Author: Hambardsumian Paul

Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc’s Washington Visit
View: Ali H. Aslan
Zaman, Turkey
June 3 2005
A visit by Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc to Washington,
before Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rendezvous with
President Bush next week, was first received with a little caution
among circles which consider the improvement of Turkish-American
relations important. We even heard rumors that Prime Minister Erdogan
and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul were not thrilled about
this visit. But worriers can be at ease, because Arinc’s engagements
last week were quite successful and contributed to the Washington
landing of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) administration,
which seems willing to renew the friendship with the US.
Before the visit, the question, “What kind of a welcome would the
Speaker of a Parliament that rejected the deployment motion get from
Washington?” was crossing the minds of many. First of all, Arinc
receiving an invitation from his American counterpart, House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, showed the determination of the American side to
focus on the dimensions of positive relations, from now on. Moreover,
without waiting for Arinc to defend the Turkish Parliament’s decision
against the motion, Hastert made a nice gesture by saying that
the differences of approach between the legislative and executive
bodies should be considered as normal in democracies. Another sign of
respect and goodwill was that Hastert, the No. 3 man in the official
US hierarchy, had a long meeting with Arinc that lasted for an hour.
These were not the only nice gestures. The real surprise came at the
White House. Vice President Richard Cheney took part in Arinc’s meeting
with National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. It is a tradition in the
White House for superiors to step into the room and say “welcome” as a
gesture and chat for a few minutes when valued guests are there. But,
as if this gesture was not enough, Cheney participated in the greater
part of the 45-minute talk.
>>From what Arinc told us at the press conference, we understand
there were no different topics of discussion on the agenda other
than what we already know and no progress was made on the disputed
issues. But high-level dialogues, especially if they are held in a
warm and constructive atmosphere, are generally useful. Hence, Turkish
diplomats, including Turkey’s Ambassador to Washington Faruk Lologlu,
all had smiling faces.
It was a very wise thing on the part of Arinc to have brought one of
the best simultaneous translators in Turkey along with him. Moreover,
his clear talk with a soft tone, decorated with cheerful jokes, left
a positive impression on even listeners who do not know Turkish.
Besides, straightforwardness and honesty are virtues even enemies
would appreciate. I hope, as a result of this performance by Arinc
in Washington, some circles that see or try to portray JDP leaders
as fundamentalist monsters have learned their lessons as well.
Surely, the content of a dialogue at least is as important as its
style. One of my American friends, whom I asked how he liked the speech
Arinc made at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
and the Q&A session, responded, “Not bad,” adding, “Looks like they got
the message particularly about the support for the democratic reforms
in the region.” Within the circles I am in contact with, Arinc’s
presentation was described as more successful than that of Foreign
Ministry Undersecretary Ambassador Ali Tuygan. A US administration
official told me that they very much appreciated Arinc choosing a
position in favor of the freedom of speech and thought, regarding
the controversial Armenian Conference at the Bogazici University.
So, why was there so much interest in Arinc in Washington? Is he
well liked? Or are American-Turkish relations, which were problematic
until yesterday, back on track? The answer to the questions above is
“No.” The Washington administration would have contradicted itself if
it had not shown the necessary respect to the Parliament Speaker of
Turkey, which is one of the most democratic states within the Islamic
world, when they have declared that they have launched a campaign
for freedom and democracy in the world and are pursuing an urgent
reform policy in our region. Moreover, the Grand National Assembly of
Turkey is an institution, which has proven its commitment to Turkey’s
European Union (EU) membership process, one of the most important
strategic goals of the US, by enacting a record number of reform bills.
Americans would like to open a new chapter in ties with Turkey by
leaving aside the deep disappointment and resentment as a result
of March 1 motion period, in which they could not match Ankara in
terms of administrative style or outcome, and the rhetoric from the
government’s and Parliament’s most authoritative mouthpieces, which
escalated the anti-Americanism among the public, in short, attitudes
they were not expecting from a friend and ally. They seem pleased with
the recent public statements from the government, which highlight the
importance of Turkish-American relations, Incirlik Base permission,
goodwill gestures like the Lockheed Martin bid and attempts to increase
dialogue. However, they think that there wasn’t enough time to narrate
these positive developments to prove continuity. In short, they have
the view that more time is needed for relations to fully recover.
In this context, Arinc’s visit was helpful. If the bilaterals of
the executive body also go well next week, and the will to hold
friendship and cooperation tight perseveres, we might look to the
future of Turkish-American relations with a little bit more hope…

JUSTICE MINISTRY OF ARMENIA CALLS CITIZENS FOR CAUTION AND WATCHFULNESS TO VARIOUS SUSPICIOUS PROPOSALS BY E-MAIL
YEREVAN, JUNE 2. ARMINFO. Justice Ministry of Armenia calls the
citizens for caution and watchfulness to various suspicious proposals
by e-mail.
The press-service of the ministry informs ARMINFO that the call was
necessitated by numerous complaints of the citizns that they receive
messages from foriegn commercial organziations and officers organizing
lotteries, on prizes or possible prizes if they pay a definite sum
beforehand. In the majority of cases, the proposals prove to be forgery
and the documents presented as proofs of prizes are often false. The
last case known to the ministry refer the lotteries NET SWEEP STAKES
LOTTERY and EL GORDO DE LA PRIMITIVA.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #101, 03/06/2005
Visit
COOPERATION WITH FOCUS ON ECONOMY
Traditions of Armenian-Georgian Relations Returning
“We want not only to preserve but also to cement all good traditions,
especially those traditions that CIS states enjoyed before gaining
independence. Every state is treating its political issues as Armenia and
Georgia do. Part of the CIS states is heading for European integration. We
think that we have many things in common to join Europe. I think that each
meeting is a step forward”, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian
evaluated the meeting of heads of CIS governments in Tbilisi.
Andranik Margarian met yesterday Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nugayideli
and parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze. The joint meeting of CIS government
leaders will take place today. Dozens of economic and political issues that
needed a closer look were discussed during the meetings with Georgia’s
leadership. Parliament speaker of Georgia was particularly happy with the
agreement of prime ministers on reformulating Georgia’s debt to Armenia.
Nino Burjanadze dwelt on as she said “the painful spot of Armenia: reopening
the Abkhaz railroad”. “There are many uncertainties, but we have changed our
approach. We used to think of settling the Abkhaz conflict first and then
consider reopening of the railway. Now we want simultaneously to reopen the
railway and to find solution to the Abkhaz conflict”.
The speaker was just back from Javakhk and named socio-economic problems of
the region with new enthusiasm. The first issue demanding urgent solution is
the issue of road network. Burjanadze also mentioned the absence of water
supply system in the region and said that they will try to solve the issue
at least in some areas of the region. Burjanadze emphasized that everything
that they will do for Javakhk is not in view of relations with Armenia but
because “Javakhk is our country and our homeland and we have to think of
social condition of the locals”.
The speaker thinks that the hubbub over Armenian cultural monuments is
puffed up saying that “despite separate sad facts, that is likely to be a
provocation of forces that are displeased with Georgian-Armenian peaceful
relations”. Nino Burjanadze did not say what “forces” she meant, saying that
she leaves it for journalists’ analysis.
The important achievement of Armenian Prime Minister’s visit is that the
sides agreed on building Armenia-Georgia high-voltage electric power line
that requires $10 million. Thanks to it Georgia will get 1.5 times more
electricity. Georgian minister of energetics will head a delegation to
Armenia in near future to discuss the matter. The electric power line is
scheduled to be exploited by the end of the current year.
Georgia shows signs of being interested in construction of Armenia-Iran gas
pipeline. But its unlikely that Georgia can join the project at the moment
as the first stage is set to satisfy Armenia’s inner demand. “Today it’s not
economically beneficent for us to build a pipeline with a greater diameter.
This line is supposed to serve ‘Nairit’ and chemical plant of Vanadzor. But
we do not exclude that the second line may be built in future”, Armenian PM
answered to Georgian expectations.
As a result of Georgian visit, a special group will discuss the new
socio-economic project for Javakhk. Armenia will take part not only in
implementation but also preparation phase of the project. “This can be
considered a huge progress. Georgian side always talked about it but never
took practical steps. We’ll try to advance this year”. Andranik Margarian
promised.
The joint Armenian-Georgian group will work in Javakhk in July and August.
By Karine Danielian

Turkish Press
June 2 2005
PRESS SCAN
Milliyet:
“BLONDE BRIDE” IN EUROPE
The Time Magazine, one of the leading weekly news magazines,
distributed CDs of Turkish documentary about Turkish-Armenian relations
to its 494 thousand subscribers in Europe. The documentary “Blonde
Bride” was sponsored by the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO). The CDs
are prepared in Turkish, Russian, English, German, French, Spanish
and Arabic languages.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia wants OSCE to back democratic reforms – foreign minister
Mediamax news agency
2 Jun 05
Yerevan, 2 June: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan met
Christian Strohal, director of the OSCE Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in Yerevan today.
Oskanyan and Strohal exchanged views on Armenia’s efforts to promote
democratic processes and protect human rights, Mediamax learnt from
the Foreign Ministry press service today.
Oskanyan expressed his confidence that the ODIHR would support
democratic reforms in Armenia, including “the establishment of a
democratic atmosphere in the region as a whole”.

PACE to consider report on ‘political prisoners’ in June
Baku, June 1, AssA-Irada
A report by rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan Malcolm
Bruce has been included in the agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) June session.
Member of the Azerbaijani delegation at PACE, MP Aydin Mirzazada,
says Azerbaijan is discontent with some provisions of the report, in
particular, the demand for immediate release of Elchin Amiraslanov,
Arif Kazimov and Farhad Poladov, who are responsible for grave crimes,
he said.
“The Council of Europe is open for discussions and the Azerbaijani
delegation will convince their colleagues at PACE that it is
impossible to free these individuals, as they pose a threat to
society,” Mirzazada added.*

Armenia year in Russia to promote cooperation of two countries
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 31, 2005 Tuesday 3:00 PM Eastern Time
YEREVAN, May 31 — The holding of the Year of Russia in Armenia
this year and of the Year of Armenia in Russia next year will be of
much importance for the development of Russo-Armenian cooperation,
Ovik Abramyan, the Armenian minister for territorial management,
said at the meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, the chief of the Russian
president’s administration, here on Tuesday. They head the organizing
committees of their countries to prepare the functions in the framework
of these events.
It was arranged that the Armenian side would present within a fortnight
its proposals for the holding of the Year of Armenia in Russia. The
functions will be held not only in Moscow and other large cities,
but also in many Russian regions.
Abramyan commended high standards of the recent guest performances
in Armenia of the State Art Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre and of
the Itar-Tass photo exhibition devoted to the 60th anniversary of the
Great Victory. Medvedev, in his turn, thanked the Armenian government
for assistance to functions in the framework of the Year of Russia
in Armenia and the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Victory.

