Author: Kalantarian Kevo

WILL REFERENDUM FAIL?
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| 15:19:19 | 06-09-2005 | Social |
“If the referendum on constitutional reform were scheduled for the next
Sunday would you take part in the voting?” Vox Populi, a project of
the Center on Policy Attitudes held a telephone survey of 668 Yerevan
residents September 2-4, 2005
The survey showed that the Armenian citizens are not ready to adopt
constitutional amendments at present. Below are the results of
the poll.
Yes, I will – 13%
I probably will – 11%
I probably won’t – 23%
No, I won’t – 37%
Undecided – 16%
To note, the majority of the respondents were not familiarized with
the contents of the constitutional amendments

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MET WITH IMF YEREVAN OFFICE HEAD
Pan Armenian News
06.09.2005 03:04
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Robert Kocharian yesterday
met with head of International Monetary Fund Yerevan office Hasan
al Atrash, reported the Press Service of the Armenian leader. In
the course of the meeting the parties discussed matters of economic
reforms and Armenia-IMF cooperation. R. Kocharian noted that Armenia
is consecutive in implementation of reforms and the work already
carried out has provided for considerable results. Hasan al Atrash
appreciated the process of reforms in Armenia, adding this evaluation
will be included in the report on Armenia. He specially noted economic
growth and poverty reduction processes, stating the Armenian poverty
reduction program can serve as an example for other countries. The IMF
representative noted regulation of budgetary processes and monetary
policy as an important acquisition.

THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF DEFENSE OF ARMENIA LIEUTENANT-GENERAL MICHAEL GRIGORYAN WAS RELIEVED OF HIS DUTIES
Source: Krasnaya zvezda, September 1, 2005 ,p. 3
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 5, 2005, Monday
By the decree from August 29, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
relieved Lieutenant-General Michael Grigoryan, the deputy of the
minister of defense, of his duties. There is no reference to the
reasons of Grigoryan’s displacement.

NEW BUILDING OF VAZGEN SARGSIAN MILITARY INSTITUTE OPENED
Yerkir
01.09.2005 13:42
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – President Robert Kocharian attended on Thursday
the ceremony of initiating the new building of the Vazgen Sargsian
Military Institute in Yerevan. Ranked by Defense Minister Serzh
Sargsian, Deputy Defense Minister Artur Aghabekian and the commanders
of the Institute, Kocharian toured the new building that is to house
the Institute’s Department of Infantry.
More than 1,000 cadets currently study in the two — Infantry and
Artillery — departments of the Institute. However, this academic
year only, 300 new cadets have been enrolled.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

COUNCIL OF EUROPE TO ‘DEMAND ARMENIA PULLOUT FROM OCCUPIED LAND’
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 30 2005
Baku, August 29, AssA-Irada
The Council of Europe will demand Armenia to pull out from the occupied
land of Azerbaijan, a high-ranking Turkish politician has said.
“The issue will be raised at the CE discussions once again”, deputy
chair of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party and head of
the Turkish delegation at the CE Parliamentary Assembly Murat Mercan
told journalists.
Mercan said work is currently underway on the matter. “The
achievements to be made will bring a hope for the settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.”
Mercan is visiting Baku along with three other Turkish MPs on
the invitation of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. The Turkish
representatives have met with President Ilham Aliyev as well as New
Azerbaijan executive secretary Ali Ahmadov. The parties focused
on expanding ties between the two countries’ ruling parties and
Azerbaijan’s November 6 parliament elections. The vote will be
monitored by observers from Turkey, the Turkish representatives said.*

ARMENIA HANDS OVER AZERI CAPTIVE
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 25 2005
Armenia has released Azerbaijani serviceman it previously captured.
22-year-old warrant officer Ramin Khudaverdiyev was handed over
to Azerbaijan in the Gazakh district with the mediation of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Wednesday.
Khudaverdiyev, who immediately underwent a medical examination, is
currently in satisfactory condition, the Azerbaijan State Commission
on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons told AssA-Irada.
The Azeri officer was taken captive on August 3 after losing his way
in the Dashkasan district and accidentally entering a zone controlled
by Armenian forces.

From: “Katia M. Peltekian”
Subject: The other Taliban
Persion Mirror
Aug 23 2005
The other Taliban
by Ahmed Tharwat
The expansive, almost romantic media coverage of the Israeli
settlers’ withdrawal from Gaza is heartbreaking. The image of
children faces, the cries of the broken dreams and the dramatic human
tragedy of ejecting the Jewish settlers from their biblical land is
painful to watch.
`Painful Israeli compromise for peace’ Cries the headlines. `The
confrontation appeared to steel the will of the authorities to put an
end to the emotional and oratorical drama here, which is inevitably
taking a toll on young soldiers in Israel’s draft army and even on
professional police officers . ` Wrote the New Your Times reporter
STEVEN ERLANGER You have thousands of Jewish fanatics and
fundamentalists from around the world who abandoned their homes,
countries and friends and took arms to live in the occupied
territories in Palestine, and destroyed the natives Palestinians
dreams, just simply to fulfill thousands of year-old religious
interpretation.
If this is not the most Talibanisque ideology, I don’t know what is.
The Israelis’ withdrawal is presented in this country as if it is the
most democratic move Sharon has ever mastered. The champion of all
shameful settling and Arab land grabbing is now depicted in the
American press as the champion of all peace and land giveaway. No
reflection, no context of the 38 years of misery and humiliation
resulted from the Israelis occupation that sucked the oxygen of the
Palestinians population to think straight, media coverage with a
conspicuous disregard of the others, the Palestinians natives who had
lived in the land all their lives. For years Arabs/Moslems have been
asking with no avail a simple question; Why only the Israelis are
allowed to fulfill their biblical dreams by force.
That calls to question the way we look at Militant Islamists. If,
according to the Bush administration and the American press, you are
a Moslem and went to fight with another Moslem country, then you are
a terrorist, a fanatic, fundamentalist and Taliban. On the other
hand, an American, a Russian, or a German Jew who leaves his country
for Israel and invades Arab land by force is just a settler who
wanted to live his biblical dream in the promised land, while the
Palestinian who lived on this land for 100’s of years and try to
resist occupation is a terrorist and a Moslem fanatic. The occupation
and oppression caused terrorism and not the other way around.
This American tribal thinking of the others, the Palestinians in this
conflict is blinding us from understanding the anger of the Arab and
Moslem world. Our unconditional support for Israel throughout all
these years is muddying our efforts to support democracy and the so
called liberation of the Arab and Moslem world. Palestinians and
Moslems also have their own divine dream, the Serbs look at their own
dream; the Kurdish dream, the Armenians dream, the Shiite dream all
are also dreams that are inspired by ethnic or religious inspiration,
yet only the Zionist dream never called into question in this
country. Not questioning something doesn’t necessarily make it right.
The Israelis left Gaza for one simple reason, as Arye Mekel Israeli
consul general in New York acknowledged `We have had to come to terms
with certain unanticipated realities,”,. “Ideologically, we are
disappointed. A pure Zionist must be disappointed because Zionism
meant the Jews of the world would take their baggage and move to
Israel . Most did not.” The Zionist dream to bring world Jewry to the
Promised Land never really materialized; in fact, more Jews live in
the US than in Israel .
They left the occupied Gaza because the Israelis found themselves a
minority in the Jewish state, they explained, and not because the
territories were illegally occupied by force, `For those who long
considered it folly to settle a handful of Jews among hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the decision to remove
them starting this week seems an acceptance of the obvious.
What possible future could the settlers have had?’ says ETHAN BRONNER
in his piece titled, `Why Greater Israel’ Never Came to Be’ in the
New York Sunday Times on August 14 th , which for those who
romanticize the Jewish state as the only moral democracy in the area
is more of a tactical issue than a human right rights issue.
Morad Serag, a Palestinian psychologist who had his home and his
village confiscated 38 year-ago by those settlers, was asked by a
national public radio reporter about how he feels about what the
Israelis settlers are going through now. `I feel for them, I know
what is like to have your land and homes taking away from you’ he
reflected.
Ahmed Tharwat is a guest contributor for PersianMirror from St. Paul,
Minnesota. He is the Producer and host of Belahdan, an Arab-American
TV show. For more, visit

Kazinform, Kazakhstan
Aug 23 2005
OSCE to focus on air defense
MOSCOW. August 22. KAZINFORM. /Arnur Rakhymbekov/ The third stage of
joint exercises `Military Commonwealth – 2005′ organized within
format of CIS Integrated air defense system are taking place August
22-31 at Ashuluk test site, Astrakhan oblast.
The main activities of the military exercises will be carried out by
Air precautions forces and facilities of CSTO member states.
Air Force and Air Defense troops and facilities of Armenia,
Byelorussia, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan will take direct
part in the final and the most active phase.
Deputy CSTO Secretary General Valeriy Semerikov reminded that the
system of Air Defense of some CSTO member states like Armenia,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been in fact generated by the efforts
of the Defense Mnistries and Air defense Coordination Committee under
CIS Defense Ministers Council.
CSTO states pay a great attention to the problem of antiaircraft
defense. Principle of integration of the forces and facilities of
CSTO Air Defense into the common system of CIS Air Defense and their
further development and perfection on the basis of coordinated
military and technical policy are accepted as the ground for joint
activity.
Adoption of the decision on CSTO further development and perfection
of Air defense taken at the session this July by the CSTO leadership
was the most significant step in that direction.
Centralized control over CSTO Air Defense troops, forces and
facilities is also envisaged, Mr Semerikov noted .

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 23 2005

Aliyev Receives PACE President
President Ilham Aliyev, receiving the visiting President of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Rene van Der
Linden on Monday, spoke of the extensive work done in Azerbaijan to
promote civil democratization.
He expressed confidence that Linden’s visit to Baku will allow him to
become closely familiar with the development processes ongoing in the
country.
Linden said the Council of Europe hails the reforms underway in
Azerbaijan.
Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh,
the number one problem for the country, Linden praised the steps
taken toward its peaceful resolution. He said that he discussed the
issue with Armenian officials during his visit to the country. The
PACE President also voiced a hope for a speedy conflict settlement.

NAIRI UNION MEMBERS PLACE MEMORIAL PLAQUE ON 90th ANNIVERSAY OF
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN JAN STON FIELD
TEHRAN, AUGUST 22, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On August 19, the
members of the Armenian cultural union Nairi and a group of young men,
accompanied by the Iranian Armenian mountaineers, ascended the field
Jan Ston of the Fashami region. According to the newspaper “Alik”
(Tehran), the 90-member group placed there a memorial plaque in memory
of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.