Author: Jalatian Sonya

TRANSDNESTR VOTERS BACK UNION WITH RUSSIA
By Nabi Abdullaev – Staff Writer
Gleb Garanich / Reuters

The Moscow Times
Tuesday, September 19, 2006. Issue 3500. Page 1.

Election official Pyotr Denisenko announcing the referendum results
Sunday.

The vast majority of voters in Moldova’s separatist province of
Transdnestr on Sunday backed independence and eventual unification
with Russia.

More than 97 percent of registered voters supported independence,
according to Transdnestr officials.

About 300,000 voters, or nearly 79 percent of those who are registered,
showed up at the polls.

Only Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia, which held its own
independence vote in 1999, has recognized the referendum.

Still, the vote was a victory for the Kremlin as it seeks to expand
its influence in the former Soviet republics.

"The referendum demonstrated that our society is united in its desire
to become part of Russia," said Svetlana Antonova, Transdnestr’s
deputy information minister. Antonova spoke by telephone from the
province’s capital of Tiraspol.

Officials in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau and at the European
Union dismissed the referendum. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
praised it, calling the vote "democratic and open."

Lavrov noted that hundreds of monitors from former Soviet republics
and Europe observed the referendum.

"They could watch the people’s will," he said.

But Lavrov’s ministry was reluctant to go too far, refraining from
officially acknowledging the controversial vote and commenting on
its results.

Russia earlier pledged to respect Moldova’s territorial integrity.

In Chisinau, meanwhile, Natalya Vishanu, a spokeswoman for Moldovan
President Vladimir Voronin, said in an interview: "We don’t consider
it a referendum, and we don’t accept its outcome."

The Moldovan government issued a statement Monday saying the referendum
sought to "torpedo" Moldovan unification talks and called on other
countries not to acknowledge the vote.

The European Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, the continent’s premier human-rights groups, and the EU
also refused to recognize the referendum.

None of this appears to be deterring Transdnestr leaders from taking
steps to integrate with Russia.

Transdnestr leader Igor Smirnov said Monday that the province’s
authorities would begin changing the legal code to make it conform
to Russian legislation. He said government bureaucracies would be
reconfigured in the image of Russian ministries and state agencies.

Transdnestr also wants the Russian ruble be the province’s only
official currency, Smirnov said.

The entire integration process is expected to take from five to seven
years, said Valery Litskai, the province’s foreign minister.

"If anyone thinks that Russia is going to acknowledge the referendum,
and that tomorrow everyone in Transdnestr will be granted Russian
citizenship, and Transdnestr will become an integral part of Russia,
I’d have to say this isn’t going to happen," Litskai said, Interfax
reported.

Transdnestr seceded from Moldova in 1990, as the Soviet Union was still
in the midst of collapsing. A short but bitter war ensued in 1992,
with hundreds killed on both sides. Transdnestr’s population is roughly
equally divided between ethnic Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians.

Like the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, bordered by Poland, Lithuania
and the Baltic Sea, Transdnestr, which is surrounded by Moldova and
Ukraine, would stand apart from the rest of Russia were it to become
part of the country.

Sunday’s vote strengthens Russia’s hand insofar as other unrecognized
states in the former Soviet Union are concerned, officials and
analysts from Russia and Transdnestr said. All those unrecognized
states, most of which are in the Caucasus, are Russia-leaning.

While Western governments have backed independence for Kosovo and
Montenegro, they have refused to recognize similar bids in Transdnestr;
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in Georgia; and the Nagorno-Karabakh
republic, claimed by Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected political analyst, said the Kremlin
would seek to leverage Western support for Kosovo’s independence into
Russian recognition of Transdnestr and South Ossetia.

Antonova, the Transdnestr deputy information minister, acknowledged
the referendum’s timing was meant to help Russia.

In recent years, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan have been drifting
out of Moscow’s orbit as they seek closer ties with the West.

"The results of the referendum were predictable, and although they
will not have any real legal consequences related to joining Russia,
nevertheless, this is a signal to the international community that
cannot be ignored," said Vadim Gustov, head of the Federation Council’s
Committee for CIS Affairs, Interfax reported.

Gustov’s colleagues in the Federation Council and the State Duma voiced
similar views. Duma Deputies Sergei Baburin and Viktor Alksnis went
so far as to propose that Russian authorities establish an official
process for eventually recognizing Transdnestr’s independence.

The bloc of former Soviet republics known as GUAM — Georgia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan and Moldova — last week managed to insert an item on the
United Nations General Assembly agenda dealing with the so-called
frozen conflicts in Georgia, Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Georgian diplomats who spearheaded the move called it a sign of
GUAM’s successful foreign policy, while Lavrov downplayed the inclusion
of the frozen conflicts on the General Assembly’s agenda. Lavrov
noted that 16 member-states voted for inclusion, 15 were against it,
and 65 abstained.

The General Assembly’s 61st session began last week and will run
until mid-September 2007. It was not immediately clear when the frozen
conflicts item would be dealt with by the General Assembly.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 12, 2006 Tuesday

OSCE OFFICE CONCERNED OVER CASES OF VIOLENCE AND INTIMIDATION AGAINST
JOURNALISTS IN ARMENIA

Yerevan September 12

The OSCE Office in Yerevan issued the following statement today:

"The OSCE Office in Yerevan is deeply concerned over recent incidents
of violence and intimidation against local journalists which have
obstructed their professional duties and infringed upon the freedom
of expression.

According to reports, on 6 September, the Editor-in-Chief of Iravunk
newspaper, Hovhannes Galajyan, was attacked and beaten by unknown men
outside his Yerevan home. On 12 July, freelance journalist Gagik
Shamshian, who works for Chorrord Ishkhanutiun and Aravot newspapers,
was threatened and abused.

The Office considers it extremely important for these cases to be
properly investigated and calls for the perpetrators to be punished
in full accordance with the law. Law- enforcement bodies are urged to
undertake prompt measures to ensure the safety of media professionals
in order to promote freedom of expression in the country.

The Office welcomes the statements by the Human Rights Defender
(Ombudsman), the President’s Press Secretary and civil society
organizations, who condemned these acts of violence against
journalists.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan will be closely following developments
related to these cases." The press-service of OSCE headquarters in
Vienna told ArmInfo.

ARMENIAN CAUCUS LARGEST EVER AT 163 MEMBERS

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
2006-09-14 15:24:00

According to the information DE FACTO got at the Armenian Assembly
of America, the Armenian Assembly today welcomed the news that the
Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues now boasts 163 Members with
the addition of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), making it the
largest Caucus to date in the 109th Congress.

"The Caucus plays an important role in helping to strengthen the
U.S.-Armenia relationship and we will continue our efforts to expand
the Caucus even further," said Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. "We
look forward to working with Representative DeLauro and her staff on
issues facing Armenia and Armenian-Americans."

DeLauro, who is currently serving her eighth term in office, has
co-sponsored legislation affirming the Armenian Genocide (H. Res. 316)
and has repeatedly signed congressional letters to the President
urging him to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide in his annual
April 24th statement. Additionally, DeLauro signed a congressional
letter in 2004, urging the President to publicly condemn the ongoing
Azerbaijani war rhetoric against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

DeLauro also supported the amendment that retained Section 907 of
the FREEDOM Support Act which imposes restrictions on assistance to
Azerbaijan until its government ceases all blockades against Armenia
and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian Caucus was formed in 1995 to provide a bipartisan forum
for legislators to discuss how the United States can better assist
the peoples of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. As a member of this
all-important body, DeLauro joins Connecticut Representatives Nancy L.
Johnson (R-CT), John B. Larson (D-CT), Robert R. Simmons (R-CT)
and Christopher Shays (R-CT) in supporting Armenian-American interests.

The Congresswoman serves on the House Appropriations Committee and
the House Budget Committee.

The Armenian Assembly is the largest Washington-based nationwide
organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian
issue. It is a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt membership organization.

THE CURSE OF RADICAL ISLAM AS A POLITICAL RELIGION

AINA
Assyrian International News Agency.
Posted GMT 9-13-2006 14:33:17

"Muslims must . . . educate their children to Jihad.

This is the greatest benefit of the situation: educating the children
to Jihad and to hatred of the Jews, the Christians, and the infidels;
educating the children to Jihad and to revival of the embers of Jihad
in their souls. This is what is needed now . . ." –Sheikh Muhammad
Saleh al-Munajjid, an imam in Saudi Arabia.

"Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not
disabled or incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of
[other] countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country
in the world . . ." –Ayatollah Khomeni (1902-1989), religious leader
of Iran

"The leader who needs religion to govern his people is weak . . . We
have to rid ourselves of superstition.

Anybody is free to believe in anything, but we need freedom of
thought." –Ataturk (1881-1938), founder of modern Turkey.

Some readers have told me that I do not write enough about the
political side of Islam, especially as it relates to the mixing of
religion and politics and to the fringe element of radical Islam which
is supportive of international terrorism. As a matter of fact, I have
written extensively on the question, but in French (see my 2001 book
"L’Heure juste"). Here, then, is my position on this topic.

All proselytist religions tend to mix politics and religion
because one of their objectives is to control how people think and
behave. On this score, I would say Islam ("submission" or "surrender"
in Arabic) doesn’t fare well, because it tends to institutionalize
a symbiosis between politics and religion. It is a religion that
tends theoretically to concentrate temporal and spiritual authority
in a single entity. Structurally, in Islam, the Caliph and the Sheik
are supposed to be the same person, wielding spiritual and political
powers over the people. Mind you, something approaching the same result
prevailed in Christianity after the 4th century, when the Church and
the Throne formed close alliances, the clergy confirming the power of
kings and emperors, and the rich and powerful aristocracy protecting
the equally rich and powerful religious hierarchy. It is only with
the advent of the Renaissance that Christian Europe began talking
about democracy as the most humanist form of government.

The more progressive and modern Muslim countries that have advanced
the most economically, socially and politically, such as Turkey,
Malaysia or Indonesia, are those that have rejected the unhealthy,
near complete mixing of religion and politics that is called for by
fundamentalist Islam. In other Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia
and Qatar, a more extreme brand of Islam prevails. This movement in
Sunni Islam, (the dominant form of Islam), is called Wannabism or
"Salafism," and it distinguishes itself by not only refusing Western
values and ideologies, such as nationalism, socialism and capitalism,
but also by rejecting the Western concepts of freedom, liberty,
economics, constitutions, political parties, revolution, social
justice and the very idea of a rationalist, secular culture. The other
minority branch of Islam, Shia Islam can also be considered extremist,
especially in contemporary Iran, in the sense that it reserves to the
clergy a dominant political role in an Islamic country. It is mainly
concentrated in Iran, although Shiites also live in Iraq, Lebanon,
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.

It can be argued that before Islam, which appeared in the early part of
the 7th Century, Arab civilization was more advanced and more peaceful
than after the imposition of the new faith through violence. It had
participated fully in the rich Greek, Assyrian, Persian, Chaldean and
Babylonian civilizations, to which we owe mathematical breakthroughs,
such as the concept of zero found in the Greek and Hindu decimal
systems and the Pythagorean Theorem in Babylonian mathematics.

Regarding Islamic respect for science, it has to be said that one
of Muhammad’s successors, the Caliph Omar of Damascus, distinguished
himself by having centuries-old literary treasures destroyed, besides
setting afire the large Egyptian library of Alexandria, a wonder
of the Ancient World. Caliph Omar is reported to have justified his
order to destroy the books in the library of Alexandria by saying that
"they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy,
or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous."

Since many religions have theologies that stress so-called divine
revelation over human reason, it is not surprising that religious
extremists can be opposed to human intellectual progress, especially
if such progress is perceived as a threat to their political power. Not
surprisingly also, such a bias against the human intellect and against
scientific achievements is bound to have a detrimental influence
on the economic, social and political development of countries that
embrace such an attitude. Indeed, the absence of intellectual freedom
and censorship are the two biggest enemies of human progress.

During the 9th and 10th centuries, Islamic civilization redeemed itself
somewhat by having many ancient scientific and philosophical tracts
translated from ancient languages, especially Greek, into Arabic.

It is these translations which were imported into Europe and which
played such a central role in bringing about the European Renaissance,
from which Western civilization still draws most of its inspiration.

Islam was born in war and grew the same way. From the time of Muhammad
(c. 570–632), in the 7th century, the means of Muslim expansion
was always the sword and military conquest. Islam, at least at the
beginning, was not a "religion of peace," to mimic the expression
used often by President George W. Bush. It was fundamentally a
military movement that used forced conversion to Islam to expand
its dominion. Muhammad began the first violent movement in Medina,
after a declaration of a Jihad against so-called ‘infidels’.

There, for example, the Jews who refused to convert to Islam were
driven from the land or beheaded.

Approximately 15 years later he marched on Mecca with an army of
about 20,000, and later against the Assyrians, the Armenians and the
Coptics in Egypt.

Those who converted to Islam were spared. Those who refused to convert
were beheaded. So much for a compassionate Islam.

It has been argued convincingly that the imposition of Islam upon
the Arabs was a regressive development.

With Islam, the Arab civilization lost much of the scientific
accomplishments and the tradition of intellectual vitality that it
had inherited from the Greek and Assyrian civilizations.

The fundamental question of the religious foundation of violence and
terrorism needs attention. It is the most pressing, because the world
is not going to tolerate very long being subjected to blackmail and
having its prosperity and freedom threatened this way.

It is no surprise that terrorist leaders use the mask of religion to
diabolize their enemies and to cloak their cruelties and atrocities
in a pious justification. The cover of religion to justify terrorism,
especially suicide terrorism, and the killing of innocent people
also has the advantage of making it easier to recruit so-called
martyrs and fanatics, if not utterly deranged people, who would not
be as easily mobilized for a purely political cause. That may be one
reason why today’s religious-based terrorism is more deadly than the
nationalist-based terrorism of 40 or 50 years ago.

Extremists in any religion can find passages in their ‘holy books’
that condone violence against others.

Suffice it to say that they overlook the book’s other teachings about
"peace," "justice," "kindness," "courtesy," and "compassion" toward
others, to concentrate on the admonitions which call for intolerance
and aggression against so-called "infidels."

Some religious ideologues can reinforce the violent tendencies of
the most exalted people by emphasizing the most violent religious
teachings. For instance, an Egyptian scholar, Sayied Qutb, argued
in the 1950s, in his book of Quranic interpretation, entitled
"Fe-zelal-al-Qur’an," that a state of permanent war is normal between
Muslims and non-Muslims, ignoring that the Qur’an (Koran) dictates
that its teachings be understood in full, not in bits and pieces
(Surah 20:114), as it relates mainly to individual morality, not to
politics. The religious-based Al Qaeda terrorist movement takes its
violent inspirations from such impractical subversive teachings. It
is part of the Jihadist ideology of hatred and destruction.

Faced with the threat of Islamist terrorism, the important task for
the rest of the world is to avoid antagonizing the moderate Muslims
who are largely in the majority in their countries. Both for reasons of
domestic support and for acceptance by the Muslim masses, governments
anxious to fight and contain international terrorism should, now more
than ever, retain the moral high ground and not be the aggressors. They
should reject the negative, misleading and self-fulfilling propaganda
rhetoric of "Islamo-Fascism," "war of civilizations" or even worse,
of "war of religions," and concentrate on concretely assisting Muslim
countries in acceding to modernity and prosperity, while supporting
their efforts in combating anti-modernity religious-based terrorism.

Therefore, to pursue a policy of openness, assistance and fairness
toward Muslim countries would seem to be the most just and the most
constructive approach, while simultaneously maintaining a firm attitude
against gratuitous international terrorism. Sad to say, this is not
the kind of rational and sophisticated policy being followed by the
current American administration, which seems bent on glorifying and
multiplying the most extremist Islamist organizations, while alienating
and silencing the most reform-minded people in the Muslim world.

On this score, the best thing the Bush-Cheney administration could
do in fighting international Islamist terrorism would be to announce
a phase out of its military occupation of Iraq, while persuading
its close ally, Israel, to end its own military occupation of
Palestine, and take concrete steps to solve once and for all the
rotten Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On the other hand, the worst thing the Bush-Cheney team could do would
be to start bombing Iran. The latter would be a most counter-productive
move and would feed both extremism and terrorism.

By Rodrigue Tremblay Online Journal Guest Writer

Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics at the University
of Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@ yahoo.com. He
is the author of the book ‘The New American Empire’. Visit his blog
site at

DEFENSE MINISTRY OF AZERBAIJAN DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT THERE MAY BE PROBLEMS WITH CONSCRIPTS
by Dzhasur Mamedov
Translated by Pavel Pushkin

Source: Voenno-Promyshlenny Kuryer, No. 34, September 06-12, 2006, p. 12
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 11, 2006 Monday

Drafting Police

CAN PROBLEMS IN DRAFTING CONSCRIPTS APPEAR IN AZERBAIJAN?; Many
observers did not pay attention to the events that happened last
month in Gyandzha.

Many observers did not pay attention to the events that happened last
month in Gyandzha; however, experts who studied the situation and
prospect of the armed forces of Azerbaijan seriously did not miss one
nuance. They took this event as a harbinger of a big threat expected
in the future. The matter is about work done in the Kyapaz District
with the persons evading the draft and use of police in solving of
this problem.

Ilgar Balakishiev, deputy director of the municipal police department,
reported that during the drafting campaign his subordinates visited
addresses of potential draftees and tried to bring them to the military
registration and enlistment offices. Samed Samedov, operational
officer on duty at the military registration and enlistment office
of Azerbaijan, confesses that in some regions of the country there
are cases of military service evasion but according to him there are
only a few of them.

For a country being in a state of war, study of the morale of the
conscripts is very important. Now it is believed that the wish of
an Azerbaijani soldier to fight for the Motherland is based not on
material but on moral values.

The events in Gyandzha shows that many people in Azerbaijan do not
perceive military service as necessary duty.

If the plans of buildup of the armed forces of Azerbaijan do not make
provisions for transition to contract service in the near future
the country may encounter a problem of conscript shortage. This
is a forecast of military expert Lieutenant Colonel of the reserve
Uzeir Dzhafarov. Dzhafarov states that there is already a problem of
shortage of conscripts in the country, "If the police joined solving
the problem it showed that symptoms of evasion did appear."

According to Dzhafarov, if the system of drafting and service in
the army is not changed the problem will only grow. The military
expert presumes that already now there are financial possibilities
for transition of the armed forces of Azerbaijan to the contract basis.

Dzhafarov remarks, "At present so many unnecessary expenditures are
financed under the pretext of military expenditures. If the allocated
money is spent sensibly it is possible to do a lot. In my opinion,
there is no need to preserve large military formations now. Instead of
one huge mechanized infantry brigade it is expedient to maintain one
mechanized infantry battalion on the contract basis. The coefficient
of efficiency of such a battalion is bigger than such coefficient of
a brigade and is possibly even bigger."

Major Ilgar Verdiev, officer of the press service of the Defense
Ministry, disagrees with this stance. Verdiev considers the events
in Gyandzha to be "ordinary." He says, "There the matter was about
students enlisted to the higher educational institutions bypassing
the state entrance exams done by the state commission. They evaded
service. The problem was finally solved." Verdiev does not share the
forecast about possible shortage of conscripts. According to him,
the army is manned with conscripts almost 100%. Answering the question
about transition to a contract army Verdiev said, "The parliament has
to amend military law. Only after that it is possible to do anything
for transition to contract service."

According to Lieutenant General Zakir Gasanov, commander of the
Interior Forces, "The armed forces should be manned on a mixed
basis." Gasanov proposes, "In the framework of capabilities of the
state crews of tanks, artillery crews and other specialists responsible
for combat operations can serve on a contract basis."

Gasanov explains that transition of the entire army to the contract
system of service is connected with big financial expenditures. The
general adds, "It is necessary to bear in mind the state of war with
Armenia because there is a need for annual increase of the number
of shooters."

Major General Tadzheddin Mekhtiev, former Defense Minister, sees
prospects of Azerbaijani armed forces not only in contract manning.

Mekhtiev says, "Yes, we need a strong army only for counteraction to
the neighbor. However, Azerbaijan should have such strong economy
to be able to maintain a professional army." Mekhtiev says that to
begin with "It is necessary to form one brigade. Afterwards it is
necessary to broaden it to a corps and to study the experience. It
is necessary to form a contract army on the competitive basis from
the former soldiers and sergeants."

As we see, there are many opinions. So far, it is clear only that
debates about a professional army will grow especially bitter when
the parliament starts debating amendments to the military laws of
the country.

YOUTH ORGANIZATION DEMANDS TO DEPRIVE OF CITIZENSHIP 10 AZERIS, WHO VISITED ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.09.2006 18:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Youth Organization of the Civic Solidarity
Party of Azerbaijan has issued a statement with a demand to deprive of
citizenship the Azeris, who spent their vacation in the camp of Gugark,
in the Lori region of Armenia. The statement says that chairman of the
Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Arzu
Abdullayeva, Niguar Abdullayeva, Rena Yuzbasheva, journalist Seymur
Mamedov and others (in total 10 people) should be declared parricides.

"We, the members of the Youth Organization, consider that having a rest
at the territory of a state that seized 20% of out land is nothing else
but treason. No circumstances can approve the Azeris, who went there.

We urge the state bodies to deprive them of the Azeri citizenship,"
the statement says, reported Day.az

To remind, the Helsinki Citizens’ Initiative organized a meeting of
Armenian and Azeri youth in the camp of Gugark. Young people from
Azerbaijan, Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh took part in the initiative
titled the Camp of Mutual Trust.

ARMENIA TO HAVE EU DEVELOPMENT LEVEL IN 17 YEARS, AEPLAC EXPERT SAYS

Panorama.am
17:03 06/09/06

"If we suppose that the averaged indicator of GDP growth in Armenia
makes up 12.2%, we can conclude that the country may reach the level
of development observed in European Union countries in 17 years,"
Artashes Shaboyan, expert of AEPLAC, said during a presentation on
"Economic development of Armenia – 2005."

In his words, real GDP in 2005 is higher by 1.8 times than the same
indicator in the year 2000. In absolute terms, it makes up 2.2 billion
Armenian drams. The expert forecasts further growth in GDP in the
coming years, too.

Shaboyan indicated that the construction ratio makes up 21.7% whereas
in 2001 this indicator was only 9.7%.

The AEPLAC expert says GDP mostly will account on construction and
agriculture in future.

KOCHARIAN HONORS U.S. ENVOY
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Sept 6 2006

President Robert Kocharian handed on Wednesday a prestigious state
award to John Evans during a farewell meeting with the outgoing U.S.
ambassador to Armenia.

Kocharian said, according to his office, that he decided to award
the Mkhitar Gosh Medal to Evans in recognition of the latter’s
"remarkable contribution to the development and strengthening of
Armenian-American friendly relations." The bilateral ties have made
"serious progress" and yielded "tangible results" during the retiring
diplomat’s two-year service in Armenia, the presidential press service
quoted him as saying.

Evans was cited as agreeing with Kocharian and singling out the U.S.
government’s decision earlier this year to provide $235.6 million
worth of economic assistance to Armenia under the Millennium Challenge
Account (MCA) program. He is apparently the first U.S. government
official awarded by the Armenian government.

The award appears to be a thinly veiled gesture of gratitude
for Evans’s public description of the 1915-1918 mass killings
and deportations of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide. "The
Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century," the
envoy had declared during a series of meetings in early 2005 with
Armenian-American activists in California.

The bombshell remarks contradicted a long-running U.S. government
policy of avoiding the use of the word genocide with regard to the
Armenian massacres. They are believed to have been instrumental in
the Bush administration’s decision, officially announced in May,
to replace Evans with another career diplomat. The normal diplomatic
term for U.S. ambassadors abroad is three years.

In an interview with RFE/RL last week, Evans refused to comment
on the controversy triggered by his recall, saying that it is an
internal U.S. affair. He indicated that he might speak up about it
in a future book.

PRESIDENT KOCHARYAN HAD A FAREWELL MEETING WITH US AMBASSADOR JOHN EVANS

ArmRadio.am
06.09.2006 15:44

President Robert Kocharyan had a farewell meeting with US Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary John Evans, who is completing his
two-year diplomatic mission in Armenia.

According to President’s decree of September 5 John Evans was
awarded Mkhitar Gosh medal for his considerable contribution to the
reinforcement and development of Armenia-US friendly relations.

Robert Kocharyan thanked the Ambassador for productive cooperation
and noted that a serious progress has been registered in Armenia-US
relations during the two years of his tenure in office. According to
the President, the scope of cooperation has considerably expanded.

Expressing confidence that the relations will continue developing with
the same effectiveness, Robert Kocharyan wished success to Ambassador
John Evans in his future activity.

In his turn, John Evans appreciated the two-year cooperation. Attaching
importance to the joint programs accomplished in a number of spheres,
he particularly emphasized the "Millennium Challenge" Armenia Program,
which opens broad perspectives for the development of the country.

During the meeting the parties turned to the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict, regional developments and security issues.

THIRD ALL ARMENIAN MEDIA FORUM TO BE HELD IN TSAGHKADZOR

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 05 2006

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The third
Armenia-Diaspora media forum will be held in Tsaghkadzor on September
15-17, 2006. The previous similar forums were held in Bratislava
and Tsaghkadzor.

Organizers of the forum are the World Armenian Congress (Moscow) as
well as Armenian Organizations of Europe Representation (Slovakia),
National Awareness Improvement Center (Los Angeles) and the Noyan
Tapan information-analytical center (Yerevan). The general sponsor
of the forum is the World Armenian Congress.

As Tigran Haroutiunian, the Chairman of the preparatory committee,
Director of the Noyan Tapan information-analytical center stated,
it’s expected that about 150 people from more than 20 countries will
participate in the forum.

The goal of the third forum is to complete problems connected with
creation of the all-Armenian information field and to found the
All-Armenian Media Association. The latter will be aimed to regulate
and make closer the cooperation between Armenian and Diasporan media,
to create a general information field and assist solution of problems
of general interest.