Author: Emil Lazarian

THERE IS NO MONEY TO RECONSTRUCT ROADS
A1 Plus | 20:08:46 | 15-09-2004 | Politics |
The highways of republican importance are somehow reconstructed
whereas the roads out of main highways are impassable. This problem
alarmed MP Manvel Ghazaryan.
Communication and Transport Minister Andranik Manukyan announced that
the 1560 kilometer ways of interstate importance are reconstructed
and are up to international standards. According to him, only 30 %
of 1830 kilometer routes of republican importance is repaired, and
5900 kilometer-long regional and local roads are in a sad state.
Mr. Manukyan reminded that World Bank finances construction of the
roads of interstate and republican significance and the budget hasn’t
had enough sums for the local roads. But about 2 milliard and 300
million drams have been allotted for restoration of the local roads.
“Within “Millennium Challenges” Armenian Government together has
introduced a project of $ 137 million for reconstruction of 2989
kilometer-long routes. Armenian Government tries to get credit of $
20 million from the credit companies for that purpose. The problem
exists and it must be solved”.
Land of Law MP Vram Gyurzadyan posed Andranik Manukyan a question on
arbitrariness in the filed of inter-city taxi route. “After winning
the tenders the transporters or their owners increased the fare
without permission from 1000 drams to 1200”, he says.
Gyurzadyan’s question enraged Manukyan. He said Gyurzadyan could have
told him about the problem earlier instead of raising the question
in Parliament, and then promised those guilty of arbitrariness will
be punished.

ISN, Switzerland
Sept 15 2004
Azerbaijan far from NATO after exercise cancelation 15.09.2004
Certainly, the prediction by one Western analyst that “Azerbaijan
will enter NATO by 2005”, which made headlines in the Azeri press in
July 2002, now seems overly optimistic.
By Liz Fuller for RFE/RL
NATO’s Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises, scheduled to take place
in Azerbaijan on 14-27 September, have been canceled, according to
a NATO press release of 13 September. “We regret that the principle
of inclusiveness could not be upheld in this case,” the press release
stated, without elaborating. But Lieutenant-Colonel Ludger Terbrueggen,
who is a spokesman for NATO military command, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service the same day that “the reason…is that Azerbaijan did not
grant visas to soldiers and officers of Armenia.” Since January, Baku
has sought repeatedly to thwart the planned Armenian presence at this
year’s Cooperative Best Effort maneuvers. Three Armenian military
officers who tried to travel to Baku in early January first from
Turkey and then from Georgia to attend a planning conference for the
maneuvers were prevented from doing so. In June, members of the radical
Karabakh Liberation Organization (QAT) picketed, and then forced their
way into, a Baku hotel where two Armenian officers were attending
a second planning conference in preparation for the exercises. Five
of those QAT activists were arrested and sentenced in late August to
between three and five years’ imprisonment on charges of hooliganism,
violating public order, and obstructing government officials. Those
verdicts triggered protests from across the political spectrum,
fueling public opposition to the Armenians’ anticipated arrival.
Lost opportunity
In April, Azeri President Ilham Aliev assured Deputy Commander of the
US European Command General Charles Wald that there were no obstacles
to the Armenian participation in the September war games. Other
visiting US officials also sought to impress on Azerbaijan the
importance of allowing the Armenian contingent to attend. But in recent
weeks, the Azeri government has made increasingly clear its hostility
to the planned Armenian participation. On 27 July, the independent
ANS TV quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov as saying that Baku
has stipulated that only non-combat personnel – military journalists,
public-relations officials, and military doctors – would be permitted
to attend, and that the number of Armenian participants would be
limited to three. On 4 September, however, Armenian Deputy Defense
Minister Major General Artur Aghabekian said seven Armenian officers
would take part in the exercises, while the number denied visas by the
Azerbaijani Embassy in Tbilisi was given as five. The opposition daily
Azadlig on 10 September quoted Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov as
saying that Azerbaijan would not grant visas to the Armenians. And on
10 September, the Azeri parliament adopted an appeal to NATO Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to retract the invitation extended to the
Armenian side, citing what it termed Armenia’s aggression and policy
of ethnic cleansing. The parliamentarians argued that the presence
in Baku of Armenian military personnel could aggravate tensions in
the region. President Aliev stated while visiting the Barda region
on 11 September, “I do not want the Armenians to come to Azerbaijan”.
NATO’s double standards?
In an apparent last-ditch effort to persuade Baku to abandon its
obstructionist approach, de Hoop Scheffer met with Azeri Foreign
Minister Mammadyarov and his Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanian in
Brussels on 13 September for talks. Oskanian subsequently praised the
NATO decision to call off the exercises, adding at the same time that
he regrets the “lost opportunity for regional cooperation”. Armenia
hosted the NATO Cooperative Best Effort-2003 exercises, in which
some 400 troops from 19 countries, including the US, Britain,
Russia, Georgia, and Turkey practiced routine peacekeeping
exercises. Azerbaijan declined to participate. In February 2004,
a junior Azeri officer attending a NATO-sponsored English language
course in Budapest hacked a sleeping Armenian fellow student to
death with an axe. The full impact of Azerbaijan’s violation of
NATO’s “principle of inclusiveness” and of NATO’s ensuing decision
to cancel the planned exercises is difficult to predict. The move
is likely to corroborate many Azeris’ conviction that NATO is guilty
of double standards and bias towards Armenia. It may also give rise
to a certain coolness between Brussels and Washington, in light of
persistent rumors that the US is considering Azerbaijan as a possible
location for a rapid-reaction force. Certainly, the prediction by one
Western analyst that “Azerbaijan will enter NATO by 2005”, which made
headlines in the Azeri press in July 2002, now seems overly optimistic.

EU: PRODI TO VISIT SOUTH CAUCASUS REGION
ANSA English Media Service
September 15, 2004
BRUSSELS
(ANSA) – BRUSSELS, September 15 – European Commission President Romano
Prodi will make an official visit to Azerbaijan on September 17,
Georgia on September 18 and Armenia on September 19, the EC reported.
Prodi’s meetings will be focused on the European rapprochement policy
as regards the South Caucasus region as well as on bilateral relations
between the countries and the EU.
The EC President is to appeal to the three governments to press on
with the reform process.
The official visit follows a decision of the European Council taken on
June 14 to include the three countries in the European rapprochement
policy. (ANSA).

NEWS Press
15 septembre 2004
Assemblée des Arméniens d’Europe : Adhésion de la Turquie : angle
mort pour l’Union Européenne. Les minorités non-musulmanes sont la
cible d’une campagne discriminatoire
par Assemblée des Arméniens d’Europe
Mercredi 22 septembre 2004, à 14 h 00
Résidence Palace Centre de Presse Internationale
Rue de la Loi 155, 1040, Bruxelles, Salle « Passage ».
Embargo jusqu’à mercredi 22 septembre 2004, 14 h 00
La Commission européenne jugera-t-elle la Turquie «apte» à
l’adhésion, dans le rapport qu’elle doit publier le 6 octobre 2004?
Le Conseil européen lancera-t-il les négociations en vue de
l’adhésion de ce pays à l’Union lors du sommet de décembre prochain ?
La Turquie a connu un processus de réformes légales et
administratives sans précédent ces dernières années. Mais, dans le
même temps, elle a sensiblement durci ses activités à l’encontre de
la liberté d’opinion sur son territoire, maintenant une politique
fortement répressive à l’égard de ses minorités. En particulier, les
préjudices traditionnels contre les minorités non-musulmanes sont
maintenus vivaces par le système d’éducation publique et par les
médias. Cette attitude est en nette contradiction avec les critères
de Copenhague dont le respect est la condition préalable à
l’ouverture des négociations en vue de l’adhésion d’un nouvel État
membre.
Dans cette perspective, le Groupe de Travail Reconnaissance, contre
le génocide et pour le dialogue international (Berlin), et
l’Association Suisse-Arménie (Berne), ont soumis un Mémorandum au
Conseil européen, au Conseil de l’Union européenne, à la Commission
ainsi qu’au Parlement européens.
Rappelant les critères de Copenhague et les résolutions du Parlement
européen faisant de la reconnaissance du génocide des Arméniens une
condition préalable à une éventuelle adhésion de la Turquie à l’UE,
le Mémorandum exprime le soucis des signataires quant à la situation
des minorités non-musulmanes en Turquie et demande une amélioration
durable de celle-ci. Les très nombreuses ONG nationales et
internationales qui ont signé le Mémorandum protestent contre la
campagne de haine relancée par le ministre turc de l’éducation, le
Dr. Hüseyin Çelik, ce qui inclu le négationnisme officiel du génocide
commis contre les populations chrétiennes de l’empire ottoman,
faisant 3.5 million de victimes entre 1912 et 1922. Pour ces raisons,
les signataires désirent attirer l’attention de l’UE sur la nécessité
d’instaurer des réformes profondes dans le système d’éducation et
dans le contrôle des medias qui sont tous deux les principaux
vecteurs de cette haine. Ils forment l’opinion publique et ils sont
donc les premiers responsables de la perception extrêmement négative
envers ces minorités en Turquie. Ils portent également la
responsabilité des attaques qui en découlent, et que les récentes
réformes n’ont en rien jugulé, contre les institutions représentant
ces communautés non-musulmanes : les églises, les synagogues, les
écoles, etc.
L’Assemblée des Arméniens d’Europe ainsi que les auteurs du
Mémorandum vous invitent à la conférence de presse pour la
présentation de ce document.
Intervenants (par ordre alphabétique):
– Monsieur Baastian Belder, Groupe de Démocratie/indépendance, Député
du Parlement Européen, Pays Bas;
– Monsieur Michalis Charalambidis, écrivain, membre du comité central
de la Ligue internationale pour les droits et la libération des
peuples, spécialiste du génocide des Grecs pontiques, Athènes;
– Madame la Baronne Caroline Cox of Queensbury, vice-présidente de la
Chambre des Lords du Royaume Uni, Présidente de Christian Solidarity
Worldwide, Londres;
– Madame Hülya Engin, membre du comité du TÜDAY, organisation pour la
défense des droits de l’homme en Turquie, Cologne;
– Madame Dr. Tessa Hofmann, expert en sociologie; documentaliste
scientifique à l’Université Libre de Berlin; écrivaine, activiste des
droits de l’homme; présidente du Groupe de Travail Reconnaissance,
contre le génocide et pour le dialogue international;
– Monsieur Johny Messo, président de la Fondation des études
araméennes et représentant principal de l’Alliance Universelle des
Syriaques (AUS) au bureau des Nations Unies à Genève;
– Monsieur le Prof. Dr. Yves Ternon, médecin, historien et écrivain,
chercheur et spécialiste des génocides, notamment celui des Arméniens
et de sa négation, Paris.
La modération de la conférence de presse sera assurée par Monsieur
Nicolas Tavitian, spécialiste en relations politiques
internationales, Bruxelles.
Une traduction simultanée vers le français et l’anglais sera assurée.
A partir de 13h30, le welcome coffee sera offert aux journalistes
devant l’entrée de la salle Passage de la Résidence Palace.
Arminé Grigoryan
Assemblée des Arméniens d’Europe
Responsable du Bureau de contact et d’information auprès de l’Union
européenne
Bruxelles
Le 22 septembre 2004 à partir de 14h00, toute l’information
concernant la conférence de presse (en anglais, en français et
partiellement en allemand) sera disponible sur les sites internet
suivants :
Pour une information ultérieure, vous pouvez contacter :
Assemblée des Arméniens d’Europe
Contact : Arminé Grigoryan
Tél. : +32 2 647 08 01
Fax : +32 2 647 02 00
E-mail : [email protected]
M. Nicolas Tavitian
Modérateur de la conférence de presse
Tél. : +32 4 95 770 867
E-mail : [email protected]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Group of Parliament Members Not To Attend Session Tomorrow
Baku Today
12 Sep 2004
12/09/2004 20:48
Executive Power of Baku replied to demand letter of Popular Front
party of Whole Azerbaijan claiming to hold picket protesting visit of
Armenian officers to attend “Cooperative Best Effort” NATO trainings
in Baku.
The response was positive with corrections. City hall gave permission
to hold the picket in front of Khatai cultural center, nearby Khatai
subway station instead of Narimanov cinema theatre shown in the letter.
Action will take start at noon on September 12. Party chairman Gudrat
Hasanguliyev informed ANS group of parliament members will not attend
parliament session in protest against visit of Armenian officers.
They are Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Alimammad Nuriyev, Rufat Agalarov and
Mais Safarli. The list might increase as talks with other parliament
member are underway.

Baku denies Azeri, Armenian foreign ministers to meet at NATO HQ
Ekspress, Baku
14 Sep 04
Text of Alakbar Raufoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress
on 14 September entitled “Unexpected visit. Mammadyarov and Oskanyan
are in Brussels”
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov flew to Brussels
yesterday. Ekspress newspaper has learnt from diplomatic sources
that, during a two-day visit, the foreign minister will have a series
of meetings with the European Union’s enlargement commissioner and
attend a sitting of the EU-Azerbaijan cooperation commission due to
start today.
The minister is also expected to join discussions at NATO headquarters.
Mammadyarov will debate Azerbaijani-NATO cooperation within the
framework of the Partnership for Peace programme with the alliance
leadership.
“The minister is paying a working visit and, therefore, no precise
topic or principal issue is on the agenda,” Foreign Ministry spokesman
Matin Mirza told Ekspress yesterday. He said that Mammadyarov’s
attendance at the sitting of the EU-Azerbaijan commission had been
scheduled in advance and the visit had nothing to do with NATO.
In the meantime, Armenian sources report that Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan, who was on a visit to Poland, went unexpectedly to
Brussels yesterday. “Mammadyarov and Oskanyan were suddenly invited
to Brussels yesterday to have consultations on the participation
of the Armenian officers in the Cooperative Best Effort – 2004
exercises,” Armenia’s Arka news agency reported. The source claims
that the Brussels talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian experts
on the possibility of the Armenian officers participating in the
Baku-hosted NATO exercises failed. So during Saturday’s discussions,
the representatives of the two countries left the debates and
“therefore, the alliance’s leadership decided to thrash out this
issue at ministerial level”.
“The reports are wide of the mark. There is no way that the Azerbaijani
and Armenian foreign ministers will meet in Brussels in any form,”
Mirza said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Cancellation of NATO drills Azeri people’s success – TV
ANS TV, Baku
13 Sep 04
NATO has postponed the military exercises that were due to start in
Baku on 14 September, a representative of NATO’s information centre
in Baku, Vaqif Dastgahli, has told ANS.
He said the information would be confirmed officially.
Armenian officers were invited to attend the military exercises within
the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme. In fact,
the invitation angered the Azerbaijani public a lot.
Thus, the Azerbaijani public led by the president has managed to
protect our state independence. This was not the first time in our
latest history when our independence had been endangered by the now
failed NATO event. History shows that the young Azerbaijani state has
faced and may still face more trials like that. What happened has
also demonstrated that the Azerbaijani people and their government
can be together at most critical moments.

ARMENIA THIS WEEK
Monday, September 13, 2004
NATO CANCELS AZERBAIJAN EXERCISES OVER ARMENIA’S EXCLUSION
The U.S.’ military commander in Europe was forced this Monday to cancel the
Cooperative Best Effort (CBE) 2004 exercises planned to take place in
Azerbaijan from September 13-27, accusing the host country of violating NATO
principles. The last minute cancellation by the Supreme Allied Commander in
Europe (SACEUR) Gen. James Jones is without recent precedents and came after
months of Azeri efforts to exclude Armenia from the exercises conducted
under the NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program.
A statement issued by the NATO spokesman said that “all PfP exercises are
agreed and conducted on the principle of inclusiveness for all Allies and
Partners which wish to participate. Nations participating in Cooperative
Best Effort 2004 agreed and have supported the exercise based on this
principle. We regret that the principle of inclusiveness could not be upheld
in this case, leading to the cancellation of the exercise.” Set up in 1994,
the PfP aims to promote defense cooperation between NATO and Partner
countries, reinforce stability and reduce the risk of conflict through
exchanges and joint exercises, such as CBE-2004. Georgia and Armenia
successfully hosted similar exercises in 2002 and 2003.
Armenia was due to send several officers to take part in CBE-2004, but they
were refused permission to enter Azerbaijan. Azeri officials had similarly
barred Armenians from taking part in the first planning event in Baku last
January. The U.S. State Department expressed its “disappointment” over the
development at the time, while Armenia condemned Azerbaijan’s behavior and
urged NATO to “demonstrate a principled stance.” The co-chairs of the U.S.
Congressional Caucus on Armenian issues, Representatives Joe Knollenberg
(R-MI) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), urged NATO leadership to move exercises to
another country should Azerbaijan continue to insist on excluding Armenia.
Last June, the Azeri leadership appeared to have come around on the issue
with President Ilham Aliyev pledging that no hurdles to Armenian
participation would be put up. Two Armenian officers then attended the
exercises’ final planning conference, which proceeded despite disruption
caused by government-linked protestors. Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Araz
Azimov said at the time that his government was forced to acquiesce to the
Armenian presence or “risk cancellation of the exercises and cooling of
relations with NATO.”
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov said that Azerbaijan should implement its
obligations. The Azeri government-controlled courts went as far as to issue
tough prison sentences against radicals who disrupted the NATO event in
June, although President Aliyev hinted that the decision would be overturned
on appeal. Even the Turkish envoy in Baku Ahmet Unal Cevikoz urged
Azerbaijan not to put up obstacles. Citing diplomatic sources last week, an
Azeri paper reported that Baku had agreed to an Armenian presence.
But on Friday, the Aliyev-controlled Azeri Parliament issued a written
protest to the NATO Secretary General demanding that Armenia be excluded and
Aliyev himself said that he “does not want” to see Armenians in Baku. He
further reiterated his view that all contacts with Armenians should be
limited to meetings between the two countries’ Presidents and key ministers,
saying that all other contacts are “inappropriate.”
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, who met NATO Secretary General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer this Monday, expressed regret over Azerbaijan’s stance
describing it as a blow to regional cooperation, but he also welcomed NATO’s
principled position. Scheffer agreed that the Azeri approach was
inadmissible. Oskanian was in Brussels to discuss Armenia’s expanding
cooperation with NATO and for the annual talks with the European Union
leaders. Last week, Armenia appointed Samvel Mkrtchian, previously the
Foreign Ministry’s Europe Director, as its Ambassador to NATO. (Sources:
Arm. This Week 1-16, 2-27, 4-2; 6-25; Arminfo 9-10, 13; Trend 9-10; Azertag
9-11; Express 9-11; NATO 9-13)
RUSSIA HOSTAGE TRAGEDY THREATENS TO UNDERMINE REGIONAL STABILITY
Armenia rushed to provide emergency aid to the victims of the gruesome
hostage taking in Russia, in which several hundred hostages, mostly
children, died. Armenian officials, including Defense Minister Serge
Sargsian, also expressed anxiety that the Caucasus region was becoming
increasingly unstable.
Terrorists linked to the Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev occupied a
school in the southern Russian town of Beslan (North Ossetia), taking over
1,000 children, their parents and teachers hostage on September 1,
traditionally celebrated as the first day of school. Most of the deaths
occurred as bombs set up by the terrorists went off during negotiations with
Russian emergency workers. Basayev had previously led a similar raid on a
hospital in southern Russia in 1995, and earlier fought on the Azeri side in
Karabakh.
In a massive outpouring of sympathy for the Beslan victims, Armenians
donated blood and thousands brought flowers, candles and toys to a makeshift
memorial at the Russian Embassy. Armenia’s Consul in southern Russia Ararat
Gomtsian reported that of 33 ethnic Armenians taken hostage, nine died and
seven remained unaccounted for. Meanwhile last week, businesses owned by
ethnic Armenians and other Caucasus natives became targets of violence in
the Russian city of Yekatirinburg. (Sources: Armenpress 9-8; Baltic News
Service 9-8; ArmeniaNow 9-10; Itar-Tass 9-10; Turan 9-10)
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In The National Interest
September 1, 2004
Commentary: By the World Forgot: Realpolitik and the Armenian Genocide
By Nir Eisikovits
Between 1915 and 1916, through a campaign of slaughter and deportation, the
nationalist ‘Young Turk’ government of the Ottoman Empire killed over 1
Million Armenians. To this day, Turkey refuses to accept responsibility for
this genocide, claiming that the number of casualties was far smaller and
that most had been killed in fighting between the parties rather than in
one-sided massacres. It seems that Turkish genocide-deniers are now
receiving assistance from an unexpected source. In a recent article, the
Israeli daily Haaretz reported that several Jewish groups in Washington have
been involved in blocking attempts to procure Congressional recognition of
the atrocities.
This involvement was much more proactive last year than it is now, but, to
quote the article, “a central activist in a Jewish organization involved in
this matter clarified that if necessary, he would not hesitate to again
exert pressure to ensure the resolution is not passed and the Turks remain
satisfied.” Surprising? Not really. Israel has systematically refrained
from recognizing the extermination of Armenians. Senior officials, including
former foreign minister Shimon Peres, have spoken of a “tragedy,” which
“cannot be compared to genocide.” The position taken by Israel and some
Jewish organizations is animated by two considerations. One has to do with
the uniqueness of the Holocaust. The other is pure realpolitik. Let us
examine these in turn.
Recognizing the Armenian genocide, so the first argument goes, could eclipse
the singular magnitude of the crimes perpetrated against the Jews during
World War II.[1] This claim is both morally warped and empirically
unfounded. It is morally warped, because we Jews do not have a monopoly on
pain. Our catastrophes are not in a separate category; we do not feel any
more agony for the obliteration of our families than others do. When
Armenians are pricked, they bleed; when they are poisoned they die.[2] If
human suffering is essentially democratic, Jews cannot, simultaneously,
attack those who deny the Holocaust and assist others who deny the Armenian
genocide. The concern for the legacy of the Holocaust is empirically
unfounded, because other cases of genocide have been recognized without the
Holocaust being forgotten or sidelined. The massacres by the Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia and the Tutsi by the Hutu in Rwanda are now universally
acknowledged. Such recognition has not eclipsed the discussion of Nazi
atrocities. It has, rather, served as a reminder that human cruelty is as
much a reality now as it was in 1915 and 1939.
As for realpolitik, Israel sees Turkey as an all-important strategic ally in
the Middle East – a moderate democratic Muslim state in a region where both
moderation and democracy are in short supply. Thus, keeping the Turks happy
is taken to be an essential Israeli interest. Two observations are in order.
First, the appeasement of Turkey does not seem to be working. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently accused Israel of “state terrorism” and
compared its policies towards Palestinians to the actions of the Spanish
Inquisition against Jews. Turkey is said to have rolled back planned
contracts to purchase military equipment from Israel and is now
reconsidering a planned deal to transport 15 Million cubes of water annually
to the water-poor Jewish State. Apparently we have sold our moral integrity
in vain. Second, realism in international affairs, with all its merits, must
be subordinate to a nation’s most basic principles rather than dictate them.
In the case of Israel, the most deep-seated of those principles is that the
state was founded as a barrier against genocide, as a safe-haven for Jews
the world over to protect them from future persecution. The refusal to
recognize other cases of genocide undermines this fundamental tenet. It
provides invaluable ammunition to those who claim that history is written by
the victors. If that position takes hold, no group, including the Jews,
would ever be safe from hounding, and Israel would have undermined the main
reason for its own existence.
On August 22, 1939, days before the Nazis invaded Poland, Hitler addressed
his military chiefs in Obersalzburg. “The aim of war is not to reach
definite lines,” he told them “but to annihilate the enemy physically. It is
by this means that we shall obtain the vital living space that we need.” He
then went on to ask them a rhetorical question: “Who today still speaks of
the massacre of the Armenians?” The Israeli government, for one, does not.
History, it would seem, has a cruel sense of humor.
Nir Eisikovits, an Israeli attorney, is completing his Ph.D. in legal and
political philosophy at Boston University.
[1] In early 2002, after Israeli ambassador to Georgia and Armenia Rivka
Cohen rejected any comparison between the Holocaust and the Armenian
Genocide, Israel’s foreign ministry released a statement including the
following text: ” …Israel asserted that the Holocaust was a singular event
in human history and was a premeditated crime against the Jewish people.
Israel recognizes the tragedy of the Armenians and the plight of the
Armenian people. However, the events cannot be compared to genocide. This
does not in any way diminish the magnitude of the tragedy.”
[2] W. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1.

>From Beslan to Yerevan: Russia’s tragedy touches Armenia
By Julia Hakobyan, ArmenianNow Reporter
Armenianow.com
Sept 10, 2004
The gruesome details that have emerged in the aftermath of last week’s
terrorist act in Russia have revealed that 33 Armenians were among
hostages held for three days in that school gymnasium in Beslan,
Russia.
Nine Armenians, including five children, are among at least 335 who
were killed. Survivors are now in hospital in Beslan, Moscow and
other Russian cities.
About 200 Armenians in Yerevan offered blood for Beslan victims Like
other world-wide sympathizers, reports of children being shot in
the back as they fled what should be a child’s sanctuary but instead
became a life-lasting chamber of horror, shocked Armenian sympathizers.
Monday classes throughout Armenia’s capital (the hostages were taken
on the first day of school) began with tributes to the victims.
“The events in Beslan were very painful for all of us, neither pupils
nor teachers in our school could concentrate on lessons,” says Anahit
Lazarian, a teacher at School N118. “Everyone tried to put himself
in the position of hostages. We started our lessons on Monday and
Tuesday- the days of mourning in Russia with a minute of silence. We
join to all families in Beslan in their grief for killed relatives.”
President Robert Kocharyan and Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan and
other top government officials signed a book of condolences at the
Russian embassy. The Vice-Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Tigran
Torosyan said that the tragedy in Beslan showed that moral values
have eroded.
“We faced a new way of brutality that had not yet reached children,”
he said.
An Armenian airliner was the third, behind Norway and Italy, to
deliver relief supplies, and the Ministry of Health has extended an
invitation for victims to be brought to Yerevan for treatment.
“We have sent one box of plasma and 21 boxes of medication to Beslan,
including those for anti-shock and antipyretic treatment,” says Hayk
Darbinyan, the Deputy Minister of the Armenian Health Ministry. “Now
we are preparing to send another consignment, including more medical
goods and clothes.”
Meanwhile, at the Armenian Center of Hematology, residents queued to
donate blood for the Beslan victims. Yuri Karapetyan, vice director
of the clinic, says that more than 200 people applied to become donors.
“Most of them are parents, also there are many people from
law-enforcement bodies,” Karapetyan says. “We examine the
cardiovascular system, the blood pressure, and other health
parameters. So far we accept blood from 120 people, but we are going
to send more assistance to Beslan and welcome all those who want to
help the victims.”
Arpine Nalbandyan, a student of Armenian Medical College and young
mother was among the first to become a donor.
“As a medical student I know that those hostages who received severe
burns from the bombs- blasts will need long treatment and they will
need great amounts of blood. I think what every person should do now
for the sake of humanity is to be a donor, because now we can nothing
else for them,” says the future nurse.
A memorial at the Russian embassy included toys, candy, water The
event has also sparked international debate over who the terrorists
really represent. A $10 million reward has been put up for information
concerning the whereabouts of key Chechen rebel leaders. And Russian
President Vladimir Putin has responded to criticism from the west,
with his own chastisement of its handling of its “War on Terror”.
Alexander Iskandaryan, Vice-Director of the Swiss based Caucasus
Media Institute in Yerevan joined other analysts in criticizing
Russian anti-terrorist policy and calls their present steps against
terrorism ineffective.
“On the one hand it is clear the world has not yet found a successful
and final way on fighting terrorism which Russia can apply. But on
the other hand the Beslan tragedy showed that Russia is not even a
step ahead after the series of the terrorist acts in the last years,”
he said.
“As a person I want to believe that the Beslan tragedy will never be
repeated in Russia. But as an expert I will have to say that by the
measures Russia takes now it will not prevent more terrorist actions.”
The political scientist lays part of the blame on corruption in
Russia, where, he says, it would be easy for terrorists to buy off law
enforcement. “However, honest and professional agents are not enough
to stop terrorism,” Iskandaryan said. “The war between the Kremlin and
Chechnya over the past decade destroyed the region. Today in Chechnya
there is a generation of people who know nothing except war and know
nothing except killing and are ready to die, with bomb-belts.”
While analysts opine and officials make offers and public gestures of
solidarity, it is a make-shift memorial outside the embassy that most
shows the depth of thought that the tragedy in Beslan has stirred here.
Along with candles and flowers, toys have been placed at the memorial,
in a tribute to the dead children, at least 156. And with the toys and
candles and flowers, bottles of water are there, a poignant reaction
to reports that the hostages were denied drink for three days in
a sweltering and packed gymnasium, while home-made bombs hung over
their heads.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The making of a tragedy
BY A. C. Grayling
The Times (London)
September 11, 2004, Saturday
When the Soviet Union disintegrated amid the confusion of the
anti-Gorbachev coup in 1991, some territories in its southern
regions made successful bids for independence, among them Armenia and
Georgia in the Transcaucasus, and Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in central
Asia. Most were latecomers to the Russian fold, being Tsarist conquests
of the 19th century. For the inheritors of the defunct Soviet empire
their independence was deeply unwelcome, because they are rich in
natural resources, chief among them that substance whose toxic pall,
paid for by so many human lives, lies dark across the world: oil.
Exactly seven years before this week of endless Beslan funerals -on
September 9, 1997 -an agreement was signed between Russia and Chechnya
allowing oil to flow to the Russian port of Novorossiisk on the Black
Sea. It officially ended the first Chechen war, and gave the key to
why the conflict had happened. Some commentators claimed at the time
that world thirst for oil had been instrumental in bringing relative
calm not just to Chechnya but also to the whole region. Into this
volatile terrain were pouring hordes of businessmen and criminals,
scarcely distinguishable from each other, eager to profit from Caspian
oil, Turkmenistan gas, Uzbekistan cotton and Kirgiz gold.
Peace had come, the commentators continued, because the region offered
such rich opportunities that war could no longer be tolerated.
To say that this uncontrolled dash for the region’s resources had
brought peace was like saying that a fire had been extinguished
by dousing it with petrol. As American and European interests in
the region burgeoned, Russia strove to maintain its grip on those
parts of the original Soviet possessions which had not escaped into
independence. In particular, the Chechen oil pipeline -the only one
taking Caspian oil to the Black Sea -was vital, so in December 1994
the Russian army responded to Grozny’s efforts at independence by
invading, to assert Moscow’s control over the pipeline and, therefore,
the region’s economy.
The frightful war that followed, its re-ignition in 1999, the
excoriating terrorism that has spiralled from it, might have been
predicted from a single fact alone: the maze of animosities that
history and religion have between them bred, from the old Ottoman
borders in the Transcaucasus to the pass of Jiayuguan at the western
end of China’s Great Wall. It would take an epic to do it justice,
embracing as it must the Ottoman genocide of the Armenians in 1915
-in which over a million and a half were murdered -and then, working
eastwards in space and back through time, to the destroyer Genghis
Khan, who put whole cities to the sword.
For a flavour -a mere taste -of the complexities, note this: the
Georgians are Caucasians and speak a South Caucasian language,
but the Ossetians are Indo-Europeans, descended from the Alans and
related to Persians. The Ossetians practise Islam, Christianity and
paganism, and are involved in territorial disputes with Georgians and
the Ingush. Ossetians are allied with Russia, Georgians are not. Most
Georgians are Orthodox Christians, although some minorities in Georgia
are Muslim.
And so on. This passage comes from an internet letter disputing
a version of Caucasian history in which the collaboration of
Chechens with Hitler against Stalin (Hobson’s choice!) is offered
as justification for Russian attitudes to Chechnya. According to
the letter writer, the author of the anti-Chechen history does not
understand the subtleties of ethnic and religious diversity in the
region. How many outsiders, on this evidence, can? Anyway, the point
is that such diversity, once released from the grip of an overarching
police state, inevitably causes friction and fragmentation. It would
happen without the evil allure of oil, but oil makes everything
vastly worse, because into the local quarrels come dollar-laden
foreigners, buying and bribing in their desperation for the Earth’s
black blood. Control of the pipelines, accordingly, becomes a reason
for mass murder. If oil did not matter, some other prompt for fighting
would be needed; but -just perhaps -none might be found.
All this partly explains the background to the Beslan tragedy. It
does not, for absolutely nothing can, excuse it.