Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

Georgian president speaks at launch of leisure centre construction project
Imedi TV, Tbilisi
23 Mar 06
President Mikheil Saakashvili on 23 March delivered an upbeat speech
at a ceremony launching the construction of a large leisure centre on
Ajaria’s border with the rest of Georgia. He said that Georgia had
come a long way since two years ago when he was denied entry to Ajaria
by armed supporters of the then Ajarian leader, Aslan Abashidze.
Saakashvili said that “unprecedented” infrastructure improvement
projects under way in Georgia would lead to more tourists visiting the
country and higher living standards. The following is the text of a
report by Georgian Imedi TV on 23 March:
[Presenter] The president is on the border between Ajaria and Guria to
attend a ceremony to mark the start of work on the construction of the
largest leisure centre in Georgia, Tsitsinatela. The complex will
cover 14 hectares and the first stage of construction will be
completed by 1 August. The complex will be finally completed by the
next summer season.
[Saakashvili, live broadcast] Welcome, everybody. I would like to
welcome the heads of the local government, the chairman of the Supreme
Council of the Autonomous Republic of Ajaria and members of the
government.
Today is an important day for us. Two years ago in March, on this
spot, during the night, or more precisely early in the morning, we
tried to enter Ajaria over the Choloki bridge. We were blocked about
where that building is being built by several hundred people armed to
the teeth. The Choloki bridge had been heavily mined. Just a few days
ago they found more explosives left by [then Ajarian leader] Aslan
Abashidze and his foreign advisers under another bridge nearby. It is
good that they did not explode. Two years ago we could not have
imagined how this place would begin to change.
I would like to tell you that we do not just mean the construction of
this park. We are starting major, unprecedented construction projects
on a very ti ght timescale along the Black Sea coast in Ajaria and now
in Guria.
In these coming days and weeks the construction of up to 30 new,
European-standard tourist hotels will begin in Ajaria. Several will be
built in Guria.
Last year saw unprecedented road construction work. We built the first
new tunnel for decades. We also intend to continue building roads this
year. The Ozurgeti-Kobuleti road will be rebuilt to European standards
this year. That is very important for the Guria region. The Meria
road and the Sarpi-Batumi road will be repaired to modern
standards. We will continue building a new tunnel and it should be
finished by the end of the year.
We will complete roads in Ajaria’s highland region and we are working
on roads linking villages in Guria. We are reinforcing coastal
defences in Guria and Ajaria.
This year was the first for many years in which most of Guria and
Ajaria did not have electricity problems. This, of course, did not
fall from the sky. This was the result of very hard work.
You know that throughout Georgia educational institutions are being
built. Last year several new schools were built in Ajaria and
Guria. However, I want everything new that we build – schools, roads
and everything else – to be of a completely different standard and
quality. I do not want this to be a repeat of Soviet standards.
A short time ago we even missed the quality of what was built in the
Soviet Union. Everything new that it is to be built or renovated – and
this year 17 new schools will be built in Ajaria and several built or
renovated in Guria – should be done to European standards. Every new
building should be on a European level. We are in the 21st century and
we are a European country. We should have buildings of which we are
proud, not embarrassed when we send our children there. We will do
that together. [applause]
We started an experiment last year. The Ajarian government provided
all schoolchildren in Batumi with school uniforms. This year, free
school uniforms will be provided to all schoolchildren, from year one
to six, throughout Ajaria. I would like to say that we support this
programme. [Tbilisi mayor] Gigi Ugulava is doing the same in
Tbilisi. We also hope to provide free beautiful school uniforms to
children in the district centres of Lanchkhuti, Ozurgeti and
Chokhatauri. Children should be happy to wear them. These uniforms
should be different from the old-fashioned uniforms we remember from
our childhoods. We should have good-quality modern uniforms, just as
in Europe and other normal countries. We will do this together.
Several good outpatient clinics are being built here. It is very
important for us to build a decent, modern health care system
everybody can afford to use. No-one should be denied medical treatment
because of money problems. I would also like to tell you that on 6
May we will switch on [street lights on] the entire highway. I want
the whole of Georgia to know that this year Ajaria and Georgia’s Black
Sea coast will be beautiful as never before. The entire highway, from
Choloki to Batumi and Sarpi, will have newly installed lights. There
will be no more dark roads, no more dangerous bends, no more dangerous
potholes. Come and have a good time here, spend money here, because
this money will benefit local people.
Numerous new cafes and catering facilities are being built this
year. You know that last year a new, modern park opened in Borjomi,
which was the trailblazer. We are continuing to make improvements to
the park. By the way, my friend here, who is from Kobuleti, has
visited the Borjomi park several times together with his classmates, I
believe.
Today, here at the Choloki [river], we are opening the construction of
a park that will be one of the most modern parks in the former Soviet
Union. This involves huge investment. This will not just be an
entertainment and recreation site. This park will create job
opportunities. Like a magnet, it will attract more facilities around
it. Like a magnet, it will attract tourists. Tens of thousands of
tourists from Armenia and other countries have already been here [in
Ajaria]. By the end of this year, the construction of a new
European-style airport will be completed in Batumi. It will meet all
modern European standards. There will be a completely new runway that
any type of aircraft can use. It will be even better than the Tbilisi
airport runway. This is being done to attract more tourists.
What does more tourists mean? It means that people in Natanebi
[village in the Guria province] will be able to sell their produce. I
have many friends in this village. It is a great village with great
traditions of farming. People here will have more income, which will
enable them to give their children a better education. Education is
the main thing for us here. We must understand that the sale of our
agricultural produce and the development of tourism is the future of
Georgia.
For the first time in the post-Soviet period, several large food
processing enterprises are opening in Ajaria this summer. Tens of
millions of dollars’ worth of investment is being made for the benefit
of people in Guria and Ajaria. Agricultural produce from the rest of
Georgia will also be processed here.
This means jobs and new opportunities for our families living here.
I cannot list everything that is being done. When one or two
enterprises were being built, it was always easy to attend their
opening. Aslan Abashidze opened just one one-and-a-half storey
kindergarten which has never seen any children. Some people who are
currently criticizing us in Tbilisi visited it 40 times and heaped
praise on Aslan Abashidze a hundred times for building that one-storey
shack.
In Ajaria’s highland region alone we are building 15 completely new
schools this year. In Kobuleti, as I promised, I will build one of the
most beautiful and modern schools in the region. It will be a school
that meets European standards. We will work as quickly as possible
and, hopefully, children will be able to use it by the end of the
year. A similar European-standard school is being built in
Khelvachauri. More such schools are being built in Guria. Naturally,
I will not be able to attend the opening of each of these schools,
although I would really like to.
It must be said though that, of course, progress is a gradual
process. We need to work harder, be more patient and spill more sweat
in order finally to help our country emerge from the terrible state it
found itself in.
There was a swamp here and this still is a swamp. On 1 July, or let’s
hope in the middle of July at the latest, we will open a park here we
will not be ashamed of. We will not be embarrassed to bring the
president of America here or especially tourists from neighbouring
countries. They will go back and tell everyone how much the Georgians
have improved. Who thought this would happen? [applause]
We will be proud of that because I am proud of everything that is
being done in Georgia because Georgia is a great country and great
people live here. It is a better country than others, better than most
other countries in the world in all respects. We must really be very
untalented not to take advantage of that, but we are very talented, so
we will take full advantage. So, let’s start construction work and in
three months – [addresses head of the Ajarian government Levan
Varshalomidze and Guria governor Aleko Tsintsadze]
Varshalomidze and governor, make sure you don’t make me angry. May,
June, July – and then I will come here for a walk together with the
population of Georgia. [laughter, applause]

Armenian minister downplays public concern at US drug report
Arminfo
22 Mar 06
Yerevan, 22 March: Armenian public concern over the International
Narcotics Control Strategy Report by the US Department of State is
groundless, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan told parliament
today. He was commenting on mass media allegations that Armenian
officials are allegedly engaged in drug trafficking.
The minister said that the report says quite the opposite. In
particular, it says that “there is no ground to assume that any
Armenian official is engaged in drug trafficking”.
[Passage omitted: Reference to the report]

EDUCATIONAL CENTER FOR FRONTIER TROOPS REPAIRED UNDER FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF US GOVERNMENT TO BE OPENED IN YEREVAN ON MARCH 22
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 20 2006
YEREVAN, March 20. /ARKA/. Opening ceremony of the Educational Center
for frontier troops, repaired under the US Government’s financial
support will be held in Yerevan on March 22. The US Embassy to
Armenia reported that participating in the opening ceremony will be US
Ambassador to Armenia John Evans, and also official representatives
of the Frontier Army Service and National Security Service of
Armenia.

NO AGREEMENT WAS SIGNED BUT PRICE OF GAS WENT UP
Lragir/am
21 March 06
On March 21 the question of the soaring price of gas was discussed at
the Hayeli Club. MP Manuk Gasparyan debated with Nikolay Grigoryan,
Deputy Chairman of the Commission of Public Utilities. Manuk Gasparyan
said the decision of the commission to sell gas to people at 90 drams
per cubic meter was illegitimate, groundless.
“If the commission made a decision, it means there was ground,”
says the deputy chairman of the Public Utilities Commission Nikolay
Grigoryan, who decided to accept the bid of Armrusgasard with his
other four colleagues on March 10 and to increase the price of the
gas supplied to the population up to 90 thousand drams and 146.5
thousand drams for enterprises.
Manuk Gasparyan thinks it was a groundless decision, and if the
commission had imposed a reduction of estimated losses of 5.37 per cent
by at least 1 per cent and had not allowed Armrusgasard to increase
the margin from 12 to 18, the price of gas would not be that high. “If
they extract the margin and losses and charge the VAT at the border,
the price of gas would grow up to 73 drams with 450 drams exchange rate
of the dollar, but if calculated on 420 drams as set in the budget,
the price of gas would grow up to 69 drams,” says Manuk Gasparyan.
“The commission did not have the right to consider the bid of
Armrusgasard until there is a deal that since April 1 Russia will
sell gas to Armenia at 110 dollars,” says Manuk Gasparyan. Nikolay
Grigoryan confirms that they could not consider the bid of Armrusgasard
without having signed a contract, but there is a contract, signed
by Armrusgasard and Gasexport, one of the companies of Gasprom, on
December 28. Manuk Gasparyan says it is merely a document, postponing
the supply of gas at 110 dollars until April 1, and negotiations
were to be held until April 1. Manuk Gasparyan announced that the
negotiations are not over, and the final price of gas has not been
fixed yet. “The contract will be signed by Armrusgasard and Gasprom
on March 28 and 29. I expect and I believe that the price of gas will
be below 110 dollars. What will the commission do with its decision
on increasing the price?” says Manuk Gasparyan.
Nikolay Grigoryan thinks it would be a miracle if the price of gas
were set below 110 dollars. He says the commission would not be
guided by unreal things, and the decision was based on the deal
signed on December 28. “We are not guided by mays and ifs,” said
Nikolay Grigoryan in answer to the argument that after April 1 the
price of gas may be lower than 110 dollars, whereas the commission
had decided to double the price of gas supplied to the population
starting from this number.
However, the negotiations for the price of gas are going on, and
the Public Utilities Commission might not be convinced that 110
dollars underlying its decision will be the final price. If it is
the final price, the minister of energy, the prime minister and other
representatives of the executive are doing populism when they say that
negotiations for the price of gas continue. Or if they are right,
it means the commission hurried to accept the bid of Armrusgasard,
and the company is facing a real possibility of extra profit.
The point is that if Russia reaches an agreement with Armenia, and
the gas price is set lower, or a mechanism of compensation is found,
Armrusgasard will have, in fact, extra profit, because people will
have to pay 90 drams per one cubic meter for at least six months. Such
is the law, for the price set by the Public Utilities Commission will
work for at least six months.

GERMAN AND FRENCH WARN TURKS FOR ATTEMPTS TO RENOUNCE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Panorama.am
14:09 20/03/06
On March 18 about 20 demonstrations were expected to take place in
Berlin, about 1500 policemen had to do overtime work to protect the
demonstrators from indiscipline.
Turkish nationalistic organizations had planned a great demonstration
on March 18 in concern with 85th anniversary of death of taleat
pasha. And about 4 million Turks living in Germany were to “take
their flags and come to Berlin” to take part in “the great event of
the year” in order to prove that the Turks are “innocent” and that
there was no Armenian Genocide in Western Turkey.
That impudent announcement infuriated even Berlin Police and the
demonstration was banned. Yet, the slimy organizers got the right to
hold the demonstration by a Court resolution. On March 16 the police
appealed to Berlin-Brandenburg Departmental Court with the demand to
ban the demonstration as “taleat pasha” was one of the main organizers
of Armenian Genocide”.
Yet the Supreme Court of Democratic Germany couldn’t uphold the
claim and passed a resolution rather important for the Armenians:
“Allow the demonstration on a strict stipulation: any poster, speech,
picture or opinion denying the Armenian Genocide will be condemned
by 189 article of Criminal Code (reviling of memory of victims).”
About 1700 participants of the demonstration on March 18 were watched
by the police from Urania to Charlottenburg. They demanded from
the demonstrators to show all the posters and pictures. Turkish
demonstrators demanded that the Bundestag should call beck the
resolution of July 16, 2005 according to which Germany adopted the
fact of Armenian Genocide.
On the other hand the German Right Extremists (NPD) had organized a
demonstration of protest against the Turks. They warned the Turkish
demonstrators with posters and appeals like “No Parisian situation
in Berlin”, “Berlin is a German city”.
German Left Party (PDS) had also surrounded Charlottenburger
Chlosschtrassen as a sign of protest against Turkish demonstrators.
Christian Democratic and Christian Social (CDU/CSU) parties condemned
Turkish nationalists strictly.
It should be mentioned that the demonstration turned in favor of the
Armenians. As it is known, demonstrations were held in French cities
Lion and Marsalis. And here the French defended the Armenian Trial.
The procession of Turkish nationalists organized in Lion had a
dramatic end. Yet, French (!) demonstrators stood on the way of the
Turkish demonstrators and the police had to use tear-gas to calm the
demonstrators.

TALAT PASHA RALLY BEGINS IN BERLIN
Anatolian Times, Turkey
March 19 2006
Turks In Lyon Protest Erection Of So-Called Armenian Genocide Monument
BERLIN/LYON – The “Berlin Talat Pasha Movement” rally to protest the
decision of the German parliament on the so-called Armenian genocide
has begun today in Berlin.
Over 5,000 Turks attended the Berlin rally.
Meanwhile, Turks living in Lyon, France have protested the erection
of a monument on the so-called Armenian genocide in Lyon. Turkish
demonstrators held Turkish and French flags in their hands.

SWISS GROUP OFFERS A $200 MILLION INVESTMENT PROPOSAL
Armenpress
YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS: Deputy urban minister Karlen Gevorkian
said the government was considering an investment plan proposed by
a Swiss National Recycling Group (NRC) that wants to start a refuse
cycling business in Armenia.
The deputy minister said the Swiss company said it was ready to settle
the refuse problem of all Armenian settlements with 10,000 and more
population. The investment plan, assessed around $at 200 million,
envisages construction of five refuse cycling plants and import of a
great deal of equipment. Gevorkian said the ministry and the Yerevan
municipality have received some other proposals, particularly, from
Russian companies which want to take up the business of garbage
collection and recycling. He said all these proposals were being
examined.
He said a grant pledged by the government of Japan will be used for
constriction of a biogas collector in Nubarashen dump. Part of the
gas will be used for production of electricity. He said similar tests
are going on in Vanadzor and Gyumri dumps.

U.S. Negotiators Say Peace Talks Stall but Not Dead
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006
17/03/2006 19:12
A senior American diplomat believes there is still an opportunity
for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make a breakthrough in the Karabakh
settlement process.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Daniel Fried said in Yerevan on Thursday that he is convinced that
negotiations can be continued despite the lack of progress at the
latest round of high-level talks at Rambouillet.
“Both governments express their countries’ interests and take the
Karabakh settlement process seriously,” Fried said, sharing with
the media his impressions of the meetings with officials in Baku
and Yerevan.
On the last leg of his regional tour in the Armenian capital, Daniel
Fried met with Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian, Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian.
Fried, who had visited Azerbaijan and Georgia, said the goal of his
trip was to study the situation in the region after the Rambouillet
meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as
to discuss a number of issues pertaining to the future of the region,
including energy security.
OSCE Minsk Group Cochairman from the United States Steven Mann, who
accompanied the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs in his tour, said: “It is a difficult fact that we
did not move ahead at Rambouillet. But the two countries’ presidents
are willing to move forward.”
On Wednesday, Fried and Mann had dinner with a dozen politicians
representing Armenia’s pro-government and opposition forces.
Fried said the U.S. Government is also interested in the democratic
situation in Armenia.
The American diplomats left Yerevan for Istanbul later on Thursday
to attend a meeting of the Minsk Group cochairmen due to be held there.

NKR SECURITY COUNCIL SITTING
Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
16 March 2006
On March 13, President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Arkady
Ghukassian summoned an enlarged sitting of the NKR Security Council
in the course of which issues related to the current stage of the
negotiations on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement were, in
particular, discussed. Getting acquainted with the activity carried
out in the frames of the process of working out the NKR Constitution,
the President instructed to call a sitting of the Constitutional
Commission in the current week for summing up the results of that ac
tivity. The participants of the sitting discussed also a number of
issues of social-economic development of the republic.

LEAVES OR NOT…
A1+
05:32 pm 16 March, 2006
Today in the USA Embassy in Armenia the journalists tried to find out
whether the rumors about George Avans’ already handing the documents
of his return to Robert Kocharyan correspond to the reality. Does it
mean that the USA president George Bush’s policy contradicts to the
use of the word “genocide?”
The question made Mr. Avans get irritated. “I serve the USA president,
that’s all,” he said. The Vice Secretary of the State Department Daniel
Fried came to help him. “The position of the USA Administration is
clear. Every year George Bush makes announcements and he considers the
latest actions against the Armenians in the territory of the Osmanian
Empire a real tragedy. Such announcements will also be heard this
year. I have been working with the Ambassador Evans for 20 years and
we shall go on our work while he is in Armenia.”