Author: Karagyozian Lena

Pan Armenian News
TURKEY DISAGREE WITH STATUS OF EU PRIVILEGED PARTNERSHIP
06.06.2005 06:14
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey wishes to become a full member of the European
Union and `is not going to take any other decision’, Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated in his interview with Bild am Sonntag weekly. In
his words, the status of privileged partnership proposed by the Christian
Democratic Union of Germany is inadmissible for Turkey.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

g/454425.html
Analyse
Die Warnung der Engel
Elif Shafak
Berlin und Istanbul haben viel miteinander gemein: die zerrissenen
Seelen, die schwere Last der Geschichte, die langen Schlangen vor den
Donerläden. In einer Hinsicht allerdings unterscheiden sie sich
fundamental: wenn Berlin die Stadt des entschlossenen Sich-Erinnerns
ist, dann ist Istanbul die Stadt der totalen Amnesie. In Berlin stoßt
man uberall auf Spuren der Vergangenheit: Mit Mahnmalen und Plakaten,
Denkmälern und Ausstellungen wird das historische Gedächtnis immer
wieder belebt. In Istanbul käme kein Mensch auf den Gedanken, eine
zerbombte Kirche als Mahnmal fur kunftige Generationen stehen zu
lassen; niemand erinnert mit Gedenktafeln daran, aus welchen Häusern
die Bewohner vor siebzig Jahren verschleppt worden sind. Als ich in
Istanbul lebte, habe ich in der Straße der Kesselflicker gewohnt,
einer steilen alten Gasse, die von ethnischen Minderheiten aller Art
bewohnt wurde, später von Schwulen und Lesben. Auch hier konnte man
gut ein Gedenkschild anbringen: “Am 6. und 7. September 1955
versammelte sich hier eine Horde turkischer Nationalisten und
zerstorte alle Geschäfte, die nicht von Moslems gefuhrt wurden. Die
Ware von judischen, armenischen und griechischen Händlern wurde aus
den Läden gerissen und die Straße hinuntergeworfen.” In Berlin ist
diese Art offentlichen Gedenkens jederzeit moglich. In Istanbul
nicht.
Als die biblische Stadt Sodom in der Apokalypse versank, wurde Lot
von den Engeln gewarnt: “Rette dein Leben und sieh nicht hinter
dich.” Seine Frau hat die Warnung ignoriert, sie hat sich umgedreht
und ist zur Salzsäule erstarrt. Wir Turken nehmen die Warnung der
Engel ernst – viel zu ernst: Sie ist fur uns das Haupt-Lebensmotto
geworden. Aber so lange wir der Vergangenheit nicht ins Gesicht sehen
konnen, bleiben unsere Herzen erstarrt.
Kurzlich wollte ich auf einer Konferenz zum Thema “Armenier im
letzten Jahrhundert des ottomanischen Reichs” reden. Doch wurde sie
schnell wieder abgesagt – nach einer chauvinistischen Rede des
turkischen Justizministers, der im Parlament alle Teilnehmer vorab
angeklagt hatte, der Nation einen Dolch in den Rucken zu stoßen. Ganz
offensichtlich war der turkische Justizminister zu der Uberzeugung
gelangt, dass noch gar nicht vorgetragene wissenschaftliche Thesen
auf einer Konferenz, die noch gar nicht stattgefunden hatte, eine
ernste Bedrohung fur das Wohl der Nation bilden konnen.
Die Turkei befindet sich heute in einem Kulturkampf: einem Kampf
zwischen Erinnern und Vergessen. Erst wenn die turkische
Zivilgesellschaft beginnt, sich der eigenen Geschichte zu stellen,
wird auch der Demokratisierungsprozess eine wahre Chance bekommen.
Erst wenn die Turken das Leid eingestehen, dass sie den Armeniern
zugefugt haben, werden die Politiker auch den heute lebenden
ethnischen und religiosen Minderheiten ihre Rechte nicht mehr
verwehren konnen. Wer ein Verbrechen vergisst, bereitet den Boden fur
das nächste. Aus der Verdrängung der Vergangenheit erwächst keine
gute Zukunft. Jemand wie der turkische Justizminister verbietet uns
nicht nur das kritische Denken. Er verbietet uns auch das Recht auf
unsere Trauer und das Recht auf Erinnerung.
Elif Shafak (34) unterrichtet an der University of Arizona in Tucson
Gender Studies. Zuletzt erschien ihr Roman “Die Heilige des nahenden
Irrsinns” auf Deutsch im Eichborn-Verlag.
Dieser Text wurde aus dem Englischen von Jens Balzer ubersetzt.
–Boundary_(ID_IL0FLiN8f5tK6gxyTsKWfg)–

Azerbaijan To Prevent Unsanctioned Rally
RFE/RL
Friday, 03 June 2005
Baku, 3 June 2005 (RFE/RL) — Azerbaijani authorities said today they
will prevent an unsanctioned anti-government rally the opposition
has called for tomorrow.
Government spokesman Ehsan Zahidov says no permit was issued to the
opposition parties to hold the rally. Zahidov says the opposition’s
intent was to create a confrontation in Baku and that was unacceptable.
The head of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan, Ali Kerimli,
vowed the rally will be held in a central square in Baku. Kerimli
says it is a constitutional right to hold a rally.
Police and protesters clashed last month at a similar rally, in which
some 75 people were arrested.
(RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, AFP)

Newark Star Ledger, NJ
June 3 2005
Putting social consciousness to canvas
Pierro Gallery show has four artists whose palettes feature protest
Friday, June 03, 2005
BY DAN BISCHOFF
Star-Ledger Staff
“Realities of Our Times: A Closer Look” brings four socially conscious
artists, three from Jersey and one from New York, together in a show
at the Pierro Gallery in South Orange that can only be described as a
social protest. It even divides neatly: Two artists protest domestic
inequalities and the other two decry war.
Beyond those correspondences, all four artists are representational, as
virtually every socially committed work of art is. Taken together, the
works in “Realities” seem to consciously invoke earlier art, from Works
Progress Administration prints to East European cartoons, in order
to make their political points. By and large, they are successful.
Photographer Helen M. Stummer, known for her pictures of Newark
subcultures, is perhaps the most explicit. She says in her artist’s
statement that “in the social documentary tradition of Jacob Riis,
Dorothea Lange, and Lewis Hine, I strive to portray stark realities of
people living on the edge.” Riis, Lange and Hine are among the most
famous of the early muckraking and labor photographers, who made a
study of appalling conditions for late 19th- and early 20th-century
people caught in the backwash of American capitalism.
Stummer does something very similar, even noting, in text printed on
the Pierro’s pleasant suburban walls, that the scenes she captures were
taken “just 10 minutes from here,” something she believes visitors may
well find shocking. Images like “Clara’s Kitchen–14th Ave. Newark” are
indeed very Riis in their squalor; but it is the way Stummer suggests
defiance and humanity in her subjects that is different. “Imitating
Mommy” and “Imitating Daddy” might suggest cliches of ghetto life —
early pregnancy in the one, thug life in the other — but the kids
won’t stop being individuals, and the pix actually undercut such
simple-minded caricatures. What they are really about is family
affection, which knows no stereotype.
Tim Gaydos, of Paterson, is known primarily as a romantic
abstractionist, turning Rust Belt tableaux into the sort of personal
aesthetic Abstract Expressionists of the ’50s were all about. But he
is also a Romantic Realist, and here he is showing nearly a score
of oils, pastels and even bronzes on the subject of homelessness.
Occasionally the bright colors make a counterpoint to the jackknifed
and prone bodies, as in one pastel of a man sleeping in his shopping
cart, one foot resting on a parking meter. The sculptures are new to
this reviewer, the bodies made of scavenged rusty plates and crumpled
rebar, but the faces and hands cast with almost Rodin-like liquidity.
Marcia Annenberg, who lives and works in New York, is here showing four
acrylic paintings that deal with war and the fear of war in the United
States. “Cruise to Kuwait” is based on photos of the vapor trail of a
sea-launched cruise missile, which arcs across the red canvas behind
a gun turret crowned with spikes that mimics the Statue of Liberty’s
crown. “B-2/Kukailimoku Blues” juxtaposes a stealth bomber with an
ape and a Polynesian statuette; “Safe at Last” shows a school girl
hiding under her desk, with a fallout shelter label on the wall.
Annenberg’s style is cool and emblematic — all her paintings have
a counterintuitive calm — that reminds you of the contemporary
narrative painting of Ida Applebroog or early R.B. Kitaj.
Shakeh Sassoon was born in Armenia, grew up in Iran and has lived
in Paterson for the past 10 years. Her eloquently stylized canvases
remind you of the pen-and-ink drawings of attenuated human figures by
Paul Klee; long, angular bodies with baseball knees and empty eyes.
They are very much the work of someone who knows war and death,
especially the harrowing triptych, “Splendid Insanity.”
As long as there is war, art will not be pretty.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

21 parties interested in Madneuli
The Messenger, Georgia
June 3 2005
Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Georgia Kakha Damenia stated
after opening privatization bids for the Madneuli mining complex on
Wednesday that it would take one to two months to determine the winner.
According to Damenia, the bid review commission will pay attention
to the price suggested by the companies, perspectives of development
of the company and capital structure.
The companies interested in Madneuli include the Resources Capital Fund
(Australia), Liu in Holdings (Bahamas), Eurasian Mining Corporation
(Britain, Columbia), Armenian Cooper Program (Armenia), Horizon
Resources Incorporated (Canada), Bolnisi Gold NL (Georgia), David
Geo Simen (Bahamas), London International Bank (Great Britain),
Kazreti Mining (Georgia), Deno (Switzerland), Rusinkor (Russia),
Stanford International (USA), Rom Trade Limited (Russia – Switzerland)
and France Group (Dubai).
The sale includes 97.25 percent of Madneuli stocks, 50 percent
Qvartsite Ltd stocks, 51 percent of the Georgian Samtamadno Company
stocks and 50 percent of TransGeorgian Resource stocks.
The Ministry of Development of Georgia expects to sell the package
for at least USD 50 million.

An overdue agreement with major work ahead
The Messenger, Georgia
June 2 2005
Vestiges of a dead empire, the Russian military bases in Akhalkalaki
and Batumi will finally be withdrawn from Georgia over the next
two-and-a-half years. Hailed as an “historical event” by numerous
officials, the agreement signed on May 30 in Moscow between foreign
ministers Sergei Lavrov and Salome Zourabichvili was the product of
laborious talks that whittled down Russia’s timeline for the withdrawal
from the over 11 years to the more reasonable schedule of 30 months.
President Mikheil Saakashvili cheered the news in a special briefing
held only hours after the decision was announced in Moscow saying
that President Putin made a “brave political step” and that a new era
of relations between the two countries can now begin. However, for
these new relations to bear fruit, serious attention must be paid to
the fulfillment of the agreement- bearing in mind past disappointments.
The timeline for the withdraw is well detailed. On June 1 the
first facility, a tank repair base near Tbilisi, was handed over
to Georgian officials. By September of this year, the withdrawal of
forces from Akhalkalaki will begin with the removal of 40 pieces of
heavy equipment, including at least 20 tanks. By the end of 2006 all
of the heavy equipment will be removed from Akhalkalaki and the base
itself will be finally closed on October 1, 2007. According to the
agreement, the military base in Batumi will be liquidated sometime
in 2008 and at the same time the Trans-Caucasian Russian Military
Headquarters will leave Georgia.
President Saakashvili credited a phone conversation with President
Putin on May 26 for contributing to the agreement. “I believe that
President Putin has shown courage, great political instinct, common
sense and made a brave political step, and I cannot but appreciate it,”
he said Monday night. Indicating that Moscow has finally accepted his
“open hand,” which he offered at his inauguration, Saakashvili said
that today one of the “two main painful issues” between the countries
has been eliminated; the other remaining point is separatist conflicts.
The agreement on the bases represents a major triumph for President
Saakashvili and his government, but with this major thorn out of
the way, his administration must focus its attention now on smaller
details. In his speech on Monday, Saakashvili promised that concurrent
with the liquidation of Batumi and Akhalkalaki military bases, the
Georgian government will ensure the economic welfare of the local
communities. He added that the government would provide housing and
possibly a military position for any current employees of the base
who hope to stay in Georgia.
Georgia’s past experience with base withdrawals also gives us
lessons for today. Senseless mine-laying and cavalier maintenance
of explosives means that today former Russian bases in Sagarejo,
Vaziani, and elsewhere are deadly scrap heaps. While the government
has neither the funds nor interest in making the area around these
bases safe, local residents are pushed by poverty to explore the
bases for scrap metals, grazing land and timber. Both Georgian and
U.S. officials are also aware that as Russian withdrew from bases in
the past, they left another trail of destruction sabotaging facilities,
pouring cement into sewer systems, and generally damaging as much of
the infrastructure as possible.
Today’s ‘new relations’ with Russia will hopefully find solutions
so that none of this is repeated again. A litmus test will be the
ability of Moscow and Tbilisi to reach a working agreement on what the
anti-terrorist center in Batumi, called for in the May 30 agreement,
actually does and what it consists of.
Georgia must also deal with concerns from Azerbaijan that the transfer
of Russian military equipment into Armenia does little to strengthen
the overall stability of the region. Baku has already sent letters of
protest to Russian officials while Yerevan has already expressed its
approval that more Russian military equipment is on the way. Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vardan Oskanian is quoted in the
newspaper Akhali Versia as defending the transfer of some forces to
Armenia. “Russia and Armenia operate according to a mutual agreement
on military base transfers and military collaboration,” he said,
“If Russian-Armenian decisions satisfy all the conditions of the draft
[agreement], then nobody has the right to interfere in our and Russia’s
internal issues.”
The agreement on the bases is another central feather in Saakashvili’s
political cap, next to the Batumi revolution, the Patrol Police and
the strengthening of the Georgian army. It is a cap that is often
waved around on public service announcements and in speeches. What
deserves just as much attention, however, is the fact that all of
these require much more than rhetoric in order to be successful.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 1, 2005, Wednesday
CIS: ARMY BROTHERHOOD IS DRAWING ITS LAST BREATH
SOURCE: Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, No 19, May 27 – June 2,
2005, p. 2
by Igor Plugatarev
CIS Headquarters for Coordination of Military Cooperation
(Headquarters) is drawing its last breath. CIS leaders (Russia,
Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia,
Georgia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan) will meet in
Moscow on June 22-23 and make the final decision, according to
Nikolai Bordyuzha, General Secretary of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Tajikistan).
Established in 1992, the headquarters never lived up to expectations.
Military cooperation within the framework of the Commonwealth
deteriorated with each passing year, meetings of defense ministers
became a pure formality. It is clear after all that CIS countries set
military relations with others in accordance with their interests and
not with some structure with vague functions and duties established
in the 1990’s. Moreover, military policy of many of these countries
clearly aims at a confrontation with Moscow. Ukraine regularly
generates tension of the Russian Black Sea Fleet which prevents its
speedy integration into NATO. Georgia and Moldova insist on
withdrawal of Russian military contingents from their territories.
Turkmenistan does not even participate in the work of the
Headquarters or CIS Council of Defense Ministers. Uzbekistan prefers
to deal with Russia within the framework of the Shanghai Organization
of Cooperation… The situation being what it is, the work of the
Headquarters was a fiction.
“Bona fide military cooperation and effective interaction between law
enforcement agencies is restricted to the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization alone,” Bordyuzha said on May 24.
Asked if the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization was to
become even more active when cooperation between defense ministries
of CIS countries was finally over, Bordyuzha replied that it was.
According to Bordyuzha, the next meeting of defense ministers of
countries of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization in June,
will contemplate over 50 issues. They include problems of
peacekeeping, discussion of a mechanism of compilation of the list of
terrorist organizations. Improvement of the personnel training
system. “A great deal of issues have to do with the force element. We
will discuss within its framework plans of coalitionist military
development until 2010,” Bordyuzha said.
No new members are to be admitted into the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization this time. Observers say that it will be logical
for Uzbekistan to apply for membership but Bordyuzha says that
Tashkent has not submitted its request yet.
As for expansion of the force element of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization, “we are talking about establishment of a major
army group in the Central Asian region. We will discuss it at the CIS
Council of Defense Ministers,” to quote Bordyuzha. (There are already
Russian-Belarussian, Western, Russian-Armenian, and Caucasus army
groups within the framework of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization.)
Six defense ministers may also discuss establishment of a new
military base of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization. At
the very least, work with public opinion on that score is already
under way. The base may be established in the town of Osh,
Kyrgyzstan.
Bordyuzha ducked the direct question if a base in Osh was to be
established. “Some representatives of former security structures of
Kyrgyzstan suggested the idea, but official Bishkek has not submitted
an application,” Bordyuzha said. “We will discuss it if and when it
is submitted.”
In fact, the plans to establish a base in Osh were first revealed by
Andrei Kokoshin, Chairman of the Committee for CIS Affairs of the
Duma and ex-secretary of the Security Council. It happened on May 22,
in Osh itself, when the delegation of the Russian parliament was
visiting Kyrgyzstan. According to Modest Kolerov (chief of the
directorate of presidential administration for contacts with foreign
countries who was also in Osh then), establishment of military bases
in Kyrgyzstan was indeed discussed at the Russian lawmakers’ meeting
with acting president of the Central Asian republic. Moreover, the
discussion was initiated by acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev
himself. Sources in Bishkek confirm Bakiyev’s words, that he does not
object to establishment of a counter-terrorism center in Kyrgyzstan
on the basis of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization or
any other structure.
Russian military experts view Bakiyev’s offer as quite logical.
Colonel Anatoly Tsyganok, Director of the Center of Military
Forecasts, says that because of the lack of stability on the
territory between Kokand, Ferghana, Namangan, and Andizhan, the
Russian-Kyrgyz counter-terrorism center could closely cooperate with
the army group of the Uzbek East District that controls the situation
in the Ferghana Valley but that cannot hope to come with a rebellion
or another color revolution. At first, however, the experts suggests
the use of the Russian peacekeeper brigade of the Volga-Urals
Military District. “It will be great from the point of view of public
relations,” Tsyganok said. “On the request from Bishkek and Tashkent,
capitals of the countries that are members of the Shanghai
Organization of Cooperation, Russian peacekeepers are deployed to
assist Kyrgyz and Uzbek border guards, to maintain order, and divide
the warring sides… It will be even possible to involve the CIS
Collective Security Treaty Organization at a later date.”
As for the Kyrgyz population’s attitude towards the possibility of
return of the Russian military, Russian Consul Yuri Ivanov says that
the locals do not object. “The officials and men in the streets I
talked to cannot wait to see the Russian military back,” the diplomat
said. “The widespread opinion is that it will only benefit the
republic.” There was a transit base in Osh not long ago used to ship
consignments to the Russian group of border guards and 201st
Motorized Infantry Division in Tajikistan.
Sources in the secretariat and bodies of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization say that “as they say, there is something to
establish the base in Osh on. There is good military infrastructure
there, a military airfield near the civilian one capable of receiving
small transport planes…”
According to what information Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye has
compiled, Kyrgyz army has a substantial group in Osh at this point.
The matter concerns the 1st Separate Brigade of Mountaineers (1,400
men, 108 fighting vehicles, 36 artillery pieces and mortars) and the
3rd Antiaircraft Artillery Brigade (almost 300 men, 30 S-60 57 mm
artillery pieces, 30 100 mm antiaircraft pieces, and 4 antiaircraft
mobile Shilkas). Command of the 1st Border Detachment is quartered in
Osh too. A subdivision of the CIS Counter-Terrorism Center is located
in Bishkek itself.

A STEP TO INTEGRATE THE ARMENIANS OF JAVAKHQ
A1plus
| 12:56:08 | 01-06-2005 | Social |
In order to integrate the young Armenians of Samtskhe-Javakhq into
the Georgian society a camping program will be realized starting from
June in the Bakurian resort town.
The program supported by President Sahakashvili will be realized in
11 phases, lasting 10 days each. Within the framework of the event
1700 Armenian youngsters aged 16-20 will have the possibility to
communicate with the Georgian youngsters of the same age.
The information is provided by the agency “A-Info”.

INTERNATIONAL CONTEST AFTER ARAM KHACHATURIAN OPENED IN YEREVAN
Pan Armenian News
31.05.2005 08:19
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An international contest after Aram Khachaturian
opened in Armenia today. 18 violinists from 7 countries will compete
with each other May 31- June 6. Yerevan State Conservatory, secondary
musical school after Chaikovsky, Cologne High Musical School,
Paris National Higher Conservatoire, Tbilisi Conservatory after
Sarajashvili and London Royal Musical Academy students will take part
in the contest. It should be noted that 23 musicians have applied for
participation in the competition, however, 5 of them will not take
part in it. In the course of the first tour 9 violinists performed
today. It should also be noted that an exhibition of photographs,
made during Aram Khachaturian’s last visit to London will open in the
composer’s house-museum today. Author of the photos Susy Meider, Aram
Khachaturian’s friend Asatur Gyuzelian, composers Karen Khachaturian
and Edvard Mirzoyan will be present at the event.

DISCUSSIONS ON “PUBLIC RELATIONS IN IT SPHERE IN ARMENIA” WILL TAKE PLACE IN TSAGHKADSOR ON JUNE 3-5
YEREVAN, May 31. /ARKA/. Discussions on “Public Relations in IT sphere
in Armenia” will take place in Tsaghkadsor on June 3-5. According
to P.aRt Company, such issues will be discussed in the course of
the meeting as perception by the public of the fact of IT ‘s being
a priority in Armenia. Participants of the meeting will touch upon
the principles of covering the IT industry, and will discuss the
steps for wide application of IT as a guarantee of progress for the
development of society.
The discussions are organized by Enterprises Incubator Foundation
jointly with P.aRt. A.H.–0–