Author: Vardanian Garo

Armenian jet crashes near Sochi

BBC NEWS:
europe/4967464.stm

2006/05/03 01:09:04 GMT

A passenger airplane flying from Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, to the
city of Sochi in southern Russia has crashed over the Black Sea,
officials say.

The Airbus 320 plane from Armenian Airlines was carrying about 100
people, when it disappeared from radar screens about 0215 (2215GMT
Tuesday).

Debris has been seen in the sea, about 6km (four miles) from the coast,
says Russia’s Emergencies Ministry.

Bad weather conditions are making the search for survivors difficult.

Life jackets have been found in the accident area, although no people
have been found, said deputy head of Russia’s Emergency Situations
Ministry, Viktor Beltsov.

Among those on board were eight crew and five children, he said.

Sochi is a popular Russian seaside resort, near the border with
Georgia.

EMBASSY OF NETHERLANDS AND OSIAF – ARMENIA TO IMPLEMENT HUMAN RIGHTS
STRENGTHENING PROGRAM

YEREVAN, APRIL 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The Dutch Ambassador to Armenia Onno
Elderenbosch (residence – Tbilisi) and Executive Director of the Open
Society Institute Assistance Foundation – Armenia (OSIAF – Armenia)
Larisa Minasian on April 27 countersigned the Grant Agreement on Human
Rights Strengthening through Capacity Building of Selected NGOs in
Armenia. According to the agreement, the embassy of the Netherlands
will contribute 513.8 thousand USD to the project over 3.5 years,
while OSIAF Armenia’s contribution to this project will make 373.05
thousand USD. The grant program will be launched on May 1. During the
press conference following the signing ceremony, O. Elderenbosch and
L. Minasian said the NGOs to be allocated grants must assist human
rights strengthening in closed institutions, promote human security
with the emphasis on economic rights for vulnerable groups, freedom of
speech and independent media, and access to justice and independent
judiciary. The selected NGOs will benefit from 3-year core funding
(average of $25,000-$35,000 per year per NGO). NGO experts will have
the opportunity to undergo training at OSIAF – Armenia.

From: [email protected]
Subject: Water Will Not Get Expensive But Over The Next Month Only

WATER WILL NOT GET EXPENSIVE BUT OVER THE NEXT MONTH ONLY

Lragir.am
28 April 06

The Public Utilities Commission, headed by the former mayor of Yerevan
Robert Nazaryan, was supposed to discuss the bid of Yerevan Water
Company on April 28. In other words, Robert Nazaryan and his
colleagues were supposed to discuss the new tariff of water. The
commission had even prepared the draft decision, and browsed on its
official website.

In the beginning of the meeting of the commission the head of the
State Water Committee under the government of Armenia Andranik
Andreasyan, apologizing to the participants, asked the commission to
postpone the meeting for a month. The official excuse is the procedure
of the management agreement, signed with the French company Generale
Des Eaux, which will take up the management of Yerevan Water Sewage
Company. Andranik Andreasyan says there are problems with transfers of
property, which requires additional time. In other words, the
agreement will take effect later than May 1, as it had been foreseen
in the agreement, as soon as the problems of transfers of property are
settled. Therefore the parties of the agreement asked the committee to
put off the meeting for a month. Robert Nazaryan asked Serge Popov,
the manager of Yerevan Water, to confirm that they accept the proposal
of the Water Committee. Popov confirmed saying that the proposal was
based on a mutual agreement. The meeting of the committee was
postponed.

`There is a huge problem of transfers of property, about 30 pieces of
property is being transferred, there are drawbacks regarding certain
elements, which need further elaboration. They have certain questions,
more elucidation and within these several days or a week these
questions will get answers. After all, a huge system is transferred,’
says Andranik Andreasyan.

The manager of Yerevan Water Serge Popov says the problems are typical
of big deals. Popov says Generale des Eaux has signed similar
contracts in the countries of East Europe where the period of transfer
of property was 6 months but an additional three months were
required. In Armenia the period mentioned in the contract was only 3
months. The problems are not unexpected, and the proposal of the
parties of contract is justified. Serge Popov says for a ten-year
contract 15 days is not a long time. Hence, Yerevan Water Company has
not started yet, which means that Yerevan Water Sewage Company still
operates, and the tariff remains the same.

Currently 1 cu. m of drinking water is 120 drams. The French suggest
increasing it to 172.8 drams. This price is written down in the
management contract as a source of investments. The Public Utilities
Commission has accepted the bid of Yerevan Water but partly, as it
usually does. However, this is not exactly the same as the previous
cases, for with regard to water the price is mentioned in the
contract. If the commission rejected the bid of the French company, it
would be considered a breach of the management contract.

AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT ALIYEV BEGINS CRUCIAL US VISIT

Journal of Turkish Weekly
April 26 2006

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev set off to the United States
yesterday for a critical official visit taking place at a time when
the Iranian crisis has deepened. Aliyev will meet US President George
W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
and Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman.

The issues in the nuclear crisis with Azerbaijan’s neighbor, Iran,
and the Upper Karabag (Karabagh) under the Armenian occupation,
are expected to mark Aliyev’s three-day visit. About 20 percent of
Azerbaijani territories have been under Armenian occupation and more
than 1 million Azeris have been refugees since the war.

Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser, Novruz Mammadov, told Turkish
newspaper Zaman that four main subjects such as dual relations,
energy, regional security and international terrorism will be handled,
but the Iran and Karabagh issues will be the main focus of the
Aliyev-Bush talks.

Mammadov announced Baku wants the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program
to be overcome by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the
United Nations.

“There are enough problems in the region already. As the nation of
Azerbaijan, we have never had and we will never have any intention
of interfering in Iran’s domestic affairs. We are ready to offer the
necessary support for this issue to be solved by peaceful means.”

The Azeri official also criticized Tehran for following a policy
favoring Yerevan over the Karabagh issue despite Baku’s policy of
mutual respect and good neighborly relations. The European Union and
the OSCE have named Armenia ‘occupier’ in the region. Iran claims its
regime is Islamist yet supports ‘Christian Armenia’ instead of ‘Muslim’
Azerbaijan. Dr. Nilgun Gulcan says that Iran does not follow an
Islamic foreign policy and the matter is not religion in the region”.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Davut Sahiner, from the USAK, also told the JTW
that there are two blocks in the region: “One is the Western Block
including Turkey, georgia, Azerbaijan and Israel with the US and
the EU. The second block includes Armenia, Iran and Russia. Armenia
has good relations with all the anti-American countries. However teh
Armenian diaspora tries to show the facts as the reverse” he added.

Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser, Novruz Mammadov, criticizing the
US on the Armenian issue, highlighted that Washington remains silent
regarding Armenia that continues to occupy one fifth of Azerbaijan’s
territory.

“The United States may instantly take action for disagreements in
other countries. We think it should show the same sensitivity for
Azerbaijan, too,” the Azeri official added.

Mammadov said the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe) Minsk Group co-chairs have not been able to make any concrete
progress in the Karabagh case for years. “We believe the problem will
be solved if the US shows necessary sensitivity.”

Strategist Rasim Musabaev said Aliyev’s visit, taken at a time when
the Tehran-Washington conflict is at its peak, is no coincidence.

One of the most important ways for Baku to emerge from the Iranian
crisis with least damage is to follow a policy parallel to Turkey,
Musabaev added.

The Azeri official maintained Turkey and Azerbaijan are facing
US pressure over the Iranian issue. “It is difficult for these two
countries to say ‘yes’ to the United States because Iran is neighbors
both countries; therefore, we should focus on ways of solving the
problem peacefully.”

The Azeris also indicate the importance of the visit Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay to Baku on May 5.

Turkey’s Ambassador to Baku Turan Morali said Turkey and Azerbaijan
carefully follow Iran’s nuclear crisis and said the two brother
countries want the problem to be solved through peaceful means.

Dr. Sedat Laciner, head of the USAK, says that the foremost problem
is the Armenian occupation in the region:

“Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan cannot form a strong block against
instablity in the region due to the Armenian occupation in Karabakh.

Armenia should also join these countries’ efforts to integrate with
the Western world instead of relying on Russia. As a matter of fact
that Armenia’s stability and welfare in co-operation with the Turkic
states and Georgia. However the ultra-nationalist and pro-Russian
groups prevent Yerevan Government to take concrete steps to solve the
problems with the neigbours. As a first step Armenia should recognise
Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s national borders, and the US should encourage
Armenia to do so. Otherwise Armenian aggressive foreign policy will
continue to undermine the Western policies in the region.”

ARMENIAN POLICEMEN ARE REPLACED BY GEORGIANS

Lragir.am
26 April 06

AKHALKALAKI, 26 APRIL, A-Info. As a result of reorganization in the
system of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs policemen with
Armenian origin are gradually dismissed and replaced by Georgians.

Quite recently three captains and one lieutenant, Armenians by origin,
were not admitted to work, and the reason was that they had got higher
education in Armenia (at least the chief of the police of the region
of Akhalkalaki gave such an oral explanation).

It should be noted, however, that the two captains were sent to study
at the Police Academy of Internal Affairs of Armenia by the Police
of Akhalkalaki (which is in the system of internal affairs of Georgia).

