Author: Khoyetsian Rose

The Arizona Republic
March 9 2004
Caucasian label linked to highlands

Dan Kincaid
QUESTION: What is the origin of the term “Caucasian” for White
people?
ANSWER: Words sometimes hold a secret history within themselves.
Think of influenza, which originally referred to the supposed
influence of the stars on our health, an idea that predated the
modern germ explanation of diseases.
“Caucasian” is a word heard often. Police dispatchers, for instance,
frequently describe crime suspects as Caucasian rather than White.
Caucasian comes from the Caucasus, the region between the Black and
Caspian seas that includes the nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Armenia and part of southern Russia. The towering ranges of the
Caucasus Mountains traverse it.
Why should the Caucasus provide a name for the lighter-skinned
peoples of western Asia, North Africa and Europe as well as for their
descendants around the world?
The late naturalist Stephen Jay Gould tells how the term arose as a
racial label in his 2002 book I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning
in Natural History.
In 1795, Gould says, the prominent German scholar and scientist
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach published a major work in which he
reclassified humanity into five races: American (Native Americans),
Mongolian, African, Malay and Caucasian.
Caucasian?
Blumenbach selected this term for lighter-skinned peoples Gould says,
because he felt that the skulls of people from the Caucasus region,
especially Georgians, were the most beautiful of all White peoples.
European that he was, Blumenbach thought Whites were generally the
most aesthetically pleasing of races in the first place. So great was
his influence that Caucasian caught on and remains a synonym for
White.

RIA news agency, Moscow, in Russian
10 Mar 04
Russian agency details crimes of ethnic gangs in Moscow

Moscow, 10 March: According to the department for fighting organized
crime, about 4,300 crimes uncovered in Moscow in 2003 were committed
by people from the North Caucasus and Transcaucasus. This was said by
the head of the operative-investigative unit of the Moscow department
for fighting organized crime, Col (Police) Andrey Bolshakov, at a
news conference on Wednesday [10 March].
Crimes committed by these people are mainly of latent nature and the
victims are, as a rule, people of the same ethnic group, or those who
live in Moscow and who are involved in illegal business dealing,
Bolshakov said.
He said that completed investigations (of the cases already submitted
to courts) showed that ethnic criminal gangs committed 295 crimes of
various degree of seriousness last year. A total of 255 of the crimes
are of economic nature, including 250 frauds.
A total of 136 cases have been instituted against leaders of criminal
gangs, including 12 cases against so-called “godfathers”.
Bolshakov said that the largest ethnic criminal group acting in
Moscow is the Azerbaijani one. They are involved in extortion and
kidnapping, mainly of people from the Azerbaijani diaspora, and they
commit crimes on the consumer market.
According to the colonel, the most influential ethnic criminal group
is Armenian. The group is involved in contract killings, gambling and
extortion.
He said that the Georgian-Abkhaz criminal group is one of the
earliest ones in Moscow, it has the greatest number of godfathers and
its members are primarily involved in car thefts and extortion.
Speaking about the Ingush criminal group Bolshakov said that its
representatives are mainly linked to embezzlement in the credit and
finance sphere.
The most odious group is the Chechen criminal group which is mainly
built on clan principles and which is the most closely-knit in
nature. These people are involved in embezzlement, kidnapping as well
as in controlling the arms and drugs trade, Bolshakov said.

Azeri official plays down Armenian leader’s Karabakh remarks
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
12 Mar 04
[Presenter] Baku believes that Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s
statement that Nagornyy Karabakh can never become part of Azerbaijan
again is intended to cast a shadow on our country.
Saying this, the head of the Presidential Executive Staff, Ramiz
Mehdiyev, added that Kocharyan’s mythical remarks that if Nagornyy
Karabakh is returned to Azerbaijan, hundreds of thousands of axes
would be hanging over the Karabakh Armenians show that he is not
faring well in his country.
Mehdiyev also stressed that while the Armenian president is saying
that there is no political crisis in Armenia, his attempts to foment
tensions around the Nagornyy Karabakh issue testify to the opposite
and show that there is a deep political crisis in Armenia.
The head of the Presidential Executive Staff also pointed to the fact
that 30,000 Armenians still live in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan, he said,
is demonstrating to the whole world that the Armenians can live in
peace among the Azerbaijanis and there is no threat to their
lives. This is the result of the security guarantees that we have been
providing for the Armenians for years.
At the same time, Mehdiyev said that Armenia cannot conceal its
aggressive anti-Azerbaijani policy, as a result of which there are no
Azerbaijanis on Armenian territory. He added that the Azerbaijanis
were driven out of Armenia even more cruelly than with axes. Today
Armenian snipers are targeting peaceful Azerbaijanis. But they can
only do that in borderline areas.

President warns Russian troops against interference in Georgian affairs
Imedi TV, Tbilisi
12 Mar 04
[Presenter] It was reported in Ajaria this morning that the centre was
planning to deploy the Commando Battalion in Batumi [Ajarian capital]
to establish control there.
The Ajarian interior minister [Jemal Gogitidze] said in a telephone
conversation with us that official Batumi had received this
information a long time ago. He said that Ajarian law enforcers had
been mobilized in this connection. Also, today Jemal Gogitidze denied
the information that a 60-strong group from the Netkachovi [as heard]
unit had abandoned [Ajarian leader] Aslan Abashidze.
Before flying to Yerevan, President [Mikheil] Saakashvili said once
again that the attention to Ajaria would not be lessened.
Saakashvili commented on today’s reports that the transfer of Russian
servicemen to Ajaria was continuing. It has been reported that 79 new
recruits were transferred to Batumi from the Armenian town of Gyumri
this morning. The servicemen were brought there by a special
train. The Russian side has been carrying out a rotation of its
servicemen at the military base in Ajaria for a month.
[Saakashvili, speaking to journalists at Tbilisi airport. Video starts
in mid-sentence] – they want to divert attention from Ajaria.
We will respond to the extremists in Tbilisi and we will detain those
who violate human rights in Batumi as well. Their hope that we will
give up Ajaria are in vain. This will not happen.
[Russian] bases is a separate issue. I constantly raise the issue of
bases at all levels. However, whatever forces they bring in, or take
out, let nobody have a hope that those forces will intervene in
Georgia’s domestic affairs. And may God forbid anyone to intervene [in
Georgia’s domestic affairs] without the Russian president’s
knowledge. They will receive such an answer that they will never be
able to stand on their feet again. We are no longer the Georgia of
1992. I do not advise [changes tack] – I am ready to stand in front of
any tank for Georgia.

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
March 12 2004
Georgian, Armenian Presidents Meet In Armenia

Armenian President Robert Kocharian

Yerevan, 12 March 2004 (RFE/RL) — Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili arrived in Yerevan today on his first official visit to
Armenia, meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharian and calling
for closer relations between regional neighbors.
“Naturally, I consider the South Caucasus as a single region. We have
close relations with Azerbaijan, but I think we should also develop
bilateral Georgian-Armenian relations. We are also developing
relations with our other neighbors, and in the end, as a result of
resolving many of the existing problems, including some profound
problems, this region must be integrated — both politically and
economically — in order to be successful.”
Kocharian said the two agreed at their talks today to meet often,
both formally and informally.
Saakashvili also said Armenia could help Georgia normalize its
relations with Russia, which have been complicated by the continued
presence of Russian troops and Russia’s support for Georgia’s
separatist regions.
Earlier today, Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned the new Georgian
government against trying to force its autonomous region of Adjaria
back under the control of Tbilisi.