Author: Torosian Aram

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

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Tuesday 24 May 2005
GEORGIA: LEGAL IMPROVEMENTS, BUT LITTLE PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT

“Definite improvements for religious minorities have taken place in
the legal field, but on the ground little real improvement has taken
place,” Levan Ramishvili, of the Liberty Institute told Forum 18 News
Service. He was commenting on changes to laws covering religious
communities’ legal and tax status, as well as a new law affecting school
religious education. These de jure changes have been broadly welcomed by
minority religious communities, but some are unhappy at being treated as
NGOs or private legal persons. But de facto the changes have yet to make a
significant impact. Fr Gabriel Bragantini of the Catholic Church commented
on education that “In Tbilisi it may be better, but elsewhere it’s
still as it was before.” Emil Adelkhanov, of the Caucasus Institute
for Peace, Democracy and Development, stressed that religious minorities
must exercise their rights and noted that religious freedom improvements
could be reversed. He cited the results of a survey which found that
nearly 47 per cent would support destroying the literature of religious
minorities such as Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

GEORGIA: LEGAL IMPROVEMENTS, BUT LITTLE PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

“Definite improvements for religious minorities have taken place in
the legal field, but on the ground little real improvement has taken
place,” Levan Ramishvili, head of the Tbilisi-based Liberty Institute
human rights group, told Forum 18 News Service from the Georgian capital on
18 May. After long discussion of how religious communities should be
offered the possibility to gain legal status as religious organisations,
parliament on 6 April approved amendments to the civil code, allowing them
to register with the Ministry of Justice. President Mikheil Saakashvili
signed the amendments into law on 27 April.

Also in April 2005, parliament removed Article 199 of the Administrative
Violations Code, a Soviet-era article which allowed religious communities
to be fined for activities such as not being registered and organising
youth meetings. “Religious organisations will be put on an equal
footing with secular non-profit groups – registration will be
voluntary and not mandatory, as the Administrative Violations Code used to
require,” Ramishvili told Forum 18. “They will be able to
register as a union or a foundation.”

But some religious communities are unhappy with the status that
registering under the civil code will provide. Sozar Subari, the human
rights ombudsperson, told Forum 18 that the Catholics, Muslims and
Armenian Apostolic Church particularly opposed the idea of registering as
if they were non-governmental organisations. “They want the civil
code to be changed again to allow them to register as public religious
organisations,” he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 2 May.

Levon Isakhanyan, spokesperson for the Armenian Apostolic diocese of
Georgia, describes the possibility of registering the diocese as a private
legal person as “unacceptable”. “It is unacceptable for the
Armenian, Catholic, Muslim and other traditional faiths,” he told
Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 18 May. He said the issue was raised in April,
when a delegation from the Church headquarters in Echmiadzin, Armenia,
visited Georgian government and Orthodox Church representatives in
Tbilisi.

Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, no religious
community had any form of legal status until a controversial 2002
concordat between the Orthodox Church and the state granted the Orthodox
Patriarchate legal status and numerous privileges denied to all other
religious communities. When the Vatican and the Georgian state were on the
point of signing a concordat in September 2003, which would have granted
the Catholic Church legal status, huge Orthodox-led street demonstrations
led to the abrupt cancelling of the signing ceremony (see F18News 25
September 2003 ).

A new Law on General Education, which separates state schools and religion
treaching, was also adopted. This narrows the interpretation of article 5.1
of the state concordat with the Orthodox Church, which allowed teaching of
Orthodoxy as an elective part of the school curriculum, also giving the
Orthodox Church control of the curriculum, and appointments and dismissals
of teachers. The new law states that such Orthodox teaching may only take
place after school hours and cannot be controlled by the school or
teachers. Also, outsiders, including clergy, cannot regularly attend or
direct students’ extracurricular activity or students’ clubs or their
meetings.

Religious minorities have broadly welcomed the changes to school religious
education. In recent years, many had been unhappy that such religious
education took the form of narrow Orthodox education and compulsory
prayers in the local Orthodox church (see F18News 19 November 2003
). However, as human
rights activists and religious minority leaders point out, practice has
not always kept pace with the law. “The education law has been
adopted and the legal framework changed, but this has not yet been
implemented,” Ramishvili of the Liberty Institute told Forum 18.

Fr Gabriel Bragantini, who heads the Catholic diocese of Kutaisi
[Kut’ai’si] in western Georgia, complains that school religion lessons in
his area are still Orthodox denominational lessons. “Teachers speak
only of the Georgian Orthodox Church,” he told Forum 18 from Kutaisi
on 18 May. “All children have to go to the lessons. In Tbilisi it may
be better, but elsewhere it’s still as it was before.”

These legal moves follow a new Tax Code adopted by parliament last
December, which grants certain tax exemptions to religious organisations.
“However, the Patriarchate has more privileges than other religious
organisations,” Ramishvili of the Liberty Institute noted.

Despite these legal changes – which come after nearly a decade of
discrimination against religious minorities and a five year reign of
terror against Protestants, True Orthodox, Catholics and Jehovah’s
Witnesses from 1999-2003 – religious minorities still face intermittent
threats, obstruction to their right to meet for worship and a de facto ban
on building new places of worship (see forthcoming F18News article).

Emil Adelkhanov, of the Tbilisi-based Caucasus Institute for Peace,
Democracy and Development, welcomes the possibility for religious
communities to gain legal status. But he stresses that they themselves
have to take the initiative to exercise their rights. “The problem is
that such a law works if not only minorities want it to work,” he told
Forum 18 on 17 May. Many religious minority leaders told Forum 18 they were
unaware of the changes to the civil code which make registration possible.

Adelkhanov believes that the government has the incentive to “please
Europe” at the moment. “But our experience has shown that Europe
can be indulgent, and the authorities know that quite well.” He fears
that slow improvements in the religious freedom climate could be reversed.
“As long as the mentality of the general population remains the same,
there is no guarantee that the story won’t recur after the incentive given
by Europe is gone – after the immediate goals have been achieved.”

He points to the depth of popular hostility to religious minorities and
cites a 2004 survey carried out by the Tbilisi-based International Centre
on Conflict and Negotiation. Nearly 47 per cent of respondents said they
would support destroying religious minorities’ literature, while only 10
per cent would defend religious minority rights.

Nearly 44 per cent of respondents believed that were Georgia to adopt a
religion law, it should ban the activity of “sects”, such as the
Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, with a further 34 per cent believing it
should restrict their activities. More than 20 per cent of the population
believed such a law should ban the activities of Catholics, Muslims and
other faiths regarded as more traditional, with a further 38 per cent
believing it should restrict their activity. Only 25 per cent believed
such “traditional” faiths should be fully protected with only
just over 6 per cent believing that “sects” should also be fully
protected.

For background information see Forum 18’s Georgia religious freedom survey
at

A printer-friendly map of Georgia is available at

tlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=georgi
(EN D)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855

You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at

___________________

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
May 21 2005

ARMENIA REPRESENTS SERIOUS THREAT TO MAINTENANCE OF PEACE AND
STABILITY ON SOUTHERN CAUCASUS
[May 21, 2005, 12:20:09]

On May 20, in the “Crescent Beach” hotel, with the support of NATO
Public Diplomacy department, a 2-day seminar organized by the NATO
Studies Center and Public Association “Women – Leaders” on the topic
“Safety and Stability on Southern Caucasus”.

The president of the NATO Studies Center Vasile Sekares, the president
of Public Association “Women – Leaders”, MP Malahat Hasanova informed
that the goal of the seminar consists in discussion of the questions
concerning safety and stability on Southern Caucasus.

The deputy foreign minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov has noted
importance of safety and stability in expansion of regional
cooperation, prompt integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures,
and achievement by the countries of economic development. He also
has emphasized necessity of safety and stability for full development
of democracy in region. Democracy is closely connected to safety and
stability. These factors should be provided in complex, he stressed.

Azerbaijan, during the 14-years period of the independence has carried
out significant work for maintenance of the said factors. However,
conflicts existing in region interfere with its safety and stability,
integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures, regional cooperation.

>>From the point of view of regional cooperation, Azerbaijan together
with Georgia has undertaken certain steps. Due to this, Southern
Caucasus can play role of transit. However, Armenia as against
Azerbaijan and Georgia, shows completely other position in regard
with safety and stability on Southern Caucasus, questions of regional
cooperation. So, Azerbaijan, exporting power resources, and Georgia
as the transit country, make contribution to development of region.
Armenia exports instability.

Araz Azimov has noted that safety and stability of Southern
Caucasus influence safety and stability of Europe, and the region
of Mediterranean Sea – Black Sea – Caspian Sea. Safety of Europe is
connected to safety of Southern Caucasus.

At the seminar, also speaking was the Head of the NATO Defense
Cooperation Sector George Katsirdakis, the ambassador of Turkey
to Azerbaijan Turan Morali, the deputy foreign minister of Georgia
Konstantin Kavtaradze, the employee of Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tofig Musayev, the officer – coordinator of the NATO on the countries
of Southern Caucasus Romaldus Razusk, the ambassador of Romania to
Baku Nikolay Ureke and others.

On May 21, the seminar will continue.

Haunted by the ghosts of genocide
By Raha Rafii

Oxford Student, UK
May 21 2005

We study history so that we do not repeat our mistakes, most
importantly the atrocities that we have committed against our fellow
man. It is thus imperative that we know our history. The words ‘Never
Again’ are permanently fixed on the walls of the Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington DC. Yet we didn’t act during the 1994 Rwandan
genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people were murdered by machete
in 100 days. No one, not the US, Europe or the UN, did anything.

While they sat debating strategies and the definition of ‘acts of
genocide’, men, women, and children were hacked to pieces while a
handful of foreign dignitaries and consulates were evacuated. It
was called ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Bosnia in 1992 and Kosovo in 1994.
Frustrated with UN inaction, NATO intervened to stop the massacre
of Albanian Muslims, and after accomplishing its stated mission,
pulled out to leave the Serbs at the mercy of a vengeful Kosovo
Liberation Army.

Today in the Sudan, home to the longest-running civil war in the
world, another genocide is unfolding in Darfur. The Holocaust gave
us the word ‘genocide’. It spawned the 1948 UN Genocide Convention,
which defined it as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The word gave a
voice to the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the
Ottomans in 1915. What had been a long-forgotten trauma was once
again brought to light.

But why is it when it comes to black Africans, no one makes
a move? Why does no one talk about the first genocide of the
twentiethcentury? Not the Armenian Genocide, but of the Herero at
the hands of the Germans in 1904 in what is now Namibia, in which
a staggering 80 per cent of the Herero population was annihilated,
with the remainder practically wiped out through slave labour.

Faced with a wall of silence, is it any wonder that these first two
genocides, in two different worlds, did not alert us to the upcoming
horrors of the Holocaust? The German geneticist Eugene Fischer carried
out his experiments on race in the Herero concentration camps. Fischer
would later teach medicine at the University of Berlin and his most
infamous student, Josef Mengele, went on to conduct heinous experiments
on Jewish children in Auschwitz.

Hitler, in a speech to gather support for the invasion of Poland in
August 1939, was confident that he would not be opposed by any of the
other world powers, reminding his supporters that “Who, after all,
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” These genocides
provided us with the horrific consequences of race branding, the
solidifying of a racial inferior who was considered alien and thus
had to be removed.

In Bosnia and Kosovo it was the impure Albanian Muslim, in Rwanda
the Tutsi, and now in Darfur it is the black Sudanese. History is
repeating itself. Three genocides in Africa, and we are still sitting
on our hands. It is clear that we have not yet learned from history.
We must acknowledge this failure so that we may not only open our
eyes to the atrocities being committed around us, but to stop them
from happening in the future.

It is not about allocating blame, but coming to terms with how
we fulfill, or fail to fulfill our roles as fellow human beings,
as well as recognizing the travesty of not treating the lives of
others as equal to our own because of their geography, their economic
development, or the colour of their skin. The genocide in Darfur
is happening this very minute, as you read this sentence, and will
continue to happen.

Yet, for as long as this genocide continues, every moment that passes
is one in which we have an opportunity to do something. And we should
be doing something. If only, at the very least, informing ourselves
of those atrocities which litter history’s path. What plagues Africa
is Western apathy. It is truly an inhuman act to turn a blind eye to
the realities facing the continent.

The plight of hundreds of millions of men, women, and children is
best summed up by a quote from the movie Hotel Rwanda in which a UN
colonel sadly informs Don Cheadle’s character of the awful truth of the
West’s role, professing that, in the eyes of these affluent countries,
“you’re not even niggers… you’re Africans.”

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
May 19, 2005

UE: LA LOGGIA IN VISITA IN ARMENIA ;
VERSO CREAZIONE DI “CASA ITALIA”

ROMA

(ANSA) – ROMA, 19 MAG – Creare una ‘casa Italia’ a Yerevan,
per rafforzare i gia’ eccellenti rapporti bilaterali tra Italia
e Armenia in campo economico, commerciale e culturale. Il
progetto, sollecitato con particolare entusiasmo dal presidente
dell’ assemblea nazionale armena Arthur Baghdassaryan, e’ stato
accolto con grande favore dal ministro per gli Affari regionali
Enrico La Loggia, in visita ufficiale nel paese caucasico.

Nei colloqui con il suo omologo Hovik Abrahamyan ai quali
ha preso parte anche l ambasciatore d Italia Marco Clemente il
ministro si e’ inoltre impegnato a coinvolgere maggiormente le
regioni italiane nei rapporti con l’Armenia e le sue istituzioni
locali.

I settori piu’ importanti per approfondire questa
collaborazione sono apparsi essere quelli del turismo, della
valorizzazione e restauro dei beni culturali e
dell impiantistica sui campi da sci. Comparti nei l Italia ha un
bagaglio di conoscenze di particolare interesse per gli armeni.
La Loggia ha anche incontrato il ministro degli esteri Tartan
Oskanian ringraziandolo, fra l altro, per l attenzione che il
governo armeno sta riservando alla recente proposta italiana di
riforma del Consiglio di sicurezza delle Nazioni Unite.
Con la tappa di Yerevan il ministro ha concluso il suo giro di
visite ufficiali nel Caucaso. Prima di ripartire per Roma La
Loggia e’ stato ricevuto in udienza da sua santita’ il
Catholicos Karekin II, massima autorita’ della Chiesa ortodossa
armena nella sede primaziale di Echmiadzin.(ANSA).

CIS Collective Security Treaty members to focus on Afghanistan

Interfax news agency
19 May 05

Moscow, 19 May: Representatives of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization [CSTO] will discuss the situation surrounding the
organization’s action zone as well as the situation around Afghanistan
at the forthcoming consultations, the CSTO press service has reported.

At the forthcoming Moscow round of consultations on 25 May deputy
foreign ministers, deputy defence ministers and the secretaries of
the member-countries’ security councils will discuss the situation in
the area of the organization’s activity, the military and political
situation in Afghanistan and will coordinate the work of the CSTO
members regarding the post-conflict restoration in the country,
the press release said.

It is planned that the plenary session will discuss a draft plan for
priority measures aimed at the all-round strengthening of inter-state
cooperation, forming and developing a system of collective security
within the framework of the CSTO for 2006-2010, draft documents
regarding normative and organizational aspects of creating a
peacekeeping procedure within the framework of the CSTO.

Separate meetings of deputy foreign and defence ministers and the
secretaries of the member-countries’ security councils will look into
a number of other issues.

The CSTO secretary-general, Nikolay Bordyuzha, will take part in
the consultations.

The CSTO was set up in May 2002 and comprises Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

Sotheby’s London Sale of Russian Art May Fetch $14.7 Million

May 19 (Bloomberg) — The durability and vitality of the market for
Russian art will face a test today when Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. hosts
its spring London sale, which the auction house expects to raise as
much as 8 million pounds ($14.7 million).

The outcome may signal the direction of the fledgling Russian art
market, a month after its New York office posted the biggest- ever
sale of Russian paintings and works of art, totaling $35.2 million.
Dealers and collectors, none of whom wanted to speak on the record
before the sale, are divided over whether the market has peaked or
will continue to climb.

The highlight of the Sotheby’s sale will probably be a group of five
paintings by the early 20th-century painter, Pyotr Konchalovsky
(1876-1956), consigned by the artist’s grandson, the Russian-born
Hollywood filmmaker, Andrei Konchalovsky.

Led by a 1912 painting called, “Still Life With Beer and Fish,” the
five works together may fetch between 880,000 and 1.24 million pounds,
according to the auction house’s estimates.

Other items on sale include paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky (1817- 1900),
Boris Grigoriev (1886-1939), Konstantin Makovsky(1839-1915) and Vasili
Vereshchagin (1842-1904). There are also several works by contemporary
artists such as Grisha Bruskin, Ilya Kabakov and Mikhail Chemiakin.

“The bulk of the material in the sale is characterized by its freshness
to the market, its provenance, fine condition and, of course, quality,”
said Joanna Vickery, head of Sotheby’s Russian department.

Faberge Sale

New York-based Sotheby’s created its Russian department in 1985, and
in 2004 it sold just over 20 million pounds worth of Russian art in
London alone. Sotheby’s also brokered the February 2004 sale of the
Forbes Faberge Collection to Russian oil magnate Viktor Vekselberg
for an undisclosed sum. Pre-auction estimates for the egg, which
had been set for auction, ranged from $80 million to $120 million,
the Forbes magazine Web site said.

The Russian art market has grown rapidly since 2000 when the price
of oil, and other commodities on which the Russian economy is based,
also began its rise to record levels. As long as those prices stay
high, some say art prices will remain vibrant.

“I think the market is strong, that it will remain high, and can
be developed further,” said Lord Mark Poltimore, chairman of 19th-
and 20th-century pictures at Sotheby’s.

Seascapes

Besides Konchalovsky, Sotheby’s is betting on a strong showing from
five paintings by the Russian-Armenian seascape painter, Aivazovsky.
His “Shipwreck” is expected to fetch as much as 750,000 pounds.
“Aivazovsky is very popular and doesn’t go out of fashion,” Vickery
said.

Also on sale is a work by one of Russia’s most prominent painters,
Vasili Polenov (1844-1927). His “Samaritan Women” is estimated at
400,000 to 600,000 pounds. The high price is probably less due to
quality than to the rarity of Polenov’s works, since most are in
museum collections in Russia.

Boris Grigoriev has come out of nowhere to emerge as one of the top
selling Russian artists. His “Breton Woman” is expected to go for
between 175,000 and 200,000 pounds, while his “Portrait of the Singer
Anna Sergeevna Sergeeva” has an estimate of 120,000 to 150,000 pounds,
though the paint on the latter work has cracked and fissured.

The works-of-art section has only a few strong pieces, most prominent
of which is an Imperial porcelain vase made by the Imperial Porcelain
Factory during the reign of Nicholas I (1796- 1855), a period when
their manufacture peaked in quality. That piece is expected to sell
for between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds.

An Imperial hardstone snuffbox from about 1890 by St. Petersburg
craftsman Carl Blank is expected to fetch 70,000 to 90,000 pounds.
The snuffbox was a gift from Czar Nicholas II (1868- 1918) to French
Foreign Minister Theophile Delcasse.

Russia to Redeploy Hardware from Georgia to Russia, Armenia

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2005-05-19 14:32:29

The Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Gen. Yuri Baluevsky,
said on May 19 that Russia’s military hardware and equipment currently
stationed in Georgia’s two bases will be redeployed in Russia and
Armenia, Interfax news agency reported.

He said that decision to deploy part of the military hardware in
Armenia will make it possible to finish the process of withdrawal from
Georgia in four years. In previous years, Russia claimed that it would
need at least nine, or eleven years to close down bases in Georgia.

PM plans counter attack on genocide claims

Thursday, May 19, 2005

DIPLOMACY

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday Turkey planned to
launch a counter-attack on countries whose parliaments recognized
as genocide the 1915 killings of Armenians under the rule of the
Ottoman Empire.

Speaking at the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)
parliamentary group meeting, Erdogan said the parliaments of 15
countries had adopted resolutions recognizing the so-called Armenian
genocide. He said that among them were countries that had committed
genocide that had been proven by historical documents and archives.

The prime minister did not name those countries but said his
government would pass similar resolutions through the Turkish
Parliament recognizing the genocides committed by them in retaliation
for their recognition of the Armenian genocide claims.

Erdogan said Turkish and Armenian politicians could make a political
decision on the genocide allegations once Armenia opened up its
archives and historians and scientists conducted necessary studies on
the matter, he said. Turkey strongly denies the genocide accusations
and says both sides suffered from losses during a civil war during
World War I.

Armenia faces “political crisis” – Azeri analyst

Lider TV, Baku
16 May 05

Armenia is currently facing an economic and political crisis which is
a result of the Azerbaijani authorities’ foreign policy, a political
analyst has told Azerbaijani private Lider TV.

Speaking in the “After the Voice” programme, Mubariz Ahmadoglu, the
chairman of the pro-government Centre for Political Innovation and
Technology, said that Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is doing
his utmost to prevent students from protesting against his government.

Ahmadoglu also said he does not believe that Turkey will open its
border with Armenia until there is significant progress toward
resolution of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

No further processing planned.

LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUPPORTS CANDIDACY OF HAKOB GASRACHIAN IN ELECTIONS IN LEBANON

AZG Armenian Daily #088, 17/05/2005

Diaspora

On May 25, the Parliamentary Elections will take place in Lebanon. The
Lebanese Armenians will also participate in the elections. The press
release of the Central Office of the Liberal-Democratic Party informed
that the party represented the candidacy of Hakob Gasrachian, who
joined the faction of Rafik Hariri during the previous elections was
elected a member of Lebanese Parliament. The press release positively
evaluated the activities of Gasarchian that lasted for 40 years.