Author: Hakobian Adrine

Track II Diplomacy and the Prospects of Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation

CONFLICT PREVENTION AND RESOLUTION FORUM

School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
Johns Hopkins University
1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
February 1, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Since the early 1800s, the relationship between the Turkish and Armenian
people has been tragic, filled with hatred and conflict. Now, a
reconciliation commission has been working on opening a new era in the
relations between the two sides. The initiative is trying to bring
cooperation and communication between the governments of both countries.
This is an example from which to learn about the necessity of Track II
diplomacy and its contribution to conflict resolution. David L.
Phillips, who has recently written a book on Track II diplomacy and the
prospects of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, will be joined by Matt
Bryza to discuss this important topic.

Speakers:
David L. Phillips, Deputy Director of the Center for Prevention Action
at the Council on Foreign Relations
Matt Bryza, National Security Council Deputy Director of Europe and the
Caucasus

Location: Kenney Auditorium, Nitze Building
School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
Johns Hopkins University
1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC

Date: Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Time:
9:00 – 11:00 AM

Contact: Tali Chazan at 202-265-4300

Please note that there is no parking at SAIS, and the nearest Metro stop
is Dupont Circle.

You may view notes from our previous speakers on the Search for Common
Ground website at

*******************************************************************************************************

ABOUT THIS FORUM:

The Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum (CPRF) sponsors launched
this forum in 1999 as a platform for exploring innovative and
constructive methods of conflict prevention and resolution in the
international arena. Rather than a typical Washington debating or
briefing session, this forum seeks not only to inform its attendees
about various perspectives in a conflict, but also to contribute to
viable solutions to complex conflicts by providing a secure venue for
stakeholders from various disciplines to engage with each other in
cross-sector, or multi-track, problem-solving. As such, the Forum
insists on the basic ground-rules of non-attribution, mutual respect, no
interrupting, and no partisan grandstanding. The CPRF principals believe
that through this sustained policy focus on conflict prevention and
resolution, monitoring of events and trends in conflicted regions,
information exchange, and collective problem-solving, practitioners of
international relations working independently can combine their
strengths and minimize their weaknesses in resolving violent conflict.

CPRF Sponsors:
Center for Strategic and International Studies, Joseph Montville
Center for Preventive Action/Council on Foreign Relations, William Nash
Conflict Management Program/SAIS – Johns Hopkins University, I. William
Zartman
The Conflict Prevention Project/Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, Anita Sharma
Partners for Democratic Change, Raymond Shonholtz
Alliance for International Conflict Prevention & Resolution, William A.
Stuebner
Search for Common Ground, John Marks

PPFA LEADER CALLS KARABAKH AUTHORITIES WILD SEPARATISTS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 29. ARMINFO. “Wild separatist has nothing to do with
the rights of ethnic minorities,” the leader of the Party of People’s
Front of Azerbaijan Ali Kerimli said at the conference “Azerbaijan and
Europe: Enlarging Cooperation” in Stockholm Jan 26.

He said that when asked “how the Armenian community of Karabakh can
live within Azerbaijan if human rights are not respected in that
country.” Kermili also said that “Armenia’s occupation of Azeri
territories and its consequences” is one of the key obstacles to the
deepening of Azerbaijan’s relations with the EU.

Azerbaijani soldier killed by Armenian forces

Friday, January 28, 2005

FOREIGN

BAKU – The Associated Press

  An Azerbaijani soldier was killed on the cease-fire line separating
government troops from ethnic Armenian forces controlling the Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave and a swath of surrounding territory in the ex-Soviet republic, the Defense
Ministry said on Thursday.

  The military chief in the disputed enclave, meanwhile, said strengthened
defenses on the cease-fire line mean that any Azerbaijani attempt to take back
the territory will be thwarted and could prompt “successful counterattacks.”

  The latest death on the dividing line and the bellicose warning added to
tension that persists more than a decade after a 1994 cease-fire ended a
six-year war over Nagorno-Karabakh that killed 30,000 people and drove a million from
their homes.

  Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said ethnic Armenian forces opened fire near
the village of Shurabad shortly before midnight Wednesday, killing an
Azerbaijani soldier.

  Gunfire sporadically breaks out between the opposing forces, and the
dispute has raised fears of renewed war. International efforts have failed to
produce a settlement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which supports
Nagorno-Karabakh’s internationally unrecognized government.

  Also Wednesday, Nagorno-Karabakh defense chief Seiran Oganian said that
“large volume of construction work” done on the front line over the past year
would enable ethnic Armenian forces to “freely conduct trench fighting in the
case military action begins, turning aside all attempts by the enemy to move
forward.”

  “We are prepared … not just to defend ourselves but to conduct successful
counterstrikes,” Oganian said.

  Ethnic Armenian forces also control a large amount of adjacent territory,
including land that links the enclave with Armenia. Disputes over the
additional territory have been one of the factors preventing Armenia and Azerbaijan
from settling the conflict.

  International monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, which has been seeking to foster a settlement between Armenia and
Azerbaijan for a decade, are due to tour the ethnic Armenian-held territory in
the coming days.

  Oganian, who spoke at a news conference, said that Nagorno-Karabakh
authorities “cannot prohibit our citizens to farm in these territories.”

© 2004 Dogan Daily News Inc. | Rights and Permissions
turkishdailynews.com.tr:

News24, South Africa
Jan 28 2005

Friday, January 28
28/01/2005 07:12 – (SA)

Washington – Today is Friday, January 28, the 28th day of 2005. There
are 337 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1990 – Life in Azerbaijani capital of Baku returns to normal as
Armenian and Azerbaijani separatists withdraw from border regions.

1547 – England’s King Henry VIII dies and is succeeded by his
9-year-old son, Edward VI.

1596 – English navigator Sir Francis Drake dies off Panama’s coast
and is buried at sea.

1689 – Britain’s Parliament declares that James II has abdicated;
Germany’s Baron Melas devastates the Palatinate.

1846 – East India Company troops defeat Sikhs at Aliwal in India.

1871 – France surrenders in the Franco-Prussian War.

1885 – British relief force reaches Khartoum, and the Sudan is
evacuated.

1902 – The Carnegie Institute, a non-profit organisation to conduct
basic research and advanced education in biology, astronomy and earth
sciences is established in Washington, DC.

1909 – US control in Cuba is ended.

1912 – A lynch mob drags former President Gen Eloy Alfaro and his
lieutenants through the streets of Quito, Ecuador, and burn them to
death.

1915 – The USCoast Guard is created by an Act of Congress.

1916 – Louis D Brandeis is appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to
the Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.

1932 – Japanese troops occupy Shanghai in China.

1945 – First US truck convoy reopens Burma Road in World War 2.

1949 – UN Security Council adopts resolution to establish a
cease-fire in Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies.

1961 – Rwanda’s provisional government proclaims republic.

1962 – US unmanned spacecraft, Ranger III, fails to hit moon and
passes it at distance of 35 200km.

1964 – Riots break out in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia.

1980 – Six US diplomats who avoided being taken hostage at their
embassy in Tehran fly out of Iran with the help of Canadian
diplomats.

1983 – Labour group Solidarity’s underground leaders call on Poland’s
factory workers to prepare for nationwide general strike as “the only
way to break down the existing dictatorship.”

1986 – Space shuttle Challenger explodes moments after lift-off from
Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing all seven crew members.

1990 – Life in Azerbaijani capital of Baku returns to normal as
Armenian and Azerbaijani separatists withdraw from border regions.

1991 – Soviet troops seize and shut down two Lithuanian customs
posts.

1992 – Leadership of National Liberation Front, which won Algeria’s
independence and ruled for three decades, resigns.

1993 – France’s ambassador to Zaire is killed by a stray bullet as
soldiers riot and loot shops and foreigners’ homes in Kinshasa.

1994 – Three Italian journalists are killed by a mortar shell in
Mostar, Bosnia.

1995 – In the bloodiest day so far in Egypt’s Islamic insurgency,
police shoot to death 14 suspected militants, and extremists kill two
policemen and two civilians.

1996 – In Sarajevo, three British soldiers are killed when their
armoured personnel carrier hits a land mine and a Swedish soldier
dies when his vehicle slides off the road.

1997 – In Algiers, an assassin shoots and kills the leader of
Algeria’s largest labour union – a key presidential ally and an
opponent of the Islamic insurgency.

1998 – A judge in Poonamallee, India, convicts 26 conspirators linked
to Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the 1991 suicide
bombing assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and
orders all to be hanged.

1999 – India and Pakistan meet in their first cricket match in the
subcontinent in 12 years. Pakistan walks away with a 12-run victory
after a nail-biting finish.

2000 – A plane brings 19 sick and weak-looking adolescents home to
Uganda after months – or possibly years -of captivity under Ugandan
rebels based in southern Sudan. Some 5 000 children are believed to
have been kidnapped by the rebels over the past decade according to
Unicef.

2001 – A Ukrainian vessel sinks in the Black Sea, killing at least 14
people. Five were reported missing and 32 were rescued.

2002 – An Ecuadoran jetliner carrying 92 passengers crashes in the
Andes mountains in southern Colombia leaving no survivors; Afghan
troops and US special forces end a nearly two-month standoff in a
burning hospital with six al Qaida gunmen.

2003- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s right-wing Likud party
wins the parliamentary elections, soundly defeating the centre-left
Labour Party and extending Sharon’s leadership for another four-year
term. The Labour Party suffered its worst-ever defeat at the polls.

2004 – John Kerry overpowers Howard Dean to win New Hampshire’s
primary, scoring a second-straight campaign victory to establish
himself as the front-runner in the Democratic race that will decide
who will challenge George W Bush for the presidency in November.

USA CALL THE PRESIDENTS OF AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA TO TAKE MORE
CONSTRUCTIVE POSITION IN SETTLEMENT OF THE KARABAKH CONFLICT

BAKU, JANUARY 26. ARMINFO. “The OSCE Minsk group conducted large work
last year. The meetings of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia,
as well as several meetings of the Foreign Ministers of those
countries took place. It testifies effective activity of the Minsk
Group”, the U.S. Ambassador Reno Harnish told journalists today.

According to him, there are good opportunities to reach progress in
peaceful talks. And the Ambassador referred to the statements of the
president Ilham Aliyev at the session of Security Council early in
January of this year.

The Ambassador noted that the policy of the US concerning the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict was consequent. “We did not recognize
and will not recognize self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh republic. The
USA recognize territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. We welcome the
attempts of the sides to settle the conflict peacefully and we are
witnesses of some progress on the matter. I positively assess the role
of the USA in this question”, the American diplomat said.

The Ambassador noted that the Karabakh problem would be discussed at
the coming meeting of the presidents of USA and Russia. The role of
Russia in settlement of a number of conflicts, as well as the Karabakh
conflict is rrefutable. However, settlement of the conflict depends
not only on Russia and USA. “My government believes that the leaders
of Armenia and Azerbaijan should speed up the question on settlement
of the conflict. We call Russia to play positive role and we call the
presidents of the conflicting sides to demonstrate more constructive
position”, Harnish said.

The Gateway, University of Alberta, Canada
Jan 20 2005

Over-sensitivity is making it pretty goddamn tough to live in Canada

Josh Kjenner

I hate shoveling my sidewalk. Whether my roomies agree with me on
that issue or are just a bunch of lazy pieces of shit, I’m not
sure – either way, our walk seldom gets shoveled.

When I say seldom, I mean about once a year, when the tickets or
ticket threats start coming. Other than that, no way. In fact, right
now our walk is at the point where one would have to take an
approximately six-inch step from either neighbour’s concrete-exposed
perfection to have the privilege of standing on The Josh’s sidewalk.

I’ll be the first to agree that, like me, this is both ugly and
slothful. But the good people at City Hall and Canada Post have come
to the conclusion that this is also dangerous, and now I can get a
ticket for it.

This threat of a ticket is not based on logic or research or anything
like that; it’s predicated upon a crippling fear, likely of being
sued. The packed snow that makes up our front walk is about as slick
as my lonely, late-night-party-line-commercial-watching ass, but
that’s irrelevant – at some point in history, some asshole has
successfully sued a homeowner on the basis that said suer doesn’t
know how to goddamn walk, and now the rest of us are fucked.

This is why I had to sign a waiver to go roller skating the other
night, and why the insurance I’ve taken out on my ass has doubled in
cost, and why frigging Cram Dunk is probably thinking about forming a
risk management department. It’s ridiculous.

Also, it seems that if one has lived his or her life and successfully
avoided getting sued, he or she has likely pissed someone off in the
process. Pretty much every action that would have been viewed as
mildly controversial ten years ago will now cause some random,
marginalized group to react in `outrage.’

