatolia documented her family’s
expulsion from Turkey in 1922.

THE WRITER Dido Sotiriou was the chronicler of Greece’s turbulent and
often traumatic passage through the 20th century and in her most
famous novel, Farewell Anatolia, acted as the recording angel of the
“catastrophe”, as it is known the expulsion from Turkey in 1922 of
more than a million Greeks, domiciled there for millennia, of whom
she was one.

When Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in the
mid-19th century, the new kingdom was less than half the size it is
now. The vast territorial gains it made in the North and in the
Aegean in the First Balkan War of 1912 encouraged its nationalist
leader Eleftherios Venizelos to take advantage of the sultanate’s
weakness after 1918 to press ahead with the “Great Idea”, the dream
of uniting all the Greek-speaking regions around the Aegean, notably
on the coast of Asia Minor, where there had been Greek communities
since the time of Homer.

These had largely preserved their identities under the Turks, with
whom they lived in harmony, and in 1919 (prompted in part by vague
assurances from the British Government) Greek forces occupied the
most important of these entrepots, Smyrna (now Izmir). Dido
Sotiriou’s father, a prosperous industrialist, encouraged by the
Greek advance towards Ankara, moved the family there from the hills
near Ephesus, where they had lived previously.

Three years later, however, the teenage Dido and thousands of others
were forced to flee in terror when Kemal Ataturk’s troops
unexpectedly routed the Greek Army and seized back Smyrna. More than
30,000 Christians -Greeks and Armenians were slaughtered in the
ensuing massacre. The Sotirious escaped to Athens, but 12 of their
relations had perished in Smyrna and the family had lost everything.
Dido’s father was reduced to working as a dockhand at Piraeus.

In the subsequent exchange of populations agreed between the two
countries, 380,000 Muslims left Greece for Turkey, while 1.1 million
Ottoman Greeks moved the other way. Their experiences and memories of
their land of lost content, shared by Sotiriou, provided the raw
material for Matomena Chomata (“Bloodied Earth”, available in English
as Farewell Anatolia), which she wrote in 1962. It has since been
republished 65 times and has sold half a million copies in ten
languages, including Turkish.

In common with Sotiriou’s other novels, it reads as loosely
fictionalised fact, taking as its protagonist Manolis Axiotis, a
Greek villager from “Kirkica” (Sotiriou’s native Sirince), caught up
in an increasing spiral of hatred that sets former Turk and Greek
neighbours against each other (the framework, too, for Louis de
Bernieres’ recent Birds Without Wings). “War is Circe for all of us,”
reflects one of the characters. “It turns men into swine.”

The book acts as a receptacle for many dearly held Greek sentiments
about the past, which undoubtedly aided its popularity, but it also
urges reconciliation with Turkey and its objective tone gained
Sotiriou a wide following in her homeland. Perhaps surprisingly, too,
after such a disrupted childhood, Sotiriou devoted much of the rest
of her long life to radical, even revolutionary, politics.

She was born Dido Pappas, a citizen of the Ottoman Empire, at Aydin,
Turkey, in 1909. Her parents died shortly after their enforced
exodus; she was raised in Athens by an aunt, but soon began to
evidence a rebel’s temperament, taking up smoking, riding a
motorcycle and swimming naked. An early marriage to a mathematics
professor, Plato Sotiriou, uncle of the author Alki Zei, freed her
from her family, and soon afterwards she moved to Paris to study
literature at the Sorbonne.

France became almost a second home to her, and in time she came to
know writers such as Andre Malraux, Andre Gide and Louis Aragon. She
had meanwhile begun to espouse the causes both of feminism and the
far Left, and she began her writing career as the French
correspondent for several Greek newspapers and magazines, being one
of the first Greek women to break into journalism. Her rather saintly
husband did her typing for her.

When Greece fell under the dictatorship of Metaxas in the mid-1930s,
she joined the Greek Communist Party (KKE), and during the German
occupation she was active in its underground press and resistance
movement, as was her sister, Elli Pappas.

By 1945 she had become editor of its newspaper, Rizospastis, and that
year she attended the first meeting of the International Democratic
Confederation of Women in Paris.

