Month: October 2006

RUSSIA’S PUTIN PLEDGES TO ATTRACT 300,000 BACK TO RUSSIA BY 2010

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 24, 2006 Tuesday 4:28 PM EST

DPA x Russia Society Russia’s Putin pledges to attract 300,000 back
to Russia by 2010 Moscow Amid an unprecedented demographic crisis,
Russia proposed Tuesday to repatriate 300,000 Russians living abroad
as President Vladimir Putin vowed to make it easier for all foreigners
to live and work in the notoriously immigrant-unfriendly country.

Putin, speaking Tuesday at the opening ceremonies of the so-called
Congress of Compatriots in St. Petersburg, promised measures to
increase immigration, to be introduced January 15.

His comments followed a pledge by Federal Migration Service head
Konstantin Romodanovsky to spend nearly 200 million dollars to lure
50,000 native Russians to the country in 2007. The following years
would respectively see 100,000 and 150,000 return.

To attract people back to Russia, Romodanovsky told government-
controlled newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday, the service would

try to concentrate immigration in 12 of Russia’s 89 regions and open
a number of offices in countries including Germany.

The migration service’s five existing representative offices,
in contrast, are all in former Soviet countries: Armenia, Latvia,
Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan and Turmenistan.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians have immigrated in droves
to the West. An estimated 200,000 Russian natives live in Germany.

Many of the regions designated special resettlement zones are in
Siberia, and others like the Tver region, north-west of Moscow, are
suffering from rampant depopulation. None of the 21 ethnic republics –
inhabited by non-Russian indigenous groups – was on the list.

Russia’s population has fallen to 142 million from 149 million in
the last 14 years. Losing 700,000 people per year, the UN says Russia

could be home to a mere 80 to 100 million by 2050.

Siberia and the Far East have always been among Russia’s least-
populated areas, and many here fear China will overflow into Siberia,

overwhelming the Russian population. The ethnic republics, on the
other hand, have seen positive growth in recent years.

Putin noted that to sustain an economy Russia needed to see immigration
numbers jump, no matter the ethnicity of the newcomers.

"In the modern world, a country’s economy, not its military, determines
its power and potential for development," the Russian leader said.

"Leading Russian companies will have to draw qualified workers without
regard to their ethnicity."

But with a surge in racially-motivated violence in recent years,
Putin’s hopes conflict with present realities. This year alone has
seen over 20 hate killings, and a St. Petersburg court last week
acquitted 17 in the 2004 murder of a Vietnamese student.

The Russian president, however, promised to simplify legalization
procedures and improve social benefits for all immigrants in Russia,
beginning January 15.

The speech came the same day figures showed that 5,000 Georgian
immigrants had been deported back to the Caucasus nation this year.

Putin also said the government would step up its efforts to protect
the Russian language and its speakers across the former Soviet Union.

On Tuesday, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his country’s
parliament to consider switching from the Cyrillic alphabet, which
is used in Russia, to Latin letters.

"I think we have to return to the question of moving to the Latin
alphabet," Nazarbayev said, Interfax reported.

But Nazarbayev, one of Putin’s closest allies, also said students
should be taught three languages in Kazakh schools: Kazakh, English
and Russian.

TURKISH MPS ANNOUNCE ‘SHAME LIST’
By Cihan News Agency

Zaman, Turkey
Oct 24 2006

On Thursday, the Turkish parliament took a new step in condemnation
of the French parliament’s acceptance of a bill criminalizing any
denial of an Armenian genocide.

It compiled a "shame list" of massacres committed by European
countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The necessary study for the list was conducted by the parliament’s
justice sub-committee as part of its debates over a bill that would
recognize the Algerian genocide committed by France.

The commission is researching the past massacres and tyrannies of
countries that accept the Armenian genocide.

The members of the commission listened to Turkish History Society
President Professor Yusuf Halacoglu and decided that announcing the
European list to the world would be more efficient than recognition
of an Algerian genocide.

In this context, the commission requested that the Turkish History
Society and foreign affairs department carry out extensive studies
into the history of countries recognizing an Armenian genocide.

The "shame list" is expected to be announced following the Ramadan
holiday.

Deputy Mustafa Nuri Akbulut announced that the parliament would
publish the list rather than recognize an Algerian genocide.

Akbulut also asserted that this study would enable the international
community to better see the objective attitude of the Turkish
parliament and added human rights, freedom of speech and the process
that this method was subject to would be discussed extensively in
the document.

Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Akbulut also said the
document would include a text that will explain the circumstances
under which Turkey decided to deport Armenians in 1915.

Akbulut noted that while Ottoman soldiers were deployed in the
Dardanelles and the Caucasus during World War I, Armenians committed
massacres in Anatolia and betrayed Ottomans.

France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Belgium,
Slovakia, Greece, Latvia and Greek Cyprus have all made decisions
so far about an Armenian Genocide in different years, and some have
issued declarations and reports on the issue.

For further information please visit

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKS IN FRANCE SELF-CRITICAL OVER ARMENIAN BILL

Zaman, Turkey
Oct 24 2006

Turkish businessmen in France have admitted their failure in handling
the situation with the French parliament’s controversial Armenian
genocide bill.

Murat Ercan, chairman of the Union des Entrepreneurs Franco-Turcs,
a group for Turkish entrepreneurs in France, said that Turkish
businessmen were not concerned with the Armenian bill passed in the
French parliament.

Even the reactions against the law proposal remained weak and
ineffectual, said Ercan, who focused attention on the need for the
formation of a lobby.

Forming a lobby would require organization, said Ercan. "The French
news media did not even ask Turks living here in France to express
their opinions. We have to have full awareness of our position."

There was a lack of coordinated action among Turkish people living
in France against the Armenian bill, said Ercan.

"The parliamentary approval of the Armenian bill came as a blow to
the reputation of Turkish people in France. Even the Turkish reaction
against the law proposal was very weak," said Ercan.

Ercan blamed inexperience and a lack of knowledge on the part of some
Turkish companies, who in turn perhaps harmed all.

RUSSIA’S FUTURE DEPENDS ON STREAMLINED IMMIGRATION

RIA Novosti, Russia
Oct 24 2006

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Yury Filippov).The lower
house of Russia’s parliament has adopted harsh amendments to the
immigration legislation in a majority vote.

The ruling is expected to be approved in the upper house and by the
president, and to come into force by the end of this year.

Foreigners and stateless persons who violate the rules of entry into
Russia, the registration and immigration regime will be fined $200,
and may be also ordered to leave the country.

Western tourists who come to Russia for a couple of weeks to do some
sightseeing and book their trips through reputable travel agencies
have nothing to fear. The law is aimed primarily at curbing the
uncontrolled illegal immigration from the former Soviet republics in
the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Russia, as the main legal successor of the Soviet Union, has inherited
from it the informal status of the "common home" for its former
citizens. Ethnic purges in neighboring republics, some of them soft
and other quite ruthless (as the anti-Armenian movement in Baku,
the capital of Azerbaijan, in 1990), forced millions of non-titular
people to leave their homes. Russia welcomed everyone who wanted to
live, work and do business on its territory.

It was a deliberate policy designed to turn Russia into the pivotal
point for post-Soviet republics. Judging by the number of immigrants,
which is estimated at 8-12 million, it has succeeded.

However, that policy was not fully consistent, and its drawbacks
have recently become apparent. The Kremlin willingly helped its
neighbors cope with unemployment and raise living standards with the
incomes their immigrants earned in Russia, without any reciprocal
requirements. The liberal immigration legislation, and its even more
liberal implementation, did not help Russia to become a political
center or at least a country whose opinion is respected without fail,
the way the Untied States is for its North American neighbors.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which incorporated
nearly all post-Soviet countries, is a feeble organization, a kind
of "presidents’ club" whose meetings are increasingly neglected by
club members.

Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova are working hard to create a political
alternative to the CIS. Ukraine is hindering economic integration on
the basis of a customs union, and Azerbaijan and Georgia did their
best to promote the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline via Georgia, although
its economic expediency is questionable and Russia had proposed its
territory for oil transit.

Russian-Georgian relations seem to be breathing their last, with
arguments ranging from NATO and the European Union to Georgia’s
conflicts with the former Soviet autonomous republics of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, and the low quality of Georgian wines exported to
Russia. Taken together, this shows that truly neighborly relations and
a border open to uncontrollable immigration are two different things.

It has been believed until recently that Russia had political
and economic reasons for keeping its southern and eastern borders
open. A demographic crisis is reducing the Russian population by
about 700,000 annually, and the Kremlin firmly believes that it needs
labor immigrants to accelerate economic growth. President Vladimir
Putin spoke about this in this year’s state of the nation address
to parliament.

But the absence of immigration control is a drawback, not an
advantage. Immigrants are flocking to big and rapidly developing
cities, where they mostly trade (and also work in construction,
transport and utilities), avoiding the provinces, which direly need
them to overcome the consequences of an economic depression.

Unregistered immigrants do not pay taxes, and the employers’ desire
to use cheap labor bypassing the law creates fertile ground for
corruption.

Russia does not intend to erect a new Iron Curtain, but it must
streamline its immigration legislation to prevent chaos and
uncontrollable developments. The time is ripe for this, as proved
by the fact that Putin has addressed the issue. At a recent meeting
with the government, he asked for detailed reports from the ministers
of the economy, labor, the interior and agriculture. The problem
is hugely complicated and needs a comprehensive solution using all
available possibilities of the state.

This may take several years, but the objective is worth the hard
work. Fifteen years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia
is still trying to draft the optimal principles of relations with its
sovereign neighbors, from which the majority of immigrants come. It
is still trying to form a comprehensive strategy for its economic
development, with due regard for the resources it may receive from
the former Soviet countries.

Russia must advance firmly along this path to resolve its problems
without keeping borders wide open.

ANYONE WHO TRIES TO TEACH US A LESSON WILL BE TAUGHT A LESSON THEMSELVES
by Olga Allenova
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Source: Kommersant, October 23, 2006, p. 10
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
October 24, 2006 Tuesday

An interview with Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili;
Gela Bezhuashvili: "Russia keeps viewing NATO the same way it did
in the 1950s. But NATO doesn’t pose a threat to Russia. Russia has
sufficient resources – political, military, and other resources –
to defend itself."

Question: What awaits the people deported from Russia once they’re
back in Georgia?

Gela Bezhuashvili: Let’s begin with why and how they are being
deported. People are detained on the basis of their ethnic origin.

They are kept in detention cells for weeks and extradited like
criminals. This xenophobic policy has already resulted in the first
victims. In fact, this tendency poses a danger to Russia itself and
to Europe. It is the Georgians who are victims these days, just like
Jews were half a century ago. Importantly, individual states and the
European Union have already condemned the measures Russia is taking
against Georgia as unacceptable.

As for our citizens, we’ve been urging them to come home since the
Rose Revolution. Sure, we have economic problems in Georgia, but who
doesn’t have them? Yes, there were illegal immigrants in Russia but
the majority were legal ones.

Question: Some oppositionists claim that deportation of immigrants
may result in social upheavals in Georgia.

Gela Bezhuashvili: Well, these people can earn in Georgia whatever
they earned in Russia. Forget social upheavals in Georgia, there
won’t be any. Russia is trying to make our life hard. We know it.

Well, we’ll cope with it.

Question: But food prices have already gone up in Georgia. They too
may lead to social disturbances.

Gela Bezhuashvili: Russia is not our only neighbor. There are other
countries. We enjoy a free trade regimen with Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Ukraine… and Turkey, soon. We expect to have a free
trade regimen with Turkey within a few months. When Russia stopped
importing our wines, Turkey raised its wine import quota. Turkey
doesn’t consume much wine, but there are many Russian tourists there.

Anyone who tries to teach us a lesson will be taught a lesson
themselves.

All this is being done to punish Georgia for what is described as an
anti-Russian policy. But what is an anti-Russian policy? Pro-European
doesn’t mean anti-Russian, does it?

Question: It’s a pro-NATO policy rather than pro-European…

Gela Bezhuashvili: Let’s look at NATO then. Two years of individual
partnership with NATO gave us a lot in terms of military reforms,
political reforms, social, and so on. Why would our membership of
NATO worry Russia so much if Russia’s own level of partnership with
NATO is much higher than ours?

Question: But the matter concerns actual membership of NATO.

Gela Bezhuashvili: I cannot even give you the date [when Georgia is
to be invited to join NATO because it is NATO that makes decisions of
this kind. Georgia still has a great deal to do. What counts, however,
is that the government enjoys society’s support in the matter. Our
partnership with NATO is not a problem for Russia.

Question: The Cold War between Russia and Georgia is under way because
Russia is leaving the region and understands that NATO will settle in.

Gela Bezhuashvili: That’s what your politicians think. Russia keeps
viewing NATO the same way it did in the 1950s. But NATO doesn’t pose
a threat to Russia. Russia has sufficient resources – political,
military, and other resources – to defend itself.

Question: Russia is doing all it can to prevent Georgia from joining
NATO. It may even go as far as to recognize the sovereignty of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia. Are you prepared for that?

Gela Bezhuashvili: For Russia’s recognition of Abkhazian and South
Ossetian sovereignty? But what does Russia stand to gain?

Question: Most Georgians would be angry at President Mikhail
Saakashvili, who will have failed to retain territorial integrity.

Gela Bezhuashvili: Attempts to make life difficult for Saakashvili
might backfire, you know. I don’t really expect Russia to go that far.

Question: But President Putin already said that there would be
nothing to prevent Moscow from recognizing the sovereignty of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia when sovereignty of Kosovo was recognized by the
international community.

Gela Bezhuashvili: Actually, he said it differently. It was only a
hint of what might be, a hint that it might provide a precedent…

First, Russia recognizes territorial integrity of Georgia. Second,
let us consider the resolution of the UN Security Council concerning
extension of peacekeepers’ mandate, the document that Moscow hails
as it diplomatic triumph. It states that "the UN Security Council
recognizes territorial integrity of Georgia within the internationally
recognized borders." Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security
Council. How can it recognize some other borders?

Besides, Russia itself is a federation. Yes, there was a referendum
in Chechnya but nobody can say with any degree of accuracy what the
state of affairs will be there like several years from now.

Precedents like that are dangerous, you know.

Question: Tension in Russian-Georgian relations mounted when several
Russian officers were arrested in Tbilisi. Was it possible to avoid
this scandal?

Gela Bezhuashvili: They were not the first Russian servicemen arrested
for subversive activities. Sergei Lavrov and I discussed the spy named
Boiko last October. One year later, history repeated itself. Georgia
and Russia have an agreement not to spy on each other. There have
been incidents when people were turned over to the other country
quietly. They surfaced in South Ossetia afterwards.

This time, we decided that enough was enough.

There were no problems at all from the point of view of the law. We
could have issued charges and tried these people. The OSCE chairman
intervened, however, and asked us to turn them over to Russia. We
did. Russia knew that we would, it could have kept this quiet –
but it wouldn’t.

This so-called spy scandal is the tip of the iceberg. What is
happening is not a result of this scandal. Russia’s reaction to it
was so inappropriate that it made it obvious that these measures of
putting Georgia under pressure had been designed long ago. Russia
only needed a pretext.

ARMENIA IS A DEFEATED PARTY IN TERMS OF DIPLOMACY

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2006

In an interview Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite news channel, President
of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev touched on Iran-Armenia relations, saying
it raises public concern in Azerbaijan. According to him, not only
Iran but also other states also have good relationship with Armenia.

This fact must not have an impact on political decision-making in
Azerbaijan. On the contrary, Azerbaijan must seek better relations
itself with those countries.

Saying Armenia is a defeated party in terms of diplomacy, President
Ilham Aliyev added that the countries, which were allies to Armenia,
became friends for Azerbaijan as well. Azerbaijan is more important
for them than Armenia. The land-locked Armenia is not interesting for
them because it is geographically disadvantaged and has already been
left out of regional energy projects. Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway will
isolate Armenia even more.

Azerbaijan is the country that delivers energy resources to the world
markets and located along the East-West corridor. According to the
President, Armenia cannot be compared with Azerbaijan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

"RARMENIAN GENOCIDE" FILM TO BE SHOWN IN BRUSSELS DECEMBER 13

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 24 2006

According to the information DE FACTO got at the RA MFA Press Service,
December 13 a Laurence Jourdan’s "Armenian Genocide" film will be
shown in Brussels.

The measure has been initiated by the Jewish Audiovisual Memory
Institute and the European Sepharadi Institute.

After the film’s demonstration the participants will discuss the
issues referring to the Armenian Genocide committed by the Osmanian
Turkey. The discussions will be held with the political and public
figures’ participation.
From: Baghdasarian

JOURNALISTS WITHOUT BORDERS RANKS TURKEY 100TH IN "MEDIA FREEDOM"

Hurriyet, Turkey
Oct 24 2006

According to the Paris-based media organization "Journalists Without
Borders," Turkey ranks 100th in the world in the arena of "freedom
in the media." A list published yesterday by Journalists Without
Borders puts Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and the Netherlands in a
tie for first place in this category. Other noteable placements on
the list were Armenia, which ranked immediately before Turkey at 99,
and Denmark, which gained notoriety for the caricature crisis earlier
in the year: Danish media ranked 20th. The US was ranked at 56th,
while North Korea came in last at 168.

Journalists Without Borders declared in May 2002 that Turkey, among
other countries, was an "enemy of the media."

KAROYIAN SETS ABOUT MODERNISING CYPRIOT RULING PARTY

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 24, 2006 Tuesday 10:49 AM EST

Masis der Parthogh, dpa
Nicosia

DPA POLITICS Cyprus Politics NEWS FEATURE: Karoyian sets about
modernising Cypriot ruling party Masis der Parthogh, dpa Nicosia
The new leader of the ruling centre-right Democratic Party (Diko) of
Cyprus, Marios Karoyian, set about modernisation before presidential
elections in February 2008.

This would seem to demonstrate that party control has been returned
to the members and wrested from Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos.

Backed by the old guard, who set up the party three decades ago,
Karoyian, 45, on Sunday emerged as the third and youngest party
leader from an extraordinary conference where he was challenged only
by deputy leader Nicos Cleanthous. Papadopoulos had stepped down as
party chief in August.

Karoyian, an Armenian Cypriot who rose up the ranks of the party
founded by the late Spyros Kyprianou, father of European Health and
Consumer Affairs Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, won by a surprisingly
wide margin of 62.6 per cent of the party’s voters over 37.4 per cent
for Cleanthous.

Only half of the party’s 14,000 members showed up to vote for their
new leader.

Analysts said this marked an advance to replace old-school politicians
with dynamic young leaders.

The result shocked Cleanthous, who had deputised Tassos Papadopoulos
ever since the latter was elected president of Cyprus in 2003.

"I did not expect the result and I am as much disappointed that only
half the registered party members turned up to vote," Cleanthous said.

This could also explain the disappointment with a leader, who barely
made it to the House of Representatives in the parliamentary election
in May when the party gained new voters and two seats.

In the party elections, Cleanthous only secured a majority in his
hometown of Larnaca while the charismatic Karoyian swept the votes in
all other towns.

Moments after being declared president, Karoyian called for unity
and paid tribute to Spyros Kyprianou’s legacy as well as Tassos
Papadopoulos.

"We will implement the political line of the coalition and move
forward united, through a modernised Democratic Party."

Standing beside the new party leader was Markos Kyprianou and his
brother, Achilleas, both members of the Diko executive council.

Nicholas Papadopoulos, the president’s son, who is a new member of
parliament, was absent from the main panel.

This would indicate the start of a rift within the party that has
long wanted to abandon the three-party coalition with the powerful
communist Akel party and the diminishing socialist Edek in favour of
a coalition of equals with Akel.

Commissioner Kyprianou also seemed to throw his support behind the
young leader, saying times had changed from the days of individual
leaders and an new age of good managers marked by a need for
collectiveness had begun.

Kyprianou is being touted as the coalition candidate for the next
presidential elections when the party will have to decide on either
the young commissioner or the incumbent Papadopoulos.

Whatever the outcome, Diko supporters will be recalled to the next
party conference in March where Karoyian’s leadership will be tested
less than a year after winning his parliamentary seat.

Karoyian was born in 1961 and joined the party’s youth when studying
political science in Perugia, Italy. He served as president of the
Nedik youth movement for six years and joined the party’s central
committee in 1988.

A close aide to the late Spyros Kyprianou, he also served as the
director of the presidential office in parliament, and later moved to

the presidential palace in 2003. That was followed by a stint as a
government spokesperson.

He is married and has a daughter and a son. He speaks Greek, English,
Italian and Spanish.

TURKS CAN LIVE WITHOUT EU – POLL

Independent Online, South Africa
Oct 24 2006

Less than a third of Turks think Turkey must enter the European
Union, a poll showed on Tuesday, the latest sign of waning support
for membership as Ankara faces increasing pressure from Brussels.

The survey, carried out by pollsters A&G and published in newspaper
Milliyet, showed 32,2 percent thought Turkey "must certainly enter the
EU", a sharp decline on 2005’s 57,4 percent and 67,5 percent in 2004.

Of 2 408 people polled, 25,6 percent said Turkey "should certainly
not enter the EU", more than twice the 10,3 percent who felt that
way in 2005, when Turkey began entry talks.

The poll, which shows a more dramatic decline in EU support than other
recent surveys, comes as Brussels urges Turkey to step up reforms
and make concessions over the disputed Mediterranean island Cyprus
if it is to avoid a possible freeze in talks later in 2006.

The poll was carried out in late September, and since then anti-EU
feeling has been fuelled further by a law passed in the French
parliament making it a crime to deny – as Ankara does – that Ottoman
Turks carried out a genocide against Armenians.

The poll also showed that 76,5 percent of Turks expect tougher
conditions to be imposed on them in the future and only 7,2 percent
trust the EU. Many Turks, including the government, complain that
Brussels is changing the rules as it goes along over the Cyprus issue.

The EU is due to present a report on Turkey’s progress on November 8.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress