Author: Alex Nanijanian

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, OSCE ENVOY DISCUSS KARABAKH CONFLICT
Mediamax news agency, Armenia
Oct 5 2005
Yerevan, 5 October: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan met
the special rapporteur of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on Nagornyy
Karabakh, Goran Lennmarker, in Yerevan today.
Lennmarker told the Armenian foreign minister about the results of the
summer session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly where his report on
Nagornyy Karabakh was presented. The Armenian foreign minister gave
a positive assessment of this document, saying that it reflects the
real picture of the peace process for the settlement of the conflict.
The parties also exchanged views on the prospects of the negotiating
process. Oskanyan and Lennmarker discussed Armenian-Turkish relations
in the context of the talks on Turkey’s accession to the EU.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WHERE ARE THE VOTES OF THE RELATIVES?
A1+
| 15:51:22 | 05-10-2005 | Politics |
Member of the National Democratic Union Party administration Atabek
Vardanyan held a press conference today in the party office in order to
complain of the forgeries in the Yerevan Shengavit community elections
of aldermen.
“The party promised to participate in the elections of Local governing
bodies in fall, so I decided to put forward my candidacy as alderman”,
said the NDU member and started to complain, “Even in the electoral
areas where my relatives live and I was supposed to have at least
50-100 votes. I had none”.
Atabek Vardanyan called those who had “stolen” his votes “foxes
stealing hens” and expressed his special discontent with the heads
of the committees who had been the organizers of forgeries.
“In the electoral area N11 the elections have been announced invalid,
and according to my information the leader of the Orinats Yerkir
Party Arthur Baghdasaryan and the Shengavit community head have had
a finger in it”, he said.
Let us remind you that the Shengavit community elections of aldermen
have been announced invalid and new elections have been fixed for
October 9.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY STARTS DECADE-PLUS EU JOURNEY, WITH NO ENTRY GUARANTEE
Bloomberg
Oct 4 2005
Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) — Turkey, clutching an 11th-hour European Union
accord to start entry talks, faces growing opposition as it embarks
on a journey to membership that could last 15 years and still end
in failure.
Last-minute objections by Austria and Cyprus almost derailed the start
of the talks yesterday, highlighting deeper divisions over admitting
a Muslim country of 72 million people with incomes that are a fourth
of the EU average.
“There seems to be no obvious political will on the part of the EU
to embrace Turkey at this stage,” said Cem Duna, a former Turkish
ambassador to the EU who helped negotiate a 1995 free- trade agreement
with the bloc. “The talks are going to be very tough and nations will
have countless chances to veto.”
Turkey is banking on the EU entry process to attract record foreign
investment in the $300 billion economy. Optimism about membership
has pushed stocks to a five-year high and brought the government’s
borrowing costs down to 15 percent from more than 70 percent four
years ago.
Getting the talks off the ground took a month of brinksmanship, with
veto threats by Cyprus and Austria and counter-threats by Turkey,
culminating in a 30-hour emergency negotiating session in Luxembourg.
“Turkey is determined to carry on with reforms,” Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul told a Luxembourg news conference early today after the
official start of the talks. “Some of the concerns which exist in
European public opinion will, I think, change in 10 years.”
Enlargement Fatigue
The EU is groping for answers on how, when and where to enlarge
again after bringing in 10 mostly eastern European countries last
year, expanding its population to 450 million. Dissatisfaction with
enlargement, and with the prospect of Turkey joining, contributed
to the rejection of the planned EU constitution in France and the
Netherlands this year.
“At the rate Turkey is going it’s going to take at least one generation
for it to join the EU,” said Jean-Dominique Butikofer, who manages
the equivalent of $400 million of emerging market debt at Julius Baer
Asset Management in Zurich.
Opponents have pointed to polls showing only one-third of Europeans
support Turkey’s application. Unemployment in the EU is at 8.6 percent,
increasing concerns that Turkish workers may head to the West and force
more Europeans out of a job. Turkey’s jobless rate is 9.1 percent.
`I’m Hostile’
“I’m hostile to Turkey’s membership,” Marielle de Sarnez, a French
member of the European Parliament, said in an interview yesterday.
“We must continue to build a political Europe,” and letting Turkey
in would lead to the “dilution” of the bloc.
Loudspeakers across Turkey announce the call to prayer five times a
day and the government supplies low-income families with free meals
during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, a
warren of covered, interlocking shopping alleys, has a Middle Eastern
flair. The teeming city on the Bosporus, with about 9 million people,
is larger than 12 EU countries.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is urging Europe to prove it’s
not a “Christian club” by accepting Turkey.
Turkey has made some of the changes demanded by the EU, including
abolishing the death penalty and expanding rights for 12 million
Turkish Kurds, the nation’s largest ethnic minority originating from
a region bordering Iraq.
General Electric Co., BNP Paribas and Royal Dutch Shell Plc this year
agreed to buy stakes in Turkish companies on expectation that the EU
embrace will boost profits.
European Values
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, says the government
must now strengthen democracy, including religious freedoms for Greek
Orthodox Christians in Istanbul, and meet the bloc’s standards in 35
areas including competition, labor and the environment.
“The result of these negotiations is absolutely not guaranteed,”
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said yesterday. “If
it’s not accession, it’ll be another strong link.”
Erdogan, who prays five times a day even during foreign trips, plans
to cut the corporate tax rate from 30 percent to attract investment
and reduce unemployment. Nineteen million people in Turkey live in
poverty, according to government data.
By 2025, Turkey would swallow up EU farm and regional subsidies equal
to about 0.17 percent of annual European economic output, or about
$20 billion in today’s terms, the commission said last October.
Armenian Massacre
“Countries like France and Germany just aren’t ready for any further
expansion of the EU from an economic point of view,” said Daniel Gros,
director of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.
“The negotiations with Turkey basically have to be forgotten about
for the next five or six years.”
Other demands include Turkey’s recognition of the republic of Cyprus,
the Mediterranean island nation that joined the EU last year. The
European Parliament last week told Turkey to lift a ban on Cypriot
planes and ships by next year or risk a halt to the EU process.
Turkey should also acknowledge that Ottoman Turks carried out a
massacre of Armenians in the last century before it becomes a member,
the EU legislature said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Bentley in Ankara at
[email protected].
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 28, 2005 Wednesday
Son tried to avenge father’s death – court shooting probe results
MOSCOW
City police investigating the shooting near a Moscow magistrate’s
court on Wednesday said a man tried to take revenge, by firing on his
offender who allegedly had caused the death of his father.
The incident occurred in Domodedovskaya Street at 12:06, Moscow time,
a city prosecutor told Itar-Tass.
Igor Mirabyan, 39, an ethnic Armenian, sprayed automatic fire on
Denis Chikin, 25, whose case was review by the court earlier in the
day. Chikin was wounded in the stomach. His lawyer Valentina Baranova
was wounded in the hand.
Chikin was hospitalized. Police are now questioning the gunman who
reportedly had fired a home-made submachine-gun.
According to investigators, Chikin, in a state of intoxication on
November 22, 2004, beat up Mirabyan’s father in a row in a stairwell
of the apartment house in Kashirskoye Shosse Street.
An eyewitness of the incident said in a testimony that Mirabyan
attempted to enter Chikin’s apartment and that Chikin stepped into
his way to block it.
Mirabyan Sr died 37 days after the fight. An autopsy showed that the
chest injury inflicted by Chikin was not lethal and could not be
blamed for Mirabyan’s demise.
On Wednesday, the court ordered an additional forensic examination to
determine the exact cause of death.
Mirabyan Jr did not attend the hearing, apparently waiting for the
defendant in the street by the court building. He opened fire as
Chikin and his lawyer went out.
Prosecutors opened a criminal case over the shooting.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Provo Daily Herald, UTAH
Sept 25 2005
Conference on mass killings opens in Turkey
ISTANBUL, Turkey — A controversial conference on the mass killings
of ethnic Armenians during the last days of the Ottoman Empire opened
here amid heavy security Saturday in defiance of a court ban.
The forum was hailed by participants and Western observers as a
groundbreaking event where Turkish academics for the first time
publicly could challenge their country’s official version of the
events leading to the Armenian tragedy.
Hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags pelted the arriving
panelists with eggs and rotten tomatoes, expressing the fury felt by
many Turks over efforts to open their country’s painful past to
debate. “The aim (of the conference) . . . is to declare Turkey
guilty of genocide,” said Erkan Onsel, head of the local branch of
the small, left-wing Turkey’s Workers’ Party.
The conference was canceled twice before, most recently on Thursday,
when an Istanbul court ruled in favor of a group of lawyers who
opposed the gathering on procedural grounds.

ARKA News Agency
Sept 14 2005
VAHE GABRIELYAN APPOINTED TO THE POST OF AMBASSADOR IN IRELAND
YEREVAN, September 14. /ARKA/. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
signed a decree on Wednesday appointing Armenian Ambassador to Great
Britain and Northern Ireland Vahe Gabrielyan also to the post of
Ambassador in Ireland (residence in London), presidential press
service told ARKA News Agency. M.V. -0—
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CIVILIZED EVICTION
A1+
| 20:52:59 | 12-09-2005 | Social |
The Armenian residents of the area near the newly opened Georgian
orphanage in Javakhq Ninotsminda city are offered no sell their houses
for high prices, but the fact has caused concern of the Armenians.
So, in Ninotsminda the policy of freeing the city of Armenians is
outlining, A-Info reports. First the Armenian children were deprived
of their kindergarten which was allotted to the Georgian children
brought from other regions of the country, and then the process of
buying the houses starts.
The Armenians of Ninotsminda are afraid that if they do not agree to
sell their houses, the Georgians will use force to evict them.

VARTAN OSKANIAN: THE RUB IS IN DETAILS
By Tatoul Hakobian
AZG Armenian Daily #160
8/09/2005
Karabakh issue
Vartan Oskanian, RA foreign minister, stated at the joint press
conference with Dimitri Rupel, OSCE chairman-in-office, that “the
rub is in details” of Nagorno Karabakh settlement issue. He said that
when the foreign ministers of both countries discuss the details of
the settlement, “they may encounter serious obstacles.” Mr. Rupel and
Oskanian emphasized that common “terms are being observed” in principal
issues between the sides. Mr. Oskanian didn’t want to go into details
of the principle issues that made the position of the parties closer.
Mr. Rupel said that on the level of principles of the settlement the
positions of the parties are very alike, there are some problems
concerning the details and the settlement would have been reached
if only these problems were solved. “The issues of territorial
integrity and national self-determination are among the most important
ones. These two values, these two determinations can be “dealt”
and this is the message I received in Baku and Yerevan,” he said.
In response to the issue whether Yerevan can accept a status for
Karabakh that can be less than independence, Mr. Oskanian said:
“I would put that question the other way around. We can’t discuss
a version that won’t secure the right of Karabakh people for
self-determination.” Mr. Oskanian didn’t comment on the possibility
of defining NKR’s status through a referendum. President of Nagorno
Karabakh Arkady Ghukasian said in response to the same question on
NKR’s status: “I can’t fancy that. It resembles being a bit pregnant.”
The official Yerevan has stated for many times that Nagorno Karabakh
has never been in the structure of independent Azerbaijan and will
never be. On the other hand, the current Armenian authorities keep
insisting on three principles: Nagorno Karabakh can never be a part
of Azerbaijan, it should have a common border with Armenia and the
international community should give security guarantees for Nagorno
Karabakh.
In response to the issue when NKR will be involved in the settlement
process, Mr. Oskanian said he doesn’t doubt that it will happen. “When
the foreign ministers go into details and when the discussions reach
certain level, it will be necessary to restore the Minsk group
procedure and Karabakh will be involved in that,” Mr. Oskanian
said. It’s worth reminding that Minsk group process was led to a
dead-end after the Lisbon summit in 1996. The last trilateral meeting
between Armenia, NKR and Azerbaijan took place in Moscow, in April
of 1997.
Mr. Rupel neither condemned nor expressed any definite position about
the militant statements of Baku. Baku authorities often threaten to
settle the conflict through a war. Ilham Aliyev said that the military
budget of his country was tripled during the last few years and it
will amount to the whole state budget of Armenia, very soon. “The
statements I hear differ from what you hear (in Yerevan). I hear
statements of peace, of readiness to sign memorandum and reconciliation
in my conversations in Baku. Azerbaijan’s statements that I hear are
so close to mutual concessions and reconciliation as those made by
the Armenian government.”
Oskanian emphasized that Nagorno Karabakh conflict can have no military
solution, and the very fact that the conflict hasn’t been settled till
now, means that it could have no military solution. In response to
the question about the possible impact of Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline
on the settlement process, Vartan Oskanian said that they observe
the oil pipeline as and additional factor for preserving the peace.
Mr. Rupel met with the representatives of NGOs, RA Prime Minister and
RA President during his visit to Yerevan. Mr. Rupel passed “extremely
sincere message of Azeri president Ilham Aliyev” to Robert Kocharian.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

JAVAKHETI CITIZEN’S FORUM FOUNDED WITH ECMI
The Messenger, Georgia
Aug 30 2005
Under the auspices of the European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI),
local leaders of the largely ethic-Armenian region of Javakheti created
a Javakheti Citizen’s Forum on August 23. “The establishment of the
Javakheti Citizen’s Forum is a major step forward for advancing civil
society in Javakheti,” ECMI’s Regional Representative for the Caucasus
based in Tbilisi Tom Trier said in a press release. “The Forum
will play a major role in enhancing the links between the region’s
population and the authorities.” ECMI is one of Europe’s leading expert
institutions in the field of interethnic relations. With a conflict
prevention focus, ECMI aims to defuse inter-ethnic tension and promote
regional integration of the isolated Javakheti region (Akhalkalaki and
Ninotsminda rayons) On August 23, the Javakheti Citizen’s Forum held
its inaugural meeting with the participation of over 150 people from
the region and elected an organizational committee. The next day, the
committee elected 17 board members and established six working groups
on gender, youth issues, human and minority rights, economic issues,
language, education and culture, and territorial reform. According to
ECMI all of Javakheti’s ethnic groups-Armenians, Georgian, Greeks,
Russian Dukhobors-and different religious confessions-Apostolic
and Catholic Armenians-were present at the inaugural meeting.
“Javakheti remains an isolated region of Georgia,” Tom Trier said,
“but the Forum will provide new opportunities for enhancing a process
of consultation between government and civil society in the region.
It is important that concerns of Javakheti’s population are heard and
taken into account when the government devises new policies affecting
the region.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian official says energy provider to account for share management deal
Ayots Ashkar, Yerevan
4 Aug 05
The Public Service Coordinating Commission [PSCC] in its letter
directed to the Director General of the Armenian energy networks
Yevgeniy Gladunchik has issued a final and resolute demand that all
the necessary documents substantiating the need for the management of
Armenian Energy Distributing Networks [AEDN] being committed from
Midland Resources Holding to Interenergo’s trust management are
submitted within the next 15 days.
[Ayots Ashkar correspondent] What was the reason of such a resolute
demand?
[Robert Nazaryan, chairman of Public Service Coordinating
Commission] We needed reliable information to start more resolute
actions. Regrettably, this deal between Interenergo and Midland
Resources was a surprise to us. First we learned about the deal
from the press, then from RAO UES [United Energy System of Russia]
website and began to investigate. We sought explanations from the
head of the Midland Resources Alex Shnider and he replied that the
company did not give up the shares of the AEDN. At the same time he
said that the company was not keen to invest in the energy sphere.
The management of the AEDN was committed to a trust for making
investments and passing profits to Interenergo. Such a reply actually
raised a number of questions, because although even if this does not
mean selling of shares, if Midland Resources passes the profits from
the AEDN operations to another company, it still means something like
a sale actually took place.
The biggest problem is that Midland Resources insists it still owns 100
per cent of the AEDN shares, they just gave the right to Interenergo
to make investments and collect profits.
[Correspondent] Should the Midland Resources gain the PSCC’s agreement
for making contract for the trust management?
[Nazaryan] In this case one may understand “trust management” as
committing AEDN to executive management or to management of shares. But
we still do not have the contract under which the Midland Resources
committed AEDN to the trust management of Interenergo. If we had this
document we would see what is happening. At present I can say with
reservation that they have broken the license conditions.
In particular, if Midland Resources gave the right for getting profits
to Interenergo, it should undoubtedly agree on this with the PSCC. On
the other hand, if the second party in the deal fulfils the license
activity in our energy market, it should also get our agreement. More
over, at present we cannot assess the relations between RAO UES
and Interenergo. What part of the shares belongs to RAO UES? We have
information that only 40 per cent of Interenergo’s shares belong to RAO
UES. A question arises: who owns the other 60 per cent? We are giving
15 days to Midland Resources to answer our questions. I think this time
will be enough to submit the requested documents and to explain things.
[Correspondent] We have an impression that if the World Bank did
not pay attention to the problems of the deal between the Midland
Resources and Interenergo, the PSCC would not touch them.
[Nazaryan] I do not agree with this view. I think that the World
Bank and USAID made the backhand statements in particular regarding
the Armenian government and our PSCC. Actually, after getting the
news about the deal we did everything possible to get out from the
situation that emerged. I think in this situation the PSCC took the
balanced and correct steps.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress