Author: Chatinian Lara

Georgian television starts broadcasts in Armenian
Arminfo, Yerevan
23 Dec 04
Akhalkalaki, 23 December: The broadcasting of programmes in Armenian
started on Georgian state television today.
The programmes in Armenian will be broadcast for 30 minutes on
Georgian state television every Wednesday beginning from today,
A-Info new agency reports. According the source, the broadcasting
of the programmes in Armenian on Georgian state television was one
of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s election promises.

Armenia willing to be flexible on Nagorno-Karabakh
Interfax
Dec 23 2004
Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenia is willing to be flexible on when
Nagorno-Karabakh will be able to exercise its right to self-
determination, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian told a Wednesday news
conference in Yerevan.
“The final agreement on settling the Karabakh conflict should proclaim
the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self- determination,
which would be recognized by the international community, and we are
ready to be flexible on the question of timing the realization of
this right,” he said.
Armenia will not sign any treaty that does not recognize the right
of Karabakh to self-determination, he said.
Speaking of the participation of Karabakh in the talks, Oskanian said
that Armenia had faced an alternative – either refuse to continue
talks with Azerbaijan without the participation of Nagorno-Karabakh,
or agree to continue them for the sake of preserving the process. The
Armenian leadership has chosen the latter option, he said.
“It is unimportant who holds the talks on the Armenian side,
Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh. What is being discussed at the talks
is important. But sooner or later the time will come when the
participation of Nagorno-Karabakh in the talks will become inevitable,”
Oskanian said.
He reminded journalists that Nagorno-Karabakh had been a party to
the talks until spring 1997.
In the middle of January 2005, Prague will host the next meeting of
the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh in an armed conflict
with Armenia in the 1990s.

Attack on US base in Iraq kills more than 20
Agence France Presse — English
December 21, 2004 Tuesday 6:03 PM GMT
BAGHDAD Dec 21 — More than 20 people were killed in a rocket attack
Tuesday that turned a dining hall at a US base in the Iraqi city of
Mosul into a fireball, one of the deadliest strikes against US-led
forces in the country.
The attack, claimed by Al-Qaeda linked militants, was swiftly condemned
by US President George W. Bush who said it was aimed at derailing
the transition to democracy in Iraq.
“More than 20 have been killed and more than 60 wounded,” said
Brigadier General Carter Ham, the US-led coalition commander for the
Mosul area.
“The killed include US military personnel, US contractors, foreign
national contractors and Iraqi army,” he said. “It is indeed a very,
very sad day.”
An embedded reporter from the Richmond-Times Dispatch described the
scene of carnage at the Mosul base as soldiers sat down for lunch
and were suddenly hammered in a rocket attack.
“The force of the explosions knocked soldiers off their feet and out
of their seats. A fireball enveloped the top of the tent, and shrapnel
sprayed into the men,” journalist Jeremy Redmon reported.
“Amid the screaming and thick smoke that followed, quick-thinking
soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded
on them and gently carried them into the parking lot. ‘Medic! Medic!.
soldiers shouted.”
The attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda linked Ansar al-Sunna, which
broke away from another radical group called Ansar al-Islam, both
of which are believed to have links with Iraq’s most wanted man Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi.
“One of the mujahedeen of the Army of Ansar al-Sunna carried out
a martyrdom-seeking (suicide) operation in a restaurant of the
infidel occupation forces at the Ghazlani camp in Mosul,” said the
website statement from the group, whose authenticity could not be
independently confirmed.
Bush condemned the attack and mourned the loss of life, saying it
believes it shows the desperation of insurgent forces, White House
spokesman Scott McClellan said.
“The terrorists and Saddam loyalists are desperately seeking to
derail the transition to democracy and freedom in Iraq,” he said.
“They will be defeated.”
Iraq’s intelligence chief Mohammed Abdullah al-Shahwani said in October
that Mosul has been turned into a major base for militants linked to
Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant who has a 25 million dollar price
on his head.
Mosul, 370 kilometres (250 miles) north of Baghdad, was once considered
a success story of the defunct US occupation in Iraq, but has been
transformed into a battleground between insurgents and US forces.
The city, home to Islamists and staunch loyalists of the ousted Baath
party regime, was the site of almost daily assassination attempts on
suspected US collaborators before the city boiled over in violence
last month.
On June 24, insurgents mounted a one-day street battle against US
forces and set off five car bombs, killing more than 50 people,
in a prelude to November’s fierce uprising by insurgents.
The US military has been conducting operations in Mosul, Iraq’s
third largest city, since coordinated attacks by insurgents on
police stations prompted most of the local police force to quit on
November 11.
Around 80 bodies have been found in and around Mosul since the
beginning of December, most of which authorities say belong to security
forces executed by insurgents.
Christian churches in the city have also come under attack.
Mosul, whose name in Arabic means the link, is one of the most
ethnically diverse cities in Iraq with Arabs, Syriac people, Armenians,
Kurds, Turkmen, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Yazedis all calling
the city home.
Sunni Muslims in Mosul, together with the minority Turkmen community,
fear Kurdish calls for an expanded autonomous region in districts
immediately bordering the northern metropolis, a city of about 1.5
million people.

Armenia agrees to international monitoring in occupied lands – Azeri minister
Bilik Dunyasi news agency
16 Dec 04
Baku, 16 December: Armenia has given a green light to international
OSCE monitoring in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan to find out
whether Yerevan is illegally settling those lands. The Armenian side
announced its agreement during the meeting of the foreign ministers of
the two conflicting countries in Sofia and Brussels in early December,
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told journalists.
“The main issue now is to define the format of this mission and name
the date for its dispatch. We want it to happen as soon as possible,”
he said.
The minister said that it is reasonable to include the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairmen, who are directly involved in the settlement of
the Karabakh conflict, in the monitoring mission. He also called on
Armenia to take a constructive position in the negotiating process.
“On the one hand, we are negotiating, but on the other, Armenia is
building illegal settlements in the occupied lands [of Azerbaijan]. One
cannot talk about serious negotiations in this case,” he said.
Mammadyarov welcomed the agreement with Armenia to continue the
negotiating process on the basis of the previous meetings in Prague. He
also said that specific directions of the further negotiations to solve
the Nagornyy Karabakh problem could be defined by the end of this year.
The minister called on the Minsk Group co-chairmen to be more active
in bringing the conflicting parties closer together.

Azerbaijan regrets being left out of major US aid programme – official
Ekspress, Baku
16 Dec 04
Text of Alakbar Raufoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on
16 December headlined “Why is Azerbaijan getting so little from the
‘American pie'” and subheaded “Baku hopes that the USA will include
Azerbaijan in the Millennium Challenge programme some day”
Baku regrets that Azerbaijan has not been included in the Millennium
Challenge programme, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud
Mammadquliyev said at a briefing yesterday.
“Regrettably, some Western pundits reckon that Azerbaijan still does
not meet some criteria for this. We have informed the USA of our view
in this regard,” the deputy minister said.
America plans to allocate assistance worth 90m dollars to Georgia
and 150m to Armenia under the Millennium Challenge Account. The Baku
government believes that Azerbaijan’s cooperation with the USA in
counterterrorism and other areas should have been considered when the
eligibility of countries was decided. “But regrettably, the main
focus was on human rights and the economy. We do not believe that
in these areas Azerbaijan is lagging behind Georgia and Armenia,”
Mammadquliyev said. “We are working on this evidence and will try to
become eligible for the programme in the future.”
Washington’s latest decision regarding military aid offered to Armenia
and Azerbaijan in 2005 has also caused concern in Baku. The document
endorsed by the US president envisages the allocation of equal sums
to Armenia and Azerbaijan, and allocates 3m dollars to Nagornyy
Karabakh. “America believes that this is humanitarian aid. However,
such a position seriously concerns us and we will try to prevent that,”
Mammadquliyev said.
The Foreign Ministry’s investigation into whether US companies invest
in Nagornyy Karabakh is nearing completion. Most of those companies
have been set up by the Armenian diaspora, Mammadquliyev said. “This
is the product of Armenian money and Armenian businessmen. But it
may be that their organization has been registered somewhere. We are
taking appropriate measures.”
Touching on Washington’s equal military assistance to Armenia and
Azerbaijan, the US ambassador to Azerbaijan, Reno Harnish, told
Ekspress newspaper the following: “Under the US Constitution, the
Congress plays the main role in taking such decisions. But foreign
assistance is only part of the aid rendered for security and fighting
global terrorism. We have a number of important projects related to
Azerbaijan. For instance, there is a US-Azerbaijan programme on the
protection of maritime borders and it has not been included in that
assistance. We also have an additional assistance programme related
to the training of peacekeeping forces.”

Azerbaijan, UK sign joint communique to improve ties
Turan news agency
15 Dec 04
Baku, 15 December: A joint communique has been signed on the results
of [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev’s visit to London on 13-14
December, the British embassy in Azerbaijan has said.
The document reads that during Ilham Aliyev’s meeting with Prime
Minister Tony Blair on 14 December, the sides expressed support for
the further strengthening of bilateral relations, the development of
Azerbaijan’s market economy and multiparty democracy based on the
supremacy of the law and the protection of human rights and freedoms.
Blair hailed Aliyev’s “determination” to carry out political and
democratic reforms in order to support the aforesaid goals by taking
into consideration the OSCE and the Council of Europe’s
recommendations.
Blair reiterated his country’s support for Azerbaijan’s independence,
sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Aliyev talked about a programme of measures aimed at improving
[Azerbaijan’s] business environment and supporting local and foreign
private investors, including those in the oil sector. The measures
also include the fight against corruption, reforms in the financial
system, improvements in the professionalism and independence of the
judiciary.
The sides agreed to continue military cooperation and train
Azerbaijani troops for participation in international missions,
dispatch British troops to Afghanistan and vice-versa via Azerbaijani
territory.
During the talks held in an expanded format, the sides supported
Azerbaijan’s rapprochement with the European Union with the aim of
carrying out reforms and expressed their readiness to help the South
Caucasus region re-establish peace, stability and good-neighbourly
relations.
They also agreed to continue joint efforts to find a peaceful and
standing solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. The sides
expressed support for the OSCE Minsk Group’s efforts in this direction
and noted the important contribution of the Caspian region to global
energy security. They acknowledged the importance of making effective
use of oil incomes for long-term development, reiterated their
readiness to continue joint efforts in the fight against terrorism and
hailed the development of Azerbaijan’s relations with NATO.
The sides confirmed the important role of NGOs in the development of
democracy, accountability, human rights, human values and
inter-community relations. They agreed to improve cultural
cooperation and opportunities for Azerbaijani students to study in the
UK.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Institute for War and Peace reporting
Dec 15 2004
Azeris Angry Over Georgia Killing
A local land dispute has escalated following the death of an elderly
Azerbaijani woman in southern Georgia.
By Sofo Bukia in Kvemo Kulari (CRS No. 266, 15-Dec-04)
The newly appointed governor of Georgia’s southern Kvemo Kartli
region, which has an Azerbaijani majority, has vowed to catch the
killers of a 65-year-old woman who died during a protest rally.
However, the killing and the long-running dispute behind it have
already taken on an inter-ethnic dimension, which is now attracting
the attention of officials in Baku.
Hilal Idrisova was killed on December 3 when a land dispute between
local villagers and a stud farm boiled over. Several dozen people
from the Marneuli district settlements Kvemo Kulari and Kirikhlo had
protested at a nearby horse stud farm, which they claim is using land
that is the villagers’ by right.
`They told us, `You have no rights to this land, so shut up and go
home’,’ said Elsevar Mamedov from Kvemo Kulari.
In the ensuing clash between the villagers and the farm’s owners,
security guards and staff, the elderly Idrisova was shot in the chest
and killed, while another local resident, Ramiz Sadygov, was shot in
the leg. Doctors treating him at the district hospital fear the limb
may yet have to be amputated.
`I begged my mum to stay home that night,’ Idrisova’s distraught
daughter Fatima told IWPR. `What’s the use of that land now that she
is gone?’
The farm’s managing director, Vakhtang Rukhadze of the Georgian Horse
Rearing Association, has rejected all accusations of involvement in
the death and wounding, and claims in turn that the villagers had
provoked his men.
`They threw rocks at us. I have three injured and concussed men to
show for it. I have no weapons, and no one at the farm has any, so
where did the shots come from?’ he asked.
`A few of our cars and items of field machinery were broken, and this
happens almost every day. We have complained everywhere, including to
the president, but no one wants to tackle this.’
The death has increased tensions in the Azerbaijani community, which
has a population estimated at between 350,000 and half a million.
Following last year’s peaceful `Rose Revolution,’ the new Georgian
president Mikheil Saakashvili declared Georgia’s Azerbaijanis to be a
`national treasure’ and promised to help them solve their problems.
However, in Marneuli, serious issues over land ownership remain.
The problem dates back to the beginning of Georgia’s land reforms in
1996, when rural collective farms were disbanded and the state gave
generous amounts of land away to peasant farmers.
But the residents of Kvemo Kulari and Kirikhlo claim they lost out in
this deal, as every household in these villages ended up with just a
quarter of a hectare of land – far less than the one hectare they
were legally entitled to.
The Kulari stud farm owns 1,155 hectares of land, 500 of which is
claimed by the local villagers for their farming needs. `There is no
other arable land in the district. The horse farm has it all,’ one
villager complained to IWPR.
The Kulari farm was formerly owned by the Tbilisi hippodrome and is
now owned by the city-based Jockey Club.
The club says it legally acquired the land at Kulari on lease for 49
years, and has all the appropriate documentation. It then leased the
farm to the Georgian Horse Rearing Association for a ten-year period.
`These are no ordinary horses,’ said Viktor Goglidze, who takes care
of the animals. `These are purebred English racehorses with all the
papers and everything. We have around a hundred and they need lots of
land.’
The owners of the stud farm are proud of their fine horses and the
distinguished history of the farm, which was founded in 1902, and
point out that the majority of its 100 grooms are Azerbaijani. They
also say that they are confident of investment from the United States
following a recent successful visit by horse specialists from
Kentucky.
However, many local villagers said that they thought the farm’s main
business was actually selling wheat to neighbouring Armenia – not
that they objected to this in and of itself.
`We don’t care who they sell their wheat to,’ said Gasham Garaev.
`It’s the land we want.’
But following the violent death of Hilal Idrisova, they are demanding
that her killers be brought to justice.
The Kvemo Kulari and Kirikhlo residents had expressed their anger
repeatedly before the shooting incident, disrupting horse farmers’
sowing work and blocking the local highway.
According to one local, Levan Mamaladze – the former governor of
Kvemo Kartli under ex-president Eduard Shevardnadze – promised the
Azerbaijanis the disputed land used by the stud farm in exchange for
their votes during the 2000 presidential campaign. Mamaladze is now
in hiding after being charged with the embezzlement of millions of
dollars.
His successor Soso Mazmishvili refused to be held responsible for any
deal or promise made before his time in office. `I told them I would
look into it,’ he told IWPR. `I’m not a feudal lord to promise any
land to anyone.’
But one week ago Mazmishvili himself was dismissed and replaced as
governor by Zurab Melikishvili, the minister for regional policy and
a former close ally of President Saakishvili.
`I hope we can work this out,’ Melikishvili told IWPR his on first
day in office. `In any case, we will have to try to [persuade] the
stud farm cede some land to the people.’
Meanwhile, the dispute in Kvemo Kartli has provoked anger in
Azerbaijan, where parliamentary speaker Murtuz Aleskerov told the
national media, `Saakashvili had promised the Azerbaijanis would be
represented in executive and legislative government and law
enforcement agencies.
`He also promised to resolve the land issue. But none of this has
materialised.’
Azerbaijani analyst Rasim Musabekov believes that the quarrel is a
symptom of both nations’ change in administration. `There was a time
when the authoritarian ruler of Azerbaijan could resolve issues with
his Georgian counterpart, but not anymore,’ he said. `Now a lot will
depend on Georgia’s Azerbaijanis themselves and how active and
persistent they are.’
Sofo Bukiya is a reporter for the newspaper 24 Hours in Tbilisi. Rauf
Orujev, a reporter for the Ekho newspaper, contributed to this report
from Baku.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Dec 15 2004
France may impede Turkey’s admission to EU
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told a news conference on
Monday that if Turkey wants to be admitted to the European Union
(EU), it must recognize the `Armenian genocide’.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian told local media last week
that Turkey will face pressures by several European countries if it
does not recognize the `Armenian genocide’.
`December 17 is the most convenient date for Turkey to recognize the
`Armenian genocide’. If Turkey is admitted to the EU without
recognizing the genocide, the recognition of the `Armenian genocide’
by this country in the future will be illusion,’ Oskanian
underlined.*

Edicom, Suisse
mardi 14 décembre 2004
La reconnaissance du génocide arménien n’est pas «une condition» à
l’adhésion turque, affirme Michel Barnier
PARIS (AP) – La reconnaissance par la Turquie du génocide arménien
de 1915 est «une question», mais pas «une condition» posée par la
France à la Turquie dans le cadre du débat sur l’adhésion d’Ankara à
l’Union européenne, a expliqué mardi le ministre des Affaires
étrangères Michel Barnier.
»Ce n’est pas une condition que nous posons pour l’ouverture de
négociations comme celle dont les chefs d’Etat vont discuter jeudi et
vendredi», a affirmé Michel Barnier sur France-2, deux jours avant le
Conseil européen qui doit se prononcer sur l’ouverture de négociation
d’adhésion entre la Turquie et l’Union européenne.
Le ministre a toutefois précisé que la France demandera à la Turquie
de reconnaître le génocide arménien de 1915. «Le moment venu, la
Turquie devra faire ce devoir de mémoire par rapport à cette tragédie
du début du siècle qui a touché des centaines de milliers
d’Arméniens», a-t-il dit, soulignant que «le projet européen est
fondé sur l’idée-même de la réconciliation».
Paris posera cette question «dans le courant d’une négociation qui va
sans doute commencer l’année prochaine», a précisé Michel Barnier.
«Nous avons une dizaine d’années pour la poser, les Turcs ont une
dizaine d’année pour réfléchir à leur réponse.»
Le ministre français a répété son soutien à l’adhésion de la Turquie
à l’UE. Il a tout de même affirmé que le processus de négociation
«n’est pas un processus écrit d’avance», même si «on ouvre des
négociations pour sincèrement réussir (…) et donc aboutir à
l’adhésion».
»Si les négociations aboutissent, ce sont les Français qui choisiront
par référendum», a confirmé le ministre. «Le dernier recours
appartiendra bien au peuple français.»

World Peace Herald, DC
Dec 13 2004
Commentary: Why EU should say yes to Turks
By Gareth Harding
Chief European Correspondent
BRUSSELS — European leaders are set to decide whether to open
European Union membership talks with Turkey Friday, 41 years after
the largely Muslim state first applied to join the Brussels-based
bloc. For political, economic and geo-strategic reasons they should
say “yes” to Ankara, because a EU with Turkey inside its borders
would be a bigger, stronger, safer and ultimately more prosperous
union than without it.

Critics of Turkey’s entry, who include the leaders of Austria and
Luxembourg, France’s governing party, the German opposition and large
swathes of French, German and Austrian public opinion, argue the
country is too big, too poor and too Muslim to join the EU. They also
claim Turkish membership would dilute the union’s values, flood the
club’s 25 member states with migrants, import Middle East instability
to Europe and act as a brake on economic growth.

Most of these arguments are bogus — based on knee-jerk
prejudices rather than rational analysis and steeped in a deeply
reactionary view of Europe as a cozy club of Christian peoples
battling against Muslim hordes from the east.

Take geography first. It is true that the large bulk of Turkey’s
landmass lies on the Asian continent. But a sizeable chunk —
including the country’s biggest city Istanbul — lies on the European
mainland. If geography really were a key factor, Cyprus — a
Mediterranean island lying off the Lebanese coast — would never have
been welcomed into the club in May.

Historically too, Turkey has always been seen as a European
power. Until late in the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire ruled
Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and large chunks
of modern-day Greece, Rumania and Serbia-Montenegro. “Remember: the
Ottomans were called the sick man of Europe, not the sick man of
Asia,” Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a rally in Brussels
Friday.

Even after the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War II,
Turkey was always considered a European player. It is a member of the
Council of Europe, the Organization for Cooperation and Development
in Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
and takes part in most European sporting competitions.

Size matters in the EU — as in other organizations. Voting power
in the Council of Ministers is based largely on population and by the
time Turkey joins the EU — in 2015 at the earliest — it would be
the largest country in the club, with some 80 million people. Yet
there is nothing in the union’s treaty that disqualifies a country
for being too big or too populous. On the contrary, Turkey’s size and
geographic position could be major pluses for a bloc that is largely
made up of small states with plummeting populations.

Turkey, a NATO member for more than half a century, has the
largest armed forces in Europe and spends more of its budget on
defense than any other EU state — both great assets for a union with
global peacekeeping ambitions but pitiful military resources. It also
a major power in the Black Sea and Middle East regions, sharing
borders with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The
EU would be safer with a strong, confident Turkey guarding the bloc’s
frontiers against these unstable states than with a weakened and
rejected Turkey sulking on its southeastern fringes.

Opponents of Turkish entry argue the predominantly Muslim state
of 72 million people is too poor to join and that membership would
lead to millions of Turks emigrating east in search of work. The same
fears were raised when Spain, Portugal and Greece joined the EU in
the 1980s and when eight former communist states entered in May. They
have proved unfounded in both cases.

Turkey is comparatively hard up, with a per capita gross domestic
product of $8,300. But it has one of the fastest growing economies in
Europe and both trade and foreign investment are likely to soar as
membership approaches. “When Turkey joins the EU, people will not
migrate to the EU; Turks will come back to Turkey,” said Erdogan
Friday. The idea may seem far-fetched now, but the examples of
Ireland, Spain and Greece show that when prosperity rises, outward
migration goes into reverse gear.

Of all the arguments against Turkish accession, the Muslim card
is the least convincing and the most unsettling. The EU already has
15 million Muslims living within its borders and when Albania,
Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina join next decade, it will take in
states with predominantly Muslim populations.

European right-wing populists and U.S. neo-conservatives claim
Islam and democracy are incompatible and that a “clash of
civilizations” is looming between a Christian “west” and a Muslim
“east.” The very existence of Turkey, a modern, secular, democratic
state for most of the last century, surely debunks this myth. Turkey
has been a democracy for longer than most of the eight former Soviet
bloc states that joined the EU in May, it introduced women’s voting
rights before France and Germany and has a clearer separation of
powers between church and state than almost any country in the world.

The prospect of EU entry has speeded up the reform process. Under
pressure from Brussels, the death penalty has been abolished, women’s
rights have been strengthened, the army’s grip over the judiciary has
been loosened and the country’s sizeable Kurdish minority has won the
right to speak its language in public. Some of these reforms are
cosmetic and have yet to take root — torture and graft are still
widespread and many women’s rights remain on paper only — but it is
difficult to argue that saying “no” to Turkey would advance the cause
of progress in this key geo-strategic country.

Mustafa Kemal, the revered founder of modern Turkey, once said:
“The West has always been prejudiced against the Turks, but we Turks
have always consistently moved toward the West.” On Friday, EU
leaders should shake off centuries of European bias and bigotry
toward Ankara and say “yes” to Turkey in Europe and “yes” to Europe
in Turkey.