Author: Ophelia Vardapetian

PROTESTS IN JAVAKHETI OVER FINANCIAL POLICE CLOSURES
By M. Alkhazashvili
The Messenger, Georgia
Oct 13 2005
Recent protests in Akhalkalaki immediately made headlines in the
Georgian, Russian and Armenian media. After the incident many in
the media, as well as Armenian officials, called on the Georgian
government to exercise special caution in the Javakheti region, which
is populated largely by ethnic Armenians, and to avoid further ethnic
conflict within its borders.
The presidential representative, or governor, in the Samtskhe-Javakheti
region Goga Khachidze stated that for the last three months Akhalkalaki
has not been able to fulfill its local budget because many locals
refuse to pay taxes. Recently the regional Tax Service, which is
staffed by ethnic Armenians, inspected three enterprises and the
financial police closed these businesses due to tax evasion.
Svobodnaia Gruzia reported that on October 5 locals staged a
demonstration in protest of the closures. During the meeting some
residents confronted the police and officers fired into the air to
restore calm.
According to reports by Akhali Taoba, despite the fact that all
participants in the confrontation – both residents and the police –
were Armenian, it is being treated by the Russian media as a case
of Georgian police attempting to stomp out separatist movements in
the region.
Even in Armenia the incident was viewed as an ethnic confrontation.
Garnik Isagulian, President Robert Kocharian’s national security
adviser, issued a statement calling on Georgia to be more careful in
dealing with Javakheti.
“It is possible that the smallest provocation in this region may grow
into wide-scale conflict. Thus the Georgian authority must be more
attentive and careful,” Isagulian is quoted as saying in Rezonansi.
Even the Georgian media has warned the local administration to be
careful. Indeed, exercising caution is important, but in the end we
still have a simple dilemma: will we stand for people claiming ethnic
discrimination when they are forced to pay taxes?
President Mikheil Saakashvili has defended the police and supported
their work to control the situation in the region. “All attempts to
create disorder will be unsuccessful,” he said.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN ARMENIAN ECONOMY UP 12% IN H1
Interfax
Oct 12 2005
YEREVAN. Oct 12 (Interfax) – Foreign investment in the Armenian
economy in the first half of 2005 increased 11.6% year-on-year
to amount to $139.6 million, a source in the National Statistics
Committee told Interfax.
Foreign direct investment amounted to $78.9 million (up 4.5%),
including foreign direct investment in communications – 45.4%, in the
food industry – 15.5%, in air transport – 8.9%, in metallurgy – 7.1%
and in the construction sector – 4.7%.
The main foreign investor in the Armenian economy in the first half
was Greece – $58.3 million (up 40.3%). Lebanese investment amounted
to $23.2 million (up 14.3-fold), and Russian – $13.5 million (down
44.8%). Total U.S. investment in the Armenian economy in January-June
fell 38.5% year-on-year to $9.3 million, and investment from France
fell by 36.2%, to $8.8 million. rd
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Oct 9 2005
General Ozkok In Baku
BAKU – Turkish Chief of General Staff General Hilmi Ozkok has
remarked on Thursday that close ties exist between Turkey and
Azerbaijan. ”You (Azerbaijan) have helped us in our time of
difficulty and we (Turkey) have helped you when you needed that
help.”
General Ozkok met the Azerbaijani Speaker of Parliament today.
General Ozkok indicated that 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory is
under Armenian occupation. Turkey’s problem in Cyprus, the Kashmir
issue between Pakistan and India as well as the Azerbaijani territory
under Armenian occupation are all problems whose roots come from the
past and solution is difficult, said Ozkok.
General Ozkok thanked Azerbaijan for its support to the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus. ”The direct flights to the TRNC and
visits of Azerbaijani businessmen to TRNC have received a place in
the hearts of Turks,” told General Ozkok.
According to General Ozkok, military ties between Turkey and
Azerbaijan are in excellent shape. ”Our military cooperation is
purely defensive. We are for the peaceful resolution of disputes,”
noted General Ozkok.
Meanwhile, Aleskerov pointed out that, if the Azerbaijani territory
under Armenian occupation is not timely returned, Azerbaijan will use
its military might and re-capture the invaded Azerbaijani territory.
”Turkey, its parliament and government have always been on our side.
We are confident that Turkey will continue to support us and be on
our side,” commented Aleskerov.
In a separate meeting with the Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Safar
Abiyev in Baku, General Ozkok referred to a statement made by the
late Azerbaijani President Haydar Aliyev that Turkey and Azerbaijan
are one nation with two governments. ”We are determined to keep and
make our relations better in all fields,” said Ozkok.
General Ozkok and Abiyev discussed current issues pertaining to the
region, including the enhancement of military ties and political
developments.
Abiyev congratulated Ozkok for the beginning of Turkey’s accession
talks with the EU. ”The Turks have resisted all pressures
historically and always achieved their goals,” stressed Abiyev.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“GUL MAY NOT ATTEND THE CONFERENCE”
Turkish Press
Aug 25 2005
Press Scan
RADIKAL (LEFT)
————–
Turkish Foreign Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul accepted
to attend the conference on “Armenians in the Late Ottoman Empire”
at Istanbul’s Bogazici University in principle. However, Gul may
not attend the conference since he is scheduled to attend the United
Nations General Assembly meetings in New York in September.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Swiss minister’s visit to Turkey called off over genocide denial
Agence France Presse — English
August 5, 2005 Friday 3:50 PM GMT
BERN July 31 — A planned visit to Turkey in September by Swiss
Economy Minister Joseph Deiss has been called off by Ankara, a ministry
spokesman said Friday.
The cancellation followed a row caused by Switzerland’s decision to
investigate a Turkish politician for allegedly denying that Aremnians
were the victims of Turkish genocide.
Although Deiss had nothing directly to do with the row, his trip was
cancelled because of a calendar conflict, said spokesman Christophe
Hans.
Swiss police last month briefly detained Dogu Perincek, leader of
the small leftist Turkish Workers Party, for saying that Turkish
massacres of Armenians during World War I did no amount to genocide.
Perincek’s remarks, made in an interview with a Swiss newspaper,
fell foul of the country’s anti-racism laws, which ban any denial of
genocidal killing.
The Swiss federal parliament has accepted that the slaughter of
the Armenians was an act of genocide, but the Turkish government
strenuously denies this, saying that 300,000 Armenians and as many
Turks were killed in a civil war when the Armenians rose up against
the Ottoman empire.
Perincek made matters by calling the genocide claim “an international
lie” and calling the anti-racism laws tantamount to “medieval
inquisition.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said it was “unacceptable”
to detain and question Perincek.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian quest for lost orphans
By Dorian Jones
BBC News, UK –
Aug 1 2005
Producer, Masterpiece, BBC World Service
Nahide Kaptan (front row, second from left) was taken in aged nine
Ninety years ago, hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in mass
killings that still resonate through Turkey’s social and political
life.
Armenians say that up to 1.5m of their people were deported and died
at the hands of the then Ottoman rulers of Turkey.
But it is believed that thousands of orphaned Armenian children were
saved secretly by Turkish families.
Until now, the very existence of the children has remained largely an
untold story, buried along with those who died between 1915 and 1916.
But the stories of those Armenian orphans are slowly being uncovered
by their descendants. Turkish documentary maker Berke Bas is one of
those people.
Family member Nahide Kaptan was saved in 1915 when she was nine years
old. But uncovering the truth still remains a difficult and
contentious issue.
What happened in 1915 still remains a hotly disputed subject.
Armenia, along with the Armenian Diaspora, accuses the then Ottoman
rulers of carrying out a “genocide”. But Turkey disputes the charge,
saying that a few hundred thousand died and that the deaths occurred
in a civil war in which many Turks were also killed.
Kitchen hideout
Selim Deringil, a historian of the late Ottoman period at Istanbul’s
Bosphorus University, says “what you have is people talking at cross
purposes and not really interested in what happened.”
Professor Deringil himself fell victim to the controversy, being
forced to postpone a conference on the subject earlier this year
after intense government pressure.
This is the biggest issue, Christians becoming Muslims. They don’t
see themselves as outsiders but they remain silent about their past,
afraid
Newspaper editor
The ongoing controversy can pose problems for those delving into the
past.
Berke Bas, on returning to her birthplace – the Black Sea city of
Ordu – admitted she had concerns.
“I am sure there will be people who will approach this with disdain,
saying ‘Why am I digging up this history?’ So many families deny the
fact they had Armenian family members.”
According to Professor Deringil, such stories are not unusual. He
says thousands of Armenian children were saved by Turkish families.
“We do know that it was on such a scale that the then rulers of the
Ottoman Empire issued secret orders to punish families who saved
Armenian children.”
Berke returned to her birthplace in her search for the past
The first memory of Nahide for Berke was being told how she was
hidden under the kitchen sink, when she first came to the family.
After speaking with relatives, Berke discovered that at least five
Armenian children were taken in by both sides of her family.
But acknowledging Armenian ancestors within Turkish families still
remains a taboo for many, according to the editor of the local
newspaper.
“These children were brought up in Muslim families. This is the
biggest issue, Christians becoming Muslims,” he said.
“They don’t see themselves as outsiders but they remain silent about
their past, afraid. Now, as a Turk, a Muslim you say that your
ancestors were Armenian then you are called a Garvur, you are without
belief, without a soul, and you are an outcast.”
‘Stunning stories’
But despite the reluctance of many to talk about their Armenian
ancestry, Berke discovered that Nahide had a brother who survived
1915 and eventually ended up in Istanbul. Although he has since died,
it is believed his daughter is still alive.
Berke returned to Istanbul to try to find her. She visited Agos, a
weekly Armenian newspaper.
Printing both in Turkish and Armenian, the paper seeks to be a bridge
between the 60,000 Istanbul Armenians living in the city and wider
Turkish society.
Agos editor Hrant Dink says he is inundated by requests from both
Turkey and abroad to find Armenian relatives.
“The mails I receive, the e-mails, the phone enquiries! The people
who knock on my door, they contact me every day,” he said.
“There are so many people from here and from abroad. They learn that
they have a past. They’re looking for information, wanting history
and references, looking for relatives. I am involved in it personally
everyday. There are stunning examples, so many stories reaching me.”
Masterpiece: The Little Girl Who Came In From The Cold can first be
heard on BBC World Service at 0805GMT/0905BST on Tuesday 2 August
2005 or online at the Masterpiece website for the following 7 days.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
July 24, 2005, Sunday
15:45:29 Central European Time
Turkish politician repeats denial of Armenian genocide
Lausanne/Ankara
A Turkish politician repeated Sunday his claim that it was an
“international lie” to speak of genocide of Armenians during World
War I.
Dogu Perincek, chairman of the Turkish Labour Party, was speaking at
a ceremony in Lausanne marking the signing of the treaty establishing
the modern Turkish state in the Swiss city on 24 July 1923.
Perincek was detained Saturday by the Swiss authorities and
questioned by a state prosecutor for two hours about making the same
claim at a conference in Winterthur earlier this year, Zurich police
said.
The public denial of genocide is a crime in Switzerland.
The Turkish government Sunday called Perincek’s temporary detention
in Switzerland “unacceptable”.
The arrest was “completely inconsistent with the principle of freedom
of opinion”, said Turkey’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Ankara.
Around 300 Kurds, Armenians and Assyrians demonstrated at Sunday’s
ceremony, protesting that the 1923 treaty destroyed their hopes of
independence and autonomy.
Turkey refuses to label as genocide the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians during forced expulsions under the Ottoman
Empire. dpa bi mga gm pmc pb
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
July 14 2005
Georgia: Minorities Tested to the Limit
Changes to university entrance exam system are driving talented
students abroad, complain ethnic minorities.
By Fati Mamiashvili in Tbilisi (CRS No. 295, 14-Jul-05)
Thousands of Georgian school-leavers are in the middle of university
entrance exams, but some are finding it a sterner test than others.
As part of new education reforms, all school leavers wishing to go to
university in Georgia are being forced to take the same four
examinations. But one of the exams, Georgian language and literature,
is being seen as a stumbling block to many from the country’s ethnic
minorities getting a place in higher education. Around a third of the
population of Georgia is ethnically non-Georgian.
The innovation is the first manifestation of a comprehensive
education reform programme, which is being implemented throughout
Georgia this year.
The root-and-branch reform has been discussed for three years but
intensive work began only this year. Children will start to have a
12-year school education instead of the current 11 years. There will
be three terms a year instead of two. And instead of the current
five-point marking system there will now be a ten-point one.
By far the most controversial aspect of the reforms is the new
compulsory Georgian language examination.
The entrance examinations began on July 11 and will last until July
22. Thirty-two thousand school leavers are taking the tests and there
are places for 17,400 of them in Georgia’s 110 registered institutes
of higher education.
There are now four compulsory subjects: Georgian language and
literature, a foreign language, general knowledge and mathematics.
When he or she receives a mark, the student can then apply to any
faculty in any college or university which will then decide whether
the score is high enough for the student to be accepted.
“We have brought in a rule of the same exams for all mainly to rid
the system of corruption,” Deputy Education Minister Bella Tsipuria
told IWPR. “The university entrants will take their maths and general
knowledge exams in either Georgian or Russian, depending on what
their future language of tuition will be.
“As for the compulsory Georgian language exam, that requirement stems
from the fact that Georgian is the state language and knowledge of it
is compulsory for all residents of the country. Georgian language and
literature is also taught in non-Georgian schools.”
The minister added, “But we take into account the real situation and
so non-Georgian school leavers will take Georgian language and
literature exams according to an easier programme which corresponds
to their school course.”
This assurance is not enough to pacify worried ethnic minorities,
especially the approximately 100,000 Armenians who live in
Samtskhe-Javakheti in south-western Georgia and the 300,000 or so
Azerbaijanis in Kvemo Kartli in the south of the country.
They say that most of the population here does not speak Georgian and
the new rules effectively close the doors of higher education to
thousands of pupils.
Gulnaz, an Azerbaijani who works as a trader in Tbilisi, said she was
worried for her own family. “None of us speaks Georgian,” she said.
“I learned Georgian because I often have to come to Tbilisi. My son
is going to study in Baku this year. Even the teachers in his school
do not know Georgian so how can the pupils take an exam in that
language?”
Sofia Ohanesian, headmistress of an Armenian-Russian school, said, “I
don’t think there are any problems with knowledge of Georgian in
Tbilisi. But in the regions, where practically no one speaks Georgian
the level of knowledge is very low.”
Many ethnic Georgians share these concerns.
“I support education reform, but it worries me that it is being
brought in at unjustifiable speed,” said Tsitso Nutsubidze, a
teacher. “Maybe in the education ministry they’ve forgotten that the
objects of the reforms are children, they are just entering
adulthood. It’s true, Georgian language and literature are taught in
non-Georgian schools, but the level of the teaching is very low.
“The school-leavers had very little time to prepare – the model tests
were published only in October last year. Parents were forced to hire
tutors for their children and that is of course very expensive. Many
talented and promising school-leavers from the non-Georgian
population will not go to university this year or will go and study
in Russia. And we don’t know if they will come home again.”
The education ministry says the reforms have been approved by
international experts and that free courses were offered to prepare
pupils in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli for the Georgian
language exams.
However, the ministry conceded that the courses began only on May 16
– less than two months before the exam season – and that it had spent
just 1778 lari (976 US dollars) on preparing the teachers for them.
Mikheil Kurdiani, a well-known Georgian literary scholar, said that
the reforms were hasty and ill-prepared and they should be urgently
corrected.
“The state could not guarantee equal conditions of education, it was
in a hurry, so it demanded that everyone should take the same exam
under the same conditions,” he said. “It’s very good when citizens of
your country get educated abroad but very bad when it happens en
masse. That is not in the interests of our country.”
Fati Mamiashvili is a correspondent with the magazine Sakartvelos
Ekonomika in Tbilisi.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse
June 20 2005
Opposition slams poll in contested Nagorno Karabakh
STEPANAKERT, June 20 (AFP) – Opposition parties in the
self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno Karabakh slammed parliamentary
elections there as unfair Monday, but said they had no plans to mount
street protests.
“We don’t consider that the elections were fair, free and
transparent,” Gegam Bagdasaryan, a representative of the opposition
bloc led by the national-socialist Dashnaktutsyun, told a press
conference called in response to Sunday’s vote.
“We’re saying that the authorities abused their administrative
resources before the campaign, during the campaign, and during the
elections,” Bagdasaryan said.
Asked if the bloc planned to launch street protests to contest the
results, another member of the opposition bloc, Armen Sarkisyan said
its primary goal was to “safeguard stability in the country.”
Early results showed that the opposition bloc had taken only three
out of the total 33 seats in parliament, confounding expectations
that the bloc would do well.
Karabakh’s leader, Arkady Gukasyan, was on course for victory, with
his Artsakh Democratic Party getting 12 seats. The Free Fatherland
party, generally considered loyal to Gukasyan, came in second place
with 10 seats.
It was unclear what proportion of votes had been counted. Fuller
results were expected later in the day.
The Karabakh enclave has been bitterly contested ever since it broke
from Azerbaijan upon the Soviet Union’s 1991 collapse.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war for control of the territory
between 1993 and 1994 that left an estimated 25,000 people dead and
drove around a million people, mostly Azeris, from their homes.
Today Nagorno Karabakh is widely seen as propped up by Armenia and
maintains a tense ceasefire with Azerbaijan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Oneworld.net, 17 June 2005 (Updated)
Last chance for the forests of Armenia
Onnik Krikorian
Government-connected businessmen and state officials engaged in the
illegal export of timber from Armenia are mostly to blame for the former
Soviet republic~Rs dwindling number of forests. Whereas 11 per cent of
the republic was covered by forests in 1991, the figure stands at below
8 per cent today. Environmentalists warn that unless current trends are
reversed, Armenia will be forestless by 2024.
In recent weeks, such concerns have have been reinforced by plans to
build a highway through the Shikahogh Nature Reserve situated in the
southern-most Siunik region of the republic. Tens of thousands of trees
in the reserve will be felled in government plans to build a second,
90-kilometer road leading to the Iranian border. Shikahogh is habitat
for over 1000 species of plants and fauna such as leopards.
Environmental activists and NGOs in Armenia are up in arms against this
latest threat especially as work on the $16 million project has already
begun.
Blockaded by Turkey and Azerbaijan as a result of the frozen conflict
with the latter over the mainly Armenian-inhabited territory of Nagorno
Karabagh, Armenia relies on its two other neighbors, Georgia and Iran
for the bulk of its import and export. Approximately ten per cent of all
imports into Armenia come from the Islamic Republic via mountainous
terrain that often makes the journey dangerous during the winter.
The government argues that it is for this reason that a new road should
be constructed even though the proposed route will not only pass through
the Nature Reserve but also the centuries-old Mtnadzor forest.
Environmentalists say that the new road offers no advantage over that
which already exists and accuse the government of having other motives
for the project. Because the Shikahogh reserve and forest are currently
protected under national law, they say that the new highway is simply a
way to “legitimize” logging and hunting in the area.
According to the Armenia Now online publication, the value of the 14,000
mature and 90,000 younger trees that stand in the path of bulldozers is
estimated at approximately $1 million.
“If they refuse to accept any of the proposed alternatives then the road
is not the real issue,” said Karen Manvelyan, National Director of the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Armenia in an interview with Hetq Online.
“The plan for a ~Qstrategic’ road is simply to get at the forest and the
wood. Governmental officials say that the highway has strategic
importance but none can explain why they have chosen this way through
the reserve.”
If the road passes through the reserve, the government will violate
several of Armenia~Rs international commitments as signatories to the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Convention on Biodiversity,
UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the European Convention on
Landscape,” says Jeffrey Tufenkian, President of the Armenian Forests NGO.
“It also breaks various national laws and contradicts many decrees by
the Armenian Government such as the State Strategy and National Action
Plan for Development of Specially Protected Natural Areas,” he adds.
“Construction will also infringe upon the Law on Environmental Impact
Expertise as there was no environmental impact assessment conducted for
the concept of passage of the road through the natural reserve.”
In fact, the Environmental Impact Assessment that the government had to
undertake only occurred after construction started in May. In an
interview with Radio Free Europe / Radio Europe at the beginning of
June, however, the Armenian Transport and Communications Minister,
Andranik Manukyan, added insult to injury by saying that the road would
be constructed regardless of what the assessment concluded.
Amalia Kostanyan, Chairperson of the Armenian branch of Transparency
International, the world~Rs leading anti-corruption watchdog, is not
impressed.
“The plan was examined by the State Non-Commercial Organization on
Environmental Expertise,” says Kostanyan, “The law says that the
construction of any project can only start after the positive conclusion
of an impact assessment. In the case of this road, however, no findings
have been released ~V neither positive nor negative ~V and in fact, the
assessment was returned by the government with the request that it be
revised.”
Environmentalists are equally unimpressed and are particularly concerned
by what they see as a cynical ploy to legalize construction on the
reserve by
Moreover, the new road would also allow easy access to loggers and poachers
changing the status of Shikahogh from a Nature Reserve to that of a
National Park. Such a dangerous precedent would immediately open it up
to poachers and other commercial activities, they argue.
Meanwhile, public outcry has at least united NGOs in Armenia. Dozens of
NGOs working within a coalition to save the nature reserve say that an
alternate route should be taken and, already, extensive media coverage
has forced the government to suspend construction for 15 days. However,
while construction in the reserve has not yet started, bulldozers are
still clearing the way for the access road.
As a result, environmentalists are convinced that the Armenian
government has no intention to bow to public pressure to adhere to its
own national law and international commitments.
“They seem to be proceeding in a way that indicates they have already
made their decision regardless of what the public and NGOs have to say,”
says Tufenkian. The American environmental activist of Armenian descent
is also part of the coalition to save Shikahogh. A public hearing
scheduled to be held in Yerevan on 17 June might well represent the last
stand of environmentalists to prevent further deforestation in Armenia.
“The coalition of organizations working to save the Shikahogh Reserve
has taken it upon itself to organize this public forum and has had to
invite the relevant government ministries,” says Tufenkian. “Hopefully
they will yield to public pressure and protect the reserve by choosing
another route for the highway. However, it is possible that even if the
government attends the public hearings, they will be doing so
insincerely and simply as a matter of formality.”
Concern over the fate of Shikahogh and Mtnadzor has also spread far
beyond the boundaries of the former Soviet republic. In the influential
Armenian Diaspora, Carolyn Mugar, founder of the Armenian Tree Project
and Executive Director of the US Farm Aid organization, has already
started a letter writing campaign to lobby the Armenian Embassy in
Washington.
Since then, the Minister for Transport and Communication, Andranik
Manukian, has told the ArmInfo news agency that the government would now
look at alternate routes and requested that environmentalists put in as
much energy into securing extra finance for the project as they have in
protesting. Paradoxically, he also declared that this “change of heart”
had nothing to do with the campaign by environmentalists to save Shikahogh.
But given earlier broken promises that construction would be suspended,
environmentalists are not taking the government at their word just yet.
“There is not a single official decision and we do not know how the road
will be constructed,” says Nazeli Vardanian, Director of the Armenian
Forests NGO. “So, non-governmental organizations must continue the
struggle.”
—
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress