Author: Torgomian Varazdat

Le Cilicia ambassade flottante d’Armenie
Le Télégramme , France
16 août 2005
Depuis quelques jours, les visiteurs se succèdent au quai nord du
cinquième bassin : yachts de grand luxe ou voiliers races.
Lance en 2002 sur le lac Sevan, près d’Erevan, le Cilicia a ete
construit en chene et en pin, selon les methodes traditionnelles
retrouvees dans des manuscrits de l’epoque. Instruments de navigation,
accessoires et materiaux sont identiques a ceux utilises par les
navigateurs medievaux.
Long de 20 m pour 5 de large et d’un deplacement de 50 tonnes, le
Cilicia ne sera jamais un coursier des mers. Il peut atteindre une
vitesse de quatre noeuds, soit environ 7,5 km/heure. Mais ce n’est
pas le but recherche par Karen Balayan, son commandant, et ses 15
membres d’equipage.
Un long periple
Issus d’horizons divers (medecin, physicien, musicien ou encore
ecrivain, comme Zori Balayan), les matelots ont entrepris de demontrer
le rôle joue par les voyageurs et les marchands de l’epoque dans les
relations qui s’etablissaient entre des cultures et des civilisations
separees par les mers. Le navire est donc le symbole d’un moyen
d’unification. D’où le thème de ce periple : ” Navigation des sept mers
“.
Il en a deja parcouru un certain nombre puisque, parti de la mer
Noire, il a traverse la mer de Marmara, puis l’Egee et l’Adriatique,
pour parvenir a Venise où il a passe l’hiver dernier. Plus recemment,
il a vogue en Mediterranee et en Atlantique. Arrivant de La Corogne,
il passera deux jours a Brest, avant de rallier Portsmouth.
Tout au long de ce voyage, l’equipage du Cilicia, qui a deja fait
escale dans 23 ports de douze pays europeens et asiatiques, organise
des rencontres avec les autorites locales et les diverses communautes
pour des echanges culturels. Leur souhait : etablir des liens entre
les pays de tradition maritime où cultures et religions se sont
imbriquees et se sont enrichies mutuellement.
L’association Ayas, initiatrice du projet, a le soutien de particuliers
ou d’organisations, comme la fondation Gulbenkian ou le gouvernement
armenien. Ce soutien ne se limite pas a l’aspect financier puisque les
ambassades, dans les pays visites, sont egalement mises a contribution.
Visites de compatriotes
Lors de sa visite a Brest, le Cilicia a recu la visite de Souren
Pogossian, president d’une association representant une quarantaine
de familles de la diaspora armenienne etablies en Bretagne. Une
association symboliquement baptisee ” Menez-Ararat ” pour bien marquer
la double culture, bretonne et armenienne, dans laquelle baignent
maintenant ses adherents.
GRAPHIQUE: Photo, Legende: Souren Pogossian (a gauche), de
l’association ” Menez-Ararat “, a rendu visite a l’equipage du
Cilicia. Il a rencontre Zori Balayan, ecrivain (au centre) et Karen
Balayan, le commandant.
–Boundary_(ID_0yAscr34sTLPH07XDdkzBg)–

Azeri court releases would-be Karabakh guerrilla
Yeni Musavat, Baku
16 Aug 05
Text of unattributed report by Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat
on 16 August headlined “One more ‘Karabakh guerrilla released” and
subheaded “The cases of 12 people will be reconsidered on 30 August”
One more “Karabakh guerrilla”, Ilqar Ibrahimov, has been released
from jail under a Supreme Court ruling, the chairman of the Karabakh
Liberation Organisation (KLO), Akif Nagi, has told APA.
Nagi said eight of the jailed 21 “Karabakh guerrillas” have already
been released. But the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling
on [one of the would be guerrillas] Adalat Aga. He will serve his
imprisonment term until the end, Nagi said.
The Supreme Court is going to consider the cases of the remaining 12
prisoners on 30 August.

Armenians from Armenia and Karabakh receive awards in Hollywood contest
16.08.2005 13:58
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Performers representing the Republic of Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh Republic and currently residing in other countries
won medals in the 9th World Contest of Performing Arts wrapped up in
Hollywood, California.
As reported by Armenpress, violinist Ani Upujian and pianist Gayane
Melikian, who represented Armenia, won 3 and 4 medals respectively.
American Armenian and Canadian Armenian performers, in turn, won
awards for Karabakh.
World acclaimed tenor Vahan Mirakian, currently residing in Austria,
was a member of the jury.

Ecumenical Delegation to Visit Armenia to Bond East-West Church Relations
Christian Today, UK
Aug 16 2005
A five-member ecumenical delegation is set to visit Armenia from Aug.
24 to Sep. 1, 2005. The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada,
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, will take part in this visit.
Posted: Tuesday, August 16 , 2005, 12:27 (UK)
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Andrew
Hutchison, will take part in this visit which has been organised by
the Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.
(anglican.ca) A five-member ecumenical delegation is set to visit
Armenia from Aug.
24 to Sep. 1, 2005. The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada,
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, will take part in this visit which has
been organised by the Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic
Orthodox Church. This comes in response to an invitation by His
Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians,
to visit the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
It will be recorded as the first ever visit to Armenia by a delegation
from Canada. The delegation, Led by the Primate of the Canadian Diocese
of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Bishop Bagrat Galstanian,
will discuss the role and mission of Christian churches in the future
and cooperation between the churches in the East and West.
Other members of the delegation are include Archbishop Sotirios,
Metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Canada, Archbishop
Brendan O’Brien, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic
Bishops and Professor Richard Schneider, President of the Canadian
Council of Churches.
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin is located near Yerevan, the
capital city of the Republic of Armenia. The Mother see is the
pre-eminent centre of authority in the worldwide Armenian Apostolic
Orthodox Church.
The Armenian Orthodox Church is a member of the Orthodox family of
churches which includes Coptic, Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopian, Eritrean
and the (Indian) Malankara. The Anglicans and the Oriental family
are currently in the midst of theological dialogue, which follows
an agreed statement on Christology in November 2002 reached by the
Anglican-Oriental Orthodox International Commission.
Recommendations of the Lambeth Conferences of 1988 and 1998 stemmed
formal dialogue between the Anglicans and the Eastern Orthodox
churches. Talks were also sparked by the decisions of the Oriental
Orthodox Churches that the Anglican-Orthodox dialogue be upgraded
from a forum, in 1985 to 1993, to a commission.
Relationships between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Canadian
Diocese of the Armenian Orthodox Church goes back 125 years, when the
Anglicans offered the liturgical space and hospitality in Anglican
churches to the Armenians during the absence of Armenian sanctuaries.
The relationship between the Armenian Orthodox Church and the Canadian
Anglicans has been strengthened to become recognised more through
the Scholarship of St. Basil the Great, which is administered by
the Anglican Foundation. The scholarship was established by retired
bishop of Diocese of Ontario, Bishop Henry Gordon Hill, with means to
facilitate exchange between members of the Anglican Church of Canada
and members of the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Assyrian Church
of the East.

Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
August 9, 2005 Tuesday
Final Edition; All Editions
Violin virtuoso is flawless with orchestra at Blossom
Wilma Salisbury, Plain Dealer Music Critic
CLASSICAL MUSIC
REVIEW
Cleveland Orchestra
Blossom Festival director Jahja Ling led the Cleveland Orchestra in
an extravaganza of orchestral showpieces Sunday night at Blossom
Music Center.
Armenian violin virtuoso Sergey Khachatryan and principal double bass
Maximilian Dimoff took center stage for lyrical concertos by
Khachaturian and Koussevitzky. Assistant conductor Andrew Grams and
the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra opened the evening with a
preconcert performance featuring works by Schubert and Ravel.
For the grand finale, the student players joined the professional
musicians in Spanish-themed works by Falla and Rimsky-Korsakov. The
three-hour-plus marathon gave the enthusiastic crowd more than its
money~Rs worth.
The high point of the program was the superb performance by
Khachatryan, the 20-year-old sensation who soared to world renown
five years ago when he won first prize in the Sibelius competition in
Helsinki. Last year, he made his impressive Cleveland Orchestra debut
playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto. In May, he took first prize in
the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition in Brussels,
Belgium.
For his Blossom debut, he chose a work that is clearly close to his
heart: the romantic violin concerto by his 20th-century countryman
Khachaturian. Written in 1940, the piece unfolds in rich,
Eastern-tinged melodies that build up to showy passages. The
impassioned allegro integrates a songful cadenza. The andante is
infused with aching sadness that gives way to a folklike theme and
brilliant fireworks in the finale.
The extraordinary violinist penetrated to the soul of the piece with
sweet tone and flawless technique. Completely absorbed in the
emotional content of the music and sensitively supported by Ling and
the orchestra, he seemed unaware of the audience until the end when
he received a huge ovation and finally cracked a smile.
The Koussevitzky concerto also abounds in melody. Lightly scored and
beautifully written for double bass, the work was warmly performed by
Dimoff, who played an elegant 17th-century Italian instrument. The
intimate piece is not well-suited to a spacious outdoor venue,
however, and the soloist was sometimes overpowered by the orchestra.
The full ensemble showed its vigor and color in the circusy overture
to Kabalevsky~Rs opera, ~SColas Breugnon.~T Collaborating with the
student musicians, the players lavished a rainbow of brilliant
sonorities on the Spanish showpieces. Ling set deliberate tempos in
the first two movements of Suite No. 2 from Falla~Rs ~SThe
Three-Cornered Hat,~T then let the exciting rhythms explode in the
final dance. Rimsky-Korsakov~Rs ~SCapriccio espagnol~T also was taken at
a moderate pace, and several principal players excelled in solo
passages.
The student orchestra performed Schubert~Rs Symphony No. 3 with
youthful energy under Grams~R clear baton, then gave a rushed and
inflexible reading of Ravel~Rs ~SLe Tombeau de Couperin.~T Although the
quality of the playing was uneven, the young musicians benefited from
the opportunity to make music in the Blossom pavilion and to perform
with their Cleveland Orchestra role models.

Jihadists and Lager Louts: Blair’s Tsurris
Jewish Comment .com
Thursday 11th Aug 2005 at 00:20
Contributed by : Carol Gould

[tsurris – Yiddish word for miserable problems]
*********************
It is the day before Thursday yet again, and in London we tend to get
nervy at this point in the week because July 7th and 21st were
Thursdays. It is worrying that tomorrow is 11 August (Madrid happened
on the 11th and of course 9/11 ..) and that eight and eleven add up to
nineteen. In recent years radical groups operating without
interference inside the UK have celebrated September 11th with
veneration of the `Magnificent Nineteen.’
So, here we are being told by the Metropolitan Police that the next
attack is not a matter of if, but when. Intelligence gatherers have
declared that the attack will centre on the City of London, our
financial district. It is vulgar to try to blow one’s own trumpet and
say `I told you so’ at times like these, but for years in these
columns we have been lamenting the rhetoric being used by radical
organisations throughout the British Isles. Tonight on the news Avi
Dichter, the head of the Israeli security services, the Shin Bet, said
it is vital to nip the terror in the bud. He cited the targeted
killings of major militants using military helicopters.
Assassinations from helicopters hovering overhead will never happen in
London. However, reading an interview with Hassan Butt, a Muslim
activist in the UK who cares nothing for Britain and does not have any
feelings about the killing of Londoners, one could imagine an enraged
reader taking in the comments by Butt and wanting to throttle this
young radical. Butt had been vociferous about the grievances of
British Muslims just after September 11th, 2001. Four years later, his
sentiments have not changed.
This provokes a far-fetched but, we think, valid premise: does the
death of six million in the Holocaust give licence to Jews around the
world to blow up Germans? Does the 1915 massacre give Armenians the
right to go out and slaughter Turks? British Muslim leaders have taken
to wheeling out events from the founding of Islam to the present day
as unresolved issues needing a renewed, brave confrontation with the
West. In a disturbing poll conducted by the BBC today, only 29% of
British Muslims questioned said they think they should integrate into
British society. I am moved to look up at the wall of my living room
and gaze at the photograph of my late grandfather, Harry, who is
dressed as a Yankee Doodle Dandy and, with a moustachioed pal, waves a
fistful of American flags. This photograph was likely taken in 1910,
and both young men look ecstatic. They are so thrilled to be in
America, even if they can barely speak the language. As Janet Daley,
the expatriate American columnist observed on BBC `A Question of
Security,’ Britain does not have any structures in place to make
immigrants feel they are being inducted into a special and exciting
national identity, whereas the United States makes citizenship an
experience and celebration.
The only instance in American history in which hatred of the nation
spilled over into civil disobedience was the height of the civil
rights movement, when radical elements influenced public figures and
sportsmen to raise their fists in the Black Power gesture rather than
singing the Star-Spangled Banner. These African Americans did indeed
have a grievance, but what has Britain done to harm the scores of
angry young Muslims spewing fury in the media and on the streets, and
who burned the Union Jack and US flag in Grosvenor Square in May of
this year? I asked Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about this at the
World Affairs Council in Philadelphia that same week and he seemed
lost for words; what, when all is said and done, can the nations’
leaders do to placate these viscerally angry, British-born militants?
They have been given every opportunity in this country and many have
claimed tens of thousands in state benefits including housing, child
support, Incapacity Benefit, mobility cars, free pills plus medical,
optical and dental care and Income Support. The thanks the British
taxpayer gets is pronouncements from these non-workers that Jihad is
now in full swing and that the `covenant of security’ ( the passive
acceptance of radical activity by British authorities over the past
decades) ended with the re-election of Tony Blair.
Last year I had a vision of Britons waking up one morning to be
greeted by streets filled with tens of thousands of young men with
AK-47 machine guns, mowing us down in a giant Jihadist insurgency. The
people to whom I mooted this `remote view’ of things to come must have
thought me close to lunacy. This week, the `Independent’ newspaper
reports that intelligence sources feel there is a trained and ready
insurgency inside the British Isles armed with Kalashnikov and AK47
equipment. Reading Hassan Butt’s comments in today’s London newspapers
that Jihad is coming and that he has utter contempt for British
values, one can only feel that we are in a situation in which we have
`shut the stable door after the horse has bolted.’
Turning to the troubles within white British society, tonight’s main
BBC and ITV news addressed the national crisis of alcoholism. It is a
disease out of control; where Britons go, their reputation for
loutishness and violent, abusive behaviour under the influence of
massive amounts of alcohol follows with dread in Europe. Last year I
was in a fashionable French restaurant with American friends with whom
I had been commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of D Day in
Normandy. There was a loud commotion and soon we could see that a
group of heavily inebriated British tourists had become violent . The
Gendarmes arrived and we watched in disbelief as the Britons reeled
and collapsed onto the floor. They were so drunk they could not
stand. It was impossible for the officers to lead them out because
they were unable to walk. How many times one has seen this over the
years; the tragedy is that this sort of drinking now plagues the
young. On the BBC images were shown of pleasant and decorous behaviour
by pub patrons in the 1960s. Today, describing the state of our
drinking culture, Judge Charles Harris QC said, ‘These people are
simply savages.’
This takes me to the other major story in Britain: the continuing rage
in Manchester over the purchase of its legendary soccer team by
American Malcolm Glazer. Fans staged a protest and the images on
television were enough to convince a viewer that the Glazer sons
should steer clear of Manchester and perhaps the United Kingdom
altogether. The anger of the fans was frightening. At a time when
Britain is threatened with a Lebanon-style internal insurgency from a
legion of Jihadists, Britons continue to get into a fury about an
American running Manchester United. We had letters form furious
readers who said we did not understand British culture and not to
comment on soccer, but can anyone reading this imagine a crowd of
Americans threatening the life of a Briton who had bought, say, the
New York Yankees or Philadelphia Eagles?
What do these issues — loutishness and soccer rage — have to do with
the Jihadists? For those of us who were purveyors of fine culture in
theatre, film and television we have seen this great tradition
vanish. Scouring the pages of `The Evening Standard’ newspaper one can
find no new writing in the West End theatre. Every show is a revival
or a re-hash of an American musical. Thirty years ago London was the
world’s nerve centre for new writing : Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter,
Alan Bennett, Michael Frayn, Peter Nichols and other giants of the
creative world were generating a classic a month. Now, British theatre
and television are mired in a doldrums the likes of which can only be
called a tragedy. Into this maelstrom of a disappearing British
cultural identity come the Jihadists. It would be absurd to say that
impeccable behaviour at soccer games; the presence of Olivier, Gielgud
and Richardson on the West End stage and responsible pub conduct would
make the Jihadists have some respect for the culture they are expected
to absorb. What would make life in Britain more pleasant would be a
return to the days of glamour, elegance and dignity that characterised
daily discourse in this island nation. The idea that Gordon Ramsay and
Anne Robinson (her humiliation of contestants never ceases to horrify
me) are major celebrities is an indicator of the vast earthquake in
British society that has taken place in the past decade.
The Jihadists must be confronted and dealt with, but our own crumbling
society also needs attention. When the terrorists go, we may be left
with our own terror. The bottle must cease dominating our lives. The
solution to this nightmare, which is seeing children as young as
thirteen years of age in hospital with liver failure, will be an
uphill struggle. Perhaps our geneticists should research the reason
why alcohol is so abhorrent to Jewish youth! A world without Jihadists
and lager louts is too much to hope for but a troubled Britain,
preparing for Olympics 2012, will have to start somewhere. The message
to Tony Blair? Get real.

Did Miss Joaquim find it or breed it?
By Ng Tze Yong
Electric New Paper, Singapore
Aug 5 2005
WHO would have thought the national flower – Vanda Miss Joaquim –
would be at the centre of a controversy spanning 40 years and several
countries?
Agnes Joaquim.
And it all has to do with the romantic version of how the flower was
discovered.
The story goes like this:
One morning around the year 1890, Miss Agnes Joaquim had stepped into
the garden of her Tanjong Pagar house when she discovered, peeking
out from the middle of a bamboo clump, a little purple flower.
It was a beauty. Its broad round petals were rosy-violet and its
centre a fiery orange.
The 36 year-old Armenian woman, an avid horticulturist, was excited
because she had just discovered a new orchid hybrid.
The story is not true, say several academics and orchid buffs.
Miss Joaquim had herself raised the orchid, which became the national
flower in 1981.
In a telephone interview from Australia, Ms Nadia Wright, a historian
who researches the history of Armenians in Singapore, said:
‘The idea of Agnes finding the national flower of Singapore one
morning in a clump of bamboo is a pretty story. Unfortunately, it is
just a myth.’
To return credit to Miss Joaquim, she is writing a book to set out
her thesis.
The Armenian New Zealander’s previous book, Respected Citizens, is an
account of Armenians in Singapore.
RAISED DOUBTS
Mr Harold Johnson, 61, an orchid hobbyist for 30 years, raised
similar doubts.
‘The orchid could not have been found in a clump of bamboo. It is a
plant that grows only in direct sunlight with free air movement,’ the
tour guide at the Singapore Botanic Gardens said.
Mr Paul Johannes, the grandnephew of Miss Joaquim and her only living
descendant in Singapore, said: ‘Agnes was a renowned horticulturist.
It would be strange for her to ‘stumble’ upon the flower.’
In 1981, when the Vanda Miss Joaquim was selected as the national
flower, there was grumbling.
One journalist condemned it, giving his support to another orchid.
The Vanda Tan Chay Yan, he argued, had been developed by a ‘true son
of the soil’.
But Miss Joaquim was as Singaporean as anyone could be, her
supporters argued.
Miss Joaquim – like her mother – was born in Singapore, in 1853. Her
maternal grandfather had settled here in the 1820s.
The eldest daughter in her family, Miss Joaquim helped her mother
raise her 10 siblings after her father died.
She never married. She divided her time between the Armenian Church
of St Gregory on Hill Street and her garden in Tanjong Pagar.
It was at a flower show in 1899 that Miss Joaquim unveiled the Vanda
Miss Joaquim, possibly almost a decade after its discovery.
It won the $12 first prize for being the rarest orchid.
Suffering from cancer, Miss Joaquim died just three months later. She
was 45.
For the next 60 years or so, it was generally accepted that Miss
Joaquim had cultivated the flower.
In the 1960s, however, doubts arose.
Orchid experts questioned how someone in the 19th century could have
the skills to hybridise orchids.
Orchid cross-breeding is usually done by a method known as flasking.
Different orchid seeds are placed in a sterile flask and provided
with sugar and chemicals for germination to take place.
That’s a technique from the 1920s.
Miss Joaquim was also unable to verify which species was used as the
male in the hybridisation.
‘Orchid growers always keep detailed notes about their cultivations,’
said Mr Joseph Arditti, Professor Emeritus at the University of
California at Irvine in an e-mail interview.
The 73-year-old orchid expert jointly wrote Biology Of Vanda Miss
Joaquim, a book published by the National University of Singapore.
He pointed out that while Miss Joaquim did win many horticulture
prizes at flower shows, she had never been known to exhibit orchids.
THEORY GIVEN BOOST
By the time the Vanda Miss Joaquim was selected as the national
flower, it had come to be viewed as a natural hybrid.
The Straits Times praised it as the ‘first hybrid (orchid) found in
Singapore’, sighted in the garden of Miss Agnes Joaquim.
This theory was given a boost when Mr Basil Johannes, Miss Joaquim’s
nephew, was invited to Singapore for the launch of the national
flower.
In his speech, the 88-year-old recalled how his aunt found the flower
in a clump of bamboo.
But Ms Wright pointed out: ‘Basil was only 6 when Agnes died. I don’t
know how he remembered what his aunt told him.’
For Ms Wright, the historical evidence is clear.
In a letter to the premier horticulture journal Gardener’s Chronicle
in 1893, Mr Henry Ridley, then director of the Botanic Gardens, had
stated that Miss Joaquim bred the orchid herself.
Miss Joaquim would have been the first woman to breed an orchid
hybrid.
Singapore is the only country with an orchid hybrid as the national
flower.
‘The Vanda Miss Joaquim is a hybrid, just like Singapore is a
hybrid,’ said Mr John Elliott, president of the Orchid Society of
South-east Asia.
‘Our other national icon, the Merlion, is also a hybrid.
‘Miss Joaquim created something uniquely Singaporean,’ he added.
‘Our national flower was not created by a bee. It was a human
product, just like Singapore.’
,4136,92598,00.html

Foreign diplomats hail latest version of Armenian constitutional amendments
Noyan Tapan news agency
3 Aug 05
Yerevan, 3 August: “The revised draft of constitutional amendments
is considerably better compared to previous versions and serves as a
good basis for guarantees of the activity of democratic institutions
in Armenia,” said a report of the Venice Commission [of the Council
of Europe], which was quoted at a news conference on 3 August.
The conference was dedicated to the drafting of a new edition of the
Armenian Constitution and was organized by the offices of the European
Union and OSCE in Yerevan and the embassies of the USA and Britain,
which is the holder of the EU presidency. The participants highly
rated the work of the Venice Commission experts in the sphere of
constitutional amendments in Armenia.
The British ambassador to Armenia, Thorda Abbott-Watt, expressed
the hope that this draft would bring Armenia closer to democratic
values and facilitate Armenia’s integration into Europe. “We agree
with the comments of the experts that the Armenian people have to
decide themselves on what kind of constitution they need,” the British
ambassador said. She said it was necessary to involve all political
forces in the process of discussing constitutional reforms. “You will
not win if you are not in the game,” Abbott-Watt said.
The US charge d’affaires to Armenia, Anthony Godfrey, expressed the
hope that the Armenian government will facilitate a broad discussion of
the project. Asked whether the draft amendments could prevent election
rigging and human rights violations, the US diplomat said: “No-one
can be insured against election fraud and human rights violations. But
this project is a step forward and we are supporting it.”
Commenting on a possible link between the favourable attitude of
western institutions to the project submitted by the ruling coalition
and concessions to be made by the Armenian authorities in the Karabakh
issue, Godfrey said: “It is wrong to link these issues with other
problems, including the conflict. The new project is a chance for
Armenia to improve the rules of the game.”

LITHUANIA OFFERS TO TRAIN AZERI AND ARMENIAN MEDICAL OFFICERS BY NATO STANDARDS
PanArmenian News Network
Aug 2 2005
02.08.2005 03:50
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yesterday representatives of the Military Medical
Service of the Lithuanian and Azerbaijani Armed Forces met in Vilnius
to discuss among other issues the possibilities of training medical
staff officers by NATO standards. “We are going to offer the Azeri
medical officers a special program ratified by NATO and are ready
to receive their specialists this year”, spokesman of the Military
Medical Service of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Nijole Brazinskaite
stated. According to him, Lithuanian medical officers held a similar
meeting with the Armenian colleagues. “We offered our Armenian
counterparts to train in Lithuania and are awaiting response”,
he added.

RUSSIAN FORCES BEGIN WITHDRAWAL FROM GEORGIA, DIG HEELS IN MOLDOVA
By Vladimir Socor
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
The Jamestown Foundation
Aug 1 2005
Monday, August 1, 2005
Presented with flowers and Georgian champagne by demonstrators cheering
their withdrawal, Russian soldiers set out from the Batumi base
at dawn on July 30 in a convoy bound for Russia. The move marks the
beginning of Russia’s implementation of the agreement, signed May 30 by
Ministers of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and Salome Zourabichvili,
on the closure of three Russian bases and the complete withdrawal of
their garrisons from Georgia by 2008.
The convoy of nine wheeled armored vehicles crossed Georgia’s entire
territory from west to east, proceeding via Mtskheta, Tskhinvali,
and the Roki Tunnel, en route to Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia.
On July 28, a convoy of four armored vehicles and four trucks left
Russia’s base at Akhalkalaki in Georgia, as part of a scheduled
relocation of some of the weaponry from Akhalkalaki to the Russian
base at Gyumri in Armenia. Georgian border guards near Ninotsminda
briefly stopped that convoy when they found five unlisted machine-guns
and five signal guns during inspection of the vehicles. The episode
demonstrated the Georgian border guards’ effectiveness in carrying
out the mutually agreed inspection procedure. The incident was quickly
resolved and the convoy allowed to proceed.
During the month of August, more Russian equipment is scheduled to
be moved from the Batumi and Akhalkalaki bases, partly to Russia and
partly to Armenia. Two amphibious ships will evacuate the largest
convoy, consisting of 40 armored vehicles and including 20 battle
tanks, from Batumi to Russia.
The Russian military has asked Georgia to repair or reinforce certain
bridges on the road from the Akhalkalaki base to Akhaltsikhe, so as
to make possible the movement of a planned convoy of Russian heavy
weaponry. From Akhaltsikhe, the convoy would travel by rail to Batumi
by rail, then to Russia by sea.
An ad-hoc staff of Russian generals and officers has arrived at
the Tbilisi headquarters of the Group of Russian Forces in the
Transcaucasus to supervise the withdrawal of equipment and troops.
Some transit issues of political and technical nature are yet to
be resolved, however. Talks held on July 25-26 in Moscow did not
conclusively settle these issues.
In a specially convened briefing on July 29, Zourabichvili welcomed
Russia’s political decision on withdrawal of its forces from Georgia
and the beginning of the agreement’s implementation. By signing the
agreement, Zourabichvili noted, Russia has undertaken an obligation
before Georgia and the entire international community to carry out the
withdrawal fully and on schedule (Rustavi-2 TV, Imedi TV, Interfax,
NTV Mir, Arminfo, July 28-31; see EDM, May 24, June 3).
In Moldova, however, Russia seems to be signaling that it has no
intention to withdraw its forces, despite its 1999 Istanbul commitments
to withdraw them from both Georgia and Moldova unconditionally. On July
29, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov declared that Russian
troops would not leave Moldova until Russian arsenals there are
relocated to Russia. At the same time, Russia takes the position that
the arsenals cannot be removed until Chisinau agrees with Tiraspol on
a political settlement. Charging that the Moldovan leadership’s calls
for Russian troop withdrawal “are aimed at damaging Russian-Moldovan
relations,” Ivanov scoffed, “They can want whatever they like. There
is nothing wrong with wanting something.” (In the same statement,
Ivanov used an identical phrase to dismiss NATO’s proposal to extend
Operation Active Endeavor with Russian participation into the Black
Sea.) (Interfax, Russian Television Channel One, July 29).
In a July 30 statement, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs insists
that implementation of the “so-called Istanbul accords” is conditional
on a political resolution between Chisinau and Tiraspol “with the
assistance of Russia, Ukraine, and OSCE.” Moscow’s statement goes
on to criticize the Moldovan parliament’s July 22 law on the basic
principles of a settlement (see EDM, July 26) for “hampering the
efforts by mediators from Russia, Ukraine, and OSCE.” (Interfax,
July 30). On July 31, Russia’s charge d’affaires in Chisinau, Yuri
Mordvintsev, portrayed Russia’s military presence in Moldova as
“responsibility for peacekeeping” by Russia as a “guarantor country
and mediator country … ready along with Ukraine and the OSCE to
continue providing assistance” (RIA-Novosti, July 31).