Author: Kalantarian Kevo

AZERBAÏDJAN-HAUT KARABAGH-ARMENIE
L’Azerbaïdjan a violé à 5 930 reprises le régime du cessez-le-feu
depuis le début de l’année

Depuis le début de l’année, l’Azerbaïdjan a violé à 5 930 reprises le
régime du cessez-le-feu au long de sa frontière avec l’Arménie et la
République du Haut Karabagh. Selon le ministère arménien e la Défense,
Bakou aurait utilisé à près de 960 reprises des armes destinées aux
snipers. Depuis le début de l’année ces tirs ont causé la mort de 2
soldats Arméniens et ont fait 7 blessés dans les rangs de l’armée
arménienne. Par ailleurs un civil arménien a été blessé par ces tirs
azéris le long de la frontière.

En 2012 l’Azerbaïdjan avait violé à 16 300 reprises le cessez-le-feu.
L’intensité de ces violations monte en escalade puisqu’en 2006 leur
nombre était de 800 puis 1 400 en 2007, 3 500 en 2008, 4 600 en 2009,
7 200 en 2011, et 12 600 en 2011.

Précisons enfin que malgré ces tirs, les forces arméniennes ne cèdent
pas le terrain. Les Arméniens qui donnent des `répliques appropriées
pour faire taire l’ennemi` selon la formule officielle du ministère
arménien de la Défense. Notons par ailleurs que les pertes dans les
rangs de l’armée azérie sont beaucoup plus importantes que de celles
de l’armée arménienne. Les Arméniens maitrisant la situation et
repoussant les attaques Azéries en leur infligeant des pertes
sensibles.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 2 juin 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

DRONE CONTEST TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA ON SUNDAY

YEREVAN, June 1./ARKA/. The training airport in Armenian Arzni town
will be hosting a drone contest as a part of ArmRobotics championship
on June 2, the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE)
reported to ARKA on Saturday.

Five teams are said to participate in the contest. The participants
have created unmanned aerial vehicles which survey territories,
identify markings, transmit the images in an online mode, jettison
freight of up to 300 grams and return to the starting point.

The take-off and landing of the drones can be managed by remote
control, or the self-control function can be activated.

The organizer of ArmRobotics are UITE, general sponsor is VivaCell-MTS,
technical sponsor-Artin Varuzhan company. The contest is being
assisted also by the ministry of defense and Armenian State Engineering
University.

ArmRobotics has been held in Armenia since 2008. Its first project was
“Line tracking robot.”

The Union of Information Technology Enterprises was established in
2000 to protect IT companies’ interests, promote business development
and encourage studies in IT industry. Now dozens of IT companies are
the union members. -0-

CONCERT OF “KAROT” CHOIR OF SYRIAN-ARMENIANS HELD IN YEREVAN

12:01, 1 June, 2013

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, ARMENPRESS. Under the auspices of the Ministry of
Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia, the concert of “Karot” choir of
Syrian-Armenians was held in the National Academic Theatre after G.

Sundukyan. The concert was led by the Merited Artist of the Republic
of Armenia Zhirayr Altunyan by the participation of Armenia’s merited
ensemble of song and dances after Tatul Altunyan. The Media and Public
Relations Department of the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of
Armenia informed “Armenpress” that the choir introduced songs both
in Armenian and Arabic languages. Also the organizers of the concert
introduced a movie dedicated to Tatul Altunyan’s ensemble’s visit
to Syria, which was held in 1964. The Minister of Diaspora of the
Republic of Armenia Hranush Hakobyan attended the concert.

The entire income of the concert will be granted to the needy
Syrian-Armenian families settled in Armenia.

OFF-SHORE COMPANIES WITH TURKISH CONNECTIONS EXPORT PHARMACEUTICALS TO ARMENIA
Kristine Aghalaryan

17:35, May 31, 2013

When Tigran went to a Yerevan drugstore looking for something to
remedy his physical sluggishness, the clerk suggested “Polijen”,
an over the counter vitamin complex supplement.

“The insert read that the vitamin had no known serious side effects,
so I decided to take them staring the next day. Arriving home, I
read the box and the instructions in greater detail. What caught my
eye and raised my suspicion was that the box stated that the vitamins
were manufactured in America, whereas the insert said Great Britain,”
Tigran recounts.

So Tigran used Google to check out the truth and quickly discovered
that Polijen causes nausea, rashes and other discomfiting symptoms in
many who ingest the vitamin. He later concluded that World Medicine,
the name that appears on the box, wasn’t the world renowned company
it professed to be.

In fact, the vitamin is manufactured by EIPICO (Egyptian International
Pharmaceutical Industries), based in Egypt, for World Medicine. The
latter does not produce any medicine itself. It merely orders certain
pharmaceuticals and then ships the product.

Polijen has been imported from Egypt to Armenia since October 2005,
via World Medicine. In June, 2006, it has been imported from Georgia
by World Medicine and Global Pharm. In 2007, World Medicine opened an
office in Armenia, but only informed the RA Ministry of Health of its
operations in 2011. The company office closed soon afterwards. Today,
a number of companies (Tonus Les, Eskulap, Alfa Pharm, Natali Pharm)
import the vitamin Polijen to Armenia.

In response to our written inquiry as to whether Polijen could have
caused nausea, the RA Ministry of Health responded that the insert
does not note nausea as a possible side effect. The ministry said it
had received notification about possible rash outbreaks in 2009.

Tonus Les Director Levon Hakobyan says that Polijen has proven
itself to be an “effective and good drug” and says that nausea might
result from not following the physician’s instructions or from an
overdose. Mr. Hakobyan appears unaware of the fact that the vitamin
is sold over the counter, without a prescription.

On its website, World Medicine claims to be a British pharmaceutical
company that originated in the United States. There is no address
given for the company. After doing a little digging on the site, we
came across the following map which shows that the company office is
in Istanbul, Turkey.

On April 13, we wrote to the email address on the site, asking about
the company’s shareholders and the countries where the vitamin is
exported to. We sent a similar inquiry to EIPICO. To date, we haven’t
received a response from either company.

If you go to the World Medicine website today you won’t see the above
map. It’s been removed.

[map-of-WM.jpg]

The section “About Us” is an empty blank. Luckily, through our
Turkish and international colleagues, we’ve been able to uncover some
interesting information.

As we’ve noted, World Medicine is a British offshore company. The
directors are Raushan Tahiyeu and Zafer Karaman; the former is a
Belarus citizen residing in Turkey and the latter is Turkish.

Tahiyeu and a man called Sohrab Mammadov were the managers of the
Istanbul office. All have   headed a number of drug companies in
the past. They also are the directors and shareholders in a sister
company called Rotapharm. The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
verifies this fact. According to ICC data, World Medicine registered
in 2003 and Rotapharm, in 2007.

A special investigative committee of the Kyrgyzstan Parliament is now
looking into charges that Rotapharm has been supplying the country
with substandard pharmaceuticals. Kyrgyz physicians claim that the
drugs are causing numerous side effects in their patients.

The Guardian newspaper covered a story where dialysis patients were
given the drug Repretin and that unpleasant side-effects ensued.

(Repretin is a cheap version of the generic drug epoetin, known as
EPO; a hormone that boosts the production of red blood cells and is
used to help kidney dialysis patients)

Evidence obtained by the Guardian shows that the company, Rotapharm
Ltd, is not regulated by any British medical authority, but benefits
from loopholes in UK law and the existence of the secretive UK
offshore industry.

The Guardian writes:

It advertises itself on its website as “a British pharmaceutical
company created with the aim to improve people’s health …

established in 2005 as a British generic pharmaceutical company by
pharmaceutical professionals”. It is said to have its headquarters
in Saffron Walden, Essex. 

Rotapharm is, in fact, owned by a Belarussian businessman living in
Turkey, has no British employees, was set up offshore in the British
Virgin Islands and buys its supply of the dialysis drug Repretin from
a manufacturer in Egypt. The company is allowed to advertise itself as
British because it maintains a British-registered company, with a small
office on UK territory. British regulators are powerless to intervene. 

Both Rotapharm Ltd and its sister company, World Medicine, owned
by Tahiyeu, were set up anonymously in 2005 in the British Virgin
Islands. As such, they publish no accounts and pay no taxes. 

Two parallel firms with identical names were legally registered in
the UK at Companies House, originally with concealed ownership and
sham nominee directors with addresses in the Caribbean micro-state
of St Kitts and Nevis. Later, they were re-registered with Tahiyeu
named as owner 

When a Guardian reporter visited the Rotapharm’s “office” in Essex,
the only person to be found was Zafer Karaman, the listed company’s
secretary, who lives locally. He refused to answer any questions
about Rotapharm.

The MHRA (Regulating Medicines and Medical Devices), an executive
agency of the British Department of Health responsible for ensuring
that all medicines and medical devices in the UK are safe, found that
in this case they are powerless to intervene. If the medicines are
certified in any third nation, and found to be safe and effective,
the British agency doesn’t have the authorization to take measures
against the company.

When pharmaceuticals are imported into Armenia, they must first be
approved by the Ministry of Health’s Drugs and Medical Technologies
Testing Center.

“The entity responsible for the pharmaceutical is the manufacturer.

We aren’t responsible, neither is World Medicine or the company we
import from,” says Tonus Les Director Hakobyan.

Hakobyan says the EIPICO, the manufacturer of Polijen, is
internationally known and has all the necessary certificates to
manufacture pharmaceuticals, even the GMP (good manufacturing
practice).

He adds that the regulatory body in Armenia registered the product and
that, regardless of who placed the order for the drug, the primary
responsible organization is the manufacturer, followed by the local
regulatory agency that approved its importation and use.

Davit Nersisyan, a physician at On Clinics, says that he never
prescribes World Medicine products to his patients. He says that
his internet searches on the company left him unconvinced regarding
World Medicine’s “standing”. He adds that none of his colleagues have
anything good to say about the company either.

Armenia imports 79 pharmaceutical products manufactured for World
Medicine. In the case of Rotapharm products, Armenia stopped importing
them in 2012.

LE VILLAGE DE DZOVAKIUGH PRÈS DU LAC SEVAN SE VIDE MASSIVEMENT DE SES HOMMES ACTIFS QUI VONT EN RUSSIE

Le journal ” Hrabarag ” sur le temoignage d’un villageois affirme que
ce printemps près de 1200 hommes ont quitte le village de Dzovakiugh,
un des plus importants villages du bassin du lac Sevan. Ces hommes
seraient partis essentiellement en direction de la Russie afin d’y
travailler pour la plupart dans la construction. Un Armenien habitant
la Russie serait venu au printemps a Dzovakiugh pour recruter 400
hommes pour les emmener a Kalalia (Russie) et y embaucher dans le
secteur de la construction. Selon les temoignages, une partie de ces
villageois qui quittent l’Armenie ne reviendront pas.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 1er juin 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

L’AZERBAIDJAN COMMANDE DES TIMBRES A L’EFFIGIE DE HEYDAR ALIEV A UNE SOCIETE BELGE ET LES PRESENTE COMME UNE EMISSION OFFICIELLE DE LA POSTE DE BELGIQUE

Decidement l’Azerbaïdjan, le pays des dictateurs père et fils Aliev,
l’une des dernières dictatures de la planète, n’est pas a une manoeuvre
près !

Après l’affaire de la statue de Heydar Aliev dans le parc de Mexico,
une nouvelle affaire liee egalement a Heydar Aliev, ridiculise un
peu plus Bakou.

La Poste de Belgique vient de protester auprès de l’Ambassadeur
d’Azerbaïdjan a Bruxelles pour ses declarations erronees dans
la presse. Le diplomate azeri avait declare qu’un timbre-poste a
l’effigie de l’ex-president azerie Heydar Aliev par la Poste belge
creait une confusion dans les esprits. Le communique de la Poste
belge rejette les propos de l’Ambassadeur azeri en affirmant que
toutes ces emissions de timbres ne sont pas des emissions officielles
mais obeissaient a des commandes privees dans laquelle la Poste belge
n’avait aucune responsabilite. En fait l’Azerbaïdjan avait deforme la
realite de cette information par l’agence ” Azertach ” qui avait dans
un communique affirme que ” les services de la Poste de Belgique ont
emis une timbre qui commemore le 90e anniversaire de la naissance du
leader national Heydar Aliev “. On l’aura compris, a aucun moment
la Poste belge n’avait procede a l’emission postale officielle a
l’effigie du dictateur azeri…et que les seules emissions pour le
90e anniversaire de Heydar Aliev etaient sur des commandes privees
qui n’entrent aucunement dans les catalogues officiels des emissions
postales de la Belgique.

L’Ambassadeur d’Azerbaïdjan Fouad Iskandarov avait pourtant declare
que l’emission de la Poste belge debut mai d’un timbre de 90 centimes
d’euro a l’effigie de Heydar Aliev devait immortaliser ce dernier a
l’echelle de l’Europe ! Quelle supercherie !

La Poste de Belgique informe egalement qu’il existe en Belgique le
service ” Mon timbre ” qui emet -moyennant paiement- des timbre-poste
non officiels avec l’image et le texte desire par toute personne ou
organisation qui emet la commande. Chaque annee ce service honore
des milliers de commandes. Et c’est a ce service que s’est adresse
l’Azerbaïdjan tout en faisant croire a ses citoyens que c’est la
Belgique qui emettait officiellement un timbre-poste a l’effigie
d’Aliev le père de l’actuel dictateur.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 1er juin 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

AKP PARLIAMENTARIAN FROM KARS: “BORDERS WILL NOT BE OPENED UNLESS AZERBAIJANI TERRITORIES ARE LIBERATED”

APA
May 31 2013
Azerbaijan

Baku. Shamil Alibayli – APA. 112 km-part of railway from Turkey to
Armenia is being repaired.

APA reports quoting news.am that MP of the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) from Kars familiarized himself with the
construction works in Chatak village.

Answering the question “Can the repair of the railway contribute
to the opening of the borders with Armenia?”, MP said like all
Kars residents he wants the borders with Armenia to be opened and
bilateral trade with Armenia to develop: “But the reality is that
the territories of the fraternal Azerbaijan have been occupied and
the borders will not be opened unless this occupation is ended. Both
Turkish and Armenian citizens want it. But, at the same time we want
settlement of the conflict and establishment of good relations between
Azerbaijan and Armenia”.

AZERI PRESIDENT CITES LACK OF MULTICULTURALISM AS FACTOR IN KARABAKH CONFLICT

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
May 31 2013

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has stated that multiculturalism
is quite critical for all nations around the world, especially for
Azerbaijanis who have suffered from ethnic cleansing in the region
for decades.

“It is because of problems related to multiculturalism that
Azerbaijani territories are under occupation [by neighboring country
Armenia]. A practice of ethnic cleansing has been carried out on our
nation for more than 20 years. Azerbaijanis have been driven out of
their own territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent
territories. The religious sites and historic heritage of Azerbaijanis
have been destroyed. Reports by the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe’s [OSCE] fact finding mission confirms that all
monuments and infrastructure in occupied Azerbaijani territories were
destroyed by Armenian armed forces,” Aliyev said on Thursday during the
opening ceremony of the second World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue,
which kicked off in the capital city of Baku on May 28-June 1.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a deadly conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave inside
Azerbaijan, for more than two decades. The conflict escalated into
a full-scale war in the early 1990s when Armenian-backed forces
under the command of current President Serzh Sarksyan occupied 20
percent of Azerbaijani territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh and
seven adjacent territories, killing some 30,000 people. Hundreds of
thousands fled their homes before a cease-fire was signed in 1994,
although there is as of yet no peace treaty.

Expressing his regret that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has yet to
be solved, Aliyev said that this outrage of justice is still ongoing
even though the international community is keeping a close eye on a
peaceful solution to the conflict.

“International norms do not work with regards to a solution to the
conflict. The four resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh passed by the
UN Security Council, which send a clear message for Armenian armed
forces to withdraw from the occupied territories, have yet to be
implemented,” Aliyev noted, calling for an immediate end to the
occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions in 1993 — 822, 853,
874 and 884 — urging the parties concerned to comply with them, in
particular by refraining from any armed hostilities and by withdrawing
military forces from any occupied territories. But Armenia has thus
far refused to withdraw its troops from the occupied lands.

“Armenia does not attach any importance to these resolutions;
the occupation and injustice is still ongoing. A solution to the
conflict will be an indication of respect for international norms and
will bring an end to the historic injustice,” Aliyev said, adding,
“Nagorno-Karabakh is a territory of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan must
regain its territorial integrity.”

Commenting on multiculturalism and developing it further in Azerbaijan,
Aliyev said that multiculturalism has deep roots in Azerbaijan as
the country is home to various cultures and religions.

“The representatives of different cultures and religions live
together as a family in Azerbaijan,” Aliyev noted, adding that
memories belonging to ethnic minorities and religious sects are
diligently protected as the country views them as a form of respect
for its history.

Noting that there are no substitutes for multiculturalism as the only
alternatives are discrimination, xenophobia, racism and fascism,
Aliyev said, “I believe that in the 21st century the international
community needs to vigorously combat such negative phenomena.”

Believing that there are many great opportunities to further develop
and strengthen multiculturalism across the world, Aliyev said that
the world needed political willingness to strive for multiculturalism.

Calling on the international community and humanity to be more active
to put an end to such unpleasant problems, Aliyev also believed
that the second World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue is a great
contribution to the development of dialogue, tolerance, diversity
and multiculturalism.

“The World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue which is held in Azerbaijan
every two years is a serious and important step on the path to
developing intercultural dialogue as those who have convened here
seek a common aim; a successful future of intercultural dialogue,”
Aliyev said, urging the need to take steps towards ensuring peace in
the world.

The forum, which has a theme of “Peaceful Coexistence in a
Multicultural World,” kicked off in Baku on May 28 and will continue
until June 1. The heads of international organizations, current
and former presidents of several nations and the ministers of more
than 100 countries, heads of think tanks, scientists and high-level
representatives of centers engaged in intercultural dialogue and
diplomats are attending the forum.

The East-West Meeting of the Ministers of Culture was also held for
the first time in Baku on Friday on the sidelines of the second World
Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

TURKEY STAKES CLAIM IN AMERICA WITH $100 MILLION MEGA-MOSQUE

The building of this center takes Turkey’s “outreach” in America out
of the realm of the subtle.

By Ryan Mauro Tue, May 21, 2013

A drawing of Turkey’s $100 million mega-mosque complex being built
in Maryland.

The government of Turkey is building a 15-acre, $100 million
mega-mosque in Lanham, Maryland. Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan
visited the site on May 15 as part of his official visit to the U.S..

The state of Maryland was officially represented at the event by its
Secretary of State John McDonough.

The event was also attended by the leaders of two U.S. Muslim
Brotherhood entities.

The mega-mosque is called the Turkish American Culture and Civilization
Center and, according to the Muslim Link, it “will likely become the
largest and most striking examples of Islamic architecture in the
western hemisphere” when it is finished in 2014.

The Muslim Link explicitly says it is “a project of the government
of Turkey.”

On May 15, Prime Minister Erdogan spoke to hundreds of people at the
construction site and said he’d come back for the opening ceremony
next year. He warned the audience that there are groups promoting
“Islamophobia,” branding potential critics as paranoid bigots. Erdogan
recently said that “Islamophobia” and Zionism are equivalent to
fascism and anti-Semitism, saying they are a “crime against humanity.”

On this trip to the U.S., Erdogan brought the father of one of the
Islamists killed while on a Turkish flotilla which was trying to break
Israel’s weapons blockade on Gaza. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which
is a designated terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Erdogan reportedly wanted to him to meet President Obama. (In the end,
the father met with Secretary of State John Kerry.)

The leaders of two U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities in attendance
included Naeem Baig, is the president of the Islamic Circle of North
America (ICNA). A 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo lists ICNA as one
of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” The memo
says its “work in America is “a kind of grand jihad in eliminating
and destroying the Western civilization from within.” The memo even
refers to meetings with ICNA where there was talk about a merger.

ICNA is also linked to the Pakistani Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami
and its conferences feature radical speakers. A former ICNA president
was recently indicted for horrific war crimes committed during
Bangladesh’s 1971 succession from Pakistan – the torture and murder
or 18 political opponents.

The second official from a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity that attended
the event was Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of
North America (ISNA). ISNA and several of its components are listed
as U.S. Muslim Brotherhood fronts in the same 1991 Brotherhood memo.

ISNA was also an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation
case, dubbed the largest Islamic terror-funding trial in the history
of the U.S. Federal prosecutors in the case also listed ISNA as a
U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity.

The Turkish government has been quietly spreading its influence in the
U.S., but Erdogan’s public invovlement in the building of this center
takes Turkey’s “outreach” in America out of the realm of the subtle.

The Clarion Project recently reported on the growing ties between the
Turkish government and Native American tribes. With Congress’ help,
thousands of Turkish contractors and their families may be flooding
into America’s heartland and settling in semi-autonomous zones of
the Native Americans, well out of the reach of American authorities.

The Clarion Project also reported on the Turkish Fethullah Gulen
school network in America, which is currently under FBI investigation.

The network is the largest charter school network in America. It
is the same network that has been a critical component in Turkey’s
on-going transformation from a secular democracy into an Islamic state.

Erdogan and his Islamist government calls Hamas a “resistance” group,
despite the fact that Hamas specifically targets Israeli civilians
with suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Not surprisingly, Hamas
leader Khaled Mashaal is a big admirer of Erdogan.

Since taking office in 2003, Erdogan has been implementing his
Islamist agenda, slowly but steadily changing Turkey from a secular
democracy to an Islamist state: College admissions have been changed
to favor religious students, the military has been gutted of its
secular generals (with one in five generals currently in prison on
dubious charges) and women have been routed out of top government
jobs. Honor killings in Turkey increased 1,400 percent between 2002 and
2009. Persecution of artists and journalists has become commonplace
as opponents are charged with “crimes” like “denigrating Islam” and
“denigrading the state.”

According to the Muslim Link, the new center will have five buildings,
including a mosque “constructed using sixteenth century Ottoman
architecture that can hold 750 worshipers.”

The Turkish American Culture and Civilization Center will be the
largest Islamic site in the Western Hemisphere. The fact that it is
being built by the government of Turkey represents the next step in
Erdogan’s desire to increase the Islamist influence in America.

Ryan Mauro is the ClarionProject.org’s National Security Analyst,
a fellow with the Clarion Project and is frequently interviewed on
Fox News.

ABKHAZIA, THE COMFORTABLE CONFLICT ZONE

Thomas de Waal Op-Ed May 28, 2013 National Interest

Despite its continued diplomatic isolation, heavy reliance on Russian
aid, and uncertain future, the breakaway territory of Abkhazia
has entered a period of relative normalcy as the country looks
increasingly inwards.

A curious word comes to my mind, entering a conflict zone: tidy.

Abkhazia looks tidy. The journey from the River Inguri to Sukhumi
(as most of the world still calls the city, the Abkhaz insist on
their traditional name Sukhum) follows a newly repaired road and
takes little more than an hour. Construction is going on all over town.

Shops are open and there are advertising hoardings on the street.

Russian tourists stroll along the embankment enjoying the bright
spring weather.

Thomas de Waal

Senior Associate Russia and Eurasia Program

The neatness is relative, of course. The streets are still much too
quiet. The major landmark in the center of the city remains the ruined
hulk of the Soviet-era parliament building, destroyed in the final
round of fighting between Georgians and Abkhaz in the war of 1992-3.

But the clean look reflects a political reality. People in Abkhazia
feel comfortable with their current situation.

In August 2008, following the five-day war with Georgia over
South Ossetia, Moscow recognized as independent Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, which had broken away from Tbilisi’s rule in 1992-93. Russian
recognition launched Abkhazia on a new trajectory, solving one set of
problems while generating new ones. Chiefly, it relieved at a stroke
the greatest anxiety of the Abkhaz-their feeling of insecurity about
re-conquest by Tbilisi. As a result, the issue of what Georgia thinks
or wants has perceptibly receded into the background, and the Abkhaz
political scene is more parochial, focused on internal issues.

This more inward-looking Abkhazia, especially since the 2011
election of President Alexander Ankvab, also pushes back against
Western countries that have traditionally supported Tbilisi. The
Abkhaz government has threatened to stop access to foreign diplomats
accredited in Tbilisi, on the ground that this implies recognition of
Georgian sovereignty over Abkhazia. Some diplomats from home capitals
are still allowed in-but diplomatic traffic into Abkhazia has slowed
to a trickle. Some Europeans have proposed projects in Abkhazia under
the EU’s strategy of “engagement without recognition,” but their
proposals were rejected on the ground that they were offering merely
a fraction of what Abkhazia gets from Russia.

One European diplomat described this approach as “self-isolation.” But
as we sat on the Sukhum sea-front drinking coffee, Abkhazia’s de
facto foreign minister, Vyacheslav Chirikba, robustly rejected the tag.

“How can you call a country which had more than seven million visitors
last year isolated?” asked Chirikba. He said a steady stream of
Russians and others were crossing Abkhazia’s northern border all the
time to take advantage of Black Sea tourist resorts.

“And we are not ‘occupied’ either,” he added. “Where are the
occupiers? I don’t see any,” he added, jokingly looking under the
cafe table. In fact, the only Russian soldiers I saw in three days
in Abkhazia were at the border crossing. Whatever Russian control
there is over Abkhazia is administered with a light hand.

But no one can dispute Russia’s economic dominance. The International
Crisis Group reported recently that a quarter of the budget comes
from direct Russian transfers, and that’s separate from a massive
Russian-funded infrastructure program for roads, schools, government
buildings and agriculture. Also, Russia pays the pensions of Abkhazia’s
retired.

The economy remains unhealthy, thanks in part to the government’s
big Ottoman-style bureaucracy, much larger than a political entity of
around 250,000 people can afford. “It’s hard being ‘on the needle,'”
said Stanislav Lakoba, secretary of the national security council
in Abkhazia, referring to the republic’s almost total dependence on
Russian economic subsidies.

Lakoba, a widely respected historian, has had several run-ins with
Russian parliamentarians determined to whitewash Russia’s nineteenth
century oppression of the Abkhaz. Still, Lakoba is not keen on engaging
with Europe via Georgia, although he says he would have welcomed it
a few years ago. “That train has left,” he says.

Since Abkhazia is cut off from mainstream international politics,
its internal discourse centers on issues the outside world barely
recognizes. There is a fierce debate about whether Abkhaz passports
should be extended to ethnic Georgian residents in Gali region in
southeast Abkhazia. And I heard discussions about whether it would be
beneficial for Georgia to recognize Abkhaz independence, or whether
the emphasis should be on third countries doing so.

Moderates want to extend Abkhaz passports and seek Georgian recognition
of their independence. They see the twenty thousand Georgians who
have taken Abkhaz passports as a sign of the success of the Abkhaz
state-building project-a pursuit of the “standards before status”
strategy adopted with Kosovo. Conservatives would deny citizenship to
ethnic Georgians and reject all engagement with Tbilisi. Lakoba argues,
for example, that giving Abkhaz passports to Gali Georgians who may
also secretly be holding Georgian passports “explodes” Abkhazia.

Such controversies get no hearing in Georgia. Tbilisi does not
recognize Abkhaz passports as legitimate (although it does sometimes
accept them as identification for everyday transactions across the
border). And recognition for Abkhazia is not on the agenda: the
very small number of Georgians who have raised the issue say it is
theoretically feasible only with the return of more than two hundred
thousand internally displaced persons.In Tbilisi, Georgia’s sovereignty
over Abkhazia and the right of return of Georgian IDPs are taken as
given. The big issue is whether to amend (not even annul) the Law
on Occupied Territories, whether to allow the Abkhaz more access to
the outside world in the name of engagement. Georgia now has its most
progressive government team dealing with the two breakaway territories
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. A minister named Paata Zakareishvili,
who has two decades of experience in working with Abkhaz and Ossetians
in the nongovernmental sector, holds this portfolio.

The previous government, led by Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National
Movement, had re-cast the conflicts as purely Georgian-Russian
disputes, downplaying the local origins of them in the late 1980s and
early 1990s and the role extreme Georgian nationalism had played in
triggering them.

Despite an “engagement strategy” that read well on the page, the
focus continued to be on calling the two territories “occupied” and
keeping them isolated from the world. Saakashvili personally vetoed
a proposal to allow three Abkhaz students to study in Brussels.

Since taking office last October, the new government has worked
to reverse such practices. “Saakashvili was always looking for
an opportunity to say no to Abkhaz and South Ossetians,” said
Zakareishvili. “We are looking for reasons to say yes-while always
taking into account of course the state interest of Georgia.”

The results have been small but significant. Covert Georgian military
units operating on Abkhaz soil have been disbanded. There is more
commercial traffic across the Inguri, and two new crossing points
were opened last week (although there is a fear that the border will
be tightened ahead of next year’s Sochi Olympics). The two sides
are finally working together properly on the important issue of the
missing, both the dead from the war and the living who are detained.

Yet, all new initiatives taken by the new government on the conflicts
are criticized by the opposition United National Movement as a
capitulation to Russian interests.

Everyone understands that Abkhazia is a protracted conflict: the
irresistible force of Russian protection collides with the immovable
object of widespread international recognition that Georgia holds
sovereignty over the republic.

Zakareishvili acknowledges he is in a long-term game. “Sooner or
later they will understand that they need alternatives in Georgia
and Europe,” he told me.

Given this, a game-changing move is needed. The only possibility I
can see is to rebuild the broken railway line around the Black Sea
connecting Sochi, Abkhazia, western Georgia and Armenia. If the
railway were to be rebuilt, the benefits would be massive to the
whole region. The new Tbilisi government floated the idea last fall,
but it met resistance from Azerbaijan and the Georgian opposition
and received only lukewarm support in Russia and Abkhazia.

It is striking how many people are either resisting or failing to
support a big regional project that could reconnect broken parts of
the region. It illustrates how everyone has grown comfortable with
a status quo that is still producing long-term discomfort to Abkhaz,
Georgians and others.

This article was originally published in the National Interest.