Author: Varosian Antranik

KENYA: THE ARTURS ARMENIAN AFFAIR REDUX

African Path, MN
EntryID=1699
July 24 2007

For much of the first half of 2006, a colourful pair of Armenian
brothers, Artur Magaryan and Artur Sargasyan (variously described as
possibly also being Russian or Czech nationals) amazed and shocked
Kenyans with their macho antics and apparent connections to the
highest office in the land.

They entered the national consciousness because of a weird dawn
press conference at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport called by a
Nairobi lawyer, Fred Ngatia. Ostensibly on his client’s arrival from
Dubai, Ngatia told the press that the two Armenians would respond to
allegations; such as those of opposition Members of Parliament, Raila
Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, claiming the Armenians were assassins
contracted to do harm to opposition politicians.

If its intention was to convince the press, and Kenyans, that the
Armenians were credible international businessmen, unfairly maligned
for political purposes by the opposition, then Ngatia’s March 13,
2006 press conference was remarkably devoid of any prospect of success.

For example, as it turns out, the passenger manifest (faxed by
Ngatia to the press) for the Armenians’ supposed carrier Kenya
Airways 311 from Dubai on March 13, was a crude forgery. The East
African Standard quotes an airline official as saying: "Neither the
name nor the passport number of the said man appears in our manifest
for flight number KQ311 from Dubai." As if that were not bad enough,
questions were immediately raised by the alert press as to the use of
the official Government of Kenya VIP Visitors Lounge, by Mr. Ngatia
for his clients, which had obviously been gained with the irregular
cooperation of top security, State House and airport officials. The
penny dropped when neither the Armenians nor their lawyer were able
to show the press flight boarding passes as evidence of their trip.

Opinion crystallised once Ngatia made the bizarre claim that he was
under instructions from the Government of Armenia to call the press
out to the Airport in the middle of the night to meet his clients.

The press duly reported the incredulous denial of the Government
of Armenia.

Thereafter, Artur Magaryan and his brother Artur Sargasyan, threw
lavish parties, drew guns, flashed cash and dropped the names of the
crème de la crème, amidst claims that they were mercenaries, hit-men,
drug dealers and arms traffickers. Most shocking, Artur Magaryan was
rumoured to be enamoured of the President’s reputed daughter Winnie
Wangui Mwai; herself a controversial figure and the subject of no less
than 3 official government public communications since January 2004
stating that she is not the President’s relative. On the first occasion
in January 2004, an unsigned press release from State House pointedly
delimited the President’s family; a second addressed the press on
the membership of the presidential family; while a third recounted
Ms. Mwai’s names as they appear in her national identity card.

The brothers’ public antics infuriated a hostile Kenyan public, but
always bubbled over until June 2006 when they finally broke the bounds
of tolerance. A public outcry ensued following an incident at the
customs hall of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi,
during which the Artur brothers, in the company of a visiting group
of burly Armenians, assaulted Customs officers using guns in full
view of the Police, petrified travellers, and at least one cabinet
minister waiting in queue to enter Kenya. By the next evening, Kenyan
television ran a live broadcast of their deportation, on first class
government tickets to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

A couple of days later on June 16, President Kibaki instituted a
formal inquiry into their activities headed by a former Commissioner
of Police, Shadrack Kiruki and suspended several public officers from
duty for their various roles in the airport fracas. They were:

Joseph Kamau, the Director of the Kenya Police Criminal Investigation
Department – alleged to have illegally provided the Armenian group with
police rank status as Assistant Commissioners of Police Naomi Sidi, the
Deputy Managing Director of the Kenya Airports Authority – alleged to
have illegally provided the Armenians with Airport ‘Access-All-Areas’
identification documents Winnie Wangui Mwai, an Assistant Secretary
in the Ministry of Water, who allegedly exploited her State House
connections to interfere with the arrest and subsequent deportation
of the Armenians Edward Kiptoo Mutai, Security Warden at the Kenya
Airports Authority Paul Latoya, a protocol officer with the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs Stephen Kipruto Tumbo, Senior Superintendent of
Police, OCPD Nairobi Division Chief Inspector Josephat Gikonyo- OCS
JKIA Police Station Inspector Daniel Maithya – CIVCRIME JKIA Police
Station Sgt. Evelyn Owon – JKIA Police Station Cpl. James Kimihu-
JKIA Police Station James Gitonga, Immigration officer I

After weeks of public hearings, it was clear there had been an
appalling system failure at the Companies Registry, Immigration
Department and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. For example,
Kenyans heard testimony from witnesses who calmly stated that there
were no recordings of the incident at the airport because the closed
circuit television security cameras in the customs and baggage
international arrivals hall did not work.

President Kibaki received the Inquiry Report in late August 2006. It
has never been made public, as promised. Nevertheless, various media
have described its contents and findings:

It uncovers a pattern of fraud and corruption in the customs,
immigration and police services, and also within the Kenyan political
elite.

It restates the findings of an Interpol investigation which concludes
that it is impossible to verify the true identities of inter alia Artur
Sargasyan and Artur Magaryan, because they are in possession of travel
documents reported stolen in Russia and Europe; further their company
(Brother Link International Company Limited) registration documents
in Kenya appear to be forgeries or at best obtained in contravention
of the law Its most explosive recommendation is for the prosecution
for tax evasion and corporate fraud of Winnie Wangui Mwai. It also
recommends her immediate dismissal from her civil service job in the
Ministry of Water.

It accuses the Armenians of drug smuggling and money laundering and
calls for their immediate arrest should they return to Kenya.

Specifically, it states that it believes that Sargasyan "was involved
in organized crime and drug smuggling and … was seeking an outlet
for his illegal business in Kenya.". [1] The Kiruki Commission does
not attribute political responsibility for the Kibaki government’s
apparent tolerance of the activities of the Armenian brothers. Nor
does it report a finding on whether or not it was proper for the
Minister for Internal Security to direct the Armenians’ deportation
instead of prosecuting them for criminal offences.

It also fails to connect the Armenians with a series of cocaine
shipments, worth close to 7 billion shillings, routed through Mombasa
and other Kenyan ports.

In the fallout from the Armenian affair, the Director of the Kenya
Police Criminal Investigation Department was suspended and subsequently
retired. Also leaving the public service were the Deputy Managing
Director of the Kenya Airports Authority, while it was announced
that Winnie Wangui Mwai was relieved of her position at the Ministry
of Water.

The Armenians now reside in Dubai, U.A.E. apparently evading
international arrest warrants and the combined clutches of Interpol
and the Kenya Police. Artur Magaryan claims to be writing his memoirs
of his time in Kenya, which he claims will reveal bribe-taking and
bribe-giving within the high echelons of Kenya’s political elite. No
one has been prosecuted for any of the criminal acts identified by
the Kiruki Commission. [2]

Regardless, of official statements to the contrary, Winnie Wangui
Mwai has told the media that she remains in the public service. At
a personal level she also confirms her intended marriage to Artur
Magaryan, the more colourful of the two Armenian brothers.

Considering her purported ilk, any such marriage to Artur Magaryan
will be a politically significant event.

[1] See "Brothers in Armenia, Africa Confidential Volume 47 No. 21

[2] At the time of writing a joint parliamentary committee chaired
by Paul Muite and Ramadhan Kajembe was yet to table its report.

–Boundary_(ID_GvA6HS9B/ODDS2hmJ5bouA)–

ARTASHES BAKHSHIAN APPOINTED HEAD OF RA PRESIDENT’S SUPERVISORY SERVICE

Noyan Tapan
Jul 23, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Robert Kocharian, the President of the
Republic of Armenia, signed a decree on July 21, according to which
Artashes Bakhshian has been appointed Head of the RA President’s
Supervisory Service.

By another presidential decree of the same day Samvel Vasilian has
been appointed Deputy of the Chairman of the Council of Civil Service
till January 15, 2013.

According to the information provided to Noyan Tapan by the RA
President’s Press Office, Robert Kocharian signed a decree on July 21,
according to which the competences of Armine Kharatian, a member of
the Central Electoral Commission, were terminated ahead of time. By
another decree of the President, Armine Kharatian has been appointed
member of the Council of Civil Service till January 15, 2009.

THERE IS A REAL DEMOCRACY IN ARTSAKH
Karen Mirzoian

Azat Artsakh Tert – Nagorno Karabakh Republic
July 23 2007

>From the morning of July 20th, in the Press centre of NKR CEC observant
groups arrived from various countries and the representatives of
Mass-media have continued actively their works. At 12:30 o’clock,
the press-conference of observant mission of RA NA was begun. The
representatives of the mission presented at the great part of
the pollling districts of region and followed the process of the
elections. According to the Vice-speaker of RA NA I. Zakarian, they
have stated that the elections have been organized rather well and
have been passed consonantly with international demands. In his speech,
Armen Rustamian noted that these elections in comparison with previous
ones have two important differences.1. These are the first elections
after adopting the Constitution, and 2. Artsakh people elect their
third president, and it’s very important that the acting president
after finishing his term , delivers constitutively the authority to
the next elected president. The organization of elections in such level
simply shows the world once again, that NKR is a taken place republic,
and I’m sure that the world community will recognize NKR. At the end
the head of the delegation represented the announcement of observant
mission arrived from RA, after which they answered the questions.

PRO-DEMOCRACY TURKS TAKE ON OLD HIERARCHY: THE YOUNG CIVILIANS’ MAIN WEAPON? WIT
by Sabrina Tavernise – The New York Times Media Group

The International Herald Tribune, France
July 23, 2007 Monday

In the growing pains of Turkish democracy, the Young Civilians are
part nurse and part comedian.

The group is one of several starting to openly question the hierarchy
in Turkey, which, as the Young Civilians see it, goes something like
this: The secular state elite and the military, which have steered
the state since its beginning, are on the top. Elected officials
deposed every decade or so by military coups are on the bottom.

The Young Civilians want that to change. Wit is their principal weapon.

When Turkey’s political class was in a battle this spring over who
should become president, the Young Civilians came up with their own
"candidate" – a pastiche of every quality the secular old guard
detests most.

Named Aliye Ozturk, she was supposed to be a Kurdish, Armenian,
Alawite woman who wears a head scarf and takes a keen interest in
classical Turkish stringed instruments. (Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
the founder of the modern Turkish republic, preferred Western music.)

"I will be a modern, civilized president who communicates with all
segments of the society," Aliye Ozturk says in the nomination statement
the Young Civilians posted on the Internet at "I
will not think that I am a feudal lord just because I live at the
palace-like residence."

The Young Civilians began as a group of students and held one of
its earliest protests in 2003, when it took aim at the annual May
19 Youth and Sports Day, which features schoolchildren marching in
sports stadiums around the country. The ceremonies are far too stiff,
too Soviet and, frankly, too dull, they say, and they held a small
press conference proposing to "rescue the festival from the stadiums."

"It’s a kind of Stalin festival, a dogmatic thing," said Ilhan Dogus,
a rail-thin finance major at Bilgi University whose sense of humor
is behind some recent protests.

It was the small protest in 2003 that brought the Young Civilians their
name and their notoriety. An article in Cumhuriyet, a pro-establishment
daily, cited the students’ protest in an article titled "Young Officers
Are Concerned," said Nezir Akyesilman, a member. The group responded
sarcastically, in a statement posted on the Internet, saying that
"young civilians" were also concerned.

The Young Civilians are a diverse group, both religious and secular
with a variety of political affiliations, who are drawn together by
their passionate belief in democracy. In a written statement this
month they exhorted leaders of all the political parties to abide by
the results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections .

But aside from serious work, they also indulge in comic asides.

They won admirers by rewriting Turkey’s much-despised college entrance
exam as a democracy quiz.

"Which of the below would elevate Turkey’s status to a contemporary
civilization?" one of the questions asks.

"(A) Listening to classical music. (B) Waving flags at republic
rallies. (C) Dancing ballet. (D) Standing against military coups and
warnings. (E) Holding a slogan that reads, ‘Turkey is secular and
will remain so.’ "

Turkish society has undergone sweeping changes in recent decades.

Large-scale migrations from rural areas to the cities, which started
in the 1980s, have led to a rising religious middle class, whose
representatives are now fighting with the state elite for power.

In addition, Turkey has made major changes to some of its crucial
institutions to qualify for European Union membership, removing much
of the military’s influence from government and rewriting criminal
and civil codes, encouraging more openness in society.

"People are trying to rethink their identity," Dogus said. "The one
the state gave us is being deconstructed."

It is a little like opening the cover of a long-closed book.

For most of Turkish history, there was little room for society to
question the official model of a Turkish citizen – a Muslim with no
ethnic identity or strong political opinion. The education system
reinforced that prototype.

Now history is being rethought in new books. Documentaries are
exploring Turkey’s past military coups. There has even been a
conference that touched on the genocide of Armenians during World
War I, a topic that has been a fiercely held taboo in Turkish society.

But coming to terms with the past is painful, and some Turks,
bewildered by the changes sweeping the country, are retreating
along the well-worn path of nationalism. While the European Union
reforms have pulled Turkey toward the West, the rejection of Turkey by
Europeans and campaigns by nationalist politicians in Turkey threaten
to close the country back up.

"Breaking this link with the West, this would be very dangerous for
us," said Nil Mutlver, a Young Civilian.

BAKO SAAKIAN ELU PRESIDENT DU HAUT KARABAKH
par Marie Jego

Le Monde, France
22 juillet 2007 dimanche

Enclave armenienne en Azerbaïdjan, la region du Haut Karabakh – non
reconnue par la communaute internationale – a elu son president, jeudi
19 juillet. Bako Saakian, 46 ans, ex-chef des services de securite,
a remporte l’election avec 85,4 % des suffrages. Il remplace Arkadi
Goukasian.

Pendant sa campagne electorale, M. Saakian s’est dit convaincu que
la future reconnaissance internationale du Kosovo paverait la voie
de celle du Haut Karabakh. Il jouit du soutien d’Erevan. De 1997 a
1999, il a travaille aux côtes de l’actuel premier ministre armenien,
Serge Sarkissian, successeur probable du president armenien Robert
Kotcharian en 2008. Peuple de 150 000 habitants entre Armenie et
Azerbaïdjan, dependant d’Erevan pour sa survie, le Haut Karabakh fut,
de 1988 a 1994, le theâtre d’une guerre ethnique (30 000 morts). Deux
millions d’Azerbaïdjanais ont ete chasses de l’enclave et des
sept regions d’Azerbaïdjan attenantes, prises par les separatistes
armeniens. L’Azerbaïdjan a denonce le scrutin de jeudi comme non legal.

Le conflit n’est toujours pas regle malgre les efforts du groupe
de Minsk (Etats-Unis, Russie, France). Vendredi, le president en
exercice de l’OSCE, le ministre espagnol des affaires etrangères,
Miguel Angel Moratinos, a estime que le vote serait sans impact sur
le règlement du conflit.

–Boundary_(ID_O3DHPZbGgVi533ZfF7RIjQ)–

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE DEDICATED TO PHILOSOPHER GYURJIEV TO LAUNCH IN YEREVAN ON JULY 21

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 20 2007

YEREVAN, July 20. /ARKA/. The international scientific conference
dedicated to the life and doctrine of great philosopher Georgi
Gyurjiev will be held in Yerevan on July 21-22, the organizing
committee reported.

Within the conference the concept of education as well as the
philosopher’s views on art will be presented. During the conference
special concert on the works of Gyurjiev and Komitas will take place.

Georgi Gyurjiev (1866-1949) is one of the brightest representatives
of philosophic and religious ideas of the 20th century, who still
remains to be rather influential. He was born in the Armenian city
of Gyumri where he lived with short intervals up to 1920.

His doctrine touches upon the most important issues of objective
reality and realization of human’s place in this process.

RELIGIOUS POLITICS: TURKEY’S ELECTION IS BEING CAST AS A BATTLE BETWEEN ISLAMISTS AND SECULARISTS.
By Owen Matthews with Sami Kohen in Istanbul

Newsweek
July 19 2007

But the real struggle is not over whether the country should be more
religious but over whether it should be more European-and more free.

July 19, 2007 – To hear Turkey’s opposition tell it, this weekend’s
parliamentary election represents nothing less than a battle for
the soul of the country. On one side stands Ankara’s ruling Justice
and Development Party, or AK Party (AKP), a party that has its roots
in political Islam and which opponents accuse of harboring a secret
fundamentalist agenda to undermine Turkey’s strict separation between
religion and public life. On the other are a fractious group of left-
and right-wing parties united by only two things: a conviction that
the AKP is not doing enough to defend Turkey’s national interests
against Kurdish terrorists and European Union bureaucrats, and a
passionate opposition to any manifestation of political Islam.

Turkey’s nationalists are nothing if not vocal. As soon as
parliamentary elections were called in May, middle-class secularist
voters in their hundreds of thousands took to the streets in a
series of mass rallies in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir to protest
against Sharia (Islamic law). Carrying portraits of their country’s
secularist founder, Kemal Ataturk, and draped in a sea of red Turkish
flags, the protesters denounced the AKP for its alleged Islamism. WE
DO NOT WANT TO LIVE IN IRAN! proclaimed one banner carried by a woman
in jeans and a T shirt in Istanbul. WE DO NOT WANT TO WEAR THE VEIL!

But the reality is rather different. In five years in power with
the largest parliamentary majority in a generation, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not, in fact, passed any laws that could
be described as Islamist. Crucially, he has deliberately steered
away from tackling one of the most draconian laws of the Turkish
secular state, a ban on wearing Islamic headscarves in any state
institutions-including schools, universities and government offices.

At the same time, he’s actually liberalized restrictive laws on the
property of Turkey’s religious minorities-Greeks, Armenians and Jews.

And more importantly, he has introduced sweeping reforms that
scrapped legal restrictions on freedom of speech and granted Kurds
more cultural rights-reforms that last year allowed Turkey to open
formal negotiations to join the European Union (EU). "It’s hard to
see how incorporating European Law into your legal code is a way to
introduce Sharia law," observes one European diplomat in Istanbul
not authorized to speak on the record.

So why are Turkey’s secularists and nationalists so vociferous in their
denunciations of the AKP? One simple reason is that the party is likely
to win this Sunday’s elections. Polls vary widely, but most predict
a convincing victory for the AKP. Erdogan himself is so confident
of a win that he pledged this week to step down from politics if his
party got fewer votes than in their last landslide victory in 2001.

A deeper reason is that the rift is not really between Turkish
secularists and Islamists but over two very different visions of
Turkey. Paradoxical as it may seem, many "secularists" actually want
a more nationalistic, isolationist Turkey with a politically powerful
military, while many "Islamists" favor integrating Turkey into Europe
and scrapping the last remnants of authoritarian laws restricting
freedom of religious observance. "Many of those who say they promote
‘secularism’ are also calling for Turkey’s ‘full independence’ from
the U.S. and the European Union," says Egemen Bagis, an AK Party M.P.

from Istanbul and Erdogan’s senior adviser on foreign affairs. "That
model calls for Turkey’s isolation, locked behind walls. [The] AK
Party means democracy and keeping Turkey on the EU track."

The rift between AKP and its opponents is also more than political-it
also reflects a profound change in Turkish society. The real secret
behind the AKP’s likely success in the upcoming elections, which
would herald a term in power unprecedented in a generation of Turkish
politics, is not its political skills but the rise of a new social
stratum of a conservative, Anatolian middle class to economic and
political power. It is a social revolution begun in the 1980s by former
president Turgut Ozal, who freed the Turkish economy from the bonds
of state control and laid the foundations for an economic boom that
has seen the Turkish economy grow by an average of 5 percent over the
last five years. The new economic-and increasingly, political-elite of
Turkey is not the Westernized, Istanbul-based business class nor the
ultrasecular bureaucratic class of Ankara but small businessmen with
their origins in rural Turkey. They tend to be socially conservative,
religiously observant-and vote for the AKP.

Unsurprisingly, Turkey’s old elites feel deeply threatened by the rise
of AKP and its supporters-none more so than the Turkish military,
which removed four governments in as many decades between 1960 and
1997. The Army sees itself as the guardian of Ataturk’s secular legacy
and views the AKP’s embrace of the EU-with its insistence of a strict
separation between the military and politics-as an existential threat.

In April, soon after the AKP put Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul forward
as its choice of president, the Army reacted with a sharply worded
statement on its Web site vowing to defend against any "threats to
the republic." Though Gul is considered one of the AKP’s moderates,
his wife, Hayrunisa, wears an Islamic headscarf and is pointedly not
invited to official functions, where such headgear is banned. The idea
of a headscarfed woman occupying the presidential palace is anathema
to many ultrasecularists. Shortly afterward, Turkey’s constitutional
court, following the Army’s lead, annulled the parliamentary vote
backing Gul on the grounds that the vote lacked a quorum. That decision
precipitated Sunday’s early election.

Both the military and the judiciary fear Gul as head of state because
the presidency can veto all laws and controls all judicial and top
military appointments, and so he would have the power to change the
most staunchly nationalist and secularist institutions in the country.

How will the military react to a possible AKP victory in coming
elections? Turkey has changed too much to allow an old-fashioned
military coup. The giant secularist marches in May denounced the idea
of a military takeover almost as vociferously as they blasted the
AKP. And the truth is that the AKP is also genuinely popular. The
military has always cast itself as the instrument of the people’s
true will-and for it to depose a popularly elected government would
not only destroy Turkey’s ongoing economic boom but also potentially
fatally damage the credibility of the Army itself-not to mention ending
Turkey’s hopes of joining the EU. At best, they can fight a rearguard
action. In response to the constitutional court ruling against Gul,
the AKP passed a new law allowing the president to be elected directly
by the people rather than by Parliament. But that law will only come
into effect after the term of the next president-and it’s likely that
the AKP, even if it gets an absolute majority in Parliament in coming
elections, will try to avoid further confrontation with the military
and choose a less controversial candidate than Gul.

In many ways, the election is a battle for the soul of Turkey-but not
a battle over whether Turkey should be more or less religious but
over whether it should be more or less European and free. The AKP,
despite its Islamist roots, pledges to press ahead with its dream of
readying Turkey for Europe, despite the cold shoulder from France
and other European countries. Turkey’s old-fashioned nationalists,
on the other hand, appear committed to returning Turkey to a form of
enforced state secularism-and the illiberalism and military rule that
went with it. Sunday’s vote will show which direction the people want.

GEORGIA’S BIG MILITARY SPENDING BOOST
By Koba Liklikadze in Tbilisi

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
July 19 2007

Government says sharp rise in defence spending will professionalise
army but questions are asked about why the money is being spent.

Georgia, which has made breathtaking increases in its defence spending
over the last two years, looks set to beat all records this year.

In late June, the Georgian government increased the defence ministry’s
budget of 513 million laris (315 million US dollars) by 442 million
laris (260 million dollars).

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute,
SIPRI, Georgia currently has the highest average growth rate of
military spending in the world. Some independent experts are worried
that the spending is not fully accounted for, while others say that
it could undermine the peace processes with the breakaway territories
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The Georgian government insists that the increased spending is
absolutely vital to allow the country to improve its defence
capabilities, fulfill its NATO commitments and strengthen social
support for its military personnel.

"Part of the sum will be used to purchase the equipment that a modern
army needs," Defence Minister David Kezerashvili told IWPR. "Another
part will be spent on sending an increased (2000-strong) military
contingent to Iraq."

Kezerashvili rejected claims that Georgia is engaged in a potentially
dangerous process of militarisation that could destabilise the
situation with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"We are simply building our army," he said. "We started building it
from scratch, when the budget was only 50 million laris. Naturally,
against the background of what we had three years ago, it now looks
as though we are making big steps toward militarisation. That is not
the case. We are simply creating a small, but a very mobile army that
will be capable of performing any tasks the country will set it."

Political expert Archil Gegeshidze said the rise in defence spending
should be put in context, arguing, "Georgia has lagged behind the
two other countries in the region in both the quantity and quality
of its equipment", and it needed to professionalise its army in order
to move towards NATO membership.

"In my opinion, the rise in Georgia’s defence budget is not linked
to the similar tendency in Armenia and Azerbaijan," he said. "Georgia
simply didn’t have effective armed forces up until now."

Another analyst, Paata Zakareishvili, was more doubtful, saying he was
concerned money was being spent on defence instead of the Georgia’s
urgent social needs.

"In a country where a lot of social problems have built up, where
there is a need to fight poverty on a national scale, it is worrying
that we have this kind of military budget," he said. "It’s obvious
that the state is more worried about its army than about social
programmes or education."

The government’s decision encountered almost no resistance in
parliament, with opposition deputies only demanding more details
on how the massively increased budget – now accounting for six per
cent of the country’s GDP and equivalent to spending on social and
healthcare programmes – would be spent.

"At the meeting of the defence committee, I was the only one apparently
interested in this information and that’s not normal for a democratic
state," Pikria Chikhradze of the New Rights parliamentary faction
told IWPR. He said the issue of military spending was taboo for
the opposition.

The general secretary of the governing National Movement party, David
Kirkitadze, said the budget was as transparent as could be expected.

"Naturally, something that is a military secret cannot be made known
to everyone," said Kirkitazde. "However, some information such as the
quantity of weapons we’ve bought and the number of military personnel
we have is public and can be obtained by anyone interested."

Irakly Sesiashvili, who heads a non-governmental organisation Justice
and Freedom, disputed this, saying that the defence ministry had
not accounted for large sums in its new budget. He cited a report
by the country’s audit chamber that uncovered major irregularities
in the ministry’s finances in 2005-2006 under former minister Irakly
Okruashvili.

Irakly Aladashvili, military commentator with the Kviris Palitra
weekly newspaper, has also investigated suspicious discrepancies in
the prices paid for military equipment.

"In early 2005, 15 heavy trucks were bought in Ukraine for 42,000
dollars each. Two months later, the same vehicles were purchased
at the price of 52,000 dollars each, ten thousand dollars more. Ten
lorries were bought, which means the damage done to the budget was
no less than 100 thousand dollars.

"I think there should be a structure – something like a general
inspectorate – set up under the president, the commander-in-chief,
to monitor what is going on and report back to the president," he said.

Kezerashvili told IWPR that his ministry was about to adopt a
new automated management system that would ensure transparency of
expenditure, as required by its commitments under its Individual
Partnership Action Plan for NATO.

Georgia has already presented in Brussels a "strategic defence review"
that envisages a long-term budget for the ministry. The ministry has
also published details of the increased military expenditure on its
website. The report lists sums assigned for all major items, making
only one of them secret – "purchases of weapons, military equipment
and materials". Defence officials say the secrecy is a precautionary
measure.

"This is to prevent Russia from influencing our potential arms supplier
partners and undermining our plans," Nika Rurua, deputy chairman of
the parliament’s national security and defence committee, explained
to IWPR.

Despite reassurances that the increased military spending is designed
to professionalise the army and is not aimed at the separatist
territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the territories themselves
are not convinced.

"People in South Ossetia feel that Georgians contradict themselves
in what they say, and what they do," Bela Valieva, a resident of the
South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, told IWPR. "On the one hand they
speak about peaceful resolution to conflicts, and on the other they
increase their military budget all the time."

Boris Chochiev, deputy prime minister of the de facto government of
South Ossetia and the main negotiator with Tbilisi, went further,
blaming western countries for the situation. He told IWPR that his
government constantly raised the issue of Tbilisi’s military build-up
with the international community but did not get a "sensible answer".

"We are astonished at the position of countries that are calling on
us to disarm while at the same time they are arming the aggressor,
Georgia," he said. "It’s not Georgia that is increasing its budget.

The money is being given them by the West."

Tbilisi analyst Archil Gegeshidze said that the Georgian government
should make a greater effort to convince Abkhazia and South Ossetia
that the increase in spending was not aimed at them. "We have to
explain to the other side that the strength of our armed forces is
not directed against their interests but serves the interests of our
common state," he said.

Zakareishvili is worried that the increased spending is undermining
trust. "We are basically sending a clear message – that the military
is important for us in resolving the conflicts," he said.

Koba Liklikadze is a military analyst with Radio Liberty in Tbilisi.

Veriko Tevzadze, a journalist with 24 Hours newspaper in Tbilisi
and Irina Kelekhsayeva, an independent journalist in South Ossetia,
contributed to this article.

ARMENIA TO USE ROMANIA’S EXPERIENCE IN REFORMING ARMY

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 19 2007

YEREVAN. July 19. /ARKA/. In 2007 Armenian delegation will visit
Romania to get acquainted with the country’s experience in the sphere
of reforming the Armed Forces.

The RA Defense Ministry’s press services reported that the details
of the visit envisaged by the plan of bilateral military cooperation
for 2007 were discussed Thursday during the meeting of RA Defense
Ministry Mikayel Haroutiunian and Romania’s Ambassador to Armenia
Krina Rodik Prunariu.

The Armenian delegation intends to study Romania’s experience in
implementing the civil element in the Armed Forces, re-training the
retired staff and bringing them back to civil society, as well as
closing military units and infrastructures, estimating expenditures
for destroying military techniques and ammunition.

During the meeting the issues of regional security and stability,
as well as processes of peaceful settlement of the conflict were
discussed.

At the end of the meeting the sides exchanges thoughts concerning
the reformation of Armenia’s Armed Forces.

NALBANDIAN UPSET IN LOS ANGELES

The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune, France
July 17 2007

LOS ANGELES: David Nalbandian lost to Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (5), 7-5 in
the first round of the Countrywide Classic on Tuesday.

Nalbandian, the No. 4 seed, lost to the Russian who is ranked 99th.

After winning the first-set tiebreaker, Kunitsyn won the first three
games of the second set and had break point for a 4-0 lead. But he
missed a volley, and that enabled Nalbandian to regroup. The Argentine,
a Wimbledon finalist in 2002, won that game and the next four to go
ahead, 5-3.

Kunitsyn then won the final four games.

"He’s one of the toughest players. He never gives up," Kunitsyn said.

"I was prepared that he would always be there and that helped me
so much."

Americans Mardy Fish and Vince Spadea advanced to the second round
with straight-set victories. Fish beat doubles partner Sam Querrey
and Spadea eliminated Thiago Alves of Brazil, 7-6 (2), 6-2 at the
UCLA Tennis Center.

Fish won 12 of his first 16 matches this year, before losing eight
straight matches and 10 of 11. He slipped to No. 40 in the rankings
and made this tournament as a wild card.

Querrey has been struggling as well, and lost his seventh straight
match.

Querrey said he played tentatively "the whole time, especially on
my backhand. It’s getting frustrating. You start second-guessing
yourself."

Also, Ricardo Mello of Brazil beat Phillip King of the United States
6-4, 6-2; Wesley Moodie of South Africa spoiled the tour debut of
Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-3, 6-2; and Radek Stepanek of the Czech
Republic advanced when Britain’s Alex Bogdanovic retired because of
a back problem after losing the opening set 6-1.