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ARKA News Agency
March 4 2005

Delegation of Latvian Seym to visit Armenia

RA Minister of Defense Serge Sargsyan received the Chief Deputy
Commander of the North -Caucasus Military Unit

Coordinated actions will help to enhance efficiency of CIS
structures: Vladimir Rushailo

CIS observer mission needs reforming: Vladimir Rushailo

Informal Summit of the Presidents of the CIS states to be held in
Moscow on May 8

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DELEGATION OF LATVIAN SEYM TO VISIT ARMENIA

YEREVAN, March 4. /ARKA/. A delegation of the Latvian Seym headed by
Speaker Ingrida Udre is to pay an official visit to Armenia on March
7. The Public Relations Department, Ra National Assembly, reports
that the same day the Latvian delegation are to hold a meeting with
Speaker of the RA Parliament Artur Baghdasaryan, Vice-Speaker,
Chairman of the Interim Commission for European Integration Tigran
Torosyan, members of the `Armenia-Latvia’ deputy group. The
delegation is also scheduled to hold meetings with RA President
Robert Kocharian, RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, Catholicos of
All Armenians Garegin II. The delegation members are to lay wreathes
to the Memorial to victims of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire
in 1915. P. T. -0–

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RA MINISTER OF DEFENSE SERGE SARGSYAN RECEIVED THE CHIEF DEPUTY
COMMANDER OF THE NORTH -CAUCASUS MILITARY UNIT

YEREVAN, March 4. /ARKA/. RA Minister of Defense Serge Sargsyan
received the Chief Deputy Commander, Head of the Headquarter of
Troops of the North -Caucasus Military Unit, General -Lieutenant
Alexander Postnikov- Streltsov, as stated the RA Ministry of Defense
Secretary, Colonel Seiran Shakhsuvaryan. In the course of the
meeting, Postnikov- Streltsov introduced the newly appointed
commander of the Group of Russian Troops in Transcaucasia (GRTT),
General-Mayor Alexander Bespalov to the Minister. Sargsyan expressed
his gratitude to the ex-Commander of GRTT Alexander Studenkin for his
good service and wished him further success. In the course of the
meting the parties discussed the current Armenian-Russian military
relations and touched upon the issue of introducing military duty,
battle readiness of forces, as well as the issue of providing
officers with housing. Sargsyan emphasized that `out relations
develop dynamically and well’.
According to the press-release, in the framework of the arrangements
devoted to the 60th anniversary Sargsyan, Vladimir Rushailo, the
Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, who is in Armenia, and
veterans accompanying them put wreaths on the Grave of the Unknown
Warrior. During the meeting organized in RA MFA Rushailo awarded
veterans gratifying letters and books. A.H. – 0 –

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COORDINATED ACTIONS WILL HELP TO ENHANCE EFFICIENCY OF CIS
STRUCTURES: VLADIMIR RUSHAILO

YEREVAN, March 4. /ARKA/. Coordinated actions will help to enhance
the efficiency of the CIS structures’ activities, Chairman of the CIS
Executive Committee Vladimir Rushailo told a press conference in
Yerevan. He pointed out that in spite of the available contractual
basis, the CIS countries have some problems with the execution of
previously made decisions. `The CIS was formed ten years ago and the
legal acts adopted at that time require revision. In this connection,
the contractual basis is being inventoried, experts are revealing the
most interesting points from the viewpoint of amendments aimed at
enhancing efficiency,’ Rushailo said. He also reported that the
experience of the EU and other structures is being studied. According
to him, the most interesting is the experience of Latin American
structures, especially in the economic sphere. `It is rather
difficult to mechanically apply any schemes to the CIS for a number
of reasons, so certain fragments which have positively been practiced
by other international organizations should be adopted and applied to
the CIS,’ Rushailo said, adding that the CIS leaders have the final
say. P.T. -0–

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CIS OBSERVER MISSION NEEDS REFORMING: VLADIMIR RUSHAILO

YEREVAN, March 4. /ARKA/. The CIS observer mission needs reforms and
closer cooperation with other international organizations, Chairman
of the CIS Executive Committee Vladimir Rushailo told a press
conference in Yerevan. According to him, the activities as a member
of the CIS observer mission in elections in the CIS countries is an
importance directions of humanitarian cooperation. `This work
requires higher-quality approaches, improved methods, closer
cooperation with other international organizations. We have followed
this way since September 2004 and have held seven meetings with the
OSCE mission leaders on election days in the CIS countries, during
which we compare the sides’ approaches and viewpoints,’ Rushailo
said.
Responding to journalists’ questions concerning `revolutionary’
sentiments in the CIS countries, Rushailo pointed out that the
situation in the CIS have to some extent been influenced by
techniques elaborated by western European institutes for a long time.
`But the situation should not be dramatized, through there are a
number of signals we must respond to. It appears that we have to
change the quality of our observation of election processes, we must
be better prepared for observing elections and see the processes
going on in the CIS countries,’ Rushailo said. P.T. –0 –

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INFORMAL SUMMIT OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE CIS STATES TO BE HELD IN
MOSCOW ON MAY 8

YEREVAN, March 4. /ARKA/. On May 8, informal Summit of the Presidents
of the CIS States will be held in Moscow. The Summit will be dated
for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the victory in World
War II (WWII), as stated Vladimir Rushailo, the Chairman of the CIS
Executive Committee, at a press conference in Yerevan. He stated that
in the framework of celebrating the 60th anniversary of the victory
in WWII arrangements are held connected with the implementation of
the program approved by the presidents of the CIS states. He also
stated that in regard with this, meetings with veterans of the war
and men serving in rear will be held in the CIS states, in
particular, in Belarus, Tajikistan and Armenia. A.H. –0 –

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanArmenian News
March 4 2005

AAA RALLIES SUPPORT FOR DECLARATION BY AMBASSADOR JOHN EVANS

04.03.2005 13:34

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Assembly of America acted to galvanize
congressional and Armenian-American support for U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia John Evans’ self-evident declaration that `the Armenian
Genocide was the first genocide of the twentieth century’, the AAA
reports. The Assembly leaders launched a comprehensive campaign that
hinges on the support of the community and others of goodwill to join
Ambassador Evans in properly characterizing the attempted
annihilation of the Armenian people as genocide. As part of that
campaign the Assembly sent an urgent memorandum to the Senate to
support the Evans’ declaration. According to the source, pursuing the
policy of the Armenian Genocide denial Turkey relies on her
supporters in the Bush Administration, US Congress and some mass
media. Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues Co-Chair Frank Pallone
said: `Ambassador Evans’ statements did not contradict U.S. policy,
but rather articulated the same message that the Bush Administration
has sent to the public, the only difference in this case is that
Ambassador Evans simply assigned the word to the definition that was
already provided by President Bush as well as members of his
administration.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Mideast Mirror
March 4, 2005

Turkish press

[parts omitted]

EU-FRANCE: Ergin Sedat comments on anti-Turkish sentiments in France
in Hurriyet: “The recent constitutional change in France creates a
real possibility that Turkey’s full membership may be prevented in
the future. French decision-makers have placed a very influential
weapon in the hands of anti-EU groups in Turkey. The referendum will
create a situation whereby the demands of the French public and
politicians on Turkey will be hard to resist. Accepting claims over
the issue of the ‘Armenian genocide’ is included in that. As a
result, France can exhaust Turkey in the full membership process.”
Fikret Bila comments on the same issue in the centrist Milliyet:
“France has already taken measures against Turkish membership. Turkey
is trying to improve its EU process under these circumstances.
However, there are no negotiations and there will not be any. As was
the case while fulfilling all the pre-conditions, Turkey will face
the dilemma of ‘either accepting or walking out’ during the
negotiation process-especially when its chances of membership are
already very small. The double-standards that the EU is applying to
Turkey are continuing after 17 December when Turkey got a date for
accession talks .”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanArmenian News
March 4 2005

`MEASURES TO PREVENT’ ADOPTION OF DRAFT RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN
GENOCIDE IN BUNDESTAG TAKEN IN ANKARA AND BERLIN

04.03.2005 14:07

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Measures were undertaken both in Ankara and Berlin
to prevent the adoption of the draft resolution `Commemoration day on
occasion of the 90-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide – Germany
should contribute to the reconciliation of Turks and Armenians’,
stated Turkish MFA Press Secretary Namik Tan during yesterday’s press
conference. In his words, the adoption of resolutions on the Armenian
Genocide recognition has not contributed to surmount problems
available between Turkey and Armenia so far. N. Tan noted that
official Ankara does believe that the German ruling coalition will
not approve the initiative. `We believe that both parties attach much
importance to the problem and will give a correct assessment to it
thus preventing collapse of the excellent relationships between
Germany and Turkey’, Mr. Tan said. To remind, the other day leader of
the Christian Democratic Union Angela Merkel submitted the above
mentioned draft resolution, which was included into the April agenda
of the Bundestag.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 4, 2005 Friday

Russia’s Vneshtorgbank to open its filial in Ukraine

LIPETSK

Russia’s Vneshtorgbank will open its branch bank in Ukraine in March,
Vneshtorgbank President and Board Chairman Andrei Kostin told
journalists,

The bank seeks to expand its activities in countries of the former
Soviet Union. In particular, the bank is planning to buy a bank in
Moldova and has been looking for opportunities in Kazakhstan, Prime
Tass reported.

Recently, Vneshtorgbank bought a controlling block of shares of the
United Bank of Georgia, and last year- a controlling block of the
Savings Bank of Armenia.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 4, 2005 Friday

CIS Executive Secretary meets with WWII veterans in Yerevan

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Visiting CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushailo has had meetings
here with veterans of World War II and the people who worked at
industrial and agricultural facilities in the rear.

He handed to them special diplomas and money grants and answered
numerous questions from them.

He stressed the Armenian people’s very important contribution to the
Great Victory over Nazism.

Earlier in the day, the CIS Executive Secretary jointly with Armenian
Defence Minister Serge Sarkissian visited Victory Park in Yerevan to
lay a wreath at the Tomb on the Unknown Soldier.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

National Post (Canada)
March 4, 2005 Friday
National Edition

What do you do when a jihadi comes home?

by Stewart Bell, National Post

Fateh Kamel was every bit the devoted jihadist. He spent the better
part of the 1990s travelling the world fighting his holy war — to
Afghanistan, Malaysia, Bosnia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, France. In
Montreal, he led a ring of Islamic militants, among them Ahmed
Ressam.

“I’m not afraid of dying and killing doesn’t frighten me,” the
Algerian-born Canadian once said in one of several conversations
recorded by Italian counterterrorist police. “If I have to press the
remote control, vive the jihad!”

Then in 1999, Kamel made a fateful error. Following a pilgrimage to
Mecca, he flew to Amman, perhaps not realizing the Jordanians were on
good terms with the French, who were after him for his role in
various terrorist plots.

He was arrested and sent to Paris, put on trial, convicted and
sentenced to eight years imprisonment. And then, on Jan. 29, 2005,
the French set him free for good behaviour and he flew home to
Montreal.

It may be that Kamel is a reformed terrorist, that during his empty
days of imprisonment, separated from his wife and son, he saw the
error of his convictions. Maybe he has abandoned the jihad. Maybe he
is a retired terrorist.

But what if he isn’t?

It is a question that Canada and its allies are going to have to
start asking because there are going to be a lot more Fateh Kamels in
the coming years. International terrorists are increasingly being
recruited out of the West and, if they don’t get the martyrdom they
claim to seek, one day they are going to come home. And then what do
we do with them?

For the past 20 years, Canada has dealt with captured foreign
terrorists by deporting them to their countries of origin, or at
least trying to. But in the past few years there has been a shift in
the types of people joining the ranks of al-Qaeda and its affiliates.
They are no longer just Saudis or Yemenis or Pakistanis; they are
also Britons, French, Germans, Australians, Americans and Canadians.

In testimony to a parliamentary committee last week, Dale Neufeld,
the Deputy Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
(CSIS), called this one of “the real trends that we see in this
country, and our allies see it as well. It’s the second generation,
it’s the children of Muslims who are born in this country, have a
very normal upbringing, according to our analysis, but at some point
in their teenage years or young twenties, they decide that radical
Islam is the path that they want to take.”

He cited the case of Momin Khawaja, the Canadian-born Ottawa computer
expert who was arrested last year on charges that he was part of a
group plotting to detonate an ammonium nitrate bomb in the United
Kingdom. “They didn’t come from battle-hardened Afghanistan, or Iraq,
or Chechnya. These were people who had pretty normal upbringings in a
very democratic country, and decided at some point to go down that
path.”

How are authorities to deal with these homegrown terrorists? They
cannot be deported. The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001 allows for jail
terms for those actually convicted of terrorism; but what happens
when those sentences are served, or when Canadian terrorists captured
abroad come home?

When most criminals have completed their jail terms, they are
released and presumed innocent. Terrorists, however, are not ordinary
criminals. Many are graduates of training camps where they were
taught the art of mass murder and indoctrinated into a set of beliefs
that advocate the killing of Westerners as God’s will. Is it right to
presume that such terrorists are no longer a risk to society once
they have served their sentences? When Kamel arrived in Montreal, the
RCMP was not even at the airport to greet him. As far as they’re
concerned, he is an ex-convict who has done his time and has
committed no crimes in Canada.

“That’s how you would, quite rightly, treat criminals who had served
their time,” says Professor Martin Rudner of the Canadian Centre for
Intelligence and Security Studies at Ottawa’s Carleton University.
“But terrorism, I think — and I think most people would agree —
terrorism is criminality plus, not criminality minus. It’s
criminality plus material threat.”

The Americans are dealing with this issue by holding some terrorists
indefinitely as a way of keeping them out of circulation, an approach
born out of their view that they are at war against terrorism. U.S.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week asserted the government’s
right to hold alleged enemy combatants “for the duration of
hostilities.”

Canada, however, has not adopted such an approach. Many of the
suspected Sunni Islamic extremists in Canada are being watched, but
are not in custody. Only one has been charged, and while some are
being held for deportation, last month, a Federal Court judge
released alleged al-Qaeda sleeper agent Adil Charkaoui on the grounds
that the 21 months he spent in jail awaiting deportation to Morocco
had served to sever his ties to the outside world, thus
“neutralizing” any risk he once posed.

Kamel’s return led Peter MacKay, the federal Conservatives’ public
safety critic, to call for a review of his citizenship, but the
government responded that Canadians can lose their citizenship only
if it was obtained through fraud or misrepresentation. “There should
be no doubt that the government will do what’s appropriate within the
mandate of its agencies to protect Canadians from those who pose a
threat to security,” said Alex Swann, a spokesman for the Ministry of
Public Safety.

Canada is already home to a collection of retired terrorists such as
Mahmoud Mohammed Issa Mohammad, a member of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, who shot up an El Al airplane in 1968 and
killed a passenger. He now lives in Brantford, Ont.

And there’s Haig Gharakhanian, a member of the Armenian Secret Army
for the Liberation Army of Armenia, who took part in the 1982
attempted assassination of Turkish diplomat Kani Gungor in Ottawa. He
served a nine-month sentence and now plays guitar in a Toronto band.

Recent experience is even less encouraging. Many of those released
from Guantanamo Bay and returned to Pakistan and Afghanistan
immediately took up arms again.

“There’s no known scientific process for the denaturing of Islamic
terrorists, and there’s no terrorist old folks home to which people
can be consigned,” said David Harris, a former CSIS agent.

“One of the things that concerns me is what message does it send to
the rest of the world, including terrorists looking for haven,
support bases and so on when they see that Canada will allow the
seamless return of a convicted global-scale terrorist.”

Most intelligence experts agree that Kamel will probably be put under
surveillance, but Prof. Rudner wonders whether that is enough. He
sees a possible precedent in the treatment of pedophiles.

“You do your time as a pedophile and when you’re released, a whole
range of mechanisms are put in place that curtail your personal
liberty, including disclosure of your address, the need to report to
the police very regularly, the need to abstain from contact with
children. We don’t presume innocence. And here too we’re talking
about an area where it would be a very high risk to society to
presume constant innocence.”

The French are notoriously tough on security, and it seems doubtful
they would have freed Kamel early if they still thought him a danger.
Perhaps he has sworn off terror, or maybe he is even co-operating
with counter-terrorism investigators.

Just before he was caught, Kamel seemed to be already losing interest
in the clandestine life of a roving terrorist operative. In Milan,
police overheard him telling fellow jihadists:

“I almost lost my wife. I am 36 years old, with a son four-and-a-half
months old. My wife is playing with him and I am here. I am almost a
soldier. I don’t know if I am going left or right.”

The problem is, neither do we.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
March 4 2005

OSCE FACT-FINDING TEAM TO PRESENT ITS REPORT ON MARCH 17

BAKU, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS: An OSCE fact-finding mission that
traveled in early February across several Armenian-controlled regions
of Azerbaijan, surrounding the administrative borders of Nagorno
Karabagh to inspect Baku’s allegations that they were populated
illegally with Armenian settlers, will publicize its report on March
17. The OSCE officials, including Minsk group chairmen, will present
their report to OSCE Permanent Council.
An Azerbaijani ANS news agency said the report was discussed by
Minsk group cochairmen and Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar
Mamedyarov in Prague earlier this week, where he was supposed to have
another meeting with Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanian. However,
the meeting has been postponed by at least one week because of
Oskanian’s continuing illness.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Civil Georgia, Georgia
March 4 2005

STOP NOW – New Anti-Trafficking Initiative

On March 1, 2005 the Georgian NGO Human Rights Information and
Documentation Center held a presentation of the new STOP NOW
anti-trafficking project. The project was launched this February and
is being implemented in partnership with the Center of Research and
Action on Peace (KEDE) (Greece).

The project is financed by the International Economic Relations and
Development Co-operation (YDAS-Hellenic Aid) – General Secretariat of
the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Besides Georgia, this
project is being implemented in Moldova, Belarus and Armenia.

The goal of STOP NOW is to confront, prevent and combat human
trafficking, specifically women trafficking for the purposes of
sexual and labor exploitation. It also aims at supporting the victims
of trafficking as well as raising public awareness regarding the
issue.

Initially the project was launched by a Greek Organization Center of
Research and Action on Peace (KEDE) in December 2001 in Greece,
Ukraine and Albania. The main goal of the project was to prevent
trafficking and ensure support for the victims of trafficking in
order to facilitate their reintegration into the society. (Please see
detailed information on the web-site )

Under the aegis of the project the following activities will be
implemented in Georgia:

· Information meetings and round tables for the
representatives of governmental as well as non-governmental
organizations working on trafficking issues;

· Trainings for socially excluded women, students, journalists
and representatives of NGO sector;

· Legal consultations and assistance;

· Publishing and distributing booklets and other information
materials;

· Establishment of information database and launching a
web-site.

Human Rights Information and Documentation Center is ready to
cooperate with the governmental and non-governmental organizations
working in the field of trafficking.

According to Ucha Nanuashvili, director of HRIDC, NGOs are going to
monitor the implementation of the 2005-2006 Action Plan to Combat
Trafficking, as well as to lobby the ratification of the
international conventions on trafficking by the Parliament.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 4 2005

`No Armenian prisoners withheld in Azerbaijan’

Baku, March 3, AssA-Irada
Three Azerbaijani soldiers, who fell captive in the Terter District
on February 15, may be exchanged for Armenian prisoners allegedly
withheld in Azerbaijan, a source from the state commission on
prisoners, hostages and missing persons of the self-proclaimed `Upper
Garabagh Republic’ told Radio Liberty.
The Azerbaijan Defence Ministry spokesman Ramiz Malikov, however,
refuted the report, saying that no Armenian prisoners are withheld in
Azerbaijan. Talks are currently underway on returning the Azerbaijani
soldiers home, he added.*

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress