Author: Vasilian Manouk

MINSK GROUP AND OSCE MONITORING MISSION TO BEGIN REGIONAL VISIT FROM
ARMENIA

Azg/arm
25 Jan 05

Last week, Minsk group co-chairs and the OSCE Monitoring Mission
(including representatives of Italy, Finland, Sweden and Germany) met
in Vienna to specify the details of their regional visit envisaged on
this week. Andzej Kasprchyk, personal representative of the OSCE
chairman, said in the interview to Free Azerbaijan TV that they are
going to discuss all the details of the monitoring mission in the
course of the meeting in Vienna, including the issue of appointing the
head of the mission.

On January 20, Kasprchyk met with the Azeri foreign minister in
Baku. After the two-hour meeting Elmar Mammediarov told the
journalists that “after visiting the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan,” the monitoring mission will prepare a report on
inhabiting these regions by the Armenians. “Let’s wait and see what
kind of a report it will be. Let the mission accumulate facts and we
will see what will happen,” Mammediarov said.

It hasn’t been decided which regions under the control of Karabakh
forces will be visited by the monitoring mission. It has been
preliminarily announced that they will visit Qelbajar, Lachin,
Jebrail, Ghubatlu and Zangelan regions. The monitoring mission is
expected to gather in Yerevan on January 28 and leave for Stepanakert.

Masis Mailian, NKR deputy foreign minister, stated that “Stepanakert
positively evaluates the OSCE monitoring mission’s visit to
NagornoKarabakh. We will spare no efforts to contribute to the
monitoring mission”. “We have nothingto hide from the international
community and we are ready to show the OSCE mo nitoring mission both
the regions in the territory of NKR and all the regions under the
control of our forces situated out of our borders,” Mailian said.

Mailian reminded that Stepanakert has invited such missions to NKR for
many times to deny Azerbaijan’s accusations addressed to NKR.

By Tatoul Hakobian

UN on Holocaust: evil wins when the good are quiet

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Those who incite hatred and mass
murder are not always extremists but men of culture, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan told world leaders in opening the first-ever General
Assembly commemoration of the World War Two Holocaust.

The special memorial, at which survivors and the foreign ministers of
Israel, Germany, France, Argentina, Armenia, Canada and Luxembourg are
scheduled to speak, is a memorial to the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi Germany death camp.

The session began with a minute of silent prayer.

“How could such evil happen in a cultured and highly sophisticated
nation-state in the heart of Europe whose artists and thinkers had
given the world so much,” Annan asked. “Truly is has been said: “All
that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.”

“The purveyors of hatred, were not always and may not be in the
future, only marginalized extremists,” he said.

Although the world rightly says “never again,” action is harder. Since
the Holocaust genocide has occurred in Cambodia, in Rwanda and the
former Yugoslavia, he said.

And at this moment, “terrible things are happening today in Darfur,
Sudan,” Annan said. He asked the Security Council to take action once
it received a report on Tuesday determining whether genocide has
occurred and identifying gross violations of human rights.

During World War Two, the word “concentration” camp was a euphuism for
exterminating an entire people, including Roma or Gypsies, Poles,
Soviet war prisoners, homosexuals and political opponents, Annan said.

A MILLION CHILDREN

But, he said the tragedy of the murder of 6 million Jews was unique,
with two-thirds of European Jews including 1.5 million children
murdered.

Jorge Semprun, a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp in
Germany, addresses the session as the representative of Spain’s
Foreign Ministry, as will Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, a survivor.

Paul Wolfowitz, the U.S. deputy secretary of states, is leading the
U.S. delegation. Italy sent its speaker of the senate and Russia,
whose troops freed Auschwitz at the end of the war in 1945, is
represented by its human rights commissioner.

The liberation of Auschwitz is to be observed this year as Holocaust
Memorial Day, with world leaders attending ceremonies in Poland on
Jan. 27.

The major powers knew of and discussed the Nazi mass murder of Jews
but did not take measures against it, such as bombing the railways
leading to the camps. Holocaust researchers have pressured the
Vatican to open its archives, hoping to learn whether such information
reached the pope from priests in the field.”

To accompany the assembly session, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan
Shalom opens an exhibit of photos and sketches from the Auschwitz
camp, called “The Depth of the Abyss”, including some 60 sketches by
Zinovii Tolkatchev, a private in the Soviet Red Army who drew them at
the time of the liberation of the Majdanek and Auschwitz camps.

They were donated to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance,
documentation, research center, by his daughter and son in Kiev, Anel
and Ilya Tolkatchev.

At a breakfast for survivors New York’s two U.S. senators, Hillary
Clinton and Charles Shumer attended, along with Henry Kissinger, a
former secretary of state and a German refugee.

Also at the event was Congressman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat
who was saved from death by Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who
rescued tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary. Wallenberg is the uncle
of Annan’s wife, Nane.

The meeting was requested by U.S. Ambassador John Danforth in a letter
on Dec. 9, and backed by Russia, the European Union, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand. Annan polled member states and 138 nations in the
191-member assembly agreed.

01/24/05 14:08 ET

Fresno Bee (California)
January 20, 2005, Thursday FINAL EDITION

Ohanyan’s Corner Family-run deli has offered Armenian foods for 25
years.

Paula Lloyd THE FRESNO BEE

The pungent smell of spices and the rhythmic thump of a
sausage-making machine fill Ohanyan’s Deli on a recent chilly
morning. The small family-run delicatessen, market and manufacturing
plant has been a fixture at Shields and West avenues for 25 years.

Markos Garabetyan kept the name of the previous owner when he bought
the shop. A deli case is stocked with Armenian sausages made in the
small manufacturing plant in the back of the building.

Garabetyan came to America from his native Turkey in 1976.

His son, Hayik Garabetyan, 32, has worked in the family business
since he was 8. He left college to join the family business. The best
education, he says, “is hands-on experience.”

Hayik Garabetyan’s uncle, Jerry Hancer, and cousin, Robert Hancer,
also run the family business, which includes a plant at Ashlan and
Valentine avenues where pasta and dried meat are made.

“We sell to all the other Armenian delis in town,” Hayik Garabetyan
says, and in turn Ohanyan’s Deli carries pastries and breads from
local Armenian bakeries.

The shelves at Ohanyan’s are stocked with Armenian and Middle Eastern
foods, including dry bulk lentils, rice, bulgur and garbanzo beans,
cans of grape leaves, jars of Armenian cucumber pickles and preserves
made from eggplant, pumpkin or rose petals.

The neighborhood has changed around the small shop.

“I’ve seen kids grow up here who come in,” Hayik Garabetyan says, but
his father expresses frustration at the way he says the neighborhood
has shifted.

Walking out to the alley behind the store, Markos Garabetyan points
to trash against his building and graffiti on a nearby fence.

“The rent is cheaper than up north, but my customers complain,” he
says about trash and panhandlers. “When I started, there was a lot of
call for retail.”

“Every day varies,” Hayik Garabetyan says. “Sometimes it’s busy. For
the holidays, it’s mainly for the products we sell.”

But customers still come in for sandwiches. Above the counter is a
sign advertising a lunch special: a turkey sandwich, soda and baklava
for $4.

“You cannot buy that in town anywhere,” says Markos Garabetyan with a
grin. “We try to bring the customers. Is business trick.”

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or or at (559)
441-6756.

GRAPHIC: PHOTOS BY TOMAS OVALLE — THE FRESNO BEE Hayik Garabetyan
makes a sandwich at Ohanyan’s. Garabetyan has been in the family
business since age 8.
Shields and West avenues in Fresno is the site of Ohanyan’s, which
includes a deli, market and manufacturing plant.

Agence France Presse
19 janvier 2005 mercredi 7:55 AM GMT

Charles Aznavour :”j’ai fait une carrière inespérée mais exemplaire”
(TROIS QUESTIONS)

BIARRITZ

Charles Aznavour, qui a récemment fêté ses 80 ans sur scène,
interprète avec justesse un “Père Goriot” dévoré par la passion pour
ses deux filles parfaitement ingrates.

– Question : Pourquoi ce rôle?

– Réponse : “Jeune, j’avais lu le roman et j’ai vu deux films. Je lis
beaucoup, j’ai commencé par complexe et je termine par plaisir.
J’aime faire de la télévision, cela va avec mon ge. Au lieu de faire
un film de trois mois on travaille quatre semaines. J’aimerais jouer
des rôles sortis de la littérature, comme un Simenon. Les personnages
littéraires permettent d’avoir un adaptateur qui vous donnent un
langage différent et, né dans une famille où on ne parlait pas le
français, je me complais dans la langue française(…) Je ne suis pas
compliqué, je rentre dans un rôle et ne peux expliquer comment je
l’ai joué. Je refuse le maquillage (…) Dans la vie, je suis
mère-poule, mais Goriot est pire que moi”.

– Q. : Vous sentez-vous plus comédien que chanteur?

– R. : “Je réalise mes rêves. Je trouve que j’ai fait une carrière
inespérée mais exemplaire. Tout est une question de chance. Je suis
autodidacte. Au départ je voulais être comédien et je n’ai commencé à
bien gagner ma vie qu’en 1946. Aujourd’hui, je ne fais pas partie des
gros cachets de la télévision mais de la chanson. Le métier de
comédien, c’est ma danseuse. Je peux me payer ce luxe. Mais je me
juge toujours et je ne me trouve jamais assez bon. On ne fait pas ce
métier si on n’est pas un peu dur avec soi”.

– Q. : Vous retournez souvent en Arménie?

– R. : “C’est le pays de mes ancêtres mais je n’ai pas besoin d’y
aller souvent. Quand on parle d’intégration réussie, on cite souvent
deux noms, Zidane et moi. Cela me fait plaisir, même si je suis né à
Paris. L’accent arménien, curieusement c’est le même que l’accent
turc (..). L’intégration, c’est d’abord l’acceptation (…) J’ai
réussi ma vie d’homme. J’ai écrit mes mémoires, et j’écris des
nouvelles, c’est ce qu’il y a de plus proche de la chanson.”

Armenian Assembly of America
122 C Street, NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:

PRESS RELEASE
January 19, 2005
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Email: [email protected]

SENATOR ALLEN RAISES COMMUNITY CONCERNS WITH SECRETARY OF STATE
NOMINEE RICE

Washington, DC – The Armenian Assembly commended longtime Armenian
issues supporter Senator George Allen (R-VA) today for raising several
key community concerns, ranging from U.S. assistance to Armenia to
regional stability in the Caucasus, with Secretary of State-designate
Condoleezza Rice during her Senate confirmation hearing.

Allen, as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing
testimony from Rice, told the Assembly that a series of questions were
submitted for the record and that he is looking forward to receiving
Rice’s response, pending her Senate approval.

“We thank Senator Allen for taking the initiative to raise several
pertinent community issues with Dr. Rice on the occasion of her
confirmation hearing and join him in awaiting her answers,” said
Executive Director Ross Vartian.

Allen’s questions highlighted the following subjects: asymmetrical
military assistance to Azerbaijan and Armenia in Fiscal Year 2005,
Azerbaijan’s continuing threats against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh,
regional security and the Turkish border blockade and the Armenian
Genocide.

The Senator also submitted three questions on the Administration’s FY
2005 budget request to Congress last year requesting $8.75 million in
military assistance to Azerbaijan and only $2.75 million for Armenia.
Allen initially raised the disparity issue last March during a Foreign
Relations Committee hearing and again last July during the nomination
hearing for Ambassador John Evans, explaining that such a difference
would undermine progress between the neighboring countries. By the
end of the year, Congress ultimately voted to provide equal levels of
military assistance ($8.75 million) to both countries.

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
organization.

###

NR#2005-006

Photograph available on the Assembly’s Web site at the following link:

CAPTION: Senator George Allen (R-VA)

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 19 2005

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO TOUR SOUTH CAUCASUS IN FEBRUARY

MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov announced at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday that he
plans to visit Georgia on February 18.

The minister stated that during the visit he would discuss with
Georgian leadership the so-called “grand treaty” between Russia and
Georgia and a variety of other bilateral issues. “One of the issues
on the agenda is the creation of anti-terrorist centers with the use
of existing infrastructure, including Russian military bases,” the
minister said answering the questions posed by Georgian journalists.

“Unfortunately, the talks on the “grand treaty” have been stalled for
several months. In the near future, we will resume the discussions
with the Georgian side on the entire range of bilateral relations in
order to expedite the work on the treaty,” Mr. Lavrov noted, adding
that the contacts between Russian and Georgian representatives would
start even before his visit to Tbilisi.

According to Mr. Lavrov, the interaction between Russian and Georgian
frontier guards must continue to prevent terrorists from using the
Pankisi Gorge for accomplishing their goals.

He reminded that Russian and Georgian frontier guards recently
established cooperation in this area, which brought concrete results,
but could not solve all problems.

“This cooperation must continue to prevent terrorists from using the
Pankisi Gorge as their base and recuperation area,” he said.

The problem of re-establishing railroad transportation between Russia
and Armenia can be solved in the context of the development of the
entire range of Russian-Georgian relations, Mr. Lavrov believes.

“The re-establishment of railroad transportation does not depend on
Russia but rather on some of our neighbors,” he stated. “It can be
solved in the context of general development of relations with
Georgia,” Mr. Lavrov said.

Speaking about his February visit to Yerevan, the Russian foreign
minister announcedthat he would discuss with Armenian leadership the
issues of bilateral relations in the context of their participation
in the CIS and CSTO. In particular, the sides will touch upon the
reforms of the CIS following the results of the consultations
conducted with the Armenian leadership in Yerevan.

Mr. Lavrov also plans to visit Azerbaijan on February 2 to discuss
the preparation of the upcoming visit of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
to Moscow. “We will focus on the preparation of the Azeri President’s
visit to Russia in the second half of February,” Mr. Lavrov said.

In addition, he noted that during his visit to Azerbaijan, the sides
would discuss issues of bilateral cooperation and CIS reforms.

Mr. Lavrov did not disregard the possibility that the sides might
also touch upon the issue of Nagorny-Karabakh settlement.

“Recently, we had certain positive developments in the situation
after the meeting between Armenian and Azeri presidents in Astana
(Kazakhstan) mediated by the Russian president Vladimir Putin,” Mr.
Lavrov emphasized.

The Russian foreign minister reiterated Russia’s attitude toward the
situation around Nagorny-Karabakh and pointed out that Russia is
interested that the sides find the fastest and mutually-acceptable
solution of the long-lasting conflict.

BISNIS Trades & Tenders
12/30/04 – 01/18/05

This issue of BISNIS Trades & Tenders includes opportunities in:

– Agribusiness
– Chemicals
– Food Processing and Equipment

** Companies replying to these leads should consider using the BISNIS
FinanceLink program, which distributes information about planned
transactions seeking financing to organizations open to financing
business activities in the region. Please see:
**

************************************************************************
AGRIBUSINESS LEADS

Ale Profil LLC – Corn and sunflower oil
Yerevan, Armenia

For more information on the Agribusiness Sector in the NIS, please
contact Charles Raether at BISNIS at [email protected]

=================================================CHEMICALS LEADS

Geocolor Ltd – Alkyd Tbilisi 0154 Georgia

Geocolor Ltd – Titanium dioxide Tbilisi 0154 Georgia

For more information on the Chemicals Sector in the NIS, please contact
David Mullins at BISNIS at [email protected]

=================================FOOD PROCESSING AND EQUIPMENT LEADS

Nomad Express – Juice processing line (used)
Yerevan 375019, Armenia

For more information on the Food Processing and Equipment Sector in the
NIS, please contact Charles Raether at BISNIS at [email protected]

**Note*******************************************************************

These opportunities are provided solely as an informational service and
do not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Verification of these leads is the responsibility of the reader.

This report is provided courtesy of the Business Information Service for
the Newly Independent States (BISNIS). BISNIS is the U.S. Government’s
primary resource center for U.S. companies exploring business
opportunities in Russia and other Newly Independent States of the former
Soviet Union. BISNIS website:

Russian defence minister urges allies to preserve unified military
training system

RIA news agency
17 Jan 05

MOSCOW

Russia intends to spare no effort to preserve the unified system of
military training both within the framework of the ODKB [Collective
Security Treaty Organization, comprising Russia, Belarus, Armenia,
Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan] and with Kazakhstan in
particular, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov told journalists
after the Kazakh Dostyk order was presented to him.

“This award is an advance recognition of my modest contribution to the
cause of strengthening military cooperation between Russia and
Kazakhstan,” he said. According to the minister, he often meets his
Kazakh counterpart [Mukhtar Altynbayev] to discuss ways to step up
security.

Sergey Ivanov said an ODKB treaty under which prices for arms
deliveries are determined by Russia’s domestic prices came into force
in January 2005. “Russia will spare no efforts to ensure that the
unified system of military training is preserved,” Sergey Ivanov said.

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

JANUARY 7-13, 2005

HIGHLIGHTS:

THE QUESTIONABLE GIGAHERTZES

ONLY ONE OF NEARLY 40 FREQUENCIES REMAINS UNWANTED

JOURNALIST’S POWER SUPPLY INTERRUPTED

PRACTICAL GUIDE TO HUMANITARIAN LAW

THE QUESTIONABLE GIGAHERTZES

On January 12, 2005 the National Commission on Television and Radio
announced broadcast licensing competitions for frequency diapasons of
2300-2400 MHz and 2500-2700 MHz of Yerevan. The deadline for the bids in the
competitions is on April 11, 2005. The bids will be considered by the
National Commission on April 22.

The frequencies presented for the competition have a pre-history of their
own. In September last year the press questioned the legitimacy of the
launch of the so-called “supersystem”, owned by “A UP” company that got an
opportunity to rebroadcast 50 TV channels in GHz diapason. The permission
for re-broadcasting was issued by the Republican Telecommunications Center
of the RA Ministry of Transportation and Communication. On its behalf, the
National Commission on Television and Radio insisted to license these
frequencies by competition (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, September
17-23, 2004).

The dispute progressed into litigation: the suit of NCTR contained a demand
to annul the permission, issued to “A UP” company by the Republican
Telecommunications Center. On December 2 the court of primary jurisdiction
of Center and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan approved the reconciliation
agreement between NCTR, the Ministry of Transportation and Communication,
Republican Telecommunications Center and “A UP” LLC. According to the
agreement signed, the Ministry and the Republican Telecommunications Center,
as one of its subdivisions, refused from claiming the 2300-27000 MHz
diapason and annulled their previous resolutions on the broadcasting
activities of “A UP”. The right to the diapason was stipulated to belong to
NCTR that assumed a commitment of announcing a competition for it.

As noted above, the applicants and winners for these frequencies will be
determined in spring. Yet, notably, the “supersystem” is being advertised on
Armenian TV air, with particular intensity on New Year’s Eve. The viewers
are informed how, even today, one can watch several dozens of channels.

ONLY ONE OF NEARLY 40 FREQUENCIES REMAINS UNWANTED

On December 27, 2004 the National Commission on Television and Radio
considered the bids submitted to the broadcast licensing competitions
announced on September 16. As it has been reported, five vacant UHFs in a
number of Armenian cities were put on the competitions: 22nd in
Yeghegnadzor, 22nd in Spitak, 26th in Dilijan, 33rd in Gyumri and 36th in
Vardenis (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 10-16, 2004).

Three frequencies received one application each: 22nd in Yeghegnadzor was
claimed by “Dzori Kanch” LLC, 33rd in Gyumri – “CHAP” LLC, and 36th in
Vardenis – “SAMELON” LLC. The 22nd frequency of Spitak is contested by three
LLCs – “Anna ev Karen”, “Medea Soft”, “Alik-Arman”. The competition for 26th
frequency of Dilijan was annulled because of absence of bidders.

At the same session of December 27 NCTR made a decision of granting several
vacant frequencies in various regions of the country to the Public Radio of
Armenia for its programs. Another set of vacant frequencies was granted to
the Public Television of Armenia – for broadcasting the programs of the
First Channel and the youth channel “Nor Alik”.

On December 28 the National Commission considered the bids submitted for
other broadcast licensing competitions, announced on September 17. As it has
been reported, the competitions presented the 30th UHF in Artashat , two FMs
in Yerevan (100.6 and 101.1 MHz), as well as two FM-packages in a number of
Armenian cities. The first package includes eight frequencies, the second –
twenty frequencies (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 17-23,
2004).

The only bidder for the 30th frequency in Artashat was “Telelex” TV company.

“MS Explorer” LLC filed applications for the two FMs in the capital. It
should be noted that its founders are “A1+” TV company (deprived of air
since April 2002) and Center “Cooperation for Democracy” NGO. Besides “MS
Explorer”, the 100.6 MHz of Yerevan is claimed by “Avrora” radio, and 101.1
MHz – by “Avtoradio”.

The package of 8 FMs got only one application – from
“ArRadioIntercontinental”. The package of 20 FMs is claimed by “Van” radio
station and Radio “HAY”.

The results of all the competitions will be announced by the National
Commission on February 14, 2005.

JOURNALIST’S POWER SUPPLY INTERRUPTED

On December 24, 2004, “Haikakan Zhamanak” daily published a report that on
December 23 the Chief Editor of the newspaper Nikol Pashinian addressed a
letter to the RA General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepian. By this address the
Chief Editor petitioned the Prosecutor to institute criminal proceedings on
the illegitimate stoppage of power supply in the flat of “Haikakan Zhamanak”
correspondent Avetis Babajanian, who resides in Armavir. In the opinion of
the newspaper, the reason for the power supply interruption of the
journalist’s flat was his article “Cold and Dark Days of Armavir” (“Haikakan
Zhamanak” of December 18). The publication was critical of the activities of
“Musaler”, the Armavir branch of “Electric Networks of Armenia” CJSC. It
told, in particular, about the periodical power supply interruptions in
dozens of villages of the region that started after the appointment of the
new director of “Musaler”. On December 23 the newspaper noted that the power
supply of Avetis Babajanian’s flat was interrupted on the command of
“Musaler” director.

As Avetis Babajanian informed YPC, the power supply of his flat was resumed
on December 24. The journalist also noted that criminal proceedings on the
incident were instituted basing on the letter of “Haikakan Zhamanak” Editor,
which, as he learned from unofficial sources, were stopped due to absence of
corpus delicti.

PRACTICAL GUIDE TO HUMANITARIAN LAW

The “News” section of YPC web-site () features a presentation
article on the Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law, published by “Medecins
Sans Frontieres” international humanitarian organization.

When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.

You are welcome to send any comment and feedback about the Newsletter to:
[email protected]

Subscription for the Newsletter is free. To subscribe or unsubscribe from
this mailing list, please send a message to: [email protected]

Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
375007, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 1) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 1) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site:

Kavkaz Center, Turkey
Jan 6 2005

Russia is doomed

The words that are in the heading are not a fruit of the author’s
imagination, but it is a quite substantiated prediction based on
specific figures and facts, which are a subject of discussion right
in Russia today. It is a matter of catastrophic demographic
situation.

Ethnic Russian population of the Russian Federation is rapidly
decreasing. Entire cities and villages are ceasing to exist due to
the lack of population in them. According to official figures of
National Forum, «Present and Future of Russia’s Population», which
took place in Moscow last month, 11,000 villages and 290 cities have
disappeared from the map of the Russian Federation. 13,000 villages
are still on the map, but they remained with no inhabitants in them.
Two villages are disappearing in Russia each day, which in one year
is equal to a small province.

Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development of Russia, Vladimir
Starodubtsev, said that Russia’s population has decreased by 9
million over the last 10 years. Moreover, depopulation affected
virtually entire Russia. Even according to understated figures, the
number of the Russian population is decreasing 700 to 800 thousand
each year (other reports show that the figure is 1.2 million a year).
Since 1992 death rate among Russians exceeded birth rate and the
difference has only been increasing ever since then.

Male death rate in Russia is one of the highest in the world. At the
same time 30% of the dead are men of working years. Average life of
men is 13 years less than that among women (women – 72 years, men –
58.8 years). Main reasons are alcoholism, oncology (cancer), traumas
and poisonings. Deaths from abuse of alcohol in Russia skyrocketed
3.5 times over the past 5 years. Suicide rate exceeds Central
European figures 2.5 times among males and 1.5 times among females.
In Russia there are twice as many deaths in traffic accidents as
there are in European states.

Russian youth ages 15 to 19 started dying 40 % more often. Out of
today’s generation of 16-year-olds, only 54 % will live until they
reach their retirement age.

In 1998 for the first time the number of retirees in Russia exceeded
the number of children and juveniles under 16 by 110,000. For January
1, 2004, this number has grown to 4.2 million. Right now the number
of children under 14 is 2.5 times lower than the number of retirees
(10.6 and 27.2 million accordingly). According to the predictions
that have been made, starting the year 2006 the number of retirees
will be growing even more actively and by 2016 it will comprise 25%
of the entire Russian population.

According to the census of the Russian Federation, the number of
ethnic Russians was 104 million out of 144.2 million of the overall
population in Russia. Considering the fact that demographic figures
in Russia have always been considered to be a national security
issue, then proceeding from Soviet/Russian practice of demographic
overstatements, you can say for sure that the number of 104 ethnic
Russians is set too high and it’s already been quite a while since
the real number of ethnic Russians sank under the psychological mark
of 100 million.

The signs of apparent worsening of demographic situation for Russians
have been seen right in Moscow as well. This week Komsomolskaya
Pravda newspaper («Young Communist Truth») published the figures of
ethnic structure of the population of the Russian capital. Senior
research officer of Center for Geopolitical Research of Institute of
Geography under Russian Academy of Sciences, Olga Vendina, whose
research is based on the records from civil status registries in all
districts of Moscow over the years of 1993 – 2003, ‘ethnically
tinged’ neighborhoods have already been formed in Moscow. In these
parts of the city Russian population is constantly decreasing, while
the percentage of residents of other ethnic backgrounds is
systematically increasing. Furthermore, it is in Moscow’s historical
center, where birthrate among non-Russian population is considerably
higher than birthrate among Russians, who are being naturally ousted
to the capital’s outskirts.

The largest ethnic diasporas in Moscow, whose numbers are constantly
growing due to sharp increase of newborns throughout the last 10
years are Azeris, Tatars, Armenians and Ukrainians. At the same time
each 5th Russian woman marries a man from the Caucasus.

But that’s not all. About a year ago Novye Izvestiya (‘New Tidings’)
newspaper published some figures about ethnical structure of Russia,
compiled by Jewish University of Jerusalem based on the 2002 census.

According to that sensational document, in 2002 the number of Chinese
population in Russia reached almost 3.5 million, and thus the Chinese
have now taken the fourth place in Russia’s population, following
Russians (104 million), Tatars (7.2 million), and Ukrainians (5.1
million). 15 years ago there were only 5 thousand Chinese living in
Russia.

According to the predictions made by the experts, by the year 2013
every fourth person in Russia will be a Chinese.

In this short material we quoted only a few facts that are recognized
in Russia and that are not propagandistic exercises of Kavkaz
Center’s journalists, as Moscow likes to be claiming. Anyone can draw
his/her own conclusions from these facts. And in conclusion, we would
like to quite the Holy Koran:

«But if you turn back, then indeed I have delivered to you the
message with which I have been sent to you, and my Lord will bring
another people in your place, and you cannot do Him any harm; surely
my Lord is the Preserver of all things».
(The Koran 11/57).

Said Ibrahayev,

for Kavkaz Center