Take, for instance, the issues that arose when Conan O’Brien had a
few shows in Canada and Triumph the Insult Dog called the Québécois
`dull and obnoxious.’ Legions of people across Québec and Canada
alike reacted as if O’Brien had sodomized Lucien Bouchard on Saint
Jean Baptiste Day and wiped himself off with the Fleur-de-Lys. And
for what? An insult that wouldn’t elicit a response at a Mormon
Jesus-fish convention. Political correctness has become so overblown
in Canada that we are starting to lose sight of reasonability.

Although it seems by the randomness of this article that I likely
substituted a Vicaden/Wild Turkey colada for my porridge this
morning, I’m actually driving towards something here: Canada, because
of these trends, is becoming increasingly difficult to exist in. More
and more, we barely live; we basically just eat, breathe, shit, sleep
and occasionally masturbate while trying to avoid getting sued or
hurting someone’s feelings.

This drives me crazy. I want to go back to the `80s, when it was
still okay to paddle high-school freshman without getting the fuzz on
your tail, or make a joke about an Italian, or wear cut-off jean
shorts without making babies cry. I’m so sick of signing waivers and
paying insurance and tiptoeing around people who don’t share my exact
sex/ethnic/physical ability/sexual orientation/hair colour/blood type
composition that I could seriously just pack up and move to Armenia.

In fact, I just might do that. Frankly, the world deserves to see my
thighs covered only with six inches of frayed denim and a thin coat
of sweat.

Russian defence minister upbeat on army-media relations

ITAR-TASS news agency
18 Jan 05

Moscow, 19 January: Thanks to joint efforts of the army and
journalists “a new model of relations in the sphere of information,
built on the principles of utmost openness, mutual interest and
constructive partnership, is currently being formed”. Russian Defence
Minister Sergey Ivanov said this at a reception for military observers
in the Russian media, held on the occasion of the Russian Press Day.

According to him, this is demonstrated by the fact, that “in the past
year over 11,000 journalists have been accredited to work within the
forces”. Over 900 journalists from central media outlets had worked at
Defence Ministry facilities in the zones of conflict and peacekeeping
operations. Over 600 of those – in Chechnya, Abkhazia and south
Ossetia, over 160 in Tajikistan, over 100 in Armenia and 16 in Sierra
Leone.

Apart from that, Ivanov said, “opportunities for direct access to
members of administration, heads of services and directorates of the
Defence Ministry on a broad range of issues are successfully being
offered under the Press Club arrangements, during assignments to visit
the troops and on foreign trips, as well as at briefings and press
conferences”. Altogether over 15,000 articles on various aspects of
military organization and day-to-day life of the army and navy have
been published in the central press in 2004.

In Ivanov’s estimate, the Defence Ministry is doing its best for the
successful development of its relations with the media. In particular,
the Defence Ministry has created “new structures, aimed at closer
interaction with the media and the public”.

POSSIBILITY OF IRAN’S GETTING HOLD OF NUCLEAR WEAPON WORRIES
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, POLITICAL SCIENTIST SAYS

YEREVAN, January 17 (Noyan Tapan). If the statement of Iran’s Defence
Minister Ali Shahmani about the possibility of the mass production of
meduim-range ballistic missiles in Iran is not just blackmail attempts
and have a serious ground, this will undoubtedly lead to a more strict
US policy with respect to Iran. Stepan Grigorian, a political
scientist and a board member of the NGO “Armat” (“Root”), stated this
while commenting, during his interview to NT, on Iran’s Defence
Minister’s statement that the country can produce “Shahab” missiles
that, according to some experts, can reach as far as Israel or
Ameriacan military bases stationed in the Persian Gulf.

According to him, in this connection it is very important that George
Bush has been re-elected US President, that is, the new conception of
Greater Middle East will be realized. In particular it lies in that an
attempt will be made to establish democratic regimes in Iran and Syria
and thus an increasing US pressure on Iran and Syria is not ruled out.

According to S. Grigorian’s estimates, the possibilty of Iran’s
getting hold of nuclear weapon worries not only the US but also the
European Union and Russia. Despite a more tolerant attitude to nuclear
programs implementation in Iran, Russia, however, is not interested in
Iran’s possessing nuclear weapon.

“The international community understands very well what an ideologized
regime is – it is very dangerous. We should not forget Iran is an
ideologized state and as soon as it gets a nuclear weapon, it will use
it,” the political scientist stressed.

PRESS RELEASE
The Cristofori Foundation
Postbox 288
9206 Rogues Road
Casanova, Virginia, 20139-0288, USA
Tel: +1-540-788-3356
Fax: +1-540-788-3358
Contact: [email protected]
Web:

ANNOUNCEMENT — ALAN HOVHANESS MUSEUM PROJECT

Following the success of the 20th anniversary concert of Yerevan’s Alan
Hovhaness Chamber Orchestra (November 2004), there is an ambitious plan
to build an Alan Hovhaness Museum here in Yerevan, Armenia — land of
Hovhaness’s paternal ancestors. The city already has a magnificent
Khachaturian museum. Hovhaness himself bequeathed scores to the State
Museum of Literature and Art of Armenia when he visited us here in 1965.

In 1940 Hovhaness became organist at St. James Armenian Church in
Watertown, Massachusetts, and began to thoroughly assimilate the spirit
of Armenian liturgical music into his own works. Although this is well
known with regard to his 1940s `Armenian period’, this influence never
fully receded throughout the ensuing decades. The people of Yerevan have
identified with this music and, as the recent concert success showed,
revere him almost as one of their own.

This is a call to gather materials to send to Yerevan. The proposed
museum will need photos, letters, concert programmes, posters, newspaper
and magazine articles, CD recordings, LP recordings, concert recordings,
scores, transcriptions of radio programmes, reminiscences — in short,
anything and everything possible having to do with Hovhaness.

We welcome your comments, suggestions and questions.

In Armenia materials will be collected by myself, Alexan Zakyan, the
general manager of the “Alan Hovhaness” Chamber Orchestra and
president of “Manana” Public Beneficial Organization. Contact:

Alexan Zakyan
Co-ordinator, Hovhaness Museum Project
Halabian 11/34
375038
Yerevan,
Armenia

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel/Fax: + 374 1 39 54 67
Mobile: + 374 9 33 36 84

In the USA, materials will be collected by pianist and long-time
Hovhaness champion Martin Berkofsky. Contact:

Hovhaness Museum Project
The Cristofori Foundation
Postbox 288
9206 Rogues Road
Casanova, Virginia, 20139-0288, USA

E-mail: [email protected]_

Tel: +1-540-788-3356
Fax: +1-540-788-3358

Martin will pass materials to the Armenian Embassy in Washington to be
sent on to Yerevan by secure diplomatic post. As some may be aware,
Martin gave the first Armenian performance of Hovhaness’s ‘Lousadzak’ in
Yerevan in November 2004, as well as the world premiere of Hovhaness’s
Double Piano Concerto in Moscow earlier this year. He has been an
ambassador for Hovhaness for over 30 years, previously working with the
composer on the recordings of ‘Concerto No.10’, ‘Khaldis’ and ‘Saturn’.

In Europe, Marco Shirodkar will collect materials to be sent on to
Yerevan. Donations can be sent to:

Hovhaness Museum Project
Postbox 16134
London
Great Britain
N12 7WB
E-mail: [email protected]

Fax: +44-870-458-1640

Marco administers the Hovhaness website
which is where museum progress reports will
be posted.

Send whatever you (your local bookshop, library, college) might have to
spare — and spread the word to everyone possible about this momentous
project!

Thank you very much.

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 15 2005

ARMENIA-IRAN RELATIONS MARKED IN 2004 WITH START OF GAS PIPELINE
LAYING

YEREVAN, January 15 (RIA Novosti) – The main achievement of the
Armenian-Iranian relations in 2004 was the beginning of the
construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline’s Armenian section, as
well as the commissioning of the second high-voltage transmission
line “Agarak-Shinuair,” reads the final report of Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan for 2004 provided by the Armenian Foreign
Ministry information and press department.

The report notes that among the priority tasks of Armenia-Iran
relations in the sphere of the economy is the construction of the
Kajaran tunnel, a hydropower plant on the border river Araks, as well
as boosting cooperation in the field of alternative power industry.

In line with the report, intensive dialogue on further development of
political ties continued between Armenia and Iran in 2004. It is
noted that during the first official visit by Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami to Armenia in September 2004, the two countries’
heads discussed a wide range of issues relating to perspectives of
bilateral cooperation. After the two presidents’ meeting, an
agreement on the principles and fundamentals of cooperation between
Armenia and Iran was signed.