Month: March 2007

ARMENIAN LEADER SAYS POWER PLANT PROJECT TO "OPEN NEW PAGE" IN TIES WITH IRAN

Mediamax news agency
19 Mar 07

Yerevan, 19 March: The Armenian and Iranian energy ministers signed an
intergovernmental agreement in Meghri today on the joint construction
and exploitation of a hydroelectric power plant on River Aras.

As the special correspondent of Mediamax reports from Meghri, the
signing of the document took place after putting into operation the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, in which the presidents of Armenia and Iran,
Robert Kocharyan and Mahmud Ahmadinezhad participated.

Speaking at a news conference, Robert Kocharyan said that the
construction of a joint power plant "will open a new page in
Armenian-Iranian relations".

He stressed that 15 years ago there was nothing in Meghri evidencing
Armenian-Iranian relations and that the two sides were separated with
a barbed wire.

"Today, there are many things here evidencing our growing relations. By
the bridge, on which I met the Iranian president today, 600,000 tons
of cargo was transported last year," the Armenian president said.

Robert Kocharyan highlighted that economic cooperation between Armenia
and Iran had started including large infrastructure projects.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad said that he had discussed with
Robert Kocharyan the issues of cooperation in the sphere of energy,
transport, communication and water industry.

HELICOPTER CARRYING AHMADINEJAD FAILS TO LAND

PRESS TV, Iran
March 19 2007

The helicopter carrying Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to
Armenia for the inauguration of a gas pipeline failed to land and
returned to the Iranian border city of Marand.

President Ahmadinejad was en route to neighboring Armenia to formally
open the first stretch of a natural gas pipeline along with the
Armenian president, Robert Kocharyan, when his helicopter failed to
land due to bad weather, Fars News Agency reported.

Reports indicate that the president and his entourage returned to
the Iranian city of Marand in the north-western province of East
Azarbaijan.

The president was accompanied by Iran’s Foreign Minister, Energy
Minister and Oil Minister. The group is now set to travel by land
to Armenia to inaugurate the pipeline, which will eventually move
Iranian gas into Armenia.

The 110 kilometer pipeline runs from the north-western city of Tabriz
to the Armenian border. Construction of the first 40 kilometer-long
section of the pipeline began in November 2004.

When complete, some 10 million cubic meters of Iranian gas will be
delivered to Armenia through the pipeline each day. According to an
agreement reached between the two sides, the pipeline will transfer
some 36 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas to Armenia over the next
20 years.

NKR GOVERNMENT ALLOCATED 700MLN AMD FOR THE REALIZATION OF A MORTGAGE CREDITING PROGRAM

Mediamax Agency, Armenia
March 19 2007

Yerevan, March 19 /Mediamax/. 700mln AMD is allocated from the state
budget of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) for the realization of
a mortgage crediting program.

Mediamax reports that the NKR Prime Minister Anushavan Danielian said
this, answering the questions of the visitors of the "Azat Artsakh"
newspaper’s website. He noted that the possibility to improve the
housing conditions will be given not only to young families, but also
the citizens, which will be chosen by the expert commission.

"The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is the only country in the region,
which, at the expense of the state budget, took up the realization
of a mortgage crediting program on preferential terms – by a 6%
annual interest rate and up to 20 years time to run", Anushavan
Danielian stated.

The NKR government is also working out a social mortgage program,
the realization of which is planned to start in 2008.

CONSTRUCTION OF IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINES’ SECOND SECTION UNDER WAY

Arminfo
19 Mar 07

Yerevan, 19 March: A total of 150m dollars will be invested in the
construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline’s second section, the
chief engineer of the Armenian-Russian joint HayRusgasard company,
Ashot Hovsepyan, told journalists today.

He said that the company will allocate the funds itself. Hovsepyan
pointed that the construction of the second section, extending for 100
km from Kajaran to Ararat, has already started. In the best scenario,
the construction will be completed in 2008, which will allow Armenia
to receive 2.3bn cu.m. of natural gas from Iran a year.

The first section of the gas pipeline was opened today. Through it
Armenia will receive up to 450m cu.m. of natural gas per year.

POLEMIC WITH A TOUCH OF ROCK’N’ROLL
by Kim Sengupta

Independent Media Weekly
March 19, 2007
First Edition

Documentary is now a winning genre – among a section of the viewing
public. ‘Screamers’ is a powerful attempt to reach a new audience.

A heavy metal band in full flow. Flashing strobe lights and smoke from
dry ice. Bouncers trying to hold back head-banging fans from the stage.

The scenes are much like any other from rock concerts. But what is
different here is that the lyrics being belted out by System of
a Down and chanted by their fans is about the Armenian massacre,
Rwanda and Darfur and part of highly polemical film about genocide.

Screamers is the latest in a recent line of feature-length
documentaries on hard, gritty subjects to be released in the cinema.

Others have included Stephen Spielberg’s Munich, Spike Lee’s When the
Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts about Katrina and, of course,
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.

Most people who have been to see these films are, one can assume,
already interested in the subject matters. Screamers, however, is the
first to use a popular band in an effort to reach a younger generation
which may not be aware of historic and present-day injustices.

The crowds who turn up for the concerts are given pamphlets by Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch and the band bellow out their
thoughts during the performance.

And it appears to be working. Fans questioned as they leave the
gigs show a surprising level of knowledge about what is going on
in places such as Darfur and the issues are also discussed in their
various websites.

Screamers has been co-produced by the BBC and will be shown in the
Storyville series on 28 March. It has also done the rounds of various
film festivals and received the Audience Award at the American Film
Institute festival last November. The director and producer, Carla
Garapedian and Peter McAlevey, are both former journalists and say
they took a reporter’s approach to gathering backing for the project.

Garapedian, who holds American and British dual nationalities,
had worked as a BBC news-reader before going on to make acclaimed
documentaries such as Zarmina: Lifting the Veil, about the plight of
women in Afghanistan, Children of the Secret State, charting acute
deprivation in North Korea and My Friend the Mercenary, examining the
attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea to which Mark Thatcher was linked.

McAlevey, an American, was formerly a reporter with Newsweek. He had
been involved in the production of films including Flatliners and Radio
Flyer. The idea for Screamers came about when a project McAlevey and
Garapedian were working on – a comedy about her time at the Beeb –
fell through.

Garapedian, of Armenian origin, who has been campaigning to gain
international recognition that the killing of 1.5 million Armenians in
Turkey was genocide, had heard about System of a Down, whose members
are also Armenian and involved in the same cause. Like Garapedian,
they also wanted to make a stand against the inhumanity which is
taking place now in various parts of the world with the West turning
a blind eye. They are also hugely successful in their niche market,
with sales of 16 million CDs so far.

"It was proving impossible to approach them," recalled McAlevey. "You
get this very often, of course, with acts which are doing well. The
people around them want to stick with the winning formulae, they
do not want to get involved with something new, experimental, which
might fail.

"Then I found out the address of Rick Rubin, the guy who looks after
them, and my journalist’s training kicked in. We wrote a very short,
three-paragraph proposal and I just threw it over the wall of his
home. We got a call back the next day from his PA. We thought this
would be something that works. Don’t forget, Spike Lee said that he
got more satisfaction from his Katrina film than all his feature films
because the sheer scale of the feedback that he got was so much more
than from all the others."

It was, however, several months before Garapedian and McAlevey met
Serj Tankian, the singer. The most political of the band members –
he is moving to New Zealand because he does not want his taxes in the
US being spent on invading countries – was immediately enthusiastic.

"I had been with a group of human rights activists outside one of
their concerts in the past handing out leaflets and I was amazed
by the interest shown by them, not just about Armenia but what was
happening in places like Darfur and Iraq, so System were the ideal
people to work with.

"This is a golden age for documentaries, perhaps the second one we
have had since the 1950s, when there were people who had been shooting
the Second Word War bringing their craft and experience in producing
hard-edged stuff. Now there is a demand from the public for hard,
strong, in-depth documentaries because they are concerned about what
is going on around the world.

"I didn’t want to make a so-called ‘balanced’ documentary. I don’t
believe you can actually have two sides to genocide – either you
accept it or you deny it, and the danger lies in the denial."

Tankian says it was only natural that the band should take part in
the film. "I have always had a problem with injustice, whether it’s
personal, national or international. It’s just always bothered me to
the point where I have to do or say something."

It was perhaps not surprising that the film was commissioned by
Storyville, which has built up a reputation for adventurous and
innovative programming.

Nick Fraser, the series editor, said, "What I liked about it was that
it was attempting to reach a younger audience in an imaginative way.

I didn’t know much about the band, but there’s someone working for me
who did. It’s an angry film, but it has been made extremely well. I
think that people like us should encourage this kind of film-making,
because the topics they are addressing are immensely important."

‘Screamers’ is on BBC4 on 28 March

AHMADINEJAD OPENS IRANIAN GAS PIPELINE TO ARMENIA

Agence France Presse — English
March 19, 2007 Monday 2:30 PM GMT

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart
inaugurated on Monday a natural gas pipeline reducing energy-strapped
Armenia’s reliance on Russian gas.

Ahmadinejad and Armenian President Robert Kocharian formally opened
the pipeline in the Armenian town of Agarak, near the border with Iran.

"This is a historic event that opens a new period in the relations
of Iran and Armenia," Kocharian said at the ceremony.

Surrounded by local villagers, the two presidents lit a symbolic
torch at the ceremony, which was delayed for hours after heavy
fog prevented Ahmadinejad’s helicopter from flying to the area. He
eventually arrived by car.

"Our relations have deepened over the last 15 years and it is my
intention to develop them further," Ahmadinejad said during the
ceremony.

He said he hoped to increase cross-border cooperation in a range of
fields, including electricity, energy, water and telecoms.

Under a 20-year contract, Armenia is projected to receive 36 billion
cubic metres of gas through the 150-kilometre (93-mile) pipeline,
breaking Russian gas giant Gazprom’s stranglehold on the ex-Soviet
country’s gas market.

Armenia is initially to receive up to 400 million cubic metres of
gas per year through the pipeline, but that amount is expected to
eventually increase to 2.3 billion cubic metres per year.

An agreement to build the 200-million-dollar (150-million-euro)
pipeline was signed in 1992 but construction only began in 2004.

Armenia funded its share of the pipeline with a 33-million-dollar
loan from the Iranian Export and Development Bank.

Armenia will pay for the gas with electricity it produces at a
Soviet-era nuclear power plant.

Landlocked Armenia has sought closer links with Iran because of an
economic blockade imposed by neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey over
the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-year war ending with an uneasy
ceasefire in 1994 over the majority ethnic-Armenian enclave in
Azerbaijan.

TURKS FAVOUR RELIGIOUS, ETHNIC PLURALISM: POLL

Agence France Presse — English
March 19, 2007 Monday 11:43 AM GMT

Most Turks believe the state should help preserve different religious
and ethnic groups in the face of rising nationalism, according to a
poll published Monday.

The poll by the Konda institution published in the Milliyet daily
showed that 66.4 percent believe the state should support efforts
to protect ethnic differences as opposed to 33.6 percent who say it
should not.

A total of 76.4 percent said the state should be involved in efforts
to preserve different religious groups while 23.6 percent said it
should not.

The poll, conducted among 48,000 people countrywide in October, comes
at a time of intense debate over surging nationalism following the
murder of an ethnic Armenian journalist by a suspected ultranationalist
grouping.

Turkey is home to tiny minorities of Jews, Armenians and Greeks,
as well as a sizeable Kurdish community in the southeast, where
separatist rebels have waged a bloody 22-year campaign for self-rule.

Improving the freedoms of its Kurdish and non-Muslim minorities is
one of the key elements in Turkey’s troubled accession talks with
the European Union.

Analysts say nationalist feelings are on the rise in Turkey, and
attribute this mainly to EU pressure for change.

Many Turks fear the government is making too many concessions to
Brussels and that Europeans do not really want a mainly Muslim,
relatively poor country of some 70 million people in their union.

Last year, the EU partly froze Turkey’s membership talks over its
failure to grant trade privileges to Cyprus, an EU member it does
not recognise.

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS
by Ina Friedman

The Jerusalem Report
March 19, 2007

When I discovered that, because they could not travel freely around the
country, the refugees from Darfur and other parts of Sudan had never
been to Jerusalem (see "Forgotten Lessons," February 5, 2007), I called
my brother, Steve, and offered him an opportunity to do a mitzvah.

A systems engineer by profession, at age 67 he had just embarked on a
second career as a licensed tour guide, and he immediately volunteered
to lead these unusual guests, who have been released from prison to
the custody of kibbutzim and moshavim around the country, on a day’s
outing in the holy city.

Organized by a volunteer from the Hotline for Migrant Workers, the
day did not begin auspiciously, as the bus bringing them to Jerusalem
arrived three hours late. But no matter: Good cheer prevailed as we
set off on a lightning tour of West Jerusalem on the way to our main
target: the Old City.

The planning, on Steve’s part, had entailed no little angst. We
desperately wanted to ensure that these 25 accidental tourists,
all but two of whom are Muslims, would be able to enter the Haram
a-Sharif (Temple Mount) and visit the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa
Mosques. But because they lack passports and other official papers,
we feared they would never get past the Israeli security guards
near the entrance to the Mughrabi Gate – the only one through which
Jewish Israelis and foreign tourists can access the mount. And then
the whole issue became academic, as the Mughrabi Gate was closed in
early February due to the unrest sparked by the excavations below it.

The alternative was for the majority of the group to reach the
esplanade through one of the gates in the Muslim Quarter, as all
Muslims are permitted to do. Steve had in fact contacted a few Arab
colleagues who lead tours on the Haram, asking whether they would
fill in for him there. But they asked for fees beyond our modest
means. Then, three days before the tour, the Mughrabi Gate opened
again, and he was told that visiting hours were between 1 and 2:30 p.m.

So we drove up to the Mount of Olives, with its spectacular view of
the Old City, for the nutshell version of Jerusalem’s complex history
and arrived at the Mughrabi guard post at 1:25 – only to discover
that the entry hours are actually 12-1:30. No exceptions.

Eschewing despair, after a felafel lunch we made our way to the Cotton
Market Gate in the Muslim Quarter to try our luck there.

Strategizing along the way, I suggested that we Israelis lay low and
allow the Sudanese, all Arabic-speaking black Africans, to negotiate
their entry to the Haram on their own.

But at the gate, when we happened |upon an affable Arab guide who
gave his name only as Majid, my brother told him the whole story. As
afternoon prayers were about to begin, to verify that these visitors
were indeed Muslims, Majid asked one of them to recite the opening
passage of the Koran and then took the rest on good faith. He calmed
us about his fee by saying, "Don’t worry, we here are good Muslims"
(and in fact, we later learned, asked for only a token five shekels,
just over $1, apiece).

As we waited for them by the gate, seated on low stools outside a
caf? and one of the two Christians in the group smoking a nargileh,
Steve received his earthly reward by talking about the nooks and
crannies of the Old City with a young, Jerusalem-born researcher from
Al Quds University, whose office is nearby. (Purely by coincidence,
his family hailed from Chad, to which many Darfur refugees have fled,
and his father had come to Jerusalem, via Jordan, after making the
hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.) Our luck held as we arrived at the Church
of the Holy Sepulcher just in time for Vespers, organ and all.

But it changed when we emerged from the market and the heavens opened
in a downpour – a contingency for which we had not come prepared.

Still, we had one more stop to make. In the vestibule of St. James’
Church, in the Armenian Quarter, Steve talked to these survivors of
mass murder about the Armenian genocide. He hoped to give them heart by
explaining that two other peoples that populate Jerusalem’s Old City,
Armenians and Jews, had endured horrors parallel to their own and
rebuilt their lives as sovereign nations. As he took all this in, the
English-speaking Armenian guard had no idea who these strangers were.

Yet as we turned to leave, he could not stop thanking them for their
kindness in stopping to pay tribute to the suffering of his people.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS CLUB RUSSIA-ARMENIA INSTITUTED IN MOSCOW

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 19, 2007 Monday 04:54 PM EST

An International press club "Russia-Armenia" was instituted here
on Monday.

The Russian Union of Journalists, the Armenian Embassy in Russia,
and the Russian Society of Friendship and Cooperation with Armenia
are the club’s organizers.

The creation of the club was one of the actions timed for the upcoming
celebration of the 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations between
Armenia and the Russian Federation, Armenian Ambassador to Russia Armen
Smbatian stressed in his address, reaffirming that the celebrations
will be held at the beginning of April.

In his words, it is mass media workers who can really facilitate the
development of diplomatic, economic, and cultural contacts between
the two countries.

Also, mass media are destined to play a special role to help our
peoples, specifically young generations, to dismantle stereotypes
and to receive plentiful information, Smbatian said.

Russia and Armenia are linked by centuries-long relations. Currently,
the countries have concluded the more than 160 treaties and agreements,
and they also have a declaration on allied relationship oriented at
objectives the 21st century.

In 2005 and 2006, the two countries exchanged the Year of Russia in
Armenia and Armenia in Russia.

There are 65 secondary schools with in-depth study of Russian language
and 50 classes with tuition in Russian in Armenia. In Yerevan,
some secondary schools are named after writers Alexander Pushkin,
Nikolai Gogol, Maxim Gorky, Anton Chekhov, and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Smbatian confirmed that Armenians can freely buy Russian newspapers,
magazines and books, and receive Russian federal TV and radio channels
in the territory of Armenia.

The club will develop its activity in various spheres, Smbatian said,
adding that the sides will exchange journalist delegations. One of
them is due to cover the parliamentary election in Armenia, scheduled
for May.

The club’s activity also includes preparation for artistic competitions
and round-tables where the most topical professional issues will
be examined.

IRAN SEES NO OBSTACLES TO BROADER RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 19, 2007 Monday

Iran does not see any obstacles to an all-round expansion of relations
with Armenia, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a joint
press conference with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan on Monday.

"There are no obstacles to an expansion of ties with neighbouring
friendly Armenia," Ahmadinejad said after launching a gas pipeline
between the two countries.

The Iranian and Armenian presidents also discussed how to strengthen
relations in the fields of trade, energy, and transport.

"Today we witnessed the launch of an important project designed
to strengthen and expand relations between the two countries,"
Ahmadinejad said.

Kocharyan said the opening of a gas pipeline with Iran is a "historical
event" and "a new chapter" of Armenian-Iranian relations.

"Fifteen years ago in Megri, on the border with Iran, there were
only several rows of barbed wire on the state border of the Soviet
Union. Today the situation is totally different. Last year, 600,000
tonnes of cargoes were transported by the bridge built across the
border river Araks," the president said.

Ten years ago, the energy systems of the two countries were not
linked. Now they are planning to build a third high-voltage power
line and jointly build a hydropower plant on the Araks.

Kocharyan described the dynamics of bilateral relations as "exemplary".

"The two countries have agreed to refrain from steps that one of them
can consider unfriendly," the president said.

In his words, Armenia and Iran are trying to implement economic
projects that will establish solid links between their economies.

The total length of the gas pipeline is 141 kilometres (40 kilometres
running via Armenia) and its diameter is 700 millimetres. It will link
the two countries’ gas transportation systems. The pipeline runs from
Iranian Tebriz to the Armenian border and then from the Armenian border
settlement of Megri to the miners’ town of Kadzharan, where the pipe
will be connected to an operating line to Yerevan. Its throughput
capacity should be increased, to which end it will be necessary to
lay a new gas pipeline from southeast to central parts of the republic.

According to Armenian authorities, the gas pipeline is designed
exclusively for the republic’s internal needs and has no capacity
for transit gas supplies. "We are regarding this project as a serious
matter in enhancing Armenia’s energy security and diversifying natural
gas import routes," Kocharyan sated.

The trunk line will become an alternative to the trans-Caucasian gas
pipeline running from the North Caucasus to the Trans-Caucasus area
(Mozdok-Tbilisi-Yerevan) along which Russian natural gas is supplied
to Armenia via Georgia. Over the past 15 years, the pipeline has
been repeatedly blown up on the Georgian territory due to which gas
supplies to Armenia were interrupted, causing a crisis in the Armenian
energy system.

The intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the gas
pipeline was signed between Armenia and Iran in Yerevan on May 13,
2004 and the laying of the pipeline started simultaneously from the
two sides on November 30, 2004. The cost of the Armenian section of
the pipeline is 120 million U.S. dollars.

While at the initial stage the throughput capacity of the pipeline will
be 1.1 billion cubic metres of gas, it will grow to 2.3 billion cubic
metres of gas annually by 2019. To sustain this increase, it will be
necessary to lay 197 kilometres of a new pipeline from southeast closer
to the central part of Armenia at the Kadzharan-Sisian-Dzhemruk-Ararat
section.

Iranian gas will be supplied in exchange for Armenian electricity,
Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsesyan said.

Under the agreement, Iran will supply 36 billion cubic metres of gas
to Armenia in the next 20 years, getting electricity in exchange.