Author: Khoyetsian Rose

PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES THANKFUL TO AZERBAIJAN FOR PARTICIPATION IN FIGHTING GLOBAL TERRORISM
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Aug 31 2005
On 31 August, the delegation led by chairman of US Senate Foreign
Relations Committee Richard Lugar held a news conference on results
of the visit at the Hyatt Regency-Nakhchivan Hotel of Baku.
Informing on his impressions during the visit, Senator Lugar said in
the Baku meetings discussed were issues of the US-Azerbaijan relations,
settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict,
the upcoming November parliament elections and the US assistance to
Azerbaijan in connection with protection of borders. He also noted his
meeting with President Ilham Aliyev was success and that he conveyed
gratitude of the American people to Azerbaijan for support in fighting
global terrorism.
Speaking of his positive impressions on the Republic, Senator Barak
Obama said they were deeply interested in Azerbaijan as an independent
country with rich natural resources.
Expressing confidence for the free and fair elections in November,
Mr. Lugar said as we were told in the meetings, in general, there
has been no problem in registration of candidates for elections.
Noting that in the fiscal year the United States will increase
financial assistance to Azerbaijan, Mr. Lugar stressed it would be
possible in the frame of “Reduction of cooperative threat” joint
program which will serve strengthening of the borders of Azerbaijan.
The American senator answered numerous questions of journalists
interested them.

TURK NOVELIST MAY FACE JAIL FOR GENOCIDE COMMENTS
Kathimerini, Greece
Sept 1 2005
ANKARA (Reuters) – Best-selling Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk faces up
to three years in jail for backing allegations that Armenians suffered
genocide at Ottoman Turkish hands 90 years ago, his publisher said
yesterday. Turkish prosecutors are also investigating comments by
Pamuk that some 30,000 Kurds were killed more recently in Turkey in
separatist clashes with security forces. “A lawsuit has been filed
against Orhan Pamuk that could result in a three-year prison sentence,”
Iletisim Publishing said in a statement faxed to Reuters.

BUDGET OF 2006 WILL BE EXPANSIONARY
Azat Artsakh Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
29 Aug 05
On August 23 the meeting of the NKR government took place. Several
questions on the agenda referred to the activity of the Ministry of
Territorial Management and Development of Infrastructures. By the
decisions made during this meeting the ministry was put in charge
of electricity and energy consumption, energy saving, trade and
services and postal services. The government approved privatization
of several state and community-owned enterprises and the amendments
to the government decisions on the social security of servicemen and
their families, the list of humanitarian and charity organizations
working in NKR. The only project presented at the meeting, the
project of amendments to the NKR law on police service was approved
as well. The meeting also approved the payment of compensation to
Karabakh Telecom in return for the free installation of telephones,
and the head of the executive charged the corresponding ministries
to conduct monitoring and work out the list of the groups of people
who will be granted this allowance. A series of questions included in
the agenda had been put forward by the NKR State Committee of Real
Estate Cadastre. The government confirmed the project of confirming
the temporary data set of the land cadastre of farming land located
in the administrative territories of communities, providing premises
to the state non-profit organization Center for Geodesy, Mapping,
Land Engineering, Assessment of Realty, descriptions of the borders
and the 1:200000 scale topographic maps enciphering the borders of
NKR regions and Stepanakert, amendments to a number of decisions
of the NKR government and the NKR land resources. Touching upon the
necessity of enlarging the borders of the city of Stepanakert, Prime
Minister Anoushavan Danielian expressed anxiety about the current
situation. He instructed the heads of the corresponding agencies
to work on this matter seriously, especially that the government
has already launched the mortgage programme. After the discussion
of the agenda the government discussed a number of urgent questions,
including winter wheat and preparations for winter. At the same time A.
Danielian instructed to conduct joint consultations to discuss the new
budget bill. In comparison to the budget of 2005 the state budget of
2006 will be considerably expansionary, and nevertheless tense. Taking
into account the increasing sums and the relieved social problems,
I think it is time that the heads of ministries and agencies present
optimal programmes allowing to improve the equipment and work of the
given systems,- said Anoushavan Danielian.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GENERAL DISMISSED
A1+
| 15:24:27 | 30-08-2005 | Official |
By Robert Kocharyan’s decree on August 29 Lieutenant General Mikhail
Grigoryan was dismissed from the post of Deputy Minister of Defense
of Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH FM GUL WARMLY VIEWS ATTENDING ARMENIAN CONFERENCE
By Cihan News Agency, Anadolu News Agency (aa) 25 August 2005
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Aug 26 2005
ANKARA – Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has conveyed that
he might attend the postponed academic conference titled “Ottoman
Armenians During the Decline of the Empire”, which will be held at
the Bogazici University, Istanbul between September 23 and 25.
Gul announced he might also not be able to attend the conference
because he is envisioned to be in New York to attend the United Nations
(UN) General Assembly studies on the same dates. Gul received an
invitation to the disputed conference on Wednesday and said he viewed
such conferences as crucial opportunities to express Turkey’s theses
regarding the Armenian issue. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Namik Tan said Gul might attend the “final session” of the conference
if his schedule allows. The conference, termed by Turkish Minister of
Justice Cemil Cicek as a “dagger in the back of the Turkish people”,
was previously postponed due to negative reactions. Gul, however,
noted he saw the conference as, “a crucial opportunity to express
Turkish theses and approaches both in the country and abroad. In this
respect, we, as a foreign ministry and government, will be more active
from now on,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Armenian lobby within the US Congress sent a letter
to the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling on the US to
object to a new railroad project planned to connect Azerbaijan and
Turkey through Georgia on the grounds that it would isolate Armenia.

WORLD’S LONGEST NOVEL IN ARMENIAN
By Karine Danielian
AZG Armenian Daily #151, 26/08/2005
Literature
Armen Shekoyan decided to write “The Armenian Time,” the longest novel
of the world. It is being published in Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper time
after time. “If your write according to the usual criteria, one may
like it, the other may dislike it. While, when you write ten volumes,
no one will say that the book is in eight volumes,” the author says.
The probability to appear in the Guinness Record Book may attract
our rich men so that they will become the sponsors of the published
version of “The Armenian Time.”

AZERI PRESIDENT, US STATE SECRETARY DISCUSS KARABAKH, POLLS BY TELEPHONE
Azerbaijani TV Channel One, Baku
25 Aug 05
[Presenter] The following is a press release from the presidential
press service.
On 25 August, US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice had a telephone
conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
During the telephone conversation, they expressed satisfaction with the
development of US-Azerbaijani relations in various areas. Condoleezza
Rice said that she attaches great importance to the meeting between
the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents on the Karabakh settlement
on the sidelines of the Kazan summit and hopes that the talks will
contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict.
President Ilham Aliyev also noted the significance of the Kazan
meeting with the Armenian president and expressed hope for the
positive outcome of the talks. The overall situation in Azerbaijan,
including the preparation for the upcoming parliamentary election,
were also discussed during the telephone conversation.
The Azerbaijani president and the US state secretary also discussed
issues of mutual interests.

Armenpress
MISS ARMENIA OFFICE DENIES BRIBE ALLEGATIONS
YEREVAN, AUGUST 23, ARMENPRESS: Karen Aristakesian, director of Miss
Armenia national agency, denied today allegations that the Armenian sponsors
of Anush Grigorian paid 10,000 euros in bribes to judges at a Miss
Intercontinental beauty contest in China last month to help her finish
fourth . In an interview with Armenpress Karen Aristakesian described what
had happened as “a clash of interests.”
“As a judge at Miss Intercontinental beauty contest I voted in favor of
Armenian representative and before the contest and after it I gave no bribes
to anyone and never negotiated it with any of the rest of judges,”‘ he said.
The first report about the incident was published by a local daily Azg, y
which said that the head of the European branch of the World Beauty
Organization has resigned over the allegations. Azg also said Anush
Grigorian has been barred from participation in an upcoming international
beauty contest in Panama. According to Aristakesian, the organizers of Miss
Intercontinental contest in China had demanded that Miss Armenia national
agency give back its licenses and refused also to give the money prize set
for the fourth place and even the band confirming that Anush Grigorian came
forth.
“But even if the licenses had not been demanded back, the agency had no
intentions to further participate in beauty contests organized by the World
Beauty Organization and I told about our intention to some of its
officials,” he said Describing the beauty contest in China as ‘a peculiar”
game, Aristakesian denied Armenian press reports that Anush Grigorian was
banned from further participation in such contests, saying she was
disqualified only from participation in next context due in Panama.

BTA INVEST BANK PRESENTATION HELD IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, August 22. /ARKA/. BTA Invest Bank presentation took place
in Yerevan on Monday. Rasul Kosanov, Chair of the BTA Invest Bank’s
Board, said at the presentation that the bank intends to make its
contribution in the development of Armenia’s financial sectors, to
introduce innovative banking products, to advance Armenian companies
and Armenia as a whole in the international investment community,
stimulating offshore investments flows into the country. In his
words, one of the most important directions in the bank’s activity in
Armenia will be mortgage lending and small- and middle-scale business
crediting. In particular, the bank is planning to create joint
co-branded and discount program implementation (offering discounts in
the best restaurants and shops of Yerevan to BTA Invest plastic cards
owners). The bank will offer its clients to make their payments for
utilities and cellular communication services through cash machines.
The bank also intends to offer one of advanced banking technologies
for regional internet-banking network development.
Yerik Sultankulov, Chairman of the Bank’s Council and Financial
Director of Bank TuranAlem, said presumed amount of BTA Invest Bank
investments for 2005 will make about $ 30mln. Mortgage lending is
planned to total $10mln.
Bank TuranAlem, one of Kazakhstan’s biggest banks, acquired 48.9%
shares in authorized capital of International Investment Bank later
renamed into BTA Invest Bank. The bank’s other shareholders are ZRL
Austrian company (31.1%) and MOBILEX Kazakh-Armenian company (20%).
According to the bank’s regular reports, BTA Invest Bank’s assets
totaled AMD 1118.9mln as of June 30, 2005, total capital made AMD
878.8mln and authorized capital AMD 1105mln. Credit investments made
AMD 181.7mln as of June 30, 2005.
TuranAlem is a system-making bank of Kazakhstan and the leader in
creating banking network in CIS member countries. The bank’s assets
reach $5.5bn and own capital exceeds $600mln. The network of the
bank’s strategic partners includes Slavinvestbank, Omsk-bank,
Agroincombank, BTA Kazan (Russia), BTA Transbank (Ukraine),
Astana-Eximbank (Belarus), BTA Silk Road Bank (Georgia) and BTA
Investbank (Armenia). M.V. -0–

Transitions on Line, Czech Rep.
Aug 23 2005
Murky Seas

by TOL
22 August 2005
Could a new vision for the Black Sea area yield new ideas about how
to promote democracy on Russia’s fringes?
So it seems that Europe may soon have a new organization to become
used to, an alliance of democracies stretching from the Baltic to the
Black and the Caspian seas intent on acting as `a strong tool to free
our region from all remaining dividing lines, from violations of
human rights, from any spirit of confrontation, from frozen
conflicts.’ That, at least, is the vision for a “Community for
Democratic Choice” put forward by Ukraine’s President Viktor
Yushchenko and Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili on 12 August.
That is of course an appealing vision, but it will be competing with
others, particularly in the Black Sea region. Since 1992, Turkey –
historically the greatest power in the Black Sea, arguably the
region’s greatest power at present, and now also a pipeline hub – has
promoted its own notion of a peaceful and prosperous Black Sea
through the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) group, an
association of Black Sea countries and their immediate neighbors.
Since the end of the Cold War, others in the West have formed their
own vision of a secure Black Sea, with Turkey as a cornerstone. From
an outpost of NATO, Turkey has come to be seen as a key to the
security of the Black Sea and a stabilizing force in the Middle East.
That is a concept that underpins the United States’ – and others’ –
support for Turkey’s membership of the European Union. In the grander
variant of the current U.S. administration, Turkey could even become
part of an arc of democratic Muslim states stretching from Iraq’s
Gulf shores to the Bosphorus.
TURKEY’S SWING TOWARDS RUSSIA
George Bush’s grand vision is currently being mauled by the
instability in Iraq. It may also be being undermined by Turkey itself
because, judged by recent developments, Turkey may have a different
idea of who its key partners are in the Black Sea – and what changes
are desirable.
First, in May in a development noted perhaps only by The Economist,
the United States was refused observer status by the BSEC. The
decision relegated the United States below such Black Sea
heavyweights as Slovakia, a country that enjoys observer status.
Russia is thought to have blocked its application, a veto that
angered eight post-communist Black Sea states who publicly said the
United States should be allowed to attend their meetings. Turkey
remained silent – not perhaps the type of support that Ankara might
have been expected to give to a country that has been a great
agitator for its admission to the EU. Given that the BSEC was its
brainchild, surely Turkey could have insisted on opening the doors to
the United States.
Turkey’s silence gains in significance when seen against the backdrop
of Turkey’s rapid and dramatic upswing in relations with Russia. The
signs include the first visit to Ankara by a Russian head of state
(in December 2004), four meetings between Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in seven
months, a huge rise in trade, a hefty increase in the flow of gas
through a pipeline leading from Russia to Turkey through the Black
Sea, and talk of more pipelines as well as supplies of electricity
from Russia.
The second development is the evidence that Russia and Turkey are not
simply improving their relationship; they seem to have found a new
and surprising congruence of interests. At a meeting with Putin in
July, Erdogan told the world that `our views totally coincide with
regard to the situation in the region as well as to the issues
concerning the preservation of stability in the world.’ If he meant
it, Erdogan was saying something disturbing, because Russia’s idea of
stability is deeply antithetical towards the West and had no qualms
about the Uzbek government’s killing of hundreds (possibly a
thousand) protestors in Andijan this May. Indeed, Erdogan’s phrase
could have been taken straight from meetings between Putin and the
presidents of Central Asia. Could that be possible? Turkish analysts
believe it is and their answer seems plausible: apart from asking
Uzbekistan to remove Turkish flags from jeeps used by Uzbek forces,
Ankara has been very reticent in making any criticism of Uzbekistan’s
President Islam Karimov.
All of this suggests a major shift in the position of two regional
powers who have usually competed rather than coincided in their
interests. Both seem keen to work more closely still. In January,
Turkey expressed an interest (`unexpectedly,’ said Putin) in joining
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Central Asian grouping
comprising Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan. Though a competitor with Russia for influence in Georgia,
Turkey is now apparently angling for a role as a mediator in the
dispute over Abkhazia. Erdogan and Putin have, it seems, decided that
their countries are not playing a zero-sum game either in the Black
Sea or in Central Asia.
So, what should be made of Ankara’s new friendship with Moscow? Not
too much is one answer.
Firstly, the relationship between Russia and Turkey may be warming
up, but there is little doubt that at present its relationship with
the EU is far more important to Turkey than its ties with Russia.
Ankara may take a more positive view of Moscow than Brussels does at
present, but it is always going to follow an independent Russia
policy. And, in any case, Europe’s largest countries – France,
Germany, and Britain – all have relationships with Russia that are
also very cozy and differ from the increasingly skeptical position of
the European Commission. (Where this all leaves Ankara’s relationship
with Washington is another matter, but it is primarily through the EU
that Turkey can be tied more closely to the West.)
Secondly, Turkey may be more interested in maintaining stability than
in promoting democracy in Central Asia but in that respect it is
behaving like the United States, which responded with woefully weak
words to the events in Andijan.
And, in any case, there are reasons to welcome the impact on the
region of a better relationship between the two countries. A
rapprochement between the main supporter of Armenia – Russia – and
the main backer of Azerbaijan – Turkey – could push the issue of
Nagorno-Karabakh towards a settlement and help push Armenia and
Turkey towards opening up an economic relationship. An improvement on
either front would help everyone (as well as promoting Turkey’s case
for EU membership). And if Turkey could deliver a solution to the
Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, it would (of course) have achieved what
no one else has proved able to do.
PROMOTING DEMOCRACY
Still, the contrast between Turkey’s call for stability and
Yushchenko’s and Saakashvili’s implicit call for democratic change
does highlight some of the weaknesses in assuming that Turkey might
be a force for positive change in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea
regions.
For one, the contrast underlines that Turkey has its own,
long-standing interests in the Caucasus and Central Asia and – as the
thorny, even neuralgic relationship with Armenia indicates – Turkey
is perfectly capable of helping to maintain instability and retard
progress in the Caucasus in defense of those interests. There may
have some positive recent moves in relations between Turkey and
Armenia, but the collapse of a joint historical commission and the
imprisonment in Armenia of a Turkish historian indicate that a
breakthrough in their relations is still a distant prospect.
Second, achieving breakthroughs may be beyond Turkey. A summit
between the Azeri and Armenian presidents on 26 August should again
demonstrate how hard it will be for anyone to broker a settlement
over Nagorno-Karabakh. In any case, all countries in the region,
including Georgia and Azerbaijan, will be wary of the motivations of
two powerful neighbors suddenly working together.
And third, whatever the virtues of having a democratic Turkey
embedded in the EU, Turkey is not yet an active promoter of the
democratic changes that it itself is now embracing. Indeed, analysts
believe that Turkey is very wary, for example, about potential
upheaval after parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan this November.
If key supporters of Turkey’s membership of the EU – Britain and the
United States – anticipate that Turkey would be active in promoting
change in the region, they may well be wrong. At least for now, it
looks likely that Turkey’s contribution to political progress in the
region will be passive, as an example that internal change is
possible.
Which brings to the fore the point that Yushchenko and Saakashvili
implicitly highlighted: that current policies to promote democracy in
the region are inadequate. Turkey seems interested in the status quo,
not change. The EU’s approach – demonstrated again in the spat
between Belarus and Poland – is out of touch. With Belarus, its
policy is based on reciprocity, a “step-by-step” approach under which
the EU will respond to overtures made by Minsk. That is a passive
position that relies on the EU’s magnetic appeal to its neighbors.
That may be fine when its neighbors – like countries in the western
Balkans – are attracted to the EU, but clearly leads merely to
disengagement with neighbors – like Belarus – who have no interest in
the EU. If the EU wants to help promote political development in
Central Asia or in the Caucasus, it needs something better than that
– and also something better than its muted response to events in
Andijan.
The U.S. approach to the promotion of democracy also fails to provide
a convincing model. In Turkey’s neighborhood, it has used three
approaches. Faced with an election-stealing government in Eduard
Shevardnadze’s Georgia and the “soft authoritarianism” of Ukraine’s
Leonid Kuchma and Kyrgyzstan’s Askar Akaev, it deployed soft power,
mainly by supporting civil society groups. Faced with “hard
authoritarianism” in Iraq, it opted for violent overthrow, with
uncertain long-term results. In Uzbekistan, it plumped for a few
quiet and reluctant words of concern about the Andijan killings, a
lily-livered policy that did nothing to save its troops from being
ordered out of the country.
What practical form the Community for Democratic Choice might take
remains shadowy (all that is known is that a conference should be
held in the autumn), but the Yushchenko-Saakashvili initiative –
backed already by Poland and Lithuania – at least heralds the
prospect of some new thinking about how to promote democracy. Given
the inadequacies of the “models” provided by the big powers – the EU,
Turkey, and the United States – some competition of ideas would be
welcome.