Author: Emil Lazarian

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 7, 2004, Monday
ARMENIA: DEFENSE EXPENSES INCREASE
Armenia plans to increase the defense budget in 2005. This statement
was made by Serj Sargsyan, Defense Minister and Secretary of the
Security Council, after the end of a hearing in the parliament. This
year Armenia’s defense expenses amount to around $85 million. Serj
Sargsyan noted that the government intends to increase servicemen’s
money allowances and rearm the Armed Forces.
Source: Krasnaya Zvezda, June 3, 2004, p. 3
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Baku’s Building Boom Reveals Grave Inequity
By Chloe Arnold
Moscow Times
June 8 2004
BAKU, Azerbaijan — If you can judge a country’s economy by the amount
of construction work going on, Azerbaijan is booming. You can’t move
in the capital, Baku, for all the construction sites, towering cranes
and wobbly trucks stacked high with joists and scaffolding.
>>From my bedroom window I can see the empty shells of at least half
a dozen high-rise blocks. With money flooding in from oil sales —
Azerbaijan backs onto the Caspian Sea, which is believed to hold
the world’s third largest-reserves — the race is on to build luxury
apartments for all the newcomers setting up shop here.
But it isn’t just foreigners they are catering to. The number of
Azeris with cash to throw around is on the rise, too. When I first
arrived in Baku, you could get to anywhere in the center of town
within 10 minutes.
Today the roads are so clogged with New Azeris driving shiny black
Mercs or executive jeeps, you’re hard-pressed to make it in less than
half an hour. In fact, these days you’re better off walking.
But it’s the rate at which buildings are going up that’s so alarming.
Baku’s skyline has changed more in the last 18 months than it has for
more than a century. And contractors are falling over each other to
sell their apartments before anyone else. Friends recently bought a
flat in a new luxury block, only to discover that they have to step
over piles of rubble to get to it: The higher floors aren’t quite
finished, they were told.
With all these sleek new buildings appearing across the city, the
difference between rich and poor has become even starker. Just behind
the extensive new Taekwondo Center for Azerbaijan — all pillars and
marble and dancing fountains — stands a half-finished block with no
electricity or water, where hundreds of refugees from the war with
neighboring Armenia are living.
They’re so close to the martial arts school they can see the children
of rich Azeris practicing their moves. But they’re as far from being
able to afford to attend the classes as it’s possible to be.
Nevertheless, I’m not sure I’d want to live in any of the new
buildings. They’re built to Turkish specifications, but when you
remember the earthquake in Izmir in 1999, which killed 17,000 people,
that doesn’t sound reassuring. Many of the casualties were living in
houses built so shoddily that they simply caved in.
The frightening thing is that Baku, too, lies on a fault line. There
are regular ground tremors, and we’re due for another full-scale quake
sooner rather than later. And when that happens, the people who bought
penthouse suites aren’t going to be laughing any more. If they live
to tell the tale, that is.
Chloe Arnold is a freelance journalist based in Baku, Azerbaijan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

United Nations Development Programme Country Office in Armenia
14, Karl Liebknecht Street, Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Contact: Aramazd Ghalamkaryan
Tel: (374 1) 56 60 73
Fax: (374 1) 54 38 11
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
UNDP COUNTRY OFFICE IN ARMENIA
*7 June, 2004
WITH A VISIT TO ARMENIA’S LARGEST DUMP, UNDP AND THE MINISTRY OF NATURE
PROTECTION LAUNCH ENVIRONMENT WEEK*
Yerevan, Armenia
Today, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry
of Nature Protection officially marked World Environment Day by
organising a media event in the country’s largest waste disposal site in
Nubarashen, near Yerevan. In close cooperation with UN Agencies and
local and international organisations, UNDP and the Ministry of Nature
Protection jointly initiated Environment Week, an advocacy campaign
aimed at raising public awareness on environmental issues. Mr. Vardan
Ayvazyan, Minister of Nature Protection, Ms. Lise Grande, UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, representatives of the
Government, civil society and the mass media participated in the event.
Nubarashen waste disposal site receives almost all the solid waste
produced in Yerevan city and suburbs. As much as 340 tonnes per day, or
102,000 tonnes per year, is deposited in the site. Most of the waste in
Nubarashen is domestically produced by the approximately 1,280,000 who
live in these areas. Industrial waste accounts for only a small
proportion. Large quantities of landfill gas, mainly methane gas, are
produced by the waste and discharged into the atmosphere without being
fully utilised.
According to Ms. Grande: “It is very fortunate that Armenia has achieved
high rates of economic growth in the last decade. At this stage in the
country’s transition, is it critically important to focus on the
environmental aspects of economic growth. The sustainable management of
natural resources and a clean environment are key to the country’s
medium and long-term development. If the environment is destroyed or
damaged, the country will suffer. UNDP is currently one of the major
donors in the area of nature protection and we are confident that our
partnership with Government authorities and the civil society will help
to ensure a healthy environment for a healthy people.”
Background: Armenia has acceded to a number of international treaties
and conventions focused on the environment. UNDP’s National Capacities
Self-Assessment (NCSA) project aims to support the Government
in identifying gaps in meeting the requirements of these global
conventions. The goal of Environment Week, a joint advocacy initiative
of UNDP Armenia and the Ministry of Nature Protection, is to: promote
environmental activities at the community level; raise public awareness
of ongoing initiatives in the area of nature protection; highlight
existing environmental issues; and initiate a public debate on the
linkages between human development and nature protection. Environment
Week also aims to bring together major actors in nature protection
and help find solutions to very urgent and important environmental
problems facing the country and the whole Transcaucasian region.
***
UNDP is the UN’s global development network. It advocates for change and
connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people
build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with
them on their own solutions to global and national development
challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of
UNDP and our wide range of partners.
—
Aramazd Ghalamkaryan
Information and Resource Mobilisation Associate/
Support to UN Resident Coordinator
UNDP/UN Armenia
14 Karl Liebknecht St., Yerevan, 375010, Armenia
Tel: +3741 56 60 73 + 121
Mob: +3749 43 63 12
Fax: +3741 54 38 11
URLs: ;
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish mayor says Armenia should close nuclear plant
Anatolia news agency, Ankara
6 Jun 04
Igdir, 6 June: Nurettin Aras, the mayor of northeastern province of
Igdir, has said that nuclear energy power plant in Armenia should be
shut down.
Speaking to the AA Anatolia correspondent on Sunday 6 June , Aras said
that the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant on Turkish-Armenian border posed
serious threat to Igdir as it was 15-20 kilometres from the province.
Noting that they had collected 2,500 signatures on the first day
of a one-week campaign launched by his office for closure of the
nuclear power plant, Aras said that they would bring their demand
to authorities.
Defending that the power plant had suffered damage in an earthquake
in Armenia in 1988 but it had not been reinforced, Aras claimed that
planes carried fuel oil to the power plant.
Recalling that the power plant was very close to city centre of
Igdir, Aras said: “Our residents are worried about any possible leak
or explosion at the power plant. Several trees near Armenian border
have died, causing us to feel we are in danger. I call on the World
Health Organization to take action as soon as possible. Necessary
initiatives should rapidly be launched to close down this plant.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Indusmin Receives Five-Year Extension of Licenses in Armenia
VANCOUVER, British Colombia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–06/06/2004–Indusmin Energy
Corp. (TSX VENTURE:IDM)(Berlin Wkn:469065) completed an agreement with Armenian
American Exploration Inc. (“AAEC”), of Solana Beach, California, on April
30, whereby Indusmin Energy Corp has acquired total interest in blocks 1 and 2,
Republic of Armenia, to Indusmin, in return for a non-disclosed override
over twenty years (see Press Release, May 25). The Armenian Energy Minister, Mr.
Armen Movsisyan has agreed to the assignment and has granted a five year
license extension to the existing licenses. After significant due diligence on
the existing data on Block 1 and 2, Indusmin has elected to relinquish all of
Block 1 in order to focus the initial activity on block 2.
“With this deal, the company is acquiring a vast geological and geophysical
database about Armenia’s Oil and Gas resources; in particular for blocks 2
and 3. At this stage there exists more technical information for the
Oktemberyan prospects than those in the Near Yerevan Basin, and with a major gas
pipeline twenty kilometers to the north, it is likely that this area will be first
priority for exploration work. On the other hand, there is a drilling rig and
considerable amounts of additional equipment already in the country. The rig
and camp are available for start working as soon as needed,” stated Carlos
Munoz President and CEO.
Block 2 extends across the basins with the greatest potential for finding
commercial deposits of oil and gas in the Republic of Armenia, these being:
1) The Armavir Basin, a sub-basin of the Ararat Intermontane Depression,
located some thirty kilometers due west of the capital city of Yerevan.
Numerous gas shows and some minor oil shows in several boreholes have been
found. Several prospects have been identified — the Karmir prospect, close to
the Oktemberyan-13E and 7P wells, with 10 BCF (billion cubic feet) of
recoverable reserves; South Artamet and North Artamet prospects with reserves of 30
and 50 BCF respectively. There are also other prospects, including one where
a major surface geo-chemical anomaly exists.
2)The Near Yerevan Basin, part of the Central Depression, located due east
of Yerevan. Ten kilometers due east of Yerevan, oil was recovered from the
Paleocene in the Shorakhpur-1P well in 1987. Azat-1, drilled by AAEC in 1998 on
a separate structure further east, encountered oil traces at a similar
geological level. Two prospects, Shorakhpur and Nubarashen, are estimated to each
contain twenty million barrels of recoverable oil.
“The Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Armenia has great hopes for block
2, especially since the addition of important information obtained from the
activities of AAEC and others since 1991. We hope that the successful
application of the mutually agreed work program will lead to a commercial discovery.
We are further encouraged because of the excellent relations between the
Ministry of Energy and Indusmin Corporation. The deal regarding block 2 is just
the starting point in the planned major cooperation between us,” Dr. Andranik
Aghabalyan (Head of Department of Fuel and Energy Underground Resources,
Ministry of Energy, Republic of Armenia).
Symbol: IDMNF (U.S.)
Symbol: IDM (Can.)
Symbol: Wkn:469065 (Berlin)
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility
for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
CONTACT:Indusmin Energy Corp., Vancouver Carlos Munoz, 604-960-9930
President & CEO fax: 604-608-4733 email: [email protected] website:
SOURCE: Indusmin Energy Corp.
06/06/2004 15:45 EASTERN
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HEAD OF OSCE OFFICE WELCOMES RELEASE OF SOME ARMENIAN OPPOSITION MEMBERS
Noyan Tapan
7 June
YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan). The Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan,
Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, welcomed the release from custody of two
members of the opposition Republic party, Aramazd Zakaryan and Jora
Sapeyan, and the withdrawal of charges against them. He also welcomed
the news that a board member of the Republic party, Suren Surenyants,
has been released from custody, although he must not leave the country
pending investigation.
“We believe this step will facilitate political dialogue between the
opposition and the ruling coalition and will contribute to stability
in the country,” Ambassador Pryakhin said in an interview with Radio
Liberty. “At the same time, we note with concern that not all cases
of those detained in connection with the recent demonstrations were
reviewed.”
With regard to a recent decision of the Yerevan Mayor’s Office
to prohibit rallies by opposition parties on 4 June, Ambassador
Pryakhin said: “We regret that the right of people to free assembly
and expression of their political views was restricted. We urge the
authorities to apply the new law on Conduct of Public Gatherings,
Rallies, Demonstrations and Marches in a proportionate and justified
manner and make efforts to further improve this essential piece
of legislation.”
He stressed that the OSCE Office will continue to closely monitor
the political developments in Armenia and to support the country in
the process of democratization. He emphasized in particular the need
for electoral and constitutional reform.

BBC rejects accusations of bias – Azeri agency
Turan news agency
4 Jun 04
Baku, 4 June: The BBC World Service has issued a statement expressing
its regret that Azerbaijan’s ANS TV and radio company suspended
the transmission of its regional programmes in Russian on 1 June
2004. The statement says that Azerbaijani state radio will continue
rebroadcasting BBC programmes in Russian and on 103.3 FM in Baku. “The
BBC remains committed to covering events in the region and in other
parts of the world, scrupulously observing impartiality, fairness,
accuracy, balance and editorial independence and presenting a wide
range of opinions from all the strata of society,” the statement said.
The BBC takes all criticism seriously and reviews its coverage of
events in the region regularly. “On the basis of such comprehensive and
careful scrutiny, the BBC is confident in rejecting the suggestion that
its reports contain bias against any community in the region,” it said.
“The BBC provides equal opportunities to its employees and is
legally bound not to allow discrimination on racial, religious,
ethnic, national and sexual grounds, as well as because of martial
status, sexual orientation, disability or age,” the statement said
in conclusion.
To recap, ANS suspended the transmission of the programmes of
the BBC Central Asian and Caucasus Service in Russian saying that
they are biased and “pro-Armenian” in covering events around the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Turan note: The BBC World Service broadcasts its programmes throughout
the world in 43 languages on radio and the Internet. Some 150m people
across the world can listen to BBC radio, while its Internet web
sites receive 200m messages a month.
[Earlier, at 1130 gmt, Azerbaijan’s MPA news agency carried a similar
report on the BBC statement]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN FM MEETS OSCE ENVOY
ArmenPress
June 4 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Vartan Oskanian received today OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Chairman’s
special representative on the Nagorno Karabagh conflict, Goran
Lenmarker. This is the second visit by Lenmarker, who is a member of
the Swedish parliament, to Armenia,
Lenmarker was quoted by the ministry’s press office as saying that
this time he intends to pay a fact-finding visit to Nagorno Karabagh.
He noted also that the OSCE parliamentary Assembly together with
other European organizations is able to build a favorable climate
around the conflict’s regulation.
Oskanian in turn introduced OSCE PACE Chairman’s Special Representative
to the current status and dynamics of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict
settlement. The parties exchanged views on the prospects of the
settlement process in view of the recent developments.
Oskanian underscored the enlargement of European’s organizations’
involvement in the regional issues, underlying the practical
importance of TRACECA and INOGATE projects for the region’s further
integration with Europe. Opportunities for normalization of Armenia
– Turkey relations were also mentioned. At the end of the meeting,
the parties reiterated the important role of the OSCE in ensuring and
furthering regional security and cooperation and expressed willingness
to continue the current dialogue and exchange of ideas.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KOCHARIAN RECEIVES CANDLE PROJECT SCIENTISTS
ArmenPress
June 4 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
received today a team of Armenian scientists, who are involved in
CANDLE (Center for the Advancement of Natural Discoveries using Light
Emission) – a new synchrotron light source project in Armenia, to be
based on a 3 GeV synchrotron light source that will provide a unique
opportunity for the scientific research using a wide spectrum range
photon beams with high flux and brilliance. CANDLE expected to be in
operation in year 2007.
Kocharian’s press office said possibilities of the project
implementation were discussed. The growing interest of different
states, international organizations and academic community in the
project was stated.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Bush’s Neo-Con Praetorian Guards
by Ahmed Amr
June 5, 2004
A few weeks ago, on April 14th, George Bush decided to void the
Palestinians’ right to return to their homeland. The President also
took the occasion to make illegal Jewish settlements a permanent
“fact on the ground.” In a single press conference with Ariel Sharon,
he managed to truncate the size of a Palestinian state and assault
the fundamental human rights of refugees around the world. One has to
assume that Bush has now assumed the right to decide which other group
of refugees can forget about ever returning to their native lands.
Before unilaterally making this radical departure from the policies
of every American administration since 1948, Bush dispatched Elliott
Abrams to negotiate terms with Sharon. Abrams, the radical Likudnik
activist of Iran/Contra fame, has a history of beating the drums of
the Netenyahu wing of the Likud party. His mission was to convince
Netenyahu to accept the terms of the “moderate” Sharon who had declared
his intention to withdraw from Gaza.
Abrams convinced Netenyahu to agree to stop lobbying against Sharon’s
plan, which was scheduled to come up for a vote in the Likud party. But
his agreement came with a stiff price. Netenyahu’s “generous offer” was
contingent on getting American assurances that the Palestinians right
of return would be voided and that the settlements would become legal.
Upon returning to America, Abrams held a meeting in the White House
with the leadership of the Christian Zionist movement, a key Bush
constituency. He wanted to reassure them that Gaza was not part of
biblical Israel and evacuating it would not stall the Second Coming of
Jesus or the prospects of a timely advent of the rapture and the end
of times. You have to marvel at the marketing skills of this Likudnik
fanatic who doesn’t even believe in the First Coming of the Messiah.
In any case, Abrams managed to convince Bush that he had cut a
great deal. All Bush needed to do was to stiff the Palestinian on
a few of their rights and shrink the boundaries of the Palestinian
Bantustan to accommodate Israeli expansionist fantasies. In return,
Netenyahu would not actively obstruct a critical vote in the Likud. The
president accepted Netenyahu’s “generous offer.” By the time Sharon
landed in Washington, Bush had prepared a letter officially committing
to Netenyahu’s terms. For the Palestinians, it was the Second Coming
of the Balfour Declaration.
Abrams didn’t go to Israel to negotiate American terms with Sharon. He
was there to settle an internal Likud party squabble. As a confirmed
member of the Netenyahu wing of the Likud, he wanted to draw a line
in the sand for the “moderate” Sharon. In effect, Bush had dispatched
one Likudnik fox to negotiate with another Likudnik fox on how best
to cook the chicken.
As promised, the reluctant Netenyahu did not publicly campaign against
Sharon’s plan. But he wasn’t about to endorse it either. When the
vote took place, the Likud faithful turned down the “compromise”. So,
the Israelis pocketed George’s concession of Palestinian rights and
Palestinian real estate and laughed all the way to the West Bank.
After the Likud turned down the idea to withdrawing from Gaza, the
Israelis came back and got a green light from the Bush administration
to batter the Palestinians. Sharon explained that he needed to
torment the refugees in Gaza to shore up his standing in the Likud
after failing to get approval for his plan. Bush understood. After
a few weeks of demolishing homes and killing dozens of Palestinians,
the people of Gaza staged acts of resistance that resulted in the
death of thirteen Israeli soldiers.
As usual, Sharon lost his temper and Bush agreed that Israel had
the right to defend its soldiers from the “terrorists” who had the
audacity to resist Sharon’s efforts to demonstrate his toughness in
front of the Netenyahu wing of the Likud. The president of the free
world had an AIPAC engagement coming up and that’s never a good time
to bring up the issue of Palestinian rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. So once again, Bush expressed sympathy and gave
a green light to “Operation Rainbow.” The rape of Rafah was on.
In an effort to resolve a feud within the Likud, Elliott Abrams had
set in motion a major Israeli killing spree.
Abram’s Likudnik antics are typical of the standard operating procedure
in the Bush administration. In reviewing the resume of the folks
Bush appointed as architects a “Greater Middle East,” one runs into
a who’s who list of professional Jewish activists with a long record
of supporting the most extreme right wing factions in Israel.
Wolfowitz’s sister actually gave up on America and immigrated to
Israel. Like his sibling, he has spent his whole adult life working
on Likudnik agendas. Douglas Feith’s law partner in Israel represents
the right wing settler movement. Lewis Libby, the lawyer who convinced
Clinton to pardon the tax dodging Mark Rich, has well established
ties to Israeli intelligence. Richard Perle sits on the board of the
Jerusalem Post and works with Conrad Black, a media mogul and Zionist
propagandist. Along with Dick Cheney’s wife, all four are affiliated
with the neo-con movement that has its imprint all over Bush’s Middle
East policies.
Before joining the Bush administration, this neo-con cabal agitated
against the Oslo agreement and worked on Netenyahu’s election
campaign. Dick Cheney and his wife actually retained Bernard Lewis to
tutor our president of vice on the “Arab mind.” Lewis is a vicious
anti-Arab racist and a suspect pseudo-academic who was convicted in
a French court of denying the Armenian genocide.
One has to be extremely delusional to subscribe to the notion that
any of these characters are interested in the freedom of any pedigree
of Arabs, be they Iraqi or Palestinian. Quite the contrary. Their
real motives are to subjugate and humiliate Arabs into accepting
Sharon’s dictates.
It should come as no surprise that Douglas Feith was the Pentagon
official who signed off on torturing and sexually humiliating Iraqi
prisoners. Or that Feith and Libby are the main suspects in leaking
the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent. Or that Wolfowitz
and Perle virtually created Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress and
collaborated with the INC in fabricating false intelligence and
feeding it to neo-con media operatives like Judith Miller and Charles
Krauthammer. Or that Libby and Feith were the force behind setting
up the Office of Special Plans that sabotaged the CIA’s and DIA’s
intelligence gathering operations. Or that Feith was in charge of
the now discredited post invasion fantasies. Or that Paul Bremer,
the current emperor of Baghdad, is a self-declared neo-con and a
protégé of Henry Kissinger. Or that Michael Rubin, a neo-con zealot,
was given a major role in administering our Iraqi colony. After
his assignment in Baghdad, Rubin went right back to his desk at the
American Enterprise Institute.
These are the Bush advisers that prey on the mind of a president who
believes he is getting battle plans from God. They write his speeches
and condense the news that he can’t bother to read. Even Republican
Senators are alarmed at the virtual seclusion of this President
behind a wall of Praetorian guards recruited from the ranks of the
Israeli Lobby.
None of this is a secret. It is just one of those taboo subjects that
can get you libeled as an anti-Semite if you so much as hint at who
these people are or question their allegiance to a foreign state ruled
by a serial war criminal. But some prominent Americans have apparently
had enough of their shenanigans. Retired General Anthony Zinni and
Senator Hollings and others are finally taking them on. Zinni, in a
challenge to the complicit silence of many in Washington, recently
appeared on a 60 Minutes program and said, “I know what strategy they
promoted. And openly. And for a number of years. And what they have
convinced the president and the secretary to do. And I don’t believe
there is any serious political leader, military leader, diplomat in
Washington that doesn’t know where it came from.”
Zinni is not just any old retired General. During his military career,
this distinguished American officer served for four years as the
commander-in-chief of the United States Central Command, in charge
of American forces in the Middle East.
The Israeli Lobby has always had an extraordinary amount of influence
on American foreign policy. With Bush, they have hit the jackpot
because they find him so easy to manipulate, especially when they
make an appeal to his faith. He is at once the most peculiar and
the most transparent of Presidents. If he appears to be cruel, he
is just administering the wrath of God on planet earth. For him,
Palestinian and Iraqi sufferings are a necessary price to pay to bring
on Armageddon. He is not an opportunist preaching to the flock. He is
part of the Christian Zionist movement. The designated priests of this
Christian heresy are folks like Abrams who must get a huge kick out
of messing around with the collective emotions of these holy rollers.
We can only hope that a slumbering America will wake up to the real
and present danger of giving this very simple and very dangerous
President a mandate of a second term in office. If he gets four more
years, we might just find ourselves two years away from Armageddon.
Unfortunately for the Palestinians, John Kerry appears to be recruiting
his own brigade of neo-con Praetorian guards to administer Middle
East policy. Rafah was just one more sign that the Palestinians are
set to lose another American election.
Ahmed Amr is the Editor of NileMedia. He can be reached at:
[email protected].
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress