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03/31/2004
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1) Justice Minister Assures Punishment for Gyumri Disturbances
2) ANCA Issues Report Card on Bush Administration
3) US General Discusses Armenian Involvement in Iraq, Military Assistance
4) Talabani: Kirkuk Sacred for Kurds
1) Justice Minister Assures Punishment for Gyumri Disturbances
YEREVAN (Armenpress)–Armenia’s Justice Minister David Haroutounian announced
in parliament on Tuesday that those responsible for the disturbances at last
weekend’s opposition rally in Gyumri, would be strictly punished,
regardless of
party belonging or their rank, and added that even authorities implicated in
the incident will have to be responsible for their actions.
According to RFE/RL, the Gyumri gathering was disrupted when some
participants
scuffled with several women who raised banners denouncing President Robert
Kocharian’s opponents. Shortly afterwards, several men charged towards the
podium amid eggs thrown in the direction of the opposition leaders. The
confrontation turned into a fistfight that ended with four opposition
activists
taken away by plain-clothes police officers.
Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, also addressing parliament, announced that
the authorities operate only under the rule of law, and responded to claims by
opposition parliament member Hrant Khachatrian that “certain bodies have begun
to hire paid combatants.”
Margarian, speaking of forces that safeguard internal security and stability,
and the army that defends the country from external threats, stressed that, in
spite of opposition claims, the government has no other troops and has not
hired combatants.
Emphasizing the government’s support of any opposition activities within the
framework of the law, Margarian said, “We have no right to limit political
rights or rights of citizens; the consideration, however, is the method the
opposition chooses to realize its goals. If those are outside legal
limitations, then the government has a direct responsibility to protect
internal security and the interests of the country.”
2) ANCA Issues Report Card on Bush Administration
WASHINGTON, DC–The 2004 Armenian American Presidential Report Card, issued on
Tuesday by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), gave the George
W. Bush Administration low marks for its record of broken promises, neglect,
and opposition to more than a dozen issues concerning Armenian American
voters.
The ANCA Report Card covers fifteen broad policy areas, beginning with the
President’s broken campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and
extending through more than three years of policy toward Armenia, the
Caucasus,
and the surrounding region. While highlighting certain positive steps by the
Bush Administration, the Report Card, nevertheless, reveals an Administration
that has fallen far short of the Armenian American community’s expectations.
“Armenian Americans were profoundly disappointed by President Bush’s
decision–only three months after taking office–to abandon his campaign
pledge
to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Chairman Ken
Hachikian.
“Since then, sadly, the record shows that the President has broken other
commitments to our community–most notably to maintain parity in US military
aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan–and has actively opposed key issues of concern
to Armenian Americans.”
ANCA PRESIDENTIAL REPORT CARD:
BROKEN CAMPAIGN PLEDGE TO RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Almost immediately after taking office, President Bush abandoned his campaign
pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Made in February of 2000 as Texas
Governor, the promise was widely distributed among Armenian Americans prior to
the hotly contested Michigan primary. It read, in part:
“The twentieth century was marred by wars of unimaginable brutality, mass
murder and genocide. History records that the Armenians were the first people
of the last century to have endured these cruelties. The Armenians were
subjected to a genocidal campaign that defies comprehension and commands all
decent people to remember and acknowledge the facts and lessons of an awful
crime in a century of bloody crimes against humanity. If elected President, I
would ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the
Armenian people.”
Rather than honor this promise, the President, in his annual April 24th
statements, has consistently used evasive and euphemistic terminology to avoid
describing Ottoman Turkey’s systematic and deliberate destruction of the
Armenian people by its proper name–the Armenian Genocide.
OPPOSITION TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
The Bush Administration is actively blocking the adoption of the Genocide
Resolution in both the House and Senate. This legislation (S.Res.164 and
H.Res.193) specifically cites the Armenian Genocide and formally commemorates
the 15th anniversary of United States implementation of the UN Genocide
Convention. The Genocide Resolution is supported by a broad based coalition of
over one hundred organizations, including American Values, the NAACP, National
Council of Churches, Sons of Italy, International Campaign for Tibet, National
Council of La Raza, and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis.
FAILURE TO CONDEMN TURKEY’S DENIAL OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
The Bush Administration has failed to condemn Turkey’s recent escalation of
its campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide. Notably, the Administration has
remained silent in the face of the decree issued in April of 2003 by Turkey’s
Education Minister, Huseyin Celik, requiring that all students in Turkey’s
schools be instructed in the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
The State Department’s 2003 human rights report on Turkey uses the
historically inaccurate and highly offensive phrase “alleged genocide” to
mischaracterize the Armenian Genocide. In addition, despite repeated protests,
the Bush Administration’s State Department continues to host a website on
Armenian history that fails to make even a single mention of the Genocide.
()
THE WAIVER OF SECTION 907 OF THE FREEDOM SUPPORT ACT
The Bush Administration, in 2001, aggressively pressured Congress into
granting the President the authority to waive Section 907, a provision of law
that bars aid to the government of Azerbaijan until it lifts its blockades of
Armenia and Karabagh. President Bush has subsequently used this authority to
provide direct aid, including military assistance, to the government of
Azerbaijan, despite their continued violation of the provisions of this law.
REDUCTION IN AID TO ARMENIA
In the face of the devastating, multi-billion dollar impact of the Turkish
and
Azerbaijani blockades on the Armenian economy, President Bush has, in each of
the past three years, proposed to Congress that humanitarian and developmental
aid to Armenia be reduced.
ABANDONMENT OF THE MILITARY AID PARITY AGREEMENT
The Bush Administration abandoned its November 2001 agreement with Congress
and the Armenian American community to maintain even levels of military aid to
Armenia and Azerbaijan. Instead, the Administration, in its fiscal year 2005
foreign aid bill, proposes sending four times more Foreign Military Financing
to Azerbaijan ($8 million) than to Armenia ($2 million). This action tilts the
military balance in favor of Azerbaijan, rewards Azerbaijan’s increasingly
violent threats of renewed aggression, and undermines the role of the US as an
impartial mediator of the Karabagh talks.
MISTAKEN LISTING OF ARMENIA AS A TERRORIST COUNTRY
The Bush Administration, through Attorney General John Ashcroft, sought,
unsuccessfully, in December of 2002 to place Armenia on an Immigration and
Naturalization Service watch list for terrorist countries. This obvious error
was reversed only after a nation-wide protest campaign. Neither the White
House
nor the Department of Justice has apologized for the offense caused by this
mistake.
NEGLECT OF US-ARMENIA RELATIONS
While the Bush Administration has maintained a formal dialogue with
Armenia on
economic issues through the bi-annual meetings of the US-Armenia Task
Force, it
has, as a matter of substance, failed to take any meaningful action to
materially promote US-Armenia economic ties. Specifically, the Administration
has not provided leadership on legislation, spearheaded by Congressional
Republicans and currently before Congress, to grant Armenia permanent normal
trade relations (PNTR) status. Nor has the Administration initiated any steps
toward the negotiation of a Tax Treaty, Social Security Agreement, Trade and
Investment Framework Agreement, or other bilateral agreements to foster
increased US-Armenia commercial relations.
The President neither visited Armenia nor did he invite the President of
Armenia to visit the United States.
FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A BALANCED POLICY ON MOUNTAINOUS KARABAGH
The Bush Administration, to its credit, took an early initiative to help
resolve the Mountainous Karabagh issue in the form of the Key West summit
meeting in 2001 between Secretary of State Powell and the presidents of
Armenia
and Azerbaijan. After Azerbaijan’s failure to honor its Key West commitments,
however, the Administration failed to hold Azerbaijan accountable for
unilaterally stalling the Karabagh peace process.
INCREASED GRANTS, LOANS AND MILITARY TRANSFERS TO TURKEY
The Bush Administration has effectively abandoned America’s responsibility to
link aid, loans, and arms transfers to Turkey’s adherence to basic standards
for human rights and international conduct. The most notable example was
the $8
billion loan package provided to Turkey in 2003 despite Turkey’s refusal to
allow US forces to open a northern front during the war in Iraq.
TAXPAYER FINANCING OF THE BAKU-CEYHAN BYPASS OF ARMENIA
The Bush Administration is supporting American taxpayer subsidies for the
politically motivated Baku-Ceyhan pipeline route that, at the insistence of
Turkey and Azerbaijan, bypasses Armenia.
REFUSAL TO PRESSURE TURKEY AND AZERBAIJAN TO END THEIR BLOCKADES
The Bush Administration has not forcefully condemned the Turkish and
Azerbaijani blockades as clear violations of international law, nor,
outside of
occasional public statements, has it taken any meaningful steps to pressure
the
Turkish or Azerbaijani governments to end their illegal border closures.
LOBBYING FOR TURKISH MEMBERSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
The Bush Administration has aggressively pressured European governments to
accept Turkey into the European Union, despite Turkey’s consistent failure to
meet European conditions for membership, on issues ranging from the
blockade of
Armenia and the Armenian Genocide to the occupation of Cyprus and human
rights.
DOWN-GRADING RELATIONS WITH THE ARMENIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY
Breaking with the tradition of the last several Administrations, the Bush
White House failed to reach out in any meaningful way to our nation’s one
and a
half million citizens of Armenian heritage. While the State Department,
Pentagon and National Security Council maintained their long-standing
policy-level dialogue with the Armenian American community leadership, the
White House itself essentially neglected Armenian Americans as a political
constituency. Perhaps the most telling example of this is that, during the
course of the past three years, despite repeated requests, the President did
not hold any community-wide meetings with the leadership of the Armenian
American community, nor did his Secretary of State or National Security
Advisor.
ARMENIAN AMERICAN APPOINTMENTS
The President appointed Joe Bogosian to an important Deputy Assistant
Secretary position at the Commerce Department, John Jamian to a key maritime
position in the Department of Transportation, and Samuel Der-Yeghiayan as a
Federal Judge in the Northern District of Illinois.
3) US General Discusses Armenian Involvement in Iraq, Military Assistance
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–A top US general in charge of troops in Europe, ended a
two-day visit to Armenia on Wednesday, addressing expansion of US-Armenian
military cooperation, and Armenian involvement in Iraq’s reconstruction.
“The United States is proud to have Armenia as a friend in the war on
terrorism and, in the future, in the recovery and reconstruction of Iraq,”
Major-General Jeffery Kohler, director of plans and policy at the US European
Command, said after talks with Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian and the chief
of the Armenian army staff, Colonel-General Mikael Harutiunian.
“Armenia has offered to provide a truck company and medical personnel [to
Iraq]. Details of that deployment are being worked out right now,” Kohler told
reporters before leaving Armenia, but gave no possible dates for the dispatch
of the small Armenian contingent promised by the Armenian government last
summer. The two sides have since been discussing practical modalities of the
deployment which will be largely financed by the US government.
Armenia did not endorse the US invasion of Iraq last year, and hopes military
involvement now will make Armenian companies eligible for US-funded
reconstruction contracts in the war-ravaged nation. Asked to comment on this,
Kohler said: “I know that the US government has offered any nation that is
supporting the effort in Iraq ability to come in and assist in the
reconstruction.”
Armenia initially announced readiness to commit a team of medical doctors and
a platoon of de-mining experts for the for the US-led occupation force in
Iraq.
Deputy Defense Minister Artur Aghabekian said last month that Armenian
military
drivers are also trained to participate in the operation.
Kohler said another purpose of his trip was to discuss further US assistance
to a special peace-keeping battalion of the Armenian armed force. “The United
States has already provided some equipment and training to the battalion
and we
are looking at ways to advance that and enable that to grow in the future,” he
said.
The US general, who is based in the German city of Stuttgart, praised a
battalion from the platoon that joined the NATO-led peacekeeping force in
Kosovo last month on Armenia’s first-ever military mission abroad. “The
Armenian people should be very proud of how they perform,” he said.
The US military assistance to Armenia was made possible by the suspension of
the decade-long restrictions on US government aid to Azerbaijan following the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The US Congress has allocated about $8
million in military funding to Armenia. Most of the money will be used for
upgrading communication facilities of Armenia’s Armed Forces.
Although a similar sum has been budgeted for Azerbaijan, the parity will be
broken based on the Bush Administration’s 2005 proposed budget that calls for
$8 million in military aid to Azerbaijan and only $2.3 million to Armenia.
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage argued in Yerevan last week
that
Baku is entitled to a bigger share of the pie because it is already
involved in
US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Responding to Armenian protests against the aid disparity, the US assured
that
it will not change the shaky balance of forces in the conflict over
Mountainous
Karabagh.
Kohler also stressed that the US will almost certainly freeze its military
cooperation with both nations should the Karabagh war resume. “Although it is
not up to the US European Command, I can almost guarantee that if there is
conflict from either side, our Congress will impose those sanctions again,” he
said.
Kohler added that he will soon pay another visit to Armenian at the
request of
Sarkisian. “The minister of defense has ordered me in many ways to come back
and visit very soon,” he said without elaborating.
4) Talabani: Kirkuk Sacred for Kurds
CAIRO (UPI/PUK.org)–Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani said the oil-rich
center of Kirkuk is as important for Kurds as East Jerusalem is for Arabs and
Muslims.
In an interview with the Cairo daily al-Ahram on Wednesday, Talabani said,
“Kirkuk is a sacred city for Kurds as much as Jerusalem is for Muslim and we
have been struggling for it for more than 40 years.”
Talabani, whose Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has been sharing control of
Iraq’s Kurdistan with Massud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1991,
said past Iraqi governments were ready to recognize the autonomy of Kurdistan,
excluding Kirkuk. “Historically and demographically speaking, Kirkuk was never
part of Iraq but part of Kurdistan.”
Talabani stressed that Kurds do not seek to secede from Iraq but want the
right of autonomy under a federal system to be recognized.
While there is a consensus among most Iraqi political groups about the
establishment of a federal form of government in the post-Saddam Iraq,
there is
disagreement about the nature of such federalism. Without exception, the
non-Kurdish Iraqi majority favors the federalism of the provinces. Iraq is
divided into 18 provinces and, according to this view, each province should
have some degree of autonomy within a federal framework that leaves much of
the
power at the center in Baghdad. Since most provinces, including those in the
north, have a mixture of ethnic groups including Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen,
Assyrians, and Christians, this scheme will loosely limit the Kurdish control
over at most three provinces–Sulaymaniyya, Erbil and Dhouk–that have enjoyed
political autonomy since 1991.
By contrast, the Kurds have insisted on regional federalism that would bring
into one region, and one political framework, all the provinces with
substantial Kurdish populations, including the city of Kirkuk. The additional
Kurdish insistence to keep Kirkuk as part of the regional federation scheme
stems from the argument that the city has undergone a process of “Arabization”
under the Saddam regime. The idea of the federation of provinces is rejected,
according to Talabani, because “throughout its history, the Kurdish people
have
struggled to prevent the separation of the Kurdish provinces from each other
and to protect the integrity of the historical Kurdish borders.”
According to Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the Governing Council, the
annexation of Kirkuk into a Kurdish region is not meant to “Kurdicize” the
city
but to remove the relics of its Arabization. According to Othman, the 1959
census has shown a majority of Kurds in Kirkuk and that majority should be the
sole criterion in determining its future.
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