Author: Kalashian Nyrie

ARMENIA TO HOLD CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM NEXT MONTH
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Republic
Oct 4 2005
4 October 2005 — Armenian President Robert Kocharian has signed an
order to hold a referendum on constitutional amendments next month.
Kocharian’s office today said the vote would take place on 27 November.
The Armenian parliament passed the amendments last month.
Kocharian and his government say the changes, which are backed by the
Council of Europe and the United States, aim at ensuring a stricter
separation of powers among the judicial, executive, and legislative
branches of power.
But the opposition claims the planned reform will play in Kocharian’s
hands.
Opposition lawmakers, who boycotted last month’s vote, have called
upon Armenians to reject the constitutional amendments.
The proposed changes would also remove a legal provision outlawing
dual citizenship for millions of members of the Armenian diaspora.

SOLANA WARNS OF ‘HUGE RISK’ IF EU REFUSES TURKEY ENTRY
Agence France Presse — English
October 1, 2005 Saturday 11:27 AM GMT
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has warned of “a
huge risk of leaving Turkey without an anchor in the world”, should
the bloc not make progress on membership for the mainly Muslim state
in Monday’s scheduled negotiations.
“Let’s look 25 years ahead and imagine that we have said no to Turkey,
that it has been a disaster for the Middle East and there are huge
oil and energy crises,” Solana said in an interview published Saturday
in daily newspaper Le Soir.
“Perhaps we will regret not having said yes to incorporating Turkey
into our way of thinking, to our philosophy and our values…
“There is a huge risk of leaving Turkey without an anchor in the
world. It is better for EU citizens to have Turkey on our side than
.. I don’t know where,” he warned, adding that the EU must “respect.
its commitments” to the candidate state.
Turkey first applied to join the bloc in the 1960s and was accepted
as a candidate country in 1999.
Formal entry talks are due to start in Luxembourg on Monday, but
member state Austria has prevented the agreement of a negotiating
framework by opposing full member status in favour of a “privileged
partnership”, an option flatly rejected by Ankara.
EU foreign ministers are to open talks in Luxembourg late on Sunday
to try to come to a last-minute agreement on negotiation terms.
“The situation is not easy … but I don’t doubt that we will find
a solution,” Solana predicted.
Entry talks have been further complicated by Ankara’s ongoing refusal
to recognise Cyprus, now an EU member state, and to accept that
massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to “genocide.”
An opinion poll published Saturday in Turkish daily Milliyet showed
a 10 percent drop in public support for EU entry, now running at 57.4
percent, and confidence in the bloc running at 17.5 percent.
While the candidacies of Turkey and Croatia are not officially linked,
Austria’s conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Scheussel last week pressed
Croatia’s case over that of Turkey.
Accession negotiations with Croatia were deferred in March due to a
lack of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the UN war crimes court.
However Solana warned that conflating the two applications was “not
a good idea”.
“If Turkey is ready, we must begin (talks). And if Croatia is ready,
there too. But we can’t have a quid pro quo with the fate of these
countries’ populations,” he said.
The EU working group on Croatia, which includes Solana, is due to
convene on Monday morning with chief UN warcrimes prosecutor Carla
Del Ponte.

EP PROVOCATIONS TO TURKEY
By Selcuk Gultasli
Zaman, Turkey
zaman.com
Sept 29 2005
The European Parliament (EP) which postponed ratification on the
Customs Union Supplementary Protocol, signed between Turkey and
European Union (EU) has now called Turkey to acknowledge the events
which took place between 1915 and 1923, as Armenian genocide.
After calling the prosecution of Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk and
the cancellation of the Armenian conference ‘provocations’ aiming to
obstruct Turkey’s EU process, the EP has now made a provocation itself.
On Wednesday, the EP issued one of its most severe resolutions on
Turkey. EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee Chair Joost Lagendijk
told Zaman, “After the provocations of Pamuk and Armenian conference,
this is a provocation from EP.”
The resolution on the so-called Armenian genocide is non-binding, but
the EP’s attitude regarding the protocol is assessed as the beginning
of a legal crisis. For the Supplementary Protocol to come into effect,
approval in the European Parliament is required.
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn maintained the postponement
would not impede the beginning of the negotiations. However, his
letter to EP is reported to have been effective in the postponement.
The Commissioner who had announced he would take action so that
Turkish parliament did not handle the Supplementary Protocol and the
declaration together, had put EP into expectation.
In the meantime, Christian Democrats have turned out to have deceived
other political groups in the EP.
The Christian Democrats had promised not to propose the postponement
of the vote on the Supplementary Protocol if a common resolution
emerged in the last session.
On Wednesday evening, however, they announced they would not keep
to this.
The Supplementary Protocol that envisages the extension of the Customs
Union to the 10 new Union members including the Greek Cypriots was
on EP’s agenda Wednesday.
Postponing the ratification vote on the Supplementary Protocol and
issuing a joint resolution which contained quite severe terms.
The delay in approving the Supplementary Protocol has triggered a
serious legal crisis on the eve of October 3.
The Christian Democrats, EPP, demanded of Turkish parliament to left
out the unilateral declaration, which proclaimed non-recognition of the
Greek Cypriots, during the ratification process of the Supplementary
Protocol in the Turkish Parliament and they managed to impose this
approach to the EP.
Now, the European Parliament wants to see how the Supplementary
Protocol and the declaration will be handled by the Turkish parliament.
Turkey, in the meantime, has communicated to its counterparts that
it is out of question that the European parliament does not ratify
the declaration.
Ankara thinks that the declaration and its ratification are rights that
derive from the international law and that EP’s demand is tantamount
to asking Turkey not to exercise the rights that derive from the
international law.
The EP could not assume a consistent attitude with regard to Turkey’s
declaration on Cyprus, it has been noted. The Union had not taken
any such action in relation with the declaration Greece unilaterally
issued to object to the name of Macedonia.
Reportedly, the EP has taken four decisions similar to the one about
the so-called Armenian genocide it has taken on Wednesday.
The first of these four decisions was taken in 1987.
Attention is drawn to attitudes that these decisions were evaluated
“politically” rather than “legally” and that the decisions by the
European Court of Justice reflected the same perspective.
Christian Democrats mislead the parliament
Christian Democrats misled the other political groups in the EP about
the supplementary protocol.
In the last meeting with the other political groups, the EPP promised
they would not offer any postponement of the supplementary protocol
if a common decision appears like this. Upon this, the Socialists,
the Greens, and the Liberals allowed the joint decision to toughen
against Turkey.
The EPP group assured that they would not present any motion asking
amendments in some issues including the so-called Armenian genocide
in return of toughening the text.
However, the EPP calling the other groups at late night hours on
Wednesday said they would not be dependent on the agreement reached
and present a motion about postponement of the supplementary protocol.
The EPP has therefore toughened the joint resolution as they wished and
caused the so-called Armenian genocide to be accepted as a precondition
for Turkey’s membership to the EU.
Chair of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee in EP Joost
Lagendijk said the EPP misled them. Lagendijk directing his criticisms
specifically to Elmar Brok said they were shocked as the resolution
was reached with the support of unexpected groups.
EU Commissioner Olli Rehn scores own goal
Reportedly, an official letter by the EU Commissioner for Enlargement
Olli Rehn to the EP was effective in the postponement of the
supplementary protocol. Rehn sent a letter to Elmar Brok, chairman
of the EP’s Foreign Affairs Committee, on September 22, conveying
he would make an attempt not to allow Turkey’s Cyprus declaration
(July 29) to be approved together with the supplementary protocol at
Turkish parliament.
Comments have been made that that the EP had expectations about this
and the letter became effective in the postponement of the voting.
Rehn released an announcement yesterday expressing regrets about
the EP’s decision of delay and saying the decision will not affect
the negotiations to begin on October 3. Rehn determined that EP’s
attitude weakened EU’s calls on Turkey about non-fulfillment of its
promises about the Supplementary Protocol.
Rehn also used football terminology in his yesterday speech saying
that EU should not score an own goal. Despite Rehn’s warnings, EP
members delayed the voting with the excuse that Turkey will approve
the Declaration on Cyprus in the Turkish Parliament.
Significant points of the decision
If Turkey does not approve the Supplementary Protocol, EU negotiations
may stop.
Chapters on the Customs Union should be first chapters to deal with.
Turkey should immediately recognize the Greek Cypriot Administration.
Recognition is not an issue to be discussed.
Turkey should pullout its troops from Cyprus in an early period under
the framework of a schedule.
EU’s absorption capacity is a prerequisite of enlargement.
Isolation on Turkish Cypriots should end.
Lawsuit against Orhan Pamuk is a source of concern. Turkish Criminal
Code’s (TCK) articles of 301/1 and 305 should be reviewed. Bill on
Foundations is a source of concern as well.
Vessels and airplanes under Greek Cypriot flag should be permitted
to enter Turkish sea and airports.
EU Commission should inform about the number of people who have faced
torture in Turkey in the progress report.

ISSUE OF BUILDING KAPAN-MEGHRI MOTORWAY’S TSAV-SHVANIDZOR SECTION REMAINS OPEN
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Sept 28 2005
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, NOYAN TAPAN. A number of representatives
of Armenia’s mass media and NGOs paid a visit to Syunik marz on
September 24-26 to conduct a monitoring of the situation at the
Tsav-Shvanidzor section of Kapan-Meghri Motorway. Earlier it was
envisaged that the indicated section of the road would pass through
the Shikahogh Reserve. This would destroy most of Mtnadzor Forest and
cause irreparable damage to nature. However, the community intervened,
which made the Armenian government take a decision on July 10, 2005,
under which the initial project was changed and the road was to bypass
the reserve – through the village of Shishkert.
The monitoring was conducted within the framework of the campaign
against the construction of the motorway through the Shikahigh
Reserve with the support of the World Wildlife Fund and the Critical
Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), with the information NGO Ecolur
being in charge.
According to Ruben Mkrtchian, Director of the Shikahogh Reserve, no
construction work is being done in the territory of the reserve. The
work at the Tsav-Shvanidzor section is underway, even though slowly.
The builders explained it by their bitter experience – sometimes a lot
of effort is made to transport the equipment to an out-of-the-way place
and later they have to move it from the area beacuse of some changes to
the project. The builders said they are waiting for the final project
which has not been submitted for an environmental examination yet.
The residents of the Shishkert village told reporters about the recent
visit of the RA Minister of Transport and Communication Andranik
Manukian. They were concerned since during the visit the minister
expressed doubts about the correctness of the decision to build
the motorway through their village. It also became known that the
designers are preparing yet another version of the road construction,
according to which the road may bypass Shishkert and run through the
edge of the Shikahogh Reserve for several kilometers.
Deputy Head of the Syunik regional administration Robert Sargsian
noted at the meeting with reporters that Shishket plays an important
role in the strategical development of the marz. He was convinced
that the scheme bearing the signatures of the Armenian President and
Prime Minister will not be changed. “We are resolute to protect the
version that is the most convincing one both from the environmental
and financial point of view,” Vladik Martirosian, Chairman of NGO
“Khustup” said.

ARMENIAN GROUPS IN GEORGIA ADVOCATE AUTONOMY
Journal of Turkish weekly
Sept 27 2005
Jan SOYKOK (JTW) – A group of non-governmental organizations based
in Georgia’s southern region of Javakhk, predominately populated by
ethnic Armenians, held a conference on September 23-24 to discuss
current problems in the region, Armenian newspaper Asbarez reported.
According to the report the Armenians demanded greater autonomy
including elections for all bodies. The Georgia experts argue that
such claims mean separation of Georgia.
The Council of Armenian non-governmental organizations in Javakhk also
called on the Tblisi leadership to consider granting autonomy to the
region with `broad authority for self-governance, including the right
to hold elections for all bodies of governance.’ The resolution further
says that by offering the broadest form of autonomy to South Ossetia
and Abkhazia, the Georgian authorities are `discriminating against
other ethnicities living in Georgia–the rights of other ethnicities
who have demonstrated civil loyalty are being ignored,’ it reads.
However Dr. Yesim Sahiner says the declaration simply means a
separation of Georgia: “Armenians seek to establish their own country
in Georgia. They hope they could separate Javakity from Georgia. They
will then annex the territory to Armenian Republic. Another Armenian
aim is to separate Ossettia and Abkhazia. In Abkhazia in particular
there is a significant Armenians and they plan to establish a
Abkahazian-Armenian state.”
Kemal Yurteri, a Turkish Caucaus expert, similarly warn both Georgians
and Armenians that such a separation would be a disaster for the
region:
“None of the Caucasian countries need more territories. Armenian
irredentism caused great catastrophe in the past. Armenian forces
occupied almost 20 percent of Azerbaijan and attacked the other
Azeri province of Nahcivan. However none of the Armenian problems has
been solved since then. The EU and the OSCE accuse Armenia of being
occupier in Karabakh. Armenia still relies on Russian military while
the other countries aim to integrate their economies. If the Georgia
Armenians undermine Georgia’s territorial integrity, it will damage
both Georgia and Armenia. Turkey and the United States should take
measures to prevent the separatist movements in Georgia. Otherwise
the Western and Turkish interests too will be damaged a lot”.

ARMENIAN TABOO
By Derya Sazak
Turkish Press
Sept 27 2005
MILLIYET- Another taboo has been broken. The Armenian conference was
held, and the world didn’t come to an end. These are the headlines
of newspapers published in Turkey. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times
characterized the issue as follows: ‘a groundbreaking event where
Turkish academics could for the first time publicly challenge their
country’s official version of the events leading to the slaughter
of Armenians.’ People immediately paid attention to the fact that
the conference was held, because some tried to block the meeting at
Bogazici University with a court order. Three rectors, namely Ayse
Soysal, Tosun Terzioglu and Aydin Ugur, resisted the judiciary’s
intervention in academic autonomy and ensured the meeting was held.
However, demonstrators protested the participants in front of
Bilgi University, which was nothing but thuggery. Another series of
conferences can be held on Turkey’s Armenian thesis, but demonizing
a conference as ‘biased’ in front of universities is outmoded behavior.
What’s more, such acts took place even before any speeches were made.
The thesis of ‘genocide’ didn’t stand out, but speeches were made
stating that as long as the policy of ‘recognition, then compensation
and land’ isn’t abandoned, the process of dialogue will be difficult.
Professor Baskin Oran made striking remarks on the issue. ‘The effect
on the Turkish people of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation
of Armenia’s (ASALA) killing Turkish diplomats and the murderers being
left unpunished is similar to the criticisms from Armenians over the
massacre which occurred in 1915, and this situation strengthened the
Armenian taboo,’ he said. ‘Some of our colleagues say that genocide
is a term in the social sciences. Genocide is a legal term. When the
Convention on the Prevention and Repression of the Crimes of Genocide
was passed in 1948, Armenians shaped the term so it could constitute a
similarity to the Holocaust. The Armenian issue isn’t a taboo anymore,
and this conference confirms this.’ As long as democracy grows
stronger in Turkey and hurdles to freedom of expression are removed,
the atmosphere of discussion will grow more mature. The common judgment
of participants was that a similar conference couldn’t be organized
in Yerevan. The academics who organized the conference contributed
to the development of Turkey’s democratic structure, just like the
intellectuals who took the initiative for disarmament in southeastern
Anatolia. We should congratulate them.

WOUNDS OF HISTORY: TURKEY’S FAILURE WITH ITS KURDS
By Jonathan Power
Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
Sept 27 2005
THIS is the edge of tomorrow’s Europe, at least if Turkey gets its
way. A desolate, mud-built, village, close up to the Syrian border,
reduced to rubble by the Turkish army battling the terrorists of the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, is slowly being repopulated by a brave few.
The families are understandably nervous.
The PKK has recently restarted its insurgency, breaking a five year
truce, angry with the government’s slow delivery on its promises
to allow Kurdish in the primary schools, full scale broadcasting in
Kurdish and to invest in economic development. “This violence is what
we don’t want”, says one man, living with his extended family under
nothing more than a homemade canopy.
Five minutes drive from the river Tigris that watered downstream
the first of humankind’s civilisations, we engage in what seems to
be almost surreal conversation. On the one hand, the grandfather,
who has fathered twelve children, explains how they make a living
with their herd of sheep out of what appears to be a stony, barren
land without a blade of green grass to be seen. On the other, he says,
although in their hearts they feel Asian they want to enter the Europe
Union. “Europe will give us peace and give us Kurds our rights”,
he says. “And give us food and jobs” adds one of his sons.
A few kilometres away is another larger, more prosperous, village
that escaped the war unscathed. The villagers grow wheat and lentils,
and although they say the water is of poor quality every house has a
television and half the men of the village, as they converse with me
in a large circle, show me their mobile phones. The refrain is the
same, even from the young men who hover standing at the back: “We
don’t want to fight again. We Kurds want Europe to accept Turkey. We
feel deep in ourselves Asian, but now we want to be European”.
But how can modern Europe swallow all this? The poverty, the ignorance
(girls are rarely educated out here), and now the renewed bubbling and
boiling of war. This is not the civilisation of contemporary Europe,
and probably not even of ancient Mesopotamia.
This is life almost, if not quite, at its most elementary and
unsparing.
The Turkish government, as one senior official told me, “seems never
to miss a chance to shoot itself in the foot”. Desperate as it is to
cement on October 3rd the agreement of the EU to begin its negotiations
for entry, it has this year seen not only the police beating up women
demonstrators, the indictment of Turkey’s best known novelist, Orhan
Pamuk, for writing that the Armenian accusations of Turkish genocide
in the days of the Ottoman empire need to be looked at openly but,
most importantly, the bureaucratic go-slow on implementing what was
promised to the Kurds, and thus providing the kindling for a renewal
of the insurgency.
Some of the country’s liberal voices are driven to wonder what
is really going on behind the scenes. Inur Cevik, who was once a
prime minister’s senior aide and now publishes the English language
newspaper, The Anatolian, and who is described by one senior European
ambassador as someone who “is pretty damned true”, tells me that he
is convinced that parts of the army are conniving with the PKK to
restart the fighting so as to derail the Turkish approach to Europe.
But, for all the ineptness of the Turkish government that gives
rise to such conspiracy theories, the likelihood is that these are
rogue elements.
Moreover, apart from the fact that the high command of the Turkish
army is firmly pro Europe, as their mentor Ataturk would have expected
them to be, the PKK itself is also split on Europe. The PKK appears
to realise that an anti-European stance is not popular in this
southeastern corner of Turkey.
Neither, for all its romantic allure, is their occasional talk of a
united Kurdistan. Once again the militants of the PKK are split.
Kurds are impressed with the degree of political and economic autonomy
that the Iraqi Kurds have won during the recent negotiations on the
Iraqi constitution, but they are also aware that it is a precarious
autonomy and that the government of that province is still, despite
elections, essentially feudal, dominated by two families.
Most of the country’s Kurds want to be European and are neither
seriously tempted by the PKK or a united Kurdistan. But Turkey still
doesn’t know how to bring its Kurds up to the starting line. And
in making this grave mistake it is probably delaying the chances of
Turkey of entering as quickly into the Europe Union as it wants to.
Jonathan Power is an eminent foreign affairs commentator and can be
reached at [email protected]

Cyprus Press and Information Office: Occupied Northern Cyprus
Sept 23 2005
Turkish diplomats warn the US over Armenian genocide Bill
Ankara Turkish Daily News (22.09.05) reports that Turkeys
relationship with the United States, already damaged by disputes over
Iraq, may deteriorate at an unprecedented rate in the event the U.S.
House of Representatives approves two Armenian genocide resolutions
passed by a house panel last week, Turkish diplomats warned.
We dont expect this to happen, but if the resolutions are approved by
a floor vote at the House of Representatives, it will mean that the
United States legislation in one way or another will have labeled the
Armenian events as a genocide, and the effect will have catastrophic
dimensions in terms of ties between Turkey and the United States,
said one diplomat. The Turkish people will never forget this, and no
Turkish government may remain indifferent to what the people think.
Despite objections by U.S. President George W. Bushs administration,
the House of Representatives International Relations Committee on
Sept. 15 endorsed the two resolutions denouncing the deaths of
Armenians early last century as genocide. The House is the lower
house of the U.S. Congress, while the Senate is its higher house.
The committee voted 35-11 to approve a resolution, sponsored by
Democratic lawmakers, calling on Turkey to acknowledge the
culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, in the
1915-1923 deaths.
A second resolution, sponsored by Republican representatives, passed
40-7, calling for U.S. foreign policy to reflect an understanding of
the Armenian genocide and for the president to recognize the deaths
as genocide.
It is not clear if or when the resolutions will be brought before the
full House of Representatives.
In private talks Turkish diplomats say House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
a Republican lawmaker close to Bush, is not expected to bring the
resolutions to a floor vote at the House because he is aware of the
grave consequences in Turkish-U.S. relations.
However, Armenian groups also claim that they have Hasterts support
for their cause.
As we work to build on the committees favorable action, we look to
Speaker Hastert to honor his pledge and schedule a full floor vote on
the Armenian Genocide legislation at the earliest opportunity, said
Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of
America.
Armenians claim that the Ottoman empire caused the deaths of up to
1.5 million of their kinsmen in a planned genocide. Turkey says the
toll is wildly inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced
in civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey
says many Muslims also lost their lives. Ankara believes that Armenia
will use the genocide claims to make territorial demands against
Turkey.

IWPR.NET
24 Sept 2005
Armenia: Can Lake Sevan Rise to the Challenge?
Trees and summerhouses disappear from view as lake waters rise. Photo by
Ruben Mangasaryan/patkerphoto.
Ecologists fear a rare environmental triumph is in danger of going wrong.
By Arevhat Grigorian in Sevan and Yerevan
Buildings and beaches around Lake Sevan are rapidly disappearing under water
as efforts by scientists and environmentalists to reverse the decline of
this huge freshwater reservoir pay off more quickly than expected.
Despite the fact the encroaching waters could soon be lapping at their
windows, many who live and work around the Armenian lake are delighted to
see it returning to former levels.
“I’d like to see the water rise as much as possible, and if necessary, we’ll
just move the building to another place,” said Norik Simonian, a bookkeeper
at a motel located on the lake.
Azat, who rents part of the beach, where he has set up cafes and other
visitor attractions, agreed, “What would happen if the water level did not
rise, and the lake turned into a swamp? There’d be no business then anyway.”
Lake Sevan, one of the highest altitude lakes in the world, began dwindling
in the 1930s under a ruthless plan to use its waters for irrigation and
hydroelectricity. A paradise of beach resorts and holiday villas sprang up
along the lake’s edge.
But as the water levels began to fall, changes in temperature and oxygen
supply depleted fish reserves. In particular, several varieties of trout
vanished and other species are on the verge of extinction. Birds also
abandoned the area as the nests they had once built close to the water’s
edge were left stranded far from the newly exposed shoreline. The lake
itself was used as a waste dump.
Faced with this ecological disaster, environmentalists have been campaigning
for years to get the government to take action to restore the water to its
former levels.
The government stopped using Sevan for energy in 1999 and two years later
parliament passed a law decreeing the water should be raised to 1,903 metres
above sea level, the height at which experts say it will be possible to
regulate the temperature and oxygen levels and restore the ecological
balance.
“Beginning in the 1930s we ‘borrowed’ 26 billion cubic metres of water from
Lake Sevan in order to satisfy our energy and food production needs,” said
Vladimir Movsisian, vice-president of the Expert Commission on Lake Sevan
and a member of the National Council of Water. “We should now return at
least eight billion to the lake so that we can take water from it in the
future if the needs arises.”
Water is now flowing in through tunnels from the Arpa and Vorotan rivers,
and 410 hectares of land have already disappeared.
By the time the lake hits its target level, ten times that amount will be
under water – 4,427 hectares, of which 3,130 are forest and the rest
resorts, private mansions, arable land and 30 kilometres of highways.
But this rare Armenian environmental triumph is in danger of going wrong.
Scientists had predicted it would take 30 years to refill the lake, but now
forecast that could happen in just 15, as water pours in faster than
expected, helped by unexpectedly high levels of precipitation.
Though they don’t know if the water will continue to rise at this rate, it
seems likely that money will have to be found sooner than expected to carry
out crucial preparatory work along the shoreline.
This could be a problem as the government has only a fraction of the
estimated 30 million US dollars needed to remove trees, shrubs and buildings
from areas that will eventually be flooded.
So far, just 150,000 dollars have been allocated to clear an area of 100
hectares already under water, with work scheduled to begin in November.
Early estimates suggest another 200,000 dollars will be needed next year.
Environmental campaigners are worried that if money isn’t found to sweep up
the rest of the rapidly disappearing land, the flooded forests will begin to
rot and poison the lake.
“We’ve seen this since Soviet times when water reservoirs were filled
without a prior clean-up,” said Karine Danielian, chairperson of the
non-government organisation For Sustainable Human Development.
“The water became toxic and the reservoirs became useless for drinking
water. It’s those who are responsible for clearing the land, but who don’t
want to take responsibility for it, who say the damage will be minimal.”
Movsisian is also concerned.
“The rotting of the forest mass is not a danger to the lake now. But if no
measures are taken in the future and 3,700 hectares of forest go under
water, then it will become a problem,” he told IWPR.
Boris Gabrielian, deputy director of the Institute of Hydro-Ecology and
Ichthyology at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, agrees that
additional organic matter could harm the lake and cause swamps to form.
However, he points out, “the raised water level would improve the quality of
the water, and the benefit from this will be greater than any damage caused
by the forests going under water”.
Artashes Ziroian, head of the governmental Agency for the Preservation of
Biological Resources, appeared relaxed about the situation in an interview
with IWPR, suggesting there is no need to begin clearing trees immediately.
“Next year the water level might not go up by so much, and the forests will
have been cut prematurely,” said Ziroian.
Armenia’s environment minister, Vardan Aivazian, is also wary of ecological
doommongers, suggesting the flooded shoreline poses no current threat.
Environmentalists, however, are suspicious of Aivazian who raised concerns
in June when he said that new “scientific substantiation of the
environmental impact of the increase of water in Lake Sevan should be given”.
Some speculated this meant the government wanted to stop the water rising as
it couldn’t afford to clear the shore.
“To demand new scientific research today for Lake Sevan is like treachery
for the simple reason that the problem has been painstakingly studied over a
period of many years by many specialists in all the relevant scientific
establishments, not only in Armenia but in the Soviet Union before that,”
said Hakob Sanasarian, chairman of the Union of Greens of Armenia. “Huge
amounts of government money were spent on this and they all reached the same
conclusion – that the water levels of Lake Sevan must be raised.”
The former chairman of the environmental committee of the National Assembly
of Armenia, now permanent member of the European Commission for the Fight
Against Desertification, Gagik Tadevosian, told IWPR, “The survival of
Armenia depends on Sevan. Where there is Sevan, there is Armenia.”
Back on the lakeshore, Flamingo Beach has lost half its territory in two
years. Parts of the aquatic park are now under water though manager Artur
Avetisian dismantled all metal structures as the water rose.
He is now cautious about re-erecting them elsewhere as he has no idea how
fast, or how far, the water is going to rise.
Vardan Aivazian told IWPR that the Armenian government will compensate all
those who own property which may be flooded, though he has received no
requests so far. He added that the silence could be because some of the
buildings were put up illegally.
“The increase in the water level of Sevan is more valuable than a few
peoples’ houses,” said Aivazian. To bring his message home, he quoted one of
Armenia’s richest businessmen, Gagik Tsarukian, who told Aivazian that he
would be ready to move his house to another location, “if only, God willing,
the water level of Lake Sevan increases”.
Arevhat Grigorian is a reporter for the Hetq online newspaper in Yerevan.

A1+
| 18:25:45 | 22-09-2005 | Politics |
ARMEN RUSTAMYAN COMMENTING ON UPCOMING REFERENDUM
`I am not against the stepwise settlement if Nagorno Karabakh’s status will
be determined at the initial stage’, Chairman of the Parliamentary
Commission for Foreign Issues Armen Rustamyan stated today in the National
Press Club.
Armen Rustamyan shares the position Armenia holds. If the Karabakh issue is
included in the UN agenda, Armenia will abandon the negotiation process,
which, in his words, does not exist at present. `All we have is meetings and
consultations’, he noted.
When asked whether the failure of the referendum on constitutional
amendments can tell on the Karabakh settlement Armen Rustamyan said, `We
should not mix the referendum with the authorities-opposition relations.’
When commenting on the possible postponement of the referendum he said, `If
we come to conclusion that the atmosphere is not proper for conducting a
referendum we can postpone it.’
At the same time he considers `not a bad document is awaiting the
referendum.’ `If some political forces wish to use the referendum as an
instrument to change the power their attempts will be doomed to failure,
since no European structure will approve such a transformation’, he resumed.