Author: Zaminian Bedik

GEORGIA’S NATO TEST
By Koba Liklikadze in Tbilisi

Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), UK
March 16, 2006

The Tbilisi government wants Georgia to join NATO by 2008, but question
marks remain.

A visit by a NATO assessment team has left the country with
contradictory predictions about whether Georgia has a good prospect
of joining the North Atlantic alliance.

The NATO mission, which left on March 9, after four days of intensive
meetings, is due to deliver its verdict in mid-April as to whether
Georgia should be allowed to embark on NATO’s Membership Action Plan,
MAP, which would bring it one step closer to full membership.

The Georgian authorities are already announcing ahead of time that
the conclusion will be positive and that the country will become a
candidate for membership of the alliance by the end of the year.

In his New Year’s address, President Mikheil Saakashvili announced
that 2006 would be the “year of NATO in Georgia”, and stressed that
the country would enter NATO during his first presidential term,
which runs to the end of 2008.

Some influential voices in Washington are lobbying for Georgian
membership. Ambassador David Smith, chairman of the Georgia Forum in
the United States, has said that it would be in NATO’s interests to
welcome the country into its ranks.

He told Radio Liberty, “We, the 26 members of the alliance, have a
strong geopolitical reason to see friendly democratic countries to
the east of the Black Sea, including Georgia, as allies.”

Smith said it was significant that President George W Bush had chosen
Tbilisi to make a rallying call for freedom last May and that Georgian
troops were serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.

According to opinion polls, 70 per cent of the Georgian population
supports the country’s entry into NATO. The government has been
enthusiastically promoting the idea.

“NATO entry will increase Georgia’s security guarantees, which is
essential for political stability, economic progress, to attract
investment, and for strengthening democratic institutions,” Minister
for European Integration Giorgy Baramidze told IWPR. “If Georgia is
a safe country with a secure economy, she will be able to restore
her geographic integrity by peaceful means more quickly.”

Georgia was the first country of the South Caucasus to sign an
Individual Partnership Action Plan or IPAP with NATO, in December
2004, soon to be followed by Azerbaijan and Armenia. Under an IPAP
a country chooses its own timelines and tasks, which it must fulfil
in order to move to the next stage of entry, the MAP.

Georgia has set itself the most ambitious plan, and has told NATO it
will implement it within two years. It has embarked on a big increase
in military spending, with the budgets for security ministries
increasing eight times in the last two years.

The NATO assessment mission which visited last September, found,
however, that “the glass was half empty”. As a result, the arrival
of the latest mission in early March was keenly awaited. The group
contains seven people who have spent a year meeting not only Georgian
officials, but also opposition parties, non-governmental organisations
and representatives of the independent media, and received exhaustive
information about events in the country.

The government was upbeat about the team’s visit. “This week will have
an important place in the NATO-Georgia history textbook, which our
children will read in the future,” said Deputy Defence Minister Mamuka
Kudava. “Important progress has been recorded in all directions. As
you know, the defence chapter is very important, this is one of the
most important chapters in the IPAP and our experts, and colleagues
from NATO have approved this document on the development of defence
reforms.”

Frank Boland, the head of the mission and chief of NATO’s department
for politics and defence planning, was more cautious.

“The process of overcoming the problems which have fallen to its lot,
is an extremely complicated one for any nation,” said Boland. “It
is important to acknowledge openly that its low economic level is
constraining the possibilities of the government of Georgia to carry
through many changes it would like to make. But in spite of these
limitations, we are genuinely struck by how much has changed, and
how much the Georgian authorities plan to change in the future. And
I am sure that the 26 members of NATO and Georgia will be entirely
in agreement on this.”

Big questions remain, however, not least the issue of the unresolved
conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. General Nikola Kolev, chief
of staff of the Bulgarian army, told Georgian journalists last year,
“The criteria are clear. Internal ethnic and religious conflicts have
to be resolved. The state ought to be stable.”

Several Georgian analysts are also sceptical about Georgia’s fitness to
join NATO. “This is to do both with the existence within the defence
and interior ministries of secret funds, and with military purchases
and endless reshuffles in the defence ministry, as a result of which,
officers who have been educated in military academies in the West,
leave the system,” said analyst Irakly Aladashvili.

“Military intelligence has been abolished, no kind of land forces
has been formed, the military academy has been abolished, and the
drain of professional officers continues,” said Shalva Tadumadze,
a military expert with the Rights and Justice organisation. “When
this lie of the ministry of defence is exposed, the country will find
itself in an awkward position.”

Tadumadze drew attention to the recent appointment of a man under
investigation for allegedly beating up a journalist as head of a
department of the National Guard.

“At present, the case is with the prosecutor’s office. And the
appointment of a criminal suspect to a position of responsibility
demonstrates just how true the Georgian authorities are to European
values,” he said.

Shalva Pichkhadze, who heads the non-governmental organisation Georgia
and NATO, said the Georgian government had made real progress in
military reform but it should be more realistic about the short
timescale it had set itself for joining NATO.

“The question of a country’s joining the 26 member NATO alliance is
decided by consensus,” said Pichkhadze. “In spite of the substantial
interest in Georgia, there are countries which have their doubts about
Georgia’s joining, particularly because of its unresolved military
conflicts. Consequently, the process of Georgia’s entry into NATO
could go on for years. And this could cause serious disappointment
amongst the public.”

Koba Liklikadze is a reporter with Radio Liberty in Tbilisi.

TURKEY MAY PROVIDE MILITARY AID TO AZERBAIJAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.03.2006 19:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “If there is an agreement on creation of
military alliance between Azerbaijan and Turkey, “the latter may
provide military assistance to Azerbaijan in case of resumption of
hostilities,” said Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Turan Morali. In
his words, at the moment there is no agreement on military alliance
between the states. The Ambassador underscored that Turkey does not
support settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict through war.

“The sides should work for peace in all circumstances,” Mr. Morali
said.

The Ambassador also said Turkey is providing different types
of assistance to Azerbaijani Armed Forces under the treaty on
military cooperation. “Turkey is implementing various programs with
Azerbaijan. We shall continue these programs and assistance this
year, too. There will also be technical aid, trainings and etc.”,
said Mr. Morali, reported APA.

PERMANENT GUESTS OF ARMEN HARUTYUNIAN

A1+
04:34 pm 07 March, 2006

Beginning from today three residents of 15 Byuzand street – Smbat
Melkonyan, Nune Varduni and Susanna Poghosyan have gone on termless
sit-in hunger-strike. And all the other dwellers of Byuzand street
will take part only in the sit-in strike because of health problems.

“No house, no problem. Go and prove that you used to have a normal
house”, – striker Nune Varduni says.

They passed applications to RA President, RA NA Chairman Arthur
Baghdasaryan, RA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan, Ombudsman
Armen Harutyunyan, Mayor of Yerevan Yervand Zakharyan, Armenian
and International Red Cross demanding just compensation to their
destroyed property.

Residents of Byuzand street are pleased with the new Human rights
defender, as besides the fact that he received them, he offered them
chairs. “Armen Harutyunyan immediately came to his working place,
talked to us, invited to his cabinet.

After listening attentively to our complaints hje adiced to present
them in the form of application for him to have facts to put the case
in a serious procedure”

By the way, the organizers of protest action decide to spend their
nights before the ombudsman’s office, in camps.

We should remind that Susanna Poghosyan and Nune Varduni went on a
hunger-strike in December last year but it gave no result.

ARMENIA CONSIDERS IRAQI FORCE REFORM

United Press International
March 14 2006

EREVAN, Armenia, March 14 (UPI) — The Armenian Minister of Defense
is contemplating reorganizing its peacekeeping contingent in Iraq,
according to a news report.

Armenia currently has 46 peacekeeping troops in Iraq and a platoon of
peacekeepers in Kosovo in the U.N. mission there. The troops in Iraq,
deployed in January, are the third rotational contingent the country
has sent and are under Polish command.

The U.S. government is underwriting all the costs of the Armenian
contingent in Iraq.

On Mnday, Regnum news agency reported that Deputy Minister of Defense
Artur Agabekyan said that the change was being considered because of
reforms in the county’s military defense system to align the nation’s
military more closely to NATO standards.

Additionnal details, however, were not immediately available.

Armenia is working with NATO to develop its Individual Partnership
Action Plan as it is extremely interested in joining NATO. In 2003
Armenia hosted its first NATO Partnership for Peace military exercise
and host another one later this year.

ANOUSH’S PLACE
By Patrice Stewart
DAILY Staff Writer

The Decatur Daily, AL
March 8 2006

Anoush Place regularly cooks foods from her native Armenia for her
husband and children, but now she has a new goal.

Her dad, who has cancer, is visiting from her homeland, “so I’m trying
to cook healthy dishes for him,” she said.

Her kitchen is filled with “green stuff,” vegetables and grains,
as she makes her own version of veggie burgers to serve with her
special potato salad. Lentils star in her soup.

“I’ve always tried to make healthy food, but now it’s more important
than ever,” said Place. In addition to preparing food for her dad,
Shavarsh Hovhannisyan, who turned 72 Sunday, she sometimes cooks for
her mother-in-law, Marge Place of Decatur, who also is battling cancer
and likes her pieroski.

Have you cooked any buckwheat lately? It’s practically a staple around
this Decatur home. “My youngest, 8-year-old Karen, loves buckwheat
and begs for it as a snack,” Place said, and while it’s no substitute
for potato chips, 10-year-old Mary will eat it, too.

It’s cooked similarly to rice or pasta, and Place adds a tomato-based
sauce with meat on the side.

“Buckwheat is good for diabetics, those trying to lose weight, and
people with heart, colon and digestive system problems,” Place said.

In her home country, you needed a doctor’s prescription for buckwheat,
because of a shortage, she said, and it’s not easy to find in Decatur,
either. She buys bags of buckwheat at Gloria’s Good Health, while
Garden Cove Produce in Huntsville carries it, too.

“The first time you eat buckwheat, it doesn’t seem so special, but
that’s why I add the sauce,” Place said. When she’s in a hurry, she
uses Ragu and adds beef or other meat cooked with onion. Some like
buckwheat in a bowl with milk or butter.

To cook buckwheat, she puts 1 cup buckwheat and 2½ cups water in a
pan and lets it boil for about 5 minutes and then puts it on low heat
for another 5-10 minutes. Then she turns off the heat. Like rice,
it will be ready in 10 minutes, and you can add margarine or salt.

Her homemade “veggie burgers” are a mixture of chopped greens: spinach,
parsley and cilantro. You can add green onions.

She uses one bunch of parsley, one bunch of cilantro and half a plastic
bag of salad spinach leaves (chopped frozen spinach, drained, works,
too). She beats together two eggs, about 5 tablespoons all-purpose
flour, a bit of salt to taste and some milk. Then she mixes it with
the greens in a bowl and cooks it in a skillet in olive oil in one
large piece, which she cuts into smaller portions for serving.

Uneaten portions can be chilled for later. “Sometimes at night, when
we want something to eat but not too heavy a snack, I pull my veggie
burgers out of the refrigerator,” Place said.

While Mexicans use cilantro and Europeans add parsley, she said,
“Armenians use parsley and cilantro in everything.”

Lentil soup

“Lentils have a bunch of protein,” said Place. “People use beans,
but they don’t know about these lentils.” She said they are often used
in Greek-style cooking, and there are many similarities in Greek and
Armenian foods.

Dried lentils can be found in grocery stores and take longer to cook
than rice, she said. To her lentil soup, she also adds cubed cooked
potatoes. She fries a bit of onion with tomatoes or tomato sauce and
adds bits of red bell pepper to her lentil soup, which can be made
with beef or lamb. Over the top of the soup, she sprinkles a bit of
parsley and cilantro.

For her soups and sauces, she buys tomatoes at the Decatur farmer’s
market in the summer and cans them for later use. “You don’t have to
put tomato in lentil soup, but it gives it a good flavor,” she said,
as well as more nutrients.

Potato salad

Her Armenian-style potato salad is quick, easy and healthy. She cooks
and cubes potatoes and then adds onion, parsley, cilantro, salt,
pepper and olive oil for mixing. “It doesn’t have all that mayonnaise
or sour cream like American-style potato salad,” she said.

With her food, she likes to serve thin slices of lavash bread. Since
that requires a special oven to make correctly, her husband, Tom,
usually pick it up at Nabeel’s Cafe & Market (which has Greek,
Mediterranean and Italian foods) when he’s in Birmingham on business,
and she keeps it in the freezer. “My girls like it spread with cream
cheese as an after-school snack,” she said.

“My daddy loves dolmar, too – that’s his favorite food,” she said,
referring to grape leaves stuffed with a mixture of cabbage and
vegetables.

He likes all kinds of soups, too, so she’s prepared them during
the months he was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for colorectal
cancer. “I wanted to cook things he could digest that are good for him,
too,” she said.

“The doctors and others at Decatur General have been wonderful to him,
and everybody calls him Papa,” said Place.

While waiting at the oncology center, she got to thinking when she
saw many people bringing burgers and other fast food in to feed
family members.

“Food won’t heal you, but it will help your body fight against cancer,”
she said.

With her meals, she serves cool tea made with rosehips (crushed dried
berries brought from Armenia) and small cups of finely ground, pungent
Armenian coffee. Back home, that coffee might be cooked slowly in
hot sand, but here it’s made espresso-style and served with Pirouette
chocolate hazelnut cream-filled wafer sticks for a simple dessert.

“I miss my foods I can’t get here,” said Place. Some items are
available at an Armenian store in Los Angeles, so when friends came
to visit, they brought her two suitcases filled with buckwheat,
coffee and sweets.

food/060308/healthy.shtml

–Boundary_(ID_ATOZhzjm /JLrYDLhPOCaaA)–

NATO PUBLIC DIPLOMACY MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE ON ISSUES OF ARMENIA DESPINA AFENTOULI VISITS YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Mar 09 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. NATO Public Diplomacy Management
Executive on Issues of Armenia Despina Afentouli will be in Yerevan
on March 9-12, for the purpose of taking part in the joint seminar
of the Atlantic Association of Armenia and Security Institute of
Netherlands. As Noyan Tapan was informed by RA Foreign Ministry Press
Service, on March 10, Mrs Despina Afentouli is to have an unofficial
meeting with representatives of media. It will be dedicated to
Armenia-NATO cooperation, discussion of issues of defence and security,
as well as presentatiion of the NATO agenda before the NATO summit
to be held in December 2006 in Riga.

GEORGIAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA APPEALS TO DIASPORAN ARMENIANS TO MAKE
INVESTMENTS IN JAVAKHK

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Georgia is not
interested in Javakhik’s being emptied of Armenians. The Georgian
Ambassador to Armenia Revaz Gachechiladze stated this at the
discussion “The Threat of Expulsion of Javakhki Armenians, Youth
Problems in Javakhk” organized by the Mighty Homeland Party on March
9. The ambassador considered the concern expressed by the people
living in Armenia to be completely legal, moreover, he was grateful
that “you have opened our eyes” regarding certain problems. He
underlined that the Georgian government should take more care of the
regions. Particularly, it is willing to create new jobs, but the
market economy dictates its laws – capital flows where a profit is
made. The ambassador appealed to the Diasporan Armenians to make
invsetments in Javakhk, while the Georgian government will assist
them. He pointed out that the problem of jobs in industry must be
regulated by private capital. The Georgian diplomat noted that
knowledge of Georgian is required for administrative positions only,
which, according to him, makes 200-300, a maximum of 500 jobs. In his
words, knowledge of Georgian is not being imposed on Armenians, it is
just necessary for best integration into the Georgian society. He said
that only 300-500 Armenians are working at the Russian military base
in Akhalkalak, so people will not feel its closure, except for “those
who work there”. “The Armenian-Georgian friendship exists not only on
paper but also in reality: Georgia is interested in the Armenians’
being where they are – both in Armenia and Javakhk and their
well-being. It is also in Armenia’s interest that the Georgian ship
will not shake, since there are many who shake it. Let us help each
other instead of hindering,” the Georgian ambassador said. According
to the main speaker – member of the Mighty Homeland Party Board Shirak
Torosian, the Russian military base to be withdrawn from Javakhk
currently employs 3 thousand people. According to the party, at
present 100 thousand Armenians live in Javakhk or 95% of the
population, young people aged 16-35 make up 31% or 32 thousand, with
about 30 thousand of them or 93% being unemployed. 9 thousand people
or 30% leave Javakhk each year in search of work, and half of them
never return to Javakhk. To solve this problem, the Mighty Homeland
Party proposes creating the appropriate infrastructures to encourage
investments – to ensure 24-hour power supply, improve roads and the
railway. The party also proposes to use tax, customs, credit and other
privileges, to allocate part of the Georgian grant and credit programs
for Javakhk, etc.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
March 10 2006

OSCE monitoring held without causalities

Source: Trend
Author: E.Javadova

10.03.2006

No breach has been fixed in the OSCE monitoring held in the contact
lime of the Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces in Borsunlu village
of Terter district on Friday in accordance with a mandate of the OSCE
chairman-in-office, the Defense Ministry announced.

Harry Eronen and Peter Key, field assistants to the special envoy of
the OSCE chairman-in-office, will hold monitoring in the Azerbaijani
side of the frontline.

Yuri Aberle and Imre Palatinus, special envoy’s field assistants, are
in charge of monitoring in the Armenian side of the contact line.

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
March 10-16 2006

Azerbaijani And Turkish Diaspora Consolidate Their Efforts

Six hundred and fifty delegates from Azerbaijan and approximately 600
representatives of the country’s Diaspora from 44 countries will
participate in the second “Azerbaijanis of the World” Congress to be
held in Baku on March 16, head of the State Committee for Work with
the Diaspora Nazim Nbrahimov said at a press-conference today.

More than 220 guests have been invited to the conference, including
politicians, officials, deputies, and scientists.

A speech by President Ilham Aliyev is planned for the congress. The
main discussion will be the conception of Azerbaijan’s Diaspora’s
activity, and its relations with Turkey’s Diaspora. The creation of a
special working commission for preparation of the conception has been
suggested.

The Congress will adopt an appeal to the Azerbaijani and Turkish
Diaspora which calls on them to consolidate their efforts.
Participants of the forum will also adopt an appeal on the Armenia-
Azerbaijani conflict.

Azerbaijan’s government is undertaking all expenses for organization
of this Congress.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Prednestrovians Try to Win Over Armenians to Their Side

In Tiraspol they hope that Stepanakert and Yerevan
will denounce Kiev’s blockade of Prednestrovian
Republic.

10.03.2006 GMT+04:00

Transport blockade of the unrecognized Prednestrovian
Republic continues. On the 3rd of March the government
of Ukraine announced the introduction of new customs
regime for the transportation of goods across
Prednestrovian – Ukrainian border. From now on, the
Ukrainian party demands Moldavian customs’
registration of transported goods. The situation,
which may turn to a humanitarian disaster, worries
also citizens of other unrecognized republics,
including Nagorno-Karabakh.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Experience shows that tendencies
observed in any of the unrecognized republics very
often find their continuation in conflicts with the
involvement of other newly created states,
unrecognized by the world community. This is why
Abkhazians and Osetians are so much alarmed at the
developments in Prednestrovie. Stepanakert also
carefully observes the situation whereas in their case
the people of Karabakh can hardly imagine a situation
similar to the one in Prednestrovie. Ukrainians
deliberately block the republic, considering
Prednestrovians as their compatriots. (Almost half of
the population of Prednestrovie are ethnic Ukrainians,
having even Ukrainian passports.) If the same
situation occurred in Karabakh, it would look
approximately like this: Armenia would agree with
Azerbaijan and would blockade Nagorno-Karabakh.
Fortunately such a scenario is out of question.

However, in the case with Prednestrovie everything
cannot be painted in two colors – black and white.
Things are much more difficult here. There is no doubt
that the decision of Kiev is dictated not only by the
aspiration for normalizing relations with Kishinev but
also by signals from the West. I even suppose that it
is sensible to connect the decision with Vladimir
Putin’s announcement about the universality of Kosovo
scheme. The President of Russia actually hinted at the
idea that in case of recognition of Kosovo’s
independence by the West Moscow will consider the
issue of recognizing all the established states that
proclaimed sovereignty after the collapse of USSR.
Analysts commenting on this announcement suppose that
the Kremlin is inclined to begin with Prednestrovian
Republic. In this context the last step of President
Yushenko can be explained by the signals from the West
as well as the wish of Kiev to show Russians that they
have no less resources to influence the situation in
Prednestrovie than Moscow has. In any case the
conflict is not between Slavics of Prednetrovie and
Ukraine but between official Kiev and Moscow.

Presidents Bagabpsh and Cocoyta have already toughly
criticized Ukraine’s politics. In contrast to
Abkhazians and Ostetians, Karabakh leaders still
refrain from making official announcements. Only some
independent political scientists have made public
statements on the falseness of Yushenko’s actions.
President of Karabakh Arkady Ghukasyan and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs have preferred the
wait-and-see attitude. The same can be said about
Armenian foreign ministry, which has always tried to
stay far away from discussing such issues.

Meanwhile, Tiraspol is doing everything possible to
involve Armenians in the discussion of the conflict.
On the 6th of March the head of Armenian community of
Prednestrovie Nikolay Sarkisyants became a member of
the so-called `Anti-blockade Coordination Council’.
The Armenian community of Prednestrovie has also
appealed to the foreign ministries of Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh for denouncing actions of official
Kiev. According to Nikolay Sarkisyants `Armenians of
Prednestrovie are going to do everything possible for
the consolidation of efforts for stopping the blockade
of the republic’. `Armenians established in
Prednestrovie more than 200 years ago. Armenians,
Moldavians, Ukrainians and Russians are like one
family here. Such kind of actions are aimed at
splitting us’, Sarkisyants says.

Tiraspol’s attempts to win over Stepanakert and
Yerevan to their side can be understood as easily as
the reasons making Armenian and Karabakh leaders
refrain from public statements on the situation in
Prednestrovie. The wish to avoid troubles is quite
natural if we take into account that at times problems
occur between Armenia and Ukraine. As for
Prednestrovians, they have much more powerful
defenders than Armenians. Within the coming few months
Moscow’s behavior can become determinant for the
future of Prednestrovian Republic.

This situation of course attracts the attention of
Armenians because it clearly demonstrates the
principality and consistency of those who are against
the application of Kosovo model with other
unrecognized republics of post-Soviet. territory. If
Moscow finds the courage to reply as tough as possible
to such actions and makes a decision on recognizing
the independence of Prednestrovie, very interesting
perspectives may open up for Karabakh. Political
scientists find such a turn of events quite possible.
If such a thing happens there will be an important
precedent, which will be very useful for Karabakh.
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department