During Greece’s subsequent civil war between the communists and the
restored conservative Government, however, she was expelled from the
party for voicing criticisms of its actions. Then in 1950, her
sister’s lover, Nikos Beloyiannis, a senior figure in the KKE, was
captured by the Government. The party had been outlawed, and
Beloyiannis was declared a traitor and given a show trial. The grace
with which he conducted himself during this was memorialised in
Picasso’s sketch of him, The Man with the Carnation, but despite
widespread outcry, he was shot in 1952.

Elli Pappas was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment, and the couple’s
newborn son, also Nikos, whom Beloyiannis had seen once before his
execution, was brought up by Dido Sotiriou, who had no children of
her own. Before these events, she said, she had no literary
ambitions, but now “I had a duty to society, to tell the truth”.

Her first book, a study of American imperialism in the Mediterranean,
written in 1947, was censored and not published until 1975. She thus
first came to attention with Oi Nekri Perimenoun (The Dead Are
Waiting, 1959), something of a dry run for Farewell Anatolia, which
made her name, though it was banned under the Colonels’ regime from
1967 until 1974. Electra (1961) dealt with her time in the
Resistance, while Entoli (The Command, 1976) was a novelisation of
the Beloyiannis case.

She also wrote two books for children, a last novel, Katedafizometha
(Demolished, 1982), about a man in prison, and a monograph on the
theatre. Several other works, including an autobiography, remain
unpublished.

In 1990, Sotiriou was awarded Greece’s highest honour for a writer,
the prize of the Athens Academy. Some years ago she gave her flat in
Codrington Street, Athens, to the Hellenic Society of Authors to
serve as its offices.

Her nephew survives her.

General Assembly focuses on drug trade, human rights and economic inequalities

UN News Centre
Sept 29 2004

29 September 2004 – The illegal drug trade, human rights, the root
causes of terrorism and the deep economic inequalities between rich
and poor nations dominated the agenda as the General Assembly’s annual
high-level debate continued today at UN Headquarters in New York.

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Velez said his country is making
advances in reducing the number of murders, kidnappings and terrorist
acts and the production of illegal drugs, but one of its highest
priorities now is to restore the confidence of its citizens in national
institutions. Without that step, any moves to boost economic growth
and stability would be undermined before they began.

Given the deep divisions caused by social and material inequalities,
Mr. Uribe Velez said, it was vital to try to promote strong economic
growth that at the same time is shared equitably by all Colombians.
He said that, to this end, the Government is subsidizing farmers and
peasant associations, increasing enrolments in schools and technical
workshops, and spending greater sums on child nutrition programmes.

Cyril Svoboda, Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, told the
Assembly that the undeniably troubled circumstances of Iraq today
should not divert the world’s attention away from other important
concerns, especially Afghanistan, the Middle East, Africa and the
Balkans. He stressed the importance of fighting for human rights,
citing treaties against the use of State-ordered torture and the
worldwide campaign to abolish the death penalty.

Guyana’s Foreign Minister S. R. Insanally said cultural diversity is
often overlooked in the race to help impoverished countries achieve
economic development, leading to disastrous results in the long term.
Turning to trade, Mr. Insanally said Guyana’s sugar industry “has
recently been struck a devastating blow” by trade liberalization and
the European Union’s reform of its trade in this commodity. He urged
wealthy nations to give more priority to the needs of poor States.

Foreign Minister Rogatien Biaou of Benin said that when his country
holds the Security Council’s rotating presidency in early 2005,
it will hold a special debate on the phenomenon of child soldiers
in a bid to find a lasting solution to the problem. Mr. Biaou also
urged the countries that have previously pledged to help the world’s
poorest nations achieve sustainable development to make good on those
promises – especially on giving official development assistance –
and not just offer hollow words instead.

Describing the fight against illicit drugs as his country’s “topmost
priority,” U Tin Winn, Chairman of the delegation from Myanmar,
said authorities in his country have over the past decade seized
and destroyed drugs worth more than $14 billion. The drug trade is
closely linked to much trans-national crime, he said, adding it was
important for States to work together if they were to defeat the
scourge. Mr. Winn also said allegations of human rights abuses in
Myanmar were “aimed at discrediting the Government for political
purposes.”

In his speech, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov spotlighted
the plight of the world’s least developed countries, saying very few
such States were meeting the target of 7 per cent annual economic
growth that is necessary to achieve one of the key Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) – halving the number of people in extreme
poverty by 2015. Mr. Martynov offered a robust defence of the United
Nations “as the most important collective problem-solving mechanism,”
adding that while it needs reform, it also needs greater support.

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said the global curse of
terrorism will not go away until the breeding ground of deprivation,
poverty and injustice is drained. “This fight must go beyond effective
regional and international cooperation” to include aggressively
tackling the MDGs, he said, or else the inequalities and social
injustices will remain. Mr. Oskanian said it was critical that the
UN work more closely with regional organizations to achieve these aims.

Momodu Koroma, Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone, said his country was
now in a delicate post-conflict phase after civil war split the country
between 1991 and 2002. “This is the phase in which the gains of the
peace effort should be maximized,” he said, adding that traditionally
peacekeepers start “pulling out when the guns fall silent.” Mr. Koroma
emphasized that he does not means that he expects the UN Mission in
Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), whose mandate currently lasts until June next
year, to stay indefinitely.

Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Gábor Bródi told the Assembly that
it was essential that the rights of national, ethnic, linguistic or
religious minorities are protected. “The presence [of such minorities]
within the frontiers of a country is not only an asset, but also a
source of social and cultural enrichment.” Mr. Bródi said Hungary
was alarmed by the treatment of ethnic minorities in its neighbour
Serbia and Montenegro, and called on authorities there to punish the
perpetrators of physical attacks or acts of intimidation.

Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations
with States, said poverty eradication and development must take
priority among the eight MDGs. To do that, the world must adopt a
fairer system of international trade and cancel the debt burdens of
the most impoverished States. Total and general disarmament was also
necessary, he added, if there is to be peace and stability.

Kocharian Aide Blames Britain For “Anti-Armenian” Report On Karabakh
By Ruzanna Stepanian and Emil Danielyan 28/09/2004 11:26

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Sept 28 2004

A national security adviser to President Robert Kocharian linked on
Monday a Council of Europe report accusing Armenia of illegally
annexing Nagorno-Karabakh with Britain’s policy in the region which
he denounced as oil-driven and pro-Azerbaijani.

Garnik Isagulian claimed that the report’s findings, rejected by
official Yerevan, were greatly influenced by the British nationality
of Terry Davis, its author and the new secretary general of the
Council of Europe.

“British Petroleum’s influence on British foreign policy is very
obvious,” Isagulian told reporters, referring to BP’s pivotal role in
the multibillion-dollar Azerbaijani oil projects. “They are solely
concerned with controlling oil reserves. This is what English policy
is all about. Only Baku’s oil matters to the British.”

The document in question was meant to serve as the basis for a
resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be adopted by the
organization’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). The 45-nation assembly
chose Davis as its chief Karabakh rapporteur long before he was
elected to head the Strasbourg-based human rights organization last
June.

“Considerable parts of the territory of Azerbaijan are still occupied
by forces from Armenia, and separatist forces are still in control of
the Nagorno-Karabakh region,” reads the draft resolution submitted by
Davis to a key PACE committee earlier this month. It effectively
accuses Armenia of illegal occupation of Azerbaijani territory as
well as ethnic cleansing.

“The Assembly reaffirms that independence and secession of a regional
territory from a state may only be achieved through a lawful and
peaceful process based on democratic support by the inhabitants of
such territory, and not in the wake of an armed conflict leading to
ethnic expulsion and the de facto annexation of such territory to
another state,” says the draft resolution. “The Assembly reiterates
that the occupation of foreign territory by a member state
constitutes a grave violation of that state’s obligations as a member
of the Council of Europe.”

The proposed wording is largely in tune with Azerbaijan’s
long-standing allegations about Armenian “military aggression.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev repeated in a speech at UN General
Assembly in New York late last week. Aliev charged that the Armenians
are intent on “consolidating the results of the aggression.”

The Davis report was rejected as “unacceptable” by Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian last week. The Armenian members of the PACE also
criticized it. One of them, deputy parliament speaker, Tigran
Torosian, plays down the document’s significance saying that it will
have no legal force because the PACE has appointed a new Karabakh
rapporteur, David Atkinson.

Atkinson is expected to present his version of a Karabakh resolution
at the PACE session in January. Isagulian contradicted Torosian when
he claimed that it is unlikely to differ markedly from Davis’s draft.
“We need a rapporteur who would represent a state with a neutral
position on the issue,” he said.

The presidential aide went on to predict that the Council of Europe
can have little impact on the Karabakh peace process because it is
spearheaded by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe. “Azerbaijan has realized very well that the
Karabakh problem has been solved within the Minsk Group framework,”
he said, apparently alluding to its peace proposals reportedly
upholding the disputed region’s independence from Baku.

Davis, on the other hand, indicated his support for the restoration
of Azerbaijan’s control over Karabakh by advising the Armenians to
look into “positive experiences of autonomous regions as a source of
inspiration.”

The report drafted by the Council of Europe chief also suggests that
the conflicting parties turn to the Hague-based International Court
of Justice if the long-running peace talks sponsored by the Minsk
Group remain lead nowhere. It says the court could rule on “whether
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan … has lawfully been violated
by Armenia in order to protect a right to secession by the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 24, 2004, Friday

KNOW YOUR FRIENDS AS WELL AS YOUR ENEMIES[]

SOURCE: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, September 21, 2004, p. 5

by Viktor Myasnikov

CIS summit in Astana resolved to reorganize structures of the
Commonwealth. CIS Security Council for dealing with terrorism will be
established. “Globalization and appearance of new threats force
countries of the Commonwealth to pool effort in dealing with pressing
international problems,” President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
said.

There are two parallel collective military structures in the
Commonwealth, nowadays. One of them purely military. The CIS Council
of Defense Ministers was formed 12 years ago for the purpose of
working out a common military policy. It includes a permanent
secretariat, CIS Headquarters for Coordination of Military
Cooperation, and a number of councils and committees.

The second structure is counter-terrorist. The Organization of the
CIS Collective Security Treaty includes 6 countries of the
Commonwealth – Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia,
and Belarus. The Organization has the Rapid Response Collective
Forces that include several battalions of mobile troops, a helicopter
squadron, and frontal aviation.

Bona fide military cooperation has been developing among these six
countries only because they face a common enemy – international
terrorism. Joint exercises are run within the framework of the
Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty, and the
Counter-Terrorism Center performs the duties of the coordinating
body.

CIS military structures formed in the early 1990’s for the purpose of
construction of a common military organization found themselves in
the background. They never performed their task because CIS countries
do not agree on what constitutes a military threat. Working out a
common position is difficult indeed when some countries aspire for
membership in NATO and others regard its eastward expansion as a
potential threat. Add here the border dispute between Russia and
Ukraine and the latent conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In
short, any coordinated military policy is simply out of the question.
It means that withering away of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers
and related military structures was but a question of time.

There is no love lost between the Organization of the CIS Collective
Security Treaty and CIS military structures. Sources who know what
they are talking about ascribe it to the pitiful financial standing
of the latter. Establishment of the counter-terrorist CIS Security
Council will automatically lead to abolition of the ineffective CIS
Council of Defense Ministers with all its headquarters and
committees.

The CIS United Antiaircraft Defense System is the only structure to
be spared by the forthcoming military-administrative reforms. No
country of the Commonwealth including Russia can hope to close its
skies entirely on its own, and cooperation in this sphere has
proceeded at a fast rate. CIS leaders allocated 2.3 billion rubles
for the CIS United Antiaircraft Defense System in 2005 – against 800
million in 2004 (almost tripling the sum, in fact).

The Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty and its Fast
Response Collective Forces are a response to the threat of terrorism.
Military cooperation between its members will continue while the
threat exists. Moreover, the view of international terrorism as an
external threat guarantees mutual defense of members of the
Organization from any external aggression. That is why the
Organization includes Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan (the
countries directly involved in the war on international terrorism),
Kazakhstan (whose geo-strategic location may make it a target too),
and Armenia (the country that does not want a renewal of a shooting
war with Azerbaijan). And Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus
needs defense against actions of the opposition that may spark a
“humanitarian intervention” of the Yugoslavian make.

Uzbekistan, the country seriously affected by terrorism, steers clear
of all military blocs. On the other hand, it may decide to join the
counter-terrorist CIS SC.

Ukraine is another potential candidate. It is not facing any threats
from the West or the East at this point. Separatism of the Crimean
Tatars is under control. All of that makes it a political issue for
President Leonid Kuchma, not a military. And an economic issue as
well – the war on money laundering and drain of capitals is of
paramount importance for Ukraine. On the other hand, just like
Moldova or Turkmenistan, Ukraine does not participate in the CIS
Council of Defense Ministers.

Implementation of Nazarbayev’s suggestion will certainly improve
coordination of efforts in the war on terrorism. As things stand,
commanders of CIS border troops have their own committee, defense
ministers their own, secret services and foreign ministers have
structures of their own too. Pulling them together is a must. As for
the attempts to set up at least some semblance of a common military
organization or even to establish cooperation between armies, all of
that is finished. Time to forget it.

Translated by A. Ignatkin

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 23 2004

Armenian FM criticizes PACE report on Upper Garabagh

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said he was dissatisfied
with the report presented by the former rapporteur of the Parliament
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Upper Garabagh, head of
the British delegation in the PACE, Terry Davis.
`It is unacceptable for Armenia’, Oskanian said.
The Armenian minister said he has no hopes for the new rapporteur,
Englishman David Atkinson, either. Oskanian said he was aware of
Great Britain’s position on the territorial integrity issue but added
that `the Armenian side is already studying the matter’.
Terry Davis was appointed as rapporteur on Upper Garabagh at the PACE
summer session in 2002, and as the Council of Europe Secretary
General in June 2004.
The PACE Political Committee heard the report on Upper Garabagh
presented by Davis in Paris on September 14, 2004. On the same day,
British parliament member David Atkinson was appointed as the new
rapporteur on Upper Garabagh. Atkinson has already expressed his
intention to meet with the conflicting parties. The date for his
arrival in the South Caucasus region has not been reported yet.*

Agence France Presse — English
September 22, 2004 Wednesday 2:28 AM GMT

Europe rendezvous: Art without borders for cultural impresario

STRASBOURG

As Europe forges ever tighter bonds, Dimitri Konstantinidis, whose
vocation makes him the embodiment of a European art without borders,
seems to have been constantly one step ahead.

“I am Greek, and also French from Alsace, but I feel equally at home
in Prague or anywhere else,” says the cultural impresario, and points
— almost accidentally — to his background to prove it.

Born at Kavala, on the Aegean Sea’s northern shore, with Turkey to
the east and the Balkan patchwork of nations to the north, he has
always seen borders as something you cross.

What then could be more natural for this former student of art
history than to settle in the border city of Strasbourg, itself a
cultural crossroads, and create Apollonia, the association of
European contemporary art?

“The urge to travel, to see what’s happening in the next field, came
to me young,” he said. “The chance to move on came when I was a
student, and I took it.”

The Soviet Union seemed to beckon — he was developing an interest in
Byzantine art — but in 1979, aged 19, he opted finally for eastern
France, partly on the recommendation of a Greek friend who was
already living there.

There, working for a regional cultural association while preparing a
doctorate on “the spatial concept in fifth and sixth century icons”,
he found himself rubbing shoulders “with lots of immigrants from
Poland, Italy and Portugal.”

>From a modest background, he could see “nothing cosmopolitan” about
his origins — but then recalled that his family hailed from Trabzon,
the eastern Turkish port city formerly called Trebizonde, “where
Greeks, Turks and Armenians used to live happily together” until
nationalist pressures led to the population exchanges of the 1920s.

Called upon to organise exhibitions of contemporary art, it was to
eastern Europe that he turned for inspiration, ingoring the Berlin
Wall which at that time still divided Europe into antagonist blocs.

Following a two-year break to do his military service in Greece —
“so as not to cut myself off from my country” — he was selected to
head Alsace’s Regional Contemporary Art Fund (FRAC).

Created in 1983, the body was set up to collect works of contemporary
art, largely for educational purposes.

“I realised that Alsace, and Strasbourg, because of their
geographical situation and the presence of the European institutions,
had a particular role to play. I thought I had to do something,” he
said.

This “something” took the form of an “inventory of contemporary
culture of the Eastern European states,” a project funded by the
Council of Europe (one of several European bodies located in
Strasbourg) and featuring 250 artists from 17 countries in a series
of exhibitions.

