Author: Antonian Lara

A1plus
| 19:06:49 | 26-04-2005 | Politics |
OMBUDSMAN’S FIRST REPORT
The number of those who seek for justice from the Armenian Human Rights
defender has increased with 13%. The Ombudsman has already prepared her
first report covering the recent 10 months of activities. The cases of human
rights violations are frequent mostly in Yerevan, Shirak and Gegharkunik
regions. The citizens usually complain of the police, local self-government
bodies, departments of social welfare and courts. Larisa Alaverdyan noted
that the report cannot cover the whole situation with the human rights
available in the republic. Thus, when all the reports on freedom of speech
by international structures contain information on depriving «A1+» TV
Company of air, there is not a single word about «A1+» in the Ombudsman’s
report. Larisa Alaverdyan explains this by the fact that the reforming of
the National TV and Radio Committee in her opinion is more important from
the aspect of freedom of speech.
During 10 months of activities Larisa Alaverdyan has discovered some
interesting facts. For example, the number of invalids in Armenia is
gradually decreasing. Is it possible in Armenia after the earthquake and
war? According to the Ombudsman, it is due to the changes that occurred in
the system of issuing degrees of invalidity. Thus the decrease of the number
is purely mechanical.
The Ombudsman is concerned over the fact that after a minor rise of pensions
many families were excluded from Paros system. To note, over 90% of those,
who turn to Larisa Alaverdyan for, help are people belonging to not
sufficiently provided sectors of population.
Rights of property are also frequently violated in Armenia. Presently a suit
brought against Minister of Transport and Communications accused of
violating the right of property is being considered in the Ombudsman’s
Office.

The Evening Standard (London)
April 25, 2005
Sadness of the ragamuffin city
by IAN THOMSON
Istanbul: Memories of a City
by Orhan Pamuk translated by Maureen Freely
(Faber, £16.99)
IN TURKISH north London, where I live, portraits of Ataturk – “The
Father of the Turks” – stare out from grocer’s shops and smoky men’s
clubs.
Born in 1881, Ataturk founded the modern Turkish Republic.
He ousted the hated Greeks from Istanbul and transformed the city
into a Westernised outpost supposedly free of Islam’s influence.
Anyone who has visited Turkey, or been to the Royal Academy’s current
“Turks” exhibition, will want to read Orhan Pamuk’s memoir of his
birthplace, Istanbul. Pamuk is Turkey’s foremost novelist, and he
provides a rich account of Atatrk’s attempted erasure of Islam and
the “spiritual void” this left in Istanbul.
Pamuk’s parents were part of Istanbul’s new rich who flourished in
the wake of the First World War and the dissolution of the Ottoman
Sultanate. In his “frenzy” to modernise Turkey, the blue-eyed,
harddrinking Atatrk destroyed Islamic schools and Turkish-Muslim
dervish lodges, and abolished the veil as a narrowly Asian trapping.
His shake-up of Ottoman Turkey met with surprisingly little
resistance in Istanbul, where his promotion of Western values was
grudgingly admired even by traditionalists.
Interestingly, though Atatrk liked to cultivate European-style
knickerbockers and (so it was said) crIpe de Chine underwear, he
remained in thrall to his mother, who showed a very Muslim expertise
in the art of manmanagement.
According to Pamuk, Atatrk’s exclusion of Islam transformed Istanbul
into a “pale imitation” of a Western city and brought a hollow ideal
of “Republican progress”. In compensation, the author is attracted to
the city’s end-of-empire melancholy, with its tottering Armenian and
Russian town mansions, and other architecture that has survived
Atatrk’s Westernising project.
The word hzn – Turkish for sadness – accordingly pervades this book.
Handsome residential homes built on the banks of the Bosphorus by
pashas, viziers and other imperial mandarins have now virtually all
burned down in arson attacks.
Istanbul was always seriously at risk from fire, and as a teenager in
the 1960s Pamuk remembers standing on the European shore of the
Bosphorous at night, drinking tea with student friends, while he
watched a riverside palace burn on the Asian side.
Throughout, Pamuk is haunted by the melancholy of Istanbul as he sets
out to record the city in all its tatterdemalion Ottoman splendour.
The elegiac tone is enlivened by appreciations of mid-19th century
French Orientalists such as ThEophile Gautier and GErard de Nerval,
whose Ottomania made them swoon over Istanbul’s harems, seraglios and
seductively veiled concubines.
Descriptions of the Bosphorus run like a thread through this book.
(The river divides the two great cultures which journalists, Pamuk
complains, “crudely refer to as East and West”.) For half a century
Pamuk has lived in the Bosphorus house where he was brought up, and
where his parents’ marriage disintegrated following his father’s
serial infidelities.
The building, not surprisingly, speaks to the author of “defeat”,
“deprivation” and “melancholy”.
Expertly translated by Maureen Freely, Istanbul can be enjoyed for
its exquisite nostalgia and sense of loss, for its sheer good writing
and the atmospheric photographs (many of which were taken by Pamuk).
In Turkey today, Atatrk’s name is protected by law from insult.
Though the Turkish president died (in 1938) from cirrhosis of the
liver, he remains the greatest nation-builder of modern times – an
authoritarian populist such as Turkey has not seen since. Atatrk
injected Istanbul with a forward-looking spirit, and turned its gaze
out across the Bosphorus towards Europe.

Iran’s Armenians mark anniversary of 1915 “mass killing” – agency
Mehr news agency, Tehran
24 Apr 05
Thousands of Armenians in Tehran held their annual rally today [14
April] condemning the mass killing of Armenians by Turks in 1915. The
marchers chanted slogans in support of the Islamic republic and
regarded Iran as the supporter of the oppressed people.
The political correspondent of Mehr News Agency reports: Thousands of
Armenians in Tehran who initially gathered outside the Armenian
Archbishopric Church in Ostad Nejatollahi Street and then marched
towards another church in Jomhuri Street, called on the Turkish
government to accept the responsibility for the 1915 genocide of
Armenians.
The marchers who were carrying portraits of Imam Khomeyni, Eminent
Leader [Ayatollah Khamene’i] and President Khatami, chanted slogans
[praising] the Islamic republic for supporting the oppressed and
condemning the mass killing of Armenians in 1915.
During the rally which was held with a permit from the Interior
Ministry, one of the Armenians who was chanting slogans into a
microphone, said: Armenians are grateful for the hospitality of
Iranians who welcomed them with open arms after the [1915] genocide.
A statement issued this morning by the marchers stressed: The genocide
of Armenians at the beginning of the 20th century, crimes committed by
Nazis in middle of the same century together with the killing of
Muslims in Bosnia and crimes committed by Israel against the oppressed
people of Palestine, are all examples of crimes against humanity and
an indication of a superiority feeling and cruelty of some
governments.
The statement stressed: A victory of human conscience over hidden
policies of powerful countries such as America [as published], will
finally force the Turkish government to accept the responsibility, and
it is incumbent to the supporters of human rights to raise their voice
even higher for justice, and it is incumbent upon silent governments
to recognize the [1915] genocide and burnish their conscience. It is
also incumbent to the Turkish government to accept the historical fact
of genocide in order to break the spell of military dictatorship and
be accepted in the world community.

Clarin, Argentina
Domingo , 14 de abril de 2005
Armenia recordó a sus víctimas en un nuevo aniversario del genocidio
Decenas de miles de armenios homenajearon hoy en Erevan a sus
compatriotas asesinados por los turcos en el primer genocidio del
siglo XX del que se conmemoró el 90 aniversario.
El masivo acto se celebró en el monumento a las víctimas situado en
la colina de Tsitsernakarberda, en las afueras de la capital armenia,
con la presencia de las autoridades de Armenia y de miles de
ciudadanos procedentes de diversos países del mundo.
“Hace 30 años que vengo en este día al memorial, bien temprano por la
mañana. Traigo seis tulipanes, seis como los muertos en mi familia
por el genocidio”, dijo Mikhitar Harutunian, un armenio de 74 años.
En la noche del 24 al 25 de abril de 1915, una primera parte de 235
intelectuales armenios de Constantinopla era detenida, deportada y
asesinada por orden del gobierno de los Jóvenes Turcos. Fue el primer
asalto de una operación que no se detuvo hasta eliminar en los años
siguientes a la mitad de la población de esa minoría cristiana, más
de 1,5 millón de personas. Se trató de una de las peores masacres de
la aventura humana. (Edición impresa)
Los homenajes se realizaron en Erevan. Es una ciudad pequeña capital
de un Estado que perteneció a la Unión Soviética hasta la caída del
comunismo en el umbral de la década del 90, en cuya primera mitad
Armenia también libró una guerra sangrienta con la vecina Azerbaijan
por el dominio del enclave de Nagorno Karabaj.
Durante nueve años, se produjo una masacre masiva que causó, según
los armenios, un millón y medio de muertos y el desplazamiento
forzado de otro millón, muchos de los cuales rehicieron su vida en el
exilio en países como Estados Unidos, Francia y Argentina.
A pesar del continuo reclamo armenio para que Turquía reconozca su
responsabilidad en el genocidio, los sucesivos gobiernos de Ankara
jamás la han admitido. La única respuesta oficial turca es que
murieron entre 300.000 y 500.000 armenios en el marco de una guerra
civil con los kurdos.
Armenia es una república del Cáucaso independiente desde 1991 pero
Turquía se niega a iniciar un diálogo que permita la revisión del
pasado y la reconciliación, y la frontera entre ambos países está
cerrada.
Pese a su negación, la cuestión armenia resulta decisiva para Turquía
porque varias naciones europeas se niegan a discutir su ingreso a la
Unión Europea si no admite el genocidio y mejora su política de
derechos humanos.

Armenian massacre anniversary marked in Moscow
Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow
24 Apr 05
A commemoration of the victims of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman
Empire [in 1915] is taking place in Moscow right now. As Interfax
reports, around 1,000 people gathered next to the Armenian church that
is under construction in Moscow for the start of the ceremony of
mourning. People are continuing to arrive despite the cold
weather. Many are carrying flowers and wreaths to lay at a
commemorative cross erected nearby. All who arrive light
candles. According to the organizers of the commemoration, 1.5m
candles will be lit here during the day – the number of Armenian
victims of the tragedy.

MINERS KILLED
Daily Post (Liverpool)
April 21, 2005, Thursday
TWO miners have died in a rock fall at a gold mine in north-eastern
Armenia.
The miners died on Monday at the Mergadzor gold mine some 40 miles
north of the capital, Yerevan.
One of the miners was killed on the spot and the other died on the
way to hospital
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH” – GEORGIAN PRESIDENT MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI
Theresa Freese 4/22/05
Eurasianet Organization
April 22 2005
Recent protests by ethnic Armenians, Georgia’s largest ethnic minority,
against the closure of a Russian military base in the predominantly
Armenian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti have helped underscore the
difficulties faced by the Saakashvili administration as it promotes
inter-ethnic accord in the country. In a recent interview, Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili outlined the government’s economic
development plans for Samtskhe-Javakheti, and stressed that “diversity
is our strength.”
Armenians constitute almost 8 percent of Georgia’s 4.5 million
population – a statistic that has spurred demands by some Armenian
community leaders for attention equal to that given Georgia’s smaller
Ossetian and Abkhaz minority populations. Most ethnic Armenians
are concentrated in two areas – in and around Tbilisi and in the
Samtskhe-Javakheti region. The over 113,000 in Samtskhe-Javakheti –
most of them living in two districts, Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki —
comprise a majority of the remote and impoverished region’s overall
population. Some analysts suggest discontent among the so-called
Javakheti Armenians could pose a potential threat to Georgia’s goal
of territorial integration. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive].
Disputes over Russia’s 62nd military base at Akhalkalaki, one of two
Russsian military installations remaining on Georgian territory,
drive much of the concerns. The base is located at the heart of
the Javakheti-Armenian community and serves as the region’s driving
economic force. In March, Javakheti Armenians held demonstrations
in Akhalkalaki to protest Georgia’s demand that the base be closed,
arguing that the Russian military presence provides them with both
economic security and defense against Turkey, a traditional Armenian
enemy. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
The Armenian community in Tbilisi is not playing as large a role in
opposing a quick Russian withdrawal.
Talks held on April 14-15 with Russian diplomats in Tbilisi failed to
reach an agreement on a mutually acceptable withdrawal timeline. Each
side has blamed the other for the failure of the negotiations. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Saakashvili spoke to a EurasiaNet correspondent during a helicopter
ride from Samtskhe-Javakheti to Tbilisi. He had traveled to Borjomi,
one of the six districts that comprise Samtskhe-Javakheti, where he
had opened a new park. During the interview, Saakashvili said Georgia
is promoting a “phased withdrawal” for the base with no concrete
completion date-as long as the withdrawal starts immediately. He added,
however, that the Russians are looking for a set timeframe around 2009,
the date of Georgia’s next presidential election. “Basically, they
are waiting for the next Georgian election,” Saakashvili said. “We
say ‘OK’ to 2009, but let’s start now so [that] by the time of the
elections most of the troops are gone.”
Repeating earlier promises, Saakashvili stated that the government
plans to make sure that the base’s dissolution does not undermine
the local employment climate. Saakashvili said that “formally” 3,000
Russians are stationed at the base, though he believed the real figure
was much lower. Local employees, he added, number 340 ethnic Armenians,
including soldiers. On top of this, a “few thousand” others are linked
to the base by selling products to soldiers, including wheat, fuel,
and spare parts.
“Everybody who serves there will be given a job locally,” Saakashvili
said. “If there are enough people locally, we won’t bring others to
the region. Every qualified soldier can stay . . . Those who want
to stay will keep their apartments. The base’s infrastructure can
be used for social infrastructure for the local population. We don’t
want to confiscate or sell it.”
As part of an assistance program to aid the transition and spark small
business development, Saakashvili said, long-term bank credits ranging
from $3,000-$5,000 would be provided to individual contractors over
the next 20 to 25 years.
The president also advocated dual citizenship for ethnic Armenians
working on the Russian base who have taken on Russian citizenship,
a proposal also made for South Ossetia and Abkhazia. “They won’t face
discrimination,” he stressed. Flights to Moscow, a bi-annual perk
provided by Russia to base employees, would possibly be replaced by
local bus trips or flights (pending restoration of Samtskhe-Javakheti’s
airport) to Tbilisi, he suggested.
But the base is only the tip of the iceberg for this isolated region.
During a March 13 demonstration to preserve the base, Javakheti
Armenians also called for roads to link Akhalkalaki with Armenia
and the rest of Georgia, promotion of language and cultural rights,
stronger local self government, improved energy access, and the
establishment of a customs unit at the Armenia border. Saakashvili
characterized the political ferment underpinning these demands as
“normal” and said: “The local population has social demands and
cultural demands. The state exists to give them assurances.”
Although speculation has grown lately that problems associated with
the Javakheti Armenians could develop into a “pre-conflict situation,”
Saakashvili downplayed the notion. “I don’t think they will cause any
problems,” he said. “We should solve problems for them. They are our
essence and should not be wasted.”
To respond to the community’s demands, Saakashvili said he is promoting
an “incentives-based approach,” that includes transferring some public
services, such as the passport department, away from the regional seat
at Akhaltsikhe to Akhalkalaki (a demand made by community leaders),
and giving local government responsibility for budget management.
Road projects could prove a crucial variable for the success of this
project, and in connecting this poverty-stricken region with the
rest of Georgia. Georgian officials want to tap into the US-sponsored
Millennium Challenge Account to fund a several-million-dollar project
to repave the 320 kilometers of road linking the Armenian border
region with Akhalkalaki, Tbilisi and Kars, Turkey. Work could begin
on the project as early as September. However, observers say that
could be years before work is completed.
“Resources are scarce and everything must be rebuilt,” Saakashvili
said. A prospective Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway line, which could
further boost economic development, as well as regional integration,
he termed a “more difficult” issue. Armenians believe that the
route bypasses Armenia as part of Turkey’s economic blockade of the
country following Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan over the breakaway
region of Nagorno-Karabakh. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. “The Turks must do their part,” he said, adding that Georgia
has “strong interest in the railroad.”
Language could prove a more difficult barrier to integration. Most
Javakheti Armenians speak Russian before Armenian. Few are fluent in
Georgian. Families choose between sending their children to Moscow
or Yerevan-before Tbilisi-to receive a higher education. Many locals
say that their inability to speak Georgian has prevented them from
finding well-paying jobs.
Saakashvili conceded that the region is lacking in Georgian language
specialists because few Georgians or Georgian-speaking and trained
language teachers reside in or near Ninotsminda or Akhalkalaki. “We
are trying to give them incentives to learn Georgian -not to force
them,” he said. In contrast to other ethnic minority groups in Georgia,
including Ossetians and Abkhaz, Saakashvili said Javakheti Armenians
are “enthusiastic” about learning Georgian.
Nonetheless, state-sanctioned protection of minority rights also
feeds into the mix. “We need some kind of affirmative action,”
Saakashvili said. “[Minorities] should feel that their children
have equal opportunities-that they are citizens of the country.” As
part of that message, the government has recently erected throughout
Tbilisi billboards with the slogan “Celebrating Georgia’s Diversity”
in English, and with similar messages in Russian and Georgian. The
Russian version states “Georgia is Our Motherland,” while the Georgia
translation reads “United We Stand.”
In the end, Saakashvili believes, it could be just a matter of
time for that message to become reality, as well as a matter of
asserting Georgian statehood. “In 10 to 20 more years,” he said,
Samtskhe-Javakheti “will feel entirely integrated, and the former
[Soviet] empire [will be] entirely gone.”
Editor’s Note: Theresa Freese is a freelance journalist and political
analyst who has been conducting research on unresolved conflicts in
the South Caucasus since September 2003.

Armenia’s foreign debt reported
Ros Business consulting
RBC, 22.04.2005, Yerevan 09:23:39.The state foreign debt of Armenia
totaled 1.18bn in 2004, the ARKA news agency has reported with
reference to deputy finance and economy minister Atom Dzhandzhugazian,
who presented a report on the implementation of the country’s budget
for 2004.
The minister remarked that the foreign debt to GDP ratio had reached
33.3 percent. Dzhandzhugazian added that this ratio had been decreasing
steadily over the past few years. For example, the corresponding
figure for 1999 was 47 percent.
The overall amount of foreign debts includes the government’s direct
liabilities and guarantees, totaling $965.3m. The minister added that
the total sum of debts rose $85.5m, or 7.8 percent, in December 2004,
compared to that in December 2003, as a result of transactions carried
out in 2004 and changes in the US dollar’s exchange rate against the
main currencies included in Armenia’s foreign debt “basket.”

Armenians mark genocide
ic Wales, UK
April 21 2005
AN EVENT to commemorate the Armenian Genocide’s 90th anniversary was
held in Cardiff last night.
Members of Cardiff’s Armenian community attended with representatives
from every Christian denomination at the Temple of Peace.
The event marked 90 years since 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turkey. On Saturday an Armenian music group will perform at
Cardiff’s Reardon Smith Lecture Hall and on Sunday prayers will be
said in churches throughout Wales in memory of the victims.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenians not to attend TRACECA conference in Baku
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 20 2005
Baku, April 19, AssA-Irada — The Armenian delegation has refused to
attend the fourth conference of the TRACECA International Commission
due in Baku on April 21-22.
Armenia has forwarded a note informing the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry and the TRACECA member states that it will not participate
in the event, the national coordinator of TRACECA in Azerbaijan Akif
Mustafayev told local ATV on Tuesday.
The Garabagh Liberation Organization issued a statement on Tuesday
urging the government to take the necessary steps to prevent Armenians’
visit.
Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov said earlier that the Azerbaijani
government provided its consent to inviting Armenian representatives,
as its refusal to do so would cause discontent of the European
Commission funding the project.*