Author: Ekmekjian Janet

A refugee, and a survivor of crime and tragedy who thought God would
keep him safe in the lions’ den
Maclean’s, Canada
July 24, 2006
OHTAJ HUMBAT OHLI MAKHMUDOV;
1961-2006
By BY VASYL PAWLOWSKY
Ohtaj Humbat ohli Makhmudov was born in 1961 in the Azerbaijan Soviet
Socialist Republic’s Kyudamyrsky region. His father, Humbat, was head
of the regional party council of the Communist party. While the large
family was quite well off, it experienced many tragedies. Of the eight
children, two died while Ohtaj was in his teens: a sister, Aubeniz,
in a 1976 gas explosion at the local bathhouse, and a brother, Alih,
the following year in a knife fight.
For Ohtaj, though, the future appeared bright. “He was a very good
student in high school,” says his classmate Azer Husanov, currently
living in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. “He finished in 1979 and
was immediately accepted to the National Economics Institute.” Ohtaj
graduated from the institute with a degree in economics in 1984,
and then opened a store in Baku, which he ran for five years. “This
happened during the perestroika movement, a time in which people had
the opportunity to become successful,” Azer says. “And he jumped on
this chance.”
But the new openness of the Mikhail Gorbachev era in the Soviet
Union unleashed other forces as well. Demands by Nagorno-Karabakh,
a primarily Armenian enclave of the Azerbaijan S.S.R., to unite with
the neighbouring Armenian S.S.R., resulted in prolonged bloodshed
between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Ohtaj, whose family had some years
before unfortunately relocated to the Tertersky region of Karabakh,
decided to move to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. There, “he married
a local woman, who subsequently bore him a son,” recalls Ali Damirov,
Ukraine representative of the Turan Information Agency, an independent
Azerbaijani news service. “Overall, he was quite a simple and quiet
person,” adds Damirov, who knew Ohtaj since 1989. “I used to see him
at the Azerbaijani Centre in Kyiv, which he would occasionally attend
on national holidays.”
In Kyiv, Ohtaj also tried his hand at the retail business. In the
early 1990s, he began trading at the Bessarabskiy Market in the
city’s downtown, and also got involved in wholesale. Ohtaj, Ali says,
was doing quite well, expanding his business and opening kiosks in
some of Kyiv’s other outdoor markets as well. But while friends and
acquaintances are reluctant to speak of details, Ohtaj ran into
problems with criminal elements in the mid-1990s. “At the time,”
Ali explains, “racketeering had become a regular modus operandi in
this part of the world.” That brought further sadness into Ohtaj’s
family: in 1995 his brother Yaver, who had joined him in Kyiv along
with Avuz, another brother, was murdered. Back home, upon hearing
the news of Yaver’s death, Ohtaj’s mother suffered a heart attack,
Azer Husanov says.
Shortly after, Ohtaj went bankrupt. His wife subsequently left him,
departing with their son for Italy in search of better opportunities
— and sending Ohtaj spiralling into depression. “At the end of
the 1990s he spent two years in the Pavlov psychiatric hospital in
Kyiv and was released in 2000,” says Khahani Murmat ohli Huseynov,
an Azeri acquaintance of Ohtaj who has been living in Kyiv since the
early 1990s. Then tragedy struck again: in 2002, Ohtaj’s brother Avuz
died in the same psychiatric hospital where he had undergone treatment.
Ohtaj left Kyiv. Aquaintances say that, as far as they know, he went
to Tertersky. “What he could have possibly been doing there is not
clear,” Ali says. “After all, this place is a completely war-torn
region.” But Ohtaj returned to Kyiv this year, at the end of May. Ali
says he took Ohtaj around town, “to show him how things had changed
since he left. Although he seemed very indifferent to what he saw,
he looked like somebody who had been put through the wringer.”
On Saturday, June 3, Ohtaj visited the Kyiv Zoo. According to
eyewitnesses, he asked many questions regarding the behaviour of
lions and tigers. He returned the next day. At 6:45 p.m., when there
weren’t many people by the lion exhibit, Ohtaj removed his socks and
shoes. He carefully placed them on a cellophane packet, and removed
his jacket and hung it on the back of a chair belonging to one of
the vendors at the zoo. Ohtaj then tied a piece of rope to a metal
handrail and climbed down into the lions’ pit.
The lions may not have taken notice of him. But Ohtaj approached
the animals, waving his arms and, according to witnesses, shouting,
“Because God loves me, the lions will not harm me!” Other visitors
screamed at him to get out. But by that time, Ohtaj had drawn the
attention of Veronica, one of the zoo’s three lionesses. She pounced
on Ohtaj. Andriy Bakaj, an investigator from Kyiv’s Pechersk district
prosecutor’s office who examined his body at the scene, said, “The
deceased had 10 puncture wounds in his neck, two of which were in
the area of his windpipe. He died instantly.”

Airing Differences
by Florence Mardirossian
21 July 2006
Transitions of Line, Czech Republic
July 21, 2006
Officials and activists from all sides of the issue are at least
talking about how to ease discontent among Armenians in Georgia’s
Javakheti region. From EurasiaNet.
Officials, academics, and non-governmental organization representatives
are pondering ways to defuse a potential crisis in the Georgian region
of Samtskhe-Javakheti, where discontent is brewing among the area’s
Armenian community.
Some local leaders and civic activists warn of socio-political
trouble if no action is taken to address the demands of the local
Armenian community for expanded language rights and other cultural
privileges. Discontent has already reached the point where one local
Armenian cultural organization, United Javakhk, reportedly adopted a
statement in early July calling on the Georgian government to grant
the region autonomy status.
The language issue is intertwined with other issues, namely
a lack of economic opportunity in the region. Most Armenians
in Samtskhe-Javakheti don’t speak Georgian, and they say the
Georgian government should do more to protect their cultural
traditions. Georgian officials, meanwhile, want Armenians living in
the region to learn Georgian. Some quietly question the sincerity of
the Armenian community’s desire to integrate.
The compulsory use of the Georgian language for education is the chief
source of discontent among Armenians in Samtskhe-Javakheti. Ethnic
Armenian demands also include an acknowledgment of the Armenian
genocide of 1915, a removal of the ban on teaching Armenian history,
the adoption of new laws covering minority rights, and self-governance.
A recent roundtable discussion, held in the regional center of
Akhalkalaki, sought to bring all sides together to discuss problems and
explore possible solutions. Participants, including local politicians,
experts and NGO representatives from Georgia and Armenia, generally
agreed that giving the region autonomous status was not a viable
option, especially given Tbilisi’s experience with separatism in
Abkhazia, Ajaria, and South Ossetia over the past 15 years.
At the same time, attendees suggested that Tbilisi couldn’t ignore the
complaints of local Armenians. One of the event’s chief organizers,
Sevak Artsruni, head of [Yerkir,] the Armenian Union of NGOs for
Repatriation and Settlement, cautioned that cultural issues, left
unaddressed, could develop into a major headache for Tbilisi.
Samtskhe-Javakheti sits along a trade corridor that is growing in
geopolitical importance. In particular, the recently inaugurated
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline runs through the territory. As a
result, international development funds have been earmarked for
local infrastructure improvement, including over $100 million in
U.S. assistance made available under the Millennium Challenge program
for local road construction and renovation. The region also figures
prominently in plans to build a rail link connecting the Turkish city
of Kars and the Azeri capital of Baku.
“Socio-economic projects cold bring stability if the cultural and
linguistic rights of the Armenian minority were respected,” Artsruni
said. “But if ethnic Armenians do not take part in these projects, the
cultural problem could turn political and Javakheti could definitely
[encounter] a crisis.”
Meanwhile, another conference participant, Georgian political scientist
Ghia Nodia, said tension in Samtskhe-Javakheti is a reflection of poor
local governance in Georgia. “Many people are calling for autonomy
because local democracy … is weak or does not work,” Nodia said.
Mutual suspicion mars relations between ethnic Armenians and
Tbilisi. Last March, tension boiled over and resulted in a prolonged
period of rioting, ignited by the killing of an ethnic Armenian in
a brawl.
The political atmosphere became charged following the Rose Revolution
in November 2003 and was been exacerbated by the decision to withdraw
Russian troops from a permanent base in Akhalkalaki by the end of 2007.
The base was a major source of employment for the Armenian community,
providing well-paying jobs for roughly 10,000 civilians. The Georgian
government has promised to implement programs that diminish the
economic impact of the Russians’ departure, but Armenians remain
skeptical. Many view President Mikheil Saakashvili’s administration
as focused mainly on nationalist concerns, namely reestablishing
Tbilisi’s authority over Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Speaking at the Akhalkalaki roundtable in early June, Meka
Elbakidze, an analyst with the Caucasus Institute for Peace,
Development and Democracy (CIPDD), provided a road map for a Georgian
conflict-prevention strategy. Tbilisi should focus on the linguistic
issue and ethic Armenians’ disenfranchisement from local and national
politics, he suggested.
Georgian officials seem interested in exploring solutions to Javakheti
dilemmas. During a mid-July meeting, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab
Noghaideli discussed with his Armenian counterpart Andranik Markarian
the feasibility of opening an Armenian-Georgian university in Tbilisi,
according to news accounts of the meeting. In addition, Markarian
said the Armenian government was prepared to assist in efforts to
improve Samtskhe-Javakheti’s infrastructure.

Georgian President delays his visit to Moscow
ArmRadio.am
21.07.2006 16:00
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili postponed his visit to Moscow,
where he had to participate in the non-official summit of CIS leaders,
Georgian President’s Press Service informs. The reasons for delay
are not announced.
This was a complete surprise for the persons, who were to accompany the
President to Moscow. The journalists to accompany Mikhail Saakashvili
had already arrived at the airport. Georgian state diplomats do not
notify whether Saakashvili will leave for Moscow today or tomorrow
or not.

War in Lebanon: Hot Line Opened
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.07.2006 18:15 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At a conference at the Armenian Government today the
question of assisting evacuation of Armenian citizens and Armenians
from Lebanon was discussed. In the words of Armenian PM Andranik
Margaryan, the situation in the region is very serious. Many Armenians
live there, including Armenian citizens, and state support is necessary
in that situation. Armenian Deputy FM Gegham Gharibjanyan briefed the
participants of the session with latest developments in the region,
emphasizing that twenty-four-hour duty at Armenian Embassies in Lebanon
and Syria, as well as Consulate General in Aleppo has been organized
since Monday. Two diplomats are additionally sent there to deal with
evacuation of Armenian citizens and other issues. He also reported
that 160 Armenian citizens have already arrived in Yerevan through
Syria, while the 120-thousand Armenian community of Lebanon involves
1200 Armenian citizens: the numbers need to be checked. Gharibjanyan
also noted that residence permit for 3 months will be provided free
of charge to all those wishing to move to Armenia. There are many
people on the Syrian border, thus Armenian MFA officers are charged
to solve all problems operatively. In his turn Chief of the General
Board of the Civil Aviation of Armenia Artem Movsisyan provided the
table of flights to Syria, which can be increased if necessary. He
said that as Yerevan-Beirut flight is not available, the number of
air flights to Syria can be increased.
Besides, according to Gharibjanyan, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (GMT+4) a hot
line is available: (37410) 58-60-17. The Armenian PM ordered to make an
agreement with Armavia Air Company to organize flights to Syria, which
will be partially funded by the Armenian Government if necessary. An
instruction is given to provide medical and psychological assistance to
those arriving, reports the Press Service of the Armenian Government.

Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Peru signed Protocol of Cooperation
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
July 18 2006
Sharg 18/07/2006 21:41
Yesterday the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and Peru
signed Protocol of Cooperation. The document was signed by Azeri
foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Umberto Umeres, Peruvian
ambassador to Azerbaijan.
The minister expressed his country’s interest to collaborate with the
countries of Latin America, including Peru. The parties exchanged
opinions about ways of widening cooperation within United Nations,
reforms within this international organization and its efficiency
growth. Touching Nagorno Garabagh conflict theme Mammadyarov called
Peru’s position as a UN Security Council member on the matter very
important.
Umeres, in his turn, stressed his country’s support of territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan, solution of this issue on the basis of norms
and principles of international law.
The parties sides also debated issues of bilateral cooperation in
the area of politics, economy, science and education.

The Fugitive’s Tale
The New York Times
July 16, 2006 Sunday
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Traditionally, our best excuse for inaction in the face of genocide
was that we didn’t fully know what was going on — until too late.
During the Holocaust, reports trickled out of Nazi areas of atrocities
and extermination camps, but they encountered widespread skepticism. “I
don’t believe you,” Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court justice,
told Jan Karski, a Polish Catholic who at extraordinary risk had
visited a Nazi death camp as well as the Warsaw Ghetto and finally
escaped with hundreds of documents.
Likewise, the Turks mostly barred access to the scene as they
industriously killed off Armenians (a pattern of denial that persists
in Turkey today). Cambodia sealed itself off during Pol Pot’s rule.
And when Westerners evacuated from Rwanda in 1994 (the French airlifted
out their embassy dog, while leaving behind local employees to be
butchered), few witnesses were left to chronicle the savagery day
by day.
That’s what makes Darfur so unusual in the history of genocide: the
savagery is unfolding in plain view, and yet as world leaders gather
in Russia for the Group of 8 summit meeting, the basic international
response is to look the other way.
No genocide has ever been publicly chronicled so extensively as
this one. We have satellite images of the burned villages, and
detailed reports from groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International. Aid workers interact daily with the two million
displaced people, and we can watch as Sudan spreads instability into
neighboring countries.
Indeed, now we have a witness who has come all the way to America:
Hashim Adam Mersal, a young man now living in Pennsylvania with the
help of the Pittsburgh Refugee Center.
Mr. Hashim, who is 26, is a member of the Zaghawa tribe, which has been
particularly targeted for death in Darfur. He grew up in a village
called Tomorna and lived a relatively prosperous life because of his
family’s large herd of 400 cattle and 150 sheep.
Then in August 2003, the Sudanese government sent the janjaweed
militias to attack black African villages in his region. Mr. Hashim
escaped with some of the livestock, but his father and brother (a
24-year-old father of two) were both killed, along with many others —
including eight children in one family. Mr. Hashim isn’t sure what
happened to the rest of his family.
“It was humans and livestock all mixed together, running for
survival,” Mr. Hashim remembers. “Some kids were falling behind,
and we just couldn’t help. We couldn’t do anything for those falling
back. There was lots of crying, but you were too scared to stop and
help anyone. Some were wounded and couldn’t keep up. Some were left
behind and died.”
In that flight, Mr. Hashim passed other villages that had been
burned. “Bodies were scattered everywhere,” he said.
Eventually, Mr. Hashim made his way to the Chadian capital. He used
cash and tribal connections to obtain a fake Chadian passport and,
somehow, a diplomatic visa to the U.S. So Mr. Hashim came to the U.S.
— only to be jailed on immigration charges. He was released on bail
and is fighting deportation back to Sudan; a hearing is scheduled
for October.
Frankly, the best place to put Mr. Hashim isn’t in jail, but in the
White House Rose Garden for a photo-op with President Bush to call
attention to the genocide.
Mr. Hashim studies English into the wee hours in hopes of communicating
better, so as to plead with Americans to help save his people. At
the same time, he is wracked by guilt at having survived when so many
others died. “I am alive and breathing, but I am like a dead man who
walks,” he said. “The rest of my life will be nothing but sorrow.”
In the small community of Darfur-watchers in America, there is
deepening gloom. There has been an outcry at the grass-roots level —
gathered one million signatures demanding a greater
response — but the genocide is still spreading. John Prendergast
of the International Crisis Group, just back from the region, warns
that “the international community is actually missing the potential
enormity of the crisis as it metastasizes to Chad and the Central
African Republic.”
A conference of donors on Tuesday in Brussels will be an important
test of whether there is any international resolve to save lives.
But increasingly it appears that even when the world has no excuse
at all for inaction — when it is fully informed about a genocide in
real time — it still cannot be bothered to do much about it.

Consul denies rumours about Russian naval bases in Montenegro
Vijesti, Podgorica
14 Jul 06
Text of report by N.V Vaniev entitled “We are not interested in that”
Russia is absolutely not interested in opening a military base in
Montenegro. Our relations are friendly and we are working on good
neighbourly cooperation, development of trade, tourism and we have
absolutely no military goals in the area of Montenegro, Russian
Federation consul in Podgorica Vladimir Vaniev told Vijesti recently.
Earlier, unofficial sources in the government told Vijesti that no
country had suggested building a military base in the coastal area.
Not a word can be said about Russian military bases in Montenegro. We
have bases in former Soviet republics, along the borders of Russia,
but we are abandoning them slowly, like in Georgia. In Armenia they
are interested in having our troops remain. It is not only a defence
issue, it also concerns employment, Vaniev explained.

Rescuer 2006 Exercise Opens in Armenia
ArmRadio.am
15.07.2006 13:40
On July 14, the United States and Armenia opened Rescuer 2006 in
Armenia. Rescuer 2006 is an annual exercise sponsored by the US
European Command and conducted in the spirit of NATO’s Partnership
for Peace program. This multinational computer-assisted command post
exercise will be co-directed by military officers from the Armenian
Ministry of Defense and the Kansas National Guard.
This year’s exercise will focus on the capability to lead
a multinational task force. The primary objective is to train
commanders and staff in the conduct of multinational consequence
management, disaster response, and humanitarian assistance
operations. Furthermore, the exercise will assist in the development
of a common understanding of coalition staff planning procedures.
The exercise’s 300 participants come from the United States, Armenia,
Albania, Austria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Romania,
Tajikistan, and Ukraine.
At the ceremony marking the opening of the exercise, US Ambassador
John Evans thanked the exercise participants and noted the importance
of international cooperation in the field of disaster response and
humanitarian assistance. Ambassador Evans stated that NATO-Armenian
cooperation was continuing to strengthen and deepen, and expressed
the hope that Armenia and NATO’s Partnership for Peace program would
continue such valuable collaboration in the future.

Armenia condemns any expression of violence in the Near East
ArmRadio.am
14.07.2006 17:50
RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan declared that Armenia condemns
any expression of violence in the Near East. “Both taking hostages
and appliance of force is unacceptable for Armenia since it causes
human victims and destruction of infrastructures. Our position is
unchangeable: the parties should stop themilitary actions and start
negotiating,” Vardan Oskanyan said.

HAROUTIUNIAN BELIEVES POLITICAL FORCES OF ARMENIA ACT
WISELY AFTER PUBLICATION OF NAGORNO KARABAKH
SETTLEMENT PRINCIPLES
AZG Daily #130, 07/13/2006
OPINION
The publication of Nagorno Karabakh settlement elements by Bryza,
OSCE MG Co-Chair, was an attempt to exert pressure on presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan for fast settlement of the conflict. Khosrov
Haroutiunian, leader of “Christian-Democratic Union,” said this at
July 11 press conference.
He said the OSCE MG first of all tried to exert pressure on Armenia,
taking into account the coming elections. Haroutiunian added that the
co-chairs should press Baku, as the very Azerbaijan doesn’t agree with
their suggestions. He expressed confidence that the co-chairs will not
leave the negotiations, as the new military actions are neither in the
interests of the international community nor in the interests of the
sides in conflict. He added that Bryza merely aimed to represent the
negotiation points to the peoples of the sides in conflict, first
of all to NKR people. He emphasized that the political forces of
Armenia acted quite wisely after the publication of the settlement
elements. At the same time, he added that quite a new situation is
shaped in the negotiation process that requires activation of the
parliament’s role in that process.
He added that the negotiation format will not be changed, stating
that in case the format is changed, Baku will have to negotiate with
NKR. Besides, the said that the current negotiation process will
hardly have any considerable impact on home political processes of
Armenia. He added that at present both Armenia and NKR stated they
are ready to consider the suggestions of the OSCE MG Co-Chairs as
grounds for continuation of the negotiations, but these suggestions
turned out to be unacceptable for Azerbaijan.