Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

WHAT RODRIGO KNOWS
James Hakobyan

Lragir.am
20 June 06

The IMF’s Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato announced June 18 in
Yerevan that the revaluation of the Armenian national currency
sustains the economy in Armenia, relieves the consequences of high
energy prices and investments grow, reports the news agency ARKA.

However, his assessment means it is time for de Rato to take up a
course in economy rather than the necessity for revaluation of the
Armenian dram. If the revaluation of the Armenian currency helps
eliminate the consequences of the high energy prices, de Rato should
have also said for who.

It is suggested that the consequences of the high energy prices
impact two main groups of consumers: people and industries. After the
revaluation of the dram people did not start paying less for energy.

So, the consequences of expensive energy were not relieved for
people. And those people whose income is in dollars have to spend more
dollars to buy drams and pay for energy. In fact, they suffer losses
due to the revaluation of the Armenian dram. As for producers, energy
prices did not change for them either. Moreover, if they export their
products, they also suffer losses from the revaluation of the dram,
for the cost of production increases. They sold their product abroad
for x dollars, in Armenia they exchanged x dollars for 2x drams and
paid taxes, for energy, salaries, etc. Now and after every stage of
revaluation of the Armenian dram they have 1x drams instead of the
former 2x drams. Therefore, one does not need sophisticated knowledge
of economy to realize that producers need to sell their product at a
higher price abroad or to invest part of their income to produce an
equal amount of products.

In fact, we deal with an obvious decline in production. For Rodrigo
de Rato, only he knows what he deals with. His assessment is probably
based on the calculation that the revaluation of the dram cut down
the prices of imported products because if formerly x drams revenues
of importers were exchanged for 1x dollars, after the revaluation of
the x drams revenues of importers are exchanged for 2x instead of the
former 1x drams. Hence, their income grows. They will keep these huge
profits to themselves or invest in importing business again, because
we saw that local production, to put it mildly, is not profitable. We
not only saw it but we hear it from local producers. The companies,
who sell their products in Armenia, may not suffer losses. On the other
hand, however, their business will not grow unless their production
is exported. It cannot grow for the simple reason that the Armenian
market is very small. So, if Armenian production is not exported,
the Armenian economy is unable to develop, because the market is very
limited. Hence, only de Rato knows how the revaluation of the dram is
going to develop the economy. As for the question why the price of the
imported fuel does not decrease in drams despite the revaluation of
the dram, it is known to someone else, and most probably Rodrigo de
Rato has had the opportunity to ask them in Armenia, because he met
with the government of Armenia. However, probably he did not ask them
anything, otherwise he would not have announced what he announced. And
he should not have announced what he announced, because in a healthy
economy the national dram would not revaluate and foreign currency
would not depreciate by several percentage points within only a
week. Such an economy cannot attract investments, and perhaps only
Rodrigo de Rato knows who would make investments in such an economy.

BAKU NOT STARTING WAR NOT OWING TO FEAR OF BLAME

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.06.2006 14:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ If Azerbaijan has not resumed hostilities against
Armenia, this is not owing to fear of someone’s blame, political
scientist Hrazdan Madoyan stated in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net.

In his words, on one hand, if Baku had had even 50% confidence in
victory, it would not take into account the US or NATO. On the other
hand, possibly the US and NATO vetoed the war, maybe with strict
sanctions, up to division of the country and depriving Aliyev of power.

"Resumption of hostilities was probable in Georgia: ambitious and
fascist Saakashvili, who considered himself a messiah and did not
fulfill any of his promises, needs a small but winning war for a small,
but proud bird, sorry, I mean country. It will probably end in the
same way as previous ones. Then it is not ruled out that he may try
to recoup himself on Javakhk, with the same outcome probably. Georgia
in its current borders is less viable than Azerbaijan, Georgians have
neither Turks’ cruelty, nor their number," Madoyan underscored. He
remarked that "stopping artificial blood circulation, etc, the
country will be compressed to borders, which it is able to effectively
control." He is sure Georgia is surviving now by stirring up Turks
against Armenians, but this cannot take place endlessly. "It has no
oil or gas, then it is not interesting for the international community
on the whole," Madoyan said.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATIOM IS IMPORTANT FOR KOCHARYAN?

A1+
[04:56 pm] 19 June, 2006

Today Robert Kocharyan received Ambassador Miklosh Harashti, OSCE
representative on the issues of freedom of information.

Robert Kocharyan assess the cooperation with the OSCE as
effective. Finding the freedom of information important, he said
that free press has an important mission in representing the legal
real situation in the country. At the same time, according to Robert
Kocharyan, the freedom of press must not violate human rights.

The sides exchanged ideas about the formation of free press, the main
obstacles of the realization of press as business and the necessity
of state Mass Media.

According to Kocharyan, Armenia is in the transitional phase and the
country is characterized by the features of that phase.

"WE CAN’T OPEN SO MUCH TO LOSE OUR TYPE"
Margaret Yesayan

Aravot.am
16 June 06

The ARF GB representative Armen Rustamian said

– Factually, the ARF controls the spheres which have connection with
various strata of society; social, health protection, agriculture
and education, whether Dashnaktsutiun wanted to control those spheres
for the coming elections?

– When spheres were divided in time, just the opposite logic acted,
people were avoiding of being responsible in those spheres where
there were a lot of problems. But we were understanding very well
if we wanted to be involved in the coalition with just that logic we
can’t avoid of those problems.

Certainly this includes a serious risk in it and it also exists
now. I don’t say we have succeeded to achieve serious changes, but I’m
sure we have been right. We became responsible for that risk and I’m
sure we have created some necessary prerequisites some of which have
given their results. And we will represent to the people just with
that account during the elections. We must undergo that trial and we
seriously prepare for it. It isn’t a secret that there is a way when
you can’t be responsible and keep criticizing. It is very profitable
way and a lot of politicians try to act in that way during the
elections in Armenia. But we are ready to be aware what we have done.

– There are businessmen deputies in the ARF plenipotentiary list;
don’t you have any apprehension that your businessmen will also be
made leave the party? Are you going to participate in the coming
parliamentary elections together with businessmen?

– We participated in the elections in 2003 with an open list relative
to the ARF for the first time because we could hardly imagine some
years ago that so many non-party persons could be involved in the ARF
list. We are known for our traditional nature and in this case it was
also a change in our approaches. We did it but keeping an important
principle. We can’t be opened so much for losing our type. If we
don’t manage to keep our type, we can’t speak of old history of our
party. And that well-formed tradition has directed us for making our
selection in looking before leaping principle. And we don’t need in
those businessmen with whom we have worked for a long time for only
the elections but they have been corresponded to the typical example of
national bourgeoisie. They aren’t only businessmen, owners of serious
business, but they also do their best for making the economy of our
country powerful.

– Are you going to enlarge the list of your mentioned national
bourgeoisie in connection with the coming elections?

– If it is possible to have partners like them in that field,
certainly, we’ll enlarge that field with great pleasure.

– Don’t have any apprehension that they will leave some day?

– Judging from what I said above, no, I don’t have such
apprehension. There have been trials for the ARF, too. I must say
that they have stayed with us because they have adopted our decisions
and we haven’t made them to adopt those decisions, because we have
considered us as the political elite and them as the economic subject.

DELEGATION OF RF SOUTH FEDERAL OKRUG TO VISIT ARMENIA ON JUNE 15-16

Noyan Tapan
Jun 15 2006

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The delegation of the RF South Federal
Okrug headed by D.Kozak, the RF President’s Authorized Representative,
will be in Yerevan on June 15-16. V.Chub, the Regional Governor of
the marz of Rostov, A.Baranov, the Commander of the North-Caucasian
Military Okrug, the Army General, were among the delegation staff.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Foreign Ministry’s Press and
Information Department, during its visit to Armenia, the delegation
of the RF South Federal Okrug will have meetings with RA President
Robert Kocharian, RA Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, Karekin II
Catholicos of All Armenians.

The delegation will visit on June 16 the Tsitsernakaberd memorial
complex to the Armenian Genocide victims where wreaths will be laid
and a ceremony of tree planting will take place.

RICH IN IRONY: SOROS AGAINST IRAQ BACKTRACK
George Soros

New York Daily News, NY
June 14 2006

Billionaire George Soros spent a fortune trying to pry President
Bush out of the White House. But the Democratic Midas agrees with
the President that we can’t pull out of Iraq now.

"Unfortunately, many countries have a national narrative that condemns
them to keep on defending a cause that is really indefensible,"
the Open Society founder said Monday at the Core Club party for his
book "The Age of Fallibility." "The Turks can’t admit the massacre of
Armenians, for example. We have been better in the past at recognizing
our sins. I’m afraid that we have to recognize that was a terrible
mistake.

"I can’t expect President Bush to do that," Soros allowed. "That
would be out of keeping for anybody. What’s worse, I think we
actually have to stay in Iraq for a while. If we left, we would have
a conflagration. We are sitting on a civil war. Therefore, American
soldiers have to continue giving their lives to a bad cause."

Soros said Bush was right to invade Afghanistan, because that "was
where Bin Laden was located." He also conceded that, since pre-war
Iraq was "a magnet for general terrorists," the U.S. occupation may
"have deflected a terrorist attack" here. But Soros argued that,
thanks to Bush’s policies, "The danger of a terrorist attack is
greater since 9/11. We may actually be growing terrorist cells."

P.S.: Soros was downright courtly toward the Bushies compared with
Sen. John Kerry’s spokesman, David Wade, who yesterday snarled at
White House adviser Karl Rove for accusing Kerry and fellow Vietnam
vet Rep. John Murtha of "cutting and running" from the war.

"The closest Karl Rove ever came to combat was these last months
spent worrying his cellmates might rough him up in prison," said
Wade. "This porcine political operative can’t cut and run from the
truth any longer. When it came to Iraq, this administration chose
to cut and run from sound intelligence and good diplomacy. … In
November, Americans will cut and run from this Republican Congress."

Chessbase News, Germany
June 9 2006

Mig on Chess #210:

Precious Mettle

“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline – it
helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear
weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.” – Frank Zappa

There have been quit a few significant events in the chess world in
past few days, several of them not having to do with the off the
board GM dust-up that will surely be reported here in detail.

We’ll start off with the chess instead. Armenia’s Olympiad team
didn’t let down their chess-mad nation and took the gold medal by an
impressive two-point margin. They were the only team that didn’t lose
a single match, drawing three and winning ten. This shouldn’t be
considered a real surprise, although it used to be generally
recognized that the gold is always Russia’s to lose. Armenia won the
bronze in 2004, the obvious difference this year being Levon
Aronian’s transformation into a world-class player and a force on
board one.

Having a new first board has a huge impact on a team’s potency.
Akopian was strong on board one for Armenia in 2004 but was
devastating on board two in 2006. The Armenians didn’t lose a single
game in the final eight rounds and held on to their big lead with
eight draws at the end. First reserve Gabriel Sargissian exemplified
the curious strategy employed by the winning team. They played the
same four players for the last nine rounds! Lputian and Minasian were
both on 2.5/3 but never played again. Sargissian’s final 10/13 isn’t
as impressive as the amazing 8/9 he had before drawing his last four
games. Going with their hot hands turned out to be more important
than giving them rest.

The vagaries of the scoring system and the swiss system of pairings
had a few side-effects. In the final round Armenia coasted home with
four brief, prearranged draws with Hungary. The Hungarians, without
Leko and Polgar, were never in contention but jumped up at the end by
bashing Iceland 4-0 in round 12. A 3-1 victory over Armenia would
have given Hungary a medal; a narrow win would have meant tie for
third. Instead they showed all the ambition of a bowl of goulash and
took the four guaranteed draws. Congratulations guys, you finished
fifth. That’s what, the aluminum medal? Cowardium?

>From a lack of mettle back to medals of precious metal, 12th seed
China took silver while 7th seed USA got the bronze. Israel tied the
US on 33 points and had the identical match score, but lost the
bronze on strength of opposition tiebreaks. China took silver despite
losing four matches, an achievement that must have required some
serious feng shui. They lost to just about every contender they
faced, in fact, falling to Russia, Armenia, USA, and France. (USA and
Israel lost one match each.) China compensated by whipping weaker
teams like love slaves on bondage night, scoring 3.5 four times and
stomping the not-weak Georgian team 4-nil. Former world’s youngest GM
Bu Xiangzhi, now 21, emerged as a solid top board, winning when he
was supposed to and not losing a single game. His startling 2790
performance was surpassed by the even younger Wang Yue, who fulfilled
his great promise with a 10/12 score and the second-highest
performance rating of the entire event, 2837. The other Chinese
players were only so-so, but they didn’t have to be better.

If you recall, last November China also took silver – and almost won
gold – at the World Team Championship despite failing to excel
against the other top teams. Such performances always lead to some
fans speaking out in favor of using match points instead of board
points for the primary Olympiad scoring system. Currently match
points are used as second tiebreak. This makes sense because, as
we’ll see, match points are practically meaningless when you are
pairing with board points. Using match points, Armenia still wins
easily, followed by USA and Israel. Teams as far down as 30th finish
higher than China. Russia also lost four matches and would have
finished around 20th on match points.

The obvious problem is that when a 2.5-1.5 squeaker is worth the same
as a 4-0 annihilation, the cumulative score doesn’t say as much about
the strength of the team. While the teams would doubtlessly play
differently were the scoring system different – and much more
conservatively, of course – we can see this effect by looking at the
Turin scores. On match points Georgia jumps up from =11-15 to clear
fourth place. Scotland had one fewer match point than China, 16, but
finished in a tie for 49th-54th and lost to China 3.5-0.5 in the
second round. Had the Scots eked out one more half point against
Argentina in the final round they would have tied China on match
points despite being a far weaker team that faced much weaker
competition throughout.

Of course this is somewhat beside the point because if you are
scoring by match points you are also pairing by match points and that
wouldn’t happen. With match point scoring teams do a lot of agreeing
to draws on certain boards to give unofficial rest days and to target
what they think are better match-ups. Despite the aberrations it’s
not as if a bunch of weak teams have snuck into the medals, either
historically or this year. Super-conservative play, many more short
agreed draws, and ignoring the value of a big match win is not the
way to go.

Speaking of big wins, how about the bronze medal for team USA? It
looked like the Americans were out of it after they lost a tough
match to Israel in the 12th round. But the pairings tossed them a
Viking funeral and they got Norway in the final round while rivals
Russia and Israel finally faced each other and France fell to the
tough Bulgarian squad. (Anyone know why there were only 13 rounds
this year instead of the usual 14?) USA scored 3.5 against Norway to
vault up and tie Israel. The Israelis must have thought they had a
medal in the bag when they beat Russia 3-1, but – oh the tsuris! –
they had underperformed for most of the event and their tiebreaks
were dreck.

The real American miracle had come earlier, against France in round
ten. The French were all set to administer a 3.5-0.5 blowout with one
game already drawn and winning positions on the three remaining
boards. Suddenly Bauer blundered into a mating net against Ibragimov
and Nakamura got a miracle endgame draw against Fressinet so the
American’s got a 2-2 split and a huge morale boost that carried them
through to the finish. (The comments made at Playchess and on the
message boards during course of these games are priceless. They’re
up! They’re down! They’re up!)

Hikaru Nakamura in particular seemed charged up and the 2005 US
champion put the team on his young shoulders the rest of the way,
winning three straight games, including the US team’s only wins in
its matches with Russia and Israel. The only decisive game of the
match with Russia was his win over Grischuk, in which Nakamura
characteristically avoided exchanges only to head into a losing
position. But as the saying goes, that was the penultimate blunder.
Computer analysis is often unkind to Nakamura’s risky, if not risqué,
play, but his opponents find it very hard to deal with and that’s
what counts. From his last four Turin games you could say he was
losing in two, perhaps three, with trouble in the fourth. His score
from these games: 3.5/4!

American top board Gata Kamsky staggered to the finish line after a
valiant marathon that started in Bulgaria. He’d already looked tired
when Topalov caught him at the finish of the MTel, but unlike Topalov
he came directly to Turin to take over Olympiad duties. (Four of the
six MTel players did this; Topalov and Ponomariov didn’t.) After a
strong 4/6 start in Turin Kamsky was exhausted, but he kept going out
there to make sure the US would be putting out its strongest team,
making things easier on the other boards. Current US champ Alexander
Onischuk surely benefited from Kamsky’s presence. He was a very solid
first board in Calvia in 2004 and here on board two he turned in four
wins without a defeat. Let’s not forget that the 2004 US team
finished fourth without Kamsky or Nakamura. USA captain John
Donaldson has a report here.

Dress for Success! Assaulting your opponents eyeballs is legal. Two
of these were worn by top players, one by a Kalmykian dancer. To be
fair, the orange on Kamsky (center) is one of the “Right Move”
t-shirts handed out by the Kok campaign. With matching baseball caps,
of course. Rublevsky (left) has no such excuse, unless he’s
representing the Hula Party.

Russia, wherefore art thou, Russia? The tip-top seed finished =6-10,
and this two years after their silver medal in Calvia was considered
a dramatic fall from grace. And the weak link? It certainly wasn’t
Vladimir Kramnik, back to the board after a half a year away to
recuperate from a difficult medical condition. All he did was face
the toughest opposition of any player in Turin and turn in the
highest performance rating, 2847. The only sour note was his curious
absence in the final round, when Russia fell to Israel 1-3 to fall
off the podium. Russian champion Rublevsky turned in the only the
second negative score in Russian team history. Dreev managed it in
back in 1992 when the Russian team first appeared.

It could be said that Russia deserved better. They faced the
strongest teams and had the second-highest performance rating as a
squad. (Some stats from the Wiener-Zeitung site, others from a few of
Jeff Sonas’s posts to the Daily Dirt.) That’s the system for you, and
you can’t lose ten games and expect a medal. Defending gold medal
winner Ukraine also fell from grace, finishing with the same 32
points as Russia. They had the absence of Ponomariov on board two to
deal with.

They could also feel better via schadenfreude by looking at what
happened to the #2 seed. India crashed and burned all the way to
=30-34th. Every player underperformed his rating substantially and
they went with essentially a five-man team, Singh playing only in the
first round (and losing). Anand won his first game after arriving
from Sofia and never won again. His long string of draws ended with a
sensational loss to Canadian champion Pascal Charbonneau.

Many of the top individual performances went to members of the junior
set. Wang Yue, Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin, Bu Xiangzhi, and
David Navara all had results worthy of top-ten players. Will that be
the top ten in five years? The Czech team led by Navara had a great
event but couldn’t keep up the pace at the end. Uzbekistan also
deserves mention as a lowly seeded team that was up near the leaders
for most of the event. The young Azerbaijani team faired poorly
despite a strong showing by Radjabov. They certainly would have done
better with Mamedyarov on the team, but he was absent after several
disputes with his federation.

As usual, the women’s event was much truer to seeding than the open.
(Still called the “Men’s Olympiad” by some, despite at least five
women participating, two of them on board one.) Ukraine’s decision to
put young Katerina Lahno on board two paid off when Zhukova had a
great event on top board. Their reserve Ushenina played more games
than anyone else on the team and went undefeated. Then came Russia
and China and a huge gap down to a pack of teams that included USA,
Hungary, and traditional power Georgia. Chinese reserve Hou Yifan
scored 11/13. The Chinese medaled with most of their top women
players not participating, a remarkable display of depth.

The coverage of the celebrations in Armenia are good for any chess
fan’s soul. The photos of the crowds at the airport are great. They
were met by the Armenian prime minister as well as many cabinet
members and military officials. “The Olympic champions then headed to
the city’s Freedom Square where more than a thousand people waving
national red-blue-orange flags and chanting “Armenia! Armenia!”
gathered to cheer them. The celebration, featuring speeches by senior
officials and performances by Armenian pop singers, was broadcast
live on state television.”

Wow! And check out that gorgeous Soviet-era Chayka automobile. It
looks like a scene out of American Graffiti on the Hrazdan. Team
captain and Defense Minister Sarkisian was even nominated to head the
national football federation. I didn’t see Aronian in any of the
team-with-flag photos in Yerevan so he may have gone directly home to
Germany. Either that or the diminutive world #3 is hidden behind the
flags. No matter, he played very big in Turin. His shattering win
against Sokolov and his 11.Nf7!! against Navara in round eleven were
worth the price of admission.

Aronian-Navara before 11.Nf7! and Sokolov-Aronian, final position 0-1

Vote Early and Often
Speaking of prices, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov won reelection as FIDE
president. He’ll now be in charge until 2010 or until indicted,
whichever comes first. Like anyone who likes the game of chess as
traditionally played I was disappointed with the result. Living on
the whims of a dictator is no way to run a professional sport, so
chess will continue not to be one for now. I was also disappointed by
the estimable David Levy’s analysis of the election, which gave
entