Author: Kharatian Ani

AZERBAIJAN’S STATE COMMISSION: GRANT GABRIELYAN WAS HANDED OVER TO THE ICRC REPRESENTATION, NOT TO THE OFFICIALS OF THE SO-CALLED REGIME

Azeri Press Agency
Aug 20 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku. Mahbuba Gasimbayli – APA. "The reports given to media outlets
by the ‘State Commission of the so-called Nagorno Karabakh Republic
about Gabrielyan Grant Samvelovich, who was detained in the territory
close to the positions of Azerbaijani servicemen on May 16 this year
and handed over on August 19, are not right," says the statement made
by the Working Group of the State Commission on Prisoners of War,
Hostages and Missing Persons, APA reports.

The statement says after Grant Gabrielyan was detained during the
talks for identifying him it was found out that he had a number of
health problems.

"At first he acted strange, he had difficulty in answering questions,
telling his home address and workplace. During all this time no
one concerned himself with him or appealed to the State Commission
on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons. The so-called
commission remembered this only after the citizen was handed over. If
they were concerned over Grant Gabrielyan, they would have appealed
at least to the international organizations. But they did not do it,"
the statement says.

The Working Group of the State Commission said only the representatives
of ICRC office in Khankendi attended the handover procedure.

"Thus, Gabrielyan was handed over to the representation of the
International Committee of the Red Cross, not to the officials of
the so-called regime," the statement says.

UNHCR: THE FLOW OF ARRIVALS TO ARMENIA SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTED

Panorama.am
14:12 20/08/2008

The conflict in Georgia resulted in a substantial population movement
to the neighboring Armenia. Following the conflict a joint mission
of the State Migration Agency of the Ministry of Territorial
Administration and UNHCR was carried to out to all three border
crossing points to assess the situation of new arrivals in Armenia.

Border entry figures for the first 10 days after the conflict in
Georgia indicate that from 8 – 18 August 2008, a total of 10,730
foreigners entered into Armenia at Bagratashen, which is only one of
the three main entry points into Armenia from Georgia. In comparison
to the flow of foreigners entering Armenia in a normal situation,
only three days prior to the conflict i.e. from 5-7 August 2008, 400
foreigners crossed the border at Bagratashen. Following the conflict
the figure has increased by more than 10 times, which is a dramatic
increase in the flow of foreigners into Armenia. Some foreigners
also used Armenia as a transit country to travel onwards to their
home countries.

The Armenian branch of Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
reports that New arrivals are predominantly Georgian citizens of
Armenian ethnicity, among them a large majority is women and children
who fled to stay with extended family members and friends in Armenia,
fearing a worsening security situation in Georgia. Among the newly
arrived foreigners, there are Georgian and Russian citizens of Georgian
and Armenian ethnicities, mainly originating from Tbilisi, Gori and
South Ossetia, as well as other nationals, largely from diplomatic
community and other international organizations.

The United Nations Country Team in Armenia established a Task Force
chaired by UNHCR comprising UNICEF, UNDP, WFP and WHO to join
efforts with the Government of Armenia to assess the population
movement to Armenia as a consequence of the Georgia situation
and prepare a contingency plan. The effort of the UN Country Team
intends to complement the response capacity of the Government of
Armenia to humanitarian assistance needs that may arise. Thus far, the
Government of Armenia has a functioning system on the ground and border
authorities have handled the mass flow of new arrivals efficiently.

Channel 1, Tbilisi, Georgia
Aug 12 2008

Georgian president’s speech at rally outside parliament

The following is an excerpt from a speech by Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili at a rally outside the parliament building in
central Tbilisi on 12 August, which was broadcast live by state-funded
Georgian Public Television Channel 1. Earlier on 12 August BBCM
processed parts of the speech in which Saakashvili talked about
Georgia leaving the Commonwealth of Independent States and "Russian
invaders" continuing "ruthless, heartless destruction" of Georgians.

[Saakashvili] My dears, my compatriots, the whole world is watching us
today. I would be glad to see the world interested in our affairs for
a much better reason. Now, as I am speaking, the invader who came from
Russia is continuing the ruthless and cruel destruction of my
compatriots, our multiethnic citizens, representatives of various
ethnic groups. As a president of our country, I am in a very difficult
situation today. I was travelling on the [main] highway when they
started entering Zugdidi. I arrived in Zugdidi, turned back, and I was
watching how aircraft were flying down and bombing us, and how every
one of us was targeted by this ruthless, cruel and sadistic force, but
I could do nothing to protect my compatriots. I will never forget
that. But I want to tell you one thing: Together with you, I will make
these rascals pay dear. We shall be victorious without fail. [Passage
omitted: asks the rally to observe a minute’s silence for the people
killed in the conflict]

What did Russia want from Georgia? Does not Russia have territories?
Does not Russia have towns and villages? Does not Russia have
sufficient oil, gas, and everything else? What does Russia want in
tiny Georgia? What did Russia want in the small, beautiful mountainous
town of Tskhinvali, which it destroyed and turned into another Groznyy
over the last few days? Have these people learned nothing from
civilization? Have they learned absolutely nothing since the Mongol
[invasion]? Are they, like those Mongols, going to continue
confronting the civilized world? What they want is not Abkhazia. What
they want is not Tskhinvali. What they want is not even Georgia
itself. They do not want freedom, and that is why they want to step on
Georgia.

I want to tell you that there is no confrontation between us. We did
not want to start shooting at anyone. What could be worse than one
human being killed by another human being? In Kekhvi and Tamarasheni
[Georgian-populated villages in South Ossetia], where they are gunning
down my compatriots, where they are setting up concentration camps,
where Russian troops, who are not allowing European observers there,
are creating a new Srebrenica on the instructions of Vladimir Putin,
in the same towns and villages where we built kindergartens, schools,
a hospital, houses and roads over the last few months. They were
closing roads, and we were building roads. They were destroying our
houses, and we were building better houses for people. They closed a
road to a hospital, and we built a new hospital. They banned young
people’s movement, and we built sports grounds and swimming
pools. They were shooting from automatic rifles while we brought
ensembles to entertain people and make their lives better. And then
Putin and his group could not bear it any more, and they said: From
now on, the only thing this place will see will be Russian bombs and
Russian cluster munitions banned by an international convention.

What did Russian troops want in the Kodori Gorge and Upper Abkhazia?
You know that since we restored order there, there has been nothing
but peace and development in Kodori. [Passage omitted: says that
Georgia build social infrastructure and restored law and order in the
upper Kodori Gorge after 15 years of lawlessness; accuses Russia of
bombing a children’s skiing school in the gorge]

The next time Putin goes skiing to Switzerland, I want him to be
reminded that he bombed a skiing resort for children and killed our
children and our citizens there. I do not want the world to ever
forget about this. The world should always remind these people, who
committed these military crimes, about this. [Passage omitted: says
that Georgians have nothing against ethnic Ossetians and Abkhaz;
accuses Russia of heavily bombing Tskhinvali for four days since
Georgian troops left the town; talks about economic embargoes and
other problems that Georgia faced over the last few years]

We were building new roads, new schools, new hospitals. I want to tell
you that the new world-standard hospital in Gori, which I viewed as my
personal achievement, the new hospital in Gori in which our doctors
heroically worked for four days to help injured ethnic Ossetians,
Georgians, Russians, Ukrainians and everyone else, two hours ago, on
the orders of the Russian military, was hit by the most
precision-guided tactical weapon. They blew up this hospital. There
are injured and dead. Their targets are not the military. They are
targeting doctors. They are targeting clergy. [Passage omitted: says
that a religious building and a school were bombed] Their targets are
not the Georgian military. Because casualties among the Georgian
military after their bombings were minimal. These days, their targets
are humanity and justice. Their target is the people’s independence
and spirit. Their target is your existence and your spirit, my dears
and my compatriots.

I want us to understand why they carried out this exemplary punishment
of Georgia and what Georgia means for the rest of the world
today. Georgia represents a boundary between good and evil, between
civilization and brutality, a society respecting human rights and a
society that ignores human rights and is irritated by human
dignity. [Passage omitted: says that the world views the
Georgian-Russian conflict as a David and Goliath struggle] [The crowd
chants: "Misha, Misha", and "Georgia, Georgia"]

But I would like to tell you my dear that Russian tanks crushed our
defenceless women and children gathered here, in this square, 19 years
ago [in April 1989]. I was much younger then, but I learned a bitter
lesson, and I said that they would not be able to operate with
impunity on Georgian territory.

And I would like to tell you that over the last five days the Russian
army, the Russian Armed Forces suffered a greater loss over a short
period of time than in any bilateral conflict since Russia’s attack on
Finland in 1939. And I want to thank our troops who achieved this.

I would like to tell you that we are a small nation, we have a small
professional army, we are not a militarized society, we cannot –
people, they came in. If anyone had doubts, they brought 1,200 tanks
into Georgia in one hour, 1,200 tanks, more than they brought into
Afghanistan in the first days [of the operation], more than they
brought into Hungary, more than they brought into Czechoslovakia in
1968. Georgia, Tbilisi of 2008 is a Prague of 1968, is a Budapest of
1956, is a Finland and Karelia of 1939. Georgia is a European nation,
a small European nation which has said that it will not put up with
violence, which has said that it will never give up its independence.

Georgians have shot down 21 flying apparatus with essentially most
simple of means. [Applause] Over 400 invaders have been destroyed. I
would like to tell you that this does not make me happy at all. It
does not make me happy at all that the Russian pilot whom we shot down
had a trolley bus pass for the city of Moscow. People, what did the
man had to do – A retired pilot was put in a plane, sent to punish and
destroy another country, instead of letting the man to have normal
life in his country, with his family, his children and
grandchildren. Is it not a huge crime to even send such a man to
certain death in a foreign country which has never had anything
against Russia, and we do not have anything against the Russian people
either.

I would like to tell them that we are very sorry about every
death. But I would also like to say that 90 per cent of the most elite
special-purpose unit of the GRU [Russia’s Main Intelligence
Directorate], Vympel, 78 people, dropped on the Tliaqana hill, in the
heart of Georgia, in one go, were completely destroyed by our 20
fighters who were there, who did not go away and remained there till
the end. [Applause]

I would like to say that we have also destroyed more than 50 tanks and
other armoured hardware of the opponent; we have destroyed scores of
other firing points; we have destroyed a very large number of
weapons. They are now saying that we had Americans in the army, that
we had French. Russian TV is telling me that we had Ukrainians in our
tanks. I want to tell you that there was not a single Ukrainian or
American in our tanks, or in our armed forces. But we had citizens of
our country; we had ethnic Ossetians, ethnic Georgians, ethnic Abkhaz,
ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians who defended their homeland,
Georgia, and will always defend it whenever we need it. [Applause]

I would like to tell everyone, friends, I would like to tell everyone
that our path is a path of freedom. A classic plan for eradicating
freedom is being implemented against Georgia today. Democracy was
destroyed in Russia. People who destroyed the Chechen people, for
example, took over Russia. More than 80,000 people have died in the
town of Groznyy alone. And today it is they who are lecturing us. It
is these people who are repeating the tragedy of Groznyy in
Tskhinvali.

And then Russia, which has made huge money, decided that it was time
to reclaim lost territories. As always, Georgia has again turned out
to be the most desirable diamond for the Russian imperial crown. If
Georgia falls, Ukraine will have problems; if Georgia falls,
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will have problems; if Georgia falls,
the entire civilized world will have problems. This is our fate – the
frontline of defence of the entire civilized world and democracy
passes through Georgia.

I would wish – I would not spill a single drop of blood of our
citizens for anything. But you should know one thing. This was a
conscious choice of our citizens. This was the choice of our boys who
went to defend their country. This was the choice of the doctors who
have worked day and night at our hospitals. This is the choice of our
society.

I would like to tell everyone that in 1921 Rustaveli [Tbilisi’s main
avenue] was empty. We all were in conflict with each other. Georgia
was divided. There was no desire to put up resistance and Russia’s
11th Army, commanded by Georgian representatives Stalin and
Orjonikidze, entered Georgia and took the fragmented, divided Georgia
in just a couple of days. This is a repeat of that plan.

We are having a day of mourning today but I nevertheless asked you to
gather here because they must see that Rustaveli is no longer
empty. This is not 1921. We are in the 21st century and Georgia stands
united. [Applause]

[Passage omitted: Saakashvili thanked opposition leaders and MPs for
their support; said exiled former Defence Minister Irakli Okruashvili
(a native of South Ossetia) rang him the previous night to say that he
wanted to return to Georgia and join the reservists. He said he was
ready to forget every offence when it came to Georgia and its
statehood. He said it was time to forgive and extend a hand of
friendship. His remarks were greeted with applause and chants "Misha,
Misha" and "Georgia, Georgia"]

I would like to tell you one thing. Over these days we have suffered a
massive strike. People have died. But the nation is not dead, and what
does not kill a nation makes it stronger. Therefore, as a result of
this blow we shall be twice as strong as we have been, to spite
them. [Applause; chants "Georgia, Georgia"]

I would like to say thank-you to the entire international
community. This morning in Gori they used a bomb banned by
international conventions to kill a Dutch journalist who wanted to
report the truth about what is happening in Georgia. When I went to
the frontline to bring back with me the lads from Tskhinvali, a
Russian journalist approached me and asked us to let him through to
Tskhinvali. Our lads asked him not to go because the Russians, their
compatriots, were shooting there. He pleaded with us that he should be
allowed to go at his own risk. He also asked if he could take a few
pictures of us, with me in military uniform, which I did. So he went
there, but was killed half an hour later by snipers on the Russian
army’s side.

I would like to tell everyone, members of the families of the
journalists who were killed, the doctors who were killed and those
were wounded and maimed that the Georgian nation will never forget the
fact that you have started to report the truth. In 1956 in Budapest,
there were no journalists or TV channels. Very little was reported
from Prague in 1958. Live TV reports still did not exist in 1979 in
Afghanistan. Now the whole world watched the tragedy of Georgia live
on TV. The world order will never be the same again.

I would like to thank representatives of all our ethnic
groups. People, Georgia belongs to all of you, Georgia belongs to
Ossetians, Georgia belongs to Abkhaz, Georgia belongs to Georgians,
Georgia belongs to Georgia’s regions, Georgian Armenians, Georgian
Azerbaijanis, Georgian Russians, Georgian Ukrainians. We are not
against anyone. We are certainly not against the Russian nation. I
know full well that the Russians are not just Putin. Russia’s policy
is currently Putin alone. But in the future we will certainly find
each other again because something that has been built over the
centuries cannot be destroyed like this by one maniacal megalomaniac.

Georgia has never been freer than today. Today Georgia has been harmed
but is also more proud than ever before. I want to tell the whole
world this. They can try to bomb us, destroy us, attack us and deploy
2,000 more tanks – although tanks are nothing on Georgian soil – they
can threaten us, but there is one thing that is as clear as day to me:
Georgia will never be brought down to its knees and Georgian will
never surrender. [Applause] [Passage omitted: more on importance of
freedom and unity]

I would like to inform you about our decisions. We have made the
decision, after consultation with the chairman of parliament, to
announce that Georgia is leaving the Commonwealth of Independent
States, the CIS. [Applause] We are saying a final farewell to the
Soviet Union. The Soviet Union will never return here. [Applause] We
call on Ukraine and other CIS member states to leave this organization
administered by Russia, which does not listen to anyone in doing
so. [Applause]

We have made the decision that, together with withdrawing recognition
for the Russian peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia – I told the American
president and other world leaders about this yesterday – we have made
the decision to declare the Russian army in Abkhazia an occupying army
and declare Abkhazia and South Ossetia occupied
territories. [Applause]

I want to tell you that until the last occupier leaves Georgian soil,
there will be no peace for any Georgian and there will be no peace for
any occupier. It will never be easy for them to find a peaceful place
on this soil.

[Passage omitted: praises Georgians for fighting for freedom]

The Georgian army is a tenth of the number of people who have gathered
here. But the real Georgian army, the full Georgian army is you. You
are the most courageous army in the world. That is why neither the
58th [Russian] Army nor the Pskov division can defeat such an
army. They sent the same units here that took Budapest in 1956 – the
Pskov division. They deployed the same tanks here that entered Prague
in 1968. We were bombed by the same pilots who bombed Afghanistan. But
just as they failed to defeat Czechoslovakia, just as they failed to
defeat Hungary, just as Afghanistan where the debris of Russian tanks
are lying around as they are on the road to Gori – [changes tack] We
will be as free as all the nations I have listed and will be very
successful and very happy. [Applause, chants of Misha, Misha]

[translated from Georgian]

Northern District Times (Australia)
August 13, 2008 Wednesday
1 – MB Edition

Singing the praises of tolerance

ARMENIAN Archbishop Aghan Baliozian led Ryde Council’s 17th annual
prayer breakfast last Friday.

The archbishop, who is Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in New
Zealand and Australia, discussed the development of migrant churches
in Australia and the contribution they had made.

Ryde Mayor Ivan Petch said Archbishop Baliozian was an exemplary
speaker and had the audience of 130 people spellbound.

“He also thought that Australia was one of the best countries in the
world and felt that it was peaceful and safe and that this was a great
endorsement of its religious tolerance,” he said.

CHARIS CHANG

Interfax, Russia
Aug 13 2008

Armenian president calls Russia’s Medvedev, offers relief aid for S
Ossetia

Moscow, 13 August: Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev and Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan had a phone conversation on Wednesday [13
August] at the initiative of the Armenian side, the Kremlin’s press
service has said.

"On behalf of his nation, the Armenian president expressed his
condolences over the tragic events in South Ossetia and mass death of
people. He also voiced readiness to send humanitarian aid to the
population in distress," the press service reported.

The heads of states "spoke in favour of taking all possible measures
to prevent a repeat of what happened and to ensure the normalization
of the situation in the region," the Russian president’s press service
added.

The Star-Ledger – NJ.com, NJ

The Georgian patriot who made Great Russia his awful project
Sunday, August 17, 2008

BY MICHAEL MORAN

So many of the scars history has left on the societies of the West
have a common and often overlooked origin: the improbable rise, from
the ethnic outlands of a multi-ethnic empire, of a super-nationalist,
a man whose roots in an ethnic group other than the dominant one seem
to ensure that, once in power, he transforms himself into something
more than just another patriot.

This kind of man, thankfully in short supply these days, redefines
loyalty to the state in terms of a cult of personality orbiting
himself, leaving whatever loyalty he once owed to the region of his
birth. A short list of such figures would include a Corsican (Napoleon
Bonaparte), an Austrian (Adolf Hitler), a Croat (Josip Broz Tito), an
Alawite (the late Syrian dictator Hafez al- Assad) and a Georgian
(Iosef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili).

Dzhugashvili, of course, is better known as Stalin, and the conflict
that flared into conflagration last week between Russia and Georgia
had much more than a coincidental connection to him.

Stalin, who murderously ruled the Soviet Union from 1924 until his
death in 1953, was born in Gori, a Georgian city just south of the
Ossetian district that was the focus of fighting over the past week. A
significant debate is under way as to whether Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili overreached when he tried to dislodge ethnic
Russian separatists who have prevented his country’s rule of law from
holding sway in South Osse tia.

Or, as some proposed, did Saakashvili fall into a carefully laid trap
by the separatists’ ally in Moscow, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin,
allowing the Russian leader to send a warning shot across the bow of
any so-called "independent" state that once made up part of the Soviet
Union that dares chal lenge Moscow’s writ?

Either way, Russia has asserted itself convincingly, and an old wound
reopened in dramatic fashion.

History suggests the youthful Dzhugashvili would be deeply un happy at
Georgia’s humiliation. His earliest writings — poetry mostly —
indicated his deep love for Georgia. Some historians have surmised
this might stem from the fact that his parents were, in the words of a
Sla vophile, former New York Times correspondent David Binder,
"assimilated Georgians whose ethnic origin was Ossetian."

But Stalin’s passion for Georgia dwindled after he joined the
Bolshevik cause. During Lenin’s rule, Stalin landed the job of
devising a Soviet policy for nationalities, a vital issue given the
many dozen ethnic groups that the Russian em pire had collected under
the czarist tyranny over the centuries. Binder, with five decades of
experience covering Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, says
Stalin’s plan by 1923 was to deny the major nationalities of the
"Union" — Ukrainians, Azeris, Kazakhs, Uz beks, Armenians, Georgians
and dozens of smaller minorities — any real authority over their
government.

Lenin and other top Communists opposed this, citing Marxist principles
of self-determination. But Lenin’s days were numbered, and upon his
death in 1924, the transformation of the assimilated
Ossetian-cum-Georgian patriot- cum-Communist internationalist was
complete. Stalin denuded eth nic minorities of all but superficial
power, granting them "Soviet republics" but ensuring that, from the
army on down, Great Russia would hold sway.

To understand the Russian- Georgian struggle at all, one must come to
grips with Stalin. His last ing impact derives not only from his
influence on nationalities policy but, more recently and virulently,
his persecution of selected "sus pect" groups before and after World
War II. Stalin’s bloody purges during the 1930s, which claimed as many
as 10 million lives, fell hardest on non-Russian Soviet citizens,
particularly those in the army or holding positions of authority or
cultural prominence.

Jews, Tatars, anyone who had held high office in czarist times,
"kulaks" or landed peasants, Mus lim activists and any national
minority that even hinted at a desire for greater autonomy — all were
targets of the Kremlin’s murder machine. When Hitler invaded in 1941
and the Soviet army, hollowed out by Stalin’s murderous paranoia,
collapsed before the German advance, many of these ethnic minorities
— among them Georgians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns,
Chechens, Central Asians and, yes, even some Russians — could hardly
imagine German rule would outdo the Kremlin in butchery, a debate that
continues to rage among these groups.

In any case, prominent members of all of these societies formed
anti-Soviet militias, joined German army units and, most famously,
took jobs as guards in concentra tion and death camps. The retribution
visited upon them, like most Soviet methods, was collective, not
individual: Entire peoples were uprooted from their native lands and
moved to Siberia or Central Asia. Historians estimate some 3.5 million
people were transported to remote areas — the lucky ones to settle
uninhabited tundra, the unlucky to the gulag prison camps made
infamous by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who died earlier this month.

So it should not surprise anyone that on Wednesday, the Polish,
Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian leaders turned up in the Georgian
capital, Tblilisi, to pledge support for the embattled state. "I am a
Georgian," said Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Unlike John
F. Kennedy, who made a similar as sertion in West Berlin in 1962,
however, Ilves and his fellow leaders flew home to nations still
bordering Russia. They may not believe Georgia’s president acted
wisely, but they feel his pain.

Putin, of course, is not an ethnic minority. He is Russian through and
through, and his Soviet cre dentials, too, are impeccable due to his
long service in the KGB. So perhaps that demonstrates the limitations
of broad historical comparisons like the one above. On the other hand,
Putin’s use of grievance as a way of stirring support among Russians,
his casual disdain for democracy and his willingness to call the bluff
of the West when he sees the chance to gain all recall a different,
overlapping pattern.

"It is very queer that the unhap piness of the world is often brought
on by small men," wrote the German novelist Erich Maria Remar que. His
1927 book "All Quiet on the Western Front" is widely re garded as the
greatest war novel of all time. To write those words about an abusive
martinet named Himmelstoss years before the rise of Hitler is
prescience defined. Whether Putin, all 5-foot-5 of him, fits the same
bill, the reader alone must decide.

Michael Moran is executive editor of CFR.org, website of the Council
on Foreign Relations in New York. He lives in Nutley.

The Canberra Times, Australia
Aug 18 2008

Beyond David and Goliath

ARIS GOUNARIS
18/08/2008 9:36:00 AM

When push came to shove, Georgia never stood a chance of defending
these parts of its territory (South Ossetia and Abkhazia) against the
military might of its northern neighbour, Russia. Arguably, the
decision of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to forcibly wrest
control of South Ossetia from so-called Russian peacekeepers was
foolish in the extreme. In David-versus-Goliath battles like this,
Goliath usually wins.

Russia has violated Georgia’s territorial integrity. But whether it
was justified in doing so is yet to be determined. Much of the
analysis and debate triggered by this conflict centre on the recent
actions and consequences of the Russian and Georgian military
forces. The violation of Georgia’s sovereign rights, it is argued, is
bad. Defending democracies against the threats posed by authoritarian
states, the argument follows, is good.

Such views are, of course, simplistic. Sovereign rights are not
inviolable. There are sometimes good reasons for violating a state’s
territorial integrity, particularly as a remedy against systematic
human rights abuses. Russia has justified its actions along these
lines. But our knowledge of the facts on the ground before the
outbreak of war remains sketchy. It is therefore difficult to assess
the validity of Russia’s claims properly.

I do not defend Russia’s actions. Instead, I make a broader point
about the justifiability of unilateral secession, that is, the
forcible break-up of a sovereign state. Perhaps if there were some
consensus among policy-makers about the circumstances in which
separatism should be supported, there might be less of an ad hoc
approach to the recognition of breakaway states such as South Ossetia
and Kosovo.

International law states that nations or ”peoples” have a legal
right to self-determination or statehood. But this runs counter to the
legal principle of sovereignty, which permits states to defend their
territory with deadly force. Russia, China, Turkey, Burma, Thailand,
Indonesia and the Philippines, among others, have sought to justify
the suppression of separatist forces in their respective countries by
reference to sovereign rights.

States should retain the right to defend their territory. But, if the
cost of doing so is the continued oppression of minority groups, we
need an exception to this rule. After all, a state’s primary function
is to protect the basic rights of its citizens. If it fails to protect
these rights, a state’s legitimacy is compromised. Aggrieved citizens
and groups would then be entitled to take remedial action in defence
of their basic rights.

In extreme cases, secession may be the only way to defend the rights
of oppressed groups in the long term. Sovereign rights must give way
to human rights. What does this mean in practice? It means that third
parties should not stymie an oppressed group’s attempt to be
self-determining. It also means that third parties would be justified
in aiding the separatists.

Consider the Georgian example. If it could be shown that the citizens
South Ossetia or Abkhazia were systematically oppressed by Georgia
(notwithstanding the presence of Russian forces in these breakaway
regions), then Russia would be justified in supporting the
separatists, assuming its intentions were noble. If, on the other
hand, Georgia’s rule were benevolent, there would be no justification
for unilateral secession.

Georgia is a fledgling democracy. It is also a multi-ethnic state
which has been accused of paying lip service to rights. Saakashvili
promised ”equal opportunity” to all Georgian citizens, irrespective
of ethnic identity. The Government has also adopted many conventions,
including the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities.

But in Georgia word does not match deed. Those who do not speak
Georgian find it harder to access justice, education and employment
than those fluent in Georgian. For example, the Azeri and Armenian
minorities of Georgia are compelled to have official documents
translated into Georgian a language in which they lack proficiency
before submitting them to courts or administrative bodies (something
they did not need to do as Soviet citizens).

University entry is also difficult for Georgia’s ethnic minorities,
given that national exams for higher education include a compulsory
Georgian-language test. For many ethnic Armenian and Azeri students,
studying abroad is the only option.

The International Crisis Group believes that the political will to
protect and promote minority interests and rights in Georgia is
lacking. Many ethnic Armenians have publicly protested against what
they deem to be ”Georgianisation” policies and have called for
limited autonomy.

These are serious shortcomings for a state that claims to be
democratic. If such discrimination is not ameliorated by a more
enlightened approach to policy-making there is a real chance that
political tensions will persist, leading to more separatist violence.

Arguably, Georgia’s inadequacies are indicative of a long and
difficult transition from one-party rule to liberal democracy. Under
communist rule, they say, you could speak any language so long as you
didn’t criticise the regime. Under post-communist rule, you can say
what you like provided that you use the state’s official language.

For now, the world’s gaze is fixed on the war in Georgia. Sensational
images from the warzone continue to be flashed across the
world. Short-term solutions have been sought. US President George
W.Bush, has indicated his desire to see a return to the status quo of
before August 6. France, for its part, has brokered a ceasefire. Early
reports suggest it’s failing to hold.

I suspect that this conflict will disappear off the media radar as
soon as the violence stops. But the underlying problem of how the
international community ought to deal with separatist conflict
persists. Powerful states such as Russia will continue to act of their
own accord. But middle-ranking powers, such as Australia, must adopt a
principled approach rather than simply throw in their lot with a
powerful ally as these crises arise.

The remedial principle which holds that systematically oppressed
groups may secede if other modes of redress are unavailable provides a
useful framework for assessing the justifiability of secession in
particular cases. This framework looks beyond the immediate causes of
violent conflict to properly identify both victim and culpable
aggressor.

If middle-ranking powers were to allow this framework to inform their
foreign policy, they might, through force of numbers, show up the
Goliaths of this world who often justify their aggression on
humanitarian grounds. More consistency in this area of international
relations might also serve to expedite the resolution of violent
separatist conflicts which continue to rage in parts of many parts of
Asia, Africa and Europe.

Aris Gounaris is a PhD candidate at La Trobe University. His doctoral
dissertation in philosophy and history examines theories of secession
and self-determination. Case studies include Kosovo, Chechnya and
Aceh.

1,520 ARMENIAN CITIZENS, 695 FOREIGNERS LEAVE GEORGIA FOR ARMENIA

ARKA
Aug 13, 2008

YEREVAN, August 13. /ARKA/. Another 1,520 Armenian citizens and 695
foreigners left Georgia for Armenia on August 12-13, the RA Foreign
Ministry reports.

No Armenian citizen had been injured in Georgia’s breakaway region
of South Ossetia by August 13, 3:00 p.m.

RUSSIA MAY FOCUS ON PRO-U.S. UKRAINE AFTER GEORGIA
By Henry Meyer, [email protected]

Bloomberg
Aug 13, 2008

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — Now that Russia has humiliated Georgia with a
punishing military offensive, it may shift its attention to reining in
pro-Western Ukraine, another American ally in the former Soviet Union.

Moving to counter any threat, Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko
today restricted the movement of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, based in
the port of Sevastopol, citing national security.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s
first order of business in confronting Ukraine likely will be to try
to thwart its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"The Moscow authorities will use this opportunity to remind Ukraine
of the damages of allying itself with NATO," said Geoffrey Smith at
Renaissance Capital investment bank in Kiev.

The U.S. has long seen Georgia and Ukraine as counterweights to
Russia’s influence in the region. Opposition leaders in the two
countries came to power after U.S.-backed popular protests in 2003
and 2004. Their ascension advanced an American strategy of expanding
NATO to include both countries and securing energy routes from the
Caspian Sea that bypass Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline to Turkey runs through Georgia.

Policy in Doubt

The future effectiveness of that policy is now in doubt, with
Georgia’s U.S.-educated president, Mikheil Saakashvili, 40, weakened
by a five-day blitz that his American patrons were powerless to halt.

Medvedev, 42, and Putin, 56, say Russia began the offensive in response
to a drive by Georgia to restore control over the breakaway region
of South Ossetia. Now Russia has ousted Georgian forces from there
and from Abkhazia, another separatist region, and destroyed much of
the central government’s military.

"Georgia will be enormously more careful in its actions in the future,
and much less confident of its relationship with the United States,"
U.S.-based geopolitical advisory group Stratfor said in a research
note.

NATO is scheduled in December to review the two countries’ bids to
join the Western military alliance. NATO leaders in April promised
Ukraine and Georgia eventual membership while declining them
fast-track status. Russia, which has also denounced U.S. plans to
station missile defense sites in former Soviet satellites Poland and
the Czech Republic, says the expansion of the Cold War-era alliance
to its borders is a security threat.

`Similar Fate’

NATO should affirm the potential of Georgia and Ukraine to become
alliance members in the face of Russia’s incursion into Georgia,
senior U.S. officials said yesterday in Washington.

"Russia may find it convenient to raise the level of tension with
Ukraine in the run-up to the December NATO review," Citigroup
Inc.’s London-based David Lubin and Ali Al- Eyd wrote in a note to
clients. "If the conflict with Russia decelerates or reverses Georgia’s
integration with the West, a similar fate could also affect Ukraine."

Ukraine, a country of 46 million people that’s almost as big as
France, has a large Russian-speaking population in the south and east
that opposes NATO entry and looks to Moscow. Russian officials warn
that if Yushchenko pushes Ukraine into NATO, the nation may split in
two. Russia has made its displeasure with Ukraine clear, cutting off
gas supplies to the country 2 1/2 years ago and reducing deliveries
last March.

Show of Solidarity

Yushchenko, 54, yesterday flew to the Georgian capital Tbilisi to show
solidarity with Saakashvili along with the leaders of four ex-Communist
eastern European nations that joined NATO as a bulwark against Russia.

Today, he cited national security needs when he insisted Russia’s Black
Sea fleet coordinate its movements with Ukranian authorities. Russia
has leased the port since 1991, and ships from there took part in
hostilities against Georgia.

"The previous liberalized regime for Russian fleet movements gave
the opportunity for Russia to cross Ukrainian state borders and to
move across the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea without any control,"
Yushchenko said in a decree, published on his Web site.

The military operation in Georgia will serve "as a warning" to
Ukraine that it should desist from petitioning for NATO entry,
said Janusz Bugajski, director of the New European Democracies
Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington. "Otherwise, Moscow may intervene to protect the allegedly
threatened interests of the Russian population."

Russian Criticism

Russian Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu today rounded on Ukraine
for its public support of Georgia in the conflict.

"One week before these events, we send a column of humanitarian aid to
Ukraine to help flood victims and the next we find they’re offering
military aid, arms for the destruction of civilians," Shoigu told
reporters in Moscow.

Germany and France opposed NATO entry for Georgia, a country of
4.6 million people that is almost as big as the U.S. state of South
Carolina, and Ukraine because of the Georgian separatist disputes and
opposition to membership among some Ukrainians. They now will feel
their concerns have been justified, said Cliff Kupchan of New-York
based Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm.

"Considering both European reticence and possible fears about Ukraine,
I think it is very much on the slow track," he said, referring to
NATO membership for both states.

Military Damage

The assault by Russian artillery, tanks and bombers inflicted
significant damage on Georgia’s armed forces, which last month
increased their size to 37,000 soldiers. Russia’s military has 1.13
million personnel. The U.S.

trained and equipped Georgia’s military and in 2006 approved almost
$300 million in aid over five years.

Ukraine has about 214,000 soldiers, which include 84,000 paramilitary
troops, according to the London-based International Institute for
Strategic Studies.

"A substantial part of our military power has been destroyed," said
Georgian National Security Council chief Kakha Lomaia. "However,
we did preserve the core of our army, and have managed to regroup it
close to the capital."

An airbase in Senaki was destroyed and three Georgian ships were
blown up in the Black Sea port of Poti, he said.

A month ago, about 1,000 U.S. soldiers joined 600 Georgians and 100
from Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia in joint exercises at the Vaziani
military base near Tbilisi. Russia repeatedly bombed the base during
this month’s war.

Dominant Role

"The American role in the region has been weakened," Jan Techau,
a European and security affairs analyst at the German Council on
Foreign Relations in Berlin, said in a telephone interview. "It’s a
reassertion of Russia’s dominant role in the region."

Ian Hague, a Bank of Georgia board member and fund manager with
$1.8 billion in the former Soviet Union, said the attack on Georgia
discouraged Western investments in energy infrastructure by raising
the risk premium.

"It’s somewhat reminiscent, in 1939, when Stalin attacked Finland,"
former U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski told
Bloomberg Television. "I think this kind of confrontation is the best
kind of answer as to why they are seeking to be members of NATO."

ARMENIA, GEORGIA MAKE GAINS IN MEDALS PER CAPITA COUNT

Los Angeles Times
10:13 AM, August 13, 2008
CA

As a rule, Medals Per Capita aims for flippancy and facetiousness
and Olympic ideal by ignoring global politics and refraining from
any related poignancy.

That could prove difficult given Georgia.

In Wednesday’s Medals Per Capita, the gauge of national Olympic
performance that’s wildly, gapingly, exponentially and profoundly
superior to the lazy, shiftless, corrupt and standard medals table,
Georgia rocketed from No. 11 to No. 2.

It lodged just behind two-day front-runner and fellow former Soviet
republic Armenia, even as the Georgian athletes knew their homeland
suffered a new and comprehensively depressing war with Russia.

Yet Irakli Tsirekidze won gold in men’s middleweight judo, and Manuchar
Kvirkelin gold in men’s Greco-Roman wrestling, tripling Georgia’s
medal total to three from a smallish population of 4,630,841, for a
sterling MPC rating of one medal per every 1,543,614 Georgians.

Their concentration terribly impressive, Tsirekidze and Kvirkelin
helped Georgia make some trivial news, joining Wednesday’s MPC movers
and shakers alongside Switzerland, which rode a cluster of cycling
medals from No. 21 to No. 4. Georgia surpassed even the stalwart
third-place Australians, who ratcheted their medal count to 12
but suffered slightly from even their restrained birth rate and a
population of 20,600,856.

Switzerland, a budding MPC menace with its agreeable population total
of merely 7,581,520, ran fourth with Roger Federer still loose in
the men’s tennis draw.

And then, just as Georgia nipped portentously at Armenia, trailing only
1.4 million-1.5 million at one point, the latter leapt further ahead,
reaping a third medal — all bronze — when Gevorg Davtyan literally
lifted a small nation in the men’s 69-77 kilogram weightlifting event.

That gave Armenia three more medals than it won in all of 2004, and
given a population of 2,968,586, pared its Medals Per Capita from
1,484,293 to 989,529, making it the first country in these Olympics to
undercut the 1 million mark. Four ex-Soviet republics dot the top 10,
including also No. 7 Kyrgyzstan and No. 8 Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, in the fraudulent medals table, the United States held an
allegedly thrilling 29-27 lead over China, both countries benefiting
from gigantic populations that have reaped numerous medals and numerous
traffic jams.

As Medals Per Capita holds a candle for countries with smaller
populations because of their willingness to minimize traffic jams,
here’s a special call-out for Mongolia, which debuted in the top 10
when Gundegmaa Otryad won her country’s first medal, a silver in the
women’s 25-meter sport pistol event.

As MPC intellectuals would remember, if only there were any MPC
intellectuals, Mongolia camped a while in the Athens 2004 top 10,
a treat for Americans who never get to hear much about Mongolia. With
a population mercifully below 3 million, the Mongolians got an Athens
bronze from Khashbaataryn Tsagaanbaatar, who suffered an upset loss
this time around to Israel’s Gal Yekutiel, else MPC would’ve been
awash in the teaching of Mongolian trivia.

Not that it can’t be one day soon, still.

The top 10 after Wednesday:

1. Armenia (3) – 989,529 2. Georgia (3) – 1,543,614 3. Australia (12)
– 1,716,738 4. Switzerland (4) – 1,895,380 5. Slovenia (1) – 2,007,711
6. Slovakia (2) – 2,622,375 7. Kyrgyzstan (2) – 2,678,435 8. Azerbaijan
(3) – 2,725,905 9. Finland (2) – 2,727,704 10. Mongolia (1) – 2,996,081

Selected Others:

13. North Korea (7) – 3,354,156 14. South Korea (13) – 3,787,142
25. France (11) – 5,823,435 26. Togo (1) – 5,858,673 30. Great Britain
(7) – 8,706,273 31. Germany (9) – 9,152,172 32. United States (29)
– 10,476,712 36. Japan (9) – 14,143,158 42. China (27) – 49,260,911
49. Indonesia (2) – 118,756,177