Month: March 2007

Ariel Cohen: Diplomacy by Other Means

23 March 2007 [14:57] – Today.Az

Russia’s Widening Energy Ties Rankle the West.

Three major Eurasian energy developments announced this month have
made Washington policymakers jittery.

First, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announced his country
favors Gazprom’s Russian gas pumped via Turkey to the much-lauded but
long-delayed Nabucco gas pipeline project. Nabucco, spearheaded by the
Austrians, was supposed to bring up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas
per year (cm/y) from the Caspian to Europe through Turkey, Bulgaria,
Romania, Hungary and Austria.

Second, Russia, Bulgaria and Greece signed an agreement to construct
the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, which will bypass the
Turkish-controlled Bosphorus Straits, a dangerous oil transport
chokepoint. The project, which some call "the Orthodox Pipeline," will
neutralize Turkey’s control of the vital oil artery and reduce the
danger of supply disruption stemming from a catastrophic event, such
as a tanker fire or explosion in the middle of Istanbul.

In addition, the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline will be 51% owned by
three Russian government companies ` Transneft, Gazpromneft and
Rosneft ` with the remaining 49 percent split between Bulgaria and
Greece. Washington energy watchers noted the March 6 announcement by
Vagit Alekperov, head of Lukoil, that his firm and Gazpromneft ` the
state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom’s oil unit ` will create a joint
venture to develop a future project, which will also be 51 percent
controlled by Gazpromneft.

Finally, British Petroleum hinted that its Russian partner TNK may
sell out its share in TNK-BP to a Russian state-owned company. At the
same time, Russia is developing plans for building the second
Bosphorus bypass from a port on the Black Sea such as Samsun, to the
Mediterranean.

Washington sees these projects as strategic moves. All announced
within less than a month, they clearly indicate the Russian state is
pursuing a comprehensive strategy that masterfully integrates
geopolitics and geo-economics.

Strategy trumps economics

Ã?n the geo-economic side, Washington insiders say, Russia is
aiming to pre-empt the transport of oil and gas from the Caspian to
world markets through countries and pipelines not under its
control. Moscow viewed with a jaundiced eye the respective
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and Baku-Erzurum gas pipelines. Now it is
dead-set against the creation of the trans-Caspian arteries ` from
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan ` that would enhance the viability of
those two pipelines by providing them with extra oil and gas.

Thus, pumping Russian gas via Blue Stream across the Black Sea to
Turkey, and then through connectors to Greece, Italy, and possibly
Bulgaria and Romania to Hungary, makes a lot of sense. It would
preclude or delay the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline
which would transport Turkmen or Kàzakh gas.

It also makes Gazprom a direct competitor of Iranian and eventually
Iraqi and Gulf gas, which could be transported via Turkey to Europe.

Pumping more oil to the Mediterranean through the
Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline – or in the future via the
Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline which will be supplied with Kazakh oil from
Novorossiisk – makes sense as well, denying Kazakhstan a viable
trans-Caspian pipeline option to connect to BTC.

But there is more. The proposed additional sea-pipeline routes are
going to be problematic: tanker loading and unloading of crude in the
trans-Black Sea leg, or extending the gas route under the Black Sea
and via Turkey and Southern Europe make these pipelines very expensive
ànd environmentally hazardous. By selecting these routes,
Russia is clearly choosing strategic considerations over economic
ones.

Money talks

Washington understands that Russia’s strategic goals include
preventing countries on its borders from becoming pro-American. By
locating pipelines and gas storage facilities in Hungary, Bulgaria,
Greece and Turkey, Russia connects them to Moscow by "ties that bind"
` pipelines.

And oil projects tend to leak not just crude, but cash. Elites in
these countries have reportedly personally benefited from Russian
energy developments to the tune of hundreds of millions of
dollars. Just examine the shadowy Russian-Ukrainian gas trader
RosUkrEnergo and the bribery scandals over Turkish ministers’ links to
the Blue Stream project, among others.

The best strategy, wrote the great Chinese general Sun Tsu in the 3rd
century BC, is to win a war without a single shot. This also includes,
according to Sun Tsu, penetration and subversion of the enemy camp. To
paraphrase another great strategic theorist, the Prussian Carl
Clausewitz, foreign policy is the continuation of war by other means,
at least in the view of some retired Russian colonels and generals in
the Kremlin.

Thus, there is no better way to "win the war" than to maximize
geopolitical clout without firing a shot ` and making money as you
go. You do it by building and extending a network of politically
influential pipelines to adjacent countries. As a result, a Russian
cordon sanitaire is appearing along its borders.

Washington appears to be taking some diplomatic steps to oppose this
Russian gambit. It is consulting the EU to coordinate energy
policy. Washington wants to raise awareness of Russia’s energy
strategy and make Moscow’s access to downstream operations in Europe
conditional on Western companies’ access to Russian upstream energy
resources.

However, Brussels is split. Germany is already deferential to Russia’s
energy interests, with German companies such as E.ON in partnerships
with Gazprom in downstream operations in Russia and Europe as well as
developing gas fields in Russia.

It is also possible the State Department may intervene in Bucharest to
prevent a proposed Gazprom pipeline from Turkey crossing Romanian
territory. Clearly, the two small American military bases in Romania
and Bulgaria and the proposed missile defense base and radar in the
Czech Republic and Poland are not going to stop Russian expansion:
pipelines are much more effective tools of foreign policy than
missiles.

When it comes to its oil and gas strategy, the Kremlin is in a league
of its own. This is like watching a chess grandmaster playing
multidimensional chess with oil and gas fields and pipelines over
decades. Middle Eastern rulers should take a number and attend the
master class.

By Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian
Studies and International Energy Security at the Heritage Foundation

/

Energy: Looking For Ways To Circumvent Russia

23 March 2007 [23:01] – Today.Az

Three meetings. Three cities. One goal: making Europe less dependent
on Russian energy.

On March 22, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister was in Washington,
Georgia’s prime minister was in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat, and a
major energy conference opened in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

Topping the agenda in all three cities were plans to develop
alternative oil and gas transport routes that circumvent Russia and
loosen Moscow’s stranglehold on Europe’s energy supplies.

This diplomatic flurry came just one week after Russian President
Vladimir Putin signed a deal with Greece and Bulgaria to build a
pipeline to transport Russian oil from the Black Sea to the Aegean en
route to European markets.

Federico Bordonaro, a Rome-based energy analyst, says today’s scramble
for control of energy transit routes is beginning to resemble the Cold
War struggle between Russia and the West.

"What we were used to during the Cold War years was a kind of security
dilemma," Bordonaro said. "Powers needed to choose between alliances
and between different security strategies. Something very similar is
apparently going on in the field of energy security."

Leading The Charge

In the middle of the scramble are Azerbaijan and Georgia, both of whom
are trying to break free from Russia’s sphere of influence and move
closer to Washington and Brussels.

"The small countries, like Georgia for example, that are very, very
important because of their function as energy corridors — they are
especially sensitive to the influence of big powers," Bordonaro said.

In Washington, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement to cooperate
closely on energy issues.

Azerbaijan is emerging as a major natural gas producer. Mammadyarov
was seeking Washington’s political support to build a new generation
of gas pipelines to export Azerbaijani natural gas — via Georgia and
Turkey — to Europe.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian
Affairs Matthew Bryza said the agreement would support Europe’s stated
aim of diversifying its energy imports — and help Azerbaijan emerge
as a viable alternative to Russia’s natural gas giant, Gazprom.

"This high-level dialogue will aim to deepen and broaden already
strong cooperation among governments and companies to expand oil and
gas production in Azerbaijan for export to global markets," Bryza
said.

Particular focus, he said, will be put on the realization of the
Turkey-Greece-Italy gas pipeline, and potentially the Nabucco and
other pipelines that can delivery Azerbaijani gas to Europe and help
diversify its natural gas supplies.

Thinking Ahead

Meanwhile, in Tbilisi, Georgia was hosting an energy conference aiming
to achieve the exact same goal. Officials and industry leaders from
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and the United States attended.

Alexandre Khetaguri, the head of the Georgian International Oil and
Gas Corporation, told RFE/RL’s Georgian Service that presentations
focused on projects that could prove "potentially interesting in the
future."

These projects, he said, included Nabucco as well as the construction
of a trans-Caspian pipeline, which will ensure transportation of gas
from Central Asian countries to Europe.

Another project discussed in Tbilisi was the proposed
Georgia-Ukraine-European Union Gas Pipeline — or GUEU — which would
transport Azerbaijani gas to the EU via Georgia and Ukraine.

"This is a very strategic project for the whole area, starting from
Azerbaijan and Georgia," said Roberto Pirani, the chairman and
technical director of GUEU. "And from the European point of view, it’s
a diversification of supply into Eastern Europe. We’re talking about
Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, which are totally dependent on supplies
from Gazprom. So this project will provide an alternative, more than
an alternative — a complimentary route of gas, a supply of gas — to
Gazprom."

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli, meanwhile, traveled to
Turkmenistan on March 22 to discuss gas imports.

According to media reports, Noghaideli was seeking to persuade Turkmen
officials to export natural gas to Europe via the South
Caucasus. Turkmenistan currently exports most of its natural gas via
Russia.

Bordonaro, the Rome-based energy analyst, says the struggle for
control of Turkmenistan’s gas will likely heat up in the coming
months.

"One of the major stakes in the next month will be Turkmenistan," he
said. "Because if a group of powers will be able to diversify the
direction of Turkmen gas reserves and to avoid Russia’s control of
virtually all of these reserves, this will be an important point for
these other powers, and for Georgia and Azerbaijan as well."

Divided On Diversification

Bordonaro said not all EU countries fully back efforts to diversify
Europe’s energy supplies away from Russia.

Most former communist countries like Poland and Lithuania are pushing
Brussels to circumvent Russia. But Germany and France still lean
toward making bilateral agreements with Moscow.

"Europe is proving unable to forge a really unitary energy security
strategy and this will also cause trans-Atlantic relations to suffer,"
Bordonaro said.

Earlier this month, Hungary decided to back expansion of Russia’s Blue
Stream pipeline. Gazprom plans to extend the pipeline under the Black
Sea to Hungary. According to the plan, Hungary would then serve as a
hub to transport Russian gas to Europe.

Some analysts say Hungary’s move could undermine the EU-backed Nabucco
pipeline proposal and other projects that were the subject of so much
talk in Washington, Tbilisi and Ashgabat this week. RFE/RL
From: Baghdasarian

In search of Gilgamesh, the epic hero of ancient Babylonia.

By Michael Dirda
Sunday, March 4, 2007; BW10

THE BURIED BOOK
The Loss and Rediscovery
Of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh
By David Damrosch
Henry Holt. 315 pp. $26

The oldest surviving fragments of the Babylonian epic we now call
Gilgamesh date back to the 18th century — the 18th century before the
Christian era, that is, more than 3,700 years ago. Etched in the
wedge-shaped letters known as cuneiform on clay tablets, Gilgamesh
stands as the earliest classic of world literature. Surprisingly, it
is a classic still in the making, for scholars continue to discover
and piece together shards — in Akkadian, Sumerian, Hittite and other
ancient languages — that occasionally add a few more lines to this
story of an ancient Middle Eastern king’s quest for immortality and
his coming to terms with the inevitability of death.

In The Buried Book, David Damrosch, a Columbia professor of
comparative literature, organizes his text as an archaeological dig,
opening with a prefatory account of Austen Henry Layard’s discovery
and excavation of the ruins of Nineveh in the 1840s, then gradually
working his way back from the Victorian era into ancient times. His
first and second chapters describe the career of George Smith, a
self-taught Assyriologist, who one momentous afternoon in 1872 was
working at the British Museum, going through a pile of Layard’s clay
tablets. Suddenly, Smith realized that he was reading about "a flood
storm, a ship caught on a mountain, and a bird sent out in search of
dry land."

The discovery of this "Chaldean account of the Deluge" so electrified
the young scholar that he danced around the museum and actually began
to "undress himself." (No one is quite sure if that meant anything
more than loosening his collar.) Smith had stumbled across an episode
(in Akkadian) from Gilgamesh, becoming the first person to read a
portion of the epic in more than 2,000 years. But stumbled is hardly
the word, for Smith was nothing less than a linguistic genius, the
unexpected man in the right place. As Damrosch writes:
"He became the world’s leading expert in the ancient Akkadian language
and its fiendishly difficult script, wrote the first true history of
the long-lost Assyrian Empire, and published pathbreaking translations
of the major Babylonian literary texts, in between expeditions to find
more tablets in Iraq.

Though this would have been the lifework of an eminent scholar at
Oxford or the Sorbonne, Smith’s active career instead lasted barely
ten years, from his mid-twenties to his mid-thirties. Far from holding
a distinguished professorship, he had never been to high school, much
less college. His formal education had ended at age fourteen."

Smith’s career — cut short by his death in the Middle East from
dysentery — was heroic, but so was that of his older colleague Henry
Rawlinson (to whom Smith dedicated his 1875 book The Chaldean Account
of Genesis). Rawlinson was a figure in the classic Victorian mold — a
military officer in India and Persia with a flair for languages,
possessed of exceptional courage and stamina, both physical (he once
rode 750 miles on horseback in 150 consecutive hours) and scholarly:
He spent 15 years patiently working out the meaning of Akkadian
cuneiform, then later produced one of those daunting monuments of
Victorian scholarship, the five-volume Cuneiform Inscriptions of
Western Asia.

The third great figure in Damrosch’s story of the rediscovery of
Gilgamesh is Hormuzd Rassam, a Chaldean Christian who served as
Layard’s second-in-command, attended Oxford and later headed up
archaeological expeditions for the British Museum. According to Andrew
George, a leading modern figure in Babylonian studies, Rassam is "an
unsung hero of Assyriology." Why unsung? Damrosch — no doubt rightly,
if somewhat tendentiously — points to racial, i.e.

"Orientalist," prejudice as the reason for his neglect. Rassam wasn’t
really, you know, quite the right sort, even though he grew to be more
English than the English, serving in the diplomatic corps and living
long enough to see his daughter become a star of the Gilbert and
Sullivan operettas. But Damrosch makes clear that the man’s
wide-ranging archaeological discoveries were consistently undervalued
or callously ascribed to others. At the end of his life, Rassam was
even compelled to bring a suit against the Egyptologist E.A. Wallis
Budge, who falsely accused him of selling artifacts.

At this point in his book, Damrosch turns to the excavation of the
library of Ashurbanipal, an Assyrian king of the 7th century B.C. who
valued poetry as well as power. Here, we are introduced to the court
life of ancient Mesopotamia, in particular the priests, sorcerers and
secret agents who formed the inner circle of such rulers as Sargon II,
Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal himself. Damrosch neatly
conveys the immense antiquity of the Gilgamesh epic by noting that the
poem "was already ancient in Ashurbanipal’s day, copied and recopied
for more than a thousand years before the young crown prince studied
it in the Temple of Nabu."

In the last third of The Buried Book, Damrosch zeroes in on the poem
itself, noting that " Gilgamesh is often read today as an existential
tale of the fear of death and the quest for immortality, but the epic
is equally a tale of tyranny and its consequences." It also reflects
on "the limits of culture … presented in contrast to the world of
nature." This is its plot: The young Gilgamesh is a "wild bull" of a
man, restless of heart, full of unfocused energy. He conducts his life
with seigniorial abandon, abusing his subjects and even flagrantly
exercising his right to sleep with girls on their wedding nights. The
women of his capital city of Uruk complain to the gods, who decide to
fashion Enkidu, a true wild man, to defeat Gilgamesh in combat.

At first the hairy Enkidu lives in a state of nature, literally
running with the gazelles, until he is sexually initiated by a temple
prostitute, after which the animals of the forest will have nothing to
do with him. When he eventually confronts Gilgamesh, en route to
deflower another virgin, the pair wrestle and nearly demolish the
surrounding buildings, before becoming fast friends (and even perhaps
lovers).

In due course, accompanied by his new buddy, the restless Gilgamesh
goes adventuring, defeats an ogre who guards a sacred cedar wood,
spurns the sexual invitations of the goddess Ishtar and kills the
monstrous bull she then sends to avenge her honor. But Gilgamesh and
Enkidu have now deeply angered the gods, and one of them must pay with
his life. After Enkidu suffers a series of dream visions of the nether
world, he finally dies, as Gilgamesh is racked with both grief and the
fearful knowledge that the same end waits for him. Can nothing be
done? He resolves to journey to the ends of the earth to confront
Uta-napishtim, a Noah-like figure who alone of mankind survived the
great Deluge and has been given the gift of immortality. In due
course, Gilgamesh crosses the Ocean of Death but learns that no one
can alter his mortal destiny.

Nonetheless, a fragment — outside the so-called "standard" version of
the epic — informs us that Gilgamesh is ultimately allowed to become
the godlike judge of the underworld.

In his last chapter, Damrosch discusses some later uses of the
Gilgamesh story, focusing on Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel
(in which a major character is a baseball pitcher named Gil Gamesh)
and Saddam Hussein’s novel Zabibah wal-Malik, a kind of love
story-cum-allegory of the first Gulf War. In particular, the
comparatist Damrosch urges his readers to understand that they are
part of an "Islamo-Christian civilization." " Gilgamesh and The Iliad,
the Bible and the Qur’an were not products of isolated, eternally
opposed civilizations; they are mutually related outgrowths of the
rich cultural matrix of western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean
world. Isaac and Ishmael are half brothers, and Uta-napishtiM and Noah
are closer still: they are two versions of one and the same
character."

Though useful, entertaining and informative, The Buried Book may
bother some readers with its lack of a strong narrative line, its
tendency to overemphasize irrelevant details (why include so many
pages on Rassam’s diplomatic mission in Abyssinia?) and its
well-meaning political correctness: Damrosch can sometimes seem as
condescending to the narrow-minded Victorians as they so often were to
"Orientals." Despite these blemishes, The Buried Book should help
introduce new readers to an ancient classic that has really come into
its own in the 21st century. Whether enjoyed in the brilliant (but
very loose) version of David Ferry or the scholarly transcription of
Andrew George, this Babylonian epic remains a very human story about
wisdom painfully acquired.

Appropriately, its hero is called, in the memorable first line, "He
who saw the Deep." And what does Gilgamesh learn? Before the end that
awaits each of us — "a man’s life is snapped off like a reed in a
canebrake" — we should perform good deeds, love our families and
enjoy simple pleasures. As Uta-napishtim says, in Andrew George’s
translation:
But you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
Enjoy yourself always by day and by night!
Make merry each day,
Dance and play day and night!
Let your clothes be clean,
Let your head be washed, may you bathe in water!
Gaze on the child who holds your hand,
Let your wife enjoy your repeated embrace!
For such is the destiny [of mortal men].

Michael Dirda’s e-mail address is [email protected].

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
March 24 2007

Chairman of Federation Council of Russia: Russia Stands Ready to
Adopt any Mutually Acceptable Settlement Variant of Nagorno-Karabakh
Conflict

Russia, Moscow /corr. Trend R.Agayev/ ` Russia is interested in
friendly relations with its neighbors, in particular with those with
whom Russia has centurial friendly relations, good-neighborhood and
co-operation. In this regard, Russia has an interest towards
permanent interactions and constructive dialogue,’ said the Chairman
of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia, Sergey
Mironov, at the press-conference, commenting on the
Russian-Azerbaijani relations, Trend Special Correspondent reports.

Commenting on the termination of the gas delivery from Russia to
Azerbaijan, he said that Azerbaijan has its national interests in the
economy and policy and Russia respectfully approaches this position.
Russia also has its national interests in various spheres.

`I consider that we have own positions and economy arising from the
interests of our peoples and country. Everybody wants to get profits
in business and if there is an access to the energy resources,
everybody try to receive or deliver them with available prices. It is
a normal process and I do not see any tensions from the point of view
of assessment of our bilateral relations,’ he said.

According to him, there is a very large agreement-legal base between
Russia and Azerbaijan, more than 80 agreements have been signed at
inter-State level. `There are very good personal relations between
the Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan and very respectful relations
between nations of the two countries,’ Mironov said.

According to him, Azerbaijan is the strategic partner of Russia in
Caucasus. `We have much common – we have Caspian Sea, which should be
agreed not only by Azerbaijan and Russia, but also by Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan and Iran. We have Caucasian problems. We have a common
wound – Nagorno-Karabakh because this wound is of concern not only
for Azeri people, but also Russia. We understand that as long as
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has not been settled, it will be a source
of destabilization of in Caucasus,’ Mironov stressed.

According to him, Russia is prepared to adopt any mutually acceptable
settlement variant of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. `If you want Russia
to act as a guarantee for these agreements, we may do it with
pleasure. We have a very open position in this regard,’ Chairman of
the Federation Council concluded.

US envoy urges political will to settle Karabakh conflict

Mediamax news agency
23 Mar 07

Yerevan, March 23: The EU special representative for the South
Caucasus, Peter Semneby, said in Yerevan today that the sides should
change their stances in order to achieve progress in the Karabakh
conflict settlement.

Mediamax reports that Peter Semneby said this after the meeting with
the president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic (NKR) Arkadi
Ghukasyan, in Yerevan today.

According to Peter Semneby, the international community expects that
the sides show political will that is required to accept the proposals
of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

"The EU can use certain tools to support the negotiating process and
to assist the efforts of the co-chairs", Peter Semneby stated.

The EU special representative stressed the importance of establishing
an atmosphere of mutual confidence between the sides.

Mediamax reports that the president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic
(NKR), Arkadi Ghukasyan, stated that during the negotiations on the
settlement of the conflict the sides had not managed to agree upon key
issues: the conduct of a referendum, the status of Nagornyy Karabakh
and the return of the territories [around Nagornyy Karabakh]. According
to the NKR president, as long as Azerbaijan continues making
non-constructive statements, it is difficult to talk about the
establishment of confidence between the sides.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish police detain right-wing politician in the killing of ethnic
Armenian journalist

The Associated Press
Published: March 25, 2007

ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkish police late Sunday detained a right-wing
politician for interrogation in connection with the killing of an
ethnic Armenian journalist, a news channel reported.

The police detained Yasar Cihan, head of the local branch of the
conservative and nationalist Great Unity Party in the Black Sea port
city of Trabzon, private NTV television reported.

The detention came several hours after Patriarch Mesrob II, the
spiritual head of the Armenian Orthodox community in Turkey, on Sunday
criticized authorities for failing to find those who ordered the
killing of the journalist Hrant Dink.

Dink was killed outside his paper, Agos, in Istanbul on Jan. 19.
Prosecutors have pressed charges against 10 suspects, including some
former members of the youth wing of Great Unity.

According to NTV, police were still looking for another leading member
of Great Unity, Halis Egemen.

Dink’s killing prompted international condemnation as well as debate
within Turkey about free speech, and whether state institutions were
tolerant of militant nationalists.

Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the bilingual Agos newspaper, had been
brought to trial numerous times for allegedly "insulting Turkishness,"
a crime under Turkey’s penal code.

ARMENPRESS

COMMISSION SET UP TO ORGANIZE FUNERAL OF ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER

YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS: Armenian President
Robert Kocharian has assigned today to set up a
commission which will organize the funerals of the
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian.
Presidential press service told Armenpress that the
commission consists of Armenian NA Speaker Tigran
Torosian, Armenian Territorial Governance Minister
Hovik Abrahamian, Armenian Defense Minister Serzh
Sargsian, Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister Vartan
Oskanian, Head of Staff of the Armenian president
Armen Gevorgian, Armenian Health Minister Norayr
Davidian, Armenian Finance and Economy Minister Vardan
Khachatrian, Armenian Culture and Youth Affairs
Minister Hasmik Poghosian, the Head of the Armenian
government’s staff Manuk Topuzian, Yerevan Mayor
Yervand Zakharian, Archbishop Navasard Ktchoyan, Chief
of the Police Hayk Harutyunian.
Today the first session of the commission took
place.

ARMENPRESS

DEATH OF ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER IS A GREAT LOSS, SAYS
ARMENIAN NA SPEAKER TIGRAN TOROSIAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS: Armenian National
Assembly Speaker, the deputy head of the Armenian
Republican Party Tigran Torosian said today that the
death of the Armenian Prime Minister, chairman of the
Armenian Republican Party Andranik Margarian is a
great loss for the country, the party and his friends
as thanks to his contribution, the country and the
party have achieved successes.
He said Andranik Margarian was not only a great
state-political figure but he was a person ready to
listen to his opponent and rival and each citizen. `A
person who embodied tolerance and care towards
people,’ Torosian said.
`It is really a great loss for all of us but I
think that the party, his friends must find strength
in themselves and do everything to complete the work
we have started together. It will be our best tribute
to the memory of Andranik Margarian,’ Torosian said,
expressing assurance that the party will be able to
find strength and get over this great loss and finish
the works started together.

ARMENPRESS

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT SENDS CONDOLENCES ON DEATH OF
ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER

YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS: President of Russia
Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences on the death
of the Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian to
his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian, the family
members and friends of the prime minister; press
service of the Russian president reported.

ARMENPRESS

US CHARGE D’AFFAIRES EXPRESSES HIS CONDOLENCES ON
DEATH OF ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER

YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS: US Charge d’Affaires
in Armenia Anthony Godfrey sent a message of
condolences on the death of the Armenian Prime
Minister Andranik Margarian.
An official from U.S. embassy in Armenia told
Armenpress that the message particularly said, "The
United States joins Armenians in mourning the untimely
loss of Prime Minister Andranik Margarian. We honor
Prime Minister Margarian’s lifelong contributions to
Armenian life, from his work with the dissident
National Unity Party during the 1960s and 1970s,
through independent Armenia’s emergence from Soviet
rule, and as the head of government since 2000.
The prime minister has been a valuable partner of
the United States, especially in his capacity as
Chairman of the Governing Council of the Millennium
Challenge Account – Armenia, which was built on a firm
organizational foundation. I would like to extend my
condolences to the Armenian people on this sad day."