OneWorld.net, UK
Jan 21 2005

Ukraine completes its Georgian revolution
Misha Kechakmadze

21 January 2005

November 2003, Tbilisi, Georgia

Tens of thousands of people carrying the five cross flags and
shouting “resign!, resign!” rallied on Freedom Square in downtown
Tbilisi for three weeks. They demonstrated against the official
results of the rigged parliamentary election – the last, desperate
attempt of the widely unpopular regime of Eduard Shevardnadze to stay
in power. These demonstrations were led by the opposition leader
Mikheil Saakashvili who, backed by the results of independent exit
polls, claimed that his party, the United National Movement, won the
elections. The culmination of these opposition protests came on
November 23, St. Georgia’s Day. 100,000 protesters with red roses in
their hands seized the parliament building and state chancellery,
forcing Shevardnadze to step down and paving the way for the
government of Mikheil Saakashvili, who on January 4, 2004, was
overwhelmingly elected as the President of Georgia with a mandate to
implement long-needed social-economical reforms. The new era in
Georgia started.

this revolution was an exception down to the particularities of the
situation in Georgia
After the Rose Revolution in Georgia, many analysts covering
political processes in the post-soviet region argued that this
revolution was an exception down to the particularities of the
situation in Georgia, and not illustratative of the general picture
in the post-soviet countries. As evidence, they would mention
Armenia, Belarus and Azerbaijan, where the authorities managed to
crack down opposition demonstrations. But in just one year this
notion proved to be totally wrong when the fire of revolution began
to flare in Ukraine.

November-December 2004, Kiev, Ukraine

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, waving orange flags, the
color of the opposition leader Yushchenko’s campaign coalition, and
shouting “Yushchenko is our President”, jammed the Independence
Square in downtown Kiev for one month. The protests began as the
outcry of public anger against the suspect official results of the
second round of voting in the presidential contest between Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko. The contest has
already been marred by the appalling disfigurement of Yushchenko with
the deadly poison dioxin – an assassination attempt that he hardly
survived.

The results announced by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine
on November 22 claimed that the presidential election was won by the
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. However, citing the results of the
independent exit polls that gave him an 11% lead over his opponent,
Yushchenko called his supporters to proclaim his victory. Soon his
case was backed by international observers who denounced the election
as rigged. Thousands of people travelled to the capital from across
Ukraine, even though their journeys were disrupted by government
closures of major roads and airports. Some of the demonstrators set
up tents in Kiev’s Independence Square. Large Georgians were highly
visible in these demonstrations in Kiev
demonstrations were held in many cities elsewhere in Ukraine. It is
worth mentioning that Georgians were highly visible in these
demonstrations in Kiev and the flag of Georgia has been among those
on display in the city’s Independence Square, while Yushchenko
himself held up a rose in an apparent reference to the Rose
Revolution.

Meanwhile the governors of Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine,
which mostly supported Yanukovych, suggested turning the country into
a federation with a new autonomous republic of “Southern-Eastern
Ukraine” with its capital in Kharkiv. With thousands of supporters of
the two opposing candidates in Kiev, separatists’ movement in some
regions of Ukraine, and Russia’s rude intervention into the internal
affairs of a neighboring state, Ukraine approached the point where
its very existence came into question. Everybody was fraught with
uncertainty – what will come next?

Fortunately for Ukraine, common sense won over insanity. Mediated by
high-level foreign politicians from Europe, direct talks began
between Yanukovych and Yushchenko. Though these direct talks did not
bring a major breakthrough, they contributed to defusing the
situation. In the meantime, major developments took place in the
legal field when on December 3 the Ukrainian Supreme Court reached
the decision to annul the results and order a repeat of the second
round. Viktor Yushenko and Viktor Yanukovych again faced each other
in the presidential elections.

The second vote was re-run on December 26. International observers,
deployed in thousands for this round, reported a much fairer vote,
and Viktor Yushchenko won with about 52% of the vote, to Yanukovych’s
44%. Yushchenko was finally declared the winner on January 10, 2005
after the failure of a legal action brought by Yanukovych. The new
era in Ukraine started.

These dramatic processes in Ukraine which were dubbed “the Orange
people who care for freedom and democracy cannot be intimidated by
brutal force, oppression, threats and lies
Revolution” represented one of the finest moments of Ukrainian
history. Ukraine once again proved that it is an integral part of the
democratic world. Both Ukrainians and Georgians showed to the world
that people who care for freedom and democracy cannot be intimidated
by brutal force, oppression, threats and lies when they defend their
fundamental right – to vote in fair and democratic elections.

Political analysts no longer argue about the exclusiveness of
revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine. They simply ask one question –
where is next?

Ismail Besikçi and Ragip Zarakolu are honorary Member of the Kurdish PEN

KurdishMedia.com
21/01/2005

Ismail Besikçi becomes the Honorary Member of the Kurdish PEN Centre

Bremen, Germany, 20th January, 2005: The Kurdish PEN Centre is honoured
to announce its decision concerning the outstanding Turkish sociologist,
writer and human rights activist Mr. Ismail Besikçi. After receiving his
approval, at the Board meeting of the 9th January, 2005, Ismail Beºikçi
was unanimously chosen as the Honorary Member of the Kurdish PEN Centre.

Ismail Besikçi’s persistent support of the rights of the Kurds and his
numerous scholarly works revealing the need to modernise and democratise
the Kurdish society cost him years of imprisonment in Turkey.

Ismail Besikçi’s academic approach and personal courage are
characteristics of the open-minded and free intellectuals who are able
to inspire minds and hearts. He enjoys therefore a high respect amongst
the Kurds and their friends.

The Kurdish PEN Centre wishes to encourage further translations of
Ismail Besikçi’s books into Kurdish as well as other languages to make
his research finding widely available.

**********************************************************
Ragip Zarakolu becomes the Honorary Member of the Kurdish PEN Centre

Bremen, Germany, 12th January, 2005: The Kurdish PEN Centre being an
internationally recognised body supporting Kurdish literary and
linguistic rights is happy to name the outstanding Turkish writer and
publisher and the Turkish PEN Centre member Mr. Ragip Zarakolu its
Honorary Member.

In doing so, the Kurdish PEN Centre reflects its appreciation of Ragip
Zarakolu’s courageous support of the rights of the Kurdish people and
points out its disapproval of numerous trials against him as a writer
and publisher. We share Ragip Zarakolu’s view that Armenian, Greek,
Jewish, Kurdish, Turkish and other regional languages and literatures
are equally valuable for the mankind. In terms of cultural life there is
no and shall be no hierarchy – only diversity. Acting as a real promoter
of the Kurdish literature, Ragip Zarakolu’s publishing house publishes
books both about the Kurds and in Kurdish.

We are honoured to have amongst us a person whose life and peaceful
struggle pave a way for a brighter future for various literary
traditions and people belonging to them.

Dr. Zorab Aloian, Secretary

Navenda PENa Kurd, Dresdner Bank, Konto-Nr. 4 757 403 00, Blz.: 700 800 00

The Kurdish Centre of
INTERNATIONAL P E N
A World Association of Writers
NAVENDA PEN A KURD
Kurdisches PEN – Zentrum e. V.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US THREATS DIRECTED TO IRAN EFFECT ITS NEIGHBORS AS WELL

Azg/arm
22 Jan 05

In a February 18 interview to NBC US President George W. Bush stated
referring to “unrest” caused by Iran: “I hope we can solve it
diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table if it
continues to stonewall the international community about the existence
of its nuclear weapons program”.

Iran’s response to this indirect war threat came soon after in the
form of defense minister Ali Shamkhani’s challenge. Hamed Reza Asaf,
press secretary of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, advised Washington in
his statement to give up its adopted policy and then warned that Iran,
due to popularity of Islamic regime, has great military potential and
is able to offer proper resistanceto any illogical attack.

After these statements of Iranian officials, Scot MacKlelan, press
secretary of the American President, felt obliged to edit Bush’s
words: “We have fears concerning Iran. We fear Iran’s strivings to
obtain a nuclear weapon and long-range missiles”.

US vice-president, Dick Cheney, added to MacKlelan’s words saying that
the US is not willing another war in the region. Undoubtedly there is
difference in President Bush’s and two other US officials’ statements.

Daily Azg expressed an opinion in its January 21 that the US has no
plan of invading Iran so far but it only wants to keep issue of regime
change in Iran’s political agenda. Another senior US official,
Condoleezza Rice, mentioned Iran in a new “axis of evil” together with
Cuba, Byelorussia, Zimbabwe and Burma. In his interview to BBC,
Muhammad Khatami, President of Iran, fingered to America’s
difficulties in Iraq showing thus that no war is possiblein near
future.

The constant war threats have impact not only on Iran but also on the
neighboring states. Moreover, Washington’s relations with Iranâ=80=99s
neighbors will largely depend on how the neighbors will treat the
country in “disfavor”.

Armenia, being one of Iran’s neighbors, is looking forward to
development of trade and economic relations with its southern
partner. Thus, Armenia will be one of those countries that will
largely suffer the consequences of US invasion. Iran is Armenia’s most
reliable gateway to the world; even if the Turkish-Armenian
border-gate opens it can hardly be called reliable.

By Hakob Chakrian

Armenian opposition to cooperate with ruling coalition if proposals accepted

Noyan Tapan news agency
20 Jan 05

YEREVAN

The Justice opposition bloc and the National Unity Party made a joint
statement on 19 January, addressing the ruling coalition. The document
adopted at the initiative of the Justice opposition bloc suggests that
the coalition parties reach agreement on some principles of forming
the executives and judicial branches of power and local government
bodies.

The opposition suggests that the composition of the government
presented by the president should be approved by the parliament,
Viktor Dallakyan, secretary of the parliamentary faction of the
opposition Justice bloc, told our Noyan Tapan correspondent after the
sitting of the opposition bloc on the same day. If the president’s
proposal is rejected, the composition of the government should be
proposed by the parliament.

It is suggested that the presidential powers to appoint judges should
be handed over to the Council of Justice, which will ensure the
independence of the judiciary. The package on local government bodies
suggests that the mayor of Yerevan should be elected, not appointed.

Dallakyan pointed out that if the proposal is accepted, the opposition
will be ready to cooperate with the coalition on constitutional
reforms.

The secretary of the Justice faction said that the referendum on
constitutional reforms could also be a referendum of confidence in the
ruling coalition and [Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan.

Dallakyan said that the boycott of the parliament will continue
because very important demands of the Justice bloc have not been
fulfilled yet. Specifically, no referendum of confidence in the
Armenian president has been conducted and people who falsified the
presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as people who
committed violence against peaceful demonstrators on the night of 13
April have not been brought to book yet.

At the same time, he said that the faction will take part in
discussions on the draft laws of special importance to the country.
Among these issues, Dallakyan pointed out the constitutional reforms,
the Electoral Code and the draft law on returning deposits.

The secretary of the Justice faction also said that the bloc is
preparing to speed up its meetings with the population scheduled both
in districts and in the capital.

Only the Union of National Democrats voted against the decision to
cooperate with the coalition. The chairman of this party, Arshak
Sadoyan, said that the principles of forming power structures are
absolutely unacceptable and run counter to his party’s programme
theses.

“Today’s sitting of the faction showed that there is no point in
taking work seriously with such unstable approaches,” Sadoyan pointed
out. Having said that he will not quit the faction, he pointed out at
the same time that he is ready to cooperate with other parliamentary
forces, especially with the National Unity faction and the People’s
Deputy group, on some serious issues.

Armenian group stages demo over editorial on US official’s remarks

Noyan Tapan news agency
21 Jan 05

YEREVAN

The Stability public movement staged a protest outside the editorial
office of Armenia’s Aravot newspaper in the Press House on 21
January. They demanded that either the newspaper publish a denial of
an editorial in its latest issue or the editor-in-chief of the
newspaper leave the country as a “traitor”.

The editorial said the following: “In the opinion of some observers,
the statement of US Assistant State Secretary for European and
Eurasian Affairs Elizabeth Jones that the Nagornyy Karabakh
authorities are ‘corrupt’ and ‘criminal’ is absolutely slanderous, for
the ‘corrupt’ and ‘criminal’ elements of Karabakh have long moved to
Armenia.”

Burning the 20 January issue of Aravot, members of the movement said
that the protest is directed against the bias of the newspaper, not
against freedom of conscience or democracy. In their view, the article
was “reprinted from the Turkish press and is in line with the way of
thinking of the Turkish rabble”. The protesters carried slogans
“Aravot is a traitor”.

The newspaper has no intention of refuting its opinion and does not
take seriously the opinion of these “young people”, the
editor-in-chief of Aravot, Aram Abramyan, told Noyan Tapan news
agency. He said that the protesters may express their indignation on
the pages of Aravot.

Azeri speaker calls for more active OSCE role in Karabakh settlement

Trend news agency
21 Jan 05

BAKU

Azerbaijan stands for a solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict on
the basis of the principle of the territorial integrity of states and
the norms of international law, Azerbaijan Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov
has said at a meeting with the special envoy of the OSCE
chairman-in-office, Andrzej Kasprzyk.

Negotiations are under way for the solution of the problem at the
level of international organizations, foreign ministers and
parliaments, he said.

“The Council of Europe has expressed its attitude to the issue several
times and a report on Nagornyy Karabakh will be heard at the winter
session [of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] on 25
January. The OSCE Minsk Group has been dealing with the settlement of
the conflict for more than 10 years. But, unfortunately, despite the
lengthy period of time, positive results have not been achieved
yet. We think that the OSCE should increase its activity and enhance
its role,” the speaker stressed.

Confirming that the negotiations have not yielded any fruits yet,
Kasprzyk said one can think after the last meeting of the [Azerbaijani
and Armenian] foreign ministers [in Prague] that there will be
success. I believe that the parliaments should also increase their
activities in the issue and the negotiations should be continued, he
added.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE rapporteur rules out change in format of Karabakh talks, pledges support

Trend news agency
21 Jan 05

BAKU

“There cannot be any talk about the change in the format of the
negotiations for Nagornyy Karabakh. Just auxiliary forces from the
conflicting parties should be involved in the negotiation process. It
may be done at the level of both special experts and parliamentarians,”
a report prepared by the special envoy of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Goran Lennmarker,
said. Trend obtained the document from the OSCE headquarters in
Vienna.

Lennmarker regretted the fact that the continuation of the conflict
had a negative impact on the communities, especially on the living
standards of refugees and IDPs. The envoy hopes that the renewal of
the peace process will accelerate achievement of stability in the
region. The document also says that the OSCE is interested in
“increasing the spirit of negotiations” between Azerbaijan and
Armenia: “We are ready to provide every support for the continuation
of the dialogue.”

At the same time it says that the intervention of international
mediators, including the OSCE, only is “an impact from outside” and
not of a great significance for the peace talks.

“The resolution of the conflict depends solely on the attitude of
Azerbaijan and Armenia to the issue,” Lennmarker said, highly
appreciating the dialogue at the level of foreign ministers and
presidents.

Lennmarker has many times proposed to hold meetings between
Azerbaijani and Armenian parliamentarians, but it [this idea] failed.

The report will be discussed at the session of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly in the middle of this year.

SUMMER 2005 ARMENIAN LANGUAGE INSTITUTE IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA

University of Michigan
January 21, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ANN ARBOR — The University of Michigan Armenian Studies Program is
pleased to announce this year’s Summer Language Institute to be held in
Yerevan, from June 24 through August 22, 2005. This Program is open to
all undergraduate, graduate and professional school students attending
any North American or European Universities or colleges, who wish to
learn Classical Armenian or Modern Eastern, or Modern Western Armenian.
Lectures on Armenian culture and history, as well as various excursions
and cultural events supplement the courses. North American
undergraduate students may take the course for credit (8 credit hours).
U.S. graduate students may enroll for a non-credit certificate for
Eastern or Western Armenian, or may take Classical Armenian for credit
(6 credit hours). European students may take any of the courses for a
non-credit certificate only. The same academic and program criteria
will apply to credit and non-credit students alike.

In addition to high quality intensive language instruction, the Program
offers the opportunity to live and study in Armenia. The Program is
directed by Dr. Kevork B. Bardakjian, Marie Manoogian Professor of
Armenian Language & Literature and Director of the Armenian Studies
Program at the University of Michigan. Deadline for the receipt of
completed applications is Tuesday, 15 March, 2004.

For more information and/or for an application packet online:

Or, please contact:

Professor Kevork B. Bardakjian
Department of NES
2068 Frieze Bldg.
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
Tel.: 734/763-7655
Fax: 734/936-2679
Email: [email protected]

DRAFT OF PACE RESOLUTION ON KARABAKH DOES NOT PRESENT REAL ESSENCE OF
CONFLICT: ARMEN ROUSTAMYAN

YEREVAN, JANUARY 21. ARMINFO. PACE’s draft resolution on Nagorny
Karabakh in its present form is unacceptable for Armenian side, Armen
Roustamyan, Head of the commission on foreign affairs of Armenia’s
Parliament, member of ARF Dashnaktsutyun Supreme body, told ARMINFO.

According to him, this document does not present the real essence of
Karabakh conflict, but its transformed version, thus, cannot assist
relieving the tension of the situation around Karabakh conflict and
exclude the possibility to solve it by military operations. Quite the
contrary, such a document could have a counter effect and make the
situation more strained, taking into account the militarist spirit of
Azerbaijan in this issue, he said.

Roustamyan also stressed that the discussion of the document in PACE
has passed incorrectly as representatives of Nagorny Karabakh, which
is a party of the conflict, were absent during the discussion.

“These discussions and the document itself cannot be considered full
without the participation of representatives of Nagorny Karabakh”, the
parliament member said. Of course, the Armenian delegation will try
make its proposals and amendments when the discussion of the
document. The Armenian delegation elaborated 7 proposals to give the
document more objective nature. Roustamyan noted that he has little
optimistic disposition about possibility of accepting of proposals of
Armenian side as the most of European parliamentarians are not
acquainted with the real essence of Karabakh conflict and it would be
difficult for them to orientate correctly. Armenian parliamentarians
meet with their European colleagues only a few times in a year and it
is difficult to change entirely conception of that great structure
concerning one or another issue in that short time, Roustamyan stated.

To note, the draft resolution on Nagorny Karabakh will be discussed at
PACE session on January 25. -R-

DEUTSCHE BANK MAY BECOME SHAREHOLDER OF RUSSIAN VNESHTORGBANK
CONTROLLING OVER ARMSAVINGSBANK

YEREVAN, JANUARY 21. ARMINFO. The largest financial institution in
Germany, Deutsche Bank, intends to considerably expand its activity in
Russia by purchasing ten percent of the shares of the Russian
Vneshtorgbank, which has been fully state structure so far. A German
newspaper “Handelsblatt” reports referring to Head of Vneshtorgbank
Andrey Kostin. Thus, Deutsche Bank will become shareholder of
Vneshtorgbank, the owner of 70% of shares of the Armenian
Armsavingsbank.

It should be noted that Vneshtorgbank gained control over
Armsavingsbank in March, 2004. Vneshtorgbank plans $100-150 mln
financial injections. Part of these funds will be provided in terns of
a subordinated credit. Armsavingsbank’s assets make up over $82 mln at
present, with its total capital being $74 mln. The bank’s profit in
2004 totaled $1.9 mln. Chairman of the bank’s Board Alexander Vardanov
said that one of the key tasks of the banks was support to the
infrastructural programs implemented by Gazprom and RAO UES in
Armenia.

Vneshtorgbank is the largest commercial bank of Russia as to its
authorized capital, which totaled 42.1 bln RUR in the middle of
2004. According to data of Venshorgbank, own funds of the bank totaled
65.3 bln RUR and net assets – 356.4 bln RUR on October 1,
2004. Venshtorgbank is one of the largest creditors of Russian
economy.