Author: Chakrian Hovsep

KOCHARIAN SETS UP ANTI-CORRUPTION COUNCIL
ArmenPress
June 2 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
decreed today setting up the Council for Struggling Against
Corruption. A press release by Kocharian’s press office said the
Council is set up for full and effective implementation of the
government-designed anti-corruption policy, elimination and prevention
of reasons giving birth to corruption and improvement of anti-graft
measures by the authorized bodies.
The new body, composed of chief minister of government staff, justice
minister, an advisor to president, chief prosecutor, governor of
the Central Bank, chairman of a government commission for protection
of economic competition, chairman of parliament Audit Chamber and a
head of a presidential oversight service is headed by prime minister
Andranik Margarian.
The Council is supposed to develop effective anti-corruption measures,
monitor and coordinate their implementation in line with Armenia’s
international obligations.

UNESCO Supports Development of Armenian Unicode System
noticias.info (press release), Spain
June 2 2004
To commemorate the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the
Armenian alphabet, UNESCO, through its project Initiative B@bel,
and the Matenadaran Institute in Yerevan have launched a project
to enhance access to information in the digital environment for the
Armenian language.
The project will develop a Unicode compatible font to overcome some
current constraints in the use of the Armenian language in fields
such as modern print and digital publishing.
Currently there are many Armenian fonts, which use non-standard
encoding systems which can make information exchange between users,
for example e-mail, unreliable. Many of the available fonts have
only limited styles and do not offer the possibility of recreating
the rich detailed design features of the languages such as can be
seen in older traditional Armenian manuscripts. This poses certain
challenges and limitations for publisher and contemporary digital
graphic artists. The project will therefore seek to address such
esthetic, legal and standardization issues. Particular attention will
also be given to the training of local font designers and working
with local institutions to raise awareness of good practices.
The Armenian alphabet was developed around 405 AD by Mesrop
Mashtots a scholarly monk in the Royal Court. The original alphabet
contained 36 letters but two additional characters were later added
to facilitate the writing of foreign words. The development of this
writing system spurred a cultural a renaissance in Armenia and for
this reason St. Mashtots is credited with starting Armenia’s golden
age of literature.
Today, some 3 million inhabitants of Armenia use the Armenian
language. There is also a culturally aware Armenian diaspora of around
4 million persons many of whom still write and speak Armenian. It is
expected that this initiative will facilitate online information
exchanges and content creation in Armenian and contribute to the
preservation and promotion of the Armenian culture in the digital
environment.
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Bush Points the Way
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
New York Times
May 29 2004
I doff my hat, briefly, to President Bush.
Sudanese peasants will be naming their sons “George Bush” because
he scored a humanitarian victory this week that could be a momentous
event around the globe – although almost nobody noticed. It was Bush
administration diplomacy that led to an accord to end a 20-year civil
war between Sudan’s north and south after two million deaths.
If the peace holds, hundreds of thousands of lives will be saved,
millions of refugees will return home, and a region of Africa may
be revived.
But there’s a larger lesson here as well: messy African wars are
not insoluble, and Western pressure can help save the day. So it’s
all the more shameful that the world is failing to exert pressure on
Sudan to halt genocide in its Darfur region. Darfur is unaffected by
the new peace accords.
I’m still haunted by what I saw when I visited the region in March:
a desert speckled with fresh graves of humans and the corpses of
donkeys, the empty eyes of children who saw their fathers killed,
the guilt of parents fumbling to explain how they had survived while
their children did not.
The refugees tell of sudden attacks by the camel-riding Janjaweed
Arab militia, which is financed by the Sudanese government, then a
panic of shooting and fire. Girls and women are routinely branded
after they are raped, to increase the humiliation.
One million Darfur people are displaced within Sudan, and 200,000
have fled to Chad. Many of those in Sudan are stuck in settlements
like concentration camps.
I’ve obtained a report by a U.N. interagency team documenting
conditions at a concentration camp in the town of Kailek: Eighty
percent of the children are malnourished, there are no toilets,
and girls are taken away each night by the guards to be raped. As
inmates starve, food aid is diverted by guards to feed their camels.
The standard threshold for an “emergency” is one death per 10,000
people per day, but people in Kailek are dying at a staggering 41 per
10,000 per day – and for children under 5, the rate is 147 per 10,000
per day. “Children suffering from malnutrition, diarrhea, dehydration
and other symptoms of the conditions under which they are being held
live in filth, directly exposed to the sun,” the report says.
“The team members, all of whom are experienced experts in humanitarian
affairs, were visibly shaken,” the report declares. It describes
“a strategy of systematic and deliberate starvation being enforced
by the GoS [government of Sudan] and its security forces on the
ground.” (Read the 11-page report here.)
Demographers at the U.S. Agency for International Development estimate
that at best, “only” 100,000 people will die in Darfur this year of
malnutrition and disease. If things go badly, half a million will die.
This is not a natural famine, but a deliberate effort to eliminate
three African tribes in Darfur so Arabs can take their land. The
Genocide Convention defines such behavior as genocide, and it obliges
nations to act to stop it. That is why nobody in the West wants to
talk about Darfur – because of a fear that focusing on the horror
will lead to a deployment in Sudan.
But it’s not a question of sending troops, but of applying pressure –
the same kind that succeeded in getting Sudan to the north-south peace
agreement. If Mr. Bush would step up to the cameras and denounce this
genocide, if he would send Colin Powell to the Chad-Sudan border,
if he would telephone Sudan’s president again to demand humanitarian
access to the concentration camps, he might save hundreds of thousands
of lives.
Yet while Mr. Bush has done far too little, he has at least issued
a written statement, sent aides to speak forcefully at the U.N. and
raised the matter with Sudan’s leaders. That’s more than the Europeans
or the U.N. has done. Where are Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac? Where
are African leaders, like Nelson Mandela? Why isn’t John Kerry speaking
out forcefully? And why are ordinary Americans silent?
Islamic leaders abroad have been particularly shameful in standing
with the Sudanese government oppressors rather than with the Muslim
victims in Darfur. Do they care about dead Muslims only when the
killers are Israelis or Americans?
As for America, we have repeatedly failed to stand up to genocide,
whether of Armenians, Jews, Cambodians or Rwandans. Now we’re letting
it happen again.

EXPULSION AS GLOBAL PROBLEM TO BE THEME OF SUDETENS ASSEMBLY
NUREMBERG, May 27 ; (PVR)
Czech News Agency (CTK)
CTK National News Wire
May 27, 2004
Expulsion as a global problem will be the main issue of this year’s
Sudeten German national assembly scheduled for the forthcoming weekend,
Bernd Posselt, the chairman of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft
(SL), told the German news agency DPA today.
The meeting will also be attended by representatives of other ethnic
groups which have fallen victim to expulsion and ethnic cleansing
such as Armenians, Kosovo Albanians and Croatians, Posselt said.
The SL leadership wants to set the deportation of Sudeten Germans
in the present-day context of ethnic cleansing in the world, as
evidenced by Posselt pointing to the current situation in Sudan as
a latest problem.
Posselt said he expected the meeting to deal with the Benes decrees,
called by Sudeten Germans as the cause of their deportation.
The meeting is likely to criticise the recent decision of the Czech
Parliament to pass a law saying that Czechoslovak president Edvard
Benes helped build the state.
Posselt said that the law was “unreasonable wilfulness on a part of
the Czech political scene.”
The meeting will culminate by the speech of Bavarian Minister President
Edmund Stoiber on Sunday.
On the basis of the Benes decrees, ethnic Germans and some Hungarians
were transferred from Czechoslovakia after World War Two and their
property was confiscated. The deportees and some politicians in
Germany and Austria as well as Hungary call the decrees incompatible
with Prague and Bratislava’s membership of the EU, and call for
their abolition.

ADJUTANT GENERAL OF THE KANSAS NATIONAL GUARD, MAJOR GENERAL TOD M.
BUNTING, VISITS ARMENIA TO DISCUSS BEGINNING OF STATE PARTNERSHIP
PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
ArmenPress
May 25 2004
YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS: Major General Tod M. Bunting, Adjutant
General of the Kansas National Guard, is visiting Armenia from
the 25th to the 29th of May, 2004, to discuss the beginning of
the State Partnership Program (SPP) between Kansas and Armenia,
reported the US Embassy public affairs office. This is Major General
Bunting’s first visit to Armenia. He and his delegation will meet
with Armenian government officials from the ministry of defense,
emergency management administration and the ministry of health to
discuss areas of cooperation, including peacekeeping operations,
health/medical activities, and disaster preparedness and emergency
management as well. The State Partnership Program is initiated with
the National Guard of a given state, with coordination provided by
the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy, and may include
military-to-military, military-to-civilian, and civilian-to-civilian
programs of cooperation.
The National Guard consists of men and women who, though working at
regular civilian jobs in their home state, dedicate a part of their
time to military service. Every state and territory has its own Guard
as provided by the Constitution of the United States. The Guard in
each state is made up of Army National Guard and Air National Guard
units. Guard units may serve to combat natural disasters, to support
regular Army or Air Force units, and, when called upon, to bear arms
against their nation’s enemies. The Guard of a given state is under
the control of the governor during peacetime, yet is available to
the President during national emergencies.
The State Partnership Program links National Guard states and
territories with partner countries for the purpose of fostering
mutual interests and establishing long-term relationships across
all levels of society. The SPP between Kansas and Armenia began
with initial discussions in March 2003. The Kansas-Armenia SPP
was officially inaugurated during the fall of 2003. The Armenian
military has asked Kansas for assistance in the two major areas of
Peacekeeping Operations and Health/Medical. Other areas of concern
and possible cooperation are Emergency Management and Planning, and
Disaster Response. Further programs in different areas are expected
to follow in time as the relationship develops and widens.

CIS def mins to coordinate efforts on non-proliferation of WMDs
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 21, 2004 Friday
YEREVAN, May 21 — The defence ministers of CIS countries backed an
initiative by the Russian Foreign Ministry to coordinate positions
of the Commonwealth countries on non-proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov who chaired the meeting, said
that meeting participants “unanimously backed proposals on concerting
positions of our countries on such a pressing international problem”.
Summing up meeting results, Ivanov noted that much attention was
given to the operation of the CIS United Air Defence System. He said
that “the adoption of a Targeted Programme for ensuring comprehensive
counteraction by armed forces of the Commonwealth countries to forces
and means of an air attack by a potential enermy will be another
important and efficient measure to improve multilateral cooperation
in this sphere. “Its draft was approved today and will be submitted
to the Council of the CIS Heads of Government,” the minister specified.
According to Ivanov, meeting participants adopted important decisions
on joint actions on training CIS armed forces in 2005, organizing
activities of collective peacekeeping forces of the Commonwealth,
raising security of flights of military aviation, creating a United
Communications System and improving cooperation in weather forecast
work.
The meeting was attended by all CIS ministers, apart from Turkmenistan
and Azerbaijan. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan received the
defence ministers on Friday. Ivanov who chaired the meetings, informed
the president of its results. He emphasized that decisions, taken at
the meeting, “will help to consolidate security and stability over
the entire space of the Commonwealth”.
Ivanov who arrived in Yerevan on a working visit, held talks on
Thursday with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisyan. “We have made
another important and practical step towards deepening Russian-Armenian
strategic partnership, security of our countries as well as maintenance
of peace and stability in Transcaucasia,” the minister said, summing
up the results of the meeting with his colleague.

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th Street NW Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2004
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
ANCA RENEWS CALL FOR U.S.-ARMENIA TAX TREATY
— Treaty Needed to Address Growing Bilateral Commerce
and Increased Diasporan Economic Involvement in Armenia
WASHINGTON, DC – In a letter to Treasury Secretary John W. Snow and
in correspondence sent today to members of Congress, the Armenian
National Committee Of America (ANCA) renewed its call for the U.S.
government to facilitate the growing levels of U.S.-Armenia trade
and investment by negotiating a comprehensive tax treaty with
Armenia.
“With the expansion of U.S.-Armenia economic ties, it is more
important than ever that our government negotiate a comprehensive
and far-reaching tax treaty that will strengthen the U.S.-Armenia
economic relationship for many decades to come,” said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “The Department of the Treasury
should be working closely with the Armenian government and with
American businesses operating in Armenia – including the growing
number run by Diasporan Armenians – to specifically tailor an
agreement that addresses the needs of Americans who divide their
careers between the U.S. and Armenia – or who plan to retire to
Armenia – in terms of portability of pensions and healthcare and a
variety of other concerns.”
The U.S. has negotiated tax treaties with over forty nations in
order to clarify the taxation of transactions, investments, rents,
royalties, management contracts, dividends, interest and salaries
of companies and employees working in both countries. The U.S. has
recently exchanged instruments of ratification with three new
countries – Ukraine, Luxembourg, and Denmark.
As part of its broader efforts to strengthen U.S.-Armenia bilateral
economic relations, the ANCA has been working for more than four
years to encourage the U.S. to negotiate a tax treaty with Armenia.
Other elements of this effort included helping to secure Armenia’s
membership in the World Trade Organization – which took place in
February of last year – and the granting to Armenia of Permanent
Normal Trade Relations Status (PNTR). Several thousand Armenian
Americans have written to the Social Security Administration using
the ANCA WebFax program to call for a Social Security Agreement
that would help U.S. citizens who work part of the year or plan to
retire in Armenia. At the state level, the ANCA-Western Region
spearheaded the creation of the California-Armenia Trade Office,
which is set to open in Yerevan later this year.
In January of 2002, Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen Joe
Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) urged the then Treasury
Secretary, Paul O’Neill, to help expedite a bilateral tax treaty
between the U.S. and Armenia that would effectively eliminate the
“double taxation” of income of citizens working in both countries.
The appeal came on the eve of an inter-agency U.S. Armenia Task
Force meeting, which discussed taxation issues as part of an
overall framework to promote bilateral trade and economic
cooperation between the two countries.
For an overall review of U.S. Tax Treaties
For the full text of most U.S. Tax Treaties:
ind_info/ treaties.html.
For information about Armenia on the website of the U.S. Department
of Commerce:
To learn about USAID’s private sector aid to Armenia:
### ##

DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
May 19, 2004, Wednesday
BLACK SHADOW ABOVE BATUMI
SOURCE: Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier, No 17, May 12 – 18, 2004, pp. 1,
7
by Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, Vice President of the Academy of
Geopolitical Problems
COLONEL GENERAL LEONID IVASHOV ON NEGATIVE GEOPOLITICAL CONSEQUENCES
OF ASLAN ABASHIDZE’S WITHDRAWAL FROM GEORGIAN POLITICAL LIFE
The conflict between Tbilisi and Batumi appears to be settled, by
peaceful means and with the help of Russian diplomacy.
We may like it that bloodshed was avoided but should nevertheless
thoroughly analyze the processes under way in the Mideast and near
East, the Caspian – Caucasus region.
The first question that automatically leaps to mind is this: why Igor
Ivanov did not facilitate the negotiations between Tbilisi and Batumi
(like Yuri Luzhkov did) but came to the Adjarian leadership with an
ultimatum (like Viktor Chernomyrdin to Slobodan Milosevic once)? Do
Russia’s interests in the region boil down to replacement of the
regime?
Of course, we can always explain what happened the way officials of
the US Administration, NATO leaders, and pro-Western Russian
politicians explain them. That it was expansion of the territory of
democracy, free market, and security. Is it all there is to it?
Unlikely.
Splitting the Caucasus and Caspian region from Russia is what the
United States is after.
Abkhazia, Adjaria, South Ossetia, Djavakhetia – these are the bases
of the pro-Russian vector on the territory of Georgia. In fact, other
regions of Georgia retain sympathies with Russia. It is the
populations of Adjaria, Djavakhetia, and Abkhazia that welcome
Russian military presence and protest against withdrawal of the
Russian military bases.
For the time being, Abkhazia is more than Saakashvili and his masters
across the ocean can bite off and swallow. Aslan Abashidze himself
was more than they could swallow when steer strength of arms was
relied on. When these attempts failed, the old and tested way was
resorted to – another special envoy of the president of Russia. Five
years ago, special envoy Chernomyrdin speaking on behalf of Russia
persuaded Milosevic to capitulate and effectively paved way to the
American occupation of Yugoslavia. Ivanov helped the Americans and
their puppets in the episode with Eduard Shevardnadze. Moscow must
have decided to use the old weapon again, this time to oust
Abashidze. The weapon was used, and produced the coveted results.
The question of how the recent foreign minister of Russia managed it
is asked nowadays. His prowess as a great diplomat is extolled. I saw
in Yugoslavia how deals like that are pulled off. I can tell you
right here and now that Ivanov merely denied Abashidze support. It
does not take a genius to guess that the Adjaria leader could not
face all of that alone. Not Georgia, by the way. He was facing a
united front of the United States, Russia, and united Europe –
without a single ally. Resistance was all the more impossible because
the country the leader of Adjaria counted on as an ally turned up in
the enemy camp.
Withdrawing from the Caucasus of its own volition, Moscow eliminates
all sympathies with it in the region, burns all bridges as though in
a war. It is doing to prevent anybody, first and foremost Washington
and Brussels, from thinking that it intends to come back to the
region one fine day.
The May 9 explosion in Grozny should have brought the Russian
political elite to its senses. This is an indirect echo of the
“diplomatic success” in Batumi. Region of the Mideast and Near East,
of the Caspian Sea, and Caucasus is an integral geopolitical zone.
The events in Iraq, Chechnya, Dagestan, or Georgia are intertwined.
Meeting with failure in the Mideast, the United States in a hurry to
set up a base in the Caucasus because the Caucasus is a key to
Caspian, Iranian, and Kazakh oil, a bridgehead from which pressure
may be put on Iran, Central Asia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia.
The situation in the Russian Caucasus directly depends on the degree
of Russian clout with the Caucasus. Moreover, the military-political
dominance there is a must for Russian national security.
Abashidze’s withdrawal from the Georgian political arena will have
thoroughly negative consequences for Russia.
1. It should be mentioned that loud protestations against the former
leader of Adjaria and the exuberant crowds supporting his resignation
are mostly the scum incited by foreign secret services paid for in
dollars and promises of economic aid.
The majority of the Abkhazians are shocked by Ivanov’s deed, because
Adjaria was practically the only safe haven in the post-Soviet
territory, particularly against the background of the rest of
Georgia. Abashidze never permitted anybody to drag Adjaria into a
conflict. It was Moscow’s support that guaranteed this internal
stability. These days, the population of Adjaria no longer trusts
Moscow, its fairness, or the hopes pinned on Moscow.
For Russia, it means a loss of yet another sympathizing area in the
Caucasus.
2. From the military-strategic point of view, Russia is losing the
system of its military presence in the region. The military base in
Batumi will be isolated from similar bases in Akhalkalaki (Georgia)
and Gyumri (Armenia). It will take Washington and Tbilisi bare months
to start clamoring for its withdrawal. The Batumi port will probably
be closed for Russian ships. And since a pipeline from Baku will run
near Adjaria, an operational military base of NATO or the United
States may appear in the region soon enough.
3. The American-Georgian triumph in Adjaria paves way for revolutions
of roses (i.e. creeping turnovers) in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
These formations cannot – and do not – count on the Kremlin anymore.
It means that Saakashvili’s hands are all but untied. The world does
not pay any attention to statements of the Russian Foreign Ministry
concerning its “worries”. And by the way, the same turn of events in
Armenia is not exactly ruled out either.
Current leaders will be worried by Ivanov’s visits to any CIS country
as of now.
As for the hopes of populations of the Caucasus states for
independent development and prosperity, here are two quotes. Perhaps,
they will help somebody see the light.
“The people of Greece is unmanageable, so its cultural roots have to
be struck at. It may help it see the light then. In other words, we
have to strike at its language, religion, its spiritual and cultural
legacy to neutralize any chance of development. We have to conquer
Greece to prevent it from standing in our way in the Balkans or East
Mediterranean, in the Mideast, or anywhere else in the
conflict-ridden region that has the colossal strategic importance for
us and for the American policy in general,” said unforgettable Henry
Kissenger in September 1994 about one of Washington’s allies from
NATO.
I’d say that the prospects are quite clear for Georgia, Armenia, and
Russia. Just put any other name instead of Georgia. By the way, the
US Ambassador to Georgia Miles is Kissenger’s ardent pupil and
follower.
There is another quote, dated much earlier. Lord A. G. Balfur,
Foreign Secretary of Great Britain (1916 – 1919) said, “The railroad
by which oil is shipped from Baku is the only thing that concerns me
in the Caucasus. If the locals cut one another into pieces, I do not
give a damn.”

Iran-Armenia gas pipeline no threat to Russia
Mediamax news agency
14 May 04
Yerevan, 14 May: The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline project does not cause
any anxiety in Russia.
A Mediamax correspondent reports from Moscow that this statement was
made by the chairman of the board of the Russian company Gazprom,
Aleksey Miller, during his meeting with Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan yesterday.
For his part, the general director of Armrosgazprom [Armenian-Russian
gas company], Karen Karapetyan, said that Armenian consumers would
continue using Russian gas even after the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is
put into service. Karen Karapetyan explained that Iranian gas would be
used in the production of electricity which will be sent back to Iran.
Aleksey Miller said he had discussed the possibility of increasing gas
supplies to Armenia with the Armenian president. The head of Gazprom
added that the possible increase in the volume of supplies would not
affect the price of gas.
Aleksey Miller and Robert Kocharyan also looked into the prospects
for expanding the capacity of a subterranean gas storage facility in
Abovyan and issues related to the development of the gas transport
system in the region.

THREE AZERI BORDER TROOPS KILLED BY LAND MINE NEAR KARABAKH
ANS TV, Baku
14 May 04
A GAZ-66 truck was blown up on an anti-tank mine in Fuzuli District’s
village of Qazaxlar, which is near the Iranian border, on the night of
13-14 May at about 0100 (2000 gmt, 13 May). Three of the six people
in the vehicle died and three others were wounded, the Azerbaijani
National Agency for Mine Action has said.
ANS’s Karabakh bureau reports that the truck was carrying border
troops. The explosion occurred on the territory of the 35th border
post, which is 300 meters away from residential areas.
Military operations were under way in the area during the first
Nagornyy Karabakh war (as heard). The Armenians invaded the village
in October 1993. The Azerbaijani army retook it in January 1994. The
place is two kilometres away from the front line today.