PRESS RELEASE
May 7, 2004
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected]; Web:

Armenia Qualifies for Millennium Challenge Account Funds, More U.S. Aid

The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, that governs the new tool for
U.S. foreign aid process called the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA),
announced on May 6, 2004 that 16 countries, including Armenia, were selected
as potential recipients of MCA funds. The decision on qualifying Armenia and
other countries as a recipient was made based on Armenia’s performance in
three categories of indicators, namely economic freedom and reforms;
governance practices; and commitment to human and social development.

The MCA funds for the Fiscal Year 2004 are over 1 billion dollars, and the
Bush Administration’s request for FY2005 is 2.5 billion dollars. The MCA has
been proposed and established in 2003 to distribute more U.S. foreign aid to
the development and transition countries based on merit criteria, such as
their adherence to conducting economic reforms, implementing sound economic
policies, combating corruption, promoting rule of law, and investing in
country’s human potential, i.e., education and health care. The countries
eligible for MCA in 2004 will still need to present formal programs, called
compacts, to receive the funds; the compacts need to be approved by the
Board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

According to Armenia’s Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Arman Kirakossian,
Armenia’s eligibility for MCA reflects the solid commitment of the people
and the government of Armenia to promote economic growth, reduce poverty,
and continue the democratic transition. “Armenia’s inclusion in this list is
an acknowledgement of the faith our U.S. partners have in Armenia’s ability
to help itself,” Ambassador Kirakossian concluded. “The United States has
helped Armenia’s democratic and economic transition since its independence,”
he noted, “and we are grateful to the American people for their commitment
to helping Armenia build a brighter future.”

For more information on the MCA, visit the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s
website at

ARMENIAN RULING COALITION AND OPPOSITION TO CREATE “NEW POLITICAL SITUATION”

07.05.2004 13:20

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The ruling coalition of Armenia, the united opposition as
well as the Independent United Labor Party and National Deputy parliamentary
faction acknowledged the necessity of creating a new political situation in
Armenia, the joint statement of the Armenian parliamentary factions adopted
yesterday evening on completion of 5-hour negotiations says. The parties
agreed on continuation of political consultations and formation of an agenda
on the basis of former statements of the coalition and opposition. As
secretary of Justice opposition bloc Victor Dallakian told the journalists,
about 30 issues, including the PACE resolution on domestic situation in
Armenia, have been submitted to discussion. To remind, political
consultations are continued today.

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
May 7 2004

“Broadcasting to Hotspots: RFE/RL Today”

Woodrow Wilson Center
Thomas A. Dine President, RFE/RL, Inc.

There’s a Washington conversation that I have over and over again.
Someone asks me what I do. I say, “I’m the head of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty.” The person then says one of two things: “I
didn’t know Radio Free Europe still existed,” or “But isn’t Europe
already free?” Today I want to address these misconceptions about
RFE/RL: that Europe is free; that RFE/RL focuses solely on Europe; in
short, that RFE/RL is a Cold War relic and not relevant to today’s
world.

To start, though, let me give you a brief overview of who we are.
RFE/RL broadcasts to 19 countries in 28 languages, none of which is
English. 19 of our 28 language services are directed at
majority-Muslim populations. We have bureaus in every one of our
countries but Iran and Turkmenistan.

We are a “surrogate broadcaster,” which means that our mission,
unlike that of Voice of America, is to broadcast news and information
about the individual countries listening to us, not about the United
States-unless the news from Washington involves one or more of our
countries. In addition to radio, RFE/RL is very prominent on the
Internet-nearly all of our broadcast services operate top-notch
local-language websites, and our main website averages about 6
million page views a month. We are also on television in a handful of
countries.

Let me now address the first question, “Isn’t Europe already free?”
People often forget that the eastern border of Europe is not Warsaw
or Bucharest or even St. Petersburg-it’s the Ural Mountains, two time
zones east of Moscow. To put it another way-the geographic center of
Europe isn’t Germany or Austria. It’s Ukraine. We can divide our
European countries into two groups: the former Yugoslavia and the
former Soviet Union.

It is a mistake to believe that the arrest of Milosevic marked the
end of the turmoil in the former Yugoslavia. Most of it is
politically and economically crippled; the odds of further ethnic
bloodshed are high; corruption is pervasive; and the emergence of a
free press has been stunted.

In Serbia, the euphoria that greeted the ouster of Milosevic has
given way to a prevailing attitude that can best be described as a
noxious brew of nationalism and self-pity. The strongest party is now
the ultra-nationalistic Serbian Radical Party, and vestiges of
Milosevic’s criminal regime survive nearly intact-the assassination
of Prime Minister Djindjic last year was merely the most tragic
example of its continuing influence. Meanwhile, the economy is a
shambles, and since foreign investors want little to do with Serbia,
there is no improvement in sight.

Furthermore, Serbia’s territorial integrity is anything but certain.
In Montenegro, about half the people want to secede from the
federation with Serbia, while the other half want to stay. And in
Kosovo, the worst ethnic violence since NATO’s military action
erupted in March of this year. Analysts say that, far from being an
isolated incident, this latest outbreak of hostilities was the tip of
the iceberg. When you consider that unemployment in Kosovo is between
60% and 70%, and that a majority of the population lives in poverty,
it’s hard to be hopeful that tolerance will prevail. If ethnic
violence does recur in Kosovo, it will certainly destabilize another
of our broadcast countries-Macedonia-where 25% of the population is
ethnic Albanian.

Finally, Bosnia and Herzegovina has also been unable to move beyond
nationality-based infighting. Local government bodies are strictly
loyal to members of their own nationality, and the nationalistic
ruling parties resist market reforms because they fear they will lose
their grip on power. For the politicians in power in Bosnia, the war
is not over, but merely in remission.

The reason RFE/RL plays such a critical role in the Balkans is that
it is the only local-language media outlet that speaks to, and for,
all the ethnic groups; the rest of the media have come to serve as
inflammatory voices of intolerance. The uniqueness of our programming
is reflected in our outstanding ratings-our numbers in the former
Yugoslavia are consistently among the highest in our broadcast
portfolio.

The second group of our European countries is, as I mentioned, the
former Soviet Union, and, if I haven’t depressed you enough already,
I have to tell you that the former Soviet Union makes the former
Yugoslavia look like Switzerland. Everyone in this room remembers the
sense of hope we felt when the U.S.S.R. collapsed. Fifteen nations
had been freed from Moscow’s control, and each of them would pursue
its own path not only towards an independent national identity, but
towards freedom and democracy. Alas, with the exception of the three
Baltic republics, the freedom-and-democracy part hasn’t proven true.

Let’s begin with the three countries of the Caucasus, where our
weekly listenership ratings are very high, close to 20%. When the
Soviet Union collapsed, Armenia was certainly considered one of the
republics likeliest to succeed. It was a Christian country with close
ties to the West, a highly educated populace, and a cohesive,
talented diaspora. But, after an initial period of reform, Armenia
has regressed into a corrupt oligarchy. No wonder it has lost nearly
a third of its population to emigration since 1992.

Azerbaijan, too, seemed promising, mainly because western investors
were flocking there for its oil. However, it, too, has succumbed to
oligarchy, and in fact last year, Azerbaijan earned the dubious
distinction of becoming the first former Soviet republic in which
power was transferred from father to son.

To complete the Caucasian triumvirate: Georgia experienced happy news
at the end of last year, when a peaceful protest movement led to the
collapse of Eduard Shevardnadze’s corrupt government, and the
election of a true democrat, Mikhail Saakashvili, to the presidency.
Unfortunately, President Saakashvili has inherited a mess. Two
provinces want to secede from Georgia and unite with Russia; a third
region, Adjaria, has demanded more independence from Tbilisi; its
infrastructure is decimated; and corruption is endemic among its
workforce.

In the early hours of this morning, the Adjaria crisis came to an end
when its warlord was persuaded by Minister Ivanov of Russia to step
down and seek asylum in Moscow. Our Georgian Service broadcast all
last night and this morning, live.

The next country in RFE/RL’s European portfolio, Moldova, is the
poorest nation in Europe. In 2001, Moldova became the first former
Soviet state to elect an unreformed Communist president; every year,
President Voronin pays his respects at the monument to Lenin in the
capital. To visit Moldova is to take a trip to a Twilight Zone in
which there are lots of old people, lots of children, and almost no
one in between-they’ve all left to go find work in other countries.
Over the last our years, our Moldovan Service has doubled its
listenership.

Further north, we have Belarus, Europe’s most repressive nation.
Belarus is run by a psychopath named Alexander Lukashenka, who openly
admires Stalin and who did business with Saddam Hussein. Needless to
say, Lukashenka isn’t very fond of RFE/RL, which is probably why this
year our Minsk bureau has been burglarized, threatened with eviction,
and visited by the tax police.

Russia is one of the great underreported stories in the world today.
Here we have a former superpower that, having experimented with
democracy, has reverted to autocracy. My Moscow colleagues tell me
that they have not felt such a climate of enforced orthodoxy since
the 1970s. Putin is so powerful, and so feared, that no one in the
Russian government arrives at work before noon, and no one leaves
before 10 p.m.-because that is the schedule that Putin keeps. The
last time the Kremlin observed this ominous practice was during the
rule of Stalin.

Just this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists named Russia one
of the ten worst places in the world to be a journalist, citing
President Putin’s use of sham lawsuits and corporate maneuvers to
virtually eliminate independent media. Television and radio are now
little more than an arm of the Kremlin. Meanwhile, Putin continues to
go to great lengths to obstruct coverage of the war in Chechnya,
something we at RFE/RL experienced in 2000, when our reporter Andrei
Babitsky was kidnapped in Chechnya by Russian FSB, disappeared for
over 5 weeks, and finally dumped out of the trunk of a car in
Mahashkala, Dagestan one cold February day.

We complete this survey of our European broadcast area with the
biggest disappointment of all: Ukraine. With a well-educated
population of 48 million, Ukraine had the potential to become one of
the great nations of Europe. Instead, under the corrupt rule of
President Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine has become an embarrassment. It has
forged commercial relationships with Iran, Syria, Libya, and Iraq.
The Kuchma administration has also aggressively subverted the
democratic process, employing an array of dirty tricks and brutal
tactics. It is no wonder that “Ukraine fatigue” has become a term of
art in the State Department and at the EU.

Ukraine will elect a new president in October. But Kuchma is so
determined to keep his cronies in power that he has unleashed a
severe crackdown on independent media-and his main target is RFE/RL.
In February, our most important affiliate network in Ukraine, after
being taken over by supporters of Kuchma, kicked us off the air. In
March, a Kyiv station that had begun to air RFE/RL programming two
days earlier was raided and closed by the authorities. And on that
very same day, the director of another station was killed in a car
accident while on his way to a meeting with an RFE/RL representative.
With an election just months away, Kuchma feels he cannot afford to
have RFE/RL around.

I give you this tour of Eastern Europe not only to show that Europe
is not free, but because something very important is at stake here.
Right now, the United States is engaged in a massive effort to
promote democracy in the Middle East. But I worry that by focusing on
the Middle East, we are neglecting to finish the job much closer to
home, in Eastern Europe. We suffer from a sort of “political
attention deficit disorder”; we pay attention whenever missiles are
launched, but once the bombs stop falling, we stop watching. Most
Americans think that Europe has been taken care of, and we can now
move on to the Middle East. But, as I have just described, a large
part of Europe has not been taken care of.

Furthermore, experts agree that one of the pillars of Putin’s
political identity going forward will be an increasingly assertive
foreign policy in places that used to report to Moscow. Since the
former republics of the Soviet Union have such shoddy governments
now, and are in such dire straits economically, I am very
apprehensive about what Eastern Europe may look like in the near
future. We cannot discount the possibility that not one but several
dictatorships will be reborn in the heart of Europe.

***

To address the second widespread misconception about RFE/RL, that we
are solely engaged with Europe: the facts are otherwise. About half
of the countries to which we broadcast are in Asia. And they, too,
desperately need what RFE/RL offers.

Let’s start with Iran, because this has been a depressing talk so
far, and Iran is a country I have high hopes for-an exciting
crucible. Iran may be run by religious fanatics, but its population
is young, pro-West, and pro-democracy. 70% of the Iranian population
is under the age of 30. The regime is doomed, as a simple matter of
demographics.

Because of the extraordinarily youthful skew of Iran’s population, we
decided to try something a little different with Iran. In December of
2002, we launched a joint venture with our sister entity, Voice of
America, called Radio Farda. Radio Farda is a 24-hours-a-day,
7-days-a-week station that combines, in a fast-paced format, eight
hours of serious news coverage each day with a mix of Western and
Iranian pop music.

The response has been extraordinary: over 20% of Iranians between the
ages of 18 and 29 listen to Radio Farda at least once a week. Over
40,000 visitors a day use the Farda website to listen to the station
over the Internet. Thousands of messages a week pour into Farda’s
telephone call-in service. And 76% of the Iranian people consider it
a reliable source of news and information. So much for the Great
Satan. The theocrats are obviously scared, and last year they started
jamming Farda’s broadcast signal, blocking access to its website, and
incarcerating our correspondents.

Another Asian hotspot is Afghanistan. In the wake of the 9/11
terrorist attacks, members of the House of Representatives asked us
to create a broadcast service to Afghanistan. Four months after the
attacks, Radio Free Afghanistan was up and running, broadcasting 12
hours a day in Dari and Pashto to that beleaguered country.

Reminiscent of scenes in movies when someone who’s been crawling
through the desert for days finally finds water and gulps it down
with tremendous intensity, the response to our broadcasts in
Afghanistan has been overwhelming. This is because under the Taliban,
the people weren’t just denied objective news and information-they
were denied radios. In Kabul now, 54% of Afghans listen to us weekly,
and in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif that figure climbs to 68%.
Nothing in my job makes me happier than reading the messages we get
from our listeners, male and female. Radio Free Afghanistan has made
an immediate difference in the lives of the newly free Afghan people.

But recall the “political A.D.D.” that I mentioned earlier. I am
worried that the United States and its allies are not following
through on their promise to rebuild the country. Afghanistan today
does not have functioning institutions. Outside Kabul, security is
worse than it was under the Taliban. Aid workers are being murdered
at an alarming rate, and as a result relief organizations are
drastically scaling back operations. The capital barely has contact
with, let alone control over, the rest of the country, which is run
by regional warlords. And our correspondents believe the Taliban is
regrouping. Obviously, Afghanistan will remain one of our most
important broadcast targets for years to come.

I’m going to skip over Iraq, where we broadcast in Arabic and
Kurdish, for two reasons. First, I think it’s safe to say that
everyone in this room is well aware of what’s going on there. Second,
to my enormous regret, the Administration’s FY05 budget calls for the
termination of Radio Free Iraq at the end of this fiscal year. It is
now up to Congress to decide whether to acquiesce or continue funding
it to the tune of $2.2 million a year. Whatever the outcome, I am
delighted with what RFI has accomplished in its five years; the
latest research shows that a whopping 34.4% of Iraqis listen to us
each week.

I’ll conclude this tour of our Asian broadcast area with the five
Central Asian former republics of the Soviet Union: Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The most benign of the bunch are Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, where
reporters do operate with relative autonomy, provided that they don’t
make any trouble for the people in power. Unfortunately, that’s as
good as it gets in Central Asia today. Each of the other three states
has, since obtaining independence from Moscow, morphed into a
post-Soviet version of The Sopranos, where one crime family rules
through intimidation and violence.

In Kazakhstan, it’s the Nazarbayev family, and they don’t like it
when journalists stick their noses in their business. In the last
three years, newspapers have been burglarized, their employees
beaten, and their offices burned to the ground. Three independent TV
stations were shut down in 2002 alone. Journalists who dare
investigate the corrupt business practices of the Nazarbayev family
are sent to jail. Soon RFE/RL may be the only independent media
outlet operating in Kazakhstan-the rest are all controlled by the
President’s daughter, Darigha.

Uzbekistan is run by the Karimov family, and conditions there are
worse than they are in Kazakhstan. Journalists who report on the
crime, corruption, and poverty plaguing Uzbekistan are routinely
fired-and they’re the lucky ones; many have been arrested, injured,
and jailed. In many cases, it is publicity by RFE/RL that saves these
brave journalists from lengthier prison sentences. I myself felt a
surge of intense contempt for the Uzbek regime last year, when a
group of 20 thugs, no doubt working for the government, surrounded
one of our correspondents as he reported on an incident at Tashkent’s
central market, beat him, and stole his equipment.

The final Mafia state in Central Asia is Turkmenistan, and, though it
may be hard to believe after the foregoing discussion, Turkmenistan
is the worst of all of them. The dictator of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat
Niyazov, has constructed a cult of personality there that would have
made Romania’s Ceausescu blush. Every newspaper lists Niyazov as its
founder. All editors are personally appointed by Niyazov. Censorship
is total. The most important news story, every day, is the
magnificence of Niyazov.

We have correspondents in Turkmenistan, but they must work in secret,
using pseudonyms. Unfortunately, they do not always succeed in
remaining anonymous. In the past year alone, several of our reporters
in Turkmenistan have been abducted, beaten, and jailed. And our
stringer in Moscow was savagely beaten just last week. That these
brave men and women are willing to risk their lives so that their
compatriots can at least hear a little bit of truth every day never
fails to move me. They are true heroes.

As you can see, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has as much to do
with Asia as it does with Europe. In fact, since we are funded by the
government, our priorities as an organization largely track its
priorities, and right now the biggest priority of the government is
combating terrorism. That’s why I always have to laugh when people
claim that RFE/RL is a relic-especially since 19 of our 28 broadcast
languages are directed at predominantly-Muslim populations.

In fact, as part of the War on Terror, RFE/RL hopes to redouble its
radio, television, and Internet efforts to the five Central Asian
states over the next 12 months. Although these former Soviet states
may seem to have little to do with Islamist terrorism, we at RFE/RL
believe that Central Asia could well be the next front in the global
War on Terror. Already, at least two terrorist organizations are
operating within these countries, seeking to establish Islamic
theocracy. Most importantly, these Central Asian nations are exactly
the kind of places that can become breeding grounds for terrorism.
Remember that almost all of the terrorists of 9/11 came not from
Muslim countries whose governments professed hatred of the United
States (Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan) but from Muslim countries whose
governments are friendly with the United States: Saudi Arabia and
Egypt. The same is true of these Central Asian states, where
west-friendly autocrats rule over Muslim populations, and where the
U.S. government has made alliances of necessity while pursuing the
larger goal of toppling the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.

As the people living under these regimes become more and more bitter
about the hopelessness of their lives, they are drawn to more radical
belief systems. The best way to combat the growth of such radicalism
is not to make society less free, as these Central Asian dictators
have done, but to make it more free. RFE/RL looks forward to
intensifying the fight to make Central Asia a freer, and therefore
safer, place.

***

I hope that I have succeeded today in getting my message across.
RFE/RL is not a Cold War relic, but a modern media organization
communicating to the world’s most unstable hotspots. Today we cannot
know what the next Afghanistan will be-just as we can’t know where
the next Srebrenica massacre will occur, or where the next militant
Islamic revolution will erupt. But the likelihood is that many people
there are listening to RFE/RL, and they are grateful that we have not
stopped fighting for our shared values: the free flow of information,
human rights, freedom and democracy.

BBC News, UK
May 7 2004

Press digests Ajaria aftermath

Ajaria’s drama has met with mixed interpretations
The defusing of the crisis in the Georgian province of Ajaria
following the departure of rebel leader Aslan Abashidze is greeted in
the region’s press with cautious relief.

In Georgia, papers are grateful to Russia for its mediation. A sense
of satisfaction is echoed in the other Caucasian republics of Armenia
and Azerbaijan.

But in Russia the press is full of misgivings. It sees America as the
overall winner and warns of problems ahead.

Georgia

The pro-government 24 Saati notes the Georgian foreign minister’s
satisfaction that “the burden of Abashidze has been handed over to
Russia”.

Another pro-government paper, Sakartvelos Respublika, carries on its
front page Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s comment that
“Russia has played a positive role”.

The swan song of the Ajarian lion shows Washington and Moscow are
working on a new map of the South Caucasus

Ayasatani Anrapetutyun
The independent Akhali 7 Dge in turn believes that the elimination of
the pro-Russian regime in Georgia was possible only thanks to Western
support. And it expresses the hope that, with that support, “Russia’s
negative role in Georgian politics will diminish”.

The same paper carries an interview with MP Davit Zurabishvili on the
possibility of spreading the “rose revolution” to Georgia’s other
troublesome regions.

He says the peaceful end of the conflict in Ajaria is a “message sent
in two directions”, to the West as well as to Abkhazia and South
Ossetia.

In both cases the message is the same: Georgia is “determined to use
only peaceful means” to settle its remaining conflicts.

And interviewed in another independent paper, Rezonansi, the leader
of the opposition New Right party, Davit Gamqrelidze, says the
integration of Ajaria into Georgia will “definitely have a favourable
influence” on settling the Abkhaz conflict.

Armenia

Elsewhere in the Caucasus, papers are likewise reassured.

Armenia’s Ayasatani Anrapetutyun says the “swan-song of the Ajarian
lion” shows Washington and Moscow are working on a “new map of the
South Caucasus, and have even come to an agreement on some matters”.

New faces will govern Ajaria from now on – of course, looking back
to Tbilisi

Xalq Qazeti
Aravot in turn is full of praise for Mr Saakashvili, noting that his
actions have “nothing in common with political adventure”. This, it
says, was best seen in his enlisting Russia as “an authoritative
mediator”.

Ayots Ashkar also believes developments bode well for the future.

“This creates favourable conditions to overcome a certain coldness in
the Armenian-Georgian relations,” it says.

Azerbaijan

The pro-government Azerbaijani daily Xalq Qazeti says the conflict
has ended with a clear victory for Georgia.

“The Georgian people are happy. The international community is also
pleased with the fact that the conflict ended without bloodshed. New
faces will govern Ajaria from now on – of course, looking back to
Tbilisi,” it says.

Other papers, however, are less positive.

In the Caucasus, Washington it has managed to pull off its latest
geopolitical triumph

Moskovskiy Komsomolets
The opposition Azadliq has harsh words for the Azerbaijani leadership
over its position on the Ajarian issue.

“The Ajarian dictator has been banished… The Azerbaijani government
should feel sad because the Abashidze regime was its only partner in
corruption,” it says.

And the independent Russian-language daily Zerkalo focuses on
Russia’s reduced influence in the Caucasus.

“The northern neighbour has lost a rather serious ally and a
strategic base in the Caucasus,” it comments.

Russia

Russian papers are generally unhappy with the turn of events. Some
view developments as something of a coup for US President George W
Bush.

Abashidze was literally hounded into resigning

Pravda
“While Washington is getting itself mired more and more deeply in
Iraq, in the Caucasus it has managed to pull off its latest
geopolitical triumph,” says the mass-circulation Moskovskiy
Komsomolets.

This, it says, is the only way to interpret the victory of “American
placeman” Mr Saakashvili over Abashidze, who was close to Russia.

Another popular Moscow daily, Moskovskaya Pravda, agrees.

“The events,” it insists, “were not a victory for Saakashvili over
Abashidze, but for America over Russia. The USA is effectively
continuing a carve-up of the Caucasus using its puppets in the
region.”

The Russian Communist Party newspaper Pravda in turn takes the
Kremlin to task.

“Abashidze was literally hounded into resigning. And, strange as it
may seem, Secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council Igor
Ivanov took a direct part in this shameful and unlawful affair.”

While the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta has a word of warning
for the Georgian president.

“Even at Georgia’s most difficult periods, ‘feudal’ Abashidze
maintained peace and stability,” it says. “The ‘democrat’ Saakashvili
is still only at the start of a difficult journey.”

While he seems well-intentioned enough, “we all remember that the
road to hell is paved with good intentions”, the paper adds.

The Daily Telegraph, UK
May 7 2004

Hooligan movies are all the rage
(Filed: 07/05/2004)

We’re about to witness a rash of films about football violence – and
one of them stars Elijah Wood. By Matt Munday

Remember how Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels spawned a rash of
identikit Brit gangster flicks? And how there are only so many
wise-cracking spivs, cocked-up capers and Vinnie Jones temper
tantrums we can endure before the fun wears off? We may be about to
witness a similar boom-bust cycle. But instead of East End wise guys,
this time it’s football hooligans.

Firm stance: The Football Factory

No fewer than four films about the darker side of terrace culture are
due in the coming year. The one with the highest profile is likely to
be The Yank, a big-bucks Hollywood movie in which Elijah Wood – Frodo
in the Lord of the Rings trilogy – plays a Harvard drop-out who moves
to London and develops a taste for match-day madness. It has just
finished filming and will be released in January next year.

Then will come Irvine Welsh’s portrait of Cardiff City FC’s notorious
fighting gang, the Soul Crew, which is filming this summer. Then an
adaptation of reformed hooligan Cass Pennant’s autobiography,
Congratulations, You Have Just Met the ICF (an acronym for West Ham
United’s real-life fighting element, the Inter-City Firm).

But first out of the traps comes The Football Factory, directed by
Nick Love, whose 2001 debut, Goodbye Charlie Bright, won acclaim for
its gritty realism. That’s a quality also in evidence in his new
film, notably during The Football Factory’s shocking climax – a mass
brawl on a patch of south London waste ground between rival gangs
from Chelsea and Millwall. A bone-crunchingly accurate and
unflinching depiction of soccer violence, it ends with hapless lead
character Tommy Johnson (Danny Dyer) being kicked half to death. And
its authenticity derives in part from the fact that the majority of
the brawlers are the real thing.

“Previous films about football violence [the most recent of which was
1995’s risible ID] have never worked because of the lack of attention
to detail, the implausibility of the characters, and the ridiculous
way that the actual violence is handled,” says Love, in a heavy south
London accent.

“And there’s nothing worse than watching a film and thinking, ‘I
don’t believe this’. So we roped in thugs from most of the big London
‘firms’ – though we were terrified of local rivalries spilling over
into actual fighting. But the astonishing thing was, at the end of a
take, they all started clapping and bowing to each other.”

The Football Factory depicts four generations of white working-class
Londoners, all except the oldest – Bill Farrell, a Second World War
hero – trapped in a culture of brutal violence, moral apathy and
aspirational fashion (as in real life, the football hooligans are not
Dr Martens-wearing skinheads, but smartly dressed “casuals” clad in
upmarket brand names: Burberry, Stone Island and Aquascutum).

Thus, the bitter fortysomething Billy Bright (Lock, Stock’s Frank
Harper) mercilessly bullies the teenage wannabe Zeberdee (Roland
Manookian), who then metes out similar abuse to youngsters half his
age. True, throughout the film, twentysomething Tommy Johnson
questions whether the casual lifestyle is “worth it”, but he fails,
even after nearly losing his life, to choose another path.

So is The Football Factory a validation of the thug lifestyle, or is
it trying to pull off something more complex and challenging? When
the fight sequences are accompanied by an adrenaline-stoking
soundtrack from the likes of Primal Scream and The Streets, it is
easy to see how Love might be accused of the former – especially as
public apprehension increases in the run-up to Euro 2004.

‘We roped in thugs from most of the big London firms’

“All films should ask questions,” he says, “so I decided during
editing to sacrifice labouring any point. The criticism has already
started: people have said that it is hard to empathise with some of
the characters because of all the swearing and violence – but my
predicament was that I had to be truthful about them. At the same
time, I ensured there is less than five minutes of actual violence in
the whole film – I didn’t want to alienate the public.”

“Because football violence is such a hot potato,” says Manookian,
“it’s easy to overlook how balanced the film is.” His character,
Zeberdee, racially abuses an Asian family on a bus, to the disgust of
Bill Farrell. “The older character, Bill, actually fought against
far-Right extremists in the war, and that point is explicitly made in
the film,” says Manookian, who is of Armenian descent and endured
racist abuse himself while growing up in Bermondsey. “And I don’t
seriously think that any film has the power to affect English
hooliganism one way or another: if people are going to cause trouble
at Euro 2004, they’ll do it regardless.”

Neither Love, Manookian nor Harper had to do much research. “I’ve
been around people like that all my life,” says Harper. “It was just
part and parcel of where I grew up [near Catford, south London]. I’ve
never been involved in football violence – my dad would have disowned
me. And I’m one of a lucky minority that has found an outlet in the
arts. But there are generations out there who feel really lost – and
they are the most un-PC group in the country: white, working-class
heterosexuals. The people New Labour hate. They feel they’ve got no
place in their own country any more. And they are expressing their
frustration through drinking and violence.”

“This film has nothing to do with race,” insists Love. “It’s purely
an indictment of all that New Labour rubbish about England being a
classless society.”

So far, so grim. But has Love’s foray into hooligan culture afforded
any insight as to how society should tackle it? “It has got to come
from parenting and schooling,” he says, in a trice. “We should be
looking towards the one-year-olds and the unborns – because their
paths aren’t determined yet – and working out how to make their lives
better.”

‘The Football Factory’ is released next Friday

International Journalist’s Network
May 7 2004

Armenian news directors to learn new computer program

A seminar for Armenian TV news directors and editors is aimed at
teaching them how to use News Factory – software that can help them
organize their newsrooms.

Internews-Armenia has scheduled the seminar for May 24 at its offices
in Yerevan. No more than one representative from each participating
TV company may attend.

Trainers Konstantin Naumov and Denis Shchevchenko of Internews-Russia
will lead the seminar. They will present the News Factory program,
which facilitates the organization of newsroom work for TV stations.

Internews-Russia created the software to help regional stations
automate their news production, while creating computerized archives
of their local news reports. According to an October 2003 release
from Internews, more than 300 stations across Russia are using the
software.

For more information about the software, visit

For information about the course, contact David Aslanyan at
[email protected], telephone +374 1 58-36-20. Internews-Armenia:

Turkish Press
May 7 2004

The Azerbaijanis And Cyprus
BYEGM: 5/7/2004
BY ERDAL GUVEN

RADIKAL- The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) declared its
independence on November 15, 1983 and was recognized by Turkey the
very same day. But for the next 21 years, no other country extended
recognition. How could this be? After the TRNC was founded, the UN
Security Council adopted Resolution 541 condemning the TRNC’s
self-declared founding and calling on all UN members not to recognize
any Cypriot state besides the `Republic of Cyprus’ (that is, Greek
Cyprus). Therefore only Ankara recognized the TRNC and even if Turkey
turned its nose up, the whole rest of the world recognizes the
`Republic of Cyprus’ as the sole legal representative of the island.

The issue also carries a geopolitical aspect. The TRNC is a concrete
form of separation in the context of international relations and was
formed unilaterally as a result of military intervention by Turkey.
However, today’s geopolitics frowns on separatism, micro-nationalism
and political formations based on ethnicity excepting where there is
mutual consent. On the contrary, today’s geopolitics favors
integration based upon democracy, political equality and economic
sharing. This is another political reason why the TRNC is not
recognized. The interests and policies of countries faced with splits
or threatened by separation are in line with this geopolitics. One of
those countries is Azerbaijan, with its problem of upper Karabakh.
The serious problem faced by Baku is that 20% of its land is
currently occupied by Armenia and the upper Karabakh separatist
movement. Therefore, the Azerbaijani representatives in the European
Council’s Parliament were leaning towards not recognizing the TRNC.
`The Parliament vote would mean recognizing the TRNC,’ said one
Azerbaijani official. `This would set a risky precedent for the
future recognition of the administration in upper Karabakh.’ This
development should remind Turkey that in international relations
there is no friendship or brotherhood, but only interests.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS
AND INFORMATION

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Anadolu Agency
May 7 2004

Erdogan: Aegean Sea Should Be Made A Sea Of Peace

ATHENS – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that
problems regarding Aegean Sea should be solved one by one and Aegean
Sea should be made a sea of peace.

Sources noted on Friday that Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis
said that there should be political will, good will and mutual will
for further development of relations between the two countries in the
meeting between delegations under the chairmanship of Erdogan and
Caramanlis.

Stating that the two countries should move with firm steps in
economy, tourism, trade sectors and joint investments, Caramanlis
added that it would be a good model for the region.

Caramanlis said that they considered Turkey’s European Union (EU)
membership an issue which had strategic importance for Greece and
that’s why they supported Turkey’s accession to the EU. He noted that
they would continue to support Turkey on its path to EU and stated
that they were watching steps that Turkey took and reforms that the
country fulfilled for its EU membership with appreciation. Stating
that implementation of those reforms was also very important,
Caramanlis said that those reforms would be put into practice under
the leadership of Erdogan.

Caramanlis added that he expected Greek Cypriot side not to cause any
difficulties in Turkey’s EU membership.

Erdogan said that he was the first Turkish prime minister to visit
Greece after 16 years.

Recalling that he earlier visited Greece twice prior to Copenhagen
Summit in 2002 and after quake in Greece, he stated that those visits
would make great contribution to relations between the two countries.

Stating that dialogue process which started between the two countries
continued, Erdogan said that they attached great importance to
committees which were set up within this scope.

Erdogan said that problems regarding the Aegean Sea should be solved
one by one and stressed that Aegean Sea should be made a sea of
peace.

Noting that total trade volume between the two countries amounted 1
billion 325 million U.S. dollars, he said that further improvement of
trade volume would contribute to solution of political problems of
the two countries.

Erdogan underlined that the two countries should launch joint
initiatives for the third countries.

Erdogan stated that Turkey also was ready to make contribution to
Olympic Games that Greece would host this year.

The number of border gates between the two countries should be
increased, he stated. Noting that Turkish and Greek contractors could
make business in the Middle East, Balkans, Central Asia and Caucasia,
Erdogan said that visa problem that Turkish tourists and
entrepreneurs faced when they entered Greece should be solved.
Caramanlis said that problems on this issue stemmed from Schengen
visa and stated that talks on this issue continued with EU.

Erdogan expressed his uneasiness about a Greek minister’s speech in a
meeting on April 25, 2004 in which so-called Armenian genocide
allegations were mentioned.

Stating that people should leave such issues to historians, Erdogan
said that this issue should not be used as a political tool. Erdogan
said that Turkey took a step on this issue and started to exclude
expressions which might harm relations with its neighbors from school
books and added that he expected Turkey’s neighbor countries to
assume a similar attitude.

Erdogan said that protocol on illegal migration between Turkey and
Greece was implemented wrongly and wanted Greek officials for border
to be warned on this issue.

Erdogan said that Turkey took steps for peace and a progress was
recorded with Syria on this issue and added that Israel’s latest
actions made difficult Turkey’s initiatives on this issue.

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Christopher Walker
(212) 514-8040 x19

FREEDOM HOUSE APPLAUDS TODAY’S U.S. DECISION TO INCREASE AID TO POOR
DEMOCRACIES

Millennium Challenge Corporation Decision Rewards Large Number of Developing
Countries with Good Democracy and Rights Records

NEW YORK, MAY 6, 2004: Freedom House today applauded the Millennium
Challenge Corporation’s selection of 16 developing countries eligible for
enhanced U.S. foreign assistance. The selection was based on a number of
criteria set out by the Administration, including commitments by those
nations’ governments to “ruling justly.”

“It is particularly heartening to see the U.S. government encouraging such a
large number of African countries that are adhering to basic democratic
practices,” said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor.

“The use of strict criteria in the allocation of new development aid will
mainly reward poor countries that adhere to basic human rights and
democratic practices. It will also avoid bolstering despotic regimes in
developing states with long records of human rights violations,” Windsor
added.

Freedom House has been a strong champion of the Millennium Challenge Account
concept, believing that it can help create incentives for improved
governance and democratic practices among the broad array of developing
countries. Initially, the list of eligible countries included such human
rights violators as Vietnam and Mauritania, and Freedom House is pleased
that the most problematic candidate countries have been dropped from this
new list.

Freedom House rankings are among the selection criteria applied in the
allocation of over $1 billion in foreign aid funding under the program.
Eight of the selected countries are rated Free, with a good record of
respect for basic rights, while the other eight eligible for funding are
Partly Free, with some adherence of basic rights practices, according to
Freedom House.

“As a first step, the MCC effort is to be applauded and the Administration
is to be congratulated for an important and innovative approach to foreign
aid,” Windsor added.

A full listing of MCA eligible countries and their political rights and
civil liberties ratings and categories follow. A rating of 1 represents the
highest adherence to human rights standards and democratic practices and 7
the poorest adherence to such standards, according to Freedom House’s annual
survey Freedom in the World 2004. Freedom in the World ratings are presented
below in the following order: Country (Political Rights Numerical Rating;
Civil Liberties Numerical Rating; Freedom Status of Free, Partly Free or Not
Free).

Armenia (4,4 Partly Free), Benin (2,2 Free), Bolivia (3,3 Partly Free), Cape
Verde (1,1, Free), Georgia (4,4 Partly Free), Ghana (2,2 Free), Honduras
(3,3 Partly Free), Lesotho (2,3 Free), Madagascar (3,3 Partly Free), Mali
(2,2 Free), Mongolia (2,2 Free), Mozambique (3,4 Partly Free), Nicaragua
(3,3 Partly Free), Senegal (2,3 Free), Sri Lanka (3,3 Partly Free), and
Vanuatu (2,2 Free).

—

BBC Sport, UK
May 7 2004

Harrison bout delayed again

Harrison does not want to take any risks with his fitness

Scott Harrison’s WBO world featherweight title fight with US-based
Armenian William Abelyan has been postponed for a second time.
The Cambuslang fighter injured an arm in training, forcing the bout
to be put back to 19 June from 29 May.

The fight was originally due to take place in March but on that
occasion Abelyan pulled out through injury.

“This is a blow but these things happen. I’ll have to be patient
until I can get Abelyan,” said Harrison.

“I learnt from my first fight with Manuel Medina that you should not
enter the ring if you are not 100% fit.

“I’m currently seeing a sports injury specialist and they are
confident that the injury will heal and I can resume training
shortly.

“Until the injury happened my training was going great, probably the
best it has ever been. ”

Promoter Frank Warren added: “The Abelyan fight is the toughest of
Scott’s career and he has to be 100% ready for him.

“It’s a great shame that he got injured with the fight date closing
in but I do not want to see him go into the ring under-prepared or
with any injuries.

“He has had one set back when he lost the title and we do not want
that to happen again.”