Author: Chilingarian Babken

AZERI EXPERTS COMMENT ON RUSSIA’S PLANS TO RECOGNIZE ABKHAZIA, S OSSETIA

Turan news agency
Aug 25 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku, 25 August: The decision to recognize the independence of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which the Federation Council [upper house
of Russian parliament] has adopted and the State Duma [lower house
of Russian parliament] is going to consider, is not resolute and
is a recommendation, the head of the public forum For Azerbaijan,
Eldar Namazov, has told Turan commenting on today’s decision of the
Federation Council.

The Russian Federation’s ruling elite is "resolute" and is most likely
to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Namazov said. However, this
step will affect the whole region as well as the relationship between
the West and Russia. This may speed up the resolution of long-standing
problems in the region and change the whole geopolitical configuration
in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions, the political analyst said.

Asked about the result of the West-Russia standoff, Namazov said that
the West had already precisely defined its positions. In the future,
much will depend on Moscow’s steps, however, it will be a "lengthy"
process. Asked whether Armenia would recognize Nagornyy Karabakh,
Namazov said that "this could be a thoughtless step". He believes
that Armenian officials can make statements to that end but specific
decisions will hardly be taken.

In the meantime, the former Azerbaijani envoy in Moscow, Hikmat
Hacizada, described the developments as "very alarming". Unfortunately,
hysteria is continuing in Russian society. Such steps may lead to a
full confrontation between the West and Russia, Hacizada said. At the
same time, he thinks that Russia will delay the recognition of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, giving Georgia time to reject NATO membership. "If
Tbilisi goes along the path of NATO integration to the end, then Moscow
will finally recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Hacizada said.

POST-SOVIET SECURITY BLOC ENDS JOINT DRILLS IN ARMENIA

RIA Novosti
16:31 | 22/ 08/ 2008

YEREVAN, July 22 (RIA Novosti) – The joint Rubezh-2008
command-and-staff exercises of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization finished Friday in Armenia.

About 4,000 troops from Armenia, Russia and Tajikistan took part
in the four-stage military exercise, which started July 22, on the
territory of Armenia and Russia.

Other CSTO members were represented by military staff from their
defense ministries.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization is a security grouping
comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

HEAD OF RADIO LIBERTY YEREVAN OFFICE BEATEN UP

arminfo
2008-08-20 13:50:00

ArmInfo. Acting director of Radio Liberty Yerevan office Hrach
Melkumyan was beaten up, as Radio Liberty reported he was attacked
on 18 August evening in the centre of Yerevan.

Melkumyan connects the attack with his professional activity. Director
of Radio Liberty Jeff Goodwin thinks the incident was not an accidental
one and hopes Armenian authorities will investigate it in details.

As Armenian police reported, yesterday Hrach Melkumyan applied to the
law-enforcement agencies with a relevant statement and investigation
is underway.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I RECEIVES THE REPRESENTATIVE
OF SHEIKH KABALAN

His Holiness Aram I received the representatives of the Shiite Spiritual
Leader Sheikh Kabalan in the Catholicosate of Cilicia’s summer residence in
Bikfaya on August 18. Sheikh Kabalan’s son, the director of the Imam
Mousasader Foundation, and the Mufti of the Shiite community of Baalbeck met
with the Armenian Pontiff as well the Primate of the Diocese of Lebanon,
Bishop Kegham Khatcherian, Bishop Norayr Ashekian and Dr. Jean Salmanian (a
member of the Lebanese Christian-Muslim Dialogue committee).

A special event will be held in Lebanon soon to mark the memory of Imam
Mousasader. Sheikh Kabalan’s representatives invited His Holiness to
personally attend the event and deliver a speech.

Both sides engaged in a discussion of the Christian-Muslim dialogue, turning
the meeting itself into a dialogue based on mutual respect and trust between
the two religions. They stressed the importance of dialogue and reassessed
the activities carried in this respect for the sake of ensuring cohabitation
and cooperation between the communities of Lebanon.

##
View the photos here:
tos/Photos304.htm
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

Georgian rail bridge blast hits Azeri oil exports
Sat Aug 16, 2008

BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan suspended oil exports through ports in
western Georgia on Sunday after an explosion damaged a key rail bridge
there.

Georgia accused Russian troops of blowing up a railway bridge west of
the capital Tbilisi earlier in the day, saying its main east-west train
link had been severed. Russia strongly denied any involvement.

"Transportation of oil and oil products in the western direction by
railway has been suspended," Azerbaijan’s state railway company said in
a statement read out on television.

It gave the bridge explosion as the reason for the suspension. "The
last shipment made by this railway contained 15 tanks," it said.

Another 72 oil tanks had been due to be sent to next-door Armenia
before the railway link was cut off, it said.

The railway line runs from Tbilisi, through the Russian-occupied
Georgian town of Gori, before splitting in three and running to the
Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi and southwest to just short of the
Turkish border.

Azerbaijan is emerging as an important oil supplier to the West and its
fast economic growth depends heavily on revenues from oil exports from
the land-locked Caspian Sea.

Last week it suspended crude shipments via its key, BP-operated (BP.L:
Quote, Profile, Research) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan link to Turkey after a
fire damaged it.

Earlier this week BP closed the pipeline taking crude from Azerbaijan’s
Caspian port of Baku to the Georgian port of Supsa on the Black Sea,
citing fighting between Georgian and Russian troops.

A pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to Russia’s Black Sea port of
Novorossiisk currently remains Azerbaijan’s only oil export outlet.

(Reporting by Afet Mehteva; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by
Gerrard Raven)

CIS WITHOUT GEORGIA: IS IT GOOD OR BAD?

RIA Novosti
21:14 | 14/ 08/ 2008
Russia

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti correspondent Valentin Rakhmanov) – Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili has publicly declared that his country
is withdrawing from the CIS. Other members of the Commonwealth have
reacted to the news with half surprise and half indifference. There
was little official reaction.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry flatly refused to comment on
Saakashvili’s announcement prior to Georgia filing the official
documents with the CIS Executive Committee. Kyrgyzstan’s political
leaders said their country continues to support the Commonwealth
future. Belarus said it was "a supporter of the CIS". The Foreign
Ministry of Azerbaijan remarked that "Georgia’s withdrawal from the
CIS is Tbilisi’s own business". The Russian Foreign Ministry implied
that Saakashvili’s move would be detrimental to the people of Georgia.

So, the former Soviet Union countries have failed to express solidarity
with Saakashvili over his "Rose Republic’s" withdrawal from the
CIS. However, glib diplomatic formulas do not contain any trace of
outrage over his actions. What can one make of this reaction? Will
Tbilisi’s withdrawal make a difference to the organization? And if so,
in what way?

These questions have provoked arguments among analysts.

Alexei Vlasov, the director of the Information-Analytical Center for
the Study of the Social and Political Processes in the Post-Soviet
Space, suggested that Georgia’s withdrawal from the CIS was good news
for the CIS. "In the past two years the CIS has been an all-purpose
negotiating forum where Vladimir Putin and Mikheil Saakashvili,
the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents could meet and talk," he
elaborates. "But at the moment it is no more than a special interest
club which, in spite of attempted reforms – by the Presidents of
Kazakhstan and Russia – remains just that. Therefore nothing real and
practical has been happening within the CIS," Vlasov said. The problem
now, as in the past, is that each member of the Commonwealth adheres
to its own interests. With the withdrawal of Georgia, the number of
countries that have been playing a zero-sum game with Moscow has
diminished. Consequently, there is a chance to reform the CIS and
make it more practical and active.

Mr Vlasov added that Tbilisi’s withdrawal may perhaps bring home to
the Russian elite that Russia needs the CIS countries and its fate
depends on it. That would have a positive impact on the fate of the
Commonwealth. The analyst believes that Georgia’s move leaves the CIS
with fewer countries which consider the Commonwealth of Independent
States to be "an adjunct to Russian globalism".

Leonid Vardomsky, the head of the CIS and Baltic Center, has a
different opinion. He believes Georgia’s withdrawal and the recent
peace-keeping operations will slow down CIS reform.

"The fact of Georgia’s withdrawal from the CIS is not all that
important. Of late Tbilisi has hardly signed anything within the
Commonwealth and has used it solely as a negotiating forum. But this
provocative step attracts the attention of the CIS elites to Russia’s
use of force against Georgia. The CIS elites are beginning to project
this situation onto themselves and feel mistrust toward Moscow. This
is especially true of Azerbaijan which has the Nagorny Karabakh problem
on its hands", Mr Vardomsky said. New projects within the CIS will most
probably be put on hold until the Georgia-provoked mistrust wears off.

Both analysts agree that in the current situation no other CIS
country is likely to follow Georgia’s example. Leonid Vardomsky notes
with reason that Georgia stands to lose very little from pulling
out of the organization, considering the recent economic blockade
by Russia. However, Russian imports into that country at present
stand at the same level as before Saakashvili came to power. There
is also a visa regimen between Russia and Georgia. Other countries,
thanks to the CIS, enjoy visa-free travel for their citizens and have
considerable economic advantages. They will not easily part with an
organization that they find useful.

The reaction of the CIS countries since the beginning of the
Russia-Georgia – South Ossetia conflict has been unclear; in fact
there has been no reaction. This can be attributed to a thousand
reasons, including fear of Russia’s military actions or just plain
bewilderment. Perhaps Tbilisi’s sudden withdrawal from the Commonwealth
caught the former Soviet Republics by surprise. They simply do not
know how to react and are therefore keeping a reticent neutrality. Be
that as it may, no one has expressed any solidarity with Georgia in
connection with its move.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not
necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

A PROJECT OF THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES
By John Feffer

World Beat
August 12, 2008

Empires die hard. The war that broke out last week between Russia
and Georgia is a terrifying reminder that the disintegration of the
Soviet Union is far from over.

Seventeen years ago, it looked as though that region might escape the
worst consequences of imperial collapse. After all, the Baltic states
achieved their independence with relatively little bloodshed. Ukraine
and Russia – despite serious disagreements over oil, the Black Sea
fleet, and minority rights – more or less managed to sort out their
differences peacefully. Elsewhere, however, struggles over borders,
political control, and resources convulsed the former Soviet Union,
and the body count rivaled the horrors taking place in Yugoslavia.

Even before the Soviet Union’s official collapse, Armenia
and Azerbaijan began fighting over the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Tens of thousands died in the civil war that began
in 1992 in the Central Asian state of Tajikistan. Tens of thousands
more died in the conflict between the Russian federation and the
break-away province of Chechnya. In a war pitting Russian-backed
separatists in Transdniestra against the new Moldovan government,
another 1,000 people died. The former Soviet Union was on the verge
of splitting into hundreds of bloody pieces.

Georgia, a small country bordering the Black Sea and sandwiched
between Russia and Turkey, wasn’t immune to this violence. Two
regions bordering Russia – Abkhazia and South Ossetia – declared
independence in the 1990s. Thousands died in the two conflicts, which
pitted Russian-backed separatists against the Georgian government, and
both regions managed to achieve de facto independence. But there’s an
important difference between the two struggles. Abkhazian separatists
engaged in large-scale ethnic cleansing to make their parastate,
which previously had a plurality of Georgians, more ethnically
pure. South Ossetia, meanwhile, remains a diverse region with some
villages aligned with the separatists and others with Tbilisi.

In the latest violence, which broke out just as the Olympics were
getting under way in Beijing, Georgian military forces launched an
offensive to regain control of South Ossetia. Russia struck back with
an air offensive that has forced the Georgian military to retreat
but at the cost of at least 2,000 lives, many of them civilians.

Russia, and particularly its dour Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has
emerged as the chief villain in this drama. International leaders
have condemned Moscow for its attacks. According to the new Cold
War narrative that has begun to take shape, Russia is attempting to
recapture some of the glory of the Soviet empire through economic
pressure, political arm-twisting, and, when all else fails, military
means. Dying empires are bad enough. States that try to turn back
the clock, like Germany or Hungary or Turkey after World War I,
can be even worse.

Beware of this updated version of the black-and-white Cold War
picture. While the new Russia has indeed done some terrible things
– particularly in Chechnya – it has also played an important
role in diminishing some of the worst aspects of the post-Soviet
violence. After the mid-1990s, this region had become a patchwork
of ceasefires and "frozen" conflicts, thanks in part to Russia. It
helped mediate the end of the civil war in Tajikistan. It has been
involved in mediating the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In the third of
Georgia’s separatist struggles – in Ajaria – Russia helped to mitigate
the conflict by agreeing to close its military base (albeit after
some international pressure). Russian peacekeepers in pro-Russian
breakaway regions – Transdniestra, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia – are
clearly not neutral third parties, but they have also contributed to
keeping the peace.

Yes, Russia’s response to Georgia’s attack is unjustifiable. It acted
unilaterally and with disproportionate force. But this isn’t old-style
Soviet arrogance. Nor is it an attempt to reconstitute the Soviet
empire. Rather, Russia is simply following the lead of the world’s
only superpower in pursuing its national interest at gunpoint. Unlike
the United States, though, Russia confines its operations to its
"near abroad" rather than attempting to project power in far-off lands.

Georgia, meanwhile, is far from the good guy in this drama. From the
Bush administration’s point of view, Georgia gets a free pass because
it sent a contingent of troops to Iraq and has been eager to join
NATO. But the central government has been intolerant and aggressive in
dealing with minority groups and populations. The current government
of Mikheil Saakashvili cracked down hard on peaceful demonstrations
last November. And Tbilisi’s most recent attempt to reabsorb South
Ossetia – something even Serbia has not done with Kosovo – was the
proximate cause of the current violence.

The breakup of Yugoslavia is over, with the rather peaceful secession
of Kosovo. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, however, is still
with us, in all the hot and cold wars that continue along ethnic and
political fault lines in the region. U.S. policies designed to contain
Russia – through NATO expansion or the construction of missile defense
– only exacerbate the problems. When will the Cold War die-hards in
the United States decide to work with Russia rather than against it
in order to finally bury the ghosts of the Soviet Union and bring
peace to that great swath of Eurasia?

Protest-free Olympics?

Beijing has worked hard to make its Olympics protest-free. A
brief unfurling of Tibetan flags before the opening ceremony and a
five-person, ten-minute pro-Tibet protest at Tiananmen Square have
been the only signs of dissent.

As part of our strategic focus on sports and foreign policy, Foreign
Policy In Focus contributor Roger Levermore looks at how the Olympics
have been a staging ground for political protests, particularly
since 1968 and the well-known fist-raising at the Mexico Olympics. He
concludes in The Double-Edged Sword of Sport and Political Protest that
"in all likelihood, the effectiveness of the protests surrounding
the 2008 Olympics in China will be short-term and fade away in the
memory. The Chinese government and International Olympic Committee
(IOC) will heavily censor bottom-up protest (which is less likely to
be covered by the mainstream media in any event unless it comes in
the form of a terrorist attack). And state-led protests (which does
interest the media more) inevitably wither in the face of the growing
commercial and political importance of China."

FPIF contributor Shasha Zou reviews a new book that looks at the
political context of the Rome Olympics of 1960 and its echoes in the
Beijing Olympics of today. In 1960, she writes in Rome vs. Beijing,
"The two competing superpowers used the Olympics as a battleground
for propaganda, viewing each medal won, whistle blown, and smatter of
spectator applause as a symbol of their superiority." China, similarly,
is hoping that its staging of and performance in the Olympics will
demonstrate its own ascendance to the top ranks of world leadership.

In 1998, the Baltimore Orioles and Cuba’s national baseball team
split two games in a historic effort at sports diplomacy. With more
reasonable leadership in Washington, this might have been the beginning
of a rapprochement between the two countries. But as FPIF contributor
Saul Landau points out, nothing of the sort took place. "The games did
not, as we know, lead to Washington’s lifting of its embargo or travel
ban," he writes in Baseball – Big and Little. "Baseball diplomacy
led to the defection in 2002 of Cuba’s star pitcher, Jose Contreras,
who had held the Orioles to two runs in nine innings. But instead of
joining the O’s, he signed with the New York Yankees for millions of
dollars. Even in the 21st century, Dollar Diplomacy still functions."

The World and Food

The food crisis continues, and the international community has not
managed to marshal sufficient resources to tackle the problem. As
FPIF contributor Sophia Murphy writes, food aid contributions have
plummeted to only about one-third of 1999 levels, and the UN reports
that countries have offered less than half of what is needed for just
the most severely affected countries.

At the same time, she writes in Food Aid Emergency, the system of
food aid need serious reform so that the food sent to recipient
countries helps their economies rather than wrecks them: "The only
sensible response to the mounting numbers of emergencies is to match
emergency donations, dollar for dollar or better, with investments in
the long-term capacity of agriculture to provide us with the food,
feed, and fiber we need. These longer-term investments must go to
publicly held food reserves, investment in sustainable technologies,
vast improvements in water management, investment in roads, storage,
communications, and other infrastructure."

The institutions of the international community have not done any
better than the individual nation-states in addressing the food
crisis. These institutions like the World Bank and the World Trade
Organization (WTO), argues FPIF contributor Alexandra Spieldoch
in The Food Crisis and Global Institutions, "are still focused on
investment and growth in agriculture based on privatization schemes,
deregulation, and trade facilitation. This is exactly the approach
that has contributed to many of the problems we are seeing today in
the food system; it’s likely that this approach will worsen rather
than ease the crisis."

Down for the Count (Dracula)

Meanwhile, international institutions like the WTO are facing crises
of their own. FPIF contributors Walden Bello and Mary Lou Malig point
out in The Dracula Round that the WTO has been facing a number of
near-death experiences. "Like the good Count of Transylvania, the
World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of negotiations has died more
than once," they write. "It first collapsed during the WTO ministerial
meeting held in Cancun in September 2003. After apparently coming
back from the dead, many observers thought it passed away a second
time during the so-called Group of Four meeting in Potsdam in June
2007 — only to come back yet again from the dead. Now the question is
whether the unraveling of the most recent ‘mini-ministerial’ gathering
in Geneva was the silver stake that pierced the trade round’s heart,
rendering Doha dead forever."

For a look at what might emerge as an alternative to Dracula’s Doha,
check out Abbas Jaffer’s review of FPIF contributor Mark Engler’s new
book on globalization. It’s part of our new feature – FPIF Picks –
that gives you short reviews of the best foreign policy books, films,
and music.

Mexico and Iran

Mexico is the third-largest supplier of oil to the United States
(after Canada and Saudi Arabia). So the United States is very
interested in the future of the Mexican oil industry, particularly
the opportunities that open up for foreign investment if the complex
is privatized. As FPIF contributor Manuel Perez-Rocha explains in
Mexico’s Oil Referendum, the debate on privatization is increasingly
taking place in a regional context. The North American Security and
Prosperity Partnership (SPP) – an effort by the leaders of Canada,
the United States, and Mexico to bump NAFTA up a notch – definitely
has oil on its agenda. "One of the SPP’s core projects is the creation
of an integrated ‘regional energy market’ in order to guarantee the
supply of oil to the market that uses it most – the United States. The
SPP has proven to be a great help to oil companies for the grab of
Mexico’s reserves," Perez-Rocha writes.

Are Iran and the United States on the brink of détente? After the
July 19 meeting between Iranian, European, and U.S. negotiators, the
optimists and the pessimists were evenly divided. FPIF contributor
William O. Beeman doesn’t seem much in the way of movement forward. "So
little happened at the July 19 meeting, it could hardly be called
a diplomatic encounter," he writes in The Iranian Chess Game
Continues. "In fact, Iran has been pursuing a productive diplomatic
course. Rather than responding to deadlines and ultimatums, Iran has
steadily put forward proposals for resolving its differences with
the European and American governments over its nuclear energy program."

New Schedule

Mondays, we’ve been told, are a bad day for newsletters. Inboxes
are crowded with email, there’s less time to read, and folks are in
a post-weekend slump. So, with this issue of World Beat, we’ll be
switching to a Tuesday publication schedule.

Links

Human Rights Watch, "Overview of Human
Rights Issues in Georgia," World Report 2008;
georgi17743.htm

Voice of America, "Police Quash Olympic
Protests in Beijing, Hong Kong," August 9, 2008;
a8.cfm

Roger Levermore, "The Double-Edged Sword of Sport and Political
Protest," Foreign Policy In Focus ();
There are some signs that the ever-globalized mass media is helping
to portray sport-led political protest to a large audience, yet the
effectiveness of the protests surrounding the 2008 Olympics in China
will quickly fade away.

Shasha Zou, "Rome vs. Beijing: Olympics that Change the World,"
Foreign Policy In Focus (); David
Maraniss’ latest book, Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World,
demonstrates how Beijing 2008 is simply another chapter in the quest
for separation between sports and state.

Saul Landau, "Baseball – Big and Little: Its Role in U.S.-Cuba
Relations," Foreign Policy In Focus ();
Perhaps young athletes from New England and Alabama can bring down
the level of government irrationality on U.S.-Cuba policy a peg or two.

Sophia Murphy, "Food Aid Emergency," Foreign Policy In Focus
(); The food price crisis has made
demand more acute and supplies even scarcer, but it hasn’t really
changed the underlying problems with food aid as a response to hunger.

Alexandra Spieldoch, "The Food Crisis and Global Institutions,"
Foreign Policy In Focus (); Can
global institutions and governments, in the midst of a food crisis,
finally get it right?

Walden Bello and Mary Lou Malig, "The Dracula Round," Foreign Policy
In Focus (); Will the WTO’s Doha
talks come back from the dead?

Abbas Jaffer, "A Third Way: Globalization from Below," Foreign Policy
In Focus (); According to Mark Engler,
the future of globalization is in question. Will the fight between
"imperial globalization" and "corporate globalization" lead to the
rise of democratic globalization?"

Manuel Perez-Rocha, "Mexico’s Oil Referendum," Foreign Policy
In Focus (); Opposition parties
organized a non-binding referendum to fight government efforts to
gut a constitutional ban on private investment in the oil industry.

William O. Beeman, "The Iranian Chess Game Continues," Foreign Policy
In Focus (); Diplomacy between Iran
and the United States has entered the opening gambit stage and Iran
appears to be winning at this point.

–Boundary_(ID_tvYdqz/Hh2yXbUOuUCZI3g)–

UPDATE 1-SOCCER-WIT GEORGIA TO PLAY VIENNA IN ONE-OFF UEFA TIE

Reuters.uk
Tue Aug 12, 2008
UK

GENEVA, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The UEFA Cup tie between WIT Georgia
and Austria Vienna will be a one-off match on Aug. 28 because the
Georgian club cannot field a team for the first leg on Thursday due
to the conflict in its country, UEFA said.

"As WIT are not in a position to organise a safe and secure venue in
Georgia nor to play at an alternative venue on 14 August, UEFA has
decided to cancel the first leg and play the tie as a one-off match
on 28 August in Vienna," UEFA said in a statement on Tuesday.

"UEFA will contact the clubs and national associations concerned in
due time to communicate the rules applicable to this single match."

Earlier on Tuesday, European soccer’s governing body had said it was
moving the opening leg from Tbilisi to the Turkish city of Rize after
failing to gain the "necessary guarantees" from Armenia or Azerbaijan
to stage the match.

Georgia launched an attack last week in an attempt to regain
control over the pro-Russian province of South Ossetia. Russian
forces responded by sending in troops and conducting air strikes,
with hundreds of civilians being killed.

(Writing by Darren Ennis in Brussels; Editing by Tony Jimenez and
Ken Ferris)

ARMENIAN LOADS KEEP REMAINING IN PORT OF POTI

Panorama.am
20:56 12/08/2008

Approximately 160 wagons of Armenian load are stored up in the port
of Poti, said Vladimir Badalian, the co-chairman of Armenian-Georgian
Business Association and NA Deputy to ARKA agency. The Deputy has
also mentioned that currently everything is being done to organize
the transportation of those wagons to Armenia through Batumi.

The Armenian Weekly On-Line
80 Bigelow Avenue
Watertown MA 02472 USA
(617) 926-3974
[email protected]

http://www.a rmenianweekly.com

The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 30; August 2, 2008

Features:

1. Reaching Beyond the Wire
One Armenian-American Soldier Speaks out for Iraq’s Persecuted Christians
By Andy Turpin

2. Westward Ho! Backwards through Prussia
Bohjalian’s ‘Skeletons at the Feast’ Illustrates the WWII Eastern Front in
Moral Shades of Gray
By Andy Turpin

***

1. Reaching Beyond the Wire
One Armenian-American Soldier Speaks out for Iraq’s Persecuted Christians
By Andy Turpin

On July 16, upon his return from serving his second tour in Iraq as a civil
affairs soldier, U.S. Army sergeant John Merguerian spoke to the Weekly
about his experiences in Iraq, the reconstruction work he conducted with the
Iraqi-Armenian community in Baghdad, and the current situation facing Iraq’s
Christian minorities.

After graduating with degrees in Arabic and political science from UCLA, in
a joint program with the University of Egypt, Merguerian volunteered as a
teacher’s aid at Blackstone Elementary School with City Year, Boston’s urban
peace corp, from 1992-93. From 2000-02, Merguerian served with the Armenian
Volunteer Corps teaching English to disadvantaged villagers in Armenia.

A.W. What made you want to join the military? Where have you been posted
beyond Iraq?

J.M. Well, I have a younger brother and he joined in 1997. The following
year I decided to do the same thing. I thought it would be a good way to pay
for my schooling and get some good experience. Pretty much the only place I’ve
been to is Iraq. The tour I just completed was my second tour there. I was
there in 2003-04, during the invasion.

A.W. As an Armenian-American soldier in Iraq, tell us about your
interactions with the Iraqi Armenian community or the Armenian UN
peacekeepers there.

J.M. Oh sure. I had some interaction with the Iraqi Armenian community when
I was there in 2003-04. I actually went to their community in Baghdad. I
also started an Iraqi-Armenian fund. One of the churches in the U.S. helped
me with sending toys and books.

A.W. When were your last interactions with that Iraqi-Armenian community?

J.M. This current tour, from 2007-08. Because of the security situation, I
couldn’t reach out to the community, but I did try to help them out. They
had built a new Armenian school this year next to the St. Gregory Church. It
got into their jurisdiction because there are no more Iraqi-Arabs going to
their school.

The person who really helped me get things off the ground with helping the
community was Nubar Hovsepian, who is the head of the Iraq-Armenian
community in Glendale. He helped me with sending items to the school in
Baghdad. I only got to communicate through phone because they [in Baghdad]
had to come to the base to pickup all the items. The army didn’t want me to
go out there because of the security situation.

A.W. What part of Baghdad does the Iraqi-Armenian community reside in?

J.M. The majority of them are in the Camp Sarah district, which is what I’m
going to go ahead and call the "Christian Sector" of Baghdad because it’s
mainly the Armenians, the Assyrians, and the Chaldeans that live in big
communities there. The main, big church is the St. Gregory Armenian Church,
located right in the center of Baghdad, which is not at all a safe area
right now. That’s where the school is and from what I understand, the
parents take their kids there with a great deal of anxiety. It’s scary. I
also want to say that St. Gregory’s was closed for quite a time.

A.W. Has it since reopened?

J.M. They do sporadic services there from what I understand, but the
community now mainly uses the St. Garabed Church in the Camp Sarah district
for their services. Insurgents are also targeting a lot of Assyrian
churches. One of the head priests that was in charge of the Assyrian
community in Mosul was kidnapped, tortured, and killed.

To give you one story: When I was a soldier in Iraq from 2003-04, I met an
Iraqi-Armenian named Vartan Hamalakiyan. I met him after the invasion when
things calmed down at what was then the Saddam International Airport. After
we took over the airport, he was there to help the Americans get it running
again. He was a very nice man, he told me his wife had passed away maybe
four or five years ago from cancer. He was taking care of his two kids – one
boy was 13, the other was 11.

When I went back for this last tour in 2007-08, I was near the airport and
went there one time and met another Iraqi-Armenian. I asked, "Do you know
where Vartan is? I’ve tried to look for him. "The man said, "Have you heard
what happened to him?" What happened was, because he was working with
Americans, insurgents kidnapped him, tortured him, and then killed him. They
threw his body out into the street. The Armenian told me his children are
now living with their grandparents.

I also heard about two Iraqi-Armenians who were driving in the center of the
city in Baghdad and were accidentally killed by an Australian private
security contactor. It was two women who were driving and the Australian had
thought they were insurgents.

A.W. How do you feel about the representation of Armenian-Americans serving
in the U.S. military today? Do you feel Armenians are under-represented in
the military?

J.M. In this past tour I think I met only one and he was a captain from
Glendale. But in the first tour I met a few. I met another captain,
Martirosian, who was born in Armenia and moved to America. He decided to
join the army and became an officer. The other Armenian I met was a sergeant
named Hratch from Lowell, Mass. I’ve met a few here and there. They all seem
to enjoy serving their country.

A.W. What are your feelings about your service in Iraq?

J.M. I enjoy serving out there. I was very proud as an Armenian-American
that I could go out there and help the Iraqi-Armenian community. That was a
huge plus for me and I would hope that more Armenians and Armenian-Americans
could go out there, learn about the Iraqi-Armenian community, and help them
out. They’re in such desperate need.

A.W. So Armenian-Americans are a great resource to Iraq when they’re there?

J.M. Right. Well, I knew about the community in Baghdad and that was able to
convince my colonel to see and help-as a minority community. The main
question when we’re there as U.S. military civil affairs people is, How do
we help the Iraqi majority, the Sunnis and Shiite Muslims? The question
rarely involves the minorities that live there because they don’t know much
about them.

A.W. When you’re in Iraq, what does an average day for you consist of as a
civil affairs officer with an Armenian and Arabic background?

J.M. Well, which tour do you want to talk about, the first or second? During
my first tour, because it was a safer environment (the invasion was over),
we were ready to go out and do reconstruction. We would go out, practically
on a daily basis with the colonel, and help interpret with the local Iraqis
in the field and ask, "What needs to be done?" in terms of water, schools,
what’s going on in the city, what’s going on in the country, etc. The second
tour, again because of security reasons, I hardly ever got to go outside the
wire. I was mainly in charge of managing Iraqi interpreters and doing a lot
of documentation for the colonel, translating documents and also teaching
civil affairs classes to the Iraqi Special Operations forces and the Iraqi
army. That was all behind the wire.

A.W. When you say "behind the wire, "what do you mean?

J.M. Within the base, my base is Camp Liberty, which is near the airport. It’s
a secure base. The Iraqi army and Special Operations forces are also on the
same base with us. Because they work with Americans and because they’re part
of the Iraqi army, they don’t go out either. They’re targeted by the
insurgents and they home-school their kids on the base because they’re
getting threats all the time that [the insurgents] are going to kidnap and
kill their kids.

A.W. In the Metrowest Daily News, you’re quoted as saying," [Iraq] can’t be
democratized. "How do you view your day-to-day job there in Iraq as a civil
affairs soldier? What actually keeps you going when you’re there?

J.M. I think I was misquoted on that and it may have been my mother
speaking. But what keeps me going is a sense that we’re there, this is the
reality, and we have to make the best of what’s available there. Maybe
[Iraq] is not a democracy that we as Americans envision, but it’s their
country and they have to decide what’s best for them. [The U.S.] can just
help them facilitate that process through good communication and good civil
affairs work.

A.W. As someone who has daily social and logistical interaction with various
strata of Iraqi society, do you feel that the truth about the situation in
Iraq is reaching the U.S. public – either through the media or through
soldiers’ letters home? And is it accurate information?

J.M. It is accurate regarding the violence that’s going on there. However,
there’s more to it than that. There are a lot of safe areas where soldiers
are going out and [the media] doesn’t focus on a lot of the interactions
that are going on between the American soldiers and the Iraqi public, and
the partnerships they’re forming together. Things like basic humanitarian
aid to the schools, maintaining water pipes, maintaining electricity to the
medical facilities there. A lot of army doctors are opening up new clinics
with the Iraqis and the media isn’t focusing much on that. They’re mostly
focusing on "Howmany folks got killed today?" or the violence.

A.W. In your view, what should both the average soldier and American
civilian be doing to better the situation in Iraq?

J.M. Well, everyone’s under a command there and I trust our leaders and
commanders from General Petraeus down. I think as long as soldiers follow
their command, do what they’re told to be doing, and follow the leadership,
I think that’s the best a soldier can do to make a difference there. I can’t
speak for young Armenian-American activists – they have to form their own
opinions on whether this is a just war or not – but in my opinion I support
what we’re doing there. I support what the soldiers are doing there. So I’d
rather see Armenian-Americans saying, "Let’s support our soldiers, let’s
support the effort that is going on in Iraq." One thing I’d like more
Armenian-American activists to do is to know about the Iraqi-Armenian
community there, see how they can help them, because they do need a lot of
help. I recently talked to Nubar Hovsepian from Glendale and he told me that
just among his Iraqi community there’s a lot of activism, but that other
Armenians don’t know that there’s a community in Iraq. He said, "We don’t
get a whole lot of support." And many of our U.S. congressmen don’t know
about the Iraqi-Armenian community either. When they do their congressional
tours in Iraq, they mainly focus on the current government there, meeting
leaders and finding out what’s happening to the main Iraqi Muslim
population. I don’t think they even know about the minority communities
there. The only minority community they know about is the Kurdish community.
So the opportunity is with activists to write to a congressman, or if they
meet a congressman, to tell them about the Armenian community there and what’s
going on – that there are kidnappings! In 2006, they opened the new Armenian
school in Baghdad and right away there were already threat letters from
insurgents saying, "If you bring your kids to school, we will kidnap them."

A.W. Do you think that supporting the Armenian community in Iraq, and the
other Christian communities there is something that congressmen with more
ties to the evangelical lobby might be interested in getting involved with?
Do you see that in the future?

J.M. I do, I do, yes. I’m trying to push that right now. More than anything
else I’m trying to push for that. I have a friend here who’s a Glendale city
clerk friendly with the congressman and I want to see what we can do about
finding a Christian organization, maybe evangelical, who’d like to help out.

A.W. Would the Christian community in Iraq welcome such support?

J.M. I think they need all the support they can get.
——————————————— ——————–

2. Westward Ho! Backwards through Prussia
Bohjalian’s ‘Skeletons at the Feast’ Illustrates the WWII Eastern Front in
Moral Shades of Gray

By Andy Turpin

WATERTOWN, Mass. (A.W.)-A beautiful 18-year-old iron-willed Prussian girl,
her strapping Scottish POW lover (reminiscent of a ginger-haired Sean
Connery), an aging aristocratic mother with her Hitler Youth castoff son,
and a death camp survivor who kills Nazis to steal their identity are all
part of the motley crew cast of characters in author Chris Bohjalian’s
lastest novel, Skeletons at the Feast (Shaye Areheart Books, 2008).

The setting is Poland and the Eastern Front in the last days of World War II
amidst a Western Europe in the wake of the Allied invasion of France and an
Eastern Europe in the grip of military chaos and a wave of refugees fleeing
the horrors of the ever-impending Red Army.

Caught in the tide of war and racing against the Soviet barbarian hordes
determined on taking brutal revenge for the Battles of Stalingrad and
Leningrad out on German and Polish civilians are the Emmerichs.

The Emmerichs are a noble Prussian family that represents all that is good,
kind, and chivalrous in a once-great Germany whose legacy has been forever
perverted by the Third Reich and its perpetrated Holocaust. Their quest,
like a Teutonic John Ford Western, is to stay one step ahead of Ivan and
reach the surrender and safety of the American and British lines encroaching
from Berlin and France.

In the literary vein of Joseph Kanon’s The Good German and the tradition of
Sam Peckinpah’s 1976 controversial cinematic tale of the Eastern Front Cross
of Iron, Bohjalian’s Skeletons at the Feast is a deftly crafted and
empathetically woven novel of survival and hope told from a German
perspective often negated or neglected by other novelists.

Today few are taught in schools what an abject corner of hell the Eastern
Front was during the Second World War. Certainly writers like Jerzy Kozinsky
and Elie Wiesel have written about the infernos of the death camps, but
overshadowed in the U.S. are the legitimate fears of death and gruesome
reprisal the civilian populations of Eastern Europe faced at the hands of
the Red Army (especially if you were at all German).

Prussian and ethnic German enclaves from the banks of the Volga to the
hinterlands of Latvia and Lithuania suffered rape and tortuous death at the
hands of Stalin’s legions. Much of the carnage went underreported due to the
Soviet Union’s Allied allegiance during the war.

As recently as last year, former Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin
re-opened old wounds wrought by the Soviet army upon civilians in the Baltic
when he protested Estonia’s removal of a memorial statue (of the Soviet
liberation from Nazi occupation) in the capital city of Talinn.

Many ethnic Russian communities are wrongfully subject to abuse and
persecution by local Eastern European populations because of the remembered
war crimes of the Red Army during the World War II and Soviet eras. With the
gross exception of those Holocaust survivor communities, more people in
Eastern Europe seem to remember the atrocities of the Russian army over
those of the Nazis-a disturbing and morally ambiguous historical sore that
festers in many former Soviet republics and calls out for more stories like
Skeletons at the Feast to be written so that a greater number of people
understand the realities of the Eastern Front, and that time and place.