Author: Edgar Tavakalian

Armenian customs boss survives attempt on his life
A1+ web site
24 Mar 05
Yerevan, 24 March: There was a blast near the building of the Armenian
State Customs Committee at 1015 today. The blast happened right under
the tree where the car of the head of the State Customs Committee,
Armen Avetisyan, was parked a few seconds before that.
Having checked the scene of the crime, the chief of the Armenian
police, Ayk Arutyunyan, refused to say anything definite.
The head of the police department of Yerevan, Nerses Nazaryants, told
us that by the time of the explosion, Armen Avetisyan had already
left the car but his driver and aide were hurt.
The head of the city police department said that they have already
spoken to Avetisyan, but the latter said that he does not know whom
to suspect.
The group, which is conducting the preliminary investigation, cannot
yet say what kind of an explosive device was used.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AUSTRIAN BANK TO FINANCE ARMENIAN METALS COMPANY
Mining News from Eurasia
BISNIS Mining and Metallurgy Update
16 March 2005
From BISNIS Commercial News Update – Armenia
Prepared by George Isayan, BISNIS Representative in Armenia
Austrian bank Raiffeisen will provide USD 1.5 million in credit to the
Armenian copper program (acp) closed joint-stock company, a copper mine
and processing plant. This will be part of a USD 4.5 million credit
program managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(ebrd).
********** Forwarded by: ******************************
Ellen S. House, BISNIS Trade Specialist for Mining and Metallurgy
U.S. Department of Commerce
Tel: 202/482-2284, Fax: 202/482-2293
Additional information on this sector in Russia and Eurasia is available
via BISNIS Online at
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
17 March 2005
Melkonian students make desperate plea to save school
By Jean Christou
STUDENTS of the Melkonian Educational Institute (MEI) staged a walkout and
peaceful protest in front of the founders’ mausoleum yesterday, demanding
that the decision to close the school in June, announced a year ago
yesterday, be overturned.
The students, who hail from Cyprus, Greece, the Middle East, Europe and
Armenia, want the New York based Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU)
that administers the school, to recall its decision to close MEI.
The alumni and other friends of the Melkonain have banded together to fight
the decision, believing that the true motive for the closure is financial,
given that the school is sitting on some £40 million worth of commercial
real estate in the capital.
They say the AGBU plans to sell the entire property, including the
historical buildings and the forest that have all been declared protected by
the Ministry of Interior as a national heritage site.
`Don’t abandon us,’ pupils shouted during yesterday’s demonstration. `Stand
with us in this struggle’ and `we will not allow the Americans to close our
school,’ they also said.
On March 16 last year, the AGBU claimed its justification to close the
Melkonian was that `it no longer satisfies its mission’ and that it would be
wiser to shut down the existing school and open a new Melkonian elsewhere.
`At the time, the House of Representatives condemned the closure decision by
issuing a unanimous resolution, while the House Education Committee said it
would deem any such decision as `a hostile act’,’ a statement from the
protesters said. `Both the AGBU and its American representative in Cyprus
continue to mock the House and ignore its decisions.’
In January, the Patriarch of the Armenian Patriarche of Turkey, Mesrob
Mutafyan, filed suit in Los Angeles against the AGBU in an attempt to
prevent the closure of MEI.
The Patriarch is the original trustee of the MEI, and the action is being
co-ordinated and mediated by the California group on behalf of the
Patriarchate, a beneficiary of Garabed Melkonian’s Deed of Assignment.
Garabed Melkonian was one of the two sibling founders of the Nicosia-based
secondary school 78 years ago.
Sources at the school told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the AGBU’s lawyers
had managed to postpone a hearing in the case. The sources said this was
obviously a tactic to ensure the school was closed down before the case
could be decided at court, making a reversal of the situation more
difficult.
In a letter issued yesterday, Jack Melkonian, the great great nephew of
Garabed Melkonian, said he and his family were being discredited by the AGBU
for asking where the MEI trust money had gone.
`I have asked repeatedly for documents, as far back as on September 9 2004,
related to the donation and a copy of the latest AGBU bylaws. The
handing-out of these documents was declined `on the grounds of a
longstanding policy not to hand out photocopies of files’. Instead I was
invited to come to New York and look through the files myself,’ Melkonian
said.
`During my stay in Nicosia I visited the school and the tomb of my two
great-great-uncles and was shocked to find the monument dilapidated,
overgrown with weeds and the flower containers filled with cigarette tips. I
lodged an oral complaint with the administrators of the school and wrote a
letter to the President on November 18, 2004. Up to-day I have no reply, nor
an apology.’
Melkonian said that to add insult to injury, the AGBU has decided to close
the MEI on the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, from which the
school’s founders had fled to Cyprus in 1915.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2005
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RESIDENTS OF NORTH AVENUE DO NOT WANT TO REMAIN HOMELESS
A1 Plus | 17:50:17 | 10-03-2005 | Social |
“Officials are deaf to all our calls,” the residents of the North
Avenue, who gathered today in front of the government building, say.
They organized a rally again. Their demand remained the same — the
indemnification for damaged flats. Children, old men and women are
driven out of their homes», the demonstrators complained.
None of the government members received the protesters. In the
street however they spoke to deputy Mayor Kamo Areyan, who promised
to arrange a meeting with the head of the department engaged in the
program implementation.
The residents of the North Avenue said that if their problem is
not solved in Armenia they will appeal for help to the Embassies of
foreign states.
–Boundary_(ID_fXmPZTqJb5YI5HVJb/i3OQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ABS-CBS Interactive
Monday, March 7, 2005 1:45 AM
Garry slams Vallejo anew
By MANNY BENITEZ
TODAY Chess Columnist
Megastar Garry Kasparov of Russia thrashed Spanish hero Francisco `Paco’
Vallejo Pons with White to widen his lead in the 10th round of the Linares
Super Chess in Spain on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
With 6.5 points after posting his fourth win – and his second against the
Spaniard – in nine games, the world’s No. 1 chess player left No. 2
Viswanathan Anand of India and No. 3 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in his wake
at 4.5 each from eight games.
Kasparov, who was to have a free day in the 11th round, gave Vallejo, whom
he had also beaten in the third, a lesson in strategy and tactics with
powerful blows, doubling up the Spaniard’s pawns early on.
Here is how the former world champion (White) pummeled the Spaniard into
submission in 54 moves of a Slav game:
1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 e3 Bf5 5 Nc3 e6 6 Nh4! Bg6 7 Nxg6 hxg6 8 Bd2
Nbd7 9 Rc1 a6 10 Bd3 dxc4 11 Bxc4 b5 12 Be2 c5 13 Bf3 Rb8 14 Ne2 Bd6 15 g3
0-0 16 0-0 e5 17 dxc5 Nxc5 18 Bb4 Qb6 19 Nc3 Nb7 20 Bxd6 Nxd6 21 Nd5 Nxd5 22
Bxd5 Rbc8 23 Qg4 Nf5 24 Qe4 Qf6 25 Rfd1 Nd6 26 Qb4 Rfd8 27 a4! bxa4 28 Qxa4
Rxc1 29 Rxc1 Nb5 30 Rd1 Nc7 31 Bc4! Rd6 32 Rxd6 Qxd6 33 Qb3 Ne6 34 h4 e4 35
Bd5 g5 36 h5! g4 37 Bxe4 Ng5 38 Qd5!? Nxe4 39 Qxe4 Qd1+ 40 Kg2 Kf8
Now comes a series of well-timed queen-checks.
41 Qa8+! Ke7 42 Qb7+ Ke8 43 Qxa6 Qd5+ 44 Kg1 Qxh5 45 Qc6+ Kd8 46 e4 Ke7 47
Qc7+ Ke6 48 Qc8+ Ke7 49 Qb7+ Ke8 50 b4 Qg5 51 Qc6+ Ke7 52 b5 Qd2 53 Qc5+ Qd6
54 Qg5+! 1-0.
After 54 Qg5+!
Black’s g-pawn falls, e.g., 54…Qf6 55 Qxg4!
In Poitovsky, Russia, solo leader Viktor Bologan of Moldova also boosted his
score to 5.5 points with a 58-move win against Rafael Vaganian of Armenia in
the seventh round of the Karpov chess tournament.
A full point behind him were top seed Etienne Bacrot of France and Alexander
Grischuk of Russia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian leader demands transparent local government polls
Arminfo
1 Mar 05
YEREVAN
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and the minister for coordinating
territorial administration and production infrastructures, Ovik
Abramyan, have discussed the course of preparations for the
forthcoming local government elections in October.
Kocharyan demanded that steps be taken to conduct transparent and fair
elections and to rule out any intervention in the electoral process,
the press service of the Armenian president has told Arminfo.
Earlier, Abramyan had assured journalists that there would be no
intervention in the electoral process on the part of the government
and the president. He said it was important for the government to
ensure that the heads of local government are elected by the free will
of the population and work well.
“The election of community leaders and elders does not depend on their
party affiliation,” Abramyan said and promised that the elections
would be free and fair.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Handbooks available for Caucasus journalists, NGOs
International Journalist’s Network
Feb 18 2005
The Media Diversity Institute plans to release several training manuals
for journalists and NGOs in the South Caucasus at a February 22 launch
in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The new releases include a South Caucasus regional edition of the MDI
Reporting Diversity Manual. This collection of tip-sheets, articles and
critical analysis of diversity coverage will be available in Armenian,
Azeri, English, Georgian and Russian. The manual includes sections on
ethnicity, religion, gender, people with disabilities, the elderly,
refugees and sexual minorities.
MDI is also launching three handbooks for journalists and editors
in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, respectively. The handbooks
identify sections of each country’s national laws that could impact
news coverage of diversity. The books will be available in Armenian,
Azeri, English and Georgian.
A Media Relations Handbook for Non-Governmental Organizations is
also set for release on February 22. The guide, published by MDI
and the Independent Journalism Foundation, is intended to help NGOs
communicate with the media. It will also be available in Armenian,
Azeri, English, Georgian and Russian.
The publications are part of MDI’s ongoing project to train the media
and empower minorities in the South Caucasus. The three-year program
involves training journalists, editors, journalism professors and
NGO representatives in diversity reporting and theory.
The books will be made available in both hard copy and on the MDI
Web site at
For more information, contact Lydia El-Khouri at
[email protected] or Elena Aladashvili at
[email protected].
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DAILY MAIL (London)
February 3, 2005
SULTAN OF BLOOD
by ANDREW ROBERTS
ENEMIES were beheaded in their hundreds of thousands, whether they
surrendered or not. In the killing fields, their heads were piled
into grotesque knolls 15ft high and 30ft wide. One historian recorded
that ‘vultures, scenting carrion, wheeled overhead, swooping down to
pluck eyes out of sockets as 20,000 expressions of abject terror,
horror, disgust and defiance stared out into a blank sky’.
This was the work of the Emperor Tamerlane, whose kingdom was founded
on blood-lust and sadism, the like of which the world had never seen.
The mere mention of his name — a derivation of Temur the Lame, after
he was wounded in his youth — instilled fear in any who stood in his
way.
Tamerlane — who was also known as Amir of the Tartars, Sword of
Islam and Lord of the Fortunate Conjunction of the Planets — died
600 years ago this month. And despite the passing of the centuries
and the litany of gruesome and worthy contenders, he is still
considered by many historians to be the most cruel and bloodthirsty
— and most successful — military conqueror ever.
When he came across a city to conquer, he put the entire population
to the sword — children as well. The women died only after they had
been raped and mutilated.
Occasionally, because he was an intellectual who spoke many languages
and enjoyed chess, he would spare historians or chess masters. But
anyone else who stood in his path was doomed.
When one town attempted rebellion during his reign of terror, its
2,000 inhabitants were taken prisoner and a tower constructed out of
their living bodies.
As one historian recalls: ‘They were piled one upon the other with
mortar and bricks, so that these miserable wretches might serve as a
monument to deter others from revolting.’
There was method in Temur’s homicidal madness; he knew that if his
‘Golden Horde’ of Tartars were so feared that people would submit to
any humiliation rather than fight them, his empire would extend
through that reputation.
And the method worked. Because of his quite astonishing viciousness,
this Tartar chieftain, who was born in 1336 but whose early life
remains a mystery, created a massive empire.
It stretched thousands of miles in every direction and reached into
the modernday Balkans, Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and even stretched to the borders of
China.
Wherever he went, he left desolation. When he marched his 100,000-
strong army into a province of Afghanistan, then known as the ‘Garden
of the East’, Tamerlane razed its capital Zaranj so completely that
even now, nearly six centuries later, it remains deserted.
THOUGH the city had surrendered, recorded historian Arabshah: ‘Temur
drew the sword upon them and billeted upon them all the armies of
death. He laid the city waste, leaving in it not a tree or a wall,
and destroyed it utterly.’
Everyone perished, ‘from persons of 100 years old, to infants in the
cradle’.
At the holy Persian city of Isfahan in 1387, he ordered every woman
prisoner’s breasts to be cut off and demanded that his 70,000
soldiers cut off one man’s head each and hand it in to his adjutants.
Some baulked at this bloody demand and paid the more enthusiastic
killers 20 dinars per head to commit the deed on their behalf. But
such was the scale of the beheading, the price per head soon fell to
half a dinar.
An eyewitness described what happened next: ‘He ordered the children
under seven years of age to be placed apart from their families, and
ordered his warriors to ride over them.
‘When his counsellors and the children’s mothers saw this, they fell
at his feet and begged that they would not kill them. He got angry
and rode himself and then they were obliged to ride over the
children, and they were all trampled upon. There were 7,000.’
The historian Hafiz-i-Abru later walked around Isfahan and counted 28
towers each built out of 1,500 severed heads.
The sacking of Baghdad in 1401 was more terrible yet. Temur built a
bridge of boats over the River Tigris and stationed his archers on it
to prevent any of the inhabitants escaping by boat.
Upriver, he besieged the city in the hottest summer known in decades.
After six weeks he attacked; the lucky inhabitants were the ones who
drowned in the Tigris trying to escape.
Arabshah records how Temur once again demanded each soldier bring him
a head, and how: ‘They brought them singly and in crowds and made the
river Tigris flow with the torrent of their blood, throwing their
corpses on to the plains, and collected their heads and built towers
of them.’
As was often Temur’s wont, scholars and historians, religious men and
chess grand-masters were not only spared, but were given ‘robes of
honour, fresh horses and safe conduct’ away from the human abattoir.
Meanwhile, 120 towers of heads were built around the ashes of the
city.
Temur’s recent and best biographer, Justin Marozzi, calculates that
in the putrid air of Baghdad’s rotting corpses, ‘this time the
vultures had 90,000 bodies to feed on’.
Although Temur described himself as ‘Ghazi, Warrior of the Faith’,
fellow Muslims could never expect better treatment than that which he
meted out to Hindus, Christians and Jews.
He was indiscriminate. In 1398 near Delhi, he ordered the massacre of
100,000 Hindus, and two years later he ordered 4,000 Armenians living
in Sivas to be buried alive.
The historian Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, writing about his conquest
of Smyrna in Turkey in 1402, recorded that ‘Tamerlane butchered the
inhabitants in an orgy of cruelty that would become legendary.
‘While the inhabitants slept, his men stealthily undermined the
city’s walls and propped them up with timber smeared with pitch. Then
he applied the torch, the walls sank into ditches prepared to receive
them, and the city lay open. Smyrna’s would-be defenders, the Knights
of Saint John, escaped to their ships by fighting through a mob of
panicstricken inhabitants. They escaped just in time, for Tamerlane
ordered 1,000 prisoners beheaded and used their skulls to raise a
monument in his honour.
‘He rode on to Ephesus, where the city’s children were sent out to
greet and appease him with song. “What is this noise?” he roared, and
ordered his horsemen to trample the children to death.’
Yet such was his military success that today the highest decoration
in Uzbekistan is the Order of Temur.
At Aleppo in Syria, surrender was attempted, but it failed to turn
away Tamerlane’s wrath, since one of his ambassadors had been
murdered there.
AS A result, related historian Ibn Taghri Birdi, ‘the women and
children fled to the great mosque of Aleppo, but Tamerlane’s men
followed them, bound the women with ropes and put the children to the
sword, killing every one of them.
‘They committed the shameful deeds of which they were accustomed;
virgins were violated without concealment; gentlewomen were outraged
without any restraints of modesty; a Tartar would seize a woman and
ravage her in sight of the people of the city; her father and brother
and husband would see her plight and be unable to defend her because
they were distracted by the tortures they themselves were suffering.’
Temur had a dozen or so known wives, several of whom he married for
dynastic reasons, but on campaign he ‘was wont to deflower virgins’
by the score.
In each devastated city, Temur took the pick of the ruler’s harem and
looted all his treasures, which were taken back to the great cities
he was building at Samarkand and Bokhara in Uzbekistan.
Once, on returning to Samarkand, he decided the portal of the great
mosque there was insufficiently lofty, so he had all the architects
involved executed.
The result was a building so magnificent that, in Lord Curzon’s words
in 1888: ‘There is nothing in Europe which can even aspire to enter
the competition.’
At the age of 69, Temur died peacefully on his way to China, where he
had hoped to humiliate the Emperor just as he had the Sultan of
Turkey — whom he had kept in an iron cage and had used as a human
footstool, and whose wife he had forced to serve him food naked.
How must the people of Central Asia and beyond have sighed with
relief when they heard that the man they called ‘The Scourge of God’
was no more.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KOMMERSANT Dengi, JANUARY 17, 2005

Ever Farther from Moscow
Last year started with the presidential elections in Georgia and ended
with the third round of elections in Ukraine. Moscow looked at the CIS
with fixed attention all year and tried to prop up its waning
influence, while the former Soviet countries came closer and closer to
replacing their political elites.
Ukraine
The most important events for all of the CIS probably were those that
took place in Ukraine. The opposition, headed by Viktor Yushchenko,
accused the authorities of falsifying the results of the second round
of the presidential election on November 21, and called out hundreds
of thousands of people to the streets. The West backed the
opposition’s demands, as did all influential international
organizations. The Ukrainian government, which had already declared
its candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, the winner, was forced go to back on
its word. The Supreme Court nullified the second round of elections
and set a revote for December 26. At the moment when this went to
press, the results of that vote were not yet known, but we have
guessed it has opened the way for Yushchenko and marked the beginning
of a change in that country’s political elite.
The crisis in Ukraine was a serious setback for Russia’s position in
that country and all the CIS. Moscow had set all its hope on
government candidate Yanukovich. Putin himself even came to campaign
for him and had congratulated him twice on his victory. That has
complicated Moscow’s chances for normal relations with the new
political powers in Ukraine and alarmed the elite in all the former
Soviet republics.
Moldova
Russian-Moldovan relations took a heavy chill at the end of 2003 when
Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin refused to sign off on the
Kremlin’s proposal for regulating the internal conflicts in that
country. Their differences were not overcome in 2004. Voronin pointed
ignored almost all CIS activities and made efforts to improve his
country’s relations with the West. That course was also dictated by
Voronin’s attempts to withstand a quickly growing opposition that is
longing for a revolution of roses along the lines of Georgia’s.
Voronin’s westward turn has not strengthened his political position,
however, and the opposition sees big opportunities in this year’s
parliamentary elections.
Kazakhstan
Although relations between Moscow and Astana remain superficially
cheerful, Russian for the first time last year addressed lengthy
criticism to its key ally. This happened during Putin’s visit to
Astana in January. The main complaint from Moscow was about
Kazakhstan’s increasingly pro-Western orientation, especially in the
military and fuel realms, and the exclusion of the Russian-speaking
population of Kazakhstan from political and public life. Putin made it
clear to his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbaev that relations
between their countries would be seriously complicated if those
problems continued.
A change of the political elite is Kazakhstan is looking ever more
likely. In spite of the seemingly solid victory of the
pro-presidential Otan party in September’s parliamentary elections,
Nazarbaev cannot feel completely secure. Western pressure to create
true democratic conditions is growing, the opposition is uniting and
the ruling party is divided. This last fact became glaringly obvious
when speaker Zharmkhan Tuyakbay mutinied, accusing the government of
falsifying the vote and becoming the leader of the opposition.
Belarus
Moscow’s discontent with Aleksandr Lukashenko’s Belarus is mounting as
well. The discord is mainly economic. Last fall, Lukashenko publicly
confirmed that there would be no common Russian-Belarusian currency,
which Moscow was pushing for. Lukashenko has still not ratified
documents passed by his parliament to give Russia property rights to
oil pipelines crossing Belarusian territory and he hasn’t been
cooperative about gas lines either.
There are been talk recently to the effect that Moscow has begun
examining Belarusian politicians in search of a successor to Poppa
Lukashenko, one more pliable and less repulsive. So, even though
Lukashenko was given the right to hold a third, fourth, fifth (and so
on) term in the referendum held in October, his future is still less
than rosy. This is even more so since the United States stated openly
for the first time at the end of the summer that it will make efforts
to remove the authoritarian Belarusian from power.
Georgia
The year 2004 began with presidential elections in Georgia, in which
Mikhail Saakashvili rode the tide of change to a victory with more
than 90 percent of the vote.
Relations between Moscow and the new powers in Tbilisi had overcome
their initial tension by the end of the year, but remain
unsatisfactory nonetheless. And they are far from any agreement on the
conditions under which they can normalize their relations. In Tbilisi,
they are insisting on absolute equality between partners in deciding
what compromises to make about what. Moscow agrees in general that
compromise should be mutual, but wants to make them with a view to the
actual situation: Georgia has more problems than Russia has, it should
be the more cooperative. Moscow’s hope for the destabilization of the
new government in Tbilisi didn’t pan out. Saakashvili is holding fast.
Moscow informed Tbilisi of its views on their bilateral problems in
the first half of last year. In October, Tbilisi responded, much to
Moscow’s displeasure. The Kremlin was especially annoyed with two
points: the demand that Russia close its military bases in Georgia by
January 1, 2006, and that the peacekeeping operations in South Ossetia
and Abkhazia be transferred to UN or OSCE control. Those operations
are now being overseen by Russia. These key issues that are holding up
the signing of an agreement on relations between the two states.
Armenia
Russia has been taking advantage of Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan’s need for its support. After the affairs in Georgian took
the course they did, the opposition in Armenia was vitiated. In April,
Kocharyan faced the most serious challenge from the opposition that he
has seen while in office. The government had to use force to break up
protests. Even though the situation was brought under control, the
president’s associates are concerned that that is not the last move by
the opposition.
In exchange for Russian support, Kocharyan has expressed his readiness
to increase that country’s economic presence in Armenia. Russia
received the bigger part of the Armenian energy sector in an agreement
to write off Armenian debt and now controls about 80 percent of
Armenia’s electricity production. Armrosgazprom, the Armenian natural
gas monopoly is also controlled by Russian structures. And Russia has
received stock packages in a number of Armenian defense enterprises.
However, Armenia’s significance as Russia’s strategic ally in the
Transcaucasus will be substantially diminished if Russia loses its
influence in Georgia.
Azerbaijan
Moscow made efforts to establish relations with Azerbaijan’s new
president Ilkham Aliev last year. The Kremlin is concerned that Aliev
Junior will lean further toward the West than his father had in order
to make Azerbaijan a regional leader. Moscow is unhappy that
Azerbaijan has avoided making a long-term on oil transit with it and
will in the future send its oil down the Baky – Tbilisi – Ceyhan
pipeline, that is, across Georgia to Turkey. Moscow is also concerned
about the lack of progress in military and technical cooperation with
Baku and suspects the new leadership of secret intentions to go over
to Western armament standards. These suspicions were confirmed by
Azerbiajan’s announcement of its plans to step up its integration into
NATO and its willingness to allow NATO military bases on its territory.
During Ilkham Aliev’s visit to Moscow in February, he was offered the
alternative of strengthening military ties with Russia, with close
ties with Russian forces and a place in the CIS Antiterrorism Center.
Baku has yet to give a firm answer. That is partially because Ilkham
Aliev has yet to consolidate his forces fully within the country.
Tajikistan
Russia was able to establish satisfactory relations with this
strategic CIS ally only at the end of the year. Before Putin’s visit
to Dushanbe in October, Tajikistani President Emomali Rakhmonov had
been hinting that Russia’s rent-free military base in Tajikistan was
no longer acceptable and that the Russians needed to open up their
wallet according to the example set by the generous Americans.
Dushanbe further demanded ownership of the Nurek space tracking
station, so that it could then rent it back to Russia. Moscow got the
picture. Tajikistan had decided to make some money off the Russian
military’s presence there, and good money at that. The Kremlin reacted
badly to that and began to think up strong countermeasures.
Setbacks in trade with the United States and fear of facing his
American-backed opposition alone made Rakhmonov think again about
relations with Moscow. During Putin’s visit to Dushanbe, an agreement
was signed giving the Russian military base legal status, turning
Nurek over to Russia in exchange for a debt write-off, finishing the
Sangtudin Hydroelectric Plant (with Tajikistan’s $50 million state
debt to Russia reinvested in the plant in the form of Russian-owned
stock) and the introduction of Russian border guards into Tajikistan.
Kyrgyzstan
Russian relations with this Central Asian state, like everything else
there, passed the year without strong jolts. The Kyrgyzstani
opposition is preparing for the presidential elections scheduled for
2005, and Kyrgyzstani President Askar Akaev has repeatedly stated that
he will not run for another term in office. During Akaev’s November
visit to Moscow, Akaev agreed to turn the most profitable parts of his
country’s military-industrial complex to Russia against its
$180-million debt to Russia. About the only stumbling block left in
Russian-Kyrgyz relations is the American plan to station several
American Air Force AWACs near Manas Airport. Moscow sees that as a
violation of Bishkek’s military and political obligations to it as
part of the Collective Security Agreement Organization.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistani President Islam Karimov was badly shaken by the major
terrorist acts there in March and July 2004. He broke up his moderate,
liberal opposition several years ago, only to see a radical opposition
fill the vacuum. Karimov remains true to his motto, Better a hundred
arrested than a thousand killed. His intelligence agents conduct mass
arrests. It’s either me or the terrorists, and if I go, the Islamists
come in, the argument goes, although it is not too convincing. That is
why his position is looking shakier.
Karimov is reserved in his relations with Moscow. He doesn’t want to
spoil them, although he is also playing making advance to Washington,
which is interested in strengthening its position in Central Asia.
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan, headed by Saparmurat Niyazov, is a model of stability.
Two years ago, Turkmenbashi crushed the opposition. But Niyazov is
still not completely calm. In February, a book appeared in the stores
of Turkmenistan entitled My Accomplices and I Are Terrorists, written
by former minister of foreign affairs Boris Shikhuradov, who has been
sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting a coup d’etat. In the
book, the former opposition leader tells how a a bunch of renegades
organized an assassination attempt on the great Turkmenbashi. Many in
Ashkhabad, and in the West too, have doubts about the authenticity of
the authorship of the strange confessional. Turkmenbashi has also
taken steps toward liberalization. In January, exit visas were
eliminated in Turkmenistan. That was seen as a gesture to Moscow,
whose support he is counting on if the United States should turn up
its pressure on Niyazov. Making it easier to leave the country is most
of all to the advantage of the ethnic Russians living there.
by Evegeny Sysoev
Russian Article as of Jan. 10, 2005
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri daily critical of leader for taking holiday amid gas supply crisis
Azadliq, Baku
5 Jan 05
Excerpt from Orxan report by Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq on 5
January headlined “Ilham Aliyev has run” and subheaded “The inept
successor escaped under the guise of vacation as soon as the gas
crisis started. Normal heads of states interrupt their holidays and
get back to work as soon as such a situation arises”
[Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev has taken a holiday. It may be
regarded unethical to comment on this – one may be told that any
citizen, including Aliyev, has a right to go on holiday. However,
serious social problems have emerged in Azerbaijan, of which Aliyev
regards himself as head.
[Passage omitted: Weather forecasters promise cold January]
Russia has suspended for an indefinite period the supply to Azerbaijan
of gas it buys from Turkmenistan. In 40 districts of Azerbaijan, that
is in the majority of its districts, the households have not been
receiving gas for days. Under the circumstances, the head of state
should have mobilized internal resources and taken necessary measures
to protect the population from the cold winter. Instead, the president
runs away, that is escapes. In the military slang, this is called
desertion. If the head of state is unable to resolve social problems,
then what will he do as commander-in-chief, should the military
conflict with Armenia resume? Undoubtedly, Aliyev cannot handle social
tension and in no way will be able to tackle military tension.
Forty districts of Azerbaijan receive no gas. This means that the
people are facing power shortages. The population has no choice but to
cut down trees. No one in their right mind would risk freezing his
children by vesting his hopes on such an inept leader as Aliyev, on a
leader who escapes when he is needed most.
After the supplies were halted, Aliyev should have engaged in talks
with Turkmenistan to restore the import of gas at any cost and to
ensure that people receive plenty of gas from domestic reserves by the
time the supplies are restored. Just like it was in Ukraine where,
despite a power vacuum, Kiev negotiated with Asgabat and managed to
restore the import of gas even at the cost of higher prices (1,000
cu.m. of Turkmen gas will cost 18 dollars more). Aliyev, however,
preferred to take a holiday as soon as the crisis started, although he
had vowed on the holy Koran that he would protect the rights and
freedoms of the citizens. The majority of the Azerbaijani citizens
have been deprived of their right to heating during the cold
winter. Instead of keeping his promise, Aliyev took a vacation.
A normal head of state would have interrupted his holiday and got back
to work as soon as such a situation arises. Instead, he convened a
session of the Security Council, talked about progress in the Nagornyy
Karabakh negotiations albeit nothing has been achieved there yet, and
went on holiday the next day. He could have at least gathered the
leaders of the energy sector and ordered them to tackle the
issue. Yet, he did not take a single step to resolve the gas crisis,
left Azerbaijan and now it is said in China.
Of all the state officials, only the head of a department in Azariqaz
[Azeri gas] has said that the restoration of gas supplies does not
depend on them, but on talks between Russia and
Turkmenistan. Naturally, a question arises – then why do we need the
Azerbaijani government if it is unable to do anything?
In fact, the energy sector mafia profits from the halting of gas
supplies. It is known that although using gas to generate electricity
is more economic, it leaves less space for fraud. On the contrary,
using fuel oil increases the fraud opportunities fivefold. Since the
import of gas was cut off, fuel oil is now being used to generate
power. Therefore, the energy bosses want this situation to
continue. In turn, Ilham Aliyev has gone abroad after leaving the gas
supply to the population at the mercy of the energy bosses. So, what
is that if not desertion?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress