Author: Kalashian Nyrie

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS PIPELINE PERKS FOR RUSSIA IN ARMENIA-IRAN ENERGY DEAL
Eurasianet
Samvel Martirosyan 12/21/04
Iran has moved closer to gaining a strategic foothold in Caucasian
energy markets with the start of work on a gas pipeline to Armenia
that has been heralded by Yerevan as bringing “definite changes in the
region.” The project has the potential to undercut Russia’s control
of Armenia’s energy supply, yet two new gas projects could act as
potential deal sweeteners for this longtime Armenian ally. Plans were
recently announced for an increase in Armenian orders for Russian
gas and a possible role in the Iranian pipeline project for Russian
energy giant Gazprom.
Construction on Armenia’s section of the 142-kilometer gas pipeline
began on November 30, with $30 million in costs for the 42-kilometer
strip from the Armenian border town of Agarak to Kajaran, south of
Yerevan, picked up by the Iranian Export and Development Bank. Upon
completion in late 2006, the pipeline will supply the tiny South
Caucasus state with 36 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas over the
next 20 years. Gas from Turkmenistan is also scheduled to be delivered
to Armenia via the pipeline.
At an official ceremony to mark the project’s debut, Armenian Deputy
Prime Minister Andranik Margarian stated that the pipeline, in the
works since 1992, would bring economic benefits to Armenia as well
as foster regional stability. “This project has been implemented
throughout Armenia’s political and economic sufferings,” Armenian
media reported Margarian as saying. “In Armenia’s years of hardship,
Iran has stretched out its hand to help us.”
Expanding Armenia’s energy sources is a critical goal for the
administration of President Robert Kocharian – for both economic and
political reasons. Chronic energy shortages contributed to much of
the country’s economic decline after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
and Armenia’s economic woes continue to attract the criticism of the
country’s opposition. Speaking to reporters about Armenia’s energy
deal with Iran, Kocharian commented during a December 2 visit by
Iranian Energy Minister Habibollah Bitaraf that “[w]e are ready to
do everything possible to support the current level of cooperation,”
according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
In exchange for the gas, Armenia will eventually deliver up to
1,000 megawatts of electricity to Iran with the construction of two
high-voltage power lines between the countries. Additional electricity
projects are also in the works. In 2005 or 2006 Armenia hopes to
start construction on two hydropower plants on the banks of the Arax
River between Armenia and Iran, according to Margarian.
Oil could reinforce Tehran’s ties with Yerevan still further. At a
December 4 meeting between Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian
and Iran’s Armenian Ambassador Alirza Hagigian, plans were discussed
for construction of a 60-kilometer oil pipeline from the Iranian town
of Julfa to the Armenian border town of Meghri.
Geopolitics, though, rather than the attractions of the Armenian energy
market, appears to drive much of Iran’s push for partnership. With
American troops stationed in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq and
Iran’s nuclear energy program under intense international scrutiny,
the country’s ruling clerics have taken steps to assure the outside
world that the Islamic Republic is a force for stability in the
region. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s September 2004 visit
to Armenia, a close US ally, reinforced that campaign with a “good
neighbor” message that “Iran is interested in peace and stability in
the South Caucasus.”
But in drawing closer to Iran, Yerevan has risked alienating another
longtime ally – Russia. Though Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris
Alyoshin assured reporters in Yerevan earlier this year that the
pipeline deal with Iran would only provide additional business for
Russian-operated electricity stations in Armenia, the deal has been
scrutinized with some trepidation. The Russian company United Energy
Systems controls 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity generation
facilities, while heavy hitters Gazprom and Itera control 55 percent
of ArmRogazprom, currently Armenia’s sole natural gas supplier.
When the Iranian pipeline is complete, however, Armenia will no longer
need to depend solely on Russia for its natural gas needs. In Yerevan,
Kremlin concerns about the prospect of Armenia providing a conduit
for Iranian gas to Europe, a key Russian market, are widely believed
to have resulted in a reduction of the pipeline’s size to a width
too narrow for exports.
Yet Russian energy companies have not been idle in defending their
interests. The Russian news agency Interfax reported an unidentified
Armenian government source as saying on December 8 that Gazprom may
be invited to build and repair one part of the Armenian-Iranian gas
pipeline, between Kadjaran and Ararat, at a cost of $90 million. As
payment for its work, Gazprom would receive the No. 5 generating unit
at the Razdan power plant, Armeniaâ~@~Ys largest heating and power
plant, which supplies 20 percent of the countryâ~@~Ys electricity
needs. Armenian President Robert Kocharian had earlier dismissed
reports of such a deal.
Still other sweeteners are in the works. On December 11, ArmRogazprom
CEO and General Director Karen Karapetyan announced plans to increase
gas supplies to Armenia by roughly 31 percent during 2005 to some
1.6-1.7 billion cubic meters. A $27 million expansion of Armenia’s
gas pipeline from Russia is planned to handle the increased flow. “I
am convinced that the problem of Armenia’s energy security will be
solved soon,” the Russian news agency Novosti reported Karapetyan as
saying, “given the forthcoming opening of the alternative Iran-Armenia
gas pipeline.”
For now, the government line out of Yerevan is that what benefits Iran
benefits Russia. At a May 13-15 summit in Moscow with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, Kocharian took pains to stress that the pipeline deal
with Iran would not damage Russia’s own energy interests in Armenia
or result in a fall-off in Armenian orders for Russian gas. Gazprom,
Itera and United Energy Systems will all collect “major dividends from
the deal,” Kocharian said, Novosti reported. “They will benefit, too.”
Editor’s Note: Samvel Martirosyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and
political analyst.
–Boundary_(ID_RDC0vqePYfecS/w/Vx5AQA)–

The Armenian Diaspora
By Etyen Mahcupyan
Zaman newspaper
5 December 2004
We can say that diaspora groups live everywhere in the world in an
environment where they feel ‘out of sorts.’
It is not easy to be the object of a state of permanent and mandatory
guest-hood where they painstakingly learn the language and culture
of a society and as they do, get alienated from themselves.
Especially if one has, like the Armenians, a past
filled with pain, if one has been forcefully torn away from their
homeland and have been so heartbroken as to consider the possibility of
return a sort of non-issue; then being in the diaspora translates into
a very heavy emotional burden. To sum up in a single sentence, the
Armenian diaspora today is ‘the East within the West…’ These people
who were forced to depart from their homelands had to quickly adapt
to modernity of the Western countries they arrived in. This state of
being torn away led to an unavoidable process of individualization,
standing on your own feet, getting into multiple relations with the
people and institutions in the arrived countries. The requirements
of the workplace and especially the needs of children often eroded
the patriarchal codes of the family and a type of normlessness was
experienced in relation to how much the West lured the children away.
Consequently, the destiny of the Eastern diaspora in
the West is necessitated by the fact that the individualization
experienced in the socio-economic sphere does not correspond to
anything in the cultural sphere; more explicitly stated, they have to
sustain their identity within the alienation of the culture offered
them there…
Consequently, in order to retain their own identity, the Armenians had
to reform their communities in the Western world. Their identities
that had been fragmented at the individual level were reproduced anew
over such togetherness. And for this reason, from the viewpoint of
diaspora Armenians, ‘identity’ turned into a characteristic that
could be supported not as an individual but only as a community.
While communal activities became the only functional realm holding
them together, the expression of identity politics was also abandoned
to the charge of the aforementioned organizations… The communal
diaspora organizations acquired immunity and sometimes even a kind of
sacredness in the work they undertook because of the implied meanings
of identity. Hence, while the ‘individual’ implied a subject bounded
by personal life, societal participation was sought and lived through
the ‘community.’
The meaning of this is that it led communal politics to possess force
to create hegemony over the individual. On the other hand the Armenian
community continued to sustain a spiritual hierarchy within itself
because of its communal logic and its Ottoman past. Yet the secular
societies of the West were not made up of a character that would
permit the spiritual leadership to assume, as it did in the Ottoman
case, a political leadership as well… Hence today this political
vacuum is being filled by the political elite heading the communal
organizations in the Armenian diaspora. Yet the political elite of
the Armenian elite that had weak democratic traditions in its own
inception and that still reproduced itself anew within a patriarchal
mentality can be transformed into a type of political oligarchy….
And political oligarchy reproduces itself anew and fortifies its
position through radicalism, for radicalism contains this image that
implies it defends Armenian culture much more. In so far as no one
can claim that Armenian culture should be defended less, radicalism
naturally becomes the only politics… And what emerges is a nationalist
stand that centers on the absence of consideration that is in reality
without any ‘political backbone.’ While the diaspora imagines itself
to be engaged in politics, it actually remains contained by hardening
intra-community politics. The protective instinct created by sudden
change of living space creates, in the end, a reactionism that freezes
time, fixes the community, and obstructs politics by pushing it into
irrational channels.
–Boundary_(ID_afQEgtsAqv5mRuDzqpNxcA)–

Los Angeles Times
December 19, 2004 Sunday
Home Edition
BOOK REVIEW; Features Desk; Part R; Pg. 10
First Fiction
by Mark Rozzo
The Sucker’s Kiss
Alan Parker
Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s: 352 pp., $23.95
The British film director Alan Parker (“The Commitments,”
“Mississippi Burning”) tries his hand at fiction in this rollicking
tale of a San Francisco pickpocket and his picaresque journey through
early 20th century America. The cutpurse in question is Tommy Moran,
an Irish kid with a droopy left eye and magic hands able to probe
strangers’ pockets without detection. As Tommy describes his talent,
“I could slide in and out of a sucker’s purse like melted butter.”
Left a virtual orphan after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, he
zigzags back and forth across the country, landing in such archetypal
settings as Rudolph Valentino’s wake, the Kentucky Derby, a Jack
Dempsey fight, Niagara Falls and Coney Island. But much of “The
Sucker’s Kiss” (the title alludes to an especially challenging
face-to-face pickpocket maneuver) reads like a mash note to San
Francisco. Parker re-creates the 1906 quake with the imagination of a
brainy school kid fascinated by the rush of history.
In subsequent years (the novel takes us up to the Depression), we
discover the city’s ethnic nooks and crannies: Tommy’s best friend is
Sammy Liu, who works in one of his uncle’s hoodoo joints in Mah Fong
Alley and grows up to be an accomplished gangster. There are the
Italian households and groceries of North Beach, teeming with
laughter, kids and fagioli beans. And then there’s Napa, where Tommy
falls for an Italian-Armenian beauty named Effie and tries to lead a
straight life amid dappled hillsides and a faltering Prohibition-era
wine industry. Can he do an honest day’s work? Is there any point,
when Wall Street fat cats are thieves too?
This is an entertaining, if overheated, allegory of American avarice.
Capitalism is pickpocketry, sleight of hand, a ripping yarn. True to
his cinematic roots, Parker juices up the message with murders, mob
activity, bootlegging, crooked priests, pornography, infidelity and
the like to make clear, as Tommy puts it, “what a screwed-up place
America had become since Prohibition.” Parker might lack his hero’s
buttery touch, but, like Tommy, he has a remarkable flair for getting
away with stuff.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
December 17, 2004, Friday
RUSSIAN AIR FORCE WILL RUN SEVERAL EXERCISES IN 2005, SOME OF THEM
TOGETHER WITH CIS PARTNERS
Colonel General Boris Chelsov, Air Force Chief-of-Staff, says that
several exercises, some of them together with CIS partners, will be
run in 2005. Units of all branches of the service will be involved in
the maneuvers. Exercises within the framework of the CIS United
Antiaircraft Defense System and a counter-terrorism drill are planned
as well.
Foreign reconnaissance planes patrol Russian borders, and the Russian
Air Force is supposed “to prevent trespassing”. “It has everything it
needs to accomplish that,” Chelsov said.
Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev, Air Force Second-in-Command for the
CIS United Antiaircraft Defense System, says that Exercise
Rubezh-2005 will be run on the territory of Tajikistan in April 2005.
Another exercise at Ashuluk testing site near Astrakhan will take
place in August. Units from the Russian, Armenian, Belarusian,
Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tajik national armies will participate in the
exercise. Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan may join the exercise too, and
Ukraine will send its observers.
Source: Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier, No 49, December 15 – 21, 2004,
p. 5
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Anadolu Agency
Dec 17 2004
Erdogan: Maybe We Can Go To Northern Cyprus One Day, And Invite
Papadopoulos
BRUSSELS (AA) – ”Maybe we can go to Northern Cyprus one day, and
invite (Greek Cypriot leader Tassos) Papadopoulos. We can have a
coffee of peace and meal of peace there,” Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.
Erdogan, who chatted with representatives of Turkish newspapers
and television channels in Belgian capital of Brussels, said heads of
state and government of European Union (EU) member states had started
to arrive in Brussels.
PM Erdogan said, ”we won’t attend the summit today. 25 member
countries will hold the summit among themselves, and they will have
dinner this evening.”
Noting that some topics would start to be clarified during the
dinner, Erdogan said that deliberations would continue all night.
-ERDOGAN’S MEETINGS WITH LEADERS-
Erdogan said that most of the EU leaders had a positive approach
towards Turkey’s sensitivities, but all matters had not been settled
yet.
”Not only our friends at the Foreign Ministry, but also Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul continue their deliberations on these unsettled
matters with the foreign ministers and prime ministers (of EU member
states). We will meet some prime ministers and heads of state today.
We also get appointment from some others (some other officials). We
will meet Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt some time later, and
have luncheon. He had a luncheon with (French President Jacques)
Chirac yesterday, and we gave them some topics. I met him here last
week. Also, Abdullah Gul met Verhofstadt. We conveyed our demands to
him in written,” Erdogan said.
Noting that he would also meet his Greek counterpart Costas
Caramanlis later today, Erdogan said he talked to Caramanlis by phone
last night (Wednesday night), and noted that Caramanlis suggested
that they should meet after luncheon.
Erdogan stated that he would meet German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder before dinner, and efforts were under way to also meet
Chirac before dinner.
PM Erdogan said that he would also meet British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, and stated
that Blair was one of the leaders who could understand Turkey’s
sensitivities.
-THERE SHOULD NOT BE ANY ELASTICITY, EVERYTHING SHOULD BE CLEAR-
Pointing out that British Secretary of Foreign & Commonwealth
Affairs Jack Straw had asked to meet him, Erdogan said that Cyprus,
permanent derogation, and how ”open-ended negotiations” were
defined were Turkey’s sensitivities.
”There should not be elasticity, everything should be clear,”
he said.
Erdogan stated that the decision to open full membership
negotiations with Turkey should not be left to a second meeting, and
some other conditions except Copenhagen political criteria, like
Cyprus and border issues, should not be imposed before Turkey’s
membership.
PM Erdogan recalled that he briefed ambassadors of EU member
states on all those matters during their meeting in Ankara, and asked
the ambassadors to inform their leaders about those issues.
”I think developments regarding Cyprus issue can become clear
after my meeting with Caramanlis,” Erdogan said.
Answering a question, Erdogan said that the EU did not exert any
efforts to end isolation of Turkish Cypriots, and noted that Turkey
will assume a positive approach if the United Nations (UN) launches
initiatives to solve the Cyprus problem.
Erdogan went on saying, ”I should frankly say that, maybe we
can go to Northern Cyprus one day, and invite Papadopoulos. We can
have a coffee of peace and meal of peace there. Because, our motto is
to gain friends, not enemies. But, we should also see the same
approach from the other side. We will do anything if we see the same
approach. Progress we have made with the countries in the west,
north, south and east of Turkey, with which we didn’t have contacts
in the past, is a clear evidence of this. And, the progress we have
made with Greece is another open evidence. South Cyprus gained what
it expected on May 1st.”
-WE CAN DO WHAT NORWAY DID-
Noting that negotiations could be cut when the process
continued, Erdogan said, ”if we see that progress we want can’t be
made and if we think they are playing with time, we will stand on our
feet and do what Norway did; that is, we can quit. What we want is to
walk on this road without any discrimination. It seems that there is
one-sided approach here; that is, they say that Turkey will make EU
pay a big price when it joins the Union. Nobody is talking about
possible contributions Turkey will make. Turkey is already
contributing to the Union. Turkey is closing a serious foreign trade
deficit of EU.”
PM Erdogan stated that Turkey would continue to do what was
necessary till it became a full member.
-”ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”-
Answering a question on so-called Armenian genocide, Erdogan
said that he did not see any difference between the expressions
”Armenian genocide” and ”the so-called Armenian genocide”, and
both were expressions which can be maneuvered. Erdogan said that what
happened in the past should be left in the past, and added, ”history
should not incite our hatred. If we are to build a new world, we
should settle this world on peace. This is our main understanding.”

PRESENTATION OF “FATAL TOYS” VIDEO FILM TAKES PLACE IN ETCHMIADZIN
ETCHMIADZIN, December 15 (Noyan Tapan). The “Fatal Toys” video
film was presented in the patriarchate of the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin. The film is dedicated to the children who became disabled
because of the mines and other uncontrolled ammunition left after
the war in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and border regions. About 10
children tell what happened to them and speak about their problems in
the 30-minute film. Photographer German Avagian’s works, photographs
and stories of disabled children put down by him were used in the film.
“The war is still going on in Nagorno Karabakh, occupied territories
and other border regions of Armenia,” Tigran Paskevichian, Director
of Shoghakat TV company, the author of the film, said in his opening
speech. He also said that they intend to publish a book representing
the stories of these children and showing the arms crippling them
with their characteristics.
Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II was also present at the
presentation. In his speech he praised the film and thanked its
producers.
The film was produced by the Shoghakat TV company with the grant of
the Internews NGO.

USA plans to provide equal aid package to Azerbaijan, Armenia
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Dec 16 2004
The US Congress intends to provide equal assistance to Azerbaijan and
Armenia next year, the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish told
AssA-Irada on Wednesday.
The aid, to be allocated by foreign institutions, is a part of the
assistance rendered to Azerbaijan in the area of security and fighting
global terrorism, the ambassador noted.
Harnish also underlined that the United States earlier assisted
Azerbaijan in implementing programs concerning the country’s southern
borders and training of peacekeepers.
“We highly appreciate cooperation with Azerbaijan in the area of
security and fighting global terror,” said Harnish, adding that the
US administration plans to continue collaboration in this area in
the future.*

Mehr News Agency, Iran
Dec 15 2004
Ardebil governor meets Armenian officials
TEHRAN (MNA) – Heading an industrial, economic delegation, Ardebil
governor, Javad Negarandeh paid a four-day visit to Yerevan, capital
of Armenia.
In his meeting with Armenian Minister of Agriculture Tavit Lokian,
Negarandeh underlined the establishment of joint workgroups in both
countries, especially for boosting economic and trade relations. The
two sides had met each other this summer in Ardebil. On his part,
Lokian stated that a large exchange market could be established on
the borderline of Armenian Syunic Province and Ardebil Province.

Bahrain Tribune, Bahrain
Dec 14 2004
EU ministers fail to settle Turkish entry details
Brussels: European Union foreign ministers yesterday failed to settle
key details of Turkey’s drive to join the 25-nation bloc, leaving EU
leaders at a summit on December 16 and 17 to decide the date for
opening the talks – and set new conditions for Turkish accession.
The 25 foreign ministers continued to differ on a range of important
issues, including the critical question of whether leaders should
make a reference to a so-called `plan B’ of offering Turkey a special
partnership instead of membership.
Germany remains adamant that the goal is to ensure Turkish accession
to the bloc, not forge special ties with Ankara, German Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer said.
`There was no discussion of a privileged partnership with Turkey,’
Fischer said.
Conservative politicians in Germany and France have stepped up
demands that EU leaders must offer Ankara a special relationship
rather than full-fledged entry.
But rejecting such a half-measure, Fischer insisted: `Our aim must be
Turkish accession.’ French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, however,
said Paris wanted the summit statement to include a reference to a
fall-back plan.
If negotiations with Turkey failed, EU leaders should make clear that
they were ready to preserve `strong links’ between Turkey and the EU,
Barnier said.
Reflecting a more cautious stance on Turkey being adopted by French
President Jacques Chirac, Barnier insisted that an EU decision to
open negotiations with Turkey did not guarantee that Ankara would
eventually join the bloc.
`Negotiations will be long, difficult and transparent…there will be
no shortcuts,’ he warned.
Negotiations should only open in end-2005, the French Foreign
Minister said, adding that discussions would be subject to constant
monitoring and could be suspended at any time by either side.
France does not want its referendum on the new EU constitution set
for next summer to be complicated by public opposition to Turkish
accession. Barnier cautioned that the question of Turkey’s entry was
a source of great anxiety and unease in many parts of France.
The EU summit is expected to set additional conditions for Turkey,
including demands that Ankara must recognise the government of
(Greek) Cyprus and accept a permanent cap on labour migration.
Barnier said France would also ask Ankara during the negotiations to
recognise the `tragedy’ of the Armenian genocide in the early years
of the last century.
Pointing to the geo-strategic importance of allowing Turkey to join
the EU, Fischer said this was a guarantee for the modernisation and
`Europeanisation’ of the country.
He added that a summit statement on just how and when Turkey must
recognise (Greek) Cyprus was still being worked out by the current
Dutch presidency of the EU.
In separate comments made in Berlin, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter
Balkenende said Turkey must recognise Cyprus in the run-up to this
week’s EU summit.
`Turkey must understand that all member states say relations between
Turkey and Cyprus should change in the future,’ said Balkenende,
after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The Turkish government has declined to give diplomatic recognition to
Cyprus which joined the EU earlier this year. Ankara only recognizes
the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Greek Cyprus is now part of the EU while Turkish Cyprus is not.
Balkenende said Turkey should approve a protocol extending its EU
customs union to Cyprus.
Meanwhile, an opinion poll published in France’s Le Figaro newspaper,
said two of three French respondents and 55 per cent of Germans were
opposed to Ankara becoming an E.U. member.
On the other hand, people in Italy (49 per cent for, 24 per cent
against), Britain (41 per cent for, 30 per cent against) and
especially Spain (65 per cent for) said they were in favour of
Turkish EU membership.

Childish disease of political field
Yerkir/arm
December 10, 2004
It is natural and justified, when political initiatives, steps and
processes turn into subject of active discussions. However, it is not
natural, when political activities are discussed on non-political
plains.
And it is even more unnatural, when non-political comments possess
childish coloration. Probably, certain people think politics is a game
like hide-and-seek or other.
And they view political steps not as successful-unsuccessful,
important-unimportant, effective-ineffective but in a format of
`winners-losers.’ When political tensions verged a clash this spring,
but had a narrow escape, some politicians considered it a loss of one
of the parties, instead of realizing that everybody won by escaping
the clash. And now that the Electoral Code is being discussed on the
issue of proportional and majoritarian balance, these politicians
think of it in `loser-winner’ format.
Some of those who consider themselves losers take an offended
position, others oppose in indignation without understanding the
illogical nature of their steps. This works out like a spoilt
telephone damaging any constructive process.
After all, if someone accidentally finds himself in politics, he must
understand that the logic must be fitted to political norms and rules
but not to their preferences.