Author: Jalatian Sonya

Pressure group may resort to radical steps
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
May 27 2004
Chairman of the Garabagh Liberation Organization (GLO) Akif Naghi
was quoted as saying on Monday that the participation of Armenian
military personnel in the upcoming NATO training is unacceptable.
He said Armenian authorities are trying to cooperate with Azerbaijan
in order to divert attention from Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijan’s
territories. Naghi said such collaboration is possible only after
Armenia withdraws from the occupied land.
He said his organization would resort to radical measures, including
protest actions, to prevent the participation of the Armenian
military in NATO training sessions in Baku. Naghi added that the
responsibility for this will rest with the government of Azerbaijan
and NATO administration.

Eastern Christians Torn Asunder
Challenges – New and Old
National Review Online
September 18, 2003
By Bat Yeor
The dhimmi mentality cannot be easily defined and described. An
endless variety of reactions has been provoked by the evolving
historical situations in the civilization of dhimmitude, which
spans three continents and close to fourteen centuries. Generally
speaking, /dhimmi/ populations can be described as oscillating between
alienation and submission and, at the other extreme, a self-perception
of spiritual freedom.
The basic aspects of the /dhimmi/ mentality are related to
characteristics of its status and environment, because /dhimmitude/
operates exclusively within the sphere of jihad. Contrary to common
belief, jihad is not limited to holy war conducted militarily;
it encompasses all strategies, including peaceful means, aimed at
the unification of all religions within Islamic dogma. Further,
as a juridical-theological construction, jihad determines all
aspects of relations between the /Umma/ — the Islamic community —
and non-Muslims. According to the classical interpretation, these
are classified in one of three categories: enemies, temporarily
reconciled, or subjected. Because neither jihad nor /dhimmitude/
have been critically analyzed, we can say today that the Islamist
mentality — currently predominant in many Muslim countries —
establishes relations with non-Muslims in the traditional jihad
categories of war, truce, and submission//dhimmitude/.
In our times /dhimmis/ are found among the residues of indigenous
populations of countries that were Islamized during a millenium of
Muslim conquests: Christians, Hindus, and a scattering of Jews and
Zoroastrians. Christians would seem to be the most familiar group,
closer to Westerners by proximity, culture, religion, and subject to
the same status under Islam as the Jews, the other /ahl al-Khitab/,
“people of the Book” — the Bible. But this impression is often
deceiving as the reassuring appearance of similarity is misleading.
The behavior of Christian /dhimmis/ varies according to the country,
the social category, and their association with the ruling classes
as, for example, their participation in the Iraqi or Syrian Baath
parties or the PLO, a militarist organization engaged in the Arab
jihad against Israel. Christian /dhimmis/ appointed to important
positions by Muslim rulers have often served as agents between the
Arab world and strategic centers in the West: churches, governments,
industries, universities, media, etc.
Because Christian /dhimmi/ populations are on the whole highly skilled
and better educated than the surrounding population, they often suffer
from malicious jealousy coupled with the traditional anti-Christian
prejudices of the /Umma/. The persistence of Christianity in Muslim
environments testifies to qualities of endurance and adaptability. Yet
survival in dhimmitude had its price: the /dhimmi/ pathology.
Briefly summarized, Christian attitudes can be classified in three
categories: active resistance, passive resistance, and collaboration.
These three attitudes are manifest within one and the same population,
but certain geographical or historical situations favor one or another.
ACTIVE RESISTANCE
Recent examples of active resistance are noteworthy. The repression
of the Christian rebellion against the establishment of sharia in the
Sudan in 1983 caused more than two million dead and over four million
displaced. Lebanese Christians fought against the Islamization of
their country during the civil war that began in 1975. At the dawn
of the 20th century, Armenian and Assyrian Christians were punished
by genocide for their attempts at independence. In the present day,
active Christian resistance against Islamization in Indonesia,
Nigeria, and other African countries is manifest in the massacre
of Christian civilians, the burning of villages, the flight of
populations. Westerners, and especially Europeans, turn a deaf ear
to the sufferings of Christians who actively resist Islamization,
frequently blaming them for their own misfortunes.
PASSIVE RESISTANCE
Examples of passive resistance can be found in Egypt, Pakistan,
and Iran. Egyptian Christians denounce the violence of which they
are victims and strive to protect their dignity, reduce legal
and professional discrimination, and secure basic rights such
as permission to build or renovate churches. Here again, the West
prefers to ignore their dire situation or underplay it with episodic
attention. Christians engaged in active or passive resistance exhaust
their meager resources in vain efforts to alert their fellow Christians
and enlist their help.
COLLABORATIONIST CHRISTIANS
Collaborators are recruited among Christians who identify themselves
as Arabs. This type of collaboration, which caused endless fratricidal
battles over the centuries, has been denounced by /dhimmis/ struggling
for centuries against an Islamic domination that progressed with the
help of Christians.
Christian collaborationism has taken different forms in the course of
history, according to circumstances and political opportunity. It is
expressed today in a two-pronged political and theological project. The
political project is implemented in a trans-Mediterranean fusion, with
the construction of an economic, cultural, political, geographical
entity composed of the European Union and Arab and African countries.
This policy of association and integration, active in all international
forums, works to counterbalance American policy, under cover of a
notion of “international legitimacy,” albeit a legitimacy of sanguinary
totalitarian Arab dictators.
Collaborationist Christian /dhimmis/ function as the intellectual and
economic mechanism of this project because they belong to both worlds.
Their role is to invent the idyllic Islamic-Christian past that upholds
the political construction of a future Eurabia and to dissimulate
the anti-Christian foundations of Islamic doctrine and history.
/Dhimmi/ collaboration on the theological level is oriented in
two directions: toward Christianity and toward Islam. It finds its
most radical expression in the “Palestinian Liberation Theology,”
meaning nothing less than the liberation of Christianity from its
Jewish matrix. The spiritual center of this theology is the al-Liqa
institute in Jerusalem, created in 1983 for the study of the Muslim
and Christian heritage in the Holy Land. This strongly politicized
institute, sponsored by international Christian organizations,
specializes in disseminating anti-Israeli propaganda through its
international religious and media channels.
Uniting Marcionist and Gnostic theological currents, this Palestinian
theology strips away Jesus’s Jewishness and turns him into a
/sui generis/ Arab-Palestinian Jesus, a twin of the Muslim Jesus
(Isa). Christianity, thus liberated from its Jewish roots, can be
transplanted in Arab-Islamism. This would place Palestine, and not
Israel, at the origin of Christianity, making Israelis usurpers of
the Islamic-Christian Palestinian homeland. This theory denies the
historical continuity between modern Israel and its biblical ancestor,
the locus of nascent Christianity.
The theology of Palestinism, integrating all the anti-Jewish themes
of replacement theology, is reworked to fit the new Palestinian
fashion and addressed to Christians all over the world, inviting
them to gather together around an Arab-Palestinian Jesus, symbol
of a Palestine crucified by Israel. The theme goes back to the 19th
century. However, in those days when the idea of an Arab-Palestinian
entity differentiated from the Arab world did not even exist, the
unifying role of Palestine was assigned to Arab nationalism.
Palestinist theology shores up the Euro-Arab policy of
Christian-Muslim and European-Arab fusion: the modern state of
Israel — considered a temporary accident of history — is bypassed
and Europe’s Christian origins are anchored in an Islamic-Christian
Palestine. Having fulfilled its historical role of uniting the two
enemies — Christianity and Islam — opposed to its very existence,
Israel can now disappear, sealing the fusion between Europe and the
Arabs. The unifying role devolves on Islamic-Christian Palestine; the
reconciliation of Islam and Christianity can finally be consummated
on the ashes of Israel and its negation. This is why the European
Union — and especially France — designates Israeli “injustice” and
“occupation” as the unique sources of conflict between Europe and
the Arab/Muslim world, and the cause of international, anti-Western
Islamist terrorism.
The contribution of /dhimmi/ Christian collaborationism to Islam is
even more important. It satisfies three objectives: 1) its propaganda
shores up the mythology of past and present peaceful Islamic-Christian
coexistence and confirms the perfection of Islam, jihad, and sharia;
2) it promotes the demographic expansion and proselytism of Islamic
propaganda in the West; 3) in the theological sphere it eliminates the
Jewish Jesus and implants Christianity in the Muslim Jesus, in other
words it facilitates the theological Islamization of all Christendom.
According to Islamic dogma, Islam encompasses Judaism and Christianity,
both of which are falsified posterior expressions of the first and
fundamental religion, which is Islam. All the characters of the
Bible, from Adam to Abraham, Moses to David, the Hebrew prophets,
Mary, Jesus, and the apostles, were Muslim prophets who preached
Islam, and it is only in their quality as Muslims that they are
recognized and respected. They belong to the Koran, not to the
Bible. From this viewpoint the bond between Judaism and Christianity
is a falsification, because the filiation of Christianity is Islamic,
not Judaic. Christianity descends from Islam, the first religion of
all humanity (/din al-fitra/). Christianity is a falsified expression
of Islam, and belongs to Islam. According to a /hadith/, when Isa,
the Muslim Jesus, returns, he will break the cross, kill the pig,
abolish the /jizya/ (poll tax for infidels), and money will flow
like water. Exegetes interpret the destruction of symbols attached
to Christianity — the cross and the pig — as the extinction of that
religion; the suppression of the /jizya/ means that Islam has become
the only religion; and the abundance of wealth refers to the booty
taken from infidels. In other words the return of the Muslim Jesus
could lead to the destruction of Christianity.
The global jihad has made the problems of dhimmitude a worldwide
reality. Europe’s creeping dhimmitude, expressed in a refusal even
to mention in its proposed constitution the “Judeo-Christian” values
of its civilization, is one of the major elements of the current
European-American divide.
Bat Yeor is the author of “The Decline of Eastern Christianity
under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude.” Her latest book, “Islam and
Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide,” has just been reprinted. A
version of this article was first published in French and is translated
by Nidra Poller in collaboration with the author.

ARMENIA HAS NO INTENTION TO JOIN NATO
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
May 24, 2004, Monday
The issue of NATO accession is not included into Armenia’s agenda
on foreign policy, Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said at
his press conference last Friday.
“The reply to the question regarding Armenia’s joining NATO is clear
initially, since the Armenian leaders have repeatedly declared that
this problem is not included into the agenda on foreign policy,”
the minister said.
S. Sarkisyan also said that in the immediate future Armenia has no
intention to pull out from CSTO. The minister noted that Armenia’s
involvement in CSTO is among the major components of Armenia’s
national security.

The need for mobilization policy
By Eduard Harutiunian
14 May 04
Yerkir/AM
According to a common position, it is only the authorities that
are accountable before the country and the society. No doubt, the
authorities’ main role is to ensure internal and external security
of the country.
But because the authorities are formed from among the political force,
any political party has its own part of responsibility.
Political parties’ activities are completely tied with national
security issues. The parties’ responsibility is essential in internal
political developments, too.
After all, these organizations are interim links between the public
and the authorities, and they present socio-economic and political
demands of the public to the authorities. It is not natural that
political organizations, criticizing the authorities, have little
credibility. When people do not accept and trust both the authorities
and the political parties, it means that they deny any form of
political organization of the nation.
There is a dominant perception in the political life of Armenia, for
example, that unlike the government, the activities of a political
party is private and should not be a subject of state or public
control and criticism.
In a political system, the authorities have the same role as the money
in economy. Both have powerful capacities of state-building and in a
civil society, they first of all serve the national structure of the
statehood. Devaluation of the both may have devastating impact on a
country’s socio-economic, spiritual and political lives.
In a transitional society, people are disappointed first of all of
internal indefiniteness and unnecessary exploitation of national
super-issues. From this point of view, in Armenia, for example,
resolution of current problems is even harder because of the unsolved
problems left from the initial period of the transitional period.
This is why Armenia is in the zone of “military-political quakes.” Only
a social system that has reliable qualifications for internal security
can best overcome external threats. History of transitional nations
shows that on the way to open societies, the mobilization policy
should be used as an interim means.
Such policy is crucial when a society finds itself in a crisis,
and social and political tensions run high. In these conditions, the
need to mobilize all external and internal resources, emerges. The
model of state and political mobilization is a policy that enables
to reach a higher immunity of the society through the least expenses
but single-minded efforts.
This is especially true for transitional nations because their
immunity for economic crisis is low because they are not adapted for
market economy. Having no large resources, time and capacities to
establish competent economies, it is necessary to establish functional
definiteness inside the system, well-organized national life and a
determination of discreet conditions for everybody.
The internal conditions of the survival of the Armenian nation are
already crossing the threatening line. To correct the situation, it
is necessary to centralize the government, create a just distribution
system, tough control and clarification of the political field. Of
course, these are not components of a market economy. But the
mobilization policy is the only way to bring the state and national
systems out of the current difficult conditions.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
May 20 2004
Students consider landmark ruling
GUSD history classes debate 50-year-old desegregation ruling on Brown
vs. Board of Education.
By Gary Moskowitz, News-Press
GLENDALE – The city’s public schools are not legally segregated,
but blonde-haired, blue-eyed Katelyn Murphy knows she would probably
take flak from her peers if she dated a boy who is a minority.
In an Advanced Placement American government class discussion on school
segregation Wednesday at Crescenta Valley High School, Katelyn said
students integrate more freely in the classroom than they do out on
the courtyard at lunch.
“I think it’s kind of sad in a way,” said Katelyn, 16. “At CV,
it’s like taboo to hang out with or date someone of a different
background. In class, it’s easier, because we’re all sitting next to
each other. But we should be trying to integrate more.”
This week, high school government classes throughout the Glendale
Unified School District have been discussing the 50-year anniversary
of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case and its role in
the civil rights movement.
The case revolved around Oliver Brown, a black man who tried to enroll
his daughter, Linda, in a white elementary school that was seven blocks
away from their Topeka, Kan., home. The school refused Brown’s request.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared that
separate schools are inherently unequal. In 1954, Glendale Unified
was predominantly white, with some “scattered” minority students,
officials said. In 2004, about 40% of the district’s students speak
a primary language other than English.
Edgar Shaghoulian, a Glendale High School senior, was one of many
students who said Wednesday that despite desegregation, students of
various ethnic backgrounds often flock together in social situations
outside of class.
“I think Armenians are the most noticeable, because there is such
a big population here,” said Shaghoulian, 17. “But in high school,
most people just want to fit in, so it’s only natural for students
to stick to what they know. If it’s not forced segregation, I think
it can be a good thing sometimes. But the message forced segregation
sends to society to me is morally a horrible message.”
In the 2002-03 school year, Glendale Unified’s black student
population was about 1% of its 29,000 — or about 320 — students,
officials said. Statistics for the 2003-04 school year were not
available Wednesday.
Many students and teachers in the district said the issue of
segregation and racism is not a “black-and-white” issue in Glendale,
but for Wanda Dorn, it is.
Dorn is the advisor for Glendale High School’s Black Student Union,
which has about 20 members. About half of the club’s members are
black students, but the other half are students from other ethnic
backgrounds, Dorn said.
“In this country it remains a black-and-white issue in many ways,
because there wouldn’t be any civil rights on the books had blacks
not fought and died for them,” Dorn said. “Even though we have been
here longer and fought harder, other groups benefit from it. The black
students are just here, in a way. They don’t have the kind of safety
in numbers that other minority groups have in Glendale.”
Kayla Alexander said she often feels frustrated as a black student
at Glendale High because she doesn’t receive enough guidance or
counseling.
“The African-American students here seem kind of lost, because there
aren’t enough people of authority who support us,” said Kayla, 17. “A
lot of times, we can fall through the cracks because we can’t rely
on other people to guide us toward what we need to succeed. But being
here has been positive for me, overall.
“I never would have been exposed to the Armenian culture if I hadn’t
moved here from Arizona. If we were segregated, people would only
know their own kind and wouldn’t learn about each other.”

DEFENSE MINISTER SHRUGS OFF FEARS OF NEW WAR
ArmenPress
May 13 2004
YEREVAN, MAY 13, ARMENPRESS: Armenian defense minister Serzh Sarkisian
brushed away Wednesday the talk about a shaky peace and the possible
resumption of hostilities in Nagorno Karabagh, saying they do not
correspond to reality. “But this does not mean that I can exclude
the renewal of military actions in any time,” he said to reporters.
Sarkisian said the main guarantees against a new war are the ongoing
talks between the conflicting sides, the capability of the armed
forces and the activity of international peace brokers. “We have not
been sitting on our hands and I think that today our army differs
substantially, in terms of its strength from what we had back in
1993-1994. It is very different now,’ he said.

Azeris insist on return of occupied districts in exchange for opening railway
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
15 May 04
[Presenter Namiq Aliyev] The sides only exchanged ideas at the
Strasbourg meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers,
and the co-chairmen [of the OSCE Minsk Group] did not voice specific
proposals, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has
said. According to him, the reopening of the Baku-Naxcivan-Yerevan
railway in return for the liberation of the seven occupied lands will
be the main subject of the talks in the future as well.
[Correspondent over video of Mammadyarov speaking to microphone]
Despite the Yerevan government’s denial, the liberation of the seven
districts under Armenian occupation was discussed at the Strasbourg
meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, Mammadyarov
said in an exclusive interview with Azad Azarbaycan TV on his return
from the Strasbourg meeting. We should recall that Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan had denied that the issue of the seven
districts was discussed and had described this subject as absurd. But
Mr Mammadyarov said that this issue, which was discussed in Strasbourg,
would be included in the agenda of the future talks as well.
[Mammadyarov] You are aware of Azerbaijan’s position on the railway
and the seven districts. We, the Azerbaijani side, will always put it
forward as an idea. Well, this is Azerbaijan’s idea. The Armenian side
expressed its idea as well. The co-chairmen expressed their ideas as
well. We think that this exchange of ideas is to be continued at the
next meetings.
[Correspondent] Describing the Strasbourg talks as useful on the whole,
Mammadyarov did not reveal the details of the meeting. According to
him, the sides agreed to keep the results in secret.
[Mammadyarov] We had a very useful exchange of ideas at the meeting
and agreed to continue these meetings. For the time being, this is the
only thing I can say, because we decided to continue these meetings
and exchange any ideas in a confidential way.
[Correspondent] Mr Mammadyarov added that after submitting a report to
President Ilham Aliyev about the Strasbourg meeting, he could answer
specific questions. We should recall that the co-chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk Group attended the talks as well. As for the new proposals on
the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Mr Mammadyarov said
that all this was only an idea so far.
[Mammadyarov] I would not say that they were in the form of new
proposals. All this is an exchange of ideas. At the moment, we,
each side, express our own opinions. The time will show which ideas
will turn into proposals in the future.
[Correspondent] The sides also discussed a meeting between the
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Astana. According to
Mammadyarov, if the heads of state’s schedule makes it possible,
their meeting will take place this autumn.
Rasad Huseynov, Bahruz Maharramov and Ziyad Aliyev for “Son Xabar”.

KARABAGH MUST BE INVOLVED IN TALKS, FORMER TOP OFFICIAL SAYS
ArmenPress
May 12 2004
YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS: A former top official in the
administration of ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian backed up today
the idea that Nagorno Karabagh authorities must be involved in talks
over its future. Babken Ararktsian, a former parliament chairman,
told a news conference, which he called on the occasion of the 10-th
anniversary of the establishment of ceasefire on the line of contact
between Armenian troops of Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan forces that
Karabagh had been involved in all talks with various international
peace-brokers, held prior to the ceasefire.
Reverting to the details of the ceasefire agreement, Ararktsian
said it was a key decision by all the sides to the conflict, who
realized that continuation of the war would bring only new losses.
Ararktsian recalled today that one of the provisions of the agreement
was that Nagorno Karabagh should continue participating in all talks
and that the overland connection between Armenia and Karabagh through
the Lachin corridor should operate.
The first international mediation effort to resolve the Nagorno
Karabagh conflict was attempted by the presidents of the not yet
independent Russia and Kazakhstan, Boris Yeltsin and Nursultan
Nazarbayev, respectively, in September 1991. Their visits to Baku,
Stepanakert, and Yerevan, and subsequent talks between the leaders of
Armenia and Azerbaijan in Zheleznovodsk, Russia produced an agreement
to negotiate the conflict; this was negated by the government of
Azerbaijan almost immediately.
The international involvement in the resolution of this conflict began
in earnest in 1992, after successor states to the Soviet Union had
been admitted to the Conference (later Organization) for Security and
Cooperation in Europe. The CSCE (OSCE) thus became the primary venue
for the resolution of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict, and remains so
to this day.
On March 24, 1992, a CSCE Council meeting in Helsinki decided to
authorize the CSCE Chairman-in-Office (i.e., the presiding officer
of the CSCE who is usually the foreign minister of the country
presiding in the organization, based on rotation principle) to
convene a conference on Nagorno Karabagh under the auspices of the
CSCE. The purpose of the conference was “to provide an ongoing forum
for negotiations towards a peaceful settlement of the crisis on the
basis of the principles, commitments and provisions of the CSCE.” This
decision launched the so-called Minsk Process, which spearheads the
international effort to find a political settlement of the conflict.
(The process is so named because the city of Minsk, Belarus had
been originally selected as the site of the future conference on
this problem.)
The objectives of the Minsk Process are to provide an appropriate
framework for conflict resolution to support the negotiation process
supported by the Minsk Group; to obtain conclusion by the Parties
of an agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict in order to
permit the convening of the Minsk Conference; and to promote the
peace process by deploying OSCE multinational peacekeeping forces.
Ararktsian argued today that after the Karabagh conflict transformed
into “a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan
has snatched off the ceasefire becoming its master to ground that it
can revoke the ceasefire agreement any time in order to restore its
territorial integrity.” In concluding Ararktsian aid the resolution
of the conflict must be based on the principle of self-determination
of Karabagh Armenians and mutual compromises.

Armenian opposition urges authorities to meet Europe’s demands
A1+ web site
11 May 04
11 May: The Justice political bloc today circulated a statement on
the authorities’ actions that run against resolution No 1374 of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE].
1. The authorities have not given up the practice of administrative
detentions. New arrests have been made (in violation of Point 9 of
the PACE resolution).
2. People arrested for participation in rallies have not been set
free immediately. Fourteen Armenian citizens have been arrested for
political motives. One of them – Martin Gazaryan – has been sentenced
to one year in prison.
3. No transparent and trustworthy examination has been started into
their cases to find those responsible for violence and trampling on
human rights (in violation of Point 9 of the PACE resolution).
4. The law on administrative offences has not been amended (in
violation of Point 9 of the PACE resolution).

BBC News
Last Updated: Thursday, 6 May, 2004, 10:23 GMT 11:23 UK
Regions and territories: Ajaria
A mountainous semi-autonomous region of Georgia, Ajaria is situated on the
Black Sea coast on Georgia’s southwestern border with Turkey.
Its narrow band of coastal lowland has a lush sub-tropical climate while
high in the mountains there can be snow for six months of the year.
OVERVIEW
The port in the capital, Batumi, is used for the shipment of oil from
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Its oil refinery handles Caspian oil from
Azerbaijan which arrives by pipeline to Supsa port and is transported from
there to Batumi by rail.
Batumi is also an important gateway for the shipment of goods heading into
Georgia, Azerbaijan and landlocked Armenia. The Ajarian capital is a centre
for shipbuilding and manufacturing. Ajaria has good land for growing tea,
citrus fruits and tobacco.
History
The people of Ajaria are ethnically Georgian and the region also has a
substantial Russian-speaking population. Under Ottoman rule from the 17th
until the 19th century Islam predominated. The word Ajarian came to mean a
Georgian Muslim.
In 1878 Ajaria was annexed by Russia and, following the Bolshevik
revolution, incorporated into Georgia as an autonomous republic within the
USSR. Under Stalin, Islam, like Christianity, was ruthlessly repressed.
Nowadays about half the population professes the Islamic faith.
Tensions erupt on the internal border between Georgia and Ajaria
Unlike the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Ajaria has been
spared major violence and ethnic unrest since Georgia became independent
after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The region was led between 1991 and May 2004 by Aslan Abashidze under whose
tight control it enjoyed political stability and relative economic
prosperity. Election results gave him at least 90% of the vote every time
and he ruled in what many observers described as an autocratic style.
Autonomy
Ajaria achieved a substantial degree of autonomy from Tbilisi, which accused
it of failing to pay a large proportion of the sum due in tax and customs
duties. It also had its own security and interior ministries which were
under the full control of the Ajarian leadership.
After Eduard Shevardnadze was overthrown as Georgian president and the
results of the November 2003 elections were annulled, a state of emergency
was declared in Ajaria. Its leadership refused to recognise the full
authority of Mikhail Saakashvili as Georgian president.
Mr Saakashvili wanted to reassert control, abolish the Ajarian security
ministry and end what he said was corruption in the Ajarian tax and customs
authorities.
Standoff with Georgia
In a bid to assert his authority after he was prevented from entering Ajaria
in the run-up to the March 2004 elections, the Georgian president imposed an
economic blockade. It was lifted within days after talks between Mr
Saakashvili and Mr Abashidze.
However, the standoff grew increasingly ominous. In early May, Mr Abashidze
claimed that Georgian forces were preparing to invade. His forces blew up
bridges connecting the region with the rest of Georgia and pulled up rail
tracks, disrupting exports of Caspian oil from the port of Batumi.
Immediately afterwards, Mr Saakashvili gave the Ajarian leader 10 days in
which to comply with the Georgian constitution and start disarming or face
removal.
The Georgian president imposed direct rule on Ajaria on 5 May. Subsequently,
after talks with a Russian envoy, Mr Abashidze resigned and left the region.
Ties with Russia
Ajaria maintained close ties with Russia, which has a military base there –
a source of great tension with Tbilisi. Following the departure of Eduard
Shevardnadze, this tension rose still further when Russia eased entry visa
regulations for residents of Ajaria.
Developments unfolded under Moscow’s watchful eye. Russia had warned Tbilisi
that the use of force to resolve the situation would have “catastrophic
consequences”.
FACTS
Status: Autonomous region within Georgia
Population: 400,000
Capital: Batumi
Major languages: Georgian, Russian
Major religions: Islam, Christianity
Natural resources: Citrus fruit, tobacco, tea
Industry: Oil refining, shipping, manufacturing, wine-making
LEADERS
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili imposed direct presidential control
over the region on 5 May 2004. Hours later the Ajarian leader Aslan
Abashidze resigned, ending more than a decade in power by flying, with his
family, to Russia.
Georgian officials appointed an interim administration to run the region
pending elections in June and abolished the post of Ajarian leader.
Aslan Abashidze, a teacher turned Communist bureaucrat in the Soviet era,
was appointed leader in Ajaria by Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia
following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Georgian independence. He
proved remarkably adept at establishing absolute control.
Former Ajarian leader Aslan Abashidze
Mr Abashidze was born in Batumi in 1938 into a family which has been
influential in Ajarian affairs for many years. Observers often described his
style of leadership as autocratic. Ajarian election results had always given
him 90% or more of the vote.
A family affair
All opposition was suppressed and the economic reins were firmly in his
hands. Close relatives of his late wife headed the important security and
interior ministries, and other relatives also held public office.
Mr Abashidze also played a prominent role in Georgian political affairs
outside Ajaria. He was leader of the Revival of Georgia political bloc which
was the main rival of Eduard Shevardnadze’s party in parliamentary elections
in 1999. He at first stood as a candidate in the Georgian presidential
elections of 2000 but withdrew, leaving victory in Mr Shevardnadze’s grasp.
When mass protests erupted over the conduct of the November 2003
parliamentary elections in Georgia, in which the Ajarian leader claimed 95%
of the regional vote, Mr Abashidze rallied to Mr Shevardnadze’ support. He
denounced Mr Shevardnadze’s overthrow as a coup and declared a state of
emergency in Ajaria.
Differences with Tbilisi
The pro-Western Mr Saakashvili insisted that the Russians pull out of their
base in Ajaria. The pro-Russian Mr Abashidze took a different view. Mr
Saakashvili vowed to bring Ajaria into the Georgian mainstream and eradicate
corruption and nepotism.
Mr Abashidze insisted he simply wished to retain the status quo and did not
want Ajaria to secede from Georgia. He had indicated that military force
remained an option should Mr Saakashvili try to enforce his wishes.
Despite what appeared to be frequent tensions between former President
Shevardnadze and Mr Abashidze, the two always managed to come to some
arrangement in the end.
MEDIA
The Ajarian authorities operate TV and radio networks in the region.
Reporters Without Borders, the media rights body, reported in 2004 that two
private Georgian TV stations had been banned from operating in Ajaria. It
added that five journalists had been physically assaulted.
Television
Adjara TV – operated by Ajarian authorities
Channel 25 – private
Radio
Radio Adjara – operated by Ajarian authorities