Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

ARSHILE GORKY’S REMAINS TO BE REBURIED IN ARMENIA

ArmenPress
May 19 2004

YEREVAN, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS: Badal Badalian, the chairman of a
Yerevan-based Arshile Gorky Foundation, told Armenpress today that one
of the biggest dreams of the artist was “to return home and mix with
Armenian soil.” He said to this effect the Foundation will organize
a range of fund-raising events and get the permission to transport
his remains to Armenia.

One of the most famous contemporary artists, the founder of Abstract
Surrealism, Gorky was described by Andre Breton as the most important
painter in American history. He was born in Western Armenia, in
the village of Khorgom on the banks of Lake Van. In 1915, Gorky
(Vostanik Adoyan) escaped Turkish massacres with thousands of others
refugees. After his mother died of famine, he headed for the US. His
whole life in the new country, which ended in suicide, consisted of
years of hard work and bitter struggle.

Tragically enough, the years in which his art was ascending to its
greatest heights were also the darkest in his life. His marriage was
disintegrating; he was operated on for colon cancer, and he lost many
works in a studio fire.

Badalian said his opinion is that the remains, if brought to Armenia,
must be reburied at Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, erected in a hill in
Yerevan in commemoration of the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide,
but added that the final word belongs to the government.

He said on July 21, the day when Gorky committed suicide, a pilgrimage
will be organized to his native village of Khorgom in Turkey, apart
from a poster campaign across Armenia to make Gorky’s name familiar
to all Armenians. One of Gorky’s paintings was sold last year at
$3.5 million.

US CITIZEN KILLED IN YEREVAN

18.05.2004 13:36

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the evening of May 17 US citizen Joshua Haglund
was killed in the center of Yerevan. As reported by the Police of
Armenia, the 33-year-old Haglund’s body with knife wounds was found
in one of the yards adjoining Sayat Nova Street. The Police does not
report about the professional activities of the victim. Meanwhile,
according to the some information, English language specialist
J. Haglund worked in the US Embassy in Armenia. In its turn the US
Embassy thereupon refrains from comments.

Akdamar Church in Ruins

ZAMAN 05.14.2004, By Ahmet Ãœnal, Van

Link: ;alt=&hn=8549

Famous for its 10th century Church of the Holy Cross, the Akdamar
Church on the island of Akdamar in Lake Van’s is almost in ruins.

The church, which is visited by many foreign tourists, is worn out and
close to ruins. The church has been neglected and harmed by treasure
hunters and at risk of collapsing. Both its foundation and ceiling
have cracks and holes.

The City of Van’s Culture and Tourism Province Director, Bilal Sonmez,
told Zaman that a project for the preservation of the historical
identity of the church is already being prepared. Sonmez said that
the issue has already been transferred to the Culture and Nature
Assets Council and that the directorate is waiting for a decision.

Erdogan Acar, a tourist at the church, said that he was nervous to
walk around inside the church because of its near ruined condition. He
added, “We could prove that we are a great nation if we claim our
historical heritage.”

PRESS RELEASE

Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran and
the Cilician Catholicosate will meet in Antelias, Lebanon

ANTELIAS, LEBANON – The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia will host a
dialogue between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Catholicosate. The
first meeting took place in June 2000, in Tehran, Iran. His Holiness Aram I
took part in this meeting as the guest of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Antelias meeting will have two parts. The first part will deal with
theological, moral and social issues related to Christian-Muslim dialogue in
the context of Armeno-Iranian relations and collaboration. The second part
will include representatives from Christian and Muslim dialogue committees,
community leaders and other personalities from the region and will address
mainly issues related to Christian-Muslim collaboration.

Speaking about this conference His Holiness Aram I said: “This meeting is
important for two reasons: First, we have a large and well-established
community in Iran. Therefore, it is vitally important that we together
address issues and challenges pertaining to Armenian-Iranian co-existence.
Second, the world of today is one of dialogue, interaction and
interdependence. The globalized world challenges all religions to identify
and strengthen those common values which sustain the life of societies.
Within this context I consider Christian-Muslim dialogue of crucial
importance. We must accept and respect each other, and we must collaborate
together to face common moral evils that disintegrate our societies,
generate moral decay and distort the image of God in human beings”.

More than two hundred thousands Armenians live in Iran. They are mainly
centered in Tehran, Isfahan and Tabris. The Armenians constitute the largest
Christian minority in the country and they have two deputies in the
parliament.

##

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

Turkey, Azerbaijan to entrap Armenia by stage-by-stage option – paper

Ayots Ashkhar, Yerevan
14 May 04

Text of Vardan Grigoryan’s report by Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkhar
on 14 May headlined “Is the stage-by-state or package option a
trap?” and subheaded “What should Armenia do?”

To all appearances, the recent developments in the region have boosted
the hope of Azerbaijani diplomacy for the stage-by-stage option of
the Karabakh issue settlement.

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov’s statements that the Istanbul
summit of NATO will give rise to Armenian-Turkish-Azerbaijani
trilateral talks with a resolution on “returning the seven districts
in return for the opening of the railway” testifies to this. In turn,
Ankara is continuing to express “its effusion of love” for Armenia,
and the circles that represent Turkish business have started a wide
propaganda campaign about serious prospects for Armenia if trilateral
Turkey-Armenia-Azerbaijan trade is restored.

Against the background of such developments, Armenia’s very
careful attitude to possible negotiations between Armenia, Turkey
and Azerbaijan also draws attention. And the most important thing is
that along with stressing the significance of Armenia’s cooperation
with NATO, President Robert Kocharyan declines to go to Istanbul due
to the fact that Armenian-Turkish relations are not good today.

We think that in order to understand the real reasons behind these
events, it is necessary to take the priorities of US policy as the main
engine that will change the regional status quo. In the regional sense,
the “sly step” of US policy is not at all a quick settlement to the
Karabakh issue, but a drastic change in the geo-political situation
in Armenia and in the whole region by opening the Armenian-Turkish
border. They often say that the Armenian-Turkish border will open
at the end of 2004, and this date coincides with the date for the
negotiations on Turkey’s entry into the European Union.

It is clear that the USA’s harshly-worded demands are added to the
demands of the European Union here. What does the fulfilment of such
a demand mean for Turkey, if it is not to lose its younger brother
Azerbaijan? So how to find a happy medium? It is clear and simple: to
connect the problem of opening the Armenian-Turkish border with the
settlement of the Karabakh issue. But how to set this settlement in
motion, if Azerbaijan, as a party that has lost the war, is not ready
for it because of the inevitability of serious losses it will have
according to any “package” [solution]. In any case, there is an option
called a stage-by-stage option under which Azerbaijan and Armenia
will cede something to each other, saving Turkey as a result. With
this aim, Azerbaijan (i.e. Turkey) is putting forward the idea of
returning the seven districts in return for the opening of the railway.

We are sure that under Turkey’s “pressure”, this figure may be reduced
even to “five districts in return for the opening of the railway”. But
this is not important. The most important thing is that before opening
the Armenian-Turkish border, the settlement of the Karabakh issue
should be connected with the process of improving Armenian-Turkish
relations. Because if tomorrow Azerbaijan puts forward new demands
against Armenia, Turkey will immediately agree with them on the basis
of trilateral arrangements. Turkey will do the same, for instance
by demanding that Armenia give up on the international recognition
of the Armenian genocide, and after that, Azerbaijan will deny the
stage-by-stage arrangements in the Karabakh issue, i.e. block the
railway and keep the liberated territories in its hands.

This testifies to the fact that by applying the stage-by-stage option
for settling the Karabakh issue, Turkish diplomacy is simply luring
Armenia into a trap. So President Robert Kocharyan’s refusal to go to
Istanbul was the right step no matter what the reasons behind it. It
is also correct that Armenia refuses to take part in the trilateral
meeting of the foreign ministers with the mediation of Turkey. But we
think that one cannot be satisfied with this, because any trilateral
meeting of the three countries’ foreign ministers, irrespective of
Turkey’s mediation, will be used for connecting the opening of the
Armenian-Turkish border to the Karabakh issue settlement.

Armenian diplomacy is obliged to draw up another formula against
the Armenia-Turkey-Azerbaijan trilateral format, which will be again
based on the idea of lifting the blockade of transport ways. In this
sense, the Armenia-Turkey-Georgia option is preferable, and Russia’s
involvement in the process is an ideal option, leaving the Karabakh
issue only to the OSCE Minsk Group.

PanArmenian News
May 13 2004

PRAGUE, WARSAW, STRASBURG…

Next round of Karabakh talks may be more important.

The second meeting of the FMs of Armenia and Azerbaijan took place in
Strasbourg within the frames of the session of Foreign Ministers of
the Council of Europe member-countries. No information available
about the results of the meeting.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ We shall remind that the Azeri Minister said
recently that the most important issue to be discussed in Strasburg
was the possibility of exchange of territories for communications.
The matter concerns an idea according to which the Armenian forces
will cede to Azerbaijan seven regions that make a security zone
around the NKR, in exchange Baku removes the blockade. It should be
clarified that the activation of the communications is more important
for Azerbaijan and not so much for Armenia because the railway
passing via Meghri is the only way to have links with the enclave of
Nakhichevan. Thus, proposing such an interesting ”exchange”, in
Baku they should not expect any result.

However, President Aliyev confirmed on the eve of the meeting that
the idea would be discussed in Strasburg. The Russian co-chair of the
OSCE Minsk group Yuri Merzlyakov clarified the issue. He said that
the agenda of the meeting would be ”free”. Parties and co-chairs
may propose everything they want, according to him. However, if
Mamedyarov proposes the idea of the security zone in exchange for
restoration of railway communications, it does not mean that the
discussion will take place. The Armenian party has always stated it
is not going to discuss such proposals. The issue will be closed as
soon as Vartan Oskanyan voices the official position of the Armenian
party. So, there is an impression that Mamedyarov’s statement was
supposed only for the local audience.

And what was discussed in Strasburg? We shall remind that according
to Merzlyakov, the ideas proposed by mediators during the Paris
meeting of Ministers and discussed further on by Kocharian and Aliyev
were the subject of discussion. He said only that it was an attempt
to find a ”compromise variant between the package and stage-by-stage
versions” of the conflict settlement.

The approaches of the parties to the proposed ideas may become clear
during the next round of high level talks. And if a progress is
achieved, Kocharian and Aliyev will commission their delegates, Tatul
Margaryan and Araz Azimov, to continue the negotiations. By the way,
according to the press, the delegates did not meet separately in
Strasburg which means that the parties are not sure that Margaryan
and Azimov will have to continue the interrupted contacts.

WHERE A CITIZEN IS UNPROTECTED, STATEHOOD IS ENDANGERED

A1 Plus | 19:13:02 | 10-05-2004 | Social |

“Civil Will For and Against” initiative group on forum of social
organizations has today made a statement, which particularly says
irrespective of results of a possible dialogue between Opposition and
Authorities violence and breaches of human rights and basic freedoms in
Armenia are beyond political bargaining: {BR}

“We, the representatives of Armenia’s civil society not being for political
struggle and not laying claims to power, demand the Authorities:

1. to promptly release all the political prisoners;
2. to punish the persons having applied violence to journalists;
3. to punish the state officials having broken the Constitutional rights and
to condemn the phenomenon;
4. not to use the state and social institutions as tools for home political
struggle;
5. to make changes to the Law on “Meetings, Rallies and Marches”, bringing
it in correspondence with spirit and letter of human basic freedoms;
6. to provide the basic right of a citizen to get free information,
particularly to grant frequency to “A1+” TV Company”, the statement says.

AZERBAIJAN’S MILITARY MANOEUVRE ADVERSELY AFFECTS CASPIAN ISSUE, IRANIAN
DAILY SAYS

Shargh web site, Tehran,
2 May 04

The Republic of Azerbaijan is planning to perform a military manoeuvre
in the Caspian Sea in the coming days. Contrary to the remarks by the
commander of Azerbaijan’s Border Guards regarding the aims of the
manoeuvre in terms of evaluating the readiness of the border forces of
the Azerbaijan Republic in order to confront a possible violation of
its maritime borders, it seems that this military action is
commensurate with the deployment of NATO equipment in the areas close
to the northern borders of Iran and that the aims of the manoeuvres
are something else.

Holding military manoeuvres so soon after the recent Moscow
conference, during which the littoral states of the Caspian Sea
declared their verbal commitment to keep the Caspian Sea far from
militarization and help the establishment of a durable peace, is a
matter that can be studied from several points of view.

A long time ago, Aran and Shirvan were annexed forcefully by Tsarist
Russia and the name was changed to the Republic of Azerbaijan. The
policies of that republic in the later course of history were always
accompanied with the negation of the historical identities and always
affected the security of the northern borders of Iran. The leaders of
the Republic of Azerbaijan, which has fewer than 8 million population,
under the guidance of the late president of the Azerbaijan, Haydar
Aliyev, used the old doctrines of the former USSR to insist on the
common language of Azeris with Iranian Azerbaijan, as an element for
trying to separate this part of Iran from the rest of the country.

The Republic of Azerbaijan, since its independence from the 15
republics of the former USSR, has tried to regain old aims and has
tilted towards extraterritorial powers for financial and other
assistance. They have attracted 12.5m dollars from the White House and
Washington’s special budget to consolidate and equip the Azeri Navy
and bring it up to NATO standards, in line with the militarization of
the Caspian Sea. The military influence of the USA on the regional
countries around the Caspian Sea has been increasing under many
pretexts, like the training of military forces or holding
manoeuvres. For instance, every year we see the common manoeuvres by
the USA with regard to Kazakhstan. In order to increase the support
from the Republic of Azerbaijan, the USA has used its experience of
military and economic assistance programmes. The Americans have
presented warships and patrol boats to Azerbaijan. They are
consolidating their own presence in the region through a partner like
Azerbaijan to protect their oil interests. On the other side, the
Russian Federation, which had the reputation of a powerful military
presence in the Caspian Sea, has tried to enhance its military muscle
through holding naval manoeuvres. The great manoeuvre of the Russians
in the Port of Astrakhan, immediately after the summit of the littoral
states in Asgabat, was in the same line. The Russian Federation has
recently declared that it has to equip its forces in the Caspian Sea
with the latest military equipment.

Undoubtedly, Iran’s northern neighbours are taking advantage its
passive position. Relying on the great powers, they are trying to
enhance their military power in the Caspian Sea in order to gain more
advantages in there. They will be able to protect the security of the
pipelines under constructions, especially Baku-Ceyhan, which are
uneconomical routes designed to bypass Iran, as well as to pressure
Iran to go deeper into the passive mood and ignore its rights to oil
and gas in the Caspian Sea. This point gains importance when we notice
that four of the 14 main oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan are within
the 20 per cent limits that some Iranian politicians have set as the
acceptable share for Iran. Of course, Azerbaijan’s other allies, like
Turkey, which has 15 km of common border with Azerbaijan, and Israel,
are planning to expand the political, economic, and cultural influence
in the region, and they are supporting Azerbaijan from a military
point of view.

The reality is that, despite the failure of the repeated sessions and
conferences of the littoral states for devising a proper exploitation
plan in the Caspian Sea and the codification of joint military plans
in order to preserve the balance of naval power in the Caspian Sea,
can be followed by our authorities in order to protect the national
interests and facilitate the implementation of other plans. On the
other side, Iran’s power to affect the Karabakh and Talesh issues are
among Iran’s capacities that have not been used, and they can be
important in the preservation of stability along the maritime and land
borders and help Iran to play its natural and historical role.

Interfax
May 7 2004

Armenia raises $5.6 mln from gold reserves sale

Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenia raised 3 billion dram (about $5.6
million) in net profit for the country’s budget from the sale of gold
reserves, Central Bank of Armenia Chairman Tigran Sarkisyan told the
press.

Armenia sold its entire gold reserve of 1,396.5 kilograms, estimated
at $17.1 million on October 1 2003 and forming part of the country’s
international reserves, at the end of 2003.

The sale was made in accordance with the international reserve
management strategy and had the approval of the Central Bank of
Armenia board, Sarkisyan said. The Armenian government made
transaction through international dealers when the price of gold
topped $400 per troy ounce.

When foreign debt is double the volume of international reserves,
there is no need for a gold reserve because debt payments are made in
dollars, euros or SDR, Sarkisyan said.

Sarkisyan would not say whether the Central Bank would buy gold again
if international prices dropped.

The Finance Ministry reported that foreign debt on January 1 2004
totaled $1.097 billion and international reserves amounted to $512
million.

Armenian opposition ready for dialogue with authorities

Arminfo
5 May 04

YEREVAN

The opposition Justice bloc and the National Unity Party are ready to
start dialogue with the Armenian authorities, in particular, with
President Robert Kocharyan and Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan, the
Justice bloc and the National Unity Party said in a statement
forwarded to Arminfo news agency today.

The statement said the opposition took this decision because of the
deepening political crisis in the country after the presidential
elections in 2003 and because it realizes its responsibility for
leading the country towards democracy without any excesses. The
resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) about the political situation in Armenia was instrumental in
making the opposition take this decision.

The statement also noted that the opposition intends to accept the
speaker of parliament, Artur Bagdasaryan’s proposal to continue the
political consultations which will be resumed on 6 May. The Justice
bloc and the National Unity Party promised to abstain from organizing
rallies in the Armenian capital during the next 10 days. But, the
opposition will resume its protest actions in the country unless an
agreement is reached with the authorities, the statement said.