Author: Tambiyan Samvel

Armenian nuclear plant to stop for repairs on June 15
Interfax
May 31 2004
Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, which is managed
by ZAO Inter RAO UES is to halt operations on June 15, 2004 for
maintenance and for fuel to be loaded, plant General Director Garik
Markosyan told Interfax.
He said that the work will take 65 days, during which major repairs
will be carried out to the reactor after the fuel is loaded, and to
two turbines in the second power-producing unit.
The general director said that this year the U.S. has already paid out
$4 million to increase safety at the plant. As regards the European
Union, the amount of financial aid will be agreed in Brussels this
summer, he said.
Markosyan said the plant produced 1.1 billion kWh of electricity from
the start of the year until May 30. The plant produced 1.9 billion
kWh of electricity in 2003, which is 36% of total energy production
in the republic.
Armenian Nuclear Power Plant was transferred to ZAO Inter RAO UES
in September last year. Inter RAO UES is an electricity export and
import operator on energy markets in Russia and abroad. The company is
a subsidiary of UES of Russia (60% of shares) and Rosenergoatom (40%).

Georgia: Moscow, Tbilisi Open ‘Historic’ Business Talks
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
May 28 2004
Dozens of businessmen have gathered in Tbilisi to attend the first
Russian-Georgian economic forum. Over the next two days (28-29 May),
Russian private entrepreneurs and government officials will discuss
investment opportunities with their Georgian counterparts. This
unprecedented initiative testifies to the new relationship that has
been growing between Moscow and Tbilisi since the recent change of
leadership in the Georgian capital. The development of Russian-Georgian
economic ties is likely to have important consequences for the entire
South Caucasus region.
Prague, 28 May 2004 (RFE/RL) — Georgia’s Rustavi-2 private television
yesterday said dozens of airliners carrying loads of Russian
businessmen were expected at Tbilisi airport ahead of the conference.
Although the report eventually proved exaggerated, it gives a good
indication of the importance the Georgian side attaches to the event.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is expected to inaugurate the
two-day forum, which will be attended by Russian Economic Development
and Trade Minister German Gref.
Participants include top managers of Russia’s Unified Energy Systems
(EES) electricity monopoly and Aeroflot national air carrier, as
well as representatives of LUKoil, TransGazOil, Rosnefteeksport and
other energy companies. Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, Economy Minister
Irakli Rekhviashvili, Finance Minister Zurab Nogaideli, and Interior
Minister Giorgi Baramidze will represent the Georgian government.
Included on the Russian delegation’s agenda is a tour of Kakheti,
Georgia’s most important wine-growing region. The perception of Russia,
which helped secure Shevardnadze’s resignation — and more recently
that of Aslan Abashidze, the unruly leader of the Black Sea autonomous
region of Adjara — has obviously changed in Tbilisi.
Although this is the third time both countries have held business
talks since 1991, never before have talks been conducted on such a
large scale. In comments made to Georgia’s state television upon his
arrival in Tbilisi, Gref said that Russia sees today’s forum as a
“symbol” of its new relations with Georgia.
Vladimir Chkhikvishvili, Russia’s ambassador to Georgia, told reporters
yesterday the upcoming event would mark a milestone in the history
of bilateral ties. “It is both a political and economic event for
our bilateral relations,” he said. “More generally, one could even
say that this is a historical event. As far as I know, it’s been a
long time since such a large and high-level Russian delegation has
come to Georgia.”
A Georgian official statement says neither of the first two bilateral
business conferences has produced any concrete results despite
Tbilisi’s willingness to open its market to Russian capital.
The last Russian-Georgian economic consultations were held in October
2003, just days before street protests spearheaded by Saakashvili and
Zhvania forced then-President Eduard Shevardnadze out of office amid
controversy over disputed parliamentary elections.
Since then, Russian-Georgian relations have significantly improved.
Both Saakashvili and Russian President Vladimir Putin have pledged to
foster political and economic ties between their countries, prompting
positive reactions from the United States, which sees stability in
the Caucasus as key to its foreign-policy agenda.
The perception of Russia, which helped secure Shevardnadze’s
resignation — and more recently that of Aslan Abashidze, the unruly
leader of the Black Sea autonomous region of Adjara — has obviously
changed in Tbilisi.
When they were still in the opposition, Georgia’s current leaders
were among the fiercest critics of Russia’s economic presence in the
country, in particular in the energy field. But now they have adopted
a radically different stance. During a visit to Moscow earlier this
week, Zhvania secured an agreement over the rescheduling of Georgia’s
debt toward Russia, thus paving the way for the resumption of talks
between his government and the International Monetary Fund.
At a meeting with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Fradkov, the Georgian
prime minister welcomed the warming of bilateral ties that followed
Shevardnadze’s departure. “I believe we have now the opportunity to
build a new, closer relationship between Georgia and Russia. To our
great satisfaction, we note that our relations can now develop in a
climate of much greater trust,” Zhvania said.
The two prime ministers agreed to draft a comprehensive economic
treaty that would pave the way for an increased Russian presence in
Georgia’s energy sector.
Addressing reporters at the end of his visit, Zhvania praised
Russia’s EES monopoly for helping his country meet its electricity
needs this past winter. Last December, EES acquired a 75 percent
share in Telasi, the formerly U.S.-owned electricity-distribution
company that services Tbilisi. It also purchased majority stakes in
the Mtkvari power station and other Georgian energy facilities.
