Interfax, Russia
Sept 4 2008
Armenia wants its monitors to be included in OSCE mission in Georgia
YEREVAN Sept 4
Armenian military observers might possibly be included in the OSCE
monitoring mission in Georgia.
"Armenia has filed a request that its observers be included in the
OSCE mission in Georgia," Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
said on Wednesday.
As soon as a final decision is made on this issue, the Foreign
Ministry will make a relevant statement, Nalbandian said.
PRESIDENT ABDULLAH GUL GOES TO ARMENIA
BIA
Sept 5 2008
Turkey
President Abdullah Gul has announced that he will be going to Erivan
for the soccer match between Armenia and Turkey. Gul thinks that this
step will contribute to a new atmosphere of friendship.
President Abdullah Gul has accepted Armenian President Serj Sarkisyan’s
invitation and is going to Armenia to watch the Armenia-Turkey soccer
match on September 6. Armenia and Turkey are in the same group for
the World Cup eliminations.
Gul’s decision was announced officially by the Presidency.
"The game means important opportunities" The announcement by the
Presidency says the following:
"This game is not simply a soccer game; it presents important
opportunities. It is believed that such an opportunity should be used
as best as possible, especially when the peoples of the Caucasian
region are going through trying times. The visit that will come with
this game may contribute to forming a new atmosphere of friendship. Our
President accepted this invitation with this in mind."
"Opportunity for both peoples to understand each other better"
"It is believed that the said game may present an opportunity to
remove the factors that block the rapprochement between these two
peoples with common history. It is hoped that this visit will create
an opportunity for these people to understand each other better."
Babacan is going, AKP deputies are not
With Gul, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan will go as well. Since it
will involve a soccer game, the visit will not be official, but in
the category of work visit.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) did not give permission to its
own deputies to go to Erivan, the capitol city of Armenia. According
to daily Radikal, the party assembly told the deputies who wanted to
go to the game not to go to Erivan in accordance with Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan’s directive.
GUL TO MAKE HISTORIC VISIT TO ARMENIA
Alalam News Network
Sept 4 2008
Iran
ANKARA, Sept 4–Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Saturday becomes
the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia, a move which has
drawn large-scale fire in the Muslim nation.
Gul will go to Yerevan to attend a football match between the two
countries in a bid to normalize relations with the historic foe.
The two countries will face off in a qualifying match for the 2010
World Cup finals and Armenia’s President Serge Sarkisian invited Gul
last month to attend.
Ankara and Yerevan have severe diplomatic relations and remain deeply
divided over the World War I massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman
Empire.
The Turkish presidency said in a statement: "A visit around this match
can create a new climate of friendship in the region," and added, "It’s
with this in mind that the president has accepted the invitation."
While some in the Turkish media have hailed the visit as historic
and a potential breakthrough, the trip remains highly controversial.
Amid a wave of opposition criticism, the ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) — which Gul belonged to before being elected president
last year — adopted a very cautious tone.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in televised remarks: "I
think it is very positive that the president is going. Rejecting the
(Armenian) invitation would have meant sacrificing sports to politics."
Turkey’s main opposition party said Gul’s decision will send the wrong
signal to Armenia over its campaign for the deaths of Armenians in
1915-1917 to be recognized as "genocide".
Armenia says up to 1.5 million people were killed in orchestrated
massacres during World War I as the Ottoman Empire fell apart before
being dismantled in 1920.
Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 250,000- 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife as Armenians
fought for independence in eastern Anatolia.
Turkish Way Of Speaking With "Ultimatums" No Longer Works
Panorama.am
19:33 04/09/2008
"Turkish President’s acceptation of his Armenian counterpart Serzh
Sargsyan’s invitation on visiting Yerevan to watch Armenia-Turkey World
Cup qualifying match on September 6 has completely destroyed the policy
that Turkey used to conduct during such long period of time," the
head of ARF political bureau and Hay Dat committee Kiro Manoyan says.
According to Mr. Manoyan president Gul’s visit cannot guarantee a
stabilization of the relations between two neighbor states. Moreover,
the speaker is very pessimistic about Turkey’s possible denial of
making its traditional preconditions or speaking in the language of
"ultimatums" to Armenia.
"Turkey needs political will to change the strategy it conducted
towards Armenia over past 17 years: This state has always refused
to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia since we gained
independence. But we hope that discussions held within Turkish society
will help them change their mind not only for the propagandistic
reason," Mr. Manoyan added.
Questioned whether Turkish President could change his mind at last
moment and refuse to visit Yerevan, K. Manoyan said everything was
possible in politics but Turkey had already violated diplomatic
protocol by its late answer to President Sargsyan’s invitation and
was unlikely to do anything that could harm its propagandistic plans
at the moment.
OPPOSITION LEADER BAYKAL IS AGAINST PRESIDENT’S POSSIBLE VISIT TO ARMENIA
Emine Ozcan
BÄ°
Sept 2 2008
Turkey
Opposition leader Baykal says President Gul should not accept the
invitation of the Armenian President to watch the Armenia-Turkey
soccer game together in Armenia. There are those who think it will
be a step in the right direction.
The possibility that President Abdullah Gul may go to Erivan to watch
the Armenia-Turkey soccer game has received harsh response from Deniz
Baykal, president of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). He said he
would have rather gone to Baku, Azerbaijan’s capitol city.
Prof. Dr. Baskın Oran and journalist/writer AyÅ~_e Hur have reacted
to Baykal’s response to the President’s possible plan to visit Armenia.
Oran said, "the visit means the desire to normalize the relationships"
and Hur emphasized that solving the problems between the two countries
started by forming relations.
Baykal is for restricted relationship Armenian President Serj Sargisyan
had said that he could have taken a step that would help advance the
relations between the two countries and had invited Gul to the soccer
game in Armenia.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Babacan confirmed that a delegation
from Turkey would go to Armenia. According to an authority from the
ministry, if Gul goes to Armenia his agenda will be the ‘Mountainous
Karabag’, the disputed enclave between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which
is under the Armenian occupation at the moment.
Baykal rests his objection on three reasons:
– Turkey’s territorial integrity has not been accepted by Armenia yet.
– Armenia supports the genocide allegation against Turkey with all
the means possible.
– Armenia occupied the Azerbaijan territory, the Upper Karabag,
and this occupation is still continuing.
According to Baykal the relationship between Armenia and Turkey should
stay restricted
"Armenia does not have a problem with its Turkish border" Oran made
the following comments about Baykal’s explanations:
– "I personally heard Vartan Oskanyan, Foreign Minister of Armenia,
saying that they did not have any problem with their Turkish
border. When the foreign ministers make declarations like this one,
they are binding."
– "As long as Turkey denies the 1915 massacres, we cannot use the
term genocide. As long as we defend the things the Ottomans did,
nobody will accept our objection to the term genocide."
– "Is it Turkey’s business to defend Azerbaijan’s interests? Azerbaijan
committee left the hall during a European Council meeting when the
subject was the Cyprus problem. For they would have been in an awkward
position if they had defended Northern Cyprus’s right to be a state,
when they were against the same right in the case of the Mountainous
Karabag."
"We could ease the problem by starting mutual relationships" According
to Hur, the solution to this particular problem could only start by
forming relations, not by satisfying Baykal’s conditions.
Emphasizing the complexity of the Karabag problem, Hur says the
relations can be improved and this way it may be possible for Turkey
to be part of the problems. Turkey can state its own opinions about
the Karabag problem. It can be a mediator. This way a new genocide
terminology can be developed as well. Putting the need to have a
relationship before anything else may be helpful to solving the
problem.
–Boundary_(ID_hOLpox8onCSTIZdMZHKlX Q)–
TURKISH DELEGATION TO VISIT ARMENIA FOR CAUCASUS TALKS
Panorama.am
13:11 01/09/2008
A Turkish Foreign Ministry delegation will visit Yerevan this week
to discuss a proposed platform for the troubled Caucasus, Turkish
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan announced yesterday.
Turkish "Zaman" reports that Babacan, speaking at a joint press
conference with his Georgian counterpart, Eka Tkeshelashvili in
Ä°stanbul, said the delegation will present Turkish ideas concerning
the Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform, proposed by Turkey as
a mechanism to develop conflict resolution methods among the Caucasus
ountries. The proposed platform is planned to be made up of Turkey,
Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
"We will present our views concerning the Caucasus platform to our
counterparts in Yerevan," Babacan said.
The question of how to establish contact between the estranged
neighbors Turkey and Armenia is just one of the obstacles that the
proposed Caucasus platform faces.
According to Turkish media, Azerbaijan is unlikely to warm to any
sort of cooperation or contact with Armenia due to the continued
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Georgia, for its part, refuses any
contact with Russia unless Russian forces withdraw from Georgia.
Tkeshelashvili reiterated in Ä°stanbul that what Russia must do now is
to withdraw from Georgian territory and fully implement a cease-fire
agreement. After that Georgia can begin assessing proposals for
contacts with Russia in a multilateral setting, she said. Russia,
she said, should see that it cannot act the way it used to in the past.
Turkish analysts warn that contacts with Armenia could offend
Azerbaijan, Turkey’s regional ally which also shares close ethnic
and linguistic ties. Babacan assured his Azerbaijani counterpart,
Elmar Mammadyarov, on Friday that Turkey was a strategic partner of
Azerbaijan in all areas but signs of tension were visible during the
one-day visit. The two ministers gave a very brief press statement
after their talks and Mammadyarov said before meeting Babacan that his
country would consider "profitability" concerning a Russian proposal to
buy Azerbaijani oil, a move that would undermine a US-backed pipeline
to transfer Caspian oil to Europe via Turkey.
Turkish government’s apparent plans to initiate dialogue with
Armenia are receiving criticism at home as well. Main opposition
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal told reporters
yesterday that the government was trying to reverse the official
policy without Armenia meeting any of the conditions requested by
Turkey for normalization of ties.
He warned against alienating Azerbaijan, saying this country is of
vital importance for Turkey in many respects. "I want the government
to refrain from taking any step that would harm Azerbaijan," he said
and added that he would rather go to Baku than to Yerevan to watch
the World Cup game.
However, analysts say with so many issues of dispute among the five
countries, the idea to bring them around the same table to discuss
disputes could be mere wishful thinking. But contacts have been
intense since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the
proposal. Erdogan has visited Moscow, Tbilisi and Baku to discuss
the proposal. The Azerbaijani foreign minister had talks in Ankara
on Friday and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to
arrive in Ä°stanbul today for talks on Tuesday.
–Boundary_(ID_RFK2CxBQh8IQTH2e46pzcg)–
ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENTS TO MEET IN SOCHI ON SEPT 2
ARKA
Aug 29, 2008
YEREVAN, August 29. /ARKA/. Armenia’s President Serge Sargsian leaves
for Sochi on September 2 to meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry
Medvedev, the RA President’s press service reports.
Armenian-Russian cooperation and Armenia’s CSTO chairmanship, as well
as international issues will be on the agenda of the meeting.
ARMENIAN INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS, TURKEY SAYS
Hürriyet
Aug 29 2008
Turkey
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said his Armenian counterpart’s
invitation to watch a football game in Yerevan is an example that shows
that a contribution to solving problems could come from every level,
adding he is still considering whether to accept the invitation or not.
"I think that (Armenian President Serz Sargsyan’s invitation) is an
example showing that the contribution to solving the problem and ending
the misunderstandings can be made at each level. Our assessments on
Mr. Sargsyan’s invitation are underway with taking every development
into account," Gul told Radikal daily on Friday.
Radikal conducted an interview with Sargsyan on Thursday, and Gul’s
comments came a day after the interview. Sargsyan said Gul’s visit
will boost the diplomatic ties between the two countries and open
new windows of opportunity, adding they want to establish diplomatic
relations.
Sargsyan has invited Gul to watch a football match between the two
country’s national teams on Sept. 6 to mark "a new symbolic start
in the two countries’ relations." Gul is yet to make a decision on
accepting the invitation.
"I sincerely support the recent efforts to ensure peace in the
region. I think that it is important to use the opportunities. Our
wish is this: We think it is very important to solve our problems
with our neighbors. We think it is very important the problems
should be solved through dialogue. We are a problem-solving country
in the region. We think peace, and stability is very important in
the Caucasus," Gul added.
Gul also said the frozen conflicts of the Caucasus, especially the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem, should be solved through dialogue, adding
he is still considering the invitation of his Armenian counterpart
to watch a football game in Yerevan.
Although Turkey is among the first countries to recognize Armenia when
it declared its independence, there are no diplomatic relations between
two countries as Armenia continues to press the international community
to admit the so-called "genocide" claims, instead of accepting Turkey’s
call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of 20 percent
of Azerbaijani territory due to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue despite
U.N. Security Council resolutions on the issue.
Armenia, with the backing of the Diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey
rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least
as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.
–Boundary_(ID_97ZPVKBay0lLFEY+QRYKOw)- –
IN THE JAWS OF THE BEAR
by Mindy Belz
World Magazine
Au g 29 2008
NC
Georgia: With a weak allied response, Russia extends its reach
into Georgia
As Russia continued to escalate the conflict with the West over
its invasion of Georgia, words seemed to fail. "Russia recognizes
breakaway Georgia regions" is how most wire services headlined the
Aug. 26 vote by Russia’s parliament to, in effect, begin a process
of annexation of the pro-Russia regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia
in Georgia. The Associated Press called them "rebel regions."
By unilaterally declaring independence for two regions within another
country’s borders, the Russian government began yet another advance: to
negotiate a separate peace with these areas and to continue supplying
them while Georgia proper faces $1 billion in damages from Russia’s
five-day invasion and a Russian blockade on aid. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice called Moscow’s decision to claim independence for
the two enclaves "extremely unfortunate." Later she said Moscow’s
actions were "regrettable."
Western leaders are at a loss for words to deal with what is arguably
a crisis nearly a month after Russia’s surprise invasion of Georgia
and over a week after Moscow failed to comply with terms of withdrawal
contained in a signed ceasefire agreement. Instead, in a page from
the satirical Onion–which famously reported, "in other news . . . an
earthquake wiped out much of Etchasketchistan"–the West seems resigned
to see Moscow erase parts of Georgia’s borders. Russian occupation
of Georgia’s Black Sea port at Poti forced U.S. naval vessels loaded
with humanitarian supplies twice, on Aug. 24 and Aug. 27, to dock
south of war-damaged areas at Batumi.
And Russia’s August march into Georgia now seems more premeditated
than ever: Its forces quickly subdued Georgian units in South Ossetia
and it launched a three-day aerial assault on Kodori Gorge, giving
Abkhaz troops an opportunity to seize the agriculture-rich region that
is the gateway to Abkhazia. Along the way Russian forces managed to
hamper or shut down Georgia’s oil and gas pipelines.
Summarizing the helplessness many feel in Eastern Europe and among
the former Soviet satellites, an editorial in a Latvian newspaper
concluded: "Russia took what it could take."
Experts on the region, however, point out that the start of Russian
designs in Georgia extend well back of its Aug. 8 invasion. Georgia
is the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, and the Communist leader long
ago redrafted Georgian borders and forcibly mixed the area ethnically
as part of his plan to make a new nation of "Soviets." Abkhazia, in
fact, is now majority Armenian run by a small minority of pro-Moscow
Abkhazians. South Ossetia, meanwhile, is at least one-fourth Georgian
(and many human-rights groups remain unsure of their present status
after Russia’s military blocked the region last month from monitors
and journalists).
In 1991-93, with Georgia asserting its independence from the
disintegrating Soviet Union, Moscow officials showed up in Abkhazia and
South Ossetia to dispense Russian passports, according to Yuri Maltsev,
economics professor at Wisconsin’s Carthage College and a leading
researcher at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow before he defected in
1989. "They carried Polaroid cameras to make issuing passports easy,"
he said. That was the first step to sowing seeds of strife within
Georgia. Later the UN also upped the tension by giving to Russia a
mandate of providing peacekeepers to the–not surprisingly–restive
provinces. "That is the same as giving a goat a mandate to protect
a cabbage," said Maltsev. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has used
that mandate to keep "peacekeeping" troops on the ground in Georgia
beyond an Aug. 16 truce.
What’s next? Maltsev says Abkhazia and South Ossetia will now apply
for membership in the Russian Federation. With Russian troops in
control of both areas, it could remain difficult if not impossible
for outsiders to assess the fate of residents in the two regions who
lack Russian citizenship or other ties to Moscow.
And faith-based groups in the region are feeling pressure to keep
quiet also. Wheaton-based Russian Ministries has worked among Ossetian
churches, but spokesman Jean Zatulovsky told WORLD last week: "Because
of the sensitivity of the situation we are unable to give information
about the situation or our work there."
Western leaders are similarly hamstrung. "All of the West has been
so busy post-9/11 with how to address asymmetrical warfare. Suddenly
we are faced with a conventional threat and our capacity to meet
it has suffered," said Sally McNamara, senior policy analyst at the
Heritage Foundation.
"What you are seeing is a huge divergence between Old Europe and New
Europe," said McNamara. Central and Eastern European countries of
New Europe "see the real threat" of Russian aggression, she said,
but Western European nations, with backing from the United States,
put intervention off the table weeks ago. Both U.S. Defense Secretary
Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with Russian
troops still occupying Georgian cities, ruled out military action in
mid-August. Said McNamara: "One thing that has become very clear is
that countries like Russia are willing to engage in something very
old-fashioned–military confrontation–and European military capacity
is degraded to the point it cannot respond."
Key dates in the Georgia-Russia crisis Aug. 7: Georgia launches an
offensive to seize control of South Ossetia, a province that broke
from Georgia in the early 1990s.
Aug. 8: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili says most of South
Ossetia has been "liberated." Russia sends tanks and troops, promising
to defend its peacekeeping troops and residents with Russian passports.
Aug. 9: Russian warplanes bomb targets in Georgia including the Black
Sea port of Poti. This is followed by aerial assaults on the city
of Gori and near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. Russia
also launched a three-day air attack on Kodori Gorge, linking the
territory of Abkhazia to Georgia.
Aug. 10: After claiming control of most of South Ossetia, Russia
starts bombing areas near the Georgian capital Tbilisi for the first
time, targeting a military airfield. Georgia admits losing the South
Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali.
MOLDOVA OPPOSES INDEPENDENCE FOR GEORGIAN REGIONS
PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)
Aug 29 2008
Austria
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) – Moldovan authorities said Friday that other
nations should not follow Russia’s lead in recognizing the independence
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
"The Moldovan government does not consider that the international
recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia will bring stability to
the situation" in the Caucasus region, Moldova’s government said in
a statement.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has recognized the independence of
the two separatist regions after Moscow’s brief war with Georgia over
South Ossetia, drawing criticism from the West.
Moldova’s government said it rejects any comparison between
the situation in Georgia and the Moldovan separatist region of
Trans-Dniester.
Trans-Dniester broke away from Moldova in 1990. It is not recognized
internationally, but it is supported by Russia. Russia has 1,500 troops
stationed there to guard large weapons storage facilities left over
from the former Soviet military.
On Tuesday, Russia’s ambassador to Moldova, Valeri Kuzmin, warned
Moldova’s leaders to avoid a "bloody and catastrophic trend of events"
in Trans-Dniester. But Kuzmin acknowledged that the situation in
Moldova was different from the Caucasus.
That area includes Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, southern parts of
Russia and the disputed territories of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Nagorno-Karabakh. Moldova is on the other side of the Black sea from
the Caucasus.