Author: George Mamian

Armenian premier, World Bank delegation discuss poverty reduction plan
Arminfo
6 Apr 05
Yerevan, 6 April: Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan today
received a World Bank delegation led by the head of the Yerevan office
of the bank, Roger Robinson.
The meeting discussed the implementation of the second stage of the
World Bank’s credit programme on poverty reduction, the Armenian
government’s press service told Arminfo news agency. Having expressed
his satisfaction with the rate of economic growth in Armenia, Robinson
said it is important to lay foundations to maintain it.
Within the framework of the second stage of the programme, Robinson
said it is necessary to reform the system of corporate governance and
to create favourable conditions for developing the private sector of
the economy. Other members of the delegation presented their research
and recommendations on certain reforms in some other spheres of
the economy.
In turn, Markaryan said cooperation between the Armenian government
and the World Bank is very important and that he was ready to go on
developing and expanding it.
[Passage omitted: Background on the poverty reduction programme]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Police Have Become Politicized
By Fatih Altayli
Anatolian Times, Turkey
Published: 4/4/2005
Source: Hurriyet
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Hurriyet reporter Fatih
Altayli at the hotel in Kizilcahamam where AKP is having a retreat
this week. In the conversation, Erdogan had this to say about the
recent breakdown in public order and service: “Politics have entered
into the police force. The police have become politicized. There are
information leaks.”
(Hurriyet) “Public order is breaking down more and more every
day. There is a security problem. Purse snatchings, muggings, these
sort of incidents are increasing. Is the police force not taking
these things seriously, and does the government plan to do anything
about these things?”
(Erdogan) “At the base of it all is poverty. Actually, recent police
operations have had a serious effect on breaking down some of this
disorder…..one thing is clear, and that is that migration (to
Istanbul) is a factor in all of this. The other thing is that the
police force personnel is not growing. When I was mayor of Istanbul,
the force numbered 32,000, but now it is down at 27,000. For this
reason I say let’s add university graduates to the force….Let me
also add this: the police have become politicized.”
(Hurriyet) What does that mean? In order to wear you down, some people
are using the police? Would this be your political foes?
(Erdogan) Well, there are information leaks. We learn some things
from the press before the police have even processed them. But there
are some things that must remain silent.
Armenian Genocide and the American Congress
(Hurriyet) The Armenian issue is heating up again inside Turkey. The
American Congress has announced that it is gathering the 90 signatures
necessary to bring the genocide bill before Congress. What is being
done about this in Turkey?
(Erdogan) We have begun with the British. We have spoken with
the opposition leaders in this country, and they are being very
understanding. We are breaking down the accusations made in the
Blue Book….which is completely a tool for propaganda. Armenian
cargo planes can land and fly from Turkey, including Istanbul. The
Culture Ministry is restoring the Armenian Church located on the Van
Lake Island. It seems that while the Armenians living in Armenia are
approaching relations with Turkey this positively, the Armenians living
outside Armenia are fighting against it. They have taken the idea of
migration and told the whole world that it’s genocide. Migration is
one thing, genocide is another.
(Hurriyet) Well, will the bill pass in the American Congress? If I’m
not wrong, US presidents have in the past prevented it twice. Will
Bush do the same thing?
(Erdogan) I have absolute trust in him. Because he is very sensitive
on this issue. I believe he will take the right steps at the right
time. Anyway, we are making a point to have our groups make contact
with US groups at the appropriate times.
“He is Also Uncomfortable With the Way Things Are Going”
(Hurriyet) How are relations with the US going? It seems that everyday
some other problem happens.
(Erdogan) I speak with Bush myself about this matter. He is also
uncomfortable with the way things are going. He has asked me what
I think we should do to get over this crisis. We talked, and have
decided communicate at the highest level. When there is a problem,
the two of us will speak directly.
(Hurriyet) Turkey is being attacked even in cartoons in the US. Is
there perhaps a communications problem between the two countries?
(Erdogan) Well, if it has to be admitted, yes. The Foreign Ministry
is focusing on this right now. And so are we. But we need the support
of citizens and the press on this matter.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CONSIDERATION OF DRAFT RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN BUNDESTAG POSTPONED
01.04.2005 03:49
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Faction of Social Democrats and Greens submitted to
the Bundestag the proposal to postpone the consideration of the draft
resolution on the Armenian Genocide Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reports.
The coalition of Social Democrats and Greens did not wish to worsen
relations with Turkey on the threshold of Gerhard Schroder’s visit to
Ankara.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Thousands Mark Easter Sunday in Jerusalem
By KRISTEN STEVENS
The Associated Press
03/27/05 16:33 EST
JERUSALEM (AP) – Thousands of Christians from around the world gathered
at Jerusalem holy sites to celebrate Easter Sunday, marking the day
with prayer and hymns.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic
official in the Holy Land, celebrated Mass at the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher, built over the skull-shaped rocky mount believed to be
the place where Jesus was crucified.
More than 20 Armenian priests cloaked in black gowns and head dress
followed Sabbah into the candlelit church singing the Lord’s Prayer.
The Catholic priest emerged from the Sepulcher with a flame and lit
worshippers’ candles, which gradually illuminated the painted dome
ceiling erected in the Crusader era.
The Easter services underlined one of Christianity’s doctrinal
differences: Roman Catholics believe Jesus Christ was buried in the
Holy Sepulcher, while many Protestant denominations believe he was
buried in the nearby Garden Tomb.
The recent calm in Israeli-Palestinian fighting has attracted many
more foreign pilgrims to Jerusalem this year for the Holy Week than
in recent years. But the numbers were still lower than the several
thousand who used to come before the outbreak of violence in September
2000.
Karen Abel, 39, a secretary from Eclectic, Ala., was among the
Protestants gathered at sunrise to mark the day at the site of the
Garden Tomb. She said she did not hesitate to make her first trip to
the Holy Land.
“Christ died here for our sins,” she said. “I feel mighty protected
by that.”
Bix Baker, 53, and his wife Becky, 51, came from Minnesota to spend
the Easter holiday with their daughter, who does consulting work for
city officials in Ramallah.
Sitting inside Christianity’s holiest church with his wife and
daughter, the high school science teacher said his students told him
he was crazy to travel to Israel.
“We weren’t afraid to come,” Baker said. “Things seem to be different
now, but we would have come anyway because this is where our daughter
lives.”
Catholics arriving in missionary groups from Spain and France said
they included the ailing Pope in their prayers Sunday.
As part of ongoing efforts to ease travel restraints on the
Palestinian population, the army announced Sunday that as many as
8,200 Palestinians from the West Bank and 250 from Gaza would be
granted daily permits into either Jerusalem or Nazareth during the
Easter celebration.
However, with this year’s celebrations coinciding with the Jewish
Festival of Purim, the Israeli military imposed general travel
restrictions on Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza from Wednesday
through Sunday, steering many Christians away from requesting
permission to travel to Jerusalem.
In Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, hundreds of worshippers prayed
and lit candles. A few Palestinians inside the church called for
the resignation of Patriarch Irineos I, the highest Greek Orthodox
cleric in the Holy Land, to protest alleged property deals the Greek
Orthodox church has made with Jewish groups trying to expand their
hold on Palestinian neighborhoods in the disputed city.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Prof. Dadrian to Lecture at Columbia University on Comparative
Perspective of Genocides
The Armenian Center at Columbia University
P.O.Box 4042
Grand Central Station
NY, NY, 10163-4042
Contact: Bedross Der Matossian
E-mail: [email protected]
The Middle East Institute of Columbia University & The Armenian
Center at Columbia University
Present
On the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
~SThe Two Major Genocides of the Twentieth Century: A Comparative
Perspective of the Armenian and the Jewish Cases~T
By
Vahakn N. Dadrian
(Director of Genocide Research, Zoryan Institute)
Chair: Mark Mazower
(Columbia University, History Department)
Wednesday 13th of April 7:30pm
501 Schermerhorn Hall
VAHAKN, N. DADRIAN is the leading scholar on the subject of the
Armenian Genocide. He is the author of the distinguished work The
History of the Armenian Genocide, referred to by Steven Katz as ~Sa
monumental parallel to Raul Hilberg~Rs master work~T. In his over
thirty years of research he has published numerous studies and
several volumes on genocide in English, German, Armenian, Turkish
and French. From 1970-to 1991 he was a Professor of Sociology at
the State University of New York . He was then appointed the
Director of Genocide Studies Project supported by H.F.Guggenheim
Foundation. Currently Dadrian is the Director of Genocide Research
at the Zoryan Institute.
MARK MAZOWER is Professor of history at Columbia University. He
specializes in modern Greece, 20th century Europe, and
international history. The Nazi New Order in Europe and its
aftermath (social, cultural, psychological), Nation-states and
minorities. His books include Inside Hitler’s Greece: The
Experience of Occupation, 1941-44 (Yale UP, 1993); The Balkans
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2000); Salonica, City of Ghosts:
Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950 (HarperCollins, 2004).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

‘Mein Kampf’ becomes a bestseller in Turkey
THE JERUSALEM POST
March 18, 2005
New paperback versions of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” have suddenly
become bestsellers in Turkey, raising questions about whether the sales
reflect growing anti-Semitism and anti-American sentiment in this Muslim
country, or if it’s just curiosity and a cheap read.
The books were printed without the permission of the Finance Ministry of
the German state of Bavaria, which handles the book’s copyright. The
ministry said Friday that it had asked Germany’s federal Foreign
Ministry to instruct diplomats in Turkey to investigate possible
lawsuits in an attempt to prevent the continued publication of the books.
Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf”, or “My Struggle,” in the 1920s, filling it
with anti-Semitic diatribes and his strategy for world domination.
Tens of thousands of copies of the book have sold in Turkey in recent
months since at least two cheap paperback versions were released.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Global Politician, NY
Ukraine: The Crouching Tiger
3/15/2005
By Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
Reading the Western media, one would think that Ukraine’s main products are
grotesquely corrupt politicians, grey hued, drab, and polluted cities, and
mysteriously deceased investigative journalists and erstwhile state
functionaries.
When another journalist was found dead in Odessa on New Year’s Eve 2002,
both the Prosecutor General and the Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee for
Fighting Organized Crime and Corruption have accused the entire Ukrainian
Cabinet of Ministers of collusion in shady dealings with Kazakhoil, the
Kazakh national oil monopoly.
The “Orange Revolution” in October-November 2004 the disorderly, though
popular, transfer of power from one group within the “Dniepropetrovsk
family”, headed by Leonid Kuchma and his henchman to another faction, headed
by the volatile and incompatible Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Timoshenko led
to more deaths in unexplained circumstances.
Both Yushchenko and Timoshenko had served in senior positions (as prime
minister, for instance) in the ancien regime and, therefore, may have
skeletons in their cupboards. The spate of “suicides” committed by former
and knowledgeable functionaries came as no surprise – both parties, outgoing
and incoming, have a vested interest in suppressing embarrassing
revelations.
>From December 2001 onwards, the Legsi (the Lehman Brothers Eurasia Group
Stability Index) kept warning against a deterioration in Ukraine’s social
stability, owing to fiercely resisted austerity measures.
Until recently, things were not auspicious on the international front as
well. During the Balkan hostilities between Macedonians and Albanians in
2001, Ukraine supplied Macedonia with attack helicopters and other weaponry
over the strident objections of the State Department. Its strategy of ever
closer union with Russia and China was in ruins following the sudden shift
in Putin’s geopolitical predilections after the September 11 attacks. And to
spite the EU (which forced Poland to impose strict controls on its porous
border with Ukraine) – “starting from 1 January 2002, Kyrgyz citizens, like
the citizens of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,
may enter, leave and pass through Ukraine without visas” as the Kyiv based
UNIAN news agency jubilantly announced on January 4th, 2002.
Its parliament having failed to pass a government sponsored law against the
unlicensed production of CD ROM’s (piracy) – the Ukraine was subjected on
January 2, 2002 to much postponed US imposed stiff trade sanctions
(estimated to cost it $500 million per year). The employees of Ukraine’s
largest CD maker, Rostock Records, demonstrated opposite the US embassy
against the sanctions, denouncing them as “economic terrorism”. The
International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) countered by saying
that “Ukraine is the largest exporter of pirated CDs to Europe, with tens of
millions of high quality illegal copies shipped each year to markets
throughout Europe and as far away as South America.”
At any rate, following its blatant intervention in the political
machinations which led to the Orange Revolution in October-November 2004,
anti-American sentiments are running higher than usual in the eastern,
Russophile parts of the country.
Ukrainian discontent is further exacerbated by the American continued threat
to slap tariffs on steel imports despite a last minute agreement signed in
2001 with the EU and other major steel manufacturing countries to curb
worldwide production. Ukraine has agreed to cut its output by 11 million
tons annually (out of a total reduction of 97.5 million tons). Depressed
prices for gallium (used mainly in the recession-struck mobile phones
industry) have gravely affected Ukraine’s only alumina producer (Mykolaevsky
Hlynozyomny Zavod) which has just quintupled its capacity to 10 tons.
Ukraine is optimally located between Central Europe and Russia. It is the
largest polity in East Europe and the second largest country is Europe
(almost the size of Texas). It is rich in natural endowments, though
hopelessly polluted (Chernobyl is in the Ukraine) and deforested. In the
former USSR, it provided 25% of all agricultural produce. The Soviet mining
and oil industries relied on Ukrainian heavy industry for their equipment.
The literacy rate in Ukraine is 100% and many are polyglot.
Yet, these Ukrainian riches were squandered in the decade following
independence. Dependence on energy and a reform effort thwarted by
entrenched Communist era stalwarts led to a 60% drop in GDP compared to 1991
(the year of its independence). Frenetic money printing resulted in
hyperinflation in 1993. Inflation has still not been subdued and has topped
26% as late as 2000.
More than 50% of the population are under the official, starvation level,
poverty line. Though only 5.3% are registered as unemployed, both
underemployment and hidden unemployment are rampant. Mercurial and default
prone Russia is still Ukraine’s main trade partner (c. 30% of its
international trade). Each of Ukraine’s 49 million citizens owes $200 to
foreign creditors – the equivalent of 30% of GDP per capita. Public debt has
doubled to c. 50% of GDP in the four years to 2000. Worse still, Ukraine is
increasingly used as a drug smuggling route and drugs growing area for the
CIS. Synthetic drugs are manufactured in the Ukraine and smuggled to the
countries of Western Europe.
Ukraine is a major target for Russian investors, especially from the energy
sector. Putin appointed Victor Chernomyrdin, a political heavyweight – a
former Prime Minister and, more importantly, a former chairman of Gazprom,
the Russian energy behemoth – as Russia’s ambassador in Kyiv. Ukrainians are
not against Russian investment – but they are averse to the political
strings it comes attached to. They also resent the bargain basement prices
at which their most valued assets are “privatized” to these old-new
“foreign” investors. Inevitably, they ask themselves “cui bono” – who
benefits personally from these questionable transactions. The answer is not
too hard to guess – but guessing has proven to be a dangerous occupation. At
least one muck-raking journalist has been (literally) beheaded and a senior
politician (now prime minister in the new regime) jailed for trying to
reform the energy sector.
Inevitably, Ukraine is socially and politically strained. Its western parts
are fiercely nationalistic and West oriented. Its eastern parts lean more
towards Russia and are USSR-nostalgic. But this apparent schism is no bad
thing. It provides Ukrainians with a secure foothold in both worlds – and no
one seriously considers secession.
Unnoticed by many, Ukraine is undergoing a seismic shift which may result in
an economic revival of Chinese proportions.
When Viktor Yushchenko, the popular Prime Minister and darling of the West
was brutally ousted in May 2001 by the authoritarian President, Kuchma
(himself hailed as a daring reformer by the IMF when elected in 1994),
everyone predicted a calamity. Yet, Yushchenko moved since then to the
centre in what appears to be an implicit reconciliation with the president.
His replacement, Anatoly Kinakh, surprised everyone by proving to be an
efficient and modernizing technocrat. Ukrainian bonds returned to investors
more than 60% net in 2001-2, making them the best emerging markets
investment by far. Its capital markets are gradually being
internationalized. The much maligned Kuchma introduced a sweeping anti-money
laundering decree (later to become law). Ukraine (since its 1998-2000 series
of de facto defaults following the financial meltdown in Russia) is now a
model debtor. In August 2000 it has even re-paid the IMF $100 million.
Possibly emboldened by his re-election in 1999, Kuchma seemed to be making
real efforts to streamline the government (which anyhow consumes a mere 18%
of GDP), cut red tape, consolidate the government’s fiscal stance (Ukraine
had small budget deficits, excluding privatization receipts, in 1999-2001),
become a WTO member, and create a legal environment conducive to private
enterprise and entrepreneurship.
A new Land Code – passed by a surprising ad hoc parliamentary alliance and
providing for the (limited) private ownership of land – took effect on
January 2, 2002. Payment discipline in the critical energy sector was
enforced, the agriculture sector was revamped, non cash revenue offsets and
cronyist tax exemptions were entirely eliminated, government arrears
(including pensions) were substantially reduced (though new arrears have
again accumulated thereafter), a privatization law was finally introduced,
and municipal finance was rationalized.
The government’s contractionary fiscal rectitude (a new Budget Code was
enacted and tax collection improved) was balanced by the central bank’s
(NBU) expansionary monetary policy aimed at increasing its dangerously
dilapidated foreign exchange reserves (c. $2.4 billion in 2001) and spurring
growth in the real sector. Rising demand for money and the propitious
existence of a thriving informal (cash) economy prevented the resurgence of
inflationary pressures – though inflation has picked up in December 2001,
forcing the central bank to tighten in 2002 (it disputes the government’s
official figure of 6.1% inflation for 2001).
In 2000 the economy grew for the first time (by 6%). Growth was export
driven and industrial output increased by 13%. The global recession has hurt
Ukraine’s export prospects but even so, it grew by 4-5% in 2001. It
continued to expand by 2-4% each year in 2002-2004.
With a labour cost of 30 cents per hour, Ukraine attracts the interest of
manufacturers in the US, in Central Europe, and even in Russia. Strong
import growth may swing it back to a current account deficit (in a surplus
of c. 5% of GDP in 2001, as it has been in the previous 2 years). Fiscal
shenanigans ahead of the March 2002 and October 2004 elections (and the
horse trading which inevitably followed) had ratcheted up the predicted
inflation rate of 9-12% – but the appreciation of the hryvna is set to
continue.
The economy is surprisingly modern. Only 24% are employed in agriculture
(and they produce a mere 12% of GDP). More than double that is produced by
industry (26% of GDP) and a whopping 62% of GDP is generated in services (in
which only 44% of the labour force are employed).
On December 2001, S&P upgraded Ukraine’s currency risk rating (both foreign
and domestic) to “B” with a “Stable” long term outlook. On the pro side, S&P
cited financial stability, partly the result of a rationalized and
rescheduled foreign debt structure. On the con side, it cited the usual
litany of corruption, weak legislature, problems with privatization and with
structural reform and malignant oligarchs. These flaws being noted, it did
upgrade Ukraine’s rating – as did Fitch, Moody’s and Japan’s Rating and
Investment Information Agency. The price of Ukraine’s (mainly dollar
denominated) Eurobonds appreciated dramatically on institutional buying
immediately following the announcement.
Ukraine’s image as bereft of Foreign Direct Investment is false. Moreover,
c. 80% of all FDI in Ukraine is Western – not Russian. USA investors compete
with Russian (cum “Cypriot”) investors – each holding 17% of the total stock
of FDI (c. $4.5 billion in early 2002).
Moreover, Ukraine is now in good standing with the IMF (after a difficult
2001 in which the IMF virtually suspended all communication with Ukraine due
to falsified data provided by the NBU). It has signed in 1998 a $2.6 billion
arrangement (of which $1.6 billion are used). Another tranche of c. $380
million was approved in September 2001. The IMF singled out the banking,
energy, and agriculture sectors as in need of continued, pervasive, reforms.
The World Bank has committed close to $3 billion (and disbursed $2.2
billion) to projects in Ukraine (mostly in the energy, mining, agriculture,
finance, and private sectors) since 1992. The latest Country Assistance
Strategy documents for Ukraine (2001-2003 and 2004-6) are unusual in that
they seek to circumvent the hopelessly venal and discredited administration
and work directly with the public, business, and NGO’s towards building a
civil society and its attendant institutions. “The strategy seeks to move
Ukraine closer to the European Union standards, fostering
environmentally-sustainable development” – says the Bank. though it hastens
to emphasize the success the government had in implementing its reforms.
As of June 2001, the EBRD (which has a mixed track record in Ukraine) has
approved 45 projects in Ukraine (34 of which in the private sector) worth
1.2 billion euro. This excludes the construction of a highly controversial
and politically inspired nuclear power plant.
Ukraine has gone so low in the world that its fortunes can only improve. It
is poised for a modest economic comeback as its mediating geographic
position between centre and east comes into play with EU enlargement. Kuchma
was eased out by the very oligarchs he nurtured. They now constitute an
element in a broad based coalition for reform. Having sated their appetite
for loot they now seek respectability and access to capital markets and
credits in the West. They want a functioning country and a larger cake.
Kuchma is a figurehead of a disfigured past. In the long run, a Putin style
robotic reformer is likely to succeed him. When it happens, Ukraine may yet
become the region’s first economic tiger.
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. is the author of Malignant Self Love – Narcissism
Revisited and After the Rain – How the West Lost the East. He served as a
columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb,
a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the
editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open
Directory and Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of
Macedonia. Sam Vaknin’s Web site is at
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian premier sacks deputy heads of state property department
Arminfo
11 Mar 05
Yerevan, 11 March: By the decision of Armenian Prime Minister
Andranik Markaryan, Pavel Edigaryan and Aram Davtyan were relieved
today of the post of deputy chiefs of the Armenian government
department for the management of state property, the press service of
the Armenian government has informed Arminfo new agency.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian president and IMF delegation discuss reforms
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
5 Mar 05
President Robert Kocharyan received a delegation of the International
Monetary Fund [IMF] on 5 March to discuss the implementation of the
IMF programmes in Armenia. The sides stressed the importance of
continued reform of the country’s tax and custom systems. They said
that new approaches and mechanisms should be adopted to improve these
systems and to make them more effective.
The IMF delegation expressed readiness to assist the Armenian
government in this process.
The IMF delegation submitted to the president a programme of actions,
which had been drafted by the IMF, to improve monitoring of the
banking system.
During the meeting President Kocharyan said that certain reforms are
being carried out in the mortgage and insurance systems, as well as
in the pension system.
[Video showed the meeting]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Karabakh leader names new deputy police chief
Arminfo, Yerevan
11 Feb 05
Stepanakert , 11 February: The president of the Nagornyy Karabakh
Republic [NKR], Arkadiy Gukasyan, has signed a decree appointing
Col Sergey Grigoryan to the post of deputy chief of the NKR Police,
the press service of the NKR president has told Arminfo news agency.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress