Author: Badalian Vardan

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
April 16 2004
LAW ON GOVERNMENT ADOPTED
At the April 14 meeting the National Assembly adopted the law `On
government’ according to which the institution of the vice prime
minister was preserved. The number of the vice prime ministers is not
maintained, the authority for deciding it is granted to the president
of the republic. During the meeting it was mentioned that if there is
only one prime minister in Russia, in Armenia there is none, then
keeping several vice prime ministers in Karabakh is lavishness.
NAIRA HAYRUMIAN

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 21, 2004 Wednesday
Armenian opposition organises march in central Yerevan
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
About 2,000 people marched through the centre of Yerevan on Wednesday
evening, bringing an unauthorised opposition rally to an end.
Police escorted the march but did not interfere. No incidents were
reported.
The opposition said it would organise a march on Saturday, April 24,
when the victims of the Ottoman empire’s genocide in 1915 will be
remembered.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 21, 2004 Wednesday 2:19 PM Eastern Time
Man carrying 3 kg of illegal diamonds detained at Moscow airport
MOSCOW
Customs officials at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo-2 airport have detained a
national of Armenia, who was trying to take into Russia a load of 2.6
kilograms of rough diamonds, press spokesmen for the airport’s
customs service said.
The smuggler, 39, was detained at 22:30 Moscow time Tuesday. When the
customers were checking the passengers of a Yerevan-Moscow flight,
they found that the man had a strange fabric belt under his sweater.
It contained 12 plastic bags with jewels the size of 0.5 carats to 2
carats. Their total weight was 2.65 kilograms.
Wednesday, the experts were working to establish the cost of the
confiscated consignment.
One of them indicated that a carat of a gem-quality stone would
usually cost about a hundred U.S. dollars, while the price of cut
diamonds would depend on the quality of cutting.
The Armenian man is now subject to a criminal case invoking charges
of smuggling.

Armenian paper critical of state policy on Iran gas pipeline
Haykakan Zhamanak
17 Apr 04

Text of Erdzanik Abgaryan’s report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan
Zhamanak on 17 April headlined “Kocharyan is giving a big gas pipeline
to a Turk as a gift”
It is no secret that the European Union has a positive attitude
towards the idea that the Central Asia-Iran-Armenia gas pipeline
should go via Armenia, suggesting the closure of the Armenian Nuclear
Power Station, which meets the interests of the people’s
security. Iran’s position on this issue is absolutely good.
But it is strange and tragicomic that the special representative of
the EU for the South Caucasus, Heikki Talvitie, and Iran’s Foreign
Minister Kamal Kharrazi have tried to persuade the Kocharyan
administration to agree to build the gas pipeline via Armenia. So the
gas pipeline caused a stir last week.
[Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan] Oskanyan, who fails all strategic
issues together with his chief [Armenian President Robert Kocharyan],
visited Tehran and finally buried the hope that the gas pipeline will
be constructed via Armenia. Information sources disseminate
contradictory information about that visit and it may be concluded
that the Armenian authorities and their secret services were behind
that flow of disinformation. But on 13 April Iran’s Oil Minister
[Bizhan Namdar-]Zanganeh announced that a contract on the Iran-Armenia
gas pipeline is already ready and he will soon visit Armenia for
signing it. Saying that the volumes of Iranian gas supplies are
limited by 1,500m cu.m. annually, Zanganeh in fact confirmed that the
constructed pipeline will not be a transit one. That is, Armenia is
withdrawn from this international programme just the same way as it
was withdrawn from other international and regional programmes. As a
result of it, the Armenians will be deprived of those significant sums
that would be charged for transit, and of many jobs, and it is even
more tragic that Armenia will be sidelined from all international
interests.
As can be seen, the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline will also be under
Russia’s control as Russia’s Itera will be the gas pipeline’s
operator. We do not accuse Russia, we accuse its Armenian stooges:
Kocharyan and his administration who betrayed our national
interests. Nevertheless, it is obvious that Russia’s diplomatic
position on this gas pipeline is based not only on its aspiration to
preserve its monopoly on gas supplies to Europe, but also on its aim
to establish deeper relations with the Turks and Azerbaijanis. The
point is that the Russians also know that the Central Asia-Iran-Europe
pipeline will be undoubtedly constructed. And if not via Armenia, it
may be constructed via Turkey or Azerbaijan.
So withdrawing Armenia from the regional and international cooperation
programmes, as well as from the Central Asia-Iran-Europe gas pipeline
system, Russia simply cooperates with Turkey and Azerbaijan in the
issue of sidelining Armenia from the world processes. So we can say
that the “national” socialist Dashnaks and the law-abiding persons who
have turned the National Assembly into barracks, headed by Kocharyan,
are handing the strategic interests of Armenia to the Turks on a
plate. And today’s opposition, at its mass rallies, is obliged to
disclose this crime along with other crimes of the Kocharyan
administration which flouts the interests of the Armenian people and
statehood.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Patriachate of Jerusalem
P.O. Box 14235
Jerusalem (Old City), Israel
Contact: Bp. Aris Shirvanian, Fr. Issahag Minasyan
Tel: +972 2 626 4853
Fax: +972 2 626 4861
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
12 April 2004
OFFICIAL COMMUNIQUE
EASTER EVE HOLY FIRE CREMONY CONDUCTED PEACEFULLY
The Easter Eve Holy Fire Ceremony was held on Saturday, 10 April 2004 and,
despite tension, dispute and concern of break out of violence, was conducted
peacefully in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
This year’s representative of the Armenian Patriarch as torch-bearer was
Bishop Vicken Aykazian a senior member of St. James Armenian Brotherhood,
and the Diocesan Legate, and the executive director of the ecumenical Office
of the Armenian Church in Washington DC. Accompanying the Greek Orthodox
Patriarch Irenios I Bishop Vicken entered the Holy Tomb of our Risen Lord
together with The Greek Orthodox Patriarch where each lit his bundle of
candles from the oil lamp placed on the Holy Tomb.
Then both proceeded towards the respective windows in the chapel of the
Angel, through which each respectively passed the candles out to the
faithful. The ceremony was held under heavy police presence and security
measures, and the number of participating Christian faithful of the
Armenian, Greek, Coptic and Syrian Orthodox Churches was initially limited
by the Police. These measures were taken after the failure of the intensive
negotiations between the Armenian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Patriarchs to
reach a solution over the burning issue of centuries long Status-Quo
protocol regarding the Holy Fire Ceremony. The issue of the Holy Fire
ceremony is not yet legally resolved.
However, the Israeli government undertook to finally resolve this issue in
the immediate future.
DIVAN OF THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE OF JERUSALEM

The Independent (London)
April 9, 2004, Friday
SPORTING DIGEST: BOXING
Scott Harrison will defend his World Boxing Organisation
featherweight title against William Abelyan on 29 May at the Braehead
Arena, Glasgow. The Cambuslang fighter has been due to face the
Armenian for his last defence of the title last month before Abelyan
withdrew through injury. However, after defeating the stand-in
opponent Walter Estrada, Harrison will finally face Abelyan who has
recovered from a shoulder problem.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 6, 2004, Tuesday
FACTFILE: Facts on Cyprus
The island republic of Cyprus lies in the eastern Mediterranean about
64 kilometres south of Turkey and 97 kilometres west of Syria. It is
the third largest island in the Mediterranean.
A few facts about Cyprus:
Population: 715,100 (south of the island, January 2004)
Size: 9,251 square kilometres
Capital: Nicosia (about 160,000 inhabitants in southern Greek part,
about 40,000 inhabitants in the northern Turkish sector)
Head of state/ government: President Tassos Papadopoulos
Population structure: Greek Cypriots 78 per cent; Turkish Cypriots 18
per cent; Maronites, Latin Roman, Catholics and Armenians 4 per
cent.(Latest estimates after immigration of Turkish settlers from
Anatolia: Greeks 70 per cent; Turks 30 per cent)
Religions: Greek-Orthodox: 99 per cent of the Greek Cypriot
community; Moslems: 100 per cent of the Turkish Cypriot community
Unemployment: 2.4 per cent (March 2004)
Currency: Cyprus Pound (CYP) 1 euro = 0.587 CYP 1 dollar = 0.4774 CYP
International vehicle CY registration:
“Hello”: “Kalimera” (Greek), “Guenaydin” (Turkish)
No official data has been released by the Turkish-occupied Turkish
Republic of North Cyprus which is not internationally recognized. The
population in North Cyprus is estimated at 220,000 Turkish Cypriots
and Turkish settlers as well as about 35,000 Turkish soldiers.

Pambazuka 150
April 5 2004
Why We Must Never Forget the Rwanda Genocide
Fahamu (Oxford)
by Gerald Caplan
Pambuzuka News 150: A Weekly Electronic Newsletter For Social Justice
In Africa
This editorial was produced as part of a special issue of Pambazuka
News on the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide. The full issue
is also available on allAfrica.com Pambazuka News 150.

Those of us who are preoccupied, even obsessed, with commemorating in
2004 the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide are often taken
aback when we’re asked what all the fuss is about. After all, just
today I received from the Holocaust Centre of Toronto an invitation
to join in commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust in
Hungary. Not the entire Holocaust, just the terrible Hungarian
chapter. Yet memorializing the genocide in Rwanda is never taken for
granted in the same way.
Isn’t it already ancient history? Aren’t there all kinds of human
catastrophes that no one much bothers with? Didn’t it take place in
faraway Africa, in an obscure country few people could find on a map.
Wasn’t it just another case of Africans killing Africans? What does
it have to do with us, anyway?
These questions deserve answers, not least because some are entirely
legitimate. Above all, it is fundamentally true that there would have
been no genocide had some Rwandans not decided for their own selfish
reasons to exterminate many other Rwandans. But once this truth is
acknowledged, a powerful case for remembering Rwanda remains, and
needs to be made.
The responsibility to remember:
First, Rwanda was not just another ugly event in human history.
Virtually all students of the subject agree that what happened over
100 days from April to July 1994 constituted one of the purest
manifestations of genocide in our time, meeting all the criteria set
down in the 1948 Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of Genocide. Genocide experts debate whether Cambodia or Srebrenica
or Burundi were “authentic” genocides; like the Holocaust and (except
for the Turkish government and its apologists) the Armenian genocide
of 1915, no one disagrees about Rwanda. And since genocide is
universally seen as the crime of crimes, an attack not just on the
actual victims but on all humanity, by definition it needs to be
remembered and memorialized.
Second, it wasn’t just another case of Africans killing Africans, or,
as some clueless reporters enjoyed writing, of Hutu killing Tutsi and
Tutsi killing Hutu (or Hutsi and Tutu, for all they knew or cared).
The Rwandan genocide was a deliberate conspiratorial operation
planned, organized and executed by a small, sophisticated, highly
organized group of greedy Hutu extremists who believed their
self-interest would be enhanced if every one of Rwanda’s 1 million
Tutsi were annihilated. They came frighteningly close to total
success.
Third, the west has played a central role in Rwanda over the past
century. Just as no person is an island and there’s no such thing as
a self-made man, so every nation is the synthesis of internal and
external influences. This is particularly true of nations that have
been colonies, where imperial forces have played a defining role. To
its everlasting misfortune, Rwanda is the quintessential example of
this reality. The central dynamic of Rwandan history for the past 80
years, the characteristic that allowed the genocide to be carried
out, was the bitter division between Hutu and Tutsi. Yet this
division was largely an artifact created by the Roman Catholic Church
and the Belgian colonizers.
Instead of trying to unite all the people they found in Rwanda 100
years ago, Catholic missionaries invented an entire phony pedigree
that irreconcilably divided Rwandans into superior Tutsi and inferior
Hutu. When the Belgians were given control of the country following
World War 1, this contrived hierarchy served their interests well,
and they proceeded to institutionalize what amounted to a racist
ideology. At independence in the early 1960s, this pyramid was turned
on its head, and for the next 40 years Rwanda was run as a racist
Hutu dictatorship. None of this would have happened without the
Church and the Belgians.
The Culprits:
Last, but hardly least, the 1994 genocide could have been prevented
in whole or in part by some of the same external forces that shaped
the country’s tragic destiny. But without exception, every outside
agency with the capacity to intervene failed to do so. My own list of
culprits, in order of responsibility, is as follows:
-the government of France
-the Roman Catholic Church
-the government of the United States
-the government of Belgium
-the government of Britain
-the UN Secretariat.
I name the French and the Church first since they both had the
influence to deter the genocide plotters from launching the genocide
in the first place. Rwanda was the most Christianized country in
Africa and the Roman Catholics were far and away the largest
Christian denomination. Catholicism was virtually the official state
religion. Catholic officials had enormous influence at both the elite
and the grassroots level, which they consistently failed to use to
protest against the government’s overtly racist policies and
practices. Indeed, the Church gave the government moral authority.
Once the genocide began, Catholic leaders in the main refused to
condemn the government, never used the word genocide, and many
individual priests and nuns actually aided the genocidaires.
Rwanda was a French-speaking country, and France replaced Belgium as
the key foreign presence. When the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a
rebel group of English-speaking Tutsi refugees from Uganda, invaded
Rwanda in 1990, the French military flew in to save the day for the
Hutu government. For the following several years, right to the very
moment the genocide began, French officials had enormous influence
with both the Rwandan government and army. They failed completely to
use that leverage to insist that the government curtail its racist
policies and propaganda, stop the increasing massacres, end the
widespread human rights abuses, and disband the death squads and
death lists.
Two months after the genocide began, a French intervention force
created a safe haven in the south-west of the country through which
they allowed genocidaires leaders and killers, fleeing from the
advancing RPF, to escape across the border into Zaire. From Zaire
they began an insurgency back into Rwanda with the purpose of
“finishing the job”. Eventually this led to the Rwandans invading
Zaire/Congo to suppress the insurgency, which in turn soon led to the
vicious wars in the Congo and the subsequent appalling cost in human
lives throughout eastern Congo.
Once the genocide was launched after April 6, 1994, the American
government, steadfastly backed by the British government, were
primarily responsible for the failure of the UN Security Council to
reinforce its puny mission to Rwanda. Under no circumstances were
these governments prepared to budge. The Commander of the UN force –
UNAMIR – repeatedly pleaded for reinforcements, and was repeatedly
turned down.
Two weeks into the genocide, the Security Council voted to reduce
UNAMIR from 2500 to 270 men – an act almost impossible to believe 10
years later. Six weeks into the genocide, as credible reports of
hundreds of thousands of deaths became commonplace and the reality of
a full-blown genocide became undeniable, the Security Council voted
finally to send some 4500 troops to Rwanda. Several contingents of
African troops were put on standby, but deliberate stalling tactics
by the USA and Britain meant that by the end of the genocide, when
the Tutsi-led rebels were sworn in as the new government on July 19,
not a single reinforcement of soldiers or material ever reached
Rwanda. This was one of the darkest moments in the history of the
United Nations.
As for Belgium, notwithstanding the racist attitudes and colonial
behaviour of its soldiers, their contingent was the backbone of
UNAMIR. When 10 Belgian soldiers were murdered by Rwandan government
troops on the very first morning of the genocide, the Brussels
government immediately decided to withdraw the remainder of its
forces and to lobby the Security Council to suspend the entire
Rwandan mission. Its motive was simple: They did not want to be seen
as the sole party undermining UNAMIR. At the Security Council, of
course, it found eager allies.
The role of the UN Secretariat is somewhat ambiguous. To a large
extent, its failure to support the pleas of its own UNAMIR Force
Commander reflected its lack of capacity to cope with yet another
crisis combined with its understanding that the US and Britain would
not alter their intransigent positions. Still, there were many
occasions when the Secretariat failed to convey to the full Security
Council the dire situation in Rwanda, and many opportunities when it
failed to speak up publicly in the hope of influencing world opinion.
A multitude of betrayals:
It is not far-fetched to say that the world has betrayed Rwanda
countless times since its first confrontation with Europeans in the
mid-1890s. This previous account has presented several of these
betrayals before and during the genocide: by the Catholic Church, by
the Belgian colonial power, by the French neo-colonial power, by the
international community.
To exacerbate further this shameful record, we need to look at the
past decade. First, the concept that the world owed serious
reparations to a devastated Rwanda for its failure to prevent the
genocide has been a total non-starter.
Second, there has been precious little accountability by the
international community for its failure to prevent. The French
government and the Roman Catholic Church have to this moment refused
to acknowledge the slightest responsibility for their roles or to
apologize for any of their gross errors of commission or omission.
President Bill Clinton and Secretary-General Koki Annan have both
apologized for their failure to offer protection, but have both
falsely blamed insufficient information; in fact what was lacking was
not knowledge – the situation was universally understood – but
political will and sufficient national interest. No one has ever quit
their jobs in protest against their government’s or their
organisation’s failure to intervene to save close to one million
innocent civilian lives.
Those we must not forget:
Finally, the very existence of the genocide has largely disappeared
from the public and media’s consciousness. This is the latest
betrayal. Marginalized during the genocide, Rwanda’s calamity is now
largely forgotten except for Rwandans themselves and small clusters
of non-Rwandans who have had some connection with the country or
specialize in genocide prevention. That’s why I founded the
Remembering Rwanda movement in July of 2001. I had four targets for
remembering: the innocent victims; the survivors, many of whom live
in deplorable conditions with few resources to tend to their physical
or psychological needs; the perpetrators, most of whom remain free
and unrepentant scattered around Africa, Europe and parts of North
America; and the so-called “bystanders”, the unholy sextet named
earlier. Rather than being passive witnesses, as the word “bystander”
implies, all were active in their failure to intervene to stop the
massacres, and all remain unaccountable to this day. It is time the
Rwandan genocide is treated with the concern and attention it so
grievously earned.
* Gerald Caplan is the author of Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide
(2000), the report of the International Panel of Eminent
Personalities appointed by the Organization of African Unity to
investigate the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the founder of
“Remembering Rwanda: The Rwanda Genocide 10th Anniversary Memorial
Project”.
* NOTE FOR EDITORS: Please note that this editorial was commissioned
from the author for Pambazuka News. If you would like to use this
article for your publication, please do so with the following credit:
“This article first appeared in Pambazuka News, an electronic
newsletter for social justice in Africa, “. Editors
are also encouraged to make a donation.
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Turkish Press
April 1 2004
Who Would Gain What From A Solution In Cyprus?
BYEGM: 4/1/2004
BY MURAT YETKIN
RADIKAL- While Ankara’s National Security Council is evaluating
recent development on Cyprus, other countries will hold similar
meetings. Therefore, it would be useful to summarize the expectations
of the parties involved.
The Greek part of Cyprus: This is the party least willing to reach a
solution by May 1. It has scored economic and political progress even
as its Turkish neighbor has stagnated under a political and economic
embargo. It is acting with the assurance of guaranteed European Union
membership. But due to its worries about the sovereignty of the
Turkish side and international pressure, it’s still at the table.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC): Nicosia’s greatest
hope is to gain EU membership and international recognition without
harming bizonality and Turkey’s guarantees. TRNC President Rauf
Denktas’s current stance is negative. The government can be a winner
if it manages to convince its people to approve an agreement.
Greece: If no agreement is reached, the Greek part of the island will
become an EU member, and Athens will be keeping its promise to the
Greek Cypriots. But it would face heavier EU pressure and would be
held responsible for a division in Cyprus and excluding Turkey from
the Union. In addition, the unresolved situation in Cyprus would make
reaching a solution in the Aegean more difficult. This situation
contradicts Greece’s policies of removing any threat from the east
and cutting its defense expenditures.
Turkey: A just and permanent solution in Cyprus will benefit Turkey
in many ways. Firstly, it will remove a real obstacle to Turkey’s EU
membership. Secondly, Anakra will have proved it can work within
Europe’s culture of political pacts. Thirdly, Turkey will be able to
conduct its foreign policy more effectively. Better steps will be
taken in the Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus.
Britain: The third guarantor nation for Cyprus will feel better if a
unified Cyprus joins the EU. The Cyprus problem will then be part of
the Union. If these problems end with Turkey’s own membership, this
will mean security and stability in the eastern part of Europe.
The European Union: A solution in Cyprus will boost the arguments in
favor of Turkey’s EU membership. In this respect, Germany’s claim
that Turkey as a secular Muslim country implementing Western
democratic values would constitute a bridge to other Muslim countries
would be strengthened.
The United States: Washington has more than one expectation in
Cyprus. A solution in the eastern Mediterranean could be an example
for the conflicts in Israel-Palestine and Armenia-Azerbaijan. The
solution in Cyprus on land could be an example for the Azerbaijani
land that was invaded by Armenia [upper Karabagh]. The Armenian
diaspora in the US is the only obstacle to such a solution. A Cyprus
deal would help the US convince the Armenians.

Fresno stadium-area redevelopment OK’d
By Jim Davis
The Fresno Bee
March 31, 2004
A proposal for a $350 million to $400 million mix of housing, entertainment
and retailers in downtown Fresno won unanimous support Tuesday from the
Fresno City Council.
Forest City Enterprises envisions the development on 85 acres southeast of
Grizzlies Stadium. The project could include a lake, a river walk or a
series of fountains.
“We believe in downtown Fresno,” said Andres Freedman, project developer
with Forest City. “We believe it has a lot of potential, but we need to do a
lot of due diligence.”
The Fresno City Council told its staff to negotiate an exclusive agreement
with Forest City to develop in the area.
With an exclusive right to develop the area, Freedman said, Forest City can
start environmental, traffic and other studies and contact potential tenants
for the area. He said his company believes the area can be redeveloped.
“Market studies suggest that there’s a great opportunity,” Freedman said.
Council Member Tom Boyajian said the council hoped its decision to build the
baseball stadium would spur development in downtown.
“I was hoping that we would be able to attract someone to the dance like
you,” Boyajian said.
But property owners in the area and other residents expressed concerns about
the project’s impact.
Larry Kragh, president of Arrow Electric Motor Service, which is in the
study area, said his business has supported the city for years. He asked
that the city assist business owners who could be affected by the
development.
“Don’t make me pay for this project,” Kragh said.
The project would be in an area generally bounded by Union Pacific Railroad,
Van Ness Avenue, Tulare Street and Freeway 41.
Forest City Enterprises, a real estate company based in Ohio, is a property
owner and partner in the MarketPlace at River Park shopping center in north
Fresno.
The company is one of the nation’s largest of its kind and has developed
urban centers throughout the country, said Dan Fitzpatrick, executive
director of the city’s Redevelopment Agency.
Fitzpatrick said the company is looking at redeveloping a large area of
downtown.
“The area we’re talking about is as big as Universal Studios,” Fitzpatrick
said. “It’s as big as Old Town Pasadena.”
Fitzpatrick said redeveloping the area could be a boon for the city in many
ways, including more property taxes as property values rise.
The project — known as the South Stadium project — will be sandwiched
between two other major downtown developments.
To the west, a development group has proposed building hundreds of homes and
adding retail and commercial shopping to the historic Chinatown district.
To the east, Gunner-Andros Investments plans to build Old Armenian Town, a
series of high-rise office buildings anchored by a state appellate
courthouse.
City staffers are expected to return a negotiated agreement with Forest City
in 45 days.
The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or 441-6171.