ASBAREZ Online [03-31-2004]

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
03/31/2004
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Justice Minister Assures Punishment for Gyumri Disturbances 2) ANCA Issues Report Card on Bush Administration 3) US General Discusses Armenian Involvement in Iraq, Military Assistance 4) Talabani: Kirkuk Sacred for Kurds 1) Justice Minister Assures Punishment for Gyumri Disturbances YEREVAN (Armenpress)--Armenia's Justice Minister David Haroutounian announced in parliament on Tuesday that those responsible for the disturbances at last weekend's opposition rally in Gyumri, would be strictly punished, regardless of party belonging or their rank, and added that even authorities implicated in the incident will have to be responsible for their actions. According to RFE/RL, the Gyumri gathering was disrupted when some participants scuffled with several women who raised banners denouncing President Robert Kocharian's opponents. Shortly afterwards, several men charged towards the podium amid eggs thrown in the direction of the opposition leaders. The confrontation turned into a fistfight that ended with four opposition activists taken away by plain-clothes police officers. Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, also addressing parliament, announced that the authorities operate only under the rule of law, and responded to claims by opposition parliament member Hrant Khachatrian that "certain bodies have begun to hire paid combatants." Margarian, speaking of forces that safeguard internal security and stability, and the army that defends the country from external threats, stressed that, in spite of opposition claims, the government has no other troops and has not hired combatants. Emphasizing the government's support of any opposition activities within the framework of the law, Margarian said, "We have no right to limit political rights or rights of citizens; the consideration, however, is the method the opposition chooses to realize its goals. If those are outside legal limitations, then the government has a direct responsibility to protect internal security and the interests of the country." 2) ANCA Issues Report Card on Bush Administration WASHINGTON, DC--The 2004 Armenian American Presidential Report Card, issued on Tuesday by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), gave the George W. Bush Administration low marks for its record of broken promises, neglect, and opposition to more than a dozen issues concerning Armenian American voters. The ANCA Report Card covers fifteen broad policy areas, beginning with the President's broken campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and extending through more than three years of policy toward Armenia, the Caucasus, and the surrounding region. While highlighting certain positive steps by the Bush Administration, the Report Card, nevertheless, reveals an Administration that has fallen far short of the Armenian American community's expectations. "Armenian Americans were profoundly disappointed by President Bush's decision--only three months after taking office--to abandon his campaign pledge to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide," said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian. "Since then, sadly, the record shows that the President has broken other commitments to our community--most notably to maintain parity in US military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan--and has actively opposed key issues of concern to Armenian Americans." ANCA PRESIDENTIAL REPORT CARD: BROKEN CAMPAIGN PLEDGE TO RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE Almost immediately after taking office, President Bush abandoned his campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Made in February of 2000 as Texas Governor, the promise was widely distributed among Armenian Americans prior to the hotly contested Michigan primary. It read, in part: "The twentieth century was marred by wars of unimaginable brutality, mass murder and genocide. History records that the Armenians were the first people of the last century to have endured these cruelties. The Armenians were subjected to a genocidal campaign that defies comprehension and commands all decent people to remember and acknowledge the facts and lessons of an awful crime in a century of bloody crimes against humanity. If elected President, I would ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian people." Rather than honor this promise, the President, in his annual April 24th statements, has consistently used evasive and euphemistic terminology to avoid describing Ottoman Turkey's systematic and deliberate destruction of the Armenian people by its proper name--the Armenian Genocide. OPPOSITION TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GENOCIDE RESOLUTION The Bush Administration is actively blocking the adoption of the Genocide Resolution in both the House and Senate. This legislation (S.Res.164 and H.Res.193) specifically cites the Armenian Genocide and formally commemorates the 15th anniversary of United States implementation of the UN Genocide Convention. The Genocide Resolution is supported by a broad based coalition of over one hundred organizations, including American Values, the NAACP, National Council of Churches, Sons of Italy, International Campaign for Tibet, National Council of La Raza, and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis. FAILURE TO CONDEMN TURKEY'S DENIAL OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE The Bush Administration has failed to condemn Turkey's recent escalation of its campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide. Notably, the Administration has remained silent in the face of the decree issued in April of 2003 by Turkey's Education Minister, Huseyin Celik, requiring that all students in Turkey's schools be instructed in the denial of the Armenian Genocide. The State Department's 2003 human rights report on Turkey uses the historically inaccurate and highly offensive phrase "alleged genocide" to mischaracterize the Armenian Genocide. In addition, despite repeated protests, the Bush Administration's State Department continues to host a website on Armenian history that fails to make even a single mention of the Genocide. () THE WAIVER OF SECTION 907 OF THE FREEDOM SUPPORT ACT The Bush Administration, in 2001, aggressively pressured Congress into granting the President the authority to waive Section 907, a provision of law that bars aid to the government of Azerbaijan until it lifts its blockades of Armenia and Karabagh. President Bush has subsequently used this authority to provide direct aid, including military assistance, to the government of Azerbaijan, despite their continued violation of the provisions of this law. REDUCTION IN AID TO ARMENIA In the face of the devastating, multi-billion dollar impact of the Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades on the Armenian economy, President Bush has, in each of the past three years, proposed to Congress that humanitarian and developmental aid to Armenia be reduced. ABANDONMENT OF THE MILITARY AID PARITY AGREEMENT The Bush Administration abandoned its November 2001 agreement with Congress and the Armenian American community to maintain even levels of military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Instead, the Administration, in its fiscal year 2005 foreign aid bill, proposes sending four times more Foreign Military Financing to Azerbaijan ($8 million) than to Armenia ($2 million). This action tilts the military balance in favor of Azerbaijan, rewards Azerbaijan's increasingly violent threats of renewed aggression, and undermines the role of the US as an impartial mediator of the Karabagh talks. MISTAKEN LISTING OF ARMENIA AS A TERRORIST COUNTRY The Bush Administration, through Attorney General John Ashcroft, sought, unsuccessfully, in December of 2002 to place Armenia on an Immigration and Naturalization Service watch list for terrorist countries. This obvious error was reversed only after a nation-wide protest campaign. Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice has apologized for the offense caused by this mistake. NEGLECT OF US-ARMENIA RELATIONS While the Bush Administration has maintained a formal dialogue with Armenia on economic issues through the bi-annual meetings of the US-Armenia Task Force, it has, as a matter of substance, failed to take any meaningful action to materially promote US-Armenia economic ties. Specifically, the Administration has not provided leadership on legislation, spearheaded by Congressional Republicans and currently before Congress, to grant Armenia permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status. Nor has the Administration initiated any steps toward the negotiation of a Tax Treaty, Social Security Agreement, Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, or other bilateral agreements to foster increased US-Armenia commercial relations. The President neither visited Armenia nor did he invite the President of Armenia to visit the United States. FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A BALANCED POLICY ON MOUNTAINOUS KARABAGH The Bush Administration, to its credit, took an early initiative to help resolve the Mountainous Karabagh issue in the form of the Key West summit meeting in 2001 between Secretary of State Powell and the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. After Azerbaijan's failure to honor its Key West commitments, however, the Administration failed to hold Azerbaijan accountable for unilaterally stalling the Karabagh peace process. INCREASED GRANTS, LOANS AND MILITARY TRANSFERS TO TURKEY The Bush Administration has effectively abandoned America's responsibility to link aid, loans, and arms transfers to Turkey's adherence to basic standards for human rights and international conduct. The most notable example was the $8 billion loan package provided to Turkey in 2003 despite Turkey's refusal to allow US forces to open a northern front during the war in Iraq. TAXPAYER FINANCING OF THE BAKU-CEYHAN BYPASS OF ARMENIA The Bush Administration is supporting American taxpayer subsidies for the politically motivated Baku-Ceyhan pipeline route that, at the insistence of Turkey and Azerbaijan, bypasses Armenia. REFUSAL TO PRESSURE TURKEY AND AZERBAIJAN TO END THEIR BLOCKADES The Bush Administration has not forcefully condemned the Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades as clear violations of international law, nor, outside of occasional public statements, has it taken any meaningful steps to pressure the Turkish or Azerbaijani governments to end their illegal border closures. LOBBYING FOR TURKISH MEMBERSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION The Bush Administration has aggressively pressured European governments to accept Turkey into the European Union, despite Turkey's consistent failure to meet European conditions for membership, on issues ranging from the blockade of Armenia and the Armenian Genocide to the occupation of Cyprus and human rights. DOWN-GRADING RELATIONS WITH THE ARMENIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY Breaking with the tradition of the last several Administrations, the Bush White House failed to reach out in any meaningful way to our nation's one and a half million citizens of Armenian heritage. While the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council maintained their long-standing policy-level dialogue with the Armenian American community leadership, the White House itself essentially neglected Armenian Americans as a political constituency. Perhaps the most telling example of this is that, during the course of the past three years, despite repeated requests, the President did not hold any community-wide meetings with the leadership of the Armenian American community, nor did his Secretary of State or National Security Advisor. ARMENIAN AMERICAN APPOINTMENTS The President appointed Joe Bogosian to an important Deputy Assistant Secretary position at the Commerce Department, John Jamian to a key maritime position in the Department of Transportation, and Samuel Der-Yeghiayan as a Federal Judge in the Northern District of Illinois. 3) US General Discusses Armenian Involvement in Iraq, Military Assistance YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--A top US general in charge of troops in Europe, ended a two-day visit to Armenia on Wednesday, addressing expansion of US-Armenian military cooperation, and Armenian involvement in Iraq’s reconstruction. “The United States is proud to have Armenia as a friend in the war on terrorism and, in the future, in the recovery and reconstruction of Iraq,” Major-General Jeffery Kohler, director of plans and policy at the US European Command, said after talks with Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian and the chief of the Armenian army staff, Colonel-General Mikael Harutiunian. “Armenia has offered to provide a truck company and medical personnel [to Iraq]. Details of that deployment are being worked out right now,” Kohler told reporters before leaving Armenia, but gave no possible dates for the dispatch of the small Armenian contingent promised by the Armenian government last summer. The two sides have since been discussing practical modalities of the deployment which will be largely financed by the US government. Armenia did not endorse the US invasion of Iraq last year, and hopes military involvement now will make Armenian companies eligible for US-funded reconstruction contracts in the war-ravaged nation. Asked to comment on this, Kohler said: “I know that the US government has offered any nation that is supporting the effort in Iraq ability to come in and assist in the reconstruction.” Armenia initially announced readiness to commit a team of medical doctors and a platoon of de-mining experts for the for the US-led occupation force in Iraq. Deputy Defense Minister Artur Aghabekian said last month that Armenian military drivers are also trained to participate in the operation. Kohler said another purpose of his trip was to discuss further US assistance to a special peace-keeping battalion of the Armenian armed force. “The United States has already provided some equipment and training to the battalion and we are looking at ways to advance that and enable that to grow in the future,” he said. The US general, who is based in the German city of Stuttgart, praised a battalion from the platoon that joined the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo last month on Armenia’s first-ever military mission abroad. “The Armenian people should be very proud of how they perform,” he said. The US military assistance to Armenia was made possible by the suspension of the decade-long restrictions on US government aid to Azerbaijan following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The US Congress has allocated about $8 million in military funding to Armenia. Most of the money will be used for upgrading communication facilities of Armenia’s Armed Forces. Although a similar sum has been budgeted for Azerbaijan, the parity will be broken based on the Bush Administration's 2005 proposed budget that calls for $8 million in military aid to Azerbaijan and only $2.3 million to Armenia. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage argued in Yerevan last week that Baku is entitled to a bigger share of the pie because it is already involved in US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Responding to Armenian protests against the aid disparity, the US assured that it will not change the shaky balance of forces in the conflict over Mountainous Karabagh. Kohler also stressed that the US will almost certainly freeze its military cooperation with both nations should the Karabagh war resume. “Although it is not up to the US European Command, I can almost guarantee that if there is conflict from either side, our Congress will impose those sanctions again,” he said. Kohler added that he will soon pay another visit to Armenian at the request of Sarkisian. “The minister of defense has ordered me in many ways to come back and visit very soon,” he said without elaborating. 4) Talabani: Kirkuk Sacred for Kurds CAIRO (UPI/PUK.org)--Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani said the oil-rich center of Kirkuk is as important for Kurds as East Jerusalem is for Arabs and Muslims. In an interview with the Cairo daily al-Ahram on Wednesday, Talabani said, "Kirkuk is a sacred city for Kurds as much as Jerusalem is for Muslim and we have been struggling for it for more than 40 years." Talabani, whose Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has been sharing control of Iraq's Kurdistan with Massud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1991, said past Iraqi governments were ready to recognize the autonomy of Kurdistan, excluding Kirkuk. "Historically and demographically speaking, Kirkuk was never part of Iraq but part of Kurdistan." Talabani stressed that Kurds do not seek to secede from Iraq but want the right of autonomy under a federal system to be recognized. While there is a consensus among most Iraqi political groups about the establishment of a federal form of government in the post-Saddam Iraq, there is disagreement about the nature of such federalism. Without exception, the non-Kurdish Iraqi majority favors the federalism of the provinces. Iraq is divided into 18 provinces and, according to this view, each province should have some degree of autonomy within a federal framework that leaves much of the power at the center in Baghdad. Since most provinces, including those in the north, have a mixture of ethnic groups including Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, and Christians, this scheme will loosely limit the Kurdish control over at most three provinces--Sulaymaniyya, Erbil and Dhouk--that have enjoyed political autonomy since 1991. By contrast, the Kurds have insisted on regional federalism that would bring into one region, and one political framework, all the provinces with substantial Kurdish populations, including the city of Kirkuk. The additional Kurdish insistence to keep Kirkuk as part of the regional federation scheme stems from the argument that the city has undergone a process of "Arabization" under the Saddam regime. The idea of the federation of provinces is rejected, according to Talabani, because "throughout its history, the Kurdish people have struggled to prevent the separation of the Kurdish provinces from each other and to protect the integrity of the historical Kurdish borders." According to Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the Governing Council, the annexation of Kirkuk into a Kurdish region is not meant to "Kurdicize" the city but to remove the relics of its Arabization. According to Othman, the 1959 census has shown a majority of Kurds in Kirkuk and that majority should be the sole criterion in determining its future. 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) 2004 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.