BAKU TO REVIEW NEW GARABAGH PROPOSALS

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 25 2006

Baku, April 24, AssA-Irada
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement to the
Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict have made new
proposals concerning two issues that were not agreed during the latest
round of talks between the two countries’ presidents in Rambouillet,
France in February, officials said.

The suggestions serve to moving forward the negotiating process,
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said. He said it is too early to
say whether or not Baku will accept the proposals, but termed them as
“interesting”.

“We are evaluating the ideas and will state our own suggestions in
this regard,” the minister told ATV channel.

Mammadyarov stressed that these issues will also be discussed during
President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to the United States, which starts
on Tuesday.

He reminded that the OSCE mediators are due to meet in Moscow on May 2,
followed by their visits to the region.

Christian Science Monitor
April 26, 2006

iq.html < .html>

Kurds quietly angle for independence

Oil revenue could give Iraq’s Kurds greater economic distance from
Baghdad, experts say.

By James Brandon | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

ARBIL, IRAQ – As Iraq’s government takes shape after months of
political deadlock, the country’s leading Kurdish politicians have
promised to work toward a cohesive and peaceful Iraq.

“If [Prime Minister Jawad] al-Maliki quickly establishes a powerful
government that includes all groups, he will be an asset for the Iraqi
people,” said Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish president of Iraq, after
Iraq’s Parliament approved his second term and named Shiite politician
Mr. Maliki to replace the embattled Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The Kurdish desire for independence, however, still runs deep. And
with parts of Iraq increasingly unstable and growing more Islamic,
experts say the Kurds, who are relatively secular, are working quietly
to consolidate and extend the autonomy they have enjoyed since 1991.

The Kurdish Regional Government, which has run the Kurd’s autonomous
zone in northern Iraq since the early 1990s, recently has signed
contracts with foreign oil companies to explore for new oil fields in
Kurdish-ruled areas of Iraq. Experts say they hope the revenue
generated from these deals could provide greater economic, and thus
political, independence from Baghdad.

“The Kurds are offering attractive terms to companies that are willing
to take a gamble on the legal situation,” says Rafiq Latta, a Middle
East editor of the Argus Oil and Gas report in London. “And some small
oil companies are prepared to take the bait.”

The Norwegian oil firm DNO has been quickest off the mark, followed by
Canadian firm Western Oil Sands. DNO began exploration in northern
Iraq in 2004. But two weeks ago it announced that it would be able to
begin pumping oil from one newly discovered field near the city of
Zakho in early 2007.

At present Kurdistan’s annual budget comes from its share of Iraq’s
overall oil revenues, which are distributed according to
population. As a result, the Kurds receive 17 percent of Iraq’s
overall $30 billion annual oil revenues.

Iraq’s oil exports, however, are mainly from the Shiite-dominated
south – meaning that Iraq’s Shiite rulers, theoretically at least,
could shut down Kurdish northern Iraq’s economy at will.

Kurdish oil aspirations are also challenged by poor security and the
Constitution, which states that, unlike oil exploration, contracts to
repair existing oil fields must be negotiated by the Oil Ministry in
Baghdad.

Last week, Shamkhi Faraj, head of marketing and economics at the
Ministry of Oil in Baghdad, estimated that Iraq’s oil industry needed
$25 billion to repair war damage and replace old equipment and
infrastructure.

So far the Shiite-controlled Ministry of Oil has been largely
unsuccessful in signing contracts to repair the oil fields. Experts
say that foreign companies are worried by possible insurgent attacks,
but also by the political uncertainty of Baghdad.

Consequently, the Kurds have been unable to fully repair the oil
fields around Kirkuk, largely under Kurdish control since 2003. This
is a source of frustration for the Kurds, as the fields contain around
15 percent of Iraq’s oil wealth.

But even if the Kurds could fund the reconstruction of oil facilities
in Kirkuk themselves – as some are now suggesting – this would mark
only a start. The Kurds would also have to build new pipelines to
export their oil.

“Under Saddam the oil fields were very badly damaged,” says
Mr. Latta. “Water was pumped into them as cheap way to increase
output, and a huge amount of foreign investment is going to be needed.

“And even then it’s not just a simple matter of having oil reserves
and turning on the taps,” he says. “Managing that investment will
require a lot of expertise, which the Kurds simply don’t have.”

The Kurds have, however, at least consolidated their physical control
over Kirkuk’s oil. Before the US invasion in 2003, Kirkuk was a mainly
Arab city. Today Kurds are the majority, having driven out many of the
Shiite Arabs brought in by Saddam Hussein to “Arabize” the city.

“Those who were brought to Kirkuk by Saddam should leave and then
there should be a referendum,” says Azad Jundiani, head of the media
office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – one of the two main
Kurdish political parties.

But a recent move by influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr indicates that
Shiites are trying to counter Kurdish control of Kirkuk. The
Washington Post reported Tuesday that “hundreds of Shiite Muslim
militiamen have deployed in recent weeks” there. The newspaper said as
many as 240 fighters loyal to Mr. Sadr have arrived to the city.

Almost as important to long-term Kurdish ambitions is Tal Afar, an
Iraqi city that’s ethnically Turkish but Shiite by religion. It lies
between Mosul and the Kurdish enclave of Sinjar near the Syrian
border.

“Tal Afar is the Kurds’ access route to Sinjar, and through Sinjar
they have access to Syrian Kurdistan,” explains Joost Hiltermann, a
Middle East analyst at the Brussels-based International Crisis
Group. In other words, if the Kurds can also take and hold Tal Afar,
then their dream of a greater Kurdistan remains alive.

“They claim Tal Afar to be a Kurdish area and a place where many
Kurdish live but, in fact, it’s an important milestone on the road to
the creation of Greater Kurdistan,” says Dr. Hiltermann.

In the past few weeks fighting there has revived awareness of Kurdish
vulnerability, especially as reports circulate that Iranian and
Turkish troops are concentrating along the borders of Iraq’s Kurdish
north.

Many Iraqi Kurds are increasingly aware of the obstacles to greater
independence. Both Kurdish political leaders and ordinary citizens are
resigning themselves to remaining part of Iraq for the foreseeable
future.

“The Kurds desire to rule themselves,” says Farhad Auny, head of the
Journalists’ Syndicate in Arbil. “But at the same time it is not to
the benefit of the Middle East, the international community or the
Kurds themselves to ask for independence now.”

And to this end the Kurds are starting to think the unthinkable and
begin a process of forgiving their Arab compatriots.

“Since the establishment of Iraq 80 years ago the Kurds have been
exploited and tortured by all Iraqi governments,” says Mr. Auny. “We
are not going to talk about what we have suffered from the Arabs but
it has taught us that we must build a modern and developed country.

“The Kurdish people are flexible and forgiving but they never forget,”
he says. “To hate is to be weak. You cannot grow good crops in a soil
of hatred.”

| Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science
Monitor. All rights reserved.

Azerbaijan Does Not Expect New Proposals on Karabakh from US

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.04.2006 21:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It is hard to expect new proposals during the
Washington walks over settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,
Azeri FM Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists in Moscow, when commenting
on coming official visit of the Azeri President to the US.

“Positions of Azerbaijan that have been unchanged for 15 years, remain
the same. We have always come for settling the issue in compliance
with norms and principles of the international law, UN Security
Council and OSCE resolutions. Undoubtedly if we want to put an end
to the conflict really, so as it does not break out periodically, the
solution should be based on lawfulness exclusively,” the Minister said.

Mammadyarov also reported that during the coming visit of I. Aliyev to
the US and the meeting with US President George Bush a wide range of
issues of bilateral cooperation, as well as international and regional
matters will be discussed. In the Minister’s words, conflict settlement
in the Caucasus will be one of the key topics at the talks. Matters
of energy security, fight against terror, specifically Azerbaijan’s
participation in the anti-terror coalition will also be considered.

The Genocide in Who?
By Tamar Salibian

Critics’ Forum
Film and Music
April 23, 2006

In “The Genocide in Me” (2005), Araz Artinian tells her story of being
a Canadian-Armenian dealing with her father’s national obsession
and struggling with her own identity, while also recounting the
atrocities of the Armenian Genocide and its repercussions. Part
historical document, part travelogue and part family portrait, the
film presents the Armenian Genocide not only as a horrific tragedy
but as an eternal burden that the filmmaker carries in her personal
life. Artinian begins the film with an important and very difficult
question: how can she learn to understand her father’s national
obsession when her own perspective is so different from his? The film
takes important steps to try to answer this and other questions.

The film begins with Artinian visiting a memorial site while, in
a voiceover, she presents her main argument. Artinian states that,
for her, being Armenian was always “much more than being myself,”
and that now, because of the Armenian Genocide, everything to do with
her life, her happiness and her future, “goes back to 1915.” Family
footage shows the filmmaker as a young child playing on the beach,
and with a close-up still frame resembling one from Francois Truffaut’s
“400 Blows,” the film begins its journey.

Artinian’s parents were immigrants from Egypt who settled in Canada.

Araz’s father, Vrej Armen (which stands for “the revenge of the
Armenians”) is an activist in Montreal who was one of the founding
members of the local Sourp Hagop School. Artinian explains how her
grandmother’s intense patriotism and pressure on her father led him
to his activism and his political cause. Vrej Armen’s cause is that
of Genocide recognition, and he has influenced many lives with his
community work. His influence on his own daughter, however, is more
complex. “I’ve been carrying the weight of Turkey’s denial in my
schoolbag since my childhood,” Araz recounts as she worries about
visiting her parents. “`Asdvadz hedus,’ which means `may God be with
me'” she tells the camera before entering her parents’ home to have
dinner and talk.

The film presents a splendidly interwoven mix of archival and recent
footage showing Artinian as a child, a young woman and an adult. In
the dinner scene, the editing masterfully combines old footage of the
family at their dining room table with newer footage of Artinian asking
her parents questions. The young Araz is a playful girl who sings and
dances while the older, present-day Araz searches for answers from
her family. The old footage shows the family affirming their Armenian
language and customs so that Araz and her sister will learn them as
well. The filmmaker presents these affirmations as pressure passed
on from generation to generation resulting in resentment towards her
culture. “I always had a love-hate relationship with my language,”
Araz notes; yet she strives to understand the layers of her culture.

Artinian wishes to understand her father’s national obsession, his
connection to the past, and the repercussions that the Genocide had on
the Armenian people. She wonders, “How can I connect with something I
had never seen before?” and soon embarks on a trip to Turkey to visit
historic Armenian sites. On the trip, she encounters a Turkish tour
guide who denies the major events of the Genocide.

She meets an American traveler who questions such denials. And she
spends time with a young Turkish man of Armenian descent who recounts
his grandmother’s stories of being rescued from the Genocide by a
Turkish man who later became her husband. This trip proves to be
fruitful to the viewer, as we are able to notice what has happened
in Turkey over decades after the Genocide. Yet the viewer also feels
that Artinian often skims the surface of her personal questions
of identity. She asks, “Where do I belong? Do I belong in Armenia,
in Canada or in Turkey?” but does not answer the question.

While Artinian states, “I set aside my personal life” to understand
her father’s national obsession, the study of this obsession becomes
sideswiped during the film by Artinian’s own personal obsession with
intermarriage, a question which is never fully explored. The loose
connection between the study of Armenian history and the question of
love and intermarriage becomes no more than melodrama, as the film
is unable to suggest, ultimately, how one affects the other.

Artinian argues at her parents’ dinner table that intermarriage does
not always have a negative effect on the continuation of Armenian
culture, and her mother responds, “That’s not the problem right now.

The problem is that we have a huge cause ahead of us, and that is
the recognition of the Genocide.” Araz refuses to hear or understand
her mother’s important statement and quickly reminds her family that
the intermarriage question is the important one for her. Herein,
unfortunately, lies the film’s biggest problem. Artinian attempts
to present a complex study of her father, of Armenian history and
of the effects of genocide. Yet in the final moments of the film,
she returns to her question of intermarriage, telling the viewer,
“In spite of the Genocide, I want to be Armenian and free.” It is an
unfortunate ending for a film that asks so many important questions,
ones that perhaps cannot be answered in one film.

All Rights Reserved: Critics Forum, 2006

Tamar Salibian is a filmmaker and writer living in Los Angeles. She
has written for AIM magazine. Her latest film, “Beautiful Armenians,”
recently screened at the Armenian Film Festival in San Francisco.

Armenpress

50 ARMENIAN STUDENTS JOIN BONE MARROW DONOR REGISTRY

YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS: Some 50 young
Armenians, all members of Nikol Aghbalian student
union, closely affiliated with the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF), have joined today the
Armenian Bone Marrow Registry (ABMDR), established to
respond to those families in crisis, whose members are
suffering from life-threatening blood diseases and who
need a bone marrow transplant from another Armenian.
The action was dedicated to the 91-st anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide and is being held under the
motto ‘Our blood is life for others.” Because of
unique genetic make up of Armenians, it is nearly
impossible to find suitable matches among the existing
international registries and hence a great number of
Armenian children and adults have lost their lives due
to the lack of compatible donors. To address this
imbalance, a volunteer donor registry for bone marrow
transplant has been established in Armenia to help to
overcome this difficulty.
The Armenian Bone Marrow Registry has now 11,000
registered donors. It is a member of the World Marrow
Donor Association, sharing its database information
with other registries around the world and cooperates
with several international medical centers, including
the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust in England, St
Jude Hospital in Memphis and Glendale Memorial
Hospital in Los Angeles.