Author: Nadirian Emma

CRIME, GEOPOLITICS AND THE BLACK SEA

Kyiv Post, Ukraine
Aug 30 2007

Since antiquity, the Black Sea Region (BSR) has united its littoral
states and served as a crossroads. It forms an invaluable cultural,
political and economic sea triangle connecting the nations of the
West, Greater Middle East and Eurasia. The dissolution of the Soviet
Union and the enlargement processes of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization and the European Union connect the West to the BSR in
an unprecedented manner.

This article presents the Newly Independent States in the Black Sea
Region (NISBSR) as a security complex and new front for combating
threats to international security caused by corruption and
transnational crime.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Empire, states in the BSR
inherited a political criminal nexus and a common legacy of a lack of
respect for the rule of law, absence of civil society, a large criminal
underworld and shadow economy, endemic corruption and a demoralized
law enforcement and legal apparatus, satisfying the preconditions for
the development of a serious and sophisticated organized crime problem.

Whereas some states have successfully entered the Euro-Atlantic
integration process, Moscow’s influence on the strategic territories
of its former empire must not be underestimated. Parts of the former
Soviet nomenklatura have been linked to separatism and transnational
crime in the BSR. The effects of human trafficking, contraband product
trade and illegal arms trade have an international butterfly effect
on human, economic, territorial and financial security.

Today, the Black Sea’s shores host separatist conflicts referred to
as "criminal black holes." Moscow may not have only backed breakaway
territories in Moldova (Trans-Dniester) and Georgia (Abkhazia and
South Ossetia); some claim these separatist sentiments are orchestrated
and maintained by Moscow’s policies.

Moscow’s role in Azerbaijan and Armenia (Nagorno-Karabakh) and
separatism in Ukraine (Sevastopol, Crimea) should also be considered.

The criminalization and corruption of the NISBSR impede the state’s
de facto control over its territory and population.

Russia’s armed forces and political-economic companies like [Russia’s
state gas monopoly – Ed. Note] Gazprom increase its power in the NISBSR
to the detriment of democratic security. To understand separatism in
the NISBSR, the symbiotic relationship between transnational organized
crime and Russia’s geopolitical interests must be considered.

Gazprom’s character is not only illustrated by its consideration
to supply illegitimate Trans-Dniester with gas supplies separately
from Moldova. Western law enforcement and intelligence agencies have
suspected relations between Gazprom, Russian security services and
companies linked to [Ukrainian-born – Ed. note] Semyon Mogilevich,
[an alleged mobster wanted by the FBI on money-laundering and
racketeering charges – Ed. note].

A [Ukrainian State Security Service – Ed. Note] SBU spokesperson
stated: "The probe is part of a broader investigation into suspected
money-laundering, smuggling and tax evasion stemming from the Turkmen
gas trade."

The US Justice Department identified Mogilevich as the leader of
over 300 criminals, operating in more than 30 countries, involved in
murder, extortion, trafficking in women for prostitution, smuggling,
money-laundering, and bank and securities fraud and, in numerous
countries, the corruption of public officials.

Regional governmental organizations and experts acknowledge the need
for a common approach to transnational organized crime. In 1995,
the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) identified
transnational crime as a serious threat to the region’s economic
stability and security.

The 2002 Agreement among the Governments of the BSEC Participating
States on Cooperation in Combating Crime, particularly in its organized
forms, targets specific crimes to be prevented, suppressed, detected,
disclosed and investigated in cooperation.

In 2005, the Community of Democratic Choice followed suit. It
identified the need "…to address the threats to the democratic
development of society, which are – among others – corruption,
organized crime, money-laundering, terrorism in its different forms,
the existence of remaining conflicts in Europe and illicit trafficking
in drugs, arms and human beings."

In May 2006, heads of state at the GUAM [Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan
and Moldova Organization for Democracy and Economic Development – Ed.

Note] Summit paid special attention to the challenges and threats
of aggressive separatism and transnational organized crime in their
region.

Unresolved conflicts and the illegal presence of foreign troops
and armaments in GUAM States were recognized as main obstacles to
full-scale democratic transformations and economic development in
the region.

Security problems related to transnational crime in the BSR are
specific in character. Lacking political will, however, it is unlikely
they will succeed in nipping organized crime in the bud and punishing
the state and non-state actors involved.

Transnational organized crime, combined with remnants of communist
and Soviet networks, can be manipulated to advance the geopolitical
motives of third states. Frozen conflicts and breakaway territories
promote organized criminal activity and impede democratic development.

One may argue that organized crime is as old as humankind, and what
time does not resolve is not a problem. However, for the rule of law
and democratic development in the Black Sea Region, it is.

Lada L. Roslycky LL.M. is an independent consultant and PhD Researcher
at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

CHRISTIANITY CANNOT BE OFFICIAL RELIGION IN AZERBAIJAN – TOP CLERIC

Sources:
Trend news agency, Baku, in Russian 1001 gmt 28 Aug 07
Yeni Musavat, Baku, in Azeri 28 Aug 07 p 8

Christianity can never be an official religion in Azerbaijan, as over
98 per cent of this country’s population is Muslim, a top cleric has
said, according to Trend news agency.

"The leadership of the country has so far protected Islam as the
main faith in Azerbaijan, and the Muslims themselves do not want
Christianity to be recognized as a second state religion," Haci
Allahsukur Pasazada, who heads the Board of Muslims of the Caucasus,
told reporters in Baku on 28 August, Trend said.

"This is a desire of some people from abroad," is how he described
a call for Christianity to be recognized as an official religion
in Azerbaijan.

Pasazada’s remarks came in response to a proposal made at a conference
in Baku on 27 August. According to the opposition daily Yeni Musavat,
an unidentified participant in the conference, which was reportedly
organized by the Universal Peace Federation, said that Azerbaijan’s
embracing Christianity would contribute to peace in the region and
would help resolve the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict with Christian
Armenia.

In an interview with Yeni Musavat, rights activist Ilqar Ibrahimoglu,
who is also the leader of a small Shi’i community in Baku, described
the call as "a very serious provocation" against Azerbaijan.

Turkey expects ‘rectification’ as ADL insists on ‘genocide’ label

In an apparent show of determination, the leader of the US-based
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has insisted that the organization made
an appropriate decision by revising its policy concerning the killings
of Anatolian Armenians in the early 20th century, vowing that they
will "not hesitate to apply the term genocide in the future."

An article penned by ADL National Director Abraham Foxman — who last
week said the killings of Armenians by Muslim Turks "were indeed
tantamount to genocide" — was published in a Boston newspaper, The
Jewish Advocate, on Monday.

"While we continue to firmly believe that a Congressional resolution
on such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster
reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, we will not hesitate to
apply the term genocide in the future. We believe that we have been
true to who we are in our approach. As long as ADL is an organization
committed first to the safety and security of the Jewish people, we
cannot in good conscience ignore the well-being of 20,000 Jews in
Turkey. We will, however, continue to push the Turkish government in
the right direction. We hope people of goodwill understand our
perspective, but even if they do not, we deeply believe that we are
being true to the core values of our organization which have served
Jews and the broader society so well for many years," said Foxman in
the article.

Following strong reaction from Turkish political leadership against
the ADL’s announcement, Foxman last week sent a letter addressing
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, saying that the ADL had huge
respect for the Turkish people and has never desired to put the
Turkish people and their leaders into a difficult situation. Foxman
then expressed deep regret over what the Turkish people had to go
through in the past few days since it agreed to recognize the alleged
genocide, reversing a long-held policy.

"The letter was pleasing to us," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Levent
Bilman told Today’s Zaman on Tuesday. "However, the wrong step has not
yet been corrected. We expect the ADL to rectify its statement because
it is obvious that there is no consensus among historians on how to
qualify the 1915 incidents, contrary to what the ADL has claimed,"
Bilman added.

When asked to elaborate on how a "rectification" could be made by the
ADL, Bilman said the right address for consulting such controversial
matters was historians and that the ADL should refer to historians
after making such an assertive allegation and then review its
statement. "The issue is not closed for Ankara until such a review and
rectification is made."

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in a
systematic genocide campaign by Ottoman Turks around the time of World
War I, but Ankara categorically rejects the label, saying that both
Armenians and Turks died in civil strife during World War I, when the
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with Russian troops that were invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

29.08.2007
Ankara Today’s Zaman

Source: =detay&link=120674

Jewish group in US rehires regional director after dispute over
Armenian massacre

The Associated Press
Monday, August 27, 2007

BOSTON: The Anti-Defamation League has rehired its New England
regional director a week after he was fired for publicly saying the
group should change its national policy by recognizing the 1915
killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Andrew Tarsy got his job back Monday after talks with the Jewish
group’s national director Abraham Foxman.

Foxman, after criticism over Tarsy’s firing from Jewish and
Armenian-American groups, said last week the Armenian killings "were
indeed tantamount to genocide."

But he said his human rights group would not support a pending
Congressional resolution that calls the massacre a genocide, saying it
was "a counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation
between Turks and Armenians."

Foxman said in an interview with The Boston Globe on Monday that he
and Tarsy "see eye to eye" after talks held over the last week. "And
after our conversation, I decided to take him back, to reinstate him.
And I’m delighted he’s back."

The regional board of the New York-based ADL had unanimously asked
Foxman to bring Tarsy back.

Tarsy said in a statement Monday that he is "delighted to be back on the job."

"I am proud that ADL has made a very significant change confronting a
moral issue and acknowledging the Armenian genocide for what it was,"
Tarsy said. "This was an act of leadership by Mr. Foxman and ADL."

The ADL’s governing body will also take up the Armenian issue when it
meets in November, he said.

Source: NA-GEN-US-Genocide-Debate.php

REASONS: ARMENIA OUTSIDE REGIONAL STRATEGIC INTERESTS

Panorama.am
18:36 27/08/2007

"There is no strategic program, and that is why Russia offends
Armenia’s independence," stated former deputy Hmayak Hovhannisyan on
the occasion of the ten year anniversary of the signing of the 1997
agreement between Boris Yeltsin and Levon Ter Petrosyan.

Speaking about Russia’s influence over Armenia, Hovhannisyan noted the
natural gas pipeline between Iran and Armenia, and how it wouldn’t
become a means of transit of the gas. "The pipeline isn’t transit,
because Russia didn’t assist in that direction. This is the result of
not having a strategic plan in regards to Russia," he said. He added
that Armenia’s closeness to Russia is the reason Armenia is staying
on the outside of East-West communication programs.

"Russia and Belarus were on the outside concerning this program,
the natural result being Armenia was also left out, being Armenia
was their only ally in the south Caucasus," he added.

Hovhannisyan is convinced that due to Armenia’s isolation within
its own borders it was left out of the proposed railroad line of
Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku. "It is meaningless to talk about the
renovation of the Kars-Gyumri railroad, as this would only solve
small, local problems," he said. He also feels no reason to tie the
construction of the rail line to the opening of Armenia’s border
with Turkey.

"Armenia is also left out of north-south programs in the Caucasus,"
Hovhannisyan said. He is convinced that the result of the 1997
agreement has shown military benefits but only pressure when relating
to economic ties.

Hovhannisyan sees both positive and negative in Russian-Armenian
relations of the past 10 years, but that currently difficult problems
exist.

Chronicle of Higher Education
Aug 22 2007

The ADL on the Armenian Genocide

Alan Wolfe, at The New Republic’s Open University, is glad the
Anti-Defamation League has "seen the light" and reversed course on
whether to call the Turkish massacre of Armenians "genocide." He also
hopes the ADL rehires its former New England regional director,
Andrew Tarsy, whom it fired for bucking the organization’s longtime
stand that the killings should not be designated "genocide."

Mark Kleiman, over at the Reality-Based Community, is similarly
disgusted by the firing and ADL’s (former?) position. Pulling no
punches, he writes:

"If Democrats take back the federal government next year, there’s
going to have to be a reckoning with outfits such as ADL and AIPAC.
I can’t tell whether they take their lead from right-wing Israeli
politicians because of their Republican affiliations or pal around
with Republicans because they’re in bed with Likud. But it has to
stop. Either they need new leadership or we need new organizations."

ootnoted/index.php?id=453

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I MEETS WITH A REPRESENTATIVE
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The representative of the Presbyterian Church, Dr. K. Andji met with His
Holiness Aram I in Bikfaya yesterday. Dr. Andji consulted the Catholicos on
a number of issues related to the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and
particularly on cooperation between the Council and the Presbyterian Church.

In light of his extensive experience in the ecumenical field and based on
the needs and challenges facing churches in the Middle East, the Pontiff
made the necessary recommendations and explained his viewpoints. His
Holiness also stressed the need to expand cooperation between the United
States and MECC particularly in the ecumenical assistance and social service
fields.

##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

No room to deny genocide
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian <[email protected]>
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By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | August 22, 2007

Was there an Armenian genocide during World War I?

While it was happening, no one called the slaughter of Armenian Christians
by Ottoman Turks "genocide." No one could: The word wouldn’t be
coined< 9036419/genocide#787091.hook>for
another 30 years. But those who made it their business to tell the
world
what the Turks were doing found other terms to describe the state-sponsored
mass murder of the Armenians.

In its extensive
reporting< /index.php?title=Armenian_Genocide_Contemporary_Ar ticles>on
the atrocities, The New York Times described them as "systematic,
"deliberate," "organized by government," and a "campaign of extermination."
A Sept. 25, 1915, headline warned: "Extinction Menaces Armenia
< title=Says_Extinction_Menaces_Armenia_-nyt19150925 a>."
What the Turks were embarked upon, said one official in the story that
followed, was "nothing more or less than the annihilation of a whole
people."

Foreign diplomats, too, realized that they were observing genocide *avant la
lettre*. American consular reports leaked to the Times indicated "that the
Turk has undertaken a war of extermination on Armenians, especially those of
the Gregorian Church, to which about 90 percent of the Armenians belong." In
July, US Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau<http://www.henrymorgenthaupres erve.com/henry.asp>cabled
Washington that "race murder" was underway — a "systematic attempt
to uproot peaceful Armenian populations and . . . to bring destruction and
destitution upon them." These were not random outbreaks of violence,
Morgenthau stressed, but a nationwide slaughter "directed from
Constantinople."

Another US diplomat, Consul Leslie Davis, described in grisly detail the
"reign of terror" he saw in Harput and the corpses of "thousands and
thousands" of Armenians murdered near Lake Goeljuk. The mass deportations
ordered by the Turks, in which hundreds of thousands of Armenians were
crammed into freight cars and shipped hundreds of miles to die in the desert
or at the hands of killing squads, were far worse than a straightforward
massacre, he wrote. "In a massacre many escape, but a wholesale deportation
of this kind in this country means a longer and perhaps even more dreadful
death for nearly everyone."

Other eyewitnesses, including American missionaries, provided
stomach-clenching descriptions of the "terrible tortures" mentioned by
Morgenthau. Women and girls were raped, then forced to march naked through
blistering heat. Many victims were crucified on wooden crosses; as they
writhed in agony, the Turks would taunt them: "Now let your Christ come and
help you!" Reuters
reported< dex.php?title=Burn_1%2C000_Armenians-nyt19150820&g t;that
"in one village, 1,000 men, women, and children are reported to have
been locked in a wooden building and burned to death." In another, "several
scores of men and women were tied together by chains and thrown into Lake
Van."

Talaat Pasha < ;, the Turkish
interior minister who presided over the liquidation of the Armenians, made
no bones about his objective. "The Government . . . has decided to destroy
completely all the indicated persons" — the Armenians — "living in
Turkey," he wrote to authorities in Aleppo. "An end must be put to their
existence . . . and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to
conscientious scruples."

Was there an Armenian genocide during World War I? The Turkish government
today denies it, but the historical record, chronicled in works like Peter
Balakian’s powerful 2003 study, "The Burning
Tigris< hor/authorExtra.aspx?isbn13 – 80060558703&displayType=readingGuide>,&quot ;
is overwhelming. Yet the Turks are abetted in their denial and distortion by
many who know better, including the Clinton administration and both Bush
administrations, and prominent ex-congressmen-turned-lobbyists, including
Republican Bob Livingston and Democrats Dick Gephardt and Stephen Solarz.

Particularly deplorable has been the longtime reluctance of some leading
Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American
Jewish Committee, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to call
the first genocide of the 20th century by its proper name. When Andrew
Tarsy, the New England director of the ADL, came out last week in support of
a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, he was
promptly fired< setts/articles/2007/08/18/adl_local_leader_fired_o n_armenian_issue/>by
the national organization. Shaken by the uproar that followed, the ADL
finally backed down< 2007/08/22/adl_chief_bows_to_critics/>.
The murder of a million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915,
it acknowledged yesterday, was "indeed tantamount to genocide."

Now the other organizations should follow suit. Their unwillingness to
acknowledge that the Turks committed genocide stems from the fear that doing
so may worsen the plight of Turkey’s beleaguered Jewish community or may
endanger the crucial military and economic relationship Israel has forged
with Turkey. Those are honorable concerns. But they cannot justify keeping
silent about a most dishonorable assault on the truth. Genocide denial must
be intolerable to everyone, but above all to those for whom "never again" is
such a sacred principle. And at a time when jihadist violence from Darfur to
Ground Zero has spilled so much innocent blood, dissimulation about the
jihad of 1915 can only aid our enemies.

The Armenian genocide is an incontestable fact of history. Shame on anyone
who refuses to say so.

*Jeff Jacoby’s* column appears regularly in the Globe.
(c) Copyright < right> 2007 The
New York Times Company

Source: /oped/articles/2007/08/22/no_room_to_deny_genocide /

ADEQUATE FOR PAST – ON DEMAND OF PRESENT

AZG Armenian Daily #149
21/08/2007

Science, Social

The European and Armenian astronomical societies will hold the first
joint congress in Yerevan from August 20 to 25. The congress is
headlined "Our Unsteady Universe". 300 scientists and 40 high-ranking
guests from 37 countries will take part in the congress.

8 conferences and 6 special sessions will be held during the congress.

The astronomical observatory of Byurakan is one of the most famous
scientific centers of Armenia.

The astrophysical centers of all over the world were acquainted with
the name of the village Byurakan during the last 6 decades. Not only
many state and scientific delegations, but thousands of schoolchildren
and citizens of our and other republics visited Byurakan. Moreover,
this will have its continuation.

The further activities and success of the astronomical observatory
of Byurakan depends on two important factors: firstly, preparation
of the new generation of astrophysics, secondly, the availability of
astronomical instruments and activities of modern level.

Armenian plateau has always been one of the centers of the development
of astronomy not only in the ancient times and Middle Ages, but also
in the 20th century, when academician Victor Hambardzumian founded
the astronomical observatory of Byurakan and made it one of the famous
astrophysical centers of the world.

It’s planned to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the famous
scientist in 2008.

The best way to eternalize the memory of Victor Hambardzumian is to
protect and develop, what he has created.

By Haik Haroutiunian, Director of Byurakan’s observatory

SECOND ALL ARMENIAN FESTIVAL OF YOUNG PRODUCERS TO BE HELD IN GYUMRI BETWEEN OCTOBER 21 TO 25

Noyan Tapan
Aug 16, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The second All Armenian Festival
of young producers will be held in Gyumri between October 21 to
25. According to the statement made by Yervand Ghazanchian, the
President of the Union of Theatre Workers of Armenia, at the press
conference held on August 16, performances of nine producers from
Yerevan, as well as of those under 30 from the theatres named after
V. Achemian in Gyumri and after P. Adamian in Tbilisi will be presented
at the festival. At the same time, he expressed anxiety about the fact
that there are no young producers in the other theaters of Armenia.

Attaching importance to the fact that the cultural life in the capital
"has got rid of polarization", Yervand Ghazanchian mentioned that
the festival will be held in the region of Kotayk in 2008, where no
theatre from Yerevan has had tours for already 15 years. "Theatres
should be saved from the subjection of prefecturas and municipalities
by returning them to the RA Ministry of Culture," the President of
the Union of Theatre Workers of Armenia declared.