Author: Garnik Zakarian

ARMENIA WILL SUPPLY CIGARETTES TO IRAQ
YEREVAN, JANUARY 31. ARMINFO. Armenian producers have agreed on supply
on cigarettes to Iraq in the current year.
Talking to ARMINFO, President of the Armenian LTD International Masis
Tabak Michael Vardanyan says that an oral agreement on this was
reached last year when Iraqi specialists visited Armenia. Supply of
five containers of cigarettes monthly is in question, which is a
rather big lot, he says. For example, Vardanyan says that 45
containers of cigarettes of native and foreign producers are monthly
sold in the country. At present, Armenian producers expected Iraqi
orders. The president of the company says that cigarettes from Armenia
will be supplied in spite of the fact that a joint production of
cigarettes with participation of the largest Armenian producer Grand
Tobacco was established in Iran last year.
It should be noted that there are two big producers of cigarettes in
Armenia, Grand Tobacco and International Masis Tabak. Three billion
cigarettes are daily sold in the country. The share of local
production is half of the market.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
venerdì 28 gennaio 2005
PAPA: RICEVE PRESIDENTE REPUBBLICA DI ARMENIA KOCHARIAN ;
AUSPICA PACE VERA E STABILE NEL NAGORNO KARABAK
CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
(ANSA) – CITTA’ DEL VATICANO, 28 GEN – Il Papa ha ricevuto
il presidente della Repubblica di Armenia, Robert Kocharian,
accompagnato dalla moglie e dal seguito.

All’udienza, che si e’ svolta nella biblioteca privata e
durante la quale si e’ parlato in russo, Giovanni Paolo II e
apparso in forma e molto sorridente.

Al presidente armeno papa Wojtyla ha rivolto un discorso in
russo, del quale ha letto la prima e l’ultima frase, affidando
la lettura del testo completo a un collaboratore. Ricordando che
il presidente e’ originario del Nagorno-Karabak, il Papa ha
auspicato “che sorga una pace vera e stabile” in quella
regione. “Cio’ – enuncia il discorso papale – potra’ scaturire
dal rifiuto deciso della violenza e da un paziente dialogo tra
le parti, grazie pure ad un’attiva mediazione internazionale”.

Kocharian ha offerto in dono un calice liturgico piuttosto
grande, e il Papa ha ricambiato con le medaglie del pontificato
e i rosari per le signore. Con molta cordialita’ ha salutato la
figlia diciannovenne del presidente armeno, studentessa in
giurisprudenza.

Prima di lasciare il Vaticano il presidente Kocharian si e
fermato all’esterno della basilica di san Pietro per vedere la
statua di san Gregorio armeno istallata la scorsa settimana in
una delle nicchie della chiesa.(ANSA).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia)
January 16, 2005 Sunday
Final Edition
Overdue for frivolity
by Michael D. Reid, Times Colonist
After playing so many roles on the dark side of the spectrum — a
conflicted American president (Thirteen Days), a grieving father (The
Sweet Hereafter), a treacherous husband (Double Jeopardy) and a
sinister CEO (I, Robot) — Bruce Greenwood says he couldn’t have been
happier when he got the chance to switch to the bright side for
Racing Stripes.
“This is a little more frivolous, a little more fun and long overdue
for me,” says the boyishly handsome Canadian actor of his role as a
rugged Kentucky farmer in the kiddie comedy about a plucky zebra who
thinks he’s a racehorse.
Greenwood, 48, plays Nolan Walsh, an overprotective widowed single
dad and former horse trainer who with the best of intentions tries to
dissuade his teenage daughter (Hayden Panettiere) from riding her pet
zebra in the Kentucky Open.
“The sentiment is so genuine and it just really appealed to me on a
really visceral level,” says the Quebec-born actor during a
homecoming visit to Vancouver. This is the city where his father, a
geology professor, moved the family when Greenwood was 11 after
living in Princeton, N.J. and Bethesda, Md. He still considers B.C.
his home even though he lives in Los Angeles.
“It’s a nice uplifting film to do and it has humour and a couple of
tears — and that’s entertainment, dammit,” adds Greenwood. For an
actor best known for his serious roles, he’s such a wisecracker you
wonder why he doesn’t do comedy.
When asked if he’d like to play funny on screen, he jokingly lashes
out in his deep, gravelly voice.
“Michael! Michael!” Greenwood answers in a sing-song voice, playfully
stretching out the words.
“D’uh, yeah. Why don’t you make the call? If you could make that
happen for me, I’d be thrilled. They just don’t know.”
Greenwood says while his phone may not be ringing 24/7 from studio
executives looking for the next Bill Murray, he figures his
“off-the-wall” humour is part of the reason he gets along so well
with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Atom Egoyan.
The actor has appeared in three of the Victoria-raised auteur’s films
— in The Sweet Hereafter; as a melancholic tax inspector obsessed
with a stripper in Exotica; and as the star of a film that dramatizes
the Armenian genocide in Ararat.
“Atom’s sense of humour is very black and bizarre and dry and ironic,
and quite broad, also,” says Greenwood. “We make each other laugh and
I think that helps.”
He also agrees with the observation Egoyan has another comic side to
him that many of his devotees don’t see.
“Atom has a very juvenile sense of humour and I think more people
should know that,” he deadpans. “He’s not nearly as clever as he
seems.”
Greenwood, who trained at the University of British Columbia and the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts, has made substantial strides since
doing theatre in Vancouver and landing his 1986 breakthrough role as
Dr. Seth Griffin on St. Elsewhere.
Shifting smoothly from television to film, the former student of
Kerrisdale’s Magee Secondary went from playing characters on TV
projects such as Knot’s Landing and Peyton Place: The Next Generation
to a slew of Hollywood features — including Wild Orchid, Passenger
57, Disturbing Behaviour and as a nasty, spit-polished military
bigwig in Rules of Engagement.
Ironically, Greenwood found himself returning time and again to shoot
“runaway productions” in the city he left in the early 1980s after
landing minor roles in Bear Island (1979) and First Blood (1982)
during the B.C. industry’s infancy.
While he would become best known for roles such as the title
character living a Kafka-esque nightmare in the TV series Nowhere Man
and the humourless internal affairs investigator in Hollywood
Homicide, Greenwood also got to strut his romantic side as a
lovestruck late-night talk show host in The Republic of Love, Deepa
Mehta’s film based on the novel by the late Carol Shields.
Last year, he put on an upper-crust British accent to play Lord
Charles, the dashing bachelor confidante of Annette Bening’s
high-strung London stage star of the 1930s in Being Julia, Istvan
Szabo’s film based on the Somerset Maugham novel.
He’s at a loss to explain why he has such a knack for accents, except
to credit the influence of a childhood friend.
“I’ve always had it,” he says with a shrug. “A good friend of mine
who does the most brilliant accents I’ve ever heard installs alarms
for a living. I grew up with him and kept hearing all these accents.”
Working steadily on films shot in exotic locales from Budapest (Being
Julia) to South Africa (Racing Stripes) means Greenwood has a nomadic
lifestyle.
The actor and his wife of 20 years, fellow Vancouverite Susan Devlin,
don’t get much of a chance to just hang out at their home in Los
Angeles, although the avid musician is setting aside a chunk of time
to “work around the house” and jam with friends, as the accomplished
singer-guitarist did at last year’s Courtnall Celebrity Classic here.
“I’m always on the road,” says Greenwood, who flew back and forth
between Budapest and Vancouver to shoot Being Julia and I, Robot, and
last year also jetted off to locations for various films in England,
Halifax, Toronto and South Africa.
Greenwood also just wrapped a Vancouver shoot opposite Madeleine
Stowe for Saving Milly, a CBS television movie about the
life-changing experiences of Chicago political journalist Morton
Kondracke and his wife Milly, an activist in the ’60s who was
diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
“Saving Milly was one of the heaviest experiences of my career,” he
says. “It would have been nice to start the year off with something
more frolicsome than that.”
Greenwood also went to Utah last year to reunite with Thirteen Days
director Roger Donaldson on The World’s Fastest Indian, starring Sir
Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro, a New Zealander who made the world’s
fastest Indian motorcycle in the 1920s.
He says his most rewarding experience of 2004, however, was playing
Truman Capote’s longtime companion Jack Dunphy opposite Phillip
Seymour Hoffman in Capote, a drama that focuses on the eccentric
author’s years writing In Cold Blood.
“Hoffman’s the most succinct, dedicated actor I’ve worked with,” says
Greenwood. “He’s really devoted to making it work and making it real.
It was kind of an eye-opener for me. He really raised the bar.”
With a laugh, he says it made it easier to bear the inclement weather
on location in Winnipeg.
“It was brutally cold,” he recalled with a shiver. “My wife and I
found some great linens there.”
He says working with Hoffman was worlds apart from acting opposite
the animals in Racing Stripes, whose live-action footage was mated
with animatronics and computer-generated imagery to create the
illusion they were mouthing dialogue.
“The animals don’t really care about your acting,” deadpans
Greenwood. “You can be acting up a storm and they’ll rip the back
pocket off your pants or wet your shoes.”
He recalls taking one of the many zebras used to portray Stripes into
the barn for the scene in which he tenderly dries off the abandoned
baby circus zebra that his character rescues.
When it started getting “inky and twitchy,” he held it a little
tighter. The zebra was not amused.
“It got quite antsy, hurled me to the floor and started kicking me
repeatedly,” he said. “It hadn’t read the script, obviously.”
Although W.C. Fields famously advised actors never to work with
children or animals, Greenwood begs to differ.
He says he had a ball in the company of co-star Panettiere and
assorted roosters, pelicans, goats and ponies.
“It was full-on crazy, wacky barnyard all the time and when one adult
would do something right the other animal would wander off and nibble
the grip or something.”
Still, there were moments when fun turned to frustration.
“Almost never would you see two animals do something right at the
same time. So the rooster would get it in one take and the goat would
get 40 takes.”
Greenwood says the end result was worth it, though.
“Generally when I watch a movie I’m in, it’s over a curved elbow with
fingers spread in front of my eyes and I’m so nervous, but this one
was different.”
GRAPHIC: Color Photo: Bill Keay, CanWest News Service; Actor Bruce
Greenwood says he’s happy with the switch to a family film after
roles in some dark dramas. ;
Color Photo: Warner Bros.; Bruce Greenwood appears with Hayden
Panettiere and a competitive zebra in Racing Sripes, a new family
film that combines live action and computer-generated animation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

New York Times
Jan 4 2005
After Food and Shelter, Help in Coping With Unbearable Loss
By BENEDICT CAREY
Providing psychological services for millions who have lost family
members, homes and communities in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other
countries will become critical in the coming weeks, officials from
the World Health Organization, Unicef, and other relief agencies say.
The scope of the emotional fallout will be impossible to predict. The
first priority, the officials said, is to deliver food, shelter and
drinking water. But the United Nations has already set up a network
for counseling in Sri Lanka and, on Friday, sent mental health
workers to the Maldives.
Any natural disaster takes a steep emotional toll, the experts said,
but this one is distinguished by its sheer size and scale. Studies of
earthquakes, fires, hurricanes and other disasters that have
devastated communities find that a majority of survivors eventually
learn to live with awful memories and to work through their grief.
But a significant number suffer either chronic mental distress or a
more immediate emotional numbness that can isolate them from others.
“At this point we have to be very careful not to label as a mental
health problem this natural psychological response to being displaced
in a split second, to seeing that everything you had now no longer
exists,” said Dr. Rachel Yehuda, director of the traumatic stress
program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Bronx Veterans
Affairs Hospital. Those who are deeply scarred emotionally will need
long-term care, she said, not a few hours or days of emergency care
by grief counselors or other mental health workers.
After suffering a violent injury, or witnessing a catastrophe, some 5
percent to 10 percent of people suffer from lingering nightmares,
moodiness, nervous exhaustion and other symptoms of post-traumatic
stress syndrome, researchers say. These symptoms are considered
worrisome if they become chronic; they can appear months or even
years after the crisis.
Yet the rates of severe traumatic reactions can be much higher among
people sitting directly in the impact zone of a seemingly apocalyptic
event. After a 1988 earthquake that leveled the Armenian town of
Spitak, killing half its schoolchildren, researchers from the
University of California, Los Angeles, found that more than half the
town’s children suffered from post-traumatic stress and depression.
The rate was less than half that in Gumri, some 30 miles away, and
was negligible in Yerevan, the capital, 50 miles away.
“It’s very clear, the more extreme the experience, the higher the
risk of severe psychological reactions,” said Dr. Alan Steinberg, one
of the study’s authors. “Those people who were on the beach in this
case, or close, are going to be at highest risk” of chronic emotional
distress.
Even in areas farther inland, psychiatrists say, the grieving among
people who have lost homes and family members may be complicated by
the trauma and violence. When the final memory of a lost loved one is
violent, or suffused with guilt or helpless rage, experts say, it
interferes with the natural ability to mourn loss, leaving people
numb, at risk for serious depression, and cut off from others around
them.
“If there’s a signature image of this catastrophe, it’s the loss of
children, the parents right there struggling for their own lives but
unable to protect or save their children,” said Dr. Robert Pynoos,
co-director of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, and a
professor of psychiatry at the University of California’s
Neuropsychiatric Institute in Los Angeles.
The risk that this prolonged grief can cause depression is greater
still, experts say, when the death of a loved one is not confirmed,
or the body is swept into a mass grave without being identified – as
has occurred in some areas hit by the tsunami.
In such circumstances, when the normal cultural rituals surrounding
death are disrupted, wild rumors often circulate, experts say. In
1985, volcanic ash and rubble killed some 80 percent of the
inhabitants of the Armero, Colombia, sweeping away the bodies. For
months afterward, there were stories and “sightings” of some of the
dead wandering in far-off places. Only after the corpses were found
two years later and proper ceremonies were conducted, did the
survivors accept their loss, according to a World Health Organization
report.
In 2001, a fire in Lima, Peru, killed some 270 people, charring many
bodies beyond recognition and depriving families of identifiable
remains to bury and mourn. In the resulting confusion, rumors
circulated that relief workers were stealing cadavers for medical
experimentation, or selling harvested body parts, the W.H.O. report
said.
In the weeks and months to come, experts say, relief workers can help
dispel such rumors, as well as identify survivors who are at risk of
prolonged depression or traumatic stress. The health organization has
issued guidelines for relief workers on how to deal with traumatized
victims, and a group affiliated with the University of Oslo is
planning a program to provide information on counseling to teachers
and others in the areas hardest hit by the disaster.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
Dec 28 2004
ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR IN UKRAINE PREDICTS GOOD RELATIONS WITH KIEV
KIEV, DECEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS: Armenian ambassador to Ukraine,
Armen Khachatrian, predicted good relations between his country and
the new leadership of Ukraine after Sunday re-run of presidential
elections in which the opposition candidate Viktor Yuschenko defeated
the acting prime minister Viktor Yanukovich. He said his prediction
was based on the fact that Armenia is too striving towards closer
relations with Europe.
“This (good relations with Ukraine) is real, as Ukraine is
likewise interested in Armenia,” he said, citing growing trade
between the two countries. The ambassador acknowledged that the Union
of Ukrainian Armenians called on its members to vote for Yanukovich.
He also said that Armenia has to work a lot to bring political
relations with Ukraine on a new level in view of its defense of
Azerbaijan’s position with regard to Karabagh conflict regulation.
“Ukrainians are very friendly towards the Armenian community and we
have to use its potential,’ he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

U.N.: Almost a million refugees face hunger in 2005
By JONATHAN FOWLER
The Associated Press
12/21/04 11:09 EST
GENEVA (AP) – Around a million refugees could face hunger and
malnutrition next year because of meager donations from governments
of more prosperous countries, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Several hundred thousand refugees are already struggling to survive
because aid agencies have had to drastically reduce rations to ensure
there is enough to go round, said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the
U.N. high commissioner for refugees.
“We are especially worried for refugees in Africa,” Redmond told
reporters.
In Zambia, handouts already have been halved in the past two months
and soon will be slashed again, putting 87,000 people at risk of
malnutrition.
“Already, we are hearing reports of refugee women resorting to
prostitution to support themselves and their children,” Redmond
added. “Field offices in Zambia also report there has been a marked
increase in children dropping out of school, presumably to help their
families find food.”
In Tanzania, rations were cut by a quarter in October. UNHCR and the
World Food Program found last month that malnutrition is rising among
some 400,000 refugees from Burundi and Congo who live in Tanzania’s
camps.
Malnutrition also threatens some 118,000 refugees in Ethiopia, and
another 224,000 in Kenya, Redmond said.
In conflict-ravaged Congo, WFP says that next month it will need to
make ration cuts of almost one third, Redmond noted.
“Africa is not the only continent facing a breakdown in the food
pipeline,” he said.
In January, 140,000 displaced a decade ago by conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan face a complete cut in rations – just two months after
handouts were halved.
Non-U.N. aid agencies also have sounded the alarm, but some have
chastised the United Nations for failing to respond fast enough
to crises.
On Monday, U.S.-based Refugees International said the world body was
moving too slowly to hand out food to people who fled the conflict
in Ivory Coast.
But the Rome-based WFP said Tuesday it can only provide food assistance
to refugees who have a registration and a ration card issued by UNCHR,
given the limited resources of the agency. The ration card is the
only document that makes a refugee eligible for U.N. food assistance.
“We need to be absolutely sure that who gets the food is in need of
it,” said Caroline Hurford, WFP spokeswoman. “Otherwise, what would
we tell our donors?”
Hurford said food supplies are already in the border zone. But many
Ivorians are going back to Ivory Coast to harvest their crop and then
returning to Liberia to look for extra food.
“The process of feeding is not always easy with flows of population
going back and forth,” she said.
Associated Press writer Marta Falconi in Rome contributed to this
report.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DECREES OF AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT ON AMNESTY HIGHLY ESTIMATED
[December 17, 2004, 20:01:34]
Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
Dec 17 2004
On December 16, session of the Legal Affairs and human Rights
Committee of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was held
in Paris. Members of Committee have discussed the project of the
Convention on struggle against financing terrorism, condition of
human rights in Kosovo, execution of the resolution number 1359
connected to prisoners in Azerbaijan, the concept of “nation”,
election of judges in the European Court on human rights and other
questions.
Deputies have noted importance of revealing and attraction to the
responsibility at the international level of persons and the
organizations secretly financing terrorism, and have suggested that
all this has found reflection in the project of the Convention.
At discussion of the question connected to Kosovo, has been
underlined importance of preparation of a special mechanism of the
control over protection of human rights in region.
Participants of session have noted that up to date has not be given
exact definition of concept “nation”, similar and distinctive
features between concepts of “nation” and “people” owing to what in
many accepted documents there is a mess.
The English deputy Malcolm Bruce who has acted with the report on
execution of the resolution number 1359, connected with prisoners in
Azerbaijan, highly has estimated cooperation between the government
of Azerbaijan and the Committee, and also the fact, that on the basis
of three Decrees on pardoning, signed by President Ilham Aliyev this
year, had been released hundreds person.
M. Bruce has noted, that now in the list of persons directed to the
Council of Europe there are people which experts do not recognize as
“political prisoners”, but they are presented by the non-governmental
organizations, names of 10 person are mentioned, has expressed hope
that shortly and they would be released and by that the question on
prisoners in Azerbaijan will be completely solved.
Acted on discussions, MP Gultekin Hajiyeva has positively estimated
cooperation between the government of Azerbaijan and the Rapporteur,
has noted, that from specified in the list of the Council of Europe
of 716 prisoners, now are in custody only 10 person.
Ms. G. Hajiyeva has told: ”In our country, there are no people
arrested on only political reasons. But there are people, which are
to some extent deprived of freedom for concrete criminal actions.
These people are specified in the list of the Council of Europe. On
the basis of Decrees of President Ilham Aliyev on pardoning, the
majority of them have been let out on freedom. The said humane
policy, serving to establishment of reconciliation in the society and
creation of national solidarity between various layers, will be
continued in the years ahead.
Cyprian deputy M. Purgurides presiding at the session who at
discussion of the questions connected both with political prisoners,
and with the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict, for some
reason always takes a prejudiced position, and this time was acted as
earlier. M. Purgurides has told: ”In case that the question of
prisoners in Azerbaijan will not be solved up to the end of year, it
should be discussed at PACE session. However, the Rapporteur and
other members of Committee, resolutely protesting M. Purgurides,
highly have estimated the processes ongoing in Azerbaijan,
cooperation between the Council of Europe and Azerbaijan, have
emphasized confidence that the problem connected to prisoners will be
shortly resolved.
–Boundary_(ID_r8nzB2ppjUJE6S18G3SylA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Camiel EURLINGS (EPP-ED, NL)
Report on the 2004 regular report and the recommendation of the
European Commission on Turkey’s progress towards accession
(COM(2004)0656 – C6-0148/2004 – 2004/2182(INI))
Doc.: A6-0063/2004
;OBJID’678&LEVEL=3&MODE=SIP&NAV=X&LSTDOC=N
Procedure : Own initiative
Debate : 13.12.2004
Vote : 15.12.2004
Vote
The EU should begin accession negotiations with Turkey “without undue
delay”. Two days before a decision by the European Council, MEPs
adopted a resolution saying that Turkey has made impressive progress
in respecting the political criteria, enough for negotiations on EU
membership to start. The resolution was adopted by 407 votes in
favour, 262 against and 29 abstentions in a secret ballot (under rule
162 of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure).
Nevertheless, Parliament acknowledged that problems continue to exist,
such as regarding minority rights, religious freedoms, trade union
rights, women’s rights, the role of the army, Cyprus and the relations
with Armenia. Therefore it stressed that, in the first phase of
negotiations, priority should be given to the full application of the
political criteria. In case of serious breaches of the political
criteria, negotiations must be suspended. MEPs also underlined that
starting negotiations will not automatically result in Turkey’s
accession and that appropriate ways will have to be found “to ensure
that Turkey remains fully anchored in European structures”, should
negotiations not be successfully concluded.
MEPs were satisfied that Turkey had fulfilled a number of
recommendations and requirements included in earlier EP resolutions,
such as the abolition of the death penalty; the extension of
important fundamental rights and freedoms, reduction of the role of
the National Security Council and the lifting of the state of
emergency in the south-east. But they said that Turkey still had to
adopt further reforms and put these, as well as current reforms, into
practice. Thus it would have to lift all remaining restrictions on
broadcasting and education in minority languages; put an end to the
discrimination of religious minorities; completely eradicate torture;
draft a new constitution; lower the threshold of ten percent in
parliamentary elections; disband the village guard system in the
south-east; apply ILO standards for trade union rights; limit the
role of the army further; continue the process of reconciliation with
Armenia; and recognise the Republic of Cyprus. MEPs also mention ed
the eradication of violence against women, freedom of expression and
press freedom as issues they would monitor closely.
The Parliament also referred to earlier conclusions of EU government
leaders that “the Union’s capacity to absorb new members while
maintaining the momentum of European integration constitutes an
important criterion for accession, from the point of view both of the
Union and of candidates for accession”. And it noted that Turkey could
only become a member after the EU’s long-term budget planning for the
period from 2014 onwards has been decided upon.
Press enquiries:
Joëlle Fiss
(Strasbourg) tel.(33-3) 881 73656
(Brussels) tel.(32-2) 28 41075
e-mail : [email protected]
&
Marjory van den Broeke
(Strasbourg) tel.(33-3) 881 74337
(Brussels) tel.(32-2) 28 44304
e-mail : [email protected]
;L=EN&LEVEL=2&NAV=X&LSTDOC=N#SECTION1
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri leader visits central district, promises Karabakh settlement soon
ANS TV, Baku
11 Sep 04
[Presenter Qanira Atasova] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
today met refugees who had been displaced from their homes as a
result of Armenia’s aggression and had resettled in Barda [central
Azerbaijan]. The head of state is visiting Barda as part of his
regional tour. ANS correspondent in Barda Afat Telmanqizi has
more. Hello, Afat.
[Correspondent, on the telephone] Hello, Qanira.
[Presenter] Afat, what issues did the president mostly speak about?
[Correspondent] Qanira, today residents of the Turk Qizil Ay [Red
Crescent] camp welcomed Aliyev with slogans “Welcome to Karabakh” and
“Azerbaijan will never agree with the occupation of even an inch of
its territory”. Greeting the refugees, Aliyev said that the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem will be settled soon and that Karabakh will be
liberated from the occupation. He said: We have been trying to settle
this problem peacefully; but if this yields no results, the Azerbaijani
people will unite and liberate the lands from the occupation by force
[end of quote]. He once again said that there will be no compromises
on Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Azerbaijan is able to liberate
its lands as patriotic spirit is high, the mobilization [indistinct]
and our economic potential allows this.
Then Aliyev attended an opening of the Zarifa Aliyeva secondary
school. He was shown around the classrooms. Here Aliyev expressed his
dissatisfaction with the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group mediating
in the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. Aliyev promised
to Barda residents that he was firm to fulfil his promise to settle
the Karabakh problem soon. The president is currently attending an
opening of a swimming pool.
[Presenter] Thank you, Afat.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_________________________________________ ____________________
RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly
Vol. 4, No. 35, 10 September 2004
A Weekly Review of News and Analysis of Russian Domestic Politics
************************************************************
HEADLINES:
* ORGANIZING SPONTANEITY
* THE KREMLIN’S REACTION: STAY THE COURSE
* THE KREMLIN AFTER BESLAN
************************************************************
KREMLIN/WHITE HOUSE
ORGANIZING SPONTANEITY
By Julie A. Corwin
If the “Kursk” submarine disaster of August 2000 caused a
short-term dip in President Vladimir Putin’s popularity, it’s
not difficult to imagine that the trio of terrorists acts in the past
three weeks might also erode — if only temporarily — the 70
percent-plus approval ratings of Russia’s commander in chief.
After all, Putin came to power promising to “rub out” Chechen
terrorists in the outhouse. Now, he — rather than they — appears to
be on the run.
Although Putin’s popularity may suffer, it’s not
clear that any other politician or party will benefit. The response
to the events from Russia’s weakened political parties has
largely been confined to the issuing of public statements. It was the
Kremlin and regional authorities, after all, and not the political
opposition, who organized the nationwide “protest” against terrorism
held on 7 September. Writing in “Izvestiya” the same day, commentator
Aleksandr Arkhangelskii noted that while formally the trade unions
organized the gathering of more than 100,000 people in central Moscow
to express support of the people of Beslan, it was “understood” that
they were simply stand-ins for the authorities.
Similarly in other cities, regional youth organizations were
nominally listed as the organizers for protests, when in fact it was
regional officials who were arranging the events, frequently by
resorting to “traditional organizational methods,” “Nezavisimaya
gazeta” reported on 8 September. And, if “Vedomosti’s” reporting
on 8 September is correct, deputy presidential-administration head
Vladislav Surkov deserves the real credit, since he reportedly
orchestrated the series of antiterrorist rallies on the
president’s orders. Surkov is widely credited for overseeing
Unified Russia’s victory in the December 2003 State Duma
election.
Writing in “Izvestiya,” Arkhangelskii asked, “Why does our
opposition prefer to tearfully complain about the Kremlin, but does
not summon the people even when they would follow?” He continued,
“Yes, the authorities would not allow meetings with antigovernment
slogans…[but] what if [we] were simply silent, standing shoulder to
shoulder, elbow to elbow, demonstrating to ourselves and to our hated
enemy and that [we] are not afraid? And, afterwards having revived
their trust and rallied potential voters, the opposition could
organize an antigovernment meeting under less dramatic
circumstances.”
Arkhangelskii answers his own question by pointing to the
personal shortcomings of individual liberal politicians. While those
may be contributing factors, another possibility is that the law on
public demonstrations and street rallies is already having its
intended effect. According to the new law, relevant authorities must
be notified no more than 15 days and no less than 10 days before an
event, which means that the organizers of the 7 September rally
against terrorism should have applied for permission sometime between
22 and 27 August — before the seizure of the school in Beslan even
began, “Kommersant-Daily” noted on 8 September. However,
mayoral-administration officials denied that any regulations had been
violated in order for the event to be held, and Moscow trade-union
leader Mikhail Nagaitsev told the daily that the meeting was
originally going to be held just to commemorate the 25 August
collision of the two airplanes that resulted in 90 deaths. However,
the Club for Heroes of the Soviet Union, which was another one of the
formal organizers of the event, told the daily that it learned of the
meeting only on 6 September.
The political opposition not only lacks the assurance that
legal officials will look the other way when it comes to completing
the necessary paperwork on time to hold a demonstration, they also
lack the “administrative resources” necessary to ensure a good
turnout. According to gazeta.ru on 7 September, railway workers,
medical-establishment employees, and students at higher educational
institutions were all “tasked” with attending the 7 September protest
against terror. According to “Kommersant-Daily” on 8 September, the
police helpfully rearranged protesters so that persons bearing the
same signs wouldn’t be standing next to one another.
The irony is that all the arm-twisting and heavy-handed
organizing may not have been completely necessary. “Vedomosti”
reported that some people came to the rally in Moscow simply because
they couldn’t stay home and watch TV. And “Nezavisimaya gazeta”
noted that many residents of St. Petersburg of their own accord
burned candles in their windows in memory of the victims of Beslan.
At the demonstration, everyone cried, even men, especially when two
large screens showed fresh news from Beslan.
Pollsters will soon measure how and whether Putin’s
popularity has been affected by Beslan. A longer-lasting effect of
the recent wave of terrorism than a movement up or down in
Putin’s approval rating may be a further expansion of the state
on the pretext of preventing new terrorist acts. Sverdlovsk Governor
Eduard Rossel, a recent convert to the cause of the Unified Russia
party, suggested at a press conference in Yekaterinburg on 6
September that like Americans, Russians are ready to give up part of
their rights for greater safety, “Novyi region” reported on 6
September. Rossel said: “We are ready to limit our rights in the name
of the security of our children. Today we say: less political
intrigues, more security. Society is ready to grant the president
additional powers in the struggle against terrorism.” And with
additional powers and an even stronger state, President Putin may
find public opinion less and less relevant.
WAR ON TERROR
THE KREMLIN’S REACTION: STAY THE COURSE
By Robert Coalson
Nearly a week after the horrifying denouement of the hostage
crisis at a school in North Ossetia, the Russian government seems to
have formulated its response, a reaction that is characterized by
bolstering the mechanisms the administration of President Vladimir
Putin has installed over the last five years, rather than by any
perceptible change of course. Putin and other officials have,
predictably, ruled out any softening of the government’s policies
in Chechnya, going so far as to deny that there is any connection
between the situation in the breakaway republic and the Beslan
hostage crisis. “Just imagine that people who shoot children in the
back came to power anywhere on our planet,” Putin told Western
journalists and experts during a Kremlin meeting on 7 September,
Russian media reported. “Just ask yourself that and you will have no
more questions about our policy in Chechnya.”
He pledged that the Kremlin will proceed with its policy of
installing a new administration in Chechnya. “We will strengthen law
enforcement by staffing the police with Chechens and gradually
withdraw our troops to barracks, and leave as small a contingent
there as we feel necessary, just like the United States does in
California and Texas,” Putin said. On 9 September, the government
announced a $10 million reward for Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov
and for radical field commander Shamil Basaev, formally assigning the
two men equal culpability for the Beslan events and seeming to
destroy any remaining hope that the government might choose to
consider Maskhadov an acceptable partner in the search for a
political solution in the republic.
Having ruled out a change of course in this area, the Putin
administration has focused on containing the public and political
reaction to the events, which have been widely viewed as a failure of
the administration in the very area — security — that it came to
power promising to prioritize. The administration cannot help but be
stung by comparisons between the latest series of terrorist attacks
— in which well over 400 people have been killed, including the 90
who died when two civilian airliners were blown up on 24 August —
with the fall of 1999, when more than 200 people were killed in a
series of apartment-building bombings in several Russian cities and
Chechen militants launched a major incursion into neighboring
Daghestan. Putin was elected in large part because of his tough talk
in response to those events and widespread public insecurity.
Now, of course, the administration is doing everything it can
to make the claim that the latest incidents are not a continuation of
this violence, but the launching of a new war against Russia by
unspecified outside forces that are backed by other unspecified
outside forces. The administration so far has been more proactive in
responding to the potential for a political crisis created by the
Beslan events than in responding to that attack itself.
Measures have been taken to keep the public focused on the
tragedy of the events and on the need for ever greater unity, themes
that Putin stressed during his 4 September speech to the country.
“This is not a challenge to the president, parliament, or
government,” Putin said. “It is a challenge to all of Russia, to our
entire people.” He called on people to show their “responsibility as
citizens” and said Russia is stronger than the terrorists because of
“our sense of solidarity.” The wave of government-orchestrated public
demonstrations against terrorism in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other
cities was the most visible of these efforts, with the administration
marshalling its control of national television and of the
quasi-independent Federation of Trade Unions to bring out good
crowds. Only a few voices, such as that of Free Russia leader Irina
Khakamada, could be heard pointing out that a spontaneous
demonstration would have been more satisfying.
On the political level, the Kremlin-linked leftist
“opposition” party Motherland has called for the resignation of the
government in response to Beslan, a move that takes some of the
pressure off of Putin. If truly independent forces in the Duma such
as the Communist Party insist on forcing a discussion of the
terrorist attacks, Motherland and Unified Russia will easily be able
to make sure the spotlight remains on the cabinet and not on the
administration. Although such a turn of events is highly unlikely,
even the resignations of some cabinet members would not be perceived
as a personal defeat for Putin, since the current government has been
widely billed as a “technical government” intended to implement and
take the heat for painful reforms such as the recently adopted
social-benefits bill.
Perhaps the most telling example of how the government used
the tools at its disposal to protect itself is how deftly the
security forces were apparently able to deal with journalistic
threats to the regime, as opposed to their less-stellar protection of
civilians from terrorists. “Novaya gazeta” reporter Anna
Politkovskaya and RFE/RL correspondent Andrei Babitskii, both of whom
have long been considered by the Kremlin to be sympathetic to the
Chechen cause, were both intercepted well before they got anywhere
near Beslan and entirely prevented from reporting on the crisis.
Babitskii was arrested on trumped-up charges in a Moscow airport,
while Politkovskaya was apparently poisoned on a flight to
Rostov-na-Donu, spending the rest of the crisis in a local hospital.
In these cases, the security organs, the police, and the courts seem
to have worked in close coordination to prevent any damage to the
Kremlin’s image or version of reality.
The Kremlin’s response to Beslan is predictable, given
the instruments of management that it has strengthened and cultivated
over the past five years. Other instruments — independent political
parties, judiciary, mass media, and public organizations — might
have produced a significant change in political course, or perhaps
even a significant crisis of stability. Instead, the
administration’s control of the security organs, law enforcement,
the mass media, public debate, and the political process predetermine
that its focus will be on managing the perception of the crisis first
of all. And the more the foundations of that system are shaken by the
events, the more the administration will bolster its control over
those instruments, ensuring a policy that amounts to nothing more
than “more of the same.”
Of course, the security situation in Chechnya and the North
Caucasus in general will have to be addressed. But that response will
not take into consideration calls for a real political process there
to replace the sham of stage-managed referendums and elections and
the facade of local administrations that is fully controlled by the
Kremlin. It will not take into consideration calls for an end to
human rights violations by federal forces in Chechnya: when asked
about this during his 7 September meeting with Western journalists,
Putin compared them to the events at Iraq’s Abu Ghurayb prison,
saying, “In war there are ugly processes that have their own logic.”
It will not take into consideration the widely perceived need to root
out the corruption that has almost certainly played a role in every
major terrorist incident Russia has faced in recent years.
Instead, the Kremlin will most likely rely on its control of
society, of information, and of the political process to cover up an
intensification of the military policies it has pursued in Chechnya
for most of the post-Soviet period. The information blockade of the
republic will be redoubled and the seemingly endless “antiterrorism
operation” there will continue. But these policies are not without
their risks. “There is fear if no one knows the truth,” Khakamada
told “The Moscow Times” on 8 September. “If people don’t
understand, it makes it easier for terrorists to buy people off. If
we are slaves, it is easier for them to recruit. The more things are
pushed underground, the better it is for the terrorists.”
THE KREMLIN AFTER BESLAN
By Victor Yasmann
President Vladimir Putin on 4 September appeared in a
nationally televised address in the wake of the bloodiest terrorism
incident in modern Russian history. He linked the takeover of a
school in Beslan and the deaths of hundreds of schoolchildren,
parents, and teachers to a series of other terrorist incidents that
have rocked the country since 24 August, including the 24 August
downing of two jet airliners and the 31 August suicide bombing
outside a Moscow subway station. In all, more than 400 people were
killed in less than 10 days.
“What we are dealing with are not isolated acts intended to
frighten us, not isolated terrorist attacks,” Putin said, according
to the text posted on the presidential website
(). “What we are facing is the direct
intervention of international terrorism directed against Russia.” He
added that the entire country is now engaged in “a total, cruel, and
full-scale war.”
Putin admitted that the country has been victimized by
terrorism because of its weakness. “We showed ourselves to be weak,”
he said. “And the weak get beaten.” He went on to say that this
weakness was a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union — an event
about which Putin expressed some regret — as well as Russia’s
inadequate defenses and pervasive corruption in the justice and
law-enforcement systems.
Putin also made several far-reaching statements that seem to
be a notable departure from his general policy of deferring to the
West and speaking of the need for cooperation with the United States
in combating international terrorism. For the first time in several
years, Putin said that Russia faces threats “both from the east and
the west.” Without specifically mentioning Chechnya or his own
policies in the Caucasus, Putin seemed to place the blame for the
increased terrorist activity in Russia on unspecified outside forces
that are threatened by Russia’s nuclear-power status. “Some would
like to tear from us a juicy chunk,” Putin said. “Others help them.
They help, reasoning that Russia still remains one of the world’s
major nuclear powers, and as such still represents a threat to them.
And so they reason that this threat should be removed. Terrorism, of
course, is just an instrument to achieve these aims.” Because
Russia’s nuclear arsenal is targeted primarily at the United
States, Putin seemed to be referring directly to that country.
However, does this really reflect the way Putin thinks? As a
former intelligence officer and a well-informed political leader, he
knows that the West has little reason to worry that Russia’s
nuclear weapons would be used in the current international
environment. The West is concerned, of course, that Russia’s
nuclear arsenal could be a tempting target for international
terrorists who are actively striving to acquire weapons of mass
destruction. These concerns are increased by the weak and corrupt
law-enforcement system that Putin describes.
It would seem, then, that Putin’s statements about
external forces working against Russia through terrorists were
addressed to his domestic audience, in an effort to avoid political
responsibility for the failure of his policies in Chechnya and the
Caucasus. He also undoubtedly wishes to avoid forcing his beloved
state-security organs to be accountable for this stark failure to
protect Russian citizens. The externalization of culpability is often
a defense of those in weak positions.
Effective Politics Foundation head and Kremlin insider Gleb
Pavlovskii told RTR on 6 September that during the Beslan siege the
present political system demonstrated its uselessness because no
political parties or politicians raised their voices against “the
lies that overflowed the whole country.”
Another Kremlin insider, National Strategy Institute head
Stanislav Belkovskii, told RFE/RL on 7 September that the Kremlin
administration was seized by panic and dismay during the crisis, as
reflected by numerous conflicting statements from Russian officials
during this time.
The Beslan crisis has highlighted the failure of the
Kremlin’s policies in Chechnya, despite the concerted efforts of
the Kremlin to deflect such considerations. Belkovskii noted that the
Kremlin’s policy in the region relies on pro-Moscow figures like
Ingush President Murat Zyazikov and Chechen leader Alu Alkhanov,
figures who all but disappeared from public view during the crisis.
The country’s political parties — on both ends of the
political spectrum — have only slowly been aroused from their
lethargy and begun to criticize Putin’s claims of external forces
behind the wave of terror. In a statement posted on its website
() on 7 September, the Communist Party said, “The
roots of the tragedy can be found not in ‘international
terrorism,’ which is a convenient smokescreen for the drama, but
inside the country.”
The Communist Party statement called for the resignation of
the entire Russian leadership. “The Putin regime directs all its
efforts toward the struggle with the [political] opposition, the
suppression of the independent mass media, with producing the
‘required results’ in elections, and the construction of a
vertical of power that proved helpless during this crisis,” the
statement said. “Law enforcement has been transformed into an
instrument for carrying out the authorities’ political orders.”
Yabloko leader Grigorii Yavlinskii on 7 September also called
for the resignation of the heads of the security organs and for the
creation of an independent commission to investigate the terrorist
attacks, grani.ru reported. The Motherland party similarly called for
the resignation of the government and for disbanding the Duma, which
it dismissed as “a rubber stamp,” the website reported.
Clearly, as the period of mourning recedes, many Russians are
seeing the real face of the country’s leadership in a whole new
light.
POLITICAL CALENDAR
8 September: Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei will visit Russia
10-11 September: President Putin will visit Germany
12 September: Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov will
visit North Korea
13-14 September: Fourth annual meeting of the Russian Jewish Congress
14 September: British Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, will
visit Petrozavodsk
14-17 September: Third annual Baikal Economic Forum will take place
15 September: Summit of CIS presidents will take place in
Astana, Kazakhstan
15 September: Russia will play supervisory role at OPEC
meeting in Vienna
15-18 September: The third International Conference of Mayors
of World Cities will be held in Moscow
15 September: Supreme Court will render a final decision on
when to hold gubernatorial elections in Samara Oblast
20 September: The State Duma’s fall session will begin
20-23 September: South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun to visit
Russia
21 September: U.S. pianist Van Cliburn will perform a concert
in Moscow in memory of the victims of the Beslan tragedy
26 September: State Duma will consider draft 2005 budget in
its first reading
29 September: Auction for the government’s stake in LUKoil will be
held
October: President Putin will visit China
October: International forum of the Organization of the
Islamic Conference will be held in Moscow
1 October: Deadline for population to select a management
company to handle their pension monies, according to
“Kommersant-Daily” on 3 September
1 October: Date by which the government will decide whether
to sell a controlling stake in Aeroflot, according to Economic
Development and Trade Minister German Gref
7 October: President Putin’s birthday
10 October: Mayoral elections scheduled for Magadan
23-26 October: Second anniversary of the Moscow theater
hostage crisis
25 October: First anniversary of former Yukos head Mikhail
Khodorkovskii’s arrest at an airport in Novosibirsk
31 October: Presidential election in Ukraine
November: Gubernatorial election in Pskov and Kurgan oblasts
14 November: Mayoral election will take place in Blagoveshchensk
20 November: Sixth anniversary of the killing of State Duma
Deputy Galina Starovoitova
22 November: President Putin to visit Brazil
December: A draft law on toll roads will be submitted to the
government, according to the Federal Highways Agency’s
Construction Department on 6 April
December: Gubernatorial elections in Vladimir, Bryansk, Kamchatka,
Ulyanovsk, and Volgograd oblasts; Khabarovsk Krai; and
Ust-Ordynskii Autonomous Okrug
December: Presidential elections in Marii-El and Khakasia republics
5 December: By-elections for State Duma seats will be held in
two single-mandate districts in Ulyanovsk and Moscow
5 December: Gubernatorial election will be held in Astrakhan Oblast
29 December: State Duma’s fall session will come to a close
1 February 2005: Former President Boris Yeltsin’s 74th birthday
March 2005: Gubernatorial election in Saratov Oblast.
*********************************************************
Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
The “RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly” is prepared by Julie A. Corwin
on the basis of a variety of sources. It is distributed every
Wednesday.
Direct comments to Julie A. Corwin at [email protected].
For information on reprints, see:
Back issues are online at
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress