Month: June 2005

SAUDI ARABIA INTERESTED IN ARMENIAN TRAVERTINE
YEREVAN, JUNE 20. ARMINFO. To organize stone procession at Ararat
travertine deposit, $2.3 mln investments are necessary. Director of
the stone processing enterprise “Petropol” in Ararat Perch Ghazaryan
informs journalists.
He says the travertine recovered in Ararat was presented in the course
of forums in Abu-Dhabi and Dubai, with relevant proposals having been
presented. Saudi Arabia has taken an interest in one of the proposals
requiring $2.5 mln investment. However, representatives of Saudi
Arabia are dissatisfied with recovery of travertine through
explosions, which leads to losses, Ghazaryan says. After recovered,
the stones are subjected to examination for firmness. The proposal is
enough serious and grounded – an investor can gain rather big benefit,
he says. In his words, the price for Armenian travertine which does
not yield to the foreign one as to its quality and firmness, is low
enough. Thus, 1 cubic meter of Armenian travertine presented at the
exhibition costs $400, meanwhile foreign stone processing enterprises
exhibited travertine for 1.200 EUR/1 cubic meter. Ghazaryan says
travertine reserves at Ararat deposit, which are exported to Russia
and the USA, reach 7 mln cubic meters.

2 CRUCIAL DOCUMENTS FOR ARMENIA’S INTEGRATION INTO EUROPE PRESENTED
DURING ARMENIAN FM’S VISIT TO BRUSSELS
YEREVAN, JUNE 20. ARMINFO. 2 documents of crucial importance for
Armenia’s integration into Europe were presented during Armenian FM
Vardan Oskanyan’s recent visit to Brussels: Armenia’s individual
partnership plans with NATO and EU.
Oskanyan says that he has told NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer and the ambassadors of 26 NATO member states about Armenia’s
key foreign political priorities and approaches to cooperation with
NATO
The work on the documents will be finished by the end of this year.
In Brussels Oskanyan also met with the secretary general of EU council
Javier Solana. The sides discussed the Karabakh peace process,
regional cooperation process, the issue for opening the
Armenian-Turkish border, EU new transport and energy projects.
As to his recent visit to the US Oskanyan says that his key meeting
was with US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice. The sides discussed a
wide spectrum of Armenian-US relations which is dynamically developing
particularly in trade and economy. The US continues to actively
provide Armenia with humanitarian aid. Rice highly appreciated
Armenia’s involvement in the international anti-terror operations.
The sides also discussed internal political processes and democracy
building in Armenia and of course the recent developments in the
Karabakh peace process and Armenia’s relations with its neighbors
especially Turkey.
In the US Oskanyan also met with representatives of the Armenian
Caucus of the US Congress, Hay Dat and Armenian Assembly of America.
He also spoke at US National Club.

VARDAN OSKANIAN: ARMENIA POSITIVELY ASSESSES BUNDESTAG’S
RESOLUTION ON RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
YEREVAN, JUNE 20. ARMINFO. Armenia positively assesses adoption of
the resolution by the German Bundestag on June 16 “Commemoration day
of Armenian on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the slaughter
on April 24, 1915 – Germany must promote reconciliation of Turks and
Armenians”. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vardan Oskanian
informed during the news conference, Monday.
According to him, the resolution of the Bundestag is an important
step towards the international recognition of Armenian Genocide of
1915. The decision is especially important for that Germany admits
its guilt in the tragic events of 1915 and calls on Turkey to
reconcile itself to its past. This decision is one more significant
step to include Armenian clauses in the agenda of the forthcoming
negotiations this autumn for Turkey’s accession to the European
Union, the Armenian foreign minister said.

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS RESULTS SUMMED UP IN NKR
STEPANAKERT, June 20. /ARKA/. The parliamentary elections results are
being summed up in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR). According to
unofficial information, the pro-governmental Democratic Party of
Artsakh and Free Homelan Party gained victory in single-mandate
election districts, whereas the opposition bloc ARF Dashnaktsutyun 88
did not win the elections in any of the single-mandate districts. The
results of elections by the party-ticket system have not yet been
summed up. Preliminary official results of the voting are to be
announced soon.
Regular parliamentary elections were held in the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR) on June 19. One hundred and seven candidates were
running for 33 seats in Parliament (22 single-mandate and 11
party-ticket seats), 57 of them were nominated by parties and
movements, and 70 as public initiatives. The political parties Free
Homeland, Democratic Party of Artsakh, opposition party Moral Revival,
Communis Party, Our Home-Armenia, Social Justice, and ARF
Dashnaktsutyun-Movement 88.
The elections were monitored by observers from Armenia, Russia, USA,
Iran, France, Czechia, Greece, Croatia, and other countries.High
turn-out was recorded. P.T. -0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NKR CEC ANNOUNCES PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
STEPANAKERT, June 20. /ARKA/. The Central Electoral Commission (CEC)
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) has announced the preliminary
results of parliamentary elections.
A total of 66,774 NKR citizens took part in the voting, about 78% of
people included in the voters’ lists. By the party-ticket election
system, the Democratic Party of Artaksh received the largest number of
votes (22,393), and is followed by the Free Homeland Party (15,931),
and the ARF Dashnaktsutyun-Movement 88 (14,534). According to the law,
they are to receive five, three and three seats in Parliament
respectively.
By the single-mandate elections, the following candidates have been
elected to Parliament: Armen Abgaryan, Zhanna Galstyan, Valery
Harutyunyan, Araik Harutyunyan, Maxim Mirzoyan, Ararat Danielyan,
Sergey Seyranyan, Gagik Petrosyan, Samvel Hakobyan, Benik Bakhshyan,
Ivan Avetisyan, Armen Ohanyan, Rudik Usnunts, Rudik Martirosyan,
Seyran Ohanyan, Grigory Gasparyan, Garnik mirzabekyn, Artur Tovmasyan,
Oleg Grigoryan, Vahram Atanesyan, Artsvik Sargsyan, Karen Grigoryan.
Seven candidates were nominated by the Democratic Party of Artsakh,
seven by the Free Homeland Party. As regards the rest eight
candidates, no information is available.
The election results will finally be summed up in 5-6 days.P.T. -0–

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS MEETS WITH ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
YEREVAN, June 20. /ARKA/. Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II held
a meeting with Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. The press
service of Holy Echmiadzin reports that the Governor welcomed the
Armenian Patriarch’s visit to the capital of California.
Garegin II also met with Sacramento officials and senators of
California. P.T. -0–

CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA TO KEEP ENSURING 3-% INFLATION AND TO MAINTAIN
FLOATING EXCHANGE RATE REGIME
YEREVAN, June 20. /ARKA/. The monetary policy pursued by the Central
Bank of Armenia is to be focused on ensuring 3-percent inflation and
also to retain floating currency exchange rate regime, the CBA
Vice-Chairman Arthur Javadyan said speaking at the 8th conference of
the Union of Banks of Armenia. In his words, such a policy will be due
to tightening competition between Armenian economy and the outside
world. “If the CBA try to devaluate national currency artificially,
this will be done at the expense of people. If there are economic
grounds for national currency revaluation, the CBA any resistance will
lead to inflation that will strike hard at low-income strata of the
republic population”, Javadyan said. In his words, the international
experience showed that the countries’ bids to strengthen their
national currencies as a rule fail”, Javadtyan said. In his opinion,
reforms aimed at increasing the enterprises’ efficiency, ensuring
transparency and riding the market of unhealthy elements need to be
implemented in the real sector of the republic’s economy. At the same
time, he stressed that devaluation policy will lead to funding
uncompetitive, unsustainable in the world market companies at the
expense of the population.
“Economy entities have to enhance their competitive ability through
increasing productivity by means of applying new technologies, not by
changing currencies exchange rate. M. V. – 0—

ARMENIA WELCOMES PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS HELD IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH –
VARDAN OSKANIAN
YEREVAN, June 20. /ARKA/. Armenia welcomes the regular Parliamentary
elections held in Nagorno-Karabakh, stated Vardan Oskanian, the RA
Foreign Minister at today’s press conference in Yerevan. According to
him, “that is an important step for strengthening the democratic
institutions and traditions in NKR”. The Minister noted that the NKr
people once again displayed its political will for independent
formation of the power, which bears responsibility for the fate of NKR
and its people. He also noted that the deputies democratically elected
would contribute to the peaceful and complex settlement of the
Karabakh issue and to the solution of internal problems. “We are sure
that the deputies will be able to express the will of the people and
more actively participate in Karabakh peace process”, said Oskanian.
At that, he expressed confidence that the observer missions would
express a positive opinion on NKR elections. L.V.–0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Media Monitors Network, CA
June 20 2005
Turks show growing opposition to EU membership
by M. S. Ahmed
(Monday June 20 2005)
“Interestingly, western politicians and media frequently describe
prime minister Recep Tayip Erdogan’s regime and party (the Justice
and Development Party) as `Islamist’ or `pro-Islam’. Adopting this
false line clearly enables them to maintain their pressure for
continued secularism in politics and public policy. But secularism is
only one part of the EU’s many requirements for admission. Respect
for human rights and ethnic minorities also figure prominently.”
The assumption that it is the European Union’s transparent
unwillingness to admit a Muslim country, rather than the reluctance
of a Muslim people to join a Christian union, that is mainly
responsible for the failure of membership-negotiations to make any
progress is being steadily revised. The EU member-states’ undisguised
disdain for Ankara’s application to join, while warmly and
expeditiously admitting East European countries that, unlike Turkey,
were until recently anti-western and pro-Russian, is turning Turkish
popular opinion against the project and against the government’s
commitment to it. Even secular groups that backed the application, to
get rid of Turkey’s past and present as a Muslim country, are now
criticising the government for its attitude; army generals, who are
normally keen to disguise their grip on political power and refrain
from making public statements, have openly taken the EU to task for
trying to impose foreign values on Turks. The recent ruling by the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that Turkey must grant Abdullah
Ocalan, the Kurdish rebel leader, a new trial, has caused a furore.
Many ordinary Turks – whose country, after all, was once a superpower
and ruled some of the European countries now being welcomed into the
EU – feel that Brussels’ treatment of their effort to join the EU is
humiliating, and describe it as only fit for a `banana republic’. For
instance Sencan Bayramuglu, a retired teacher, was recently quoted in
an American magazine as using that very phrase. `We can’t just do
everything the Europeans say,’ she said. `They behave as if we are
some sort of banana republic.’ It is true that her anger was provoked
by the ECHR’s demanding a new trial for Ocalan, and that her son was
one of 30,000 victims of the 15-year uprising that resulted
eventually in the capture and imprisonment of Ocalan in 1999. But, as
the magazine points out, her fury is not directed only against the
Kurdish rebel-leader, whom she blames for her son’s death, but also
against the European institutions that demand Turkey conform to their
standards as a precondition for joining the EU.
Many nationalists see the court ruling as `playing into the hands of
Kurdish militants’, fearing that it will lead to the division of
Turkey into `ethnic enclaves’. Many would agree with the warning of
Talat Salk, who prosecuted Ocalan in 1999, that a retrial would have
serious implications and play directly into the hands of Kurdish
`terrorists’ by providing them with a pretext to hold demonstrations
in major cities. One nationalist politician who agrees, and publicly
expressed his objection to the ruling, is Devlet Bahceli. He said
that the retrial ordered by the ECHR would be like a `time-bomb’ and
lead to simmering tensions.
But general Hilmi Ozkok, head of the powerful Turkish military, made
the most powerful attack on the court ruling even before it was
issued. He said in April that `outside influences are trying to
change our national culture by imposing foreign values, fashion and
language that do not match Turkish customs and traditions.’ When the
ruling was issued, he criticised it as `political manipulation’. He
also observed that his country had a security interest in northern
Cyprus, that allegations of genocide against Armenians in 1915 have
no basis, and that the Americans were not `doing enough’ to get rid
of Turkish terrorists of Kurdish origin in Iraq. It is not strange
that the general also insisted that secularism was the driving force
of Turkish democracy, and that the Turkish state must remain united.
It is part of the EU’s requirements for admission that Turkey
diminish the role of army generals in politics, yet no criticism was
made of general Ozkok’s intervention, and the Americans ignored his
criticism of their failure to curb Kurdish activists from Turkey who
operate in Iraq. Both the EU and the US are comfortable with the role
of the military in politics, which ensures that Turkey remains
secular and pro-West. It is interesting that though the general is
critical of the Turkish government’s EU programme, he has said
nothing so far against its outrageous recent plan to rewrite Turkish
history and retrain imams to comply with EU demands to entrench
secularism. And although the government’s intervention in the
country’s educational system for purely political reasons is far from
democratic, neither the EU nor the US has objected to this
totalitarian offensive on another people’s cultural and religious
rights. To their shame, the nationalists who are now rightly
resisting EU invasion and their government’s acquiescence have failed
to object to its pro-secularism bias and policies.
Interestingly, western politicians and media frequently describe
prime minister Recep Tayip Erdogan’s regime and party (the Justice
and Development Party) as `Islamist’ or `pro-Islam’. Adopting this
false line clearly enables them to maintain their pressure for
continued secularism in politics and public policy. But secularism is
only one part of the EU’s many requirements for admission. Respect
for human rights and ethnic minorities also figure prominently. But
nationalists (and indeed others) believe that the EU is not exercised
about the fate of Kurds, as it is not about the human rights of all
Turks, and that it is using both issues to keep Turkey out and
probably to weaken it by causing its division into ethnic states.
This is becoming increasingly clear to many Turks of different
backgrounds and beliefs; as a result the government is coming under
severe pressure to stand aloof. As Turkey should stay out of the EU
in the higher interests of its religion and cultural values, so the
pride of the Turkish people will be assuaged if Turkey’s exclusion
from the EU depends on its own decision rather than on a rejection by
Brussels.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
June 20 2005
HEAD OF CAUCASIAN MOSLEMS RECEIVES RELIGIOUS FIGURES FROM IRAN AND IRAQ
[June 20, 2005, 21:26:35]
Head of the Caucasian Moslems Clerical Office Sheik ul-Islam Hajji
Allahshukur Pashazade received a delegation comprising renowned
religious figures – ayatollahs, theologists – led by Seyed Javad
Shahristani.
Sheik ul-Islam expressed hope this visit would `serve strengthening
of peaceful relations and mutual understanding between our
countries.’ Touching upon the recent elections in Iran, he said the
Government of the country was on the right way, and expressed
satisfaction with relative peace in Kerbala, the sacred place for
Moslem-Shiites.
In turn, members of the delegation noted their visit contemporized
the Assumption of Prophet Mohammad’s daughter Fatmei-Zahra, which was
a day of reconciliation and prayers. `We will pray together for
liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Iran has always
supported Azerbaijan’s stance, and peaceful resolution of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh,’ they said.
Reportedly, the delegation of religious figures of Iran and Iraq had
visited Ganja, Mingachevir and a number of other districts of
Azerbaijan, as well as met with refugees and orphans.
The meeting was attended by Ambassadors of Iran and Iraq to
Azerbaijan Afshar Suleymani and Arshad Omar Ismayil respectively.
Following the meeting, the religious figures responded to questions
from journalists.