Author: Jagharian Tania

VARTAN OSKANIAN TO PAY AN OFFICIAL VISIT TO UKRAINE
ArmRadio.am
07.06.2006 17:38
June 19 RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian will pay an official
visit to Ukraine, Spokesman of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Vasily Filipchuk reported. In his words, talks and meeting
with Ukrainian top leadership are planned during the visit. A
number of urgent issues of bilateral cooperation are to be discussed,
specifically ways to expand trade and economic cooperation, interaction
within international organizations, as well as European integration. In
Filipchuk’s words, special attention during talks with Ukrainian
authorities will be paid to settlement of “frozen conflicts in the
South Caucasus,” reports Novosti-Ukraina.

FORTHCOMING TALKS MIGHT OFFER PROGRESS FOR ACHIEVEMENT FINAL PEACE BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA – AZERI STATE OFFICIAL
Author: R.Abdullayev
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
June 6 2006
The current situation in the talks in the resolution of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh continues
representing a pressure on Armenia. I hope the further talks will
provide a necessary base for progress in the direction of achievement
of final peace between the sides. Novruz Mammadov, the head of the
Foreign Relationships Department of the Azerbaijani President’s
Apparat told journalists on 6 June, Trend reports.
During the summit “The Black Sea Forum for Dialogue and Partnership”
in Bucharest the Azerbaijani president delivered a paper which
introduced detail information on the country’s achievements in the
economic and political spheres. The head of state also touched upon
a topic on the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Mammadov also noted that the talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian
President were held in large format with participation of the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs and Foreign Ministers, as well as in the forma
of tete-a-tete. “The meeting was held in two days: 3.5 hours on the
first day and over an hour on the second day.
The talks continued in tense conditions, he noted. The agreement
was achieved only on definite issues, while there does not exist
final conclusion.
The same time Mammadov said that though the concrete date of further
meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents is to still to be
defined, they are expected to be held till the end of 2006.

KARABAKH TALKS FRUITLESS OVER BAKU’S REFUSAL TO RECOGNIZE NKR RIGHT TO REFERENDUM
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.06.2006 13:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The talks on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
do not yield fruit since Azerbaijan refuses to recognize the right of
the NKR people to referendum, Vice-speaker of the Armenian parliament
Vahan Hovhannisian stated in Yerevan.
However, in his words, the world practice proves that exercising
the right to self-determination peoples express their will via
referendum. “The point is that Nagorno Karabakh was the first to do
it during the post soviet age, when the international community was
not ready for separation from metropolises. When independence was
proclaimed in Eastern Timor, Eritrea, Montenegro it was perceived
as a normal phenomenon. By the way, the same variant will be to all
appearance proposed to Kosovo,” Hovhannisian remarked.

“THERE IS NO REASON FOR THE RESIGNATION OF THE GOVERNMENT”
A1+
[08:30 pm] 05 June, 2006
RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan does not hurry to inform if Serge
Sargsyan’s will name will be included in the proportional list of
the Republican Party. “Time will come and you will know everything”,
he said during the briefing with the journalists.
In February and March of 2007 the Republican Party will decide the
proportional list of the party and will decide if the party will
participate in the elections together with the bloc or separately.
Andranik Margaryan claims that there have been no violations during
the elections and thinks that “In Armenia it is the people that
decide who will appear in the Parliament.” Asked the question why the
teachers of the republic join the Republican Party, in particular
the case recorded in Armavir region the Prime Minister answered,
“They join not only the Republican party. As for the case in Armavir,
I am aware of it. They do not correspond to the reality. I don’t
believe in the newspaper.” According to the Prime Minister, there is
nothing extraordinary about it. The process of joining the party is
continuous and this refers not only to the teachers but also to the
representatives of other professions.
By the way, the Prime Minister is convinced that there is no reason
for the resignation of the Government.
Asked the question if we can conclude from the strained relations
of the ARF and the Attorney General that there will be a new scandal
in the authorities Andranik Margaryan answered, “No. There have only
been separate cases. We will try to put everything in order”.

No Russian Officials At Black Sea Summit
BUCHAREST, Jun 4
The summit to launch the Black Sea Forum for Dialog and Partnership
Monday will be attended by the presidents of Romania, Ukraine,
Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Moldova and officials from
Lithuania, Turkey, Bulgaria and international organizations, but no
Russian officials.
The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release Sunday
containing a complete list of Summit participants. The list includes
no Russian officials.
Invited by Romanian president Traian Basescu, presidents of countries
from the Black Sea area or their representatives will attend the
summit: Robert Kocharian, president of Armenia; Ilham Aliyev,
president of Azerbaijan; Mikhail Saakashvili, president of Georgia;
Vladimir Voronin, president of the Republic of Moldova, and Viktor
Yushchenko, president of Ukraine.
The list also includes Ivailo Kalfin – deputy prime minister and
foreign affairs minister in Bulgaria, Dr. Besir Atalay – state
minister inTurkey, and Vironas Polydoras – public order minister in
Greece.
Among members of European and Euro-Atlantic communities and
international organizations to be present at the summit: Sergei
Ordzhonikidze, director-general of the UN Office in Geneva; Terry
Davis, secretary general of the Council of Europe; Marc Perrin de
Brichambaut, secretary general with OSCE; Brunson McKinley,
director-general of the International Organization for Migration;
Erhard Busek, Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South
Eastern Europe; Marek Belka, Executive Secretary of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe; Robert Simmons, Special Representative
for the Caucasus and Central Asia; Peter Semneby, EU Special
Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia.
This reunion is the first in a series of events meant to consolidate
the profile of the Black Sea area, to draw the international
community=80=99s attention to the importance of this region which
encompasses opportunities as well as challenges.
President Traian Basescu said on April 26, at the Forum of the
Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, or BSEC, marking
the end of the Romanian presidency of the organization, which is to be
taken over by the Russian Federation, that discussions among Black Sea
area states related to sensitive issues such as security, the fight
against organized crime and terrorism, could take place outside of an
institutional framework.
He added at the time that Romania would be an active partner in
solving problems in the Black Sea area.
At the beginning of June, official sources said Russia should attend
the summit, at least on a diplomatic level.
© Mediafax 2004. Toate drepturile rezervate.

Washington Post, DC
June 3 2006
The Roots of Rage
An angry reporter blames a region’s turmoil on local despots and
Western meddling.
Reviewed by Stephen Humphreys
Sunday, June 4, 2006; Page BW06
THE GREAT WAR FOR CIVILISATION
The Conquest of the Middle East
By Robert Fisk
Knopf. 1,107 pp. $40
This is first of all a book about war — in particular, the wars that
have scarred the Middle East, from Afghanistan to Algeria, throughout
the author’s long career as a correspondent for the London Times and
then the Independent. It switches back and forth across the 20th
century in a way that seems driven more by stream of consciousness
than by any linear design, and, as befits its topic, it is a book of
almost unremitting violence. The author presents himself both as
unflinching witness and implacable judge of the events he recounts,
for he believes that he is telling a story of unrelenting perfidy and
betrayal — in part a story of Middle Easterners being betrayed by
themselves and their leaders, but mostly one of the Middle East being
betrayed by the power, greed and arrogance of the West.
Fisk has thrown himself into the fiery pit time after time, often at
grave personal risk — Afghanistan at the beginning of the long
struggle against the Soviets, the bloodbath of the 1980s Iran-Iraq
War, the civil war in Algeria after 1991, the second Palestinian
intifada since the fall of 2000. When he is not personally in the
midst of conflict and destruction, he evokes them, as in his lengthy
discussion of the Armenian deportations and massacres of World War I
or (in a different register) his treatment of the shah of Iran’s
prisons and torture chambers.
However Fisk regards himself, he is at bottom a war correspondent,
and the fabric of his book is woven largely from his battlefield
reporting. Fisk’s writing on war is vivid, graphic, intense and very
personal. Readers will encounter no “collateral damage” here, only
homes destroyed and bodies torn to shreds. At times, as one horror is
heaped upon another, it all seems too much to absorb or bear.
That intensity is both the book’s great strength and one of its
principal weaknesses. After reading it, no one can hide from the
immense human costs of the decisions made by generals and
politicians, Middle Eastern or otherwise. But Fisk portrays the
Middle East as a place of such unrelieved violence that the reader
can hardly imagine that anyone has enjoyed a single ordinary day
there over the past quarter-century. That picture is a serious
distortion. Life in the region is far from easy, but in spite of
endemic anxiety and frustration, most Middle Easterners, most of the
time, are able to get on tolerably well. Fisk says little about more
abstract, less violent issues such as economic stagnation, the
complexities of political Islam or the status of women. This gap is
not a weakness in itself — Fisk is writing about different themes —
but readers need to be aware that, despite its staggering length,
this book is not The Complete Middle East.
It may well be The Complete Robert Fisk, however. It is full of
autobiographical reminiscences about the author’s troubled but
intense relationship with his father, Bill; indeed, that relationship
provides the book’s title. The elder Fisk had been awarded a campaign
medal for his service in France in 1918, and the medal (which he
bequeathed to his son) was inscribed with the motto “The Great War
for Civilisation.” The bitter irony of that motto is underscored by
another gift, this one from the author’s grandmother to his father —
a boy’s novel, Tom Graham, V.C. , which recounts the adventures of a
young British soldier in Afghanistan in the late 19th century. For
the author, both the medal and the novel symbolize the West’s
arrogant and destructive intrusion in the Middle East throughout the
last century.
If this is a book about war, it is equally a book about the hypocrisy
and indifference of those in power. Fisk is an angry man and more
than a little self-righteous. No national leader comes off with a
scrap of credit here; he regards the lot of them with contempt, if
not loathing. Among the men in charge — whether Arab, Iranian,
Turkish, Israeli, British or American — there are no heroes and
precious few honorable people doing their inadequate best in
difficult situations. Jimmy Carter is lucky to escape with
condescension, King Hussein of Jordan with a bit better than that.
Fisk is not fond of the media either (though he grants some
exceptions); CNN and the New York Times are particular targets of his
scorn for what he sees as their abject failure to challenge the lies,
distortions and cover-ups of U.S. policymakers. Only among ordinary
people, entangled in a web of forces beyond their control, does Fisk
find a human mixture of courage, cowardice, charity and cruelty.
Given the present state of things in the Middle East, one is tempted
to agree with him. The mendacity and bland pomposity of the suits and
talking heads, both Western and Middle Eastern, are infuriating to
anyone who has any direct knowledge of what is going on there. Again,
however, there is a problem: Fisk excoriates politicians for the
awful suffering they have imposed on the peoples of the Middle East,
but he never seriously asks why they make the decisions they do or
what real alternatives they might have. It is all very well to flog
Western and Middle Eastern leaders for their ignorance, moral
blindness, lust for power, etc. That might instill shame and guilt
(though it rarely does), but it provides no serious principles or
criteria that serious policymakers might use to develop something
better.
In short, The Great War for Civilisation is a book of unquestionable
importance, given Fisk’s unmatched experience of war and its impact
in the contemporary Middle East and his capacity to convey that
experience in concrete, passionate language. Still, novices will find
themselves both overwhelmed by the book’s exhaustive detail and hard
put to follow the author’s leaps across countries and decades. The
Great War for Civilisation is also a deeply troubling book; it may
well confirm the conviction of many that the Middle East is incurably
sunk in violence and depravity and that only a fool would imagine it
could ever be redeemed. As tragic as the last three decades have
been, there are different lessons to be learned — one must hope so,
at least. ·
Stephen Humphreys is a professor of Middle Eastern history and
Islamic studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and
the author of “Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a
Troubled Age.”

ANP (DUTCH PRESS AGENCY)
1 June 2006
Christian Union wants to make the denial of genocide punishable
THE HAGUE (ANP) – The denial of genocide, such as the Holocaust, must be
punishable. To this end the Christian Union (ChristenUnie) party has
submitted a bill to the Parliament. Anyone who intentionally denies a
genocide or a crime against humanity in order to insult others or incite
hate shall be accountable as having committed a crime which can carry a
maximum sentence of one year imprisonment, according to the draft law.
The presenter of the bill, Dutch MP Mrs. Tineke Huizinga, wants to have this
provision included in the Dutch Penal Code as a clear signal that such
denials would not be tolerated. The law should also make it easier to combat
discrimination on Internet, said Huizinga Thursday during the introducing of
her bill.
For the victims of genocides and their surviving relatives the intentional
denials of the committed evil or distorting of the facts are ³indigestible².
Huizinga named as an example, next to the persecution of the Jews during the
Second World War, the extent and dimensions of the slavery in which The
Netherlands has played a ³disgraceful² role.
In addition, the parliament member recalled the Genocide of the Armenians in
1915 during the Ottoman Empire, which is still being denied by the present
day Turkey and the Turks elsewhere. Huizinga and other members of the
Parliament have recently been bombarded by E-mails forwarded especially by
the Turks who oppose the Christian Union bill.
Huizinga emphasised that the bill does not seek to restrict the freedom of
speech. According to her, the historical facts should always be open to
discussion. The denial, approval or justification of genocide should
therefore be punishable when it concerns a deliberate expression to insult
and discriminate people.
The Federation of Armenian Organisations in The Netherlands called the bill
a step forward and is happy that the Armenian Genocide has been explicitly
mentioned in the Explanatory Memorandum of the bill. A representative of the
organisation, Mrs. Inge Drost, thinks that the adoption of the bill should
make it possible to close Internet sites which engage in the denial of
Armenian Genocide, such as seemingly innocent site www.armenië.nl
In a reaction, the National Bureau for Combating Race Discrimination and the
Israel Information and Documentation Centre, likewise announced their
support of the bill. The draft law should go first to the Council of State
for advice, following which the Parliament can start the proceedings on the
bill.

RA AMBASSADOR TO GEORGIA PAYS WORKING VISIT TO AJARIA
BATUMI, JUNE 2, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. RA Ambassador to
Georgia Hrach Silvanian paid a working visit to the Autonomous
Republic of Ajaria of Georgia on May 27-29. RA Ambassador had a
meeting on May 27 with acting Mayor of Batumi M.Beridze. The Mayor
mentioned that municipal authorities are more interested in developing
relations with Armenia in all directions. During the last two years,
positive and hopeful changes are noticed in Ajaria. The process of
privatization of municipal objects is actively being implemented, and
different investment programs are also implemented. As for Armenia,
the Mayor expressed sorrow that they had great expectations with
Armenian businessmen’s wide-spread investment and other activeness but
business involvement of Armenia is not yet satisfying in the municipal
market and there are still many free directions in the sphere of
tourism and service. However, the Mayor’s Office has great
expectations connected with Armenia what is provided by considerable
increase of the number of Armenian tourists visiting Batumi and other
cities of Ajaria. As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Foreign
Ministry’s Press and Information Department, the Ambassador had a
meeting on the same day with Prime Minister of Ajaria
L.Varshalomidze. The Prime Minister emphasized that Batumi and
Vanadzor were already sister-cities during the Soviet period, and
proposed to re-start again that healthy and useful tradition. But,
taking into account both present independent states’ status of the two
countries and special relations of the Autonomous Republic of Ajaria
with Armenia and Armenian citizens’ considerable stream to the region,
it would be pusposeful to establish a consular office in Batumi. The
Ambassador responded that he is completely of the same opinion
concerning that idea and supports the issue that may be discussed
during the coming official meeting. Varshalomidze emphasized Ajaria’s
interest in the direction of involving Armenian businessmen in the
inner market and affirmed its readiness to create beneficial
conditions for Armenian business. He fixed that there are already
examples of Armenian businessmen’s successful activity in Batumi,
mentioning opening of the “Armenia” restorant and ice-cream workshop
in the city. The sides came to the idea that it’s necessary to assist
widening and development of bilateral cooperation in any way, working
out new moduses of optimal and mutually beneficial contacts.
The Prime Minister emphasized that problems of the Armenian community
will always be in the center of his attention. The Ambassador’s
meeting with Armenian businessmen also took place on May 27. He called
on during the meeting to continue and even more activize their
activity in the republic. The Embassy delegation participated on the
same day in the celebration dedicated to the First Republic Day,
organized by the Armenian community. Ambassador’s meetings with
N.Mgeladze, the Rector of the Batumi State University and pupils and
teachers of Armenian schools of the city took place on may 29. After
those meetings, the Embassy delegation went to Kobuleti where it met
with T.Zoidze, the Deputy Region Gamgebeli (education department
head). Issues of establishment of sister-cities and possible
activization of Armenian business circles in the region were
discussed.

New Jersey Jewish Standard, NJ
June 2 2006
Course teaches lessons in genocide prevention

Josh Lipowsky

View all articles by Josh Lipowsky A group of scholars has been
dissecting the root-causes of genocide so that future violence
against whole peoples, like the current slaughter in the Sudan, might
be avoided.
In February, two professors and an activist incorporated the
International Academy for Genocide Prevention, building on a
graduate-level course at Columbia University’s Center for
International Conflict Resolution, the City College of New York, and
a slew of European universities.
The course, which will be taught for the third time in the spring of
2007, teaches students how to recognize genocide rather than
superficially studying genocides.
“The focus of our organization is to act before there’s violence,”
said Henry Huttenbach, a participating distinguished professor at the
CCNY and one of the IACGP founders and directors. “When there’s
[already] violence, you don’t prevent. The best you can do is stop,
and [then] it becomes too late.”
The academy was the brainchild of Huttenbach, Andrea Bartoli, the
director of Columbia’s Center for International Conflict Resolution,
and Wayne resident Eric Mayer, a social activist with a history of
championing human rights. While it is housed at Columbia, it is a
collaboration that goes beyond the campus. Mayer had been working on
the project for three years, meeting with high-level international
leaders, including Mikail Gorbachev, the former president of Poland,
and representatives of the Vatican. Then he met Bartoli and
Huttenbach. They designed the graduate course as a way to reach the
most people.
“The credit must go to Bartoli and Huttenbach,” said Mayer, a
Holocaust survivor. “It’s a way to repay a debt for the gentile
people who at the risk of their lives, saved mine during World War
II.”
But the Holocaust will not be the focus of the course or the
academy’s mission. Hitler’s rise to power and the Holocaust will
certainly be used as examples but within the context of
deconstructing how a genocide can occur.
“Hitler didn’t have the masses [in the beginning],” Mayer said. “He
started one at a time and then got the masses. The only vaccination
is education.”
In Germany, Mayer said, it became acceptable to be anti-Semitic. So
the first goal of the academy is “to immunize people against
prejudice.” People need to understand that there are other societies
with different views, cultures, and religions, Mayer said.
The next step will be to increase the interaction between people of
different backgrounds who can put aside their differences. This is
not to take away from ethnic pride, Mayer stressed, but to increase
pride in our common connection as human beings.
The course uses four genocides as its base: the Holocaust, the
Armenian genocide, Rwanda, and Cambodia. The more the students
understand the background, the better position they will be in to
prevent a crisis, Huttenbach said.
Bartoli likened genocide prevention to fire prevention. There did not
used to be fire brigades and fire prevention regimens, but these have
helped to save lives. He hopes the academy’s genocide education will
have the same effect.
In November, the academy will sponsor a symposium at Columbia for
state representatives and other government officials. Genocide,
Bartoli said, is not possible without “the collusion or the active
participation” of government, so the conference will aim to create an
effective collective response within government, and will feature
speakers from across the globe, including, Mayer hopes, the president
of Rwanda.
“We have to learn many lessons from the past,” Bartoli said. “It is,
unfortunately, way too easy for a relatively small number of people
to kill an extraordinarily large number of people. The possibility of
genocide increases when bystanders do not feel responsible for what
happens in the system.”
A German corporation, which Mayer would not identify, has also
approached the academy about teaching its course to the international
staffs of corporations.
“The seed of genocide is economic,” Mayer said. “It is very
significant because they’re willing to take the lead in this.”
Mayer recalled a memory from his boyhood in Germany. In 1937, his
father, who fought in the German cavalry in World War I, went to a
veterans meeting where he told his compatriots to get rid of “that
clown,” Hitler. Mayer’s father, who was arrested three times and
later killed in one of the camps, is the inspiration for his work in
teaching about genocide and the dangers of hate.
“It is important to [teach] rather than to build memorials,” he said.
“My father would be happy if [donors] spent money on teaching people
rather than putting up another stone.”
For more information on the academy, its class, or the upcoming
symposium, visit

eaches-lessons-in-genocide-prevention

TRAIN WITH ARMY PROPERTY LEAVES RUSSIAN BASE IN GEORGIA FOR ARMENIA
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
June 1, 2006 Thursday
Another train with army property from the Russian military base in
Georgia left for Armenia on Thursday, a spokesman for the base’s
command told Interfax-Military News Agency on the phone from Batumi.
“The train is carrying 45 vehicles,” he said.
The official said the destination was the Russian base in Gyumri.
“The first train left Batumi for Gyumri on May 25. It carried 54
units of military equipment, mainly logistical equipment,” he said.
A total of seven trains with military vehicles and other army property
will leave Batumi for Gyumri.
The headquarters of the Russian force in Transcaucasia told
Interfax-AVN on Thursday that the train that left Batumi was the fifth
this year to take out army property from Russian bases in Georgia.