Month: June 2005

Parade Magazine
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Turkey Gets Tough With The Red Fox
We feel bad for Turkey, a nation whose name is synonymous with a bird that
gets stuffed each Thanksgiving. But we think Turkey is a bit oversensitive
about animal names.
Its native red fox and wild sheep are getting new monikers because the old
ones refer to Kurdistan and Armenia. (Turkey opposes Kurdish separatists and
has rocky relations with Armenia, which accuses the Turks of killing 1.5
million Armenians in the years 1915-23.)
The fox, Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica, is now just Vulpes Vulpes; and the
sheep, Ovis Armeniana, is now Ovis Orientalis Anatolicus. Turkey says the
old names were given `with ill intentions.’

PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
e-mail: [email protected]
Website:
Contact: Iris Papazian
June 9, 2005
ARMENIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES DISCOVERY OF
THE RELICS OF ST. GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR THIS WEEK
This Saturday, June 11, the Armenian Church commemorates the discovery
of the relics of St. Gregory the Illuminator. The Church calendar
memorializes its first Catholicos and Patron Saint three times each year:
Entrance into the Pit; Emergence from the Pit; and Discovery of his Remains.
Relics of St. Gregory are kept at the See of Etchmiadzin and See of Cilicia,
enclosed in metallic arms, which are used to stir the Holy Oil (Muron) every
seven years.
BIBLE TRANSLATION GROUP HAS FORMATIVE MEETING IN MONTREAL
A new Bible translation group, headed by His Eminence Archbishop Oshagan
Choloyan, met in Montreal this week to begin planning their forthcoming
work. The original team included the late Archbishop Zareh Aznavorian who
was a recognized biblical scholar. Archbishop Oshagan who worked with
Archbishop Zareh since the founding of the project in the early 1980s, will
continue the project with Archbishop Khajag Hagopian, Prelate of Canada, and
V. Rev. Fr. Anoushavan Tanielian, Vicar of the Prelacy. The three met in
Montreal this week to confer and develop a schedule to complete the
translation of the Old Testament. The New Testament was completed some years
ago and has already been published in several printings.
Archbishop Oshagan recalled that one of the final thoughts spoken by
Archbishop Zareh was the lament, “The Old Testaments remains half finished.”
“The continuation of this work will be the best way to honor his
memory,” said Oshagan Srpazan.
PRELATE WILL BE IN PHILADELPHIA THIS SUNDAY
Archbishop Oshagan will preside over the Divine Liturgy at St. Gregory
the Illuminator Church in Philadelphia, this Sunday, June 12.
PRELATE ATTENDS SUNDAY SCHOOL PICNIC IN NEW JERSEY
Last Sunday, June 5, as we reported, Archbishop Oshagan presided over
the Divine Liturgy at Sts. Vartanantz Church in Ridgefield, New Jersey.
Immediately after the services, he joined the annual Sunday school picnic
that took place in Westwood, New Jersey.
V. REV. FR. SHAHE REPRESENTS PRELATE AT LUNCHEON
Today, June 9, V. Rev. Fr. Shahe Panossian, pastor of Sts. Vartanantz
Church, Ridgefield, NJ, represented Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan at a
luncheon hosted by Edward Cardinal Egan, Bishop of New York, in honor of His
Beatitude Emmanuel III, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldean Church. The
luncheon took place at the Catholic Center in New York City.
DATEV SUMMER PROGRAM REMINDER
The St. Gregory of Datev Institute Summer Program has nearly reached its
capacity. As in previous years the weeklong intensive program will take
place at the St. Mary of Providence Center in Elverson, Pennsylvania, from
July 3 to 10. Datev is considered to be the best Armenian youth program
available for junior and senior high school students.
For information contact the AREC office, 212-689-7810.
GUROIAN LECTURE TOMORROW
The 2005 annual Florovsky Memorial Lecture will be delivered by
Professor Vigen Guroian, tomorrow, Friday, June 10, 7:30 pm, at St. Vladimir’s
Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York. His lecture, entitled
“I Confess the Cross Because I Know of the Resurrection,” will take place in
the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium. The Florovsky Memorial Lecture, held in
different locations each year, honors Fr. Georges Florovsky, eminent
Orthodox theologian, historian, and Slavic scholar who was the dean of St.
Vladimir’s Seminary from 1949 to 1955.
PRELATE WILL VISIT ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR IN DC
This Monday, June 13, Archbishop Oshagan will visit the new ambassador
of Armenia to the United States, H. E. Tatoul Markarian, in Washington, D.C.
The Prelate will be accompanied with Rev. Fr. Sarkis Aktavoukian, pastor of
Soorp Khatch Church, Bethesda, Maryland, and Dr. Dertad Manguikian, member
of the Prelacy Executive Council. The recently assigned Ambassador presented
his Letter of Credence to President Bush on May 26.
ARAM I ADDRESSES CONFERENCE
His Holiness Aram I addressed an international inter-religious
conference in Geneva this week. Speaking about the role of religions in a
new world context, the Catholicos and Moderator of the WCC, said: “Religion
has become a major player on the global scene. Religion has no identifiable
boundaries; it has become omnipresent in society and integral to our public
and private life. For some, religion is in process of self-articulation and
is becoming more relevant by adapting to the new world context; while for
others, the credibility of religion itself is at stake. The historical
circumstances and tremendous changes taking place in our societies call the
religions to engage in a critical process of understanding. Clearly, return
of religion and return to religion are facts of life.”
The conference, organized by the World Council of Churches, was attended
by more than 150 representatives of various religions and countries.
During the same conference His Holiness responded to a comment made by a
Turkish professor who said: “Religions should not educate new generations
with hatred towards other nations.”
His Holiness responded: “It is true that love, mutual understanding and
respect should be the basis of education by all religions. But the
collective memory of a nation should not be forgotten; its suffering should
not be forgotten; should not neglect the violation of justice and human
rights.”
SIAMANTO ACADEMY GRADUATION
The graduation ceremony for the Siamanto Academy will take place
Saturday, June 25, at 2 pm, at the Armenian Center in Woodside, New York.
JUNE 14 IS FLAG DAY
Tuesday, June 14, is Flag Day, marking the 228th anniversary of the
official adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the national flag. Although
through the years many called for a national day of commemoration for the
flag, and some states did in fact celebrate the day, it was not until 1949
that President Harry Truman signed legislation making June 14th, Flag Day, a
day of national observance.
TURKEY GETS TOUGH WITH THE RED FOX
The May 29th issue of the Parade Magazine, which as a supplement to many
Sunday newspapers around the country has a circulation of millions, had a
small item about name changes in Turkey. Describing Turkey as being “a bit
oversensitive,” the items goes on to say, “.its native red fox and wild
sheep are getting new monikers because the old ones refer to Kurdistan and
Armenia.. The fox, Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica, is now just Vulpes Vulpes;
and the sheep, Ovis Armeniana, is now Ovis Orientalls Anatolicus. Turkey
says the old names were given ‘with ill intentions.'”
The article explains Turkey’s opposition to “Kurdish separatists,” and
denial of the “massacre of 1.5 Armenians in the years 1915-23.”
THE BIBLE IN 50 WORDS
This little piece, which has been circulating for some time, has a new
relevance in this day and age of “instant and quick” everything. It is the
Bible in 50 words:
God made, Adam bit, Noah arked, Abraham split, Joseph ruled, Jacob
fooled, bush talked, Moses balked, Pharaoh plagued, people walked, sea
divided, tablets guided, promise landed, Saul freaked, David peeked,
prophets warned, Jesus born, God walked, love talked, anger crucified, hope
died, Love rose, Spirit flamed, Word spread, God remained.
Visit our website at

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 60; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
June 9, 2005
___________________
DIOCESE PLAYS LEADERSHIP ROLE IN NEW CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION
During a closed-doors meeting in the first week of June, the new
ecumenical organization — called Christian Churches Together — took
its first formal steps towards organizing. The new group seeks to bring
together the “five families” of Christian churches: mainline Protestant,
Catholic, Orthodox, racial/ethnic and evangelical/Pentecostal churches.
The Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), through its
legate, is deeply involved in this effort, which is making historic
inroads in the Catholic and evangelical churches, which have
traditionally not been associated with national ecumenical groups such
as the National Council of Churches. While the new Christian Churches
Together has been well received by leaders of the Catholic and
evangelical churches, no official endorsement from world-wide leaders
has come yet.
“This is going to be the first time in the history of United States that
the ‘five families’ of churches are coming together to jointly create
such an organization,” said Bishop Vicken Aykazian, diocesan legate and
ecumenical officer, who has served on the group’s steering committee
since it was proposed in 2001. “We have to express ourselves with the
same voice about the social problems, political problems, and
theological problems.”
About two dozen church leaders attended the steering committee gathering
from June 1 to 3 in Los Altos Hills, CA, during which they talked about
the final shape of the organization, and the goal to officially launch
the new effort in 2006.
Participants in the group’s initial meetings the past few years have
spent much of their time praying together and getting acquainted with
one another’s traditions. Organizers of the group say such
trust-building sessions are critical to building consensus between
churches during future discussions of moral and social issues.
During the most recent meeting, Bishop Aykazian shared an Orthodox view
of ecumenicalism with the participants by reading remarks written by
Chris Zakian, coordinator of public relations at the Diocese.
“What we regard today as the modern ecumenical movement saw its birth in
the middle years of the 20th century. For most of the ensuing period,
the Armenian Church has played a role in ecumenical gatherings on the
world and various national stages, under the support and blessing of
three catholicoi of the worldwide Armenian Church, centered at our
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, in today’s Republic of Armenia,” the
remarks read.
“The idea of an ‘ecumenical’ Christianity — that is, a Christianity
that encompasses all the world’s human habitations — is much older, of
course, having received its most elaborate expression in the 4th
century, under the Council of Nicaea. Astonishingly, all of us gathered
here today still live in the shadow of that great gathering — and not
simply those of us who explicitly adhere to the Nicene Creed. By the
very fact of our coming together, we are in some measure seeking to
continue, or perhaps complete, the project begun 1,680 years ago.”
— 6/9/05
From: Baghdasarian

Reuters, UK
June 9 2005
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on Mesketian Turks
Source: IRIN

BISHKEK, 9 June (IRIN) – The status of thousands of Mesketian Turks
living in Kyrgyzstan remains unresolved, more than half a century
after being deported to the former Soviet republic by Stalin in the
forties.
“Several days ago, I was very sick but I could not get treatment in
hospital because I do not have citizenship, I still have the red
Soviet passport. I am an invalid (disabled person). Last year I paid
US $50 to lie in hospital,” with tears in her eyes, Gulchehra
Hazikova, a 48-year-old Meshitin-Turk, told IRIN in Novopavlovka
village, near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
“After the events in Ferghana valley in 1989 [ethnic riots that led
to an exodus] I moved with my family to Kabardino-Balkaria [in the
north Caucasus region of the Russian Federation]. I came to
Kyrgyzstan in 1993, but still cannot get Kyrgyz citizenship,” Faramuz
Ahmedov, another Mesketian Turk from the same community, said.
Nearly 100,000 Meskhetian Turks were deported to Central Asia from
their native Georgia in 1944 on Stalin’s orders. Russia considered
the Meskhetian Turks a problem on several fronts. As Turkish-speaking
Muslims, Meskhetian Turks had strong social ties to Turkey and proved
to be resistant as a group to Soviet assimilation. Roughly 15,000
people died of starvation or cold en route.
It has been suggested that Stalin saw Meskhetians as potential
troublemakers, despite the fact that Meskhetians had exhibited no
signs of disloyalty. On the contrary, more than half the 40,000
Meskhetian Turks in the Red Army died fighting Nazi forces.
In the 60 years since deportation, Meskhetian Turks have integrated
into the region with varying degrees of success but their sense of
ethnic and social identity remains strong. They continue to lobby for
repatriation to Georgia. In Kyrgyzstan they are often subject to
discriminatory and abusive treatment by the local authorities who may
grant or may withhold residence permits.
In June 1989 tragedy struck the Meskhetian community a second time.
The outbreak of ethnic violence in the Ferghana Valley area of
Uzbekistan prompted them to uproot themselves again. Meskhetians were
once again scattered across Central Asia, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan
and Turkey.
According to Gulkiz Gasanova, executive secretary of the Turkish
National Centre in Bishkek, an NGO supporting the group, there are at
least 2,000 people in Kyrgyzstan are in the same situation as
Gulchehra and Faramuz, rendering them effectively stateless.
The official Meshketian Turk population in Kyrgyzstan is put at more
than 33,000 people but the unofficial figure is around 50,000 people.
Many of them have had their ethnic and national identity erased and
their passports simply state they are Azerbaijani, Georgian or
Armenian.
“It is very sad that I cannot even have my native nationality,” Umar
Uysupov, a Meskhetian Turkish elder living in Ala-Archa, a village
close to the capital, noted, as he showed IRIN his Soviet-era
passport that records his nationality as Georgian. The majority of
Meshketian Turks, after the events in the Uzbek part of the Ferghana
valley, moved to Russia and Azerbaijan. This wave of Meshketian
migration to Kyrgyzstan was from 1993-1997. But many returned to
Central Asia to be with relatives, as it was difficult to secure
permits to stay in Russia.
Those who stayed in Kyrgyzstan were promised that after five years
they would be eligible for citizenship but most are still waiting.
“We raised this issue with the National Committee on Citizenship
within the Ministry of Internal affairs and even asked former
president Akaev but there were only promises. We have asked UNHCR
[office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] here
and now we are waiting for its response,” added Gasanova.
“I went to Azerbaijan in 1989 from Fergana and lived there for six
years, in an old railway carriage, it was very difficult. I could not
get permission to stay there, so I moved to Kyrgyzstan in 1995
because my brother was there, and helped me. You cannot imagine, I
had nothing; I left everything in my house in Ferghana. Now here I
have [a] two rooms house, which we built ourselves but still do not
have Kyrgyz citizenship,” Hazikova told IRIN.
The group say they suffer discrimination, a lack of medical treatment
and no proper jobs or education.
“I cannot work legally here because it is necessary to have [a]
passport. My passport is not valid now,” Ahmedov told IRIN. “I am
afraid to go out, because the police stop me frequently.”
Kyrgyz authorities say the problem is basically administrative. “If a
person have been living in Kyrgyzstan for more than five years,
he/she can apply for Kyrgyz citizenship through the local district,”
Erkin Arapbaev, deputy head of the passport section of the Kyrgyz
Ministry of Interior Affairs, told IRIN.
“There are some categories of people who apply but do not have the
right documents. People themselves have to gather documents, it is
not our obligation,” Arapbaev said.
Many Meshketian Turks have married locally, which creates further
problems. The majority are living without marriage certificates or
birth certificates for their children, though in some cases bribery
may help obtain the documents.
“Children who are born to parents who do not have citizenship, like
many Meshketian Turks, do not have documents, so they cannot get
medical treatment, they cannot go to school, so education among this
group is very low,” commented Gasanova.
Many are hoping the recent regime change in Bishkek will mean a
change of policy towards Meshketian Turks and other former Soviet
citizens such as Kurds and some Uzbeks who have no legal status in
Kyrgyzstan.

Lowell Sun, MA
June 9 2005
Lowell native donates `gold mine’ to city
Document he found as a child was written by future U.S. official
By ELISE COMTOIS, Sun Staff

LOWELL — It was just a piece of paper, but Lowell native Ahron
Ahronian believes the document he handed to historic officials
Tuesday will bring a new wave of prosperity Lowell.
It chronicles a childhood event of Gustavius V. Fox, who grew up in
Lowell and became assistant secretary to the Navy during the Civil
War.
`I think this document will prove to be a gold mine for the city of
Lowell,’ Ahronian said, `a gold mine of potential to draw people to
the city.’
Martha Mayo, director of the Center for Lowell History, said she
hopes Ahronian’s aspirations for the document are realized, but she
thinks his personal story, that of being a young, Armenian boy in
Lowell who came across it, might be just as valuable.
`In some ways, that part of the story is equally important and
poignant,’ Mayo said.
As he was roaming the banks of the Merrimack River in 1936,
13-year-old Ahronian found a time capsule containing a document
written by 13-year-old Fox that was left there 101 years earlier.
Ahronian kept it for over 50 years, until he ran into a local
historian who explained Fox’s historical significance.
Fox is not only credited for his position as assistant secretary of
the Navy but also for coming up with a plan some say could have
prevented the Civil War. When Union troops were under siege at Fort
Sumter, Fox proposed a plan using sea steamers and tugboats to get
reinforcements to the troops. President Lincoln approved the plan,
but a horrible storm at sea delayed the reinforcements, and war
commenced before they could get there.
Ahronian shared his story with a captivated audience of a dozen in
the basement of Pollard Memorial Library on Tuesday, when he gave the
document to the Center for Lowell History.
Ahronian, now 80, described how, as a boy, he spotted a
foreign-looking object that looked like a stick of dynamite on the
banks of the Merrimack River. Upon closer inspection, Ahronian
realized it was actually a scroll of papers, the contents of the time
capsule.
The scroll included a green paper imprint of a woman leaning against
a Grecian column, a copy of the Lowell Gazette from 1835, and a small
yellow document relating an important event from Fox’s childhood.
Ahronian’s mother threw the first two objects away, but he held on to
the last.
The small, yellowed paper Ahronian kept appears to be written by Fox
and his 16-year-old friend from England, William Dalton Dauncy, and
describes how they found a rock on the banks of the Merrimack River
that intrigued them. They named the rock `the Rialto,’ fortified it
with thorns and sticks, and supposedly fended off 20 schoolmates who
were trying to get to the rock.
Soon after, it seems the boys put together the time capsule and left
it in a cleft in the rock.
Ahronian said he can only recall one rock on the southern bank of the
Merrimack River, the one he and many other local children used to
play on as children, and believes that rock is the same one Fox and
his friend left the time capsule in.
Although Ahronian did not find the capsule in a rock, he thinks the
flooding of the Merrimack River in 1936 dislodged the capsule from
the rock. Unfortunately, in more recent years most of the rocks on
the Merrimack have been destroyed and removed for sewage treatment
purposes, Ahronian said, and he thinks the rock in question was
destroyed with the rest.
Ahronian said with time he thinks there will be national interest in
the document, not only because it involves an important historical
figure, but also because it chronicles a unique and distinctive
event.
`I do believe the words `The Rialto’ will become household words far
and wide,’ Ahronian said.
While the document is unique, Ahronian thinks the city needs a new
Rialto to really attract greater tourism to Lowell.
`It’s up to the city to maxmimize the potential this rock carries
with it,’ Ahronian said.
Ahronian is trying to publish a book on the story and would like to
talk to other people who may remember playing on the same rock as
children. Anybody who would like to share such information may
contact Dora St. Martin at the Pollard Memorial Library at (978)
970-4128.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 9 2005
PAC AND LINKS HOST CONFERENCE ON GEOSTRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF
AZERBAIJAN
[June 09, 2005, 19:15:00]
Public Association Civilization (PAC) and British non governmental
organization LINKS have hosted a conference on the theme
`Geostrategic Importance of Azerbaijan’ at the International Press
Center in Baku. Participating local political scientists, MPs,
experts from the Great Britain, Russia and Georgia, as well as
representatives of governmental bodies and NGOs have exchange views
on the factors determining Geostrategic importance of Azerbaijan, and
interests of the largest states in the region.
Speaking Chief of the International Relations Department at the
President’s Administration Novruz Mammadov noted Azerbaijan had
extremely significant geostrategic location, and was a recognized
leader in the region. As graphic evidence of this, Mr. Mammadov cited
the recently opened Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Main Export pipeline. `The
pipeline is a product of joint activities by Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Turkey, USA and Great Britain. Apart from that, construction of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline is in progress,’ he said.
The speaker continued that a number of countries, in particular,
Greece have expressed a desire to join the gas transportation to
Europe. `This is an indication of how important role Azerbaijan will
be playing in the future of Eurasia. The country is a crossroad of
transport and communication routes connecting the West and East, and
the North and South, and is playing the role of the gate for
transportation of the Caspian hydrocarbons to the world market,’ he
said.
`Azerbaijan stands for cooperation in the region,’ Novruz Mammadov
continued, but `the unsolved Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is a sticking point.’ He called on the global community to
show political will to solve the problem in accordance with the
international law norms.
Ambassador of Great Britain to Azerbaijan Laurie Bristow was present
at the conference.

The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (FJC), Russia
June 9 2005
Oryol Jewish Leader Founding Member of Regional Experts Committee
Thursday, June 9 2005

ORYOL, Russia – This week, the Jewish National-Cultural Autonomy of
Oryol Region was represented during a session of the ‘Public Chamber’
Association of Community Organizations. At this latest session,
Semyon Livshitz, the President of the regional Jewish community
proposed to create a Regional Committee on Inter-Ethnic Issues.
Participants in this organization overwhelmingly accepted the Jewish
leader’s proposal. The final outcome of this approved proposal was
the official establishment of the ‘Expert Committee on Federal and
Inter-Ethnic Relations’.
The Oryol Jewish National-Cultural Autonomy will continue to be
active in resolving inter-ethnic and inter-religious issues in the
region through involvement in this committee. The Jewish community is
to be represented by President Semyon Livshitz. Other founding
members of this Expert Committee include T. Ponomaryova, the
Executive Director of the local Jewish ‘Nesher’ Organization, and P.
Danielyan, the Vice-Chairman of the local branch of the Russia-Wide
Organization ‘Armenian Union of Russia’.
At the next session, these persons will determine the ultimate goals
and priorities for the ‘Expert Committee on Federal and Inter-Ethnic
Relations’.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
June 9 2005
PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN ILHAM ALIYEV RECEIVES CHAIRMAN OF THE FOREIGN
RELATIONS AND MIGRATION AFFAIRS STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE ITALIAN
SENATE, MEMBER OF THE SENATE DELEGATION AT PACE FIORELLO PROVERA
[June 09, 2005, 16:16:05]
President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev on 9 June received
Chairman of the Foreign Relations and Migration Affairs Standing
Committee of the Italian Senate, member of the Senate delegation at
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Fiorello Provera.
Head of the Azerbaijan State said he was pleased to meet again with
Mr. Fiorello Provera, recalling the letter of congratulations of the
Prime Minister of Italy Mr. Berlusconi on the occasion of opening of
the Azerbaijan sector of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline on May
25.
Expressing consent with his visit to Italy, President of Azerbaijan
stressed successful development of relations between two countries in
numerous fields, including in the economic field.
President Ilham Aliyev reminded that delegations of Azerbaijan and
Italy closely cooperate at the international organizations, including
at PACE.
Noting that it is a great honor to meet with the Azerbaijan
President, the Italian guest said there are hopeful prospects for
cooperation between the two countries, including in the
inter-parliamentary relations. Italy will further support at the PACE
the fair position of Azerbaijan in the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno
Karabakh problem. He said the people of Azerbaijan had suffered very
much from this conflict.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev highly assessed the position of
Mr. Fiorello Provera.

Eurasianet
June 9 2005
SIZING UP THE `BUSH EFFECT’ IN ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN
Haroutiun Khachatrian and Alman Mir-Ismail 6/09/05
US President George W. Bush stressed the need for “freedom and
democracy” during his visit last month to Georgia. Bush’s words have
had a noticeably different impact on neighboring states in the
Caucasus. In Azerbaijan, where parliamentary elections are scheduled
for November 2005, Bush’s rhetoric seems to be influencing domestic
political developments. The reaction in Armenia, meanwhile, appears
far more muted.
In his May 10 speech in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Bush suggested
that Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003 heralded an era of democracy
across the Caucasus. “We are living in historic times when freedom is
advancing, from the Black Sea to the Caspian, and to the Persian Gulf
and beyond,” Bush said. “Now, across the Caucasus, in Central Asia
and the broader Middle East, we see the same desire for liberty
burning in the hearts of young people. They are demanding their
freedom — and they will have it.”
In Azerbaijan, the president’s speech resonated broadly, helping to
energize opposition political supporters. In an interview shortly
after Bush’s visit to Georgia, Khagani Huseynli, director of the
Azerbaijani Center for Strategic Research, argued that US president’s
remarks were a signal to the Azerbaijani government that free and
fair elections must be held this fall. Accordingly, opposition
leaders are taking action designed to ensure Bush’s message is heard
by President Ilham Aliyev’s administration in Baku. On June 4, an
estimated 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Baku to call
for a cleanly contested poll. As they marched, many protestors
carried framed photos of Bush. [For additional information see the
Eurasia Insight archive].
The US embassy in Azerbaijan welcomed the government’s decision to
sanction the June 4 rally, which occurred two weeks after police used
force to break up a similar opposition protest. [For background see
the Eurasia Insight archive]. “We urge the [g]overnment of Azerbaijan
to continue sanctioning public demonstrations, and to meet its other
stated commitment to conduct parliamentary elections this fall that
live up to international standards,” said embassy spokesperson Sean
McCormack in a June 6 statement.
Pro-government figures have argued that Bush’s May 10 comments
contained no message for Azerbaijan. “We know that there are five
countries around the Caspian Sea,” Mubariz Gurbanli, deputy executive
secretary of the governing Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP), said shortly
after Bush’s Tbilisi speech. “I think Bush’s hint applies to other
countries and not to Azerbaijan. Because there is already a
democratic system functioning in Azerbaijan.”
In the weeks since Bush’s visit, a variety of influential
presidential supporters have sought to reinforce the notion that the
government is a champion of gradual democratization, and therefore
should not be viewed as a regime-change target. In remarks broadcast
by ANS television on June 7, YAP Executive Secretary Ali Ahmadov
stated that “democratic development is Azerbaijan’s strategic
choice.” The same day, Interior Minister Ramil Usubov offered
assurances that the police would conduct themselves “worthily” during
the November parliamentary poll, the Turan news agency reported.
“Therefore, the opposition should not be expecting a revolution,” he
added.
An opposition bloc, comprising Musavat, the Popular Front and the
Democratic Party, appears determined to press ahead with protest
plans. Authorities have already sanctioned a follow-up rally,
scheduled for June 18.
In Armenia, the governmental reaction to Bush’s speech has been
similar to that in Azerbaijan, with President Robert Kocharian’s
administration insisting that it stands on the side of
democratization. Pro-government media outlets in Yerevan have scoffed
at the notion, implied by Bush, that Georgia’s reform-minded
administration could provide an example for countries throughout the
former Soviet Union to follow. “By ascribing such a
worldwide-historical mission to little Georgia, President George Bush
simply paid tribute to [President] Mikheil Saakashvili, a person
having messianic ambitions,” said an editorial published by Hayots
Ashkharh on May 11. “It was a solemn moment, but had no relation to
real politics.” Many Armenian political analysts view the newspaper
as the unofficial mouthpiece of Defense Minister Serge Sarkissian.
At the same time, the reaction of opposition activists in Armenia, in
sharp contrast to that of their Azerbaijani counterparts, has been
comparatively subdued. Opposition leaders have not attempted to stage
anti-government demonstrations during the last month. Instead, their
reaction has largely been limited to hopeful rhetoric. Bush’s visit
may work to the advantage of “a victory of democratic forces . . . to
revolution, or to the change of power,” Viktor Dallakian, secretary
of the opposition Justice bloc told the weekly Yerrord Uzh on May 13.
Bush’s visit to Georgia generated little public attention in Armenia,
local political observers say, helping to account for the
opposition’s muted response. Many Armenians do not appear to see the
US president as a force for positive change. In a recent survey
conducted by the Armenian Sociological Association for the Gallup
Institute, only 32 percent of those polled expressed confidence in
President Bush, as compared with 87 percent for Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Armenia and Russia have long enjoyed a special
relationship. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Most Armenians, in fact, paid greater attention to Moscow’s May 9
celebration for the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II than
to President Bush’s speech in Tbilisi. One Yerevan pensioner who did
watch Bush’s televised visit to Tbilisi echoed the views of many. “I
think President Bush was wrong to give such a high mark to modern
Georgia,” said Torgom. “To name Georgia `a beacon of liberty’ is the
same as to declare it the eighth wonder of the world.”
Recent actions by US diplomats in Yerevan provide no indication that
the White House is ready to support the Armenian opposition’s
confrontational stance toward the Kocharian administration. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Opposition leaders were
not invited to the recent opening of the new American embassy in
Yerevan, and US Ambassador John Evans has described the Kocharian
administration as “headed in the right direction,” a qualification
not shared by the opposition.
Washington has been similarly careful not to offend Aliyev’s
administration in Azerbaijan. The recently opened Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline – a project that stands at the core of US energy policy
for the Caspian Sea basin – explains that US caution in part. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Azerbaijan, which
borders on Iran, also plays a growing role in security policy for the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Pentagon.
With those considerations apparently in mind, Azerbaijani
pro-government media outlets have dismissed opposition hopes for
greater attention from the White House as overblown. “At first, they
[opposition parties in Azerbaijan] said that President Bush would
meet with them. Then, they said that he would meet with the
opposition NGOs. And what we see is that President Bush did not even
meet with anyone from Azerbaijan,” commented the privately owned TV
channel Lider TV. Pro-opposition youth groups such as Megam (It Is
Time) and Yox (No) traveled to Tbilisi in hopes of catching the
president’s attention during his May 10 speech in the city’s Freedom
Square, but, apparently, did not succeed.
US Senator Charles Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, reinforced
Washington’s support for the Kocharian and Aliyev administrations
during his recent tour of Caucasus states. In Baku, Hagel ruled out
the possibility of American support for a ‘velvet revolution’ in
Azerbaijan. “The US does not support a ‘velvet revolution’ and I am
not aware of such reports”, the English-language AzerNEWS daily
newspaper quoted Hagel as saying. In Armenia, the senator said he was
“very impressed” with the Kocharian administration’s reform record.
Despite Bush’s characterization of Georgia as “a beacon of liberty,”
the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments both seem disinclined to
follow the reform example set by Saakashvili’s government in Tbilisi.
Indeed, several geopolitical factors are exerting force on Georgia to
adopt conciliatory positions towards Armenia and Azerbaijan.
With Georgian state coffers slated to receive some $50 million per
year from the BTC pipeline, Azerbaijan’s importance as an energy
producer is likely to restrain any urge by Saakashvili to press for
democratization in Baku. In Armenia, complaints from ethnic Armenians
in the southern Georgian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti and disputes
with the Georgian Orthodox Church over Armenian churches in Georgia
appear likely to place similar restraints on Tbilisi’s political
influence in Yerevan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive].
Editor’s Note: Haroutiun Khachatrian is a Yerevan-based writer
specializing in economic and political affairs. Alman Mir-Ismail is
pseudonym for a freelance political analyst based in Baku,
Azerbaijan.

Economist, UK
June 9 2005
The oil satrap
Jun 9th 2005
The Economist print edition
David Woodward and being a giant in a small country
FOR much of the 18th century the managers of the mighty East India
Company were also said to be the de facto rulers of chunks of the
Indian subcontinent. These days, perhaps the only foreign
organisation with so big a say in the affairs of the countries that
host it is the American armed forces. But according to some observers
in Baku, British Petroleum (BP) has almost the same status in
Azerbaijan, a Caucasian petro-state on the western shore of the
Caspian Sea.
There are few countries in the world more dependent on one industry
than Azerbaijan is on energy. Oil products account for more than 80%
of exports. BP is the biggest player in Baku, the capital. It has the
largest stake (34%) in the `Azeri, Chirag and Deepwater Gunashli’
(ACG) oil project, a deal known as `the contract of the century’ when
it was done in 1994, relaunching Baku as a major oil town after it
declined as the Soviet authorities concentrated on Siberian energy.
BP, whose turnover last year was over 30 times the size of
Azerbaijan’s GDP, is also the biggest shareholder in a new pipeline,
officially inaugurated last month, which will deliver Caspian oil
from Baku to the Black Sea port of Ceyhan in Turkey, via Tbilisi in
Georgia. Named after those towns, the BTC pipeline and the oil wells
are seen by some as making David Woodward, BP’s local boss, the
country’s second most powerful man, after Ilham Aliev, who inherited
the presidency from his father after a disputed election in 2003.
Others rank Mr Woodward third, behind the American ambassador.
British Petroleum has information about its operations in Azerbaijan.
BP also reports on its activity in the Caspian region. See also the
BTC project, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and
Azerbaijan’s president.

The oil off the coast of Azerbaijan, says Mr Woodward – or `VoodVard’
as he is known in Baku – is `an oil-man’s dream.’ The water is
relatively shallow, and the drilling conditions good. The trouble has
been finding a way to get it to market. America lobbied hard for the
BTC; the route avoids both Iran and Russia and it will help to reduce
global dependence on Middle Eastern supplies. The fillip it brings to
Azerbaijan, and to a lesser extent to Georgia, will help to shore up
the shaky finances of two ex-Soviet countries. Turkey, the other
beneficiary, wants no additional tankers to use the already-choked
Bosphorus, a conduit for oil from an existing pipeline from Baku.
In the unstable Caucasus, the BTC’s completion, albeit after a decade
of wrangling, is a triumph. Each time the government of one of the
participating countries has changed, says Mr Woodward, the new one
had to be re-educated. The route itself is a metaphor for the
region’s volatile politics: along its 1,770km (1,010 mile) length, it
bends northwards through Georgia to cut out Armenia, with which
Azerbaijan fought a war in the 1990s.
The hope is that, as the oil travels south-west, stability will flow
the other way along with the revenues. But there are big risks.
Armenia still occupies part of Azerbaijan, and there are separatist
enclaves in Georgia and restless Kurds in Turkey. Mr Woodward says
that other targets will be easier for terrorists to strike, and more
difficult to rebuild, than the pipeline, which is buried at least one
metre under ground and will be guarded by horseback patrols.
Earthquake risk has been mitigated, says Mr Woodward, by laying the
pipe obliquely across the fault zone.
The BTC will take up to six months to fill: the first shipments will
not leave Ceyhan until the last quarter of this year. By 2008, it
will carry 1m barrels of oil per day, or about 1.3% of global supply.
But it may not deliver quite so much as BP first hoped. Mr Woodward
insists that `the contract of the century’ remains a good deal, and
that, with the ACG’s 5.4 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, the
pipeline will more than cover its $4 billion total cost. (Starting
next year, gas produced by another BP-led consortium will flow
through a parallel line.) And yet the other giant oil finds once
expected in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian have so far failed
to materialise. Talk about Azerbaijan being the new Kuwait has faded.
The BTC consortium now hopes that some of the oil in the Kazakh
fields across the sea will pass through the new pipeline, or perhaps
oil from Russia, despite the Kremlin’s distaste for the project.
When the oil runs out
A good deal for BP, and a useful if marginal contribution to global
oil flow; but a good deal for Azerbaijan? Sceptics of big oil’s
motives might expect BP’s only political goal in Azerbaijan to be
stability, even if, under President Aliev, that sometimes involves
the sort of nastiness evident when a demonstration was violently
dispersed just before the pipeline ceremony. Some in Baku who
expected BP to import democracy along with its drilling kit are
already disenchanted. But Mr Woodward says that, for BP’s involvement
to be sustainable, the population needs to share in the benefits of
the country’s oil windfall, and quickly. In Azerbaijan, says Mr
Woodward, who has worked previously in Norway and Alaska, BP has
entered `unknown territory,’ exploring the limits of enlightened
self-interest.
The big challenge, in a country that ranks among the world’s most
corrupt, is to ensure that Azerbaijan’s share of the oil revenue is
used to transform its economy (rather than, for instance, to pay for
another war with Armenia). Unemployment is high; outside the oil
sector, even many who have jobs live in poverty. `Dutch
disease’ – whereby the exchange-rate impact of the oil revenues damages
other exports – has already struck. There are, as Mr Woodward says,
some encouraging signs. Diplomats in Baku say that the state oil
fund, the receptacle for the windfall cash, is the country’s most
transparent institution. Mr Aliev’s government has signed up to the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a British-backed
scheme designed to help resource-rich countries avoid corruption. BP
and international financial institutions are helping too. But one
day, of course, when the oil and the gas run out, BP and its partners
will pack up. Will they leave behind a prosperous country, or a mess?
Perhaps only President Aliev can decide that.