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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +3741. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +3741. .562543
Email: [email protected]:

PRESS RELEASE

13 November 2004

Minister Oskanian Attends CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
Ministerial

On 12 November, Minister Oskanian attended a Ministerial Meeting of CIS
Collective Security Treaty Organization in the framework of his working
visit to Moscow.

The agenda of the Ministerial included issues of developing security system
for CSTO member states, prompt and efficient response to new challenges and
threats, prevention of drug trafficking and combating organized crime.

In his statement, Minister Oskanian referred to voting by some CSCO member
states in support of Azerbaijan’s initiative in the UN. He qualified their
position as inexplicable and divergent from the position of Co-chairs of
OSCE Minsk Group in charge of Nagorno Karabagh conflict settlement.

On the same day, Vartan Oskanian had a meeting with Russia’s Sergey Lavrov.
The two ministers explored issues of the current state and prospects of
Armenia – Russia relations. While discussing other issues of common
interest, the ministers stressed the importance of consolidated position of
the two countries’ delegations in international fora.

In the evening, Minister Oskanian received Co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group,
Yuri Merzlyakov of Russia and Henry Jacolin of France in Armenian mission in
Moscow and discussed current issues and prospects of Nagorno Karabagh
conflict settlement.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Interfax
Nov 17 2004

Armenia against UN involvement in Nagorno-Karabakh issue

Yerevan. (Interfax-AVN) – Armenia expressed disapproval on Tuesday of
any international body except the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) being involved in efforts to settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Either Armenia continues negotiations with Azerbaijan within the
framework of the Minsk Group of the OSCE and in the context of the
agreements that have been reached or Azerbaijan should hold
negotiations with Nagorno-Karabakh or with Armenia with the
participation of the Karabakh side,” Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian told reporters.

He said UN resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh proposed by Azerbaijan
would be an obstacle to the settlement process.

“If Azerbaijan wishes to remove individual tasks and solutions from
the total package of the Karabakh settlement process and to lobby
them with organizations that have nothing to do with the settlement
of the Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan should in that case hold
negotiations either with Nagorno-Karabakh or with Armenia with the
participation of the Karabakh side,” he said.

Earlier, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov told
Interfax: “The inclusion of an item on the situation on the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan in the UN General Assembly agenda will
exercise nothing but a positive effect on the negotiation process.”

“We take the view that the debate in the UN by no means replaces
debates in the OSCE Minsk Group,” he said.

“It is difficult to see the negotiations as frank when, along with
them, the Armenian side is populating occupied territories in
Azerbaijan, including beyond the administrative border of Nagorno-
Karabakh,” he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

alim_Mansur/2004/11/17/717585.html

Annan appointed Benon Sevan, an Armenian Cypriot, to run the program

Canoe.com
Wed, November 17, 2004

A scandal even bigger than (lack of) WMD
By SALIM MANSUR For the Toronto Sun

In the recently published book, The Bomb in My Garden, Dr. Mahdi Obeidi
provides a chilling insider account of Saddam Hussein’s quest for a
nuclear bomb.
Obeidi was appointed in July 1987 by Hussein Kamel, Saddam’s son-in-law,
as the chief scientist responsible for uranium enrichment program.
Kamel fled into exile in Jordan after the first Gulf War, later returned
to Iraq seeking forgiveness and was executed on orders of the tyrant.
Obeidi writes Saddam was “himself a weapon of mass destruction. He had
invaded two neighboring countries, killed thousands of Iraqis and
Iranians with chemical weapons, tortured and terrorized his own people,
and buried many of his victims in mass graves.”
As a scientist, Obeidi grasped more clearly than most that the “danger
of nuclear proliferation will haunt mankind for many lifetimes to come.”

Obeidi also confirms from his ringside seat that Iraq had been denuded
of an “active nuclear weapons program before the invasion of Iraq.”
However, his detailed narrative is about Saddam possessing “the
capabilities and, it must be presumed, the intention to restart it
someday when the world was no longer watching him so closely.”
Now, since American weapons inspectors David Kay and Charles Duelfer
determined in their recently published report that there were no WMD
found in Iraq, the mystery remains.
But in the meantime, what has been documented thus far from files still
being unearthed inside Iraq is a scandal of even greater proportion than
WMD: The corruption of the UN Oil-for-Food program.
This program began in 1996 to provide relief for Iraqis while their
country was under UN sanctions, by assisting in the sale of Iraqi oil,
and using the money to purchase essentials.
The program became a source of huge illicit funding for Saddam’s regime.
Duelfer estimates Saddam amassed in excess of $21 billion with which to
procure illegal goods for his favored weapons program from foreign
suppliers.
Oil-for-Food became Saddam’s hidden weapon to bribe UN officials through
kickbacks, undermine UN authority and influence permanent members of the
Security Council — China, France and Russia — and non-permanent
members, such as Syria and Ukraine, to support lifting of sanctions.
Saddam’s subversion of the UN took place as other UN agencies protested
that sanctions were responsible for the rising numbers of Iraqi children
dying, at one time estimated around 5,000 every month.
The extent of UN corruption — reaching into the office of Kofi Annan,
the Secretary-General — is yet to be fully accounted. But the
unfinished evidence provided by Duelfer in his final report on Iraq is
hugely damaging to an organization that never recovered from its
criminal ineptness over the genocide in Rwanda.
Annan appointed Benon Sevan, an Armenian Cypriot, to run the program.
Sevan has taken an early retirement and gone silent. There are also
allegations of influence-peddling inside the UN through Annan’s son,
Kojo Annan, working as a consultant for a Swiss firm responsible for
supervision of Oil-for-Food shipments to Iraq.
And given the extent to which France has been involved with Iraq from
its sale of the first nuclear reactor, Osiraq, to its traffic in the
Oil-for-Food program, French obstructionism in the Security Council to
American insistence on enforcing UN resolutions preceding the war
becomes questionable.
>From the killing fields of Rwanda to the killing fields of Iraq, the UN
was not an innocent bystander, and Kofi Annan, the man who runs it, has
much to answer for.
The great irony in all of this is the inverse proportion of rage against
America’s liberation of Iraq by non-Iraqi Arabs and Muslims and the
Michael Moore crowd in the West, to the rage of Iraqis, as Obeidi
narrates, against those who kissed and danced with the devil incarnate
in Baghdad.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Fairfield Advance (Australia)
November 17, 2004 Wednesday

Troupe keen to show off skills

AFTER more than a year of rehearsals and preparation, Saturday could
not come soon enough for these 85 young Armenian dancers.

The Fairfield-based Armenian Sydney Dance Company (western region)
performed for the first time at the National Institute of Dramatic
Art Centre in Kensington last week.

A long time in the planning, company committee member and assistant
teacher Sam Berberian said the dancers were just looking forward to
getting on stage.

“They were all very excited,” Mr Berberian said.

“They had got to the stage where they were training every night
(leading up to the performance).”

The Fairfield region dancers were joined by another 60 performers
from the company’s Chatswood and Ryde regions.

While many of those dancers had appeared in previous performances,
almost all of those in the company’s western chapter, established in
September last year, were making their stage debut.

The Fairfield dancers performed some 15 different dances at the show.

“It’s quite a unique, traditional form of dancing,” Mr Berberian
said. “It’s quite skilful and energetic. It’s taught to children at a
pretty young age.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Voice of America News
November 16, 2004

Armenian Minister Not Optimistic About Nagorno-Karabakh Dispute

VOA News

Armenia’s defense minister says neighboring Azerbaijan is not serious
about negotiating a settlement of the dispute over the
Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

In an interview with Reuters news agency published Tuesday, minister
Serzh Sarksyan said he is not very optimistic about the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

He accused Azeri President Ilham Aliyev of trying to put pressure on
Armenia through the United Nations.

Mr. Sarksyan said the issue can only be solved through compromise. He
said he sees no signs that point to a resumption of armed conflict
between the two countries.

Russia, the United States and France, among others, are trying to
mediate an agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh. Ethnic Armenians from the mountainous enclave
control 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory seized during a war that
ended with a cease-fire agreement a decade ago.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse
17 novembre 2004 mercredi 5:02 PM GMT

Mondial-2006/qualifications – Arménie et Roumanie 1 à 1

EREVAN 17 nov

L’Arménie et la Roumanie ont fait match nul 1 à 1 (mi-temps: 0-1) en
qualifications de la zone Europe (groupe 1) au Mondial-2006 de
football, mercredi à Erevan.

Buts:

Arménie: Dokhoyan (63)

Roumanie: Marica (29)

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1 Plus | 16:35:16 | 16-11-2004 | Social |

STUDENTS FIGHTING AGAINST CORRUPTION

During September-October of 2004 ARF `Nikol Aghbalyan’ Student Union
held a survey on `Corruption in Institutes of Higher Education of
Armenia’ among the 1100 students of 11 state institutes of higher
education of Armenia.

‘The aim of the survey was to find out what students thought about
corruption in their colleges, which reasons of college corruption they
stress, which of the phases in education process they consider more
corrupted, which of structures they underline for fighting against
college corruption and what their personal willingness is to struggle
against the fallacious phenomenon’, Karen Antashyan, member of `Nikol
Aghbalyan’ Student Union said.

Under the survey, 47% of the persons surveyed are pessimistic and think
corruption has always been in colleges and will be.

Students cited low wages of lecturers, draft evasion by students and
patronage of IHE leadership as the reasons for college corruption.

43% of the surveyed students expressed willingness to partake in any
initiative for fighting with corruption, 25% finds actions must be taken
against college corruption but excluded own participation in the
process, and 32% thinks all the initiatives for that purpose will fail.

Only in Armenian State Institute of Physical Training 5 lecturers have
been dismissed for corruption. No lecturer has been discharged from
other colleges – maybe there is no corruption there?

Members of ARF `Nikol Aghbalyan’ Student Union think the rest of youth
unions will join them and will fight more actively against corruption.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Media Monitors Network
Nov 16 2004

Arresting Vanunu While Burying Arafat
by Mary La Rosa

“Mr. Vanunu, who is a Christian and who claims his faith profoundly
directed and sustained him during the worse of his imprisonment,
gives much credit to the spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ.”

They stormed St Georges early in the morning
just like it was Ramallah
and the Ghost of some other plot the base of their desire
Machine guns poised ready to fire
How many agents do you think it takes
to intimidate Anglican Bishop Riah?

How many agents needed to crash a cathedral gate
How many agents to dash past clergy and Pax Ecclesiae
How many agents to frighten the Christian pilgrims
and seize the unarmed Mordechai?

Mr Vanunu remained calm.

They took him away with automatic weapons and hostility
Later they returned him without harm but missing his technology
Without regard for laptop sanctity and inviolability
towards sacred place, circle, temple, mosque or church
how many security agents DOES it take to represent a fascist state?

MLR

On November 10 2004, Fredrik Heffermehl, Norwegian author of the book
“Peace Is Possible” and spokesperson for the International Free
Vanunu Campaign distributed an online report and analysis concerning
the ongoing and active campaign for full human and civil rights for
Israeli nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu. Mr Vanunu is
currently living with the ambiguity of not quite full freedom. While
it appears that he was physically released from one Israeli styled
prison six months ago, he is seemingly further punished and being
held prisoner by being forced to remain under court restrictions that
prevent him from leaving the country that does not really want him,
but also does not really want him to be free. The overt theme of
Israel’s continued restrictions over Mr Vanunu’s civil rights and
liberties is one that claims security , not vengeance, to be at the
core paranoia about Mr Vanunu’s twenty year old memory of such
“secrets” now known and published throughout the free world.

Fredrik Heffermehl, who is also a lawyer and Vice President of the
International Peace Bureau had only just presented the newly proposed
legal strategy based upon review of Mordechai’s situation and the
progress of the campaign thus far. Due to various aspects of Mr
Vanunu’s unique case re: its legality, civil rights, environmental
concerns, an international awareness and interest in the case has
been growing. Mr. Heffermehl’s report welcomed a larger international
presence including special interest groups that support Mordechai and
umbrella together in support of the abolition of nuclear
proliferation. Another lawyer and activist, Jennifer Harbury joins Mr
Heffermehl in Lawyers For Full Freedom For Vanunu . She is currently
working on a project that exposes the various use and users of
torture and she brings to the Vanunu campaign her expertise in
championing political prisoners and human rights causes.

Less than one day after Mr Heffermehl posted his report to an
international community of supporters, Mordechai Vanunu was taken
away in a fanfare of commando style mobbing. If indeed this event
took place to contrast the event of Yasser Arafat’s death and
funeral, why did Israeli security still deem it so necessary to
utilize such armed force against unarmed Christian clergy and
pilgrims.? Some witnesses reported as many as thirty security agents
arriving in various kinds of vehicles brandishing weapons across the
threshold of the sanctity of the Church grounds, and against the much
outraged indignation of the Right Reverend Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal.

Bishop Riah is the Christian leader of the Anglican community at the
Cathedral of St George in Jerusalem where Vanunu has been living in
sanctuary from those who wish to do him physical harm. This is not
the first time Bishop Riah has been rudely approached by security
police with regards to Mordechai Vanunu. Since offering Mordechai
Vanunu the hospitality and protection of the Church, Bishop Riah has
been stopped and detained at Tel Aviv airport. There he was subjected
to a body search and he was interrogated by the Shin Bet.

Bishop Riah , as a Palestinian Christian, has experienced most of his
life living under Occupation.

Considering his past and present status in the Anglican community
this recent incursion is a great disrespect and an affront to all
Churches. Since this inappropriate incident and armed visit that
included Mordechai’s arrest, the Anglican Church and the Compass Rose
Society have featured Bishop Riah’s letter and reaction to this
latest assault.

He remains Mordechai’s loyal friend and spiritual adviser.
The motivation behind making the dramatic kind of arrest at St
George’s that befitted some dangerous kingpin with some equally armed
entourage, is unclear at this time, except that it has provided the
Vanunu campaign with further vitality in the medias. Mr Vanunu
remained calm and the other guests and clergy, after expressing their
initial shock and dismay, are now expressing their outrage. It has
been alarming to notice how an established religious leader at his
center and consecrated ground, is treated by an over active police
force thus setting further example for those “unofficial” and self
proclaimed police gangs known for acting out racist hatred and
violence near illegal settlements. Other religious leaders, pilgrims
and concerned travelers must consider if this incident is part of a
current trend by the Israeli government to single out certain types
of Jesus followers, especially those involved in human rights issues
and/or unpopular causes.

An unpopular cause, besides Mordechai Vanunu’s complete freedom,
appears to be any overt defense of the Palestinian people’s basic
human rights and needs. Christians involved in using their presence
in order to protect Palestinians from settler violence have been
physically attacked while walking as a protective presence with
school children. The Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron has reported
on such settler violence for some time now. Israeli and Christian
groups report that the rate of incidence has increased but with
little or no real policing of the hate crimes.

Recently tensions in Jerusalem involving chronic abuse of Christian
clergy by orthodox students culminated when a Jewish orthodox student
spat at an archbishop during a procession from Jerusalem’s Armenian
Quarter to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site that
comemorates the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. The student in this
particular incident was arrested, after ripping the cross from the
neck of the cleric. The Armenian Christians reported that the
spitting is an ongoing and continuous problem and one that comes from
adult men and women , as well teens.

The Presbyterian Church has been recently featured in alternative and
some mainstream medias for its latest strategy and decision to do
something positive on behalf of the existing and continuing suffering
of the Palestinian people living under occupation. Tired of waiting
for yet another official UN veto to stop “even” investigation of
human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, the Presbyterian
Church has decided to take direct action against illegal settlements
and the illegal targeting of human rights activists in the Occupied
Territories.

By making such brave and courageous commitment to peace in the name
of values directly associated with the life and teachings of Jesus,
the Presbyterians, have come under attack.

As a pro active commitment to peace and justice, the Presbyterian
Church announced it would target specific companies and businesses
that operate on occupied land, and or companies that support illegal
settlements, build barriers and make business with organizations that
support violence against the Palestinian people. The Church further
explained that all Companies can balance their past bad business
practices by protesting the occupation, helping victims, contributing
to a viable economy for an independent Palestinian state, or
employing Israeli Arabs or Palestinians.

“The goal is not to divest but persuade organizations to change their
behavior,” said Jerry Van Marter, director of the Presbyterian News
Service.

This statement and statements like this have inspired bullying and
threats from violent Jewish extremist groups operating in the US and
abroad. Tensions have risen with the most recent arson threats that
have been directed specifically towards Presbyterian churches all
around the United States. Threats of arson were sent to individual
Churches and included swatiska signs condeming each Church and the
Presbyterian organization as a whole, for its human rights efforts
against illegal settlements, that either promote or inflict apartheid
style racism or that defiantly stand as obstacles to peace.

Mr. Vanunu, who is a Christian and who claims his faith profoundly
directed and sustained him during the worse of his imprisonment,
gives much credit to the spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ.
Throughout his hardship and the loneliness of solitary confinement,
Mordechai held strong to his Christian beliefs. If eighteen and a
half years did not break him of those beliefs, thirty men with
weapons will not succeed either. Afterall, the universal message of
Christ is one of peace and love and is still held in “some” popular
esteem at his birthplace and elsewhere around the world, more than
two thousand years later.

This year Mr Vanunu was once again nominated for the prestigious
Nobel Peace Prize. Had he won he would have had to have made his
acceptance speech from inside Israel while under restrictions for
doing that which put him in prison eighteen and a half years ago
which in turn led him to be nominated. He was recently honored at the
United Nations along with Seymour Hersch as recipient of the Lennon
Ono Peace Award and also because of his restrictions he could not
attend. Instead , his adoptive parents, Nick and Mary Eoloff accepted
for him and gave his speech for him in absentia.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament recently made a tribute by
naming its national headquarters in London after him.

In October, Mordechai Vanunu celebrated his 50th birthday . Because
of the court restrictions he could not share his cake and toast with
all his friends, but supporters from all around the world celebrated
his special day . Shortly after, David Frost contacted him and he
answered David’s questions in interview format . This interview was
considered a defiance of the restrictions placed on him upon his
release. However, if David Frost calls Mordechai Vanunu how is it
possible to comply with such restrictions and still be a man free to
answer the door or pick up the phone?

Among his last words to David Frost :

“I tried to inform the world and to try to stop this nuclear
proliferation”

— Mordechai Vanunu

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Messenger, Georgia
Nov 16 2004

Economic Analysis
Georgian government goes looking for investors

By M. Alkahzashvili

The Georgian leadership’s attempts to attract foreign investments in
the country have so far produced little visible results. Despite the
undoubted energy with which the government, led by Minister of
Economic Development Kakha Bendukidze, has set about persuading
foreign entrepreneurs to invest in Georgia – organizing business
forums and conferences to display what Georgia has to offer and
reiterate the administration’s guarantee of stability and support for
entrepreneurs – there has been very little in the way of private
foreign investments since the Rose Revolution.

The Rose government considers foreign investment as vital for the
country’s economic development and a major priority. Hence the
business forums that have been held this year along with discussions
with Russian, Armenian, Turkish, Israeli and Kazakh businessmen. The
government has also called on Georgian businessmen working abroad to
return to their country and invest in businesses here.

The government continued its pursuit of potential investors last
week, when Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania traveled to London with
Bendukidze and Finance Minister Zurab Nogaideli, as well as
representatives of such Georgian companies as Tbilvino, Bagrationi
1882, Tbilaviamsheni, and Batumi and Poti Ports, to try to persuade
foreign businessmen to come to Georgia. The ‘Invest in Georgia’
business forum opened on November 11, and will be followed by similar
events in Italy, later this month, and New York, in January 2005.

Whether or not such international conferences will result in
increased investments remains to be seen, but the fact is that up
until now the government’s attempts have been largely fruitless,
suggesting that private investors remain wary of setting up new
businesses in Georgia. The tense situation in South Ossetia (and
Abkhazia) and the possibility that it could develop into an armed
conflict, is one reason for hesitancy among businessmen.

But there are other factors too. Although the government repeatedly
stresses that investors in Georgia will receive protection and
support from the government and the law, there is still much to do to
persuade investors that this is in fact the case. Stamping out
corruption is one task for the government which is far from
completed; changes to the law, and equally importantly, to the
implementation of the law, are another.

The government hopes that the adoption of the new tax code, which
should come into effect from January 2005, will help to attract
foreign investors. Indeed, Akhali Taoba reports that the code has
been created solely with foreign businessmen, and less local
entrepreneurs, in mind.

However, analysts think that the adoption of the new tax code will
not be enough to change the situation to any great extent. Very much
depends on the law on financial amnesty, which needs to be
implemented quickly, but also needs to be improved so that there is
no possibility of entrepreneurs coming under pressure from the
government. If there remain possibilities for different punitive
institutions to continue attacking businessmen, the business
environment will continue to put off potential investors.

There is still little, if any, trust in law enforcement bodies –
prosecutors, police, or the court system – and entrepreneurs are well
aware of current cases of unlawful conduct, human rights violations,
bribery, and so on.

Georgia is still a high risk country for investors, and although the
government should be praised for its energetic attempts to lure
businessmen at such events as ‘Invest in Georgia,’ it also needs to
continue the long and hard fight to improve the country’s business
environment.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Interfax, Russia
Nov 16 2004

Armenian-Iranian pipeline project put back to year-end

Yerevan. (Interfax) – Construction of the Armenian stretch of the
Iran – Armenia gas pipeline will not now begin until December this
year, the Armenian Energy Ministry told Interfax.

Work on the Armenian stretch of the pipeline was due to start late
October, but was delayed because preparations were not complete.

The ministry said dignitaries from Iran and Armenia would attend a
ceremony to mark the beginning of the project in December close to
the Armenian city of Meghri. It is expected that the first two
kilometers of the Meghri – Kajaran pipeline will be built. Iran’s
Sanir will lay the pipeline.

An official at Gazprom said last week that the Russian gas giant was
considering a role in the construction of a gas pipeline from Iran to
Armenia. But the Armenian ministry said this was unlikely as the
project does not promise high returns.

Iran signed a deal to supply Armenia with 36 billion cubic meters
(bcm) of gas per year over 20 years with the possibility of extending
this by five years and gas supplies to 47 bcm in May this year.

Work on Iran’s 100-km stretch began in June. The Iranian Export and
Development Bank set aside $30 million to finance the Armenian
stretch.

It will cost a total of $210 million-$220 million to build the new
pipeline and renovate the existing Kajaran – Yerevan pipeline.
Iranian gas should start reaching Armenia by January 2007. All of the
gas will be used by power stations to generate electricity, some of
which will be exported to Iran and some of which will be consumed in
Armenia itself.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress