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03/08/2006
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://WWW.ASBAREZ. COM 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. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2006 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.