Author: Khondkarian Raffi

POLITICAL ANIMAL / FRESH OUT OF SORROW
By Yossi Sarid
Ha’aretz, Israel
June 15 2006
Be merciful unto us and unto yourselves: Cease the sorrow that you
express on your behalf and ours every time civilians are killed in your
bombings and assassinations; during the past month the specialization
has been in children in particular. Sorrow, too, has the quality of
being wasted and already at the start of the summer you have been
very profligate. The earth has seen this. Your sorrow has run out
and now you are using substitutes.
For us, it is easier to live with the “slight tremor in the plane’s
wing” and the “sleeping well at night” of our pilot-cum-chief of
staff than with your always-tortured faces and your comments, like
“We didn’t mean to” and “The Israel Defense Forces is the most moral
army in the world.”
It is easier for us to accept the songs of the contemptible Zimri than
it is for us to accept the songs of the exalted Phineas, who slays
Zimri in Chapter 25 of the Book of Numbers, and kills and wails,
wails and kills – and then demands the rewards of the righteous.
Conspiracy of silence
My weaning from politics has gone well thus far. Ever since I resigned
and ever since the 17th Knesset was formed, I haven’t had delirium
tremens even once; I have not even been overcome by longing.
It seems so far away to me, the Knesset, and not really all that
interesting.
And all of of a sudden, last week, I was gripped by a single moment
of regret – too bad I wasn’t there. The plenum convened for a special
session to hear the remarks of Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
who came for an official visit to Israel.
The president, who delivered his speech in his own language, said only
correct things about the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
and about the increasingly closer cooperation between Turkey and
Israel. He then ended his remarks with a condemnation of anti-Semitism
“and all the kinds of racism that are crimes against humanity.” And
as befits a speech in the parliament of the Jewish people, he did not
forget to mention the Holocaust and the six million who fell victim
to the greatest crime of all.
How interests coincide: President Sezer forgot to relate even
indirectly to the Armenian genocide, which Turkey has been denying and
shrugging off for the past 91 years – and our own Knesset members also
zealously maintain the monopoly on the Holocaust and therefore find it
best to ignore other people’s disasters. And thus a mutual conspiracy
of silence developed in the plenum hall, in the world, and the words of
the visiting president were met with complete satisfaction. Needless
to say, no one who entered the Knesset bothered to mention the
importance of the principle of every-nation-bearing-its-sins –
whether the Turkish nation or us.
There is no need for vulgar comparisons between the Jews’ Holocaust and
other cases of genocide. Even the Armenians themselves acknowledge the
satanic uniqueness of the Final Solution, and they make no demands for
“equality.” However, they do have a justified demand for recognition
of the terrible pogrom that was visited upon them, for which someone
must take responsibility. Recognition by the Jewish people is of
special importance to them, which is completely understandable. Israel,
for its part, insists on continuing its policy of consistent denial,
yet it is the last country in the world that is entitled to pursue
such a policy; it does unto others what it would not have others do
unto it. And it will yet pay for this in hard currency.
The PM’s daughter
Dana Olmert – “the daughter of” – is a big girl already, who has
known her own mind for quite a while and her right/duty to express
it. My personal acquaintance with her is slight, but I know that she
is a senior editor at an important publishing house. She developed
her worldview well before her father was elected prime minister,
and she apparently has no intention of relinquishing it. Nor need
she: Although the deeds of the father are visited upon the sons and
daughters, they only visit and no more.
The issue Dana has raised, by participating in a left-wing
demonstration earlier this week, is far more interesting and
significant than is commonly thought. It prompts me, personally, to
reveal a secret that politicians do not usually volunteer to tell:
More than they influence their children, their children influence
them – this is the secret (and even for politicians, “children”
remain children at all ages). The common recommendation is cherchez
la femme, but this needs amending: Do look for the wife, but mainly
the daughters and sons. If we pause a moment over the significance
of the position of Politician X and its shifts, it is recommended
to look for the footsteps: In most cases they will lead home, to
the family. Even politicians are sometimes human beings and their
children are their flesh and blood, and they are their reliable and
durable connection to the outside world.
I had no doubt that the late Ezer Weizman, for example, changed his
view of the world in light of the fatal wounding of his son Shaul
during the War of Attrition, from which he never really recovered. In
the shadow of death, Ezer looked at life differently.
And such things do not just happen here: U.S. Vice President
Richard Cheney is one of the politicians I most despise because
of his aggressive conservatism, which is leading America and the
international community into infernal realms. And yet he of all people
evinces a tender and considerate attitude toward single-sex couples,
their status and their rights – all because his daughter is a lesbian.
I myself have more than once obeyed my children, and they have not
always known how to appreciate their influence or did not want to
take advantage of it. I had principled reasons of my own to object
to refusal to serve in the IDF, for instance, but if in moments of
weakness and distress I wavered, it was my two sons and my daughter
who dispelled my doubts: I am entitled, of course, to support refusal,
but without them; they are not accompanying me and from here on in, I
will march alone. And if they, who more than anyone else believe in my
integrity, diverge from my path, then for whom exactly am I fighting
and for whom am I laboring? Dana Olmert is not an oddity. Without
meddling in the domestic affairs of another family, I am absolutely
certain that she has an influence on her father’s way – covert and
considerable.
Although in the mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth it was written
that “the daughter is stabbing her father in the back,” no less, I
think that Dana is the best thing that has happened to Olmert since
his election. True, she has fallen far from the tree, but the tree
is Olmert and forevermore shall be. No one can be so terrible if a
daughter like Dana is his daughter.

POLITICS ASIDE: MCCLOSKEY, A LIFELONG DEMOCRAT, URGES PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR PAPARIAN FOR CONGRESS TO END THE WAR AND GET RID OF BUSH
By Kevin Uhrich
Pasadena Weekly, CA
June 15 2006
ALL SYSTEMS GREEN: Congressional candidates Bill Paparian of the
Green Party and Democrat Bob McCloskey.
It may not seem like much, but Bob McCloskey believes his 18 percent
showing in last week’s primary election for the 29th Congressional
District seat currently held by Democrat Adam Schiff was pretty
significant.
In the 29th District, which includes Pasadena, Altadena, Glendale,
Burbank, Alhambra, South Pasadena, Temple City and the 55-year-old
McCloskey’s hometown of Monterey Park, 18 percent translates into
more than 6,000 votes; votes cast by party faithful who have turned
against the well-liked, well-financed and politically entrenched
Schiff, a former federal prosecutor who has been one of the leading
voices in the House of Representatives supporting the war in Iraq
and the president’s war on terror.
When one considers that McCloskey, a longtime union organizer and a
lifelong Democrat, only had three months to raise money, to become
known to the public and to knock on doors, capturing more than 6,000
votes from the popular Schiff was not only a major accomplishment but
validation of McCloskey’s belief that the war is wrong and that Bush
should be impeached.
It is for those reasons that McCloskey is doing the unthinkable:
Turning against his own party member and supporting Green Party
candidate Bill Paparian and his race against Schiff in November’s
general election.
Paparian, a lawyer and former Pasadena City Councilman who registered
as Green in order to run against Schiff on an anti-war, anti-Bush
platform, is hardly surprised by McCloskey’s support.
The two appeared at rallies together throughout the campaign this
spring and shared similar sentiments about the war, Bush and other
hot-button issues. Paparian’s wife, Sona, even ran a club called
Armenian Americans for McCloskey and, in fact, Paparian said he
would have dropped out of the running had McCloskey won last week’s
primary. But that didn’t happen.
Nevertheless, Paparian, who didn’t face an opponent in the primary but
has won what he calls “strategic support” from a handful of prominent
Democrats, among them developer and publisher Danny Bakewell and
actor Ed Begley Jr., said he is “deeply honored” to have McCloskey
backing his campaign.
“I think this is a historic moment. I don’t know of any time in the
past when someone with a long history of active involvement with the
Democratic Party who has reached a point that he is now going to be
supporting a Green, not because I’m a Green but because I have the
same stand on the issues as the progressive Democrats,” Paparian said.
“The fact is people recognize that the crisis that confronts us is a
crisis that confronts us as Americans. It crosses party lines and this
isn’t a time to be bound by the strict confidences of the Republican
Party or the Democratic Party or the Green Party or the Peace and
Freedom Party or the Libertarian Party. And as Americans we have
to respond to it. We have to say no to this president. We have say
no to this administration. We have to say no to the perpetual war,
this perpetual war economy.”
In a brief post-election interview conducted on Thursday, the same
day that the remains of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were being
ghoulishly displayed on television screens and newspaper front
pages around the country, McCloskey spoke with the Weekly about the
campaign against Schiff and the reasons why he is for the Greens in
the November election.
Pasadena Weekly: What was your feeling about the outcome of the
election? I mean, you had to feel a certain measure of success at
some level.
Bob McCloskey: I think the outcome was good considering we only had
three months to run a campaign and we didn’t spend a whole lot of
money. We did the best we could in trying to reach out to voters. I
think if we had gotten to more households and mailed to more voters,
obviously we would have gotten a bigger response. But I think the 18
percent that I did get is indicative of the frustration and anger with
our current congressman. The problem wasn’t my platform. The problem
wasn’t my positions. The problem was not having the finances to reach
out to more voters and really having more time to go door-to-door
and trying to reach more voters.
So, now you are supporting Bill.
I remain in the Democratic Party and I remain a Democrat, but I
have always had an inside-outside strategy. I support candidates,
progressive Democrats, and I have voted outside the party before. … I
am supporting Bill. I want to help him win. I think the voters in
this district, from what our experience has been going door-to-door,
8 out of 10 voters at the door agree with us that it’s time to pull
the troops out of Iraq, it’s time to hold our president accountable.
… In fact, many people support impeachment.
Well, today is a big event in Iraq. They are showing this image on
television and everywhere else. Is this a good thing for us?
It’s immoral to celebrate the death of any human being, no matter
how despised they are by the public or the media or the Bush
administration. Zarqawi is a creation of our US foreign policy, and
really the only ones you can blame for an increase of terrorist acts
around the world is the Bush-Cheney administration for their continued
one-sided support for the occupation of Palestine, their adventurous
murder in Iraq, their threats against Iran. Now we have journalists
like Seymour Hersch saying an attack on Iran is inevitable and he
would not be surprised if the US staged some terrorist attacks to make
that happen. I think it’s time for us to really address the issue of
terrorism by looking at our foreign policy, ending the occupation of
Iraq, supporting a fair-minded policy in Israel and Palestine …
But you are still adamantly a Democrat, and the party isn’t really
following that line. Wouldn’t you be better off as a Green?
There are many races around the country in which progressive democrats
are running … there are 61 members of Congress right now, members of
the progressive caucus, who are calling for an immediate withdrawal
of the troops. There is a minority of progressive Democrats in the
House who I am fundamentally in agreement with on not only the war
in Iraq but on other issues, like universal health care, putting a
lot more federal dollars into education, expanding Medicare … so
there are some good positions being taken by a minority of Democrats,
and I support them.
It just seems unusual having a Democrat supporting a Green.
I stand on principle. I went into this race trying to bring more
attention to the issue of the war, trying to stop this war. I went
into this race on a platform of clean government and protecting
our civil liberties. I was surprised to see Mr. Schiff receiving
more and more money from defense contractors, more than he’s ever
received, so the problem only gets worse. And in good conscience, I
cannot tacitly support Mr. Schiff by not supporting Bill Paparian. I
support Bill Paparian because I support peace and justice in this
country and the issue of the war, the issue of our civil liberties,
the issue of clean government goes far beyond party affiliation.
So you are going to be campaigning for Bill over the next three or
four months?
Definitely. I will be doing all I can to help Bill. The main thing
is to get out and talk to people door to door.

LITHUANIA TO AID AZERI EU INTEGRATION
AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
June 14 2006
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus has said his country is ready to
assist Azerbaijan in its European integration.
“The Azeri economy is developing very rapidly and I believe the
country may be admitted to the EU as early as in five years,”
he told the press after meeting his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev in Baku on Thursday.
Adamkus suggested that by capitalizing on Lithuania’s experience,
Baku could avoid the mistakes that Vilnius made prior to its admission.
President Aliyev said in his remarks that Azerbaijan should take
advantage of Lithuania’s experience in the area of swift integration
into European organizations.
The Lithuanian president said that as a European Union member state,
his country should play a role of a mediator in the speedy settlement
of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh.
“Lithuania has supported Azerbaijan on international issues so far
and will remain its reliable partner.”
The two countries signed agreements on mutual promotion and protection
of investments and a joint statement of the heads of state. The two
leaders also agreed to establish a joint economic commission.

DANIEL FRIED: U.S. WILL NEVER RECOGNIZE NORTHERN CYPRUS
PanARMENIAN.Net
13.06.2006 15:42 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried said Turkey should open its sea ports
and airports to Cyprus if it hopes to become a member of the European
Union. He also said that the U.S. will never recognize the breakaway
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and only aims to reunite the
island.
At a conference held by the Greek Cypriots, Fried said, “Turkey
should open its ports to Cyprus ships and airplanes and fulfill its
responsibility of expanding the Customs Union agreement in a way to
include the Republic of Cyprus.”
Fried stated that the United States will continue helping the both
parts reach a solution with the help of the United Nations and
two-party talks.
But he added: “We do not recognize and will not recognize any
government other than the Republic of Cyprus on the Cyprus Island. We
are quite open about this issue. None of our policies are aimed at
recognizing another political existence; the United States does not
even imply this. Cyprus is a single country. We have a single embassy
there and it will remain so,” reported the Anatolian news agency.

EU MEMBERSHIP: FOOTNOTES
The Guardian – United Kingdom
Jun 12, 2006
Ataturk
Mustafa Kemal, known as Ataturk, was a junior army officer who became
the founder and first president of the Turkish republic after the
collapse of the Ottoman empire. He transformed Turkey into a modern
secular state
Sovereignty Day
Celebrated on April 23, Sovereignty Day commemorates the opening of
the first Turkish national assembly in 1920
AKP
The AKP (Justice and Development) movement was formed in 2001 from
ruins of previously banned Islamist parties, but leaders describe
themselves as moderates and “conservative democrats”. Opponents have
accused it of hiding an Islamist agenda and plotting to undermine
Turkey’s secular democracy
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
A former mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan led the AKP to victory in 2002
elections, but was barred from becoming prime minister because
of a conviction for inciting religious hatred. After his party
forced through a constitutional amendment allowing him to stand for
parliament, Mr Erdogan became PM in March 2003
Kurdish conflict
Turkey’s war with its repressed minority of Kurds has lasted for
decades. The current conflict erupted in 1984, when Abdullah Ocalan,
guerrilla leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ party, led the rebellion.
It has claimed 40,000 lives
First world war massacres
Turkey faces international pressure to recognise that more than 1
million Armenians were massacred during a 1915 campaign of ethnic
cleansing by Ottoman Turks. Turkish officials claim that most deaths
were caused by hunger and disease.

AGO GROUP TO VISIT BAKU
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 12 2006
The AGO group of the Council of Europe Ministerial Committee will
visit Azerbaijan, June 13.
The goal of the group led by permanent representative of Germany at the
Council of Europe, Ambassador Roland Wagener is to study fulfillment
of the obligations the Republic took before the Organization.
In the frame of visit, the Group is to discuss the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, issues of political prisoners and election practice, meet
with governmental dignitaries, NGO representatives and oppositions
parties.
After the visit, the Group will prepare a report to be published
prior to the PACE session.
As stated, the AGO Group will come to Baku form Yerevan.

UNDP CARRIES OUT PROJECTS TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY BUDGET
Armenpress
Jun 08 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS: Today five cost-sharing agreements were
signed with five municipalities of the Armenian Ijevan, Masis, Abovian,
Vedi and Dilijan towns. Besides, a Memorandum of Understanding has been
signed with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for
projects in the scope of UNDP Armenia Performance Budgeting project.
In addition, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) presented
the Performance Budgeting Manual.
The ceremony, held in UN House in Yerevan, was attended by
municipality teams, experts of the project, USAID representatives,
as well as representatives of the US Treasury Department, Armenia
Social Investment Fund, government and the media.
Consuelo Vidal, UN resident coordinator/UNDP resident representative,
said the goals of the project are to support further decentralization
in Armenia, strengthen the capacities of local self-governance
bodies, and facilitate accountable and measurable public expenditure
management. It assists in the implementation of performance budgeting
during community planning, monitoring, and evaluation processes
ensuring citizens’ participation in the whole process. This is new
to not only Armenia, but also to the region.
Performance budgeting enables the local population to be part of the
local planning and development process. Wide public participation takes
place during projects’ planning and implementation, enabling public
participation in local development processes, engaging citizens and
local governments in planning and prioritizing together, and making
local governments accountable for the use of their financial resources.
Since its inception in 2005, the Performance Budgeting Project
has generated much interest among local self-governance bodies in
Armenia. This new budgeting process covers the entire strategic
planning process, from situation analysis and assessment, to setting
priorities, objectives and targets, stating outputs and monitoring
indicators, and finally developing an output-based budget.
The Performance Budgeting Project promotes community-level active
citizen involvement in the local development process, accountability
and measurability of municipal services provided to the communities. In
this way, it supports participation and governance at the local level
and also encourages a culture of results.
The “Performance Budgeting in Local Government” training manual also
presented today is a product of a comprehensive and in-depth work
in the framework of the Performance Budgeting initiative supported
by UNDP. The manual presents experiences gained during training
courses, advisory meetings, and joint seminars and actual budgeting
processes conducted in the five pilot towns of Armenia (Ijevan, Masis,
Abovian, Vedi and Dilijan). It provides a detailed description of local
performance budgeting principles, framework, budgeting process phases,
and budget planning, execution, and oversight. It is designed to become
a step-by-step guide for other communities in Armenia and abroad.

AGO GROUP OF COE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS ARRIVED IN YEREVAN
PanARMENIAN.Net
09.06.2006 13:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ago Monitoring Group of the Council of Europe
Committee of Ministers led by Germany’s permanent representative
in the CoE Roland Wegener is in Yerevan to meet with RA President
Robert Kocharian, NA Speaker Tigran Torosian, Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian, Justice Minsiter David Harutyunian and Ombudsman Armen
Harutyunian as well as representatives of Armenian NGOs, reported
the RA MFA press office.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM IN NAGORNO KARABAKH DEC. 10
AZG Armenian Daily
09/06/2006
President of Nagorno Karabakh, Arkady Ghukasian, has signed a decree on
holding a constitutional referendum on December 10 2006, RFE/RL quoted
Rudik Hyusnunts, vice-speaker of NKR parliament, as saying. In his
words, President Ghukasian is going to submit the draft constitution
to parliament speaker Ashot Ghulaian after which discussions will
start in September.
Interestingly, the people of Karabakh will go to the polls the same
day that it said “yes” in the referendum for independence 15 years ago.

ARMENIA SAFE FOR AZERIS BUT AZERBAIJAN THREATENS EVERY ARMENIAN
Panorama.am
12:42 07/06/06
“We are neighbors and that is determined by history. Neighbors are not
chosen. In case Karabakh conflict is regulated, our two countries can
also cooperate,” Asaf Hajiev, deputy of Azeri parliament, mejlis,
stated at the National Assembly of Armenia today. Together with
the representative of New Azerbaijan Party Musa Guliev, Hajiev is
in Armenia to participate in Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC)
27th parliamentary assembly. “Neighbors cannot fail to cooperate if
they are not in war. Azerbaijan and Armenia are in a state of war,
therefore, it is impossible to speak about cooperation,” the head of
Azeri delegation said. He does not think it possible that Armenia and
Azerbaijan cooperate also within BSEC, saying it is a collective entity
and it is hard to speak about individual countries. “Imagine if Germany
suggested to cooperate with the Soviet Union during WW2 when it was
at the doors of Moscow, would SU go for that? Of coarse, not,” he said
referring once again to the principal of inviolability of borders and
ignoring the principle of self-determination. Replying to the reporters
on the case of Chernogoria which found its independence from Serbia
via referendum, he said, “We respect all countries. If Chernogoria and
Serbia found it possible to have independent statehoods, we respect
that decision. But if Armenia thinks that Karabakh is part of it,
we cannot accept that.”
Hajiev confessed that respects all nations, including Armenians,
since he thinks that “Karabakh conflict is created not by Armenians
but by Armenian politicians.”
He also said he feels safe in Armenia despite of the fact that
Azerbaijan has stated at the doors of various events that it cannot
ensure the safety of the Armenian delegations.
Why would the Azeri deputy not feel safe in Armenia?
Of coarse, no one is going to stab him to death, especially when he is
sleeping. Similar “axe” attitude is characteristic to our neighbor. It
is also true, that Armenians have proved that those who rise against
us with arms, get a respective response. Karabakh freedom fight is a
proof for that. Besides, we can say that Karabakh conflict is created
and deepened by Azeri politicians and public figures. Heidar Aliev’s
confession that Azerbaijan was taking steps to change the demographic
picture in Karabakh is enough to prove that.