Not all local deputies were enamoured of Konstantinidis’ efforts to
give the FRAC a “European dimension”, and in 1989 he left to create
his own association, Apollonia, as a “platform for European artistic
exchanges” with a strong focus on central and eastern Europe, the
Balkans and the southern Caucasus.

Since then Konstantinidis has been crossing borders to his heart’s
content, travelling from one country to another to seek out artists
whose works can be exhibited in Strasbourg and elsewhere.

Apollonia’s current show is representative, a collection of
contemporary Polish work themed around “the quest for identity” and
scheduled to travel on to Greece and Poland.

To facilitate cross-border initiatives of this kind, Konstantinidis
is pushing for the creation of a common status for associations that
would harmonise their administrative situation throughout the EU and
“promote cultural pluralism in Europe.”

RIA Novosti, Russia
Sept 22 2004

ARMENIA TO SEND DOCTORS & ENGINEERS TO IRAQ: FOREIGN MINISTER

YEREVAN, September 22 (RIA Novosti’s Hamlet Matevosyan) – Armenia is
willing to send military doctors and engineers to Iraq-but not before
parliament debates and approves the prospect, Vardan Oskanyan,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, said to the media.

Presidents Robert Kocharyan of Armenia and Aleksander Kwasniewski of
Poland signed a bilateral security cooperation agreement, September
6. It envisages an Armenian contingent of fifty-doctors, engineers
and drivers-dispatched to Iraq toward this year’s end or early next
year, to join Polish-commanded coalition troops.

The Armenian government determined to have a contingent in Iraq as
“Armenia feels part and parcel of Europe, however small and remote
from [a greater part of] Europe it may be,” said Serge Sarkisyan,
Defence Minister.

The Communist and Democratic parties are offering bitter opposition,
and qualify the prospect as “a dangerous headlong move”.

The government decision clashes with Armenia’s national interests and
undermines its security. Endangered the worst will be a 25,000 strong
Armenian ethnic community in Iraq, and all ethnic Armenians resident
in other Muslim countries, argue Democrats.

The Dashnaktsutyun political party, on the coalition in office, is
also alarmed with the decision to have an Armenian contingent in
Iraq.

The Armenian-Polish agreement is now for the National Assembly,
Armenian parliament, to ratify. The chance to dispatch peacekeepers
will soon come up for debates, says Speaker Arthur Bagdasaryan. The
matter concerns only a small force-by no means a large contingent, he
reassures.

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
September 19, 2004

UE: PRODI IN ARMENIA, SPINGERE AVANTI PROCESSO RIFORME ;
ULTIMA GIORNATA DI VISITA REGIONI CAUCASO DEL SUD

BRUXELLES

(ANSA) – BRUXELLES, 19 SET – Nella sua ultima giornata di
visita nelle tre regioni del sud del Caucaso, la prima mai
compiuta da un presidente della Commissione Ue, Romano Prodi ha
invitato l’Armenia ad accelerare l’attuazione di riforme, cosi
come aveva gia’ fatto verso l’Azerbaijan e la Georgia.

“Molto resta da fare per promuovere la democrazia, i diritti
umani e lo Stato di diritto, consolidare le fondamenta per
un’economia di mercato e, soprattutto, risolvere i conflitti
nella regione”, ha detto Prodi, in un discorso pronunciato
davanti a studenti e rappresentanti della societa’ civile
armena, il cui testo e’ stato diffuso a Bruxelles.

Prodi ha ricordato la decisione presa in giugno dal vertice
Ue di invitare l’Armenia, la Georgia e l’Azerbaijan ad aderire
al programma di ‘politica europea di buon vicinato’, destinato a
gettare dei ponti tra l’Ue allargata e i suoi vicini.

La Commissione Ue sta ora preparando un rapporto sulla
situazione dei tre paesi. “Alla fine di quest’anno – ha detto
Prodi – dovremmo avere fatto progressi sostanziali nella
valutazione dei tre paesi della regione”. Il rapporto giochera
“un ruolo chiave” nel definire il piano di azione di Bruxelles
verso ciascun paese. “Pertanto raccomando fortemente l’Armenia
di preparare il terreno per una decisione positiva, facendo fare
al processo di riforme sostanziali passi in avanti nei prossimi
mesi”, ha affermato il presidente. (ANSA).