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03/08/2006
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1) Oskanian And Rice to Sign $235 Million Contract
2) Pallone Calls for Parity in Armenia-Azerbaijan Military Assistance
3) Azerbaijan Violates Cease Fire in Northeastern Armenia
4) EU Says Turkey Must Show Progress on Cyprus in Membership Talks
5) Istanbul University Organizes Armenian Conference
6) Harvest Gallery Presents Rafael Atoyan Exhibit
1) Oskanian And Rice to Sign $235 Million Contract
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–The United States will formalize later this month the
release
of $235.5 million in additional economic assistance to Armenia over the next
five years under President George W. Bush’s Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)
program.
Armenia’s MCA compact, already agreed on by the two governments, will be
signed in Washington on March 27.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Armenian Assembly of America said the
signing ceremony will be attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian.
The agreement will come nearly two years after Armenia was included on the
list of 16 developing nations that are eligible for the plan designed to spur
political and economic reforms around the world. The Millennium Challenge
Corporation (MCC), a US government agency handling it, approved the Armenian
government’s MCA application late last year.
Most of the MCA assistance, $146 million, will be spent on rebuilding and
expanding Armenia’s dilapidated irrigation networks. Another $67 million will
go to pay for capital repairs on about 1,000 kilometers of rural roads that
have fallen into disrepair since the Soviet collapse.
2) Pallone Calls for Parity in Armenia-Azerbaijan Military Assistance
WASHINGTON, DC–Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Co-Chairman of the Armenian
Issues Caucus, took the floor of the US House of Representatives Tuesday to
criticize the Administration’s “breach of an agreement struck between the
White
House and Congress in 2001 to maintain parity in US military aid to Armenia
and
Azerbaijan,” reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
The Bush Administration recommended last month, in its Fiscal Year 2007
budget, that Azerbaijan receive significantly more military training and
hardware than Armenia. The President also proposed cutting US economic aid to
Armenia from last year’s appropriation of $74.4 million to $50 million, a
nearly 33% reduction.
The New Jersey Congressman explained to his House colleagues that, “a lack of
military parity would weaken ongoing peace negotiations regarding Nagorno
Karabagh. Furthermore, I believe that any imbalance will contribute to further
instability in the region if military parity is not achieved.” He added that,
“failing to respect the parity agreement undermines the role of the US as an
impartial mediator of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict.”
Representative Pallone closed his remarks by noting that, “in the coming
weeks
I will advocate to the Foreign Operations Subcommittee to restore military
parity, to increase economic assistance to Armenia, and to provide for
humanitarian aid to the people of Nagorno Karabagh. It is incredibly important
to reward our allies and to send a message to Azerbaijan and Turkey that
ethnically charged genocides, illegal blockades of sovereign nations, and the
constant harassment of the Armenian people will not be tolerated.”
“We want to thank Congressman Pallone for his longstanding leadership in
educating his colleagues about the important US interests served by our
assistance program to Armenia, direct aid to Nagorno Karabagh, and the other
Armenia-related provisions in the Foreign Operations bill–most recently and
notably–the need for maintaining parity in US military aid to Armenia and
Azerbaijan,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We also want to
express our appreciation to Congressman Knollenberg for his work, within the
Foreign Operations Subcommittee itself, generating vital support for
maintaining military parity and other key provisions of special concern to the
Armenian American community.”
The President’s proposal for Freedom Support Act aid is $50 million for
Armenia, $28 million for Azerbaijan, and $58 million for Georgia. His Foreign
Military Financing proposals are $3.5 million for Armenia, $4.5 million for
Azerbaijan, and $10 million for Georgia. The White House’s recommendation to
Congress for International Military Education and Training is $790,000 for
Armenia, $885,000 for Azerbaijan, and $1,235,000 for Georgia.
The Foreign Operations Subcommittees of the Senate and House Appropriation
Committees are currently reviewing the President’s proposed budget and are
each
drafting their own versions of the FY 2007 foreign assistance bill.
The agreement to maintain parity in US military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan
was struck between the White House and Congress in 2001, in the wake of
Congressional action granting the President the authority to waive the Section
907 restrictions on aid to Azerbaijan. The ANCA has vigorously defended this
principle, stressing in correspondence, at senior level meetings, and through
grassroots activism, that a tilt in military spending toward Azerbaijan would
destabilize the region, emboldening the Azeri leadership to continue their
threats to impose a military solution to the Nagorno Karabagh conflict. More
broadly, the ANCA has underscored that breaching the parity agreement would
reward the leadership of Azerbaijan for walking away from the OSCE’s Key West
peace talks, the most promising opportunity to resolve the Nagorno Karabagh
conflict in nearly a decade. Finally, failing to respect the parity agreement
undermines the role of the US as an impartial mediator of the Nagorno Karabagh
conflict.
The full text of Congressman Pallone’s remarks are provided below.
Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr.’s Floor Statement
Foreign Operations Request: March 7, 2006
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2007
proposes 20 percent more military aid to Azerbaijan than to Armenia. This
request is a clear breach of an agreement struck between the White House and
the Congress in 2001 to maintain parity in U.S. military aid to Armenia and
Azerbaijan.
Mr. Speaker, the parity agreement is unfortunately a battle that the Armenian
people have had to fight in the past. The fiscal year 2005 Presidential
request
was similar in that it called for more military funding to Azerbaijan.
However, the Congress reversed the President to ensure military parity in the
fiscal year 2005 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act. After that battle and
the President’s 2006 budget request that
included parity , I thought the President’s fiscal year 2007 budget would
continue that policy. But unfortunately that was not the case. A lack of
military parity would, in my opinion, weaken ongoing peace negotiations
regarding Nagorno Karabagh, among other things.
It will also contribute to further instability in the region, and it
undermines the role of the United States as an impartial mediator of the
Nagorno Karabagh conflict. Mr. Speaker, the government should not be rewarding
the Government of Azerbaijan for walking away from the organization for
security and cooperation in Europe’s Key West peace talks, the most promising
opportunity to resolve the Nagorno Karabagh conflict in nearly a decade.
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the administration’s budget also calls for
drastic
cuts in economic assistance to Armenia. I was discouraged to see that the
President requested a 33 percent decrease in economic aid from $74.4 million
last year to $50 million this year. Technical and developmental assistance and
investment is essential to Armenia. This funding is key to democratic
stability
and economic reform in the country.
Mr. Speaker, is this the message we want to send to our friends in
Armenia? Do
we want to cut economic aid to a country that is terrorized by its neighbors
and is shut off on its eastern and western borders due to an illegal blockade
by Turkey and Azerbaijan?
Mr. Speaker, in the coming weeks I will advocate to the Foreign Operations
Subcommittee to restore military parity , to increase economic assistance to
Armenia and to provide for humanitarian aid
to the people of Nagorno Karabagh. It is incredibly important to reward our
allies and to send a message to Azerbaijan and Turkey that ethnically charged
genocides, illegal blockades of sovereign nations, and the constant harassment
of the Armenian people will not be tolerated.
3) Azerbaijan Violates Cease Fire in Northeastern Armenia
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–The Armenian military accused Azeri forces on Wednesday of
continuing to violate the cease fire regime in the westernmost section of the
heavily militarized border between the two South Caucasus states.
Echoing statements by the Defense Ministry in Yerevan, military commanders in
Armenia’s northeastern Tavush province said their border posts have been under
daily gunfire from Azeri positions for more than a week.
The spokesman for Armenia’s Defense Ministry, Seyran Shahsuvarian, said
Armenian such incidents were until now registered only once or twice a month.
The Defense Ministry said that their troops are not returning fire to prevent
the situation from escalating further.
“I have just been informed that our positions were again fired upon,” said
Major Tigran Gevorgian, chief of staff of an Armenian army regiment stationed
in the regional capital Ijevan. “We registered five such incidents
yesterday.”
“There have been no cases of truce violation from our side,” he said. “We
haven’t even returned fire. But we have increased our vigilance and are ready
to defend our land at any moment.”
One of Gevorgian’s soldiers, 19-year-old Arsen Zakevosian, was wounded and
died while being transported to a military hospital in Ijevan on Friday from
his unit’s positions just outside the border village of Kayan. The Armenian
military says it has not suffered any other casualties so far.
The Azeri Defense Ministry has not reported any fighting in the area close to
eastern Georgia and denies the Armenian accusations. It said on Monday that
the
Armenians themselves breached the truce by killing an Azeri army conscript
in a
section of the frontline east of Karabagh. Karabagh Armenian forces dismissed
the claims.
Residents of Kayan, meanwhile, confirmed that gunshots on the border have
been
more frequent in recent days. “We are all used to shootings,” said Arsen
Ghazarian whose family house is located on the edge of the village, just
meters
from an army roadblock.
“The Azerbaijanis shoot all the time,” said one of his neighbors, Telman
Pirumian. “Even small children are not quite scared of that.”
Susanna, an elderly villager, harked back to the pre-war Soviet years when
local residents lived in peace with their Azeri neighbors and took pride in
Kayan’s status as the main gateway to Armenia. “We could go to Tbilisi and any
other place from here. But now the road [running through Kayan] is closed. We
are in quarantine.”
4) EU Says Turkey Must Show Progress on Cyprus in Membership Talks
(Bloomberg)–The commissioner in charge of the European Union’s expansion said
Turkey must live up to its promises regarding the Republic of Cyprus to avoid
“negative repercussions” on talks over Turkish membership in the EU.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn met with Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul and Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik Wednesday in
Vienna.
Austria holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
“There is a clear necessity to make progress on Cyprus in 2006 in order to
avoid negative repercussions on the process,” Rehn said. “Turkey has made
commitments including Cyprus, and Turkey is expected to meet these
conditions.”
The 25-nation EU started membership negotiations with Turkey in October.
Talks
are expected to last a decade or more. EU leaders have said they reserve the
right to suspend negotiations with Turkey if the government doesn’t allow
Greek
Cypriot ships and planes access to its ports and airports under the trade
accord.
Foreign Minister Gul said today he believes that a solution to the Cyprus
question should come from the United Nations.
5) Istanbul University Organizes Armenian Conference
Istanbul University is planning to hold a conference March 15-17 about the
Armenian “relocation.” The goal of the conference is to discuss the events of
1915, evaluate the reasons they happened, and their consequences all without
using the word genocide.
The conference will feature speakers of various viewpoints, including Halil
Berktay, a historian who contradicts the official Turkish government
position.
6) Harvest Gallery Presents Rafael Atoyan Exhibit
GLENDALE–A rare solo exhibition of internationally acclaimed artist Rafael
Atoyan’s works will be held March 10-22 at Harvest Gallery in Glendale.
The opening reception will be held Friday, March 10 from 7:00 – 10:00 PM.
For general information about the exhibit, call Harvest Gallery at
(818)546-1000 or visit <;www.harvestg allery.com.
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