EES Chairman Anatolii Chubais has hinted that the company could use
Georgia as a springboard for expanding its presence in Azerbaijan
and beyond. In remarks made during a visit to Baku on 25 May, Chubais
floated the idea of connecting the power grids of Russia, Azerbaijan,
and Iran. He also said his company could help Georgia trade electricity
with neighboring Azerbaijan.
Normalization of Russian-Georgian ties would have another positive
impact on the region’s economy. Having secured its authority over
Adjara, Georgia counts on Moscow’s help to restore control over the
northwestern region of Abkhazia, which formally seceded in 1993 to
develop close political and economic ties with Moscow.
Zhvania this week hinted that in return for Russia’s assistance
in solving the decade-old Abkhaz conflict, Georgia could lift its
objections to the reopening of railroad connections between Russia and
landlocked Armenia through Abkhazia. “We will see how things develop
[with regard to Russian-Georgian ties] and, naturally, any significant
progress in that direction will allow us to consider the opening of
[this] railway line,” he said. “This would be an extremely important
development for our entire region. This is a very important question,
not only for Georgia and Russian-Georgian ties, but also for the
entire South Caucasus region.”
Rail communications between Russia and Armenia were disrupted during
the Abkhaz conflict and, despite an agreement reached at a 1994 CIS
summit, were never restored.
Rail traffic between the Abkhaz capital Sukhum and the Russian Black
Sea port of Sochi resumed early last year amid protests from Tbilisi.
Georgia links the reopening of the Sochi-Sukhum-Tbilisi-Yerevan
transport route — one of Putin’s pet economic projects — to the
repatriation of internally displaced ethnic Georgians to Abkhazia’s
southern Gali district.
Ethnic Georgians made up the bulk of the Gali population before
the war and, although most internally displaced people now have
the opportunity to return to the area, Tbilisi is seeking security
guarantees for them. Fradkov this week said Moscow and Tbilisi had
agreed to seek a solution to the Gali issue that would meet the
interests of all sides involved.
In another good sign, while insisting that the Gali and railroad
problems should be solved at the same time, Georgian parliamentary
speaker Nino Burdjanadze said yesterday that Tbilisi was ready to
look at the whole Abkhaz issue “with new eyes.”

Armenians, Tajiks Suffer From Hunger Most, Report Says
Baku Today
May 27 2004
Among countries of the former Soviet Union, Armenia and Tajikistan
are those suffering from hunger most, said a report by a UN Food
and Agriculture Organization expert, David Sedik, ANS reported on
Wednesday.
According to the expert, 40 percent of Armenians and Tajiks are living
on the edge of starvation.
In Azerbaijan Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kirgizistan, 35
percent of population does not have enough to eat, the report said.
The figure is 20 percent in Belarus, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and
Moldovia. In total, 38 million people suffer from malnutrition in
former Soviet republics, according to the report.
However, the problem is not so serious in ex-Communist countries that
now are members of the European Union. Among the mentioned nations, the
worst situation with inefficient nutrition is in Latvia and Slovakia.
The figure doesn’t surpass 2 percent in Czech republic and Hungary and
it is only 1 percent in Poland, the report says, explaining that the
problem with starvation arises mainly from low salaries and pensions.

EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION
for Justice and Democracy
Avenue de la Renaissance 10
B – 1000 BRUXELLES
Tel./Fax : +32 (0) 2 732 70 27
E-mail : [email protected]
Web :
The European Armenian Federation Provides you with the English translation
of Pr. Dabag article in Frankfurter Rundschau (23rd May 2004). The original
version follows.
Pr. Dabag is the director of the Institute for Diaspora and Genocide Studies
at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany.
————————-
THE LAST VICTIM OF AN ACT OF GENOCIDE IS THE TRUTH
A clear statement regarding the fate of the Armenians in Turkey would bring
Germany to face its own history
By Mihran Dabag
On the 24th April the Armenians remember the genocide that was committed in
the Ottoman Empire under the government of the “Young Turks” in 1915/1916
and which marked the end of the life of the Armenians in their historical
native home.
This mass murder signified a new type of political violence: the
state-organised extermination of a whole section of the population defined
as an internal enemy. The Young Turkish politics of violence were part of
the radical reorganization of the Ottoman multi-racial state into a
homogenous Turkish nation-state. Central to this national “awakening” was
the declaration of a strong Turkish identity founded on ancestry and culture
and its realisation within a newly defined territorial area, which reached
from Thracia as far as Central Asia – and, in the centre of which, the
settlement areas of the Armenians lay.
When, on the 24th April 1915, Armenian public figures were arrested and
murdered in Istanbul, the deportations from Anatolia, which were explained
as resettlement measures necessary to the war, had already begun. Village by
village families were set in motion on foot.
Turkish strategy of denial
The remembrance day of the 24th April is even today overshadowed by the
question of acknowledgement of the crime. For Turkey consistently pursues a
strategy of denial: through a complex system of negations, in which the
recollection of the genocide can even be made a punishable offence, a
Turkish society emerged whose conception of history is shaped by models of
Turkish “Opftertum” [denoting injury, victimhood and sacrifice ] and Turkish
honesty, a society in which the denial of the one-time Armenian present is
driven forward by political and scientific elites.
However, the persistently taught counter-history not only enables the
silence regarding the memory of the genocide to be passed down to subsequent
generations, it also renders any often necessary dialogue impossible: How
can a “rapprochement” between victims and culprits take place without an
acceptance of the remembrance of the victims? When the culprit cannot even
been named as such? But the concealment also fosters an easing of political
conscience on an international level.
In contrast to the French National Assembly or the Swiss National Council
among others, the German Bundestag has so far refused to contribute to
freeing the memory of this genocide from its framework of denial and
justification with the help of a symbolic act or a solemn declaration. This
refusal is justified with the comment that it is not the task of parliament
to sanction an interpretation of history. But is the concern here really
with an interpretation? Is the issue not with the position that Germany
takes regarding a crime with which it is undoubtedly strongly intertwined?
Germany’s stance in the First World War is characterised above all by two
perspectives. “We should alleviate but not prevent” (Ambassador Hans Frhr.
von Wangenheim) was one line, along with: “It is an impossible state of
affairs to be allied with the Turks and to stand up for the Armenians. Any
consideration shown, Christian, sentimental and political, should be
eclipsed by a hard but clear necessity for war” (General Hans von Seeckt).
Bernhard Schlink, philosopher of law and constitutional lawyer in North
Rhine-Westphalia has recently explained from a philosophy of law perspective
that anyone who finds himself in community of solidarity with the culprits
and maintains this even after the event is also embroiled in blame. As an
ally of Turkey during the First World War, Germany – to put it cautiously –
tolerated the extermination of the Armenians. The question that Germany must
ask itself today is whether it also wants to tolerate the denial of this
crime by successive societies.
Perhaps the Bundestag should use the forthcoming 90th anniversary of the
24th April in 2005 as an opportunity to break the continuation of tolerance.
A statement from Germany in particular could mean a considerable impetus for
Turkey to self-critically reflect upon its historically false depiction. Not
least it could open up an opportunity for the Turkish people living in
Germany which has been denied them by the official conception of history: to
took critically at their own models of history and identity.
But above all it would be a sign that the consensus reached after the
Holocaust that even the denial of genocide should be condemned was not the
result of a political calculation:
In his speech this year on the remembrance day for the victims of National
Socialism, Wolfgang Thierse pointed out that “the horror about the Holocaust
has brought the Europeans back together” and the political future of Europe
depends upon achieving an understanding of the “European Union as a peace
programme and a community of values”. The project of a “European identity”,
based on a shared memory of war and genocide, is also frequently found in
political frameworks.
German introspection
How can such a declaration of mutuality be viewed if it allows the
singularity and truth of the memory of the victims to be negated? If it
allows the acknowledgement of the genocide of the Armenians to be
self-assuredly evaluated in terms of not “destabilising” Turkey, as
“far-sighted politics” should be favoured over “decisions about the
interpretation of history” regarding the “genocide-type crime” (Gernot
Erler, Deputy Chairman of the SPD faction in the Bundestag)? A clear
position regarding the genocide of the Armenians requires no diplomatic
weighing up of interests – it would examine the position of Germany with
regard to its own history.
—————————
Original version
DAS LETZTE OPFER EINES GENOZIDS IST DIE WAHRHEIT
Mit einer eindeutige Stellungnahme zum Schicksal der Armenier in der Türkei
würde sich Deutschland seiner eigenen Geschichte stellen
Von Mihran Dabag
Am 24. April gedenken die Armenier des Völkermords, der unter der Regierung
der “Jungtürken” in den Jahren 1915/16 im Osmanischen Reich begangen wurde
und dem Leben der Armenier in ihrer historischen Heimat ein Ende setzte.
Mit diesem Massenmord wurde ein neuer Typus politischer Gewalt manifest: die
staatlich organisierte Vernichtung einer ganzen, als innerer Feind
definierten Bevölkerungsgruppe. Die jungtürkische Gewaltpolitik war Teil der
radikalen Umgestaltung des osmanischen Vielvölkerstaats zu einem homogenen
türkischen Nationalstaat. Im Mittelpunkt dieses nationalen “Erwachens” stand
die Deklaration einer starken, auf Abstammung und Kultur gründenden
türkischen Identität und deren
Verwirklichung innerhalb eines neu definierten territorialen Raums, der von
Thrakien bis nach Zentralasien reichte – und in dessen Zentrum die
Siedlungsgebiete der Armenier lagen.
Als am 24. April 1915 armenische Persönlichkeiten des öffentlichen Lebens in
Istanbul verhaftet und ermordet wurden, hatten die als kriegsnotwendige
Umsiedlungsmaßnahmen erklärten Deportationen aus Anatolien bereits begonnen.
Ortschaft für Ortschaft wurden die Familien zu Fuß in Bewegung gesetzt.
Die Deportationszüge beschrieb Franz Werfel in seinem Roman Die vierzig Tage
des Musa Dagh als “wandernde Lager”. Denn die Deportation selbst war Methode
der Vernichtung: Ca. 1,5 Millionen Armenier, mit ihnen die aramäischen
Christen, wurden von der Gendarmerie, von Sondereinheiten und unter
Beteiligung kurdischer und türkischer Zivilisten ermordet.
Türkische Strategie der Leugnung
Der Gedenktag des 24. April wird bis heute von der Frage nach der
Anerkennung des Verbrechens überschattet. Denn konsequent verfolgt die
Türkei eine Strategie der Leugnung: Durch ein komplexes System der
Negationen, in dem das Erinnern an den Genozid sogar unter Strafe gestellt
werden kann, entstand eine türkische Gesellschaft, deren Geschichtsbild von
Mustern türkischen Opfertums und türkischer Aufrichtigkeit geprägt ist, eine
Gesellschaft, in der die Leugnung der einstmaligen armenischen Gegenwart von
politischen und wissenschaftlichen Eliten fortgeschrieben wird.
Die beharrlich gelehrte Gegengeschichte überantwortet jedoch nicht nur die
Erinnerung an den Genozid dem Schweigen der jeweils nächsten Generation, sie
macht auch den oftmals geforderten Dialog unmöglich: Wie kann eine
“Annäherung” zwischen Opfern und Tätern stattfinden, ohne eine Akzeptanz der
Erinnerung der Opfer? Ohne den Täter als Täter zunächst benennen zu können?
Doch fördert das Verschweigen auch international eine Beruhigung des
politischen Gewissens.
Im Gegensatz unter anderem zur Französischen Nationalversammlung oder dem
Schweizerischen Nationalrat hat sich der Deutsche Bundestag bisher
verweigert, durch einen symbolischen Akt, mit einer feierlichen Erklärung
dazu beizutragen, die Erinnerung an diesen Völkermord aus dem Rahmen von
Leugnung und Rechtfertigung zu lösen. Begründet wird diese Verweigerung mit
dem Hinweis, dass es nicht die Aufgabe des Parlaments sei, eine
Interpretation von Geschichte zu sanktionieren. Doch geht es hier
tatsächlich um eine Interpretation? Geht es nicht auch darum, wie
Deutschland sich zu einem Verbrechen stellt, mit dem es zweifellos eng
verwoben ist?
Die Haltung Deutschlands im Ersten Weltkrieg war vor allem von zwei
Perspektiven bestimmt. “Wir sollen lindern, aber nicht verhindern”
(Botschafter Hans Frhr. von Wangenheim), so die eine Linie, und: “Es ist ein
unmöglicher Zustand, mit den Türken verbündet zu sein und für die Armenier
einzutreten. Jede Rücksicht, christliche, sentimentale und politische,
gegenüber einer harten, aber klaren Kriegsnotwendigkeit verschwinden”
(General Hans von Seeckt).
Bernhard Schlink, Rechtsphilosoph und Verfassungsrichter in NRW, hat
kürzlich aus rechtshistorischer Perspektive dargelegt, dass auch der sich in
Schuld verstrickt, der sich zu den Tätern in einer Solidargemeinschaft
befinde und diese auch nach der Tat aufrechterhalte. Als Bündnispartner der
Türkei während des Ersten Weltkriegs hat Deutschland die Vernichtung der
Armenier – vorsichtig formuliert – geduldet. Heute muss die Bundesrepublik
sich fragen lassen, ob sie auch die Leugnung dieses Verbrechens durch die
Nachfolgegesellschaft der Täter dulden will.
Vielleicht sollte der Bundestag den im Jahr 2005 anstehenden 90. Jahrestag
des 24. April zum Anlass nehmen, mit dieser Kontinuierung der Duldung zu
brechen. Eine Erklärung gerade aus Deutschland könnte einen wesentlichen
Anstoß für die Türkei bedeuten, ihre historisch falsche Darstellung
selbstkritisch zu reflektieren. Nicht zuletzt könnte den in der
Bundesrepublik lebenden Türken eine Möglichkeit eröffnet werden, die ihnen
durch das offizielle Geschichtsbild verweigert wird: sich eigenen
Geschichts- und Identitätsmustern kritisch zu stellen.
Doch vor allem würde ein Zeichen dafür gesetzt, dass der nach dem Holocaust
gefundene Konsens, auch die Leugnung von Völkermord zu verurteilen, nicht
das Ergebnis politischen Kalküls war: In seiner Rede zum diesjährigen
Gedenktag für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus hat Wolfgang Thierse darauf
hingewiesen, dass “das Entsetzen über den Holocaust die Europäer wieder
zusammengeführt habe” und die Zukunft Europas davon abhänge, die
“Europäische Union als Friedenswerk und Wertegemeinschaft” zu begreifen.
Auch das Projekt einer “europäischen Identität”, gegründet auf einer
gemeinsamen Erinnerung an Kriege und Genozid, findet sich häufig in
aktuellen politischen Entwürfen.
Selbstprüfung Deutschlands
Was ist von der Erklärung einer solchen Gemeinsamkeit zu halten, wenn sie es
ermöglicht, die Singularität und Wahrheit der Erinnerung der Opfer zu
verneinen? Wenn sie es ermöglicht, mit Selbstsicherheit die Anerkennung des
Genozids an den Armeniern angesichts der Überlegung zu gewichten, die Türkei
nicht zu “destabilisieren”, da eine “weitsichtige Politik” den
“Geschichtsinterpretationsbeschlüssen” über das “völkermordartige
Verbrechen” vorzuziehen sei (Gernot Erler, Stellv. Vorsitzender der
SPD-Bundestagsfraktion)? Die eindeutige Stellungnahme zum Genozid an den
Armeniern fordert keine diplomatischen Abwägungen von Interessen – sie prüft
die Stellung Deutschlands zu seiner eigenen Geschichte.

Kashatagh: Retaking and rebuilding a “third” Armenia in old Lachin
By Vahan Ishkhanyan ArmeniaNow
(As reported in AGBU magazine) Kashatagh may be the only region
of “two Armenias” where there are no magnificent villas or foreign
cars. As one resident said, there are no rich or poor here and all
are equal.
Among the ruins of war, buildings that were only shells are being
re-occupied..
Outsiders still know it as Lachin, famous for the corridor that was
the hard-won link between Armenia and Karabakh, gained during fierce
fighting in 1992.
But to the locals, this area retaken from Azerbaijan and made the
sixth region of Karabakh has regained its ancient name. By renaming
and repopulating Kashatagh authorities are merging two Armenian states.
“Kashatagh is the land of our ancestors,” says head of administration
of Kashatagh Alexan Hakobian. “Armenians living here began thinning
out 100 years ago. As a result of the policy conducted by Stalin it
became a part of Azerbaijan. Today Kashatagh is again Armenian and
it will be forever.”
Despite being part of Karabakh, there are almost no Karabakhis living
here. The population is made up of immigrants from different regions
of Armenia who speak different dialects.
In some ways, Kashatagh is a “third” Armenia. It lacks the dramatic
gap between social classes seen in Stepanakert or Yerevan. Nor is
it infected with the corruption that influences life in so much of
each republic.
For many Armenians, Kashatagh is an escape. Here, they can move to a
new region and start a new life where they become landowners instead
of refugees. With the exception of officials, it is hard to find any
who say they settled here for patriotic reasons.
Escape to Karabakh
Together with his wife and two children Karo Meseljian moved from
Yerevan to the provincial seat of Kashatagh, Berdzor (the city formerly
known as Lachin) two years ago. He left his older son in Yerevan with
his parents while he attends chess school there.
“In Yerevan everything gets on my nerves: bureaucrats, cops, traffic
police,” says Karo. “At every turn people’s pride is mortified. Trying
to get any document, people are dishonored. Here you feel like a
human being and don’t feel the influence of authorities on you. People
understand each other very easily here, they are friendly.”
In Yerevan, Karo had a small shop which was somewhat profitable. Now
he rents out that shop and has started a business in Berdzor, bringing
goods from Yerevan and selling them to local shops.
“When I had a shop in Yerevan every day I had to deal with
bureaucrats,” he says. “I had good profit there, but it is better to
have small profit here than to see their faces.”
Doctor Artsakh Buniatian “sacrificed my skills” to Kashatagh. His
wife, Gayaneh, is a nurse. She didn’t work in Yerevan, but in Berdzor
she works in a kindergarten. “When you work your life becomes more
interesting,” she says. “The staff is very good. We made new friends.”
Her daughter attends kindergarten and her son attends school. The
family lives in a hostel, where about 200 families are waiting to get
apartments that have been promised to those who come here to resettle.
The government of Karabakh (with assistance from Armenia) spends
about $600,000 a year building apartments for re-settlers.
Berdzor is a town of about 2,000 residents. Most, Karo says, “are
people who don’t like the city and who escaped from Yerevan and look
for things that they haven’t found in the city.”
And for many, government subsidies make moving to Kashatagh an
attractive alternative to life in most parts of Armenia.
Money for moving
Each family receives a 20,000 drams ($35) one-time allowance plus
one-time payment of 5,000 drams ($9) per family member. Families are
also eligible for a $210, 20-year loan for buying cattle. (The wait,
however, for getting the cattle loan is three to four years, due to
limited State finances.)
Residents of Kashatagh are also given electricity allotments.
(Additionally, while the cost of electricity is about four cents
per kilowatt in Armenia, it is about two cents here.) Water is free
of charge and there are no taxes on agricultural production. (If,
however, land is privatized, the owner must pay taxes, from which a
community budget would be formed.)
“We don’t accept everyone,” says head of Repopulation Department
of Kashatagh Administration Robert Matevosian. “Sometimes we notice
that people come here to get the non-recurrent financial assistance,
and then leave.
“We talk to migrants as long as it is necessary to find out whether
they came here to stay permanently or not,” Matevosian says.
Entering Kashatagh (Lachin), new red roofs are evidence of a region
being regained.
People move to Kashatagh for many reasons. Some have sold their
houses in Armenia to cover debts, and come here to start debt-free
living. Some young couples want to start families separate from
their parents. Most see the new region of Karabakh as offering
opportunities they don’t see in their old homes.
And one can meet various types of former officials in Kashatagh. In
one village the director of the school is former head of the Education
Department of Yerevan. In another village one of former president
Levon Ter-Petrosian’s security service raises cattle. Former Minister
of Defense of Karabakh Samvel Babayan’s assistant is head of the
Social Department.
Resettling, but not resettled
After a decade of resettlement (often building homes from the
bombed-out remains of Azeri households), the region of 3000 square
kilometers now has about 13,000 residents. Of 127 settlements, only 57
have electricity. (Authorities say villages in the southern part of the
province should have electricity within a year, however the northern
parts don’t expect electrical service for at least five years.)
There are two hospitals in the region, in Berdzor and in Kovsakan
(formerly Zangilan), the second largest town, near the border of
Iran. Each community has a nurse.
At the Berdzor hospital, director Artsakh Buniatian insists on keeping
his hospital a place where residents can receive free treatment.
“If a doctor takes money from a patient he will be punished for that,”
says Buniatian, age 69. “However, we can’t treat all diseases and
when we send a patient to Yerevan or Goris then he finds himself
in a completely different world and falls into the hands of hawks,
where they demand money and medicines of him. There, residents of
Kashatagh are taken for third rate people, who cannot cover their
treatment expenses.”
In their Kashatagh village Karine Ishkhanian and Svetlana Barseghian
make lavash on an improvised oven.
Eight doctors work in the Berdzor hospital. They earn 45,000 drams
(about $80) a month. Buniatian says that it is almost impossible to
find a doctor who will agree to work in the region. Nobody wants to
come here and work only for salary, without taking money for services
he says.
Buniatian spent the war working in a field hospital in Karabakh. After
the war he again returned to his former work, as a surgeon at a
hospital in Abovian (just north of Yerevan).
“I hadn’t seen my family for three years. Three daughters were waiting
for me. After the slaughter of war it was hard for me to adapt to
civilian medicine.”
While he was trying to adapt he was invited to Berdzor hospital’s
opening ceremony.
“I was invited to spend two days, but, at the opening ceremony a
Karabakh Minister handed over the order of appointing me to this
position,” Buniatian says. “I thought that during the war I had been
in so many difficult places and now it is God’s will and it means
that people need me.”
The surgeon’s abilities are limited by a lack of facilities and about
the most complicated case he can treat is appendicitis.
“I used to perform any type of difficult operations, but, what can I
do,” he says. “I sacrificed my skills to the war, and now to Kashatagh
in this way.”
Rebuilding blocks
While laying the foundation for a new society, culture has not been
ignored in the resettling of Kashatagh.
In 1996 a Museum of History was opened in Berdzor, which now holds some
300 exhibits, including bronze and stone items that date to the 4 th
millennium B.C. Armenian household items from the 3 rd millennium B.C.
to the 19 th century show the rich heritage of the region.
Most items in the museum were collected by director Livera
Hovhannisian, who before moving to Berdzor had worked for 18 years
in the Yerevan Museum of History.
Re-settler Karo Meseljian says: “Here, you feel like a human being.”.
“During one month, I had traveled in 47 villages and collected
all these exhibits to be in time for the museum’s opening,” she
says. “Those days many villages hadn’t been settled yet. Accompanied
by two men I was going to every village by truck and we were searching
and finding in every house things we had been looking for. In one
village we were fired upon. Residents of that village hadn’t seen
other people for a long period of time and when they saw us they were
very scared and thought we were Azeris.”
About 200 paintings are displayed in the gallery including works of
Parajanov and Garzou. Some paintings were sent from the Ministry of
Culture in Yerevan.
“The director of Yerevan Art Gallery said: ‘How can I give them to
you? What if this territory is retaken?’,” Hovhannisian recalls. “I
said that if this territory is retaken then let these paintings be
lost with the territories. And he agreed and gave 25 paintings.”
As Armenian life in previously enemy territory is formed, one feature,
the Church, lacks a significant presence in Kashatagh. In the entire
province the only functioning church is Holy Ascension, built in
Berdzor in 1997.
In 2002, Diaspora benefactors restored a 4 th century church in the
village of Tsitsernavank, however there are no clergy there.
“We need at least three clergymen in the north and three in the
south,” says the only priest of the region Ter Atanas. “People of
the south need just one chapel but there is nobody to give money and
construct it.”
The survival of resettlement
The highest settlement in Kashatagh is 1,700 meters above sea level;
the lowest, 330.
In the mountainous north, life is harsh and most villagers exist from
raising cattle. To the south, however, farms prosper from generous
growing seasons and fertile valleys of the Hakar River.
Faith is on the rebound, too, though there is a lack of clergymen and
churches. It was in such a valley that the first families resettled,
mostly in Tsaghkaberd (formerly Gyuliberd) where 70 families now live.
The Vardanian family, refugees from Kirovabad, were among the first.
“My husband knew that this area was populated and I took my children
and came here,” says Gohar Vardanian. “It was a good time for
collecting fruits. We collected many fruits and I told my husband,
‘Ashot, we will stay here.’ We are here for 10 years now.”
Three Vardanian children finished school here and one now studies at
Stepanakert University.
The family income is, literally, their “cash cow”. Each year the
Vardanians sell a calf to cover essential expenses.
“My children have already finished their service in the army,” Gohar
says. “The only thing left is to pay for my son’s education. I think
this year we won’t sell a calf.”
Like their neighbors, the Vardanians harvest mulberry, fig, quince
and pomegranate in addition to traditional crops. They make about 400
liters of mulberry vodka each year. Residents had hoped that by now
there would be food processing plants in Kashatagh, but investments
haven’t materialized.
And, though nature offers favorable conditions, many villagers rent out
their land because they cannot afford equipment for cultivating it. A
typical lease is about $25 per hectare, plus 200 kilograms of wheat
“The State provided me with land but how can I cultivate it if they
don’t grant credits and don’t give a seeding machine,” says school
director Samvel Sedrakian, a former Yerevan journalist. “I have
eight hectares of land but I can’t sow it. It’s true, villagers
feed themselves, there are not hungry people, but they cannot make
any profits.”
Knarik’s family was among the first to move back into the region Slava
Tokhunts is an exception. He moved to Kashatagh from the Goris region
and brought a seeding machine with him. Every year he sows wheat on
his 5.5 hectare property.
“I don’t ask anything from anybody and I can also help those who are
hungry,” he says. He makes cheese from milk of his six cows and then
barters the cheese for various items such as sugar and clothes. Selling
products out-right is difficult because trading involves going to one
of the towns in Armenia, and most villagers can’t manage such trips.
Over the past five years, the area of cultivated croplands has
increased in Kashatagh from 5,000 hectares to 12,000 hectares. The
number of livestock has increased to about 26,000 head (cattle,
goats, sheep).
At the same time, the stream of migrants has tapered. Between 1997-98,
nearly 800 families moved to the province. Last year, 80 new families
settled there and about the same amount left.
Sometimes I’m sad when people leave. But it’s normal that some of them
will come back,” says Berdzor official Alexan Hakobian. “It shows that
the process of repopulation is free and nobody is forced to live here.”

EurekAlert, DC
May 25 2004
51 globally threatened species get new lease on life in the Caucasus
$8.5 million in grants and six-country council to benefit region
Tbilisi, Georgia (25 May 2004, 0200 GMT) – WWF, the conservation
organization, and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) today
announced a CEPF investment strategy and a high-level advisory council
of governmental and nongovernmental representatives from Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia and Turkey to help conserve the
rich natural resources of the region.
Support for the council is a strategic part of a new regional
coordination approach, led by the WWF Caucasus Programme, to ensure
success of CEPF’s $8.5 million investment strategy. CEPF will award
grants to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil society
groups working to safeguard high-priority areas for conservation in
the region, which spans the area between the Black and Caspian seas.
“These new developments will pull together partners from across the
region, enabling an inclusive approach for planning and action across
political boundaries that can be obstacles to successful conservation,”
said Giorgi Sanadiradze, director of the WWF Caucasus Programme.
A regional approach involving multiple stakeholders is also vital to
effectively address the broader social, economic and policy factors
essential to results that benefit both nature and people.
The forests, high mountain ecosystems and arid landscapes of the
Caucasus contain more than twice the animal diversity found in adjacent
regions of Europe and Asia. However, biodiversity of the Caucasus is
being lost at an alarming rate. Human activities have transformed
nearly half of the lands. Fifty-one species are at risk, including
the Critically Endangered Saiga antelope, Siberian crane and Baltic
(Atlantic) sturgeon.
CEPF investments will focus on conserving these 51 globally threatened
species, the majority of which are found in specific sites in five
target areas: Greater Caucasus, Caspian, West Lesser Caucasus, East
Lesser Caucasus and Hyrcan.
The announcement came as part of a series of events being held
in Tbilisi this week, including a workshop May 25-26 for NGOs,
government representatives and other stakeholders to learn more about
the CEPF investment strategy and to help develop an action plan
for its implementation. The first meeting of the Regional Council
for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use in the Caucasus
Ecoregion will be May 26. A May 27 event will draw together all
participants for an official launch.
The Caucasus “ecoregion” is globally outstanding for its
biodiversity. It is also one of the world’s 25 biologically richest yet
most threatened areas. These areas known as “biodiversity hotspots” are
the focus of CEPF, a joint initiative of Conservation International,
the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank.
“Our investment program for the Caucasus is designed to meet the
challenges in a vast region of six unique countries,” said Dan Martin,
CEPF senior managing director. “By placing a regional conservation
leader such as WWF Caucasus at its heart, our support to local
groups will pioneer and equip new partnerships and approaches that
are necessary to make lasting conservation happen.”
The WWF Caucasus Programme coordinated an intensive process to
develop the CEPF strategy, known as an ecosystem profile, for the
Caucasus. Its approach ultimately drew participation from more than
130 experts representing scientific, governmental and nongovernmental
groups from the six countries.
The Programme will act as the hub of CEPF strategy implementation in
the region, ensuring integration of the WWF and CEPF approach, helping
local groups develop grant proposals, disseminating information and
assisting in monitoring of the CEPF portfolio.
With headquarters in Tbilisi and country offices in Armenia and
Azerbaijan, WWF Caucasus will work together with WWF offices in Russia
and Turkey and the Centre for Sustainable Development and Environment
in Iran to ensure effective coordination region-wide. The approach
also includes building a regional group of experts from the six
countries to assist in reviewing grant proposals as needed and act
as a technical advisory group, as well as assisting the new Regional
Council in its overarching role.
###
CONTACT:
Kakha Tolordava, WWF Caucasus, tel. 995-3233-0154,
[email protected]
Bobbie Jo Kelso, CEPF, cell phone 202-369-2031,
[email protected]
The WWF Caucasus Programme works to stop the degradation of the
natural environment in the Caucasus and to build a future in which
humans live in harmony with nature.
()
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund aims to dramatically advance
conservation of the Earth’s biologically richest and most threatened
areas in developing countries. A fundamental goal is to ensure that
civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation. ().

EBRD INSISTS ON CLOSURE OF ARMENIA’S NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 19 2004
YEREVAN, May 19 (RIA Novosti) – The European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development is going to set up a fund for financing the development
of alternative sources of electricity, EBRD president Jean Lemier
has said on Wednesday.
He has discussed the idea with officials in Armenia and they liked it,
he said.
The fund will finance small programmes costing from 0.5 to 1.5 million
euros in regions of Armenia. They will be, for instance, wind-powered
and small hydraulic stations, Lemier said.
The European Union demands mothballing of the Armenian nuclear power
station and is ready to allocate 100 million euros towards this end,
as well as creation of alternative sources of electricity.
The leadership of Armenia believes that the Armenian nuclear facility
should operate until the republic has enough supply of energy.
According to Vardan Khachatrian, Armenian Finance and Economic
Minister, the republic is working to create alternative sources
of energy for the event of the closure of the nuclear facility but
completion of such work will require about a billion euros.
The Armenian nuclear power station was initially halted in March
1989, less than a year after the devastating earthquake in Spitak,
Leninakan and other Armenian cities. The acute energy crisis in
Armenia restarted it in November 1995 when, after the truce concluded
with Azerbaijan on Nagorny Karabakh, Armenia actually found itself
in an economic blockade. The nuclear power facility’s second block,
having the Russian VVER-440 reactor of the first generation, produces
on an average from 30 to 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity. In the
estimate of experts, it can continue until 2016.
In September 2003 the government of Armenia passed the Armenian
nuclear power station in five-year trust management by Russia’s United
Energy Systems.

USA CITIZEN KILLED
A1 Plus | 13:56:37 | 18-05-2004 | Social |
At 10:00 PM yesterday a corpse was found near “Zigzag” shop in
Sayat-Nova Street. Under the preliminary information by Police,
the killed man is a USA citizen, Joshua Heglantz.
There were violence signs on the corpse. Policemen informed the dead
man was brutally beaten then was stabbed into resulting in death.

Armenia Protests
The Moscow Times
Monday, May 17, 2004. Page 4.
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s opposition parties on Friday resumed
their campaign of demonstrations demanding the resignation of President
Robert Kocharyan after talks with pro-government figures broke down.
An estimated 7,000 people gathered in central Yerevan for a rally. It
was the latest in a series of massive gatherings that began in
early spring.
Meanwhile, Kocharyan met with President Vladimir Putin for talks
dominated by bilateral trade issues Friday.

Scholars are ‘ambassadors’ for Va. Tech
4-line readin goes here.
By Kevin Miller, [email protected]
roanoke.com
Saturday, May 15, 2004
BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech seniors Mathew Cahill and Tim Work were
well re of the quality competition they faced in their quests to land
Fulbright scholarships to Austria. All that either of the two Tech
honor students needed to do was glance at the other’s application.
“Back in the fall when we were applying, we would talk about how it
was going,” Cahill said this week. “And in the end, we were the only
ones left standing.”
Work and Cahill received Fulbright teaching assistantships and research
grants and will head to Vienna in the coming months to teach English
in the public schools and conduct research in their fields of interest.
They were among the nearly 3,500 Tech undergraduates to be honored
during Friday night’s commencement ceremony. Individual colleges and
departments will hold their own graduation ceremonies today .
Named for the late Sen. J. William Fulbright, the Fulbright program
is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program that
aims to “increase mutual understanding” and help develop “friendly,
sympathetic and peaceful relations” between the United States and
other nations, according to an informational pamphlet from the
Fulbright Association.
The Fulbright program operates in more than 140 countries worldwide,
providing grants for American students and scholars to work abroad and
for foreign students and scholars to work on U.S. campuses annually.
Five other Virginia Tech students – including just one other
undergraduate – have received Fulbright grants since 1999.
“Mat and Tim are truly extraordinary honors students with excellent
language skills in German,” said Barbara Cowles, associate director
of University Honors. “The University Honors Program and the Campus
Fulbright Committee feel that they will be wonderful ambassadors for
Virginia Tech and the United States.” Work, who double-majored in
history and art history, spent his junior year studying in Marburg,
Germany. The 21-year-old Virginia Beach native said he visited more
than 50 cities in Europe during his stay, which helped whet his
appetite for additional overseas study.
“I would say, with few doubts, that it was the best year of my life,”
Work said. He plans to live and work in Berlin during the summer
before beginning his studies at Vienna’s Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute for
Urban History Research. Work said he would like to study at Cambridge
University in England after completing the nine-month Fulbright
program. He eventually hopes to become an art history professor.
Cahill, 22, also already has extensive experience abroad. He spent
the fall semester of his junior year studying German politics in
Munich and then the spring semester interning at the U.S. Embassy in
Vienna. Cahill also worked as an election observer in Armenia with
the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which works
on security and economic issues, human rights and election monitoring
in 55 participating states in Europe, Central Asia and North America.
Cahill, who double-majored in international studies and German,
said he hopes the Fulbright program will open additional doors for him.
“My ultimate career goal is to be an ambassador,” said Cahill, who grew
up in Williamsburg. Explaining his attraction to Vienna, Cahill added:
“It’s pretty much the center of East and West coming together.”