Author: Emil Lazarian

Agence France Presse — English
May 25, 2005 Wednesday 10:42 AM GMT
Key East-West oil pipeline launched, breaks Russia grip on Caspian
energy
BAKU
A major new US-backed pipeline to bring oil directly from the Caspian
Sea to Western markets and break Russia’s longtime grip on vast
energy resources from Central Asia to Turkey was formally launched
Wednesday in a ceremony attended by presidents and dignitaries.
“Some did not believe in the realization of this project, some tried
to disrupt it, but the support of the United States and the activity
of BP helped realize the project,” Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said
at the ceremony to inaugurate the four-billion-dollar initiative.
The presidents of Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan were joined
by other VIPs including US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and the
head of British energy giant BP, John Browne, for the formal launch
of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for
international energy cooperation, Igor Yusufov, had been expected to
attend the event. A Kremlin spokesman told AFP in Moscow that he had
been forced to cancel his planned trip to Baku at the last minute due
to illness.
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a declaration
committing some of his country’s vast Caspian oil reserves to
transport through the pipeline just prior to the ceremony extending
the BTC’s life expectancy past 2010, when Azeri oil production is
expected to slump.
“The East-West energy corridor plays an important security role in
the region and it’s clear that economic growth and stability would
not be possible without the export of oil,” Turkey’s President Ahmet
Necdetsezer said at the opening.
He said the pipeline would take pressure off Turkey’s tanker-clogged
Bosphorus Straits that link the Black Sea to the Mediterranean,
another major maritime transport route for oil.
Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili stressed the geopolitical
changes afoot in the region after the fall of the Soviet Union.
“After the fall of a big empire we want sources of hydrocarbons to be
protected and provide for stability of their transport,” he said.
The 1,770-kilometer-long (1,094-mile-) pipeline will transform the
Caucasus and Turkey into an energy bridge between the Caspian and the
rest of the world and has shifted geo-strategic alliances in the
Caucasus region and Central Asia.
But the presence of senior officials from the United States and other
countries at Wednesday’s ceremonies was tainted by a controversy as
Azeri authorities continued to hold opposition members detained in
connection with the pipeline’s opening.
Police badly beat and arrested scores of people attending a peaceful
rally last Saturday as part of a wider opposition crackdown.
Authorities justified their actions on grounds that the rally was
held too close to the pipeline opening ceremonies, a claim questioned
by Western officials.
Baku was the sight of some of the first industrially developed oil
fields in the world at the beginning of the 20th century.
The British oil giant BP holds a leading 30 percent stake in the
consortium running the pipeline. Other consortium members include
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips,
Eni, Inpex, Itochu, Statoil, Total, TPAO and Unocal.
SOCAR president Natik Aliyev called the pipeline, which is expected
to become a major competitor to traditional export routes for Caspian
oil that pass through Russia, the “realization” of a national dream
on Wednesday.
He said it “bridged the nations of the region.”
The Caspian region produces a light crude of high quality but has
suffered from its distance from the world’s major consumers — North
America, Europe, China and Japan.
The pipeline is to ship one million barrels of Caspian oil, roughly
one percent of global oil production, daily to Turkey’s Mediterranean
coast once it is fully up and running by the end of the year.

Agence France Presse — English
May 25, 2005 Wednesday 8:22 AM GMT
US-backed BTC pipeline fruit of “deal of the century”
BAKU
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline launched here Wednesday is a
four-billion-dollar US-backed oil transport route stretching 1,770
kilometers (1,094 miles) from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean
Sea, tackling an altitude of 2,800 meters (8,400 feet) at its highest
point.
Built with financial support from the United States, the pipeline was
initiated in 1994 under the late Azeri president, Heydar Aliyev, as
part of Azerbaijan’s so-called “deal of the century” — a massive oil
contract signed in the early 1990s to develop Caspian Sea oil.
Azerbaijan was Russia’s main source of fuel during the World War II
years, but the massive 1994 contract opened the country’s
considerable oil reserves to the outside world with 33 foreign oil
companies operating here today.
British energy giant BP holds a leading 30 percent stake in the
consortium running the pipeline. Other consortium members include
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips,
Eni, Inpex, Itochu, Statoil, Total, TPAO and Unocal.
Some argue the project has more geopolitical significance than
economic importance. The pipeline gives Caspian oil producers
independent export routes sidelining traditional paths through Russia
without increasing world oil supplies substantially.
The project was 70 percent financed by US and Japanese government
banks, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, while 30 percent of the funds came from the consortium
members themselves.
The pipeline is to ship one million barrels of Caspian oil daily,
roughly one percent of global oil production, once it is fully up and
running by the end of the year.
Annual delivery will equal one million barrels per day, or 50 million
tonnes of oil, compared with daily global consumption which is
expected to hit an average 84 million barrels per day this year.
The oil will travel at two meters per second thanks to eight pumping
stations along the route of the pipeline, whose capacities could be
expanded with additional investment.
Avoiding a shorter path through Armenia, which is in a state of war
with Azerbaijan and under economic blockade from Turkey, the pipeline
lies across 445 kilometers of Azerbaijan, 245 kilometers of Georgia
and 1,070 kilometers of Turkey.
The pipeline’s path straddles three unstable separatist regions in
Azerbaijan and Georgia making security, which is handled by each
participating country with assistance from the United States, a top
priority.
There is a proposal to extend the pipeline to Kazakhstan’s Caspian
port of Aktau, a plan Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev
appeared to endorse on Tuesday
The “South Caucasus Project,” a gas pipeline traveling parallel to
the BTC, is currently under construction and is expected to be opened
in 2006. It diverges to the Turkish city of Erzerum where it will
join the existing European gas network.
BP estimates the BTC will bring Azerbaijan 100 billion dollars of oil
revenues over the next 30 years, on the basis of an average oil price
of 30 dollars per barrel.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish professors condemn reaction to conference on Armenian issue
NTV television, Istanbul
25 May 05
Issuing a statement on the postponement of the conference on “Ottoman
Armenians during the collapse of the empire,” the organizing committee
condemned attempts to pinpoint the Bogazici University as a target.
Selim Deringil and Edhem Eldem, who are members of the organizing
committee, held a news conference. Eldem said that the targeting of a
state university with unfair accusations is worrisome, adding that
Turkey will be the side to lose most from this action.
Noting that their aim is to leave aside the bellicose and sterile
style and discuss the issue within a broad historical perspective,
Selim Deringil said, in turn, that the policy of the government or of
the official circles does not bind them, adding that they are not
obliged to be of the same opinion with them.
And a group of Bogazici University students held a protest action on
the campus, asserting that a concerted campaign is being waged against
the independence of the university.
The organizing committee said that the conference organization and
advisory boards will meet to decide the future course.

Armenia calls on its diaspora in France to vote in favor of EU constitution
AP Worldstream
May 25, 2005

Armenia urged its expatriates living in France _ the country’s third
biggest foreign diaspora _ to vote in favor of the European Union
constitution, saying it will strengthen France’s role in European
politics.
“The French “yes” will further strengthen France’s position on the
European arena, which will also be advantageous for us, since France
has always supported an international discussion of Armenian
questions,” Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said at a news
conference.
France is home to an estimated 500,000 Armenians.
France votes on the EU constitution on Sunday, with the latest polls
suggesting a slim majority of voters will reject the new treaty. The
document is meant to simplify how the 25-nation bloc makes decisions
and bolster its role on the world stage. Observers warn however, that
the project is likely to fail if France rejects it.
Oskanian urged Armenians to vote “yes” in the referendum despite fears
by several Armenian groups in France that it may bring Turkey,
Armenia’s longtime foe, closer to EU membership.
“I completely understand the concern shared by many French and
Armenians living in France about Turkey’s possible (EU) membership,”
Oskanian said. “However, we do not see a link between the referendum
on the European Constitution and Turkey’s membership.”
Armenians say some 1.5 million were killed in a campaign of genocide
by the Ottoman Empire authorities at the time of World War I. Turkey
says the death count is inflated, and that the Armenians were killed
or displaced in the civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire. Armenia insists Turkey cannot become an EU member until it
acknowledges genocide.

Today, Azerbaijan
May 25 2005
BAKU: Elmira Suleymanova refused to join the measure held in Armenia

24 May 2005 [10:22] – Today.Az

An international conference named “Tolerance, discrimination in the
context of the struggle against international terrorism and the
struggle against xenophobia (Caucasus measure)” under the patronage
of UNESCO in Yerevan yesterday.
The measure was organized by the Human Rights Protection Institute
of Armenia. In the capital of Armenia, who has occupied 20 % of the
Azerbaijani lands resulted in occurring of about 1 million refugees
and internally displaced persons, the main discussion object in the
conference will be to form relations with the counties of the region
in the directions of strengthening piece, forming the mutual
endurance environment, and protecting human rights. About 60
representatives from Armenia, Russia, Georgia and other countries
were invited to the conference.
According to the information of Armenian sources, the representatives
from Azerbaijan were also invited to the measure to last 2 days.
According of the information we own, this invitation was appealed to
the Commissioner on Human Rights Elmira Suleymanova in Azerbaijan.
It was impossible to get ombudsman’s attitude to the problem, we
could define that E.Suleymanova had refused to join the measure held
in the enemy country.
/APA/

