Author: Dabaghian Diana

France’s Alcatel to build network for Armenia’s K-Telecom
Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
August 3, 2005
MOSCOW, Aug 3 (Prime-Tass) — France’s Alcatel has concluded a contract
on building a GSM network for Armenia’s mobile operator K-Telecom,
Alcatel said Wednesday.
The exact amount of the contract was not disclosed, but Alcatel said
that it is worth several millions of euros.
Alcatel plans to build the network together with Greece’s Intracom.
Alcatel is to install over 200 base stations with the operational
capacity of 400,000 numbers.
Operation of the first stage of K-Telecom’s network began on July 1.
K-Telecom, an affiliate of Karabakh Telecom, is controlled by Lebanese
businessman Pierre Fattouch and is to provide its services under the
VivaCell trademark in Armenia.
K-Telecom has already invested more than U.S. USD 75 million in its
network in Armenia and projects its subscriber base at 300,000 users
in 2005.
Earlier national telecom company ArmenTel has held a monopoly
to provide GSM services in Armenia. However, in November 2004 the
Armenian government decided to make amendments to ArmenTel’s license,
depriving the company of its exclusive right to provide GSM, mobile
satellite and mobile radio communication services in the country.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanArmenian News Network
Aug 2 2005
CoE TO INVESTIGATE FACT OF ARMENIAN FLAG DISAPPEARANCE
02.08.2005 06:23
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In view of the disappearance of the Armenian flag
from the area of the Council of Europe building, Armenian Foreign
Ministry has addressed a note of protest to the Council of Europe
Secretary General Terry Davis, Director of the Council of Europe
Secretary General’s Personal Office Jan-Lois Loran and Head of the
Secretariat of the Committee of Ministers Leonardo Davis, RA MFA
press center reported. Armenia’s permanent representation in the
Council of Europe was informed the Council of Europe Security
Services will do their best to put the Armenian flag in its place as
soon as possible. As for the investigation, the Council of Europe
Secretary General’s Personal Office stated that negotiations with the
French police responsible for the security of the building and the
territory adjacent to it have been already held. To remind, On July
30 evening the Armenian flag and nameboard disappeared form the area
of the Council of Europe building. Armenia’s permanent representation
in the Council of Europe immediately informed the Council of Europe
Security Services and demanded to put the Armenian flag in its place.
At present the Armenian flag is hanging in its place. The Armenian
Foreign Ministry has addressed a note of protest to the Council of
Europe General Secretariat condemning the incident and demanded to
find out the circumstances and carry out relevant measures. “Armenian
Foreign Affairs Ministry resolutely protests against the incident and
demands to implement necessary steps for preventing vandalism against
the national symbols of the Council of Europe member countries,” the
note says

The Messenger, Georgia
July 29 2005
Natelashvili: grenade a plot by Saakashvili
Head of the opposition Labor Party Shalva Natelashvili held a press
conference on Thursday to state that the investigation of the
terrorist act against the presidents of Georgia and the U.S. that has
been underway since May 10 has been “an advertising act of Georgian
authorities.”
“After looking through the available information, the members of the
party have come to the conclusion that the attempt on the presidents
had been staged by Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs Vano
Merabishvili who was acting on the instructions of President
Saakashvili,” he said.
Natelashvili claimed the chief suspect Vladimir Arutunian
collaborated with the authorities, while the explosives found in his
home have been supplied by Georgian special services.
“Saakashvili wanted his name and the name of the U.S. president to be
focused on by the international media,” he added.
“The information we’ve gathered surrounding May 10 suggests that the
act was planned by the Georgian authorities has already been sent to
the U.S. Congress, the UN Security Council, and U.S. law
enforcement,” he said.

15rounds.com (press release)
July 26 2005
USA OLYMPIAN VANES MARTIROSYAN
ON ERIK MORALES/MANNY PACQUIAO
FIGHT CARD SEPT 10 AT STAPLES!

USA Olympian Vanes ‘Nightmare’ Martirosyan, a hard-hitting super
welterweight, will box on Top Rank’s big fight card which will
feature three-time world champion Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales and
former world champion Manny Pacquaio at the STAPLES Center on
Saturday, Sept. 10.
Martirosyan, handled by Shelly Finkel and trained by Freddie Roach,
is from Glendale, Calif. Martirosyan is 2-0-0 as a pro and lives and
trains in Glendale, Calif.
“I was born in Abozyan, Armenia,” said Vanes. “My Dad was an amateur
boxer and I guess he saw it in me too. He said I had a lot of energy
because I was always running around the house. He took me to a local
boxing gym and at the age of seven I began to box. I wound up with
130 amateur fights and won 120 of those.
“I speak Armenia, of course, English and I know a little Spanish. I
can pronounce some words in Russian too,” he said.
Martiroysan will be at the Top Rank press conference on Wednesday.
Morales and Zahir Raheem will be at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Rodeo
Room, at 11:30 a.m. to discuss their upcoming bout at the STAPLES
Center in Los Angeles.
FIGHT NOTEBOOK – Raheem, handled by Cameron Dunkin, is trained by Don
House who works with Kid Diamond and Steven Luevano at the new ‘House
of Champions’ gym on Flamingo in Las Vegas….House will be at the
Wednesday press conference. He will outline a blueprint for Raheem to
take on Morales.

Armenian politician critical of Venice Commission’s media reform findings
Arminfo
25 Jul 05
YEREVAN
“We are perplexed by some provisions contained in the conclusions made
by the working group of the [Council of Europe’s] Venice Commission
regarding constitutional amendment proposals,” the chairman of the
Democracy public organization, Vardan Pogosyan, said in a conversation
with an Arminfo correspondent today.
He emphasized that the agreement between the Venice Commission and the
Armenian parliamentary delegation envisaged the involvement of the
Armenian National Assembly in forming the media-regulating bodies,
such as the Council of the Public TV and radio of Armenia [CPTRA]. He
proposed to introduce a new way of forming them, similar to how the
National Commission on Television and Radio of Armenia (NCTRA) is
formed.
Pogosyan considers the changes envisaged under the latest proposals
for constitutional reforms in forming the NCTRA as insufficient,
especially so because some members of the commission were elected
until 2011 and parliament can appoint only two representatives of the
NCTRA in 2007.
“The conclusions proposed by the Venice Commission’s working group
contradict the resolution of the Council of Europe adopted earlier,
since in response to previous suggestions by the Council of Europe
regarding the CPTRA reform, Armenian authorities used to refer to
imperfections in the Constitution,” Pogosyan said.
He expressed the confidence that the Council of Europe’s appeal to
avoid political speculation in appointing media-regulating bodies is
impossible to meet when the Council of the public TV and radio is set
up solely by the president.

JAPANESE TOURISTS WILL DISCOVER ARMENIA IN 2006
Azg/arm
21 July 05
“Japanese tourist will be interested in all these that we saw in
Armenia”, representative of one of five Japanese tour operators
visiting Armenia on July 16-20, Eiji Koyama, said. At a meeting
with Armenian Agency for Tourism Development (AATD) yesterday the
Japanese tour operators presented the aim of their four-day visit
and the possible expectations.
Representation of Armenia at JATA International Tourism Exhibition in
2002 and 2004 made Japanese turn their look to Armenia as a possible
destination to attract Asian tourists. The AATD marketing expert said
that the visit was of familiarizing character and aimed at introducing
Armenia to Asia.
Mr. Koyama said that the visit has changed their understanding of
Armenia. Armenia, along with the other states of the region, is seen
to the Japanese as a dangerous country. But Mr. Koyama stated that
there is no trace of danger, that Armenia is an interesting country
and that the Japanese will be interested in the history, production
and daily life of Armenia.
The Japanese tour operator was greatly impressed by the Mount Ararat,
the Monastery of Geghard and the nature of Armenia. “It would be nice
if there were better roads and less cows on the roads”, Mr. Koyama
said. He noted that he had visited Khor Virap, Noravank, Hakhartsin,
Sanahin, Haghpat, Etchmiadzin, Matenadaran and the Cognac and Wine
Factory. The Japanese guests greatly enjoyed the process of lavash
(flatbread) baking in one of Armenian villages.
Armenia, at any rate, is not a good option for Japan for one-way
tourism in view of the long distance from Japan to Armenia.
The Japanese tour operators will look to organizing regional trips
including Armenia in the list with its neighboring countries. The
group may comprise South Caucasian countries or may be a separate group
of Armenia and Turkey. As a result of the newly launched cooperation
first groups from Japan will visit Armenia in 2006.
By Aghavni Harutyunian

Vic’s no lightweight: Fenech
Sydney Morning Herald , Australia
July 21 2005
Jeff Fenech has predicted his IBF world champion Vic Darchinyan could
become one of the greatest flyweight boxers but warned him against
overconfidence and the right hand of Colombian challenger Jair Jimenez.
Darchinyan will make the second defence of his IBF title at the Sydney
Entertainment Centre next Wednesday.
Already boasting an imposing professional record of 23 consecutive
wins (18 by KO), 29-year-old Darchinyan will start a warm favourite
against his ninth-ranked opponent.
Fenech, who persuaded Darchinyan to move to Australia after he
represented Armenia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, praised his fighter.
“I watched him spar yesterday and the maturity he showed me was
something that I’d been looking for for a long time,” Fenech said
yesterday.
“He was patient and I watched him spar the same guy five times and it
was unbelievable, he was just dictating so well. My biggest problem
with Vic is that it’s great to be arrogant and great to be confident
but this kid is sometimes a little over [confident].
“I just want him to realise the guy he is fighting is going to be a
very, very tough fighter.
“If Vic doesn’t go out there and listen and do the right thing,
it’s as easy to lose the title as it is to gain it, I just hope he
realises that. If he does what he did yesterday, this kid has got
the potential to go down as one of the greatest flyweights ever.”

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Center for National and International Studies
75 Yerznkian Street
Yerevan 375033, Armenia
Tel: (+374 – 10) 52.87.80 or 27.48.18
Fax: (+374 – 10) 52.48.46
E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
Website:
19 July, 2005
ACNIS is Monitoring Armenia’s Energy Security
Yerevan — The Armenian Center for National and International Studies
(ACNIS) today convened a policy-roundtable within frames of regional
economic development and potential mutual cooperation. The topic,
Armenia’s energy safety matters and perspectives, was fairly urgent,
and the meeting brought together those in charge of the sector,
experts, independent researchers, and media representatives.
ACNIS research coordinator Stiopa Safarian greeted the capacity
audience with opening remarks. “Within the complex of national
security, the energy component has an undisputable importance as
the energy policy touches not only upon important regional and
geopolitical problems but also the vital interests of the country’s
residents. And no matter how much we rest assured that Armenia is
an electricity-exporting country, its safety nonetheless, is not
adequately guaranteed because of the many still-unresolved problems
in this sector,” Stiopa Safarian stated.
Presenting Armenia’s concept for energy safety and the main avenues
for its policy toward the sector’s development, Armenia’s Deputy Energy
Minister Areg Galstian underscored the plans to be implemented by the
year 2025, and which down the road aim at safeguarding the country’s
capacity and energy safety. “At the heart of the strategic plan for
the sector’s progressive enhancement there are qualitative indices:
guarantee of energy independence; technologies which economize
energy; usage of domestic resources and alternative energy sources;
and others which have been cultivated by taking global experience
into account,” the Deputy Minister mentioned detailing the activities
to be undertaken in the next 5 years. Galstian also assured that the
Iran-Armenia gas line would be put to use within the same time span,
and projects would be brought to life which envisage the following:
raising the safety level of Armenia’s nuclear power plant; gas supply
to the country entire; restoring the heat-supply system; operating
the hydro-electrical plant of Meghri and first reactor of Yerevan’s
thermo-electrical plant; modernizing the underground gas storage;
and building small hydro-electrical plants.
The policy intervention by Levon Yeghiazarian, Director General of
the Scientific Research Institute of Energy Company, encompassed the
strategic matters concerning Armenia’s energy safety. Yeghiazarian
deemed especially important the necessity to cultivate concepts
which include a database for normative-technical documents, a
development plan for the system, price formation and tariff policy
within the electricity market, fuel supply complex, investment plans,
and the energy system’s dependability and seismic safety. However,
according to Yeghiazarian, aside from global problems, all consumers
are interested in service quality in first place. “Since the field
for legal relationships is open between the consumer and the supplier,
no one faces responsibility when our household appliances break down
as a result of high voltage,” Yegiazarian underlined.
In his address on “The Energy Legislation and European Union
Approaches”, Areg Barseghian, an expert in energy and transport
infrastructures from the Armenian-European Policy and Legal Advice
Center (AEPLAC) pointed out that according to some parameters, when
it came down to energy safety, Armenia’s legal field did not meet the
requirements of European Union laws. European legislative acts which
coordinate in particular the oil and oil products’, electricity, gas,
and nuclear energy markets are non-existent in Armenia. “European
legislation contains norms which are not defined by Armenia’s law on
energy, because these norms do not refer to the realities in Armenia,”
the expert maintained. According to him, altogether with that, the
incompatibility of the legislation which regulates the energy sector,
the absence of “common service” precepts for one, is very often having
an adverse effect on trying to satisfy consumer demand.
Is there any other option to the current concept for Armenia’s
energy safety? Searching for an answer to this question, economic
policy analyst Gegham Kiurumian reached the conclusion that the
major guarantee for Armenia ‘s safety is hydro energy enrichment
and not much attention is being paid to it. “It is time to reject
living on the account of imported fuel and to put our hopes on our
own resources alone,” the analyst stressed, expressing concern at
the same time regarding insufficient usage of small hydro-electrical
plants, solar energy, and important domestic sources. According to
the figures presented by Kiurumian, Armenia is one of the countries
which lags behind the most when it comes to the annual amount of
electricity supply per capita.
The formal interventions were followed by contributions by Levon
Vardanian, the Development Board cabinet member of Armenia’s Ministry
of Energy; Edward Aghajanov, an economist with the Armat Center;
Haik Gevorgian, Haikakan Zhamanak daily’s columnist on economic
matters; Robert Kharazian, Public Utilities’ Regulatory Board member;
independent expert Hrant Baghdasarian and many others.
Founded in 1994 by Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi K.
Hovannisian and supported by a global network of contributors, ACNIS
serves as a link between innovative scholarship and the public policy
challenges facing Armenia and the Armenian people in the post-Soviet
world. It also aspires to be a catalyst for creative, strategic
thinking and a wider understanding of the new global environment. In
2005, the Center focuses primarily on civic education, conflict
resolution, and applied research on critical domestic and foreign
policy issues for the state and the nation.
For further information on the Center call (37410) 52-87-80 or
27-48-18; fax (37410) 52-48-46; e-mail [email protected] or [email protected];
or visit

Who Won’t Be Making Jokes about WMD
By Gerald A. Honigman (07/16/05)
American Daily, OH
July 16 2005
The Bush Administration has come under increasing fire due to its
inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, one of the
main reasons it gave in launching its attack in the first place.
While Jay Leno & Co. continue to crack jokes, and AP writers such as
Matthew Fordahl have also made light of the subject in papers such as
The Herald in Rock Hill, South Carolina (“For Today’s Giggle, Try
Asking Google To Find weapons Of Mass Destruction,” 7/16/03), there
is one people who surely will not be joining in the laughter. And
they were not the only ones for whom the subject is deadly
serious–literally.
“The Kurds have no friends but the Mountain” is a piece of aging
Kurdish wisdom. And while the mass gassings and other slaughter of
this people have too often been treated as “yesterday’s news,” all
the current hype about whether or not Adolph — er Saddam — Hussein
had/has weapons of mass destruction brings their tragic story back
onto center stage…or at least should.
Thirty million stateless, used, and abused Kurds are the native,
non-Arab, non-Turkic, non-Semitic people who were promised
independence in Mesopotamia — the ancient heartland of Kurdistan —
after the Ottoman Turkish Empire collapsed in the wake of World War
I. They were the Hurrians of the Bible and the Medes of Persian
history. Saladin, the mighty medieval Muslim warrior, was a Kurd.
Unfortunately, they soon saw these earlier promises sacrificed on the
altar of British petroleum politics and Arab nationalism. Arab Iraq
was born instead.
It’s imperial navy having recently switched from coal to oil power,
Great Britain did not want to anger the strategically important
“Arab” world, possessing its own oil wealth, by agreeing to support a
Kurdish nationalism which was viewed by Arabs with the same disdain
as they display towards the nationalist movement of Israel’s Jews
(one half of whom descended from refugees from the “Arab”/Muslim
world) or any other of the subjugated peoples — Berbers, Black
African Sudanese, etc. — who dared to assert their own identities
and demanded political rights.
Despite their own internal differences, Kurds from all over the
region had largely put their hopes and dreams into the creation of
that one independent Kurdish state, not unlike situations involving
Greeks, Armenians, and Jews in their own respective earlier
diasporas. The frustration arising from the abortion of that earlier
Mesopotamian dream (a cause supported by such personalities as
President Woodrow Wilson, Mark Sykes, and others) lead to decades of
revolts and problems in Syria, Turkey, and Iran as well.
In a post-imperial age when other dormant nations were reawakening,
the Kurds were repeatedly told that they were unworthy of such
desires… by so-called “friends” and foes alike. That brings us back
to current times.
While repeated partitions have occurred and are still being demanded
of the geographic area of “Palestine” (the first occurring when the
Arab nation of Jordan was created in 1922 as a result of Colonial
Secretary Churchill’s separation of all the land east of the Jordan
River from the 1920 borders), none have been allowed for a much
larger Mesopotamia. Only Arabs have been allowed to have their
nationalist desires sanctioned in a land in which millions of Kurds
and others have lived long before the Arab conquests in the 7th
century C.E. and the continuing forced Arabization ever since. In
their frustration, the Kurds have subsequently been caught up in
numerous regional and global rivalries, being used and abused by
all…Syrian and Iraqi Arabs, Turks, Iranians, Soviets, Brits,
Russians, Americans, and so forth.
Post-World War I Iraq was largely divided between two major factions:
Arab nationalists, who saw Iraq simply as one part of the overall
greater Arab patrimony, and Iraqi nationalists. The latter — some
Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmens, a few Arabs, etc. (with few exceptions,
Iraq’s 200,000 Jews basically watched carefully from the sidelines)
— deluded themselves into believing that Arabs would allow a true
equality to emerge within the country. Yet earlier Iraqi history
should have taught another lesson: the Arab Caliphate of the
‘Umayyads based in Damascus had been replaced in the 8th century
during the Abbasid Revolution. The latter established its imperial
base farther east in Baghdad and was supported largely by non-Arab
converts to Islam, the Mawali, who demanded an equality that Arabs
back then had also refused to give.
Short of another major Abbasid-like revolution, Iraq’s Arabs (Shi’a
or Sunni)–having once again regained their position of dominance —
were not likely to give it up. Sure enough, subsequent massacres of
non-Arab populations and the continued forced Arabization of their
cultures and lands helped squash most of the modern “Iraqi”
nationalist delusions. While, in theory, this would be a nice,
American-styled democratic solution, centuries of reality regarding
actual Arab practices and attitudes tell quite a different story.
Added to this, think about Sunni Arabs now continuously blowing apart
Shi’a Arabs (along with everyone else) as Iraq now attempts to enter
into some semblance of a democratic age.
In the 1970s, after promoting Kurdish military support for the Shah
of Iran against Iraq, America pulled the rug out from under Mullah
Mustafa Barzani when the Shah made his temporary peace. Tens of
thousands of Kurds were subsequently slaughtered as a result. A
repeat performance came in 1991, when President George Bush, Sr.
called for the Kurds and others to revolt in order to topple Saddam
from within. When they heeded his call, he then stood by and watched
as Kurdish men, women, and children were massacred by the thousands.
Just a bit earlier, thousands more had been gassed to death — 5,000
in Halabja alone…all of this with the might of the U.S. military
within a stone’s throw of the action. The pathetic excuse meekly
offered later on was that America had been “tricked” by the Iraqis in
agreements regarding terms of the ceasefire. This will forever be a
stain on America’s honor, despite after-the-fact “no fly” zones
subsequently set up by the Allies.
Besides the thousands of Kurdish civilians who were immediately
killed, tens of thousands of others have subsequently died due to the
lingering effects of the poison. Remember this the next time someone
offers up a chuckle about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.
Adding insult to injury, at a time when much of the world is now
demanding that the sole, miniscule state of the Jews accept that a
terrorist 22nd Arab state — and second Arab one in Palestine–be
created in its own backyard, these same alleged voices of ethical
enlightenment still insist that there will be no roadmap for
Kurdistan. Indeed, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the rest
of the Foggy Folks repeatedly quash even discussion of such ideas.
The good news is that earlier talk of a federalist solution, whereby
Kurds would at least gain some local autonomy within a united Iraq,
seems–for now at least–to be back on track; however, there is still
a large possibility of this changing in the long term due to the
majority Shia’s other demands and plans for dominance.
Kurds have won some increased influence lately due to America’s and
the Shi’a Arabs need to have them as a counterweight to
suicide-bombing Sunni Arabs. But what will happen when the Shi’a
consolidate their power and/or the American public gets fed up with
the returning body bags and costs in treasure? Shi’a spokesmen have
already made clear what their long term intentions are…so the Kurds
still have cause to be concerned.
Nevertheless, despite all of the problems, while other butchers do
indeed exist elsewhere, and America cannot simply assume the roles of
the world’s policeman, judge, and jury, there were still very good
reasons to bring about the end of Saddam’s regime…whether we’re
ever able to locate his WMD or not. Again, just ask those Kurdish
parents who bore witness to mass graves holding hundreds of their
children being unearthed…a scene right out of the Holocaust.
Yet, while we’re on the subject, just how do we define weapons of
mass destruction?
Thanks to Israel’s surgical strike removing the immediate nuclear
threat some two decades ago (for which it was universally condemned
— James Baker and George Bush, Sr. leading the pack in his
pre-presidential days), Saddam’s nuclear option suffered a severe
setback. But ample evidence suggests that he didn’t give up on this
endeavor, and Iranians and probably others as well were also gassed
by Saddam, so no one doubts his possession and willingness to use
this latter type of WMD.
It’s not too difficult to hide poison gas — or even its delivery
systems — in a country as large as Iraq, especially since weapons
inspectors had been out of the country for a long time. And we now
know that Syria has been up to its eyeballs in collaboration with
Iraq regarding all kinds of things. Syria has its own huge stockpiles
of such weaponry, so it would theoretically be easy to hide Iraqi WMD
this way.
Additionally, Saddam had plenty of time to learn the lesson of the
1967 Arab-Israeli war that it wasn’t a good idea to leave your
weapons exposed. No one ever claimed that the Iraqis are
stupid….even if some of Saddam’s actions antagonizing America (and
giving it little choice but to act) in recent decades might suggest
otherwise.
So…what’s all the ongoing fuss about WMD really all about?
Could it be just domestic politics being played out by opponents of
Tony Blair and Dubya and/or another example of the hypocrisy and
double standards practiced by the rest of the world which put Israel
under a high power lens in judging its struggle to survive while
ignoring the literally millions of non-Arab people — such as the
Kurds — who have been massacred, seen their cultures and languages
“outlawed,” and such for simply daring to assert their own identities
and resisting forced Arabization? And also daring to dream of
independence?
Is it that the murder of hundreds of thousands of Kurds over the
decades simply doesn’t matter? And if it really did, then would it
matter if we could or could not locate the hidden WMD we already know
that Saddam had and used against this people?
The current real concern and debate should therefore not be about
locating Saddam’s WMD, but providing the long term justice the
victims of his WMD deserve.
What will happen once America gets fed up with the Arab mess in
post-Saddam Iraq, packs up and leaves the country, and the tax
payers, Turks, and others get tired of the “no fly” zones protecting
the Kurds? Will we still insist that Kurds remain as perpetual
victims to Arab subjugation and murder? Did we force a post-Tito
Yugoslavia to remain united while the different ethnic groups
massacred each other? Think about that a bit…It seems that, on the
contrary, America was instrumental in dismembering and virtually
partitioning that country. Perhaps there’s a lesson there for
Mesopotamia as well…
Unless we work out an arrangement for our own long term presence
(i.e. bases in Iraqi Kurdistan seem to be the best choice), the tanks
and planes Iraq’s Arabs mostly kept leashed in confronting America
will very likely once again wreak vengeance against America’s
strangely loyal Kurdish friends. Again, a mounting toll of American
dead and maimed, along with other costs, will bring ever increasing
pressure for an American retreat…right or wrong.
One of the biggest booboos we made was ending the war too quickly,
allowing Saddam’s military to cast off their uniforms only to soon
bleed us and the Shi’a in an ongoing guerilla war of attrition.
Locating an enemy scattered among a civilian population is a helluva
bit harder and more complex than pinpointing him on the battlefield.
We were played for dummies, and quite likely due to pressure from the
State Department to end the war prematurely so as not to anger its
Arab buddies elsewhere even more than they were already.
Yet, despite all of this, America insists that–at the most–a
modified federal version of a failed “Iraqi” nationalism will be all
that Kurds might hope for in a post-Saddam Iraq…as if Saddam alone
was the problem and created those subjugating Arab attitudes towards
non-Arabs all by himself. In the long run, it’s more than doubtful
that a post-Saddam Iraq will view “political equality” any
differently than when Saddam was forcibly removing Kurds from their
ancient oil-rich lands around Mosul and Kirkuk and replacing those
that he didn’t kill with Arabs.
The American occupation, despite much good that it has already
brought to the land, will increasingly–as we are now seeing–be
resented. And those who aligned themselves with America–the Kurds in
particular–will once again be sought out for revenge. Yet, without a
prolonged, guided, and powerful American occupation, there is no
chance whatsoever for an inclusive Iraqi nationalism to emerge. With
America’s presence, this still only has a slight chance for success.
There are simply too many age-old, powerful forces working against
it.
While America has been playing a delicate balancing act trying to
soothe Turkey’s fears regarding its own large Kurdish population and
not angering the Arab oil sheikhs and autocrats with the prospect of
the loss of what they see as “purely Arab land” to the Kurds, it must
now begin to reassess this policy. Provisions can be made to make
sure that an independent Iraqi Kurdistan behaves as a good neighbor.
It might actually relieve Turkey of some of its own Kurdish headaches
by accepting immigrant Kurds who feel themselves oppressed by the
Turks. Indeed, that’s one of the things that the Arabs have feared as
they called the birth of Kurdistan another Israel.
Certainly if Arabs, most of whom still deny Israel’s right to exist,
are deemed deserving of their 22nd state, with most of the world’s
hypocrites clamoring for it as well, some thirty million stateless
Kurds living in varying degrees of danger and subjugation are, at
long last, deserving of one.
This should be the issue being debated and under scrutiny right
now…not Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.
And America must not leave the Kurds at the mercy of Arab butchers as
it has done too often in the past.

OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS TOLD NKR PRESIDENT ABOUT DETAILS OF KARABAKH PEACE
PROCESS
YEREVAN, JULY 14. ARMINFO. NKR President Arkady Ghoukassyan met with
OSCE MG co-chairs Yuri Merzlyakov, Bernard Fassier and Stephen Mann
Wednesday evening.
Ghoukassyan’s press service reports that the co-chairs told him about
the details of the meetings of the Armenian and Azeri presidents and
the co-chairs’ meeting with the Armenian and Azeri FMs. They presented
their approaches to the Karabakh peace process. They said that there
is a new possibility in the process but the question is not about new
proposals.
Ghoukassyan said that it is early yet to speak about mutual
understanding on the current stage but there are still big
expectations of progress. He hopes that the co-chairs’ visit to the
region will be one more step forward to peace.
The co-chairs thanked Ghoukassyan for the constructive dialogue and
commitment to search for mutually acceptable settlement formats.