BAKU AND ASTANA PLAY IT SAFE IN CASPIAN OIL BATTLE
By Marat Yermukanov
Jamestown Foundation
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
May 31 2005
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Until Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev made a landmark
trip to Baku on May 25, marking Kazakhstan’s decisive move towards
joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project, bilateral relations
between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan had shown few signs of progress.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev visited Kazakhstan in March 2004,
a meeting that produced a joint statement on friendly relations
and strategic partnership directed at safeguarding stability in the
Caspian region and rooting out terrorist organizations that could
undermine the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. At that time, Nazarbayev went out of his
way to pledge Astana’s readiness to mediate Azerbaijani-Armenian talks
on Karabakh. Armenian President Robert Kocharian reacted angrily to
this indiscreet remark, stating, “Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be a part
of Azerbaijan” (Kontinent, March 30, 2004).
Although Nazarbayev’s arrival for the BTC launch was generally welcomed
by project participants as a positive sign, Kazakhstan has not signed
the requisite intergovernmental agreement with Azerbaijan specifying
conditions for transporting Kazakh oil through the BTC pipeline. In
his talks with Aliev, Nazarbayev stressed the priority of economic
interests in bilateral relations and sidestepped the thorny issues of
terrorism and separatism. Nazarbayev had good reason to be sure that
the talks would be productive. Oil experts estimate that Azerbaijan
alone cannot provide enough oil to operate the BTC pipeline at its
full capacity of 50 million tons of oil. In the future, the total
annual oil output of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan could reach 220 tons,
but not before Kazakhstan starts commercial development of the Kashagan
oil deposits in 2008 (Delovaya nedelya, May 26).
One of the reasons Kazakhstan was reluctant to climb on the BTC
bandwagon until the last moment was believed to be the high costs of
pumping oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. On his recent
visit to Astana and subsequent trip to Baku, Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili removed that hurdle by convincing BTC shareholders to lower
transportation tariffs for Kazakhstan to $3.30 per barrel. But even
this moderately low tariff is less attractive than the transportation
costs charged by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which
Astana currently uses to ship the bulk of the oil produced by the
Tengiz-Chevroil joint venture. The fact that the BTC pipeline passes
through volatile regions in the North Caucasus and eastern Turkey
makes the prospect of using that route even grimmer for Kazakhstan.
Astana’s hesitancy about joining the BTC project for so long seems
to be primarily the political uncertainty of the route. Even after
the hearty handshaking with BTC shareholders at the Azeri Sangachal
oil terminal, Nazarbayev has left his options open for backtracking
regarding the current route, as well as the maritime route to Iran,
Azerbaijan, and Russia as an alternative to highly politicized BTC
route. Nor has Kazakhstan ruled out, despite all political risks it
may entail, the construction of a pipeline to Iran via Turkmenistan.
The Iranian option would be incomparably cheaper than the BTC
pipeline, which demands up to $3 billion to build oil transportation
infrastructure in western Kazakhstan. Astana will have to pour millions
of dollars into the projected 700-kilometer pipeline that is to
link oil producing Atyrau (western Kazakhstan) with Atyrau seaport,
from where the oil will be delivered to Sangachal oil terminal in
Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan depends on Russia for oil tankers, as creating
its own shipbuilding industry is not economically feasible for this
landlocked country. Astana needs only five high-capacity tankers to
service the Atyrau-Sangachal oil transport route. All these economic
and political factors may force Kazakhstan to make a hard choice
between competing powers (Novoye Pokolenie, May 27).
In recent months Russia, in its drive to raise the annual capacity of
the CPC to 67 million tons, has incessantly pressured Kazakhstan to
increase the amount of oil pumped through the CPC pipeline. To achieve
that target Russia is planning to build ten additional oil refineries.
Notably, just a few weeks before Nazarbayev’s departure for Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov, a man known for his close
personal links to Russian energy oligarchs, unexpectedly announced
at a cabinet meeting that recent talks with Moscow on increasing the
amount of Kazakh oil through the CPC pipeline had led nowhere, and
therefore Kazakhstan would have to look for other routes. Although
he did not specify the BTC, it was clear that Tbilisi and Baku had
some role in that change of heart.
However, Azerbaijan also finds it difficult to cut the cord with
Russia, as it currently lets 5 million tons of its oil flow through
the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline via Russia. In his remarks at the
opening ceremony for the BTC project, President Aliev said that the
doors to the BTC pipeline were open for everyone, including Russia
(Panorama, May 27).
Not surprisingly, these words resonated with the often-emphasized
multi-vector oil policy of President Nazarbayev, who was the only
one in Baku to stress the importance of diversified export routes
for the Caspian region’s hydrocarbons.
It is still too early to determine how oil cooperation between
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan will be shaped in the future. But they share
at least one common interest: the search for a safe course ahead of
the impending battle for oil.

A1plus
| 15:37:14 | 27-05-2005 | Social |
FIRE EARLY IN THE MORNING
Today at about 6:50 a.m. there has been a fire in the fair in the Yerevan
Firdusi street.
As we learned from the information center attached to the RA Government,
because of the fire a wagon filled with clothes has burnt completely. 6
fire-fighting cars arrived at the place of incident and put out the fire at
about 7:15 a.m.
The reasons of the fire are being cleared out. There have been no victims.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse
May 27 2005
Turkish PM tries to defuse crisis over halting Armenia conference

27/05/2005 AFP
ISTANBUL, May 27 (AFP) – 23h07 – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Friday tried to defuse a crisis over squelching a debate
on the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire which has
provoked concern in the EU.
A landmark conference questioning the official line on the mass
killings that had been due to open Wednesday at Istanbul’s
prestigious Bogazici University was postponed after Justice Minister
Cemil Cicek accused the participants of “treason.”
Cicek condemned the initiative as “a stab in the back of the Turkish
nation” and said the organizers of the conference of Turkish
academics and intellectuals who dispute Ankara’s version of the
1915-1917 massacres deserved to be prosecuted.
The minister’s intervention sparked concern within the EU, which is
due to open membership talks with Ankara later this year, about
Turkey’s commitment to democratic norms.
Erdogan tried Friday to distance his government from Cicek’s
statements.
“Cemil Cicek is the spokesman of our government. He made a statement
but not a statement of the government, it was a personal statement,”
Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
The killings, one of the most controversial episodes in Ottoman
history, is rarely discussed in schools and the aborted conference
would have been the first by Turkish personalities to question the
official stand on the events.
Several countries have recognized the massacres as genocide — a term
Turkey fiercely rejects — and Brussels has urged Ankara to face its
past and expand freedom of speech.
The incident follows a brutal police clampdown on a women’s
demonstration in Istanbul in March, which also raised tensions
between the European Union and Turkey.