URL:

Globe and Mail, Canada
May 25 2005
Leaders vote to depose Patriarch of Jerusalem
Jerusalem cleric under suspicion for land deals says he won’t quit
By MICHAEL VALPY
World leaders of the Orthodox Christian Church voted yesterday to no
longer recognize the Patriarch of Jerusalem, one of the faith’s most
exalted clerics, because of alleged million-dollar land deals that
risk igniting new Jewish-Arab violence.
However, the vote taken in Istanbul carries no weight. The titular
head of the 300 million-member church, the Patriarch of
Constantinople, is prohibited by the Turkish government from engaging
in church affairs outside the country. Two Turkish non-governmental
organizations have asked that he be prosecuted for convening a
religious court.
Jerusalem Patriarch Eirinaios I, who attended the Istanbul meeting,
has indicated he has no intention of quitting his job despite having
been fired by the governing body of his autonomous church, regarded
by Orthodox Christians as the mother church of all Christendom.
In addition, the Jordanian and Palestinian governments want him
ousted and an Israeli court has blocked the Israeli government’s
recognition of him.
The Greek government (which immediately announced that the Istanbul
vote “under the wise presidency” of the Patriarch of Constantinople
should be respected) is investigating his possible links to Greek
organized crime.
The hottest water that Eirinaios is in involves 198-year leases worth
$130-million (U.S.) on two venerable hotels and some adjacent shops
that the Jerusalem patriarchate reportedly granted to anonymous
Jewish investors just inside the Old City’s Jaffa Gate at the
junction of the Christian, Armenian and Muslim quarters.
The Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, as the patriarchate is
officially known, is the largest landowner in Jerusalem after the
Israeli government, having freehold title to about 20 per cent of the
Old City.
If the reports are true — Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv published
portions of the leases this year — a Jewish foothold in a part of
the Old City that is distinctly Arab could dramatically, and perhaps
explosively, undermine its fragile ethnic balance.
Two weeks ago, the British newspaper The Independent reported the
existence of a widespread presumption that Jewish settler
organizations, passionately devoted to an “undivided and eternal”
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, are behind the deal.
The main buildings involved are the early 19th-century Petra Hotel
and Hostel, built for Russian pilgrims, and the nearby Imperial
Hotel, built in the early 20th century.
Eirinaios has declared he knew nothing about the leases. He has
blamed the patriarchate’s former financial manager, Nicholas
Papadimas, who has vanished amid allegations that $700,000 is missing
from church accounts.
Israeli authorities are searching for his wife on a separate charge
of money laundering. From hiding, Mr. Papadimas has told the Greek
and Israeli press that Eirinaios, who wanted to ingratiate himself
with Israeli authorities, authorized the deal.
The Istanbul vote to withdraw recognition of Eirinaios has no legal
clout because the Orthodox Church, like the Anglican Communion, is an
umbrella faith of 16 autonomous churches of which the Jerusalem
patriarchate is one.
Bartholomew, the Patriarch of Constantinople, is spiritual leader,
but is considered merely first among equals like the Anglicans’
Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Jerusalem church has 200,000 members, almost all Arab, and rests
on a fat cushion of wealth generated by rents for its properties.
Arab lay members and priests have long wanted the church leadership
to be held by an Arab.
Eirinaios, 66, born Emmanuel Skopeliti on the Greek island of Samos,
went to Jerusalem in 1953 and served for many years as exarch, a kind
of ecclesiastical viceroy, of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
alleged to be the burial place of Jesus and Orthodoxy’s holiest
shrine. He was elected patriarch in 2001.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INVESTMENT FORMER SOVIET UNION: Investors look for eastern promise
The Independent – United Kingdom
May 25, 2005
Chris Partridge

Britain’s army of property investors has swept eastward through Europe
over the last decade, from Spain to the Black Sea.
The former Warsaw Pact countries are now crawling with Brits looking
for bargains. And now they are reconnoitering the old Evil Empire
itself ” the countries that used to make up the USSR. But will they
finally meet their match?
Russia itself is still the economic dynamo of the region and is
already attracting investors, especially to the booming Moscow
market. But new interest is focusing on the newly independent states,
especially the Ukraine. Experts are advising caution, however. The
states of the former Soviet Union are still evolving their legal and
political systems, and investment is very risky.
John Miller, of surveyors and property consultants Thomas and Adamson,
has been operating in the Ukraine for 10 years, from the capital
Kiev. ‘Here wehad a country with a population of 50 million, a
landmass larger than France and a marketplace in which little or no
development had taken place. We could see that this place had to
happen,’ he says.
Thomas and Adamson have worked on offices, hotels and residential
developments in the Ukraine, neighbouring Moldova and Russia
itself. The main obstacle to development is officialdom, which still
seems to operate in the traditional Stalinist manner.
‘There is a huge amount of bureacracy, but the longer you are over
there the better you understand it,’ Miller says.
It can also be difficult to borrow money, another hangover from Soviet
times. ‘Whereas our economy is based on debt, they buy with cash or
on a five-year mortgage,’ Miller explains. ‘Money tends to be hidden
in a biscuit tin under the bed because they operated in the black
economy for so long.’
In Kiev itself, a huge rebuilding and modernisation programme has
brought on a property boom.
‘Kiev has a huge residential market with flats going for fairly
inflated prices, currently about pounds 100 a square foot. That is
high by Ukrainian standards but you won’t get much in the UK under
pounds 250 a square foot,’Miller points out.
Unfortunately, British investors may have already missed the Kiev
opportunity. ‘Someone I know bought a flat last year and has seen a 60
per cent increase in value already, but values will peak soon,’ Miller
says.
The other area of interest to British investors is the Crimea, famous
not only for the charge of the Light Brigade but as the favoured
holiday destination of the Soviet ýlite. Now its pretty Black Sea
coastline is slowly gaining attention.
‘In the Crimea we are seeing a reasonable amount of development but
nothing like the standard of European holiday destinations,’ Miller
says.
Outside the Ukraine, the risks of property investment rise
substantially. Belarus is currently ruled by the dictatorial
Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has just changed the law to allow him to
continue in power. Belarus is definitely a no-go area until true
democracy returns.
Moldova, the tiny, strife-ridden republic sandwiched between the
Ukraine and Romania, has a surpisingly advanced legal system, but
another feature of Soviet times has been retained ” the kickback.
‘In practice a lot of things are ahead of the Ukraine but they are
more dogged with corruption,’ Miller says. ‘One project we were
involved in was delayed for years because the relevant administrator
was in jail and couldn’t decide the matter until he got out.’ The
situation gets worse the further away yougo, according to Laura Brank
of law firm Chadbourne & Parke, who covers all the old USSR from her
base in Moscow. The areas that are next in line for investor attention
are Armenia and Georgia, despite their current political turmoil and
internal violence.
‘Armenia and Georgia are very pretty and eventually these countries
should attract people, and skiing in the Caucasus is already getting
popular,’ Brank says. ‘Georgia has a young and impressive new
president and if he succeeds the country could be a good place to
invest.’
Further away, the Asian republics known collectively as ‘the Stans’
are moving towards Western-style legal systems, at least in theory.
‘The legal systems are developing nicely in the Stans and the laws are
a bit more Westernised due to extensive Western influence, but this
does not necessarily translate into practice,’ Brank says. ‘You can
buy an apartmentbut cannot buy the underlying land even though you are
supposed to be able to.’
The Stans aren’t even very pretty, consisting mainly of windswept,
treeless steppes. For most property investors, they are a step too far
indeed.
Thomas and Adamson, 020-7659 0448
Chadbourne & Parke, Kyiv, +380 (44) 230 2534

Libération, France
mardi 24 mai 2005
La Turquie est encore loin de l’adhésion, dit Jacques Chirac
PARIS – Jacques Chirac estime que la ratification de la Constitution
européenne rendra “plus long” le processus d’adhésion de la Turquie à
l’Union européenne.
“Elle a encore un long chemin à faire, d’autant plus long que l’Union
européenne se prépare à franchir une étape supplémentaire dans
l’affirmation de ses valeurs”, souligne le chef de l’Etat dans une
lettre transmise lundi au Conseil de coordination des organisations
arméniennes de France (CCAF).
Cette lettre, adressée au président de l’organisation Ara Toranian, a
été rendue publique mardi par le CCAF, qui a sollicité Jacques Chirac
“pour qu’il demande clairement et fermement” le report de l’ouverture
des négociations d’adhésion de la Turquie “tant qu’elle refuse de
reconnaître le génocide arménien” de 1915. Les négociations doivent
commencer début octobre.
“La France a reconnu le génocide arménien de 1915. Elle attend de la
Turquie qu’elle mène à son terme cet impératif devoir de mémoire.
Nous sommes convaincus qu’elle en comprend la nécessité car tel est
l’esprit des critères de Copenhague dont tout candidat doit démontrer
le plein respect”, écrit le président de la République.
“Avec la Constitution européenne, poursuit-il, pour la première fois
dans l’Histoire, les droits et les libertés fondamentales seront
reconnus par l’Union européenne elle-même et garantis à tous les
citoyens européens”.
“Dans dix ans, quinze ans au plus tard, si la Turquie va au bout du
processus engagé, il reviendra, en application de notre Constitution,
à chaque Française et à chaque Français de se prononcer par
référendum avant toute adhésion, et donc de juger du chemin parcouru
par la Turquie pour partager nos valeurs”, rappelle Jacques Chirac.
“La demande de la France et de l’Union européenne est que la Turquie
applique résolument les valeurs et la conception des droits de
l’homme, de la paix et de la démocratie qui sont celles de toute
l’Europe”, souligne-t-il. /SL

A1plus
| 17:45:30 | 23-05-2005 | Social |
`ALTERNATIVE SERVICE MUST NOT BE LIKE AN EASY GAME’
`One must not suppose that alternative service must be easy like a game.
>From the very beginning we wanted it to replace the hard service of those
who serve with weapon’, said NA Deputy President commenting on the latest
protest of lawyers about alternative service.
Let us remind you that the Law was adopted within COE framework and today 24
young people are in alternative service. Co-author of the Law Vaham
Hovhannisyan does not understand why the servers protest, `Those who choose
alternative service complain of the fact that the country makes them serve
one way or the other. They did not want to serve, and whatever the country
offered them, they would complain’.
On the whole, according to Vahan Hovhannisyan, the law has justified itself,
`The fear that young people would become members of sects in order to serve
in alternative service, fortunately did not come true’.

Playback
May 23, 2005
Sexy, druggy, gory and not a genocide in sight
by Sean Davidson
Egoyan’s latest surprises at Cannes
He said this one would be different, and apparently he meant it. Atom
Egoyan’s latest – the noir-ish mystery Where the Truth Lies – landed
with a splash at this month’s Cannes film fest, turning heads with
its ample nudity, spurts of violence, drugs and sex.
It was “the sexiest film so far” at Cannes, according to the Toronto
Sun’s Bruce Kirkland, writing at about the halfway point. A “big,
slick and sexy mystery” that should have “no trouble attracting
audiences seeking high-style, grownup entertainment,” says a review
in The Hollywood Reporter.
That last part should go over especially well with Egoyan’s backers
at Telefilm Canada, where successful English-language films are still
something of a rare bird.
The picture includes one orgy, a racy and drug-fuelled lesbian
encounter and, of course, the mysterious death that sends a young
writer (Alison Lohman) digging into the past of two old-school
comedians, played by Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon.
Egoyan has always said that Truth would be more accessible than his
other pictures – compared to, say, Ararat, the tale of the Armenian
genocide, or the equally wrenching The Sweet Hereafter. It shot in
Toronto, L.A. and elsewhere last summer on a $30-million budget and
will be distributed by ThinkFilm.
Bad behavior has also paid off for David Cronenberg who, at press
time, was a strong favorite to win this year’s Palme d’Or for his A
History of Violence, about how a bloody outburst at their diner
changes an all-American family. Cronenberg is “on the top of his
game” with this one, writes the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell,
following “in the tradition of a John Ford western and Clint
Eastwood’s Unforgiven.” Violence stars Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello
and William Hurt.
Cronenberg also used the fest to announce that he is getting back to
work on Painkillers, the project he put on hold to make Violence,
again working with producer Robert Lantos, who also produced Where
the Truth Lies.
The $35-million sci-fi thriller has been on again, off again for some
time, and comes from the famously creepy director’s first original
screenplay since 1999’s eXistenZ. The story reportedly involves a
futuristic society in which surgery has become a kind of spectator
sport, replacing sex, while pain has replaced sex as the new taboo
thrill. (Yep, that sounds like our David.)
ThinkFilm is reportedly already chasing presale through its new
international sales division.
Midnight Movies by Toronto filmmaker Stuart Samuels is also playing
well in Cannes, although it is not in competition. The feature doc
about the underground films of the 1960s and ’70s – Night of the
Living Dead, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and El Topo, to name a few
– also got a warm nod from The Hollywood Reporter for its “engaging
and perceptive glimpse… into a raucous time of personal rebellion.”
“An historical essay on how these fringe Midnighters have influenced
today’s mainstream directors,” writes Duane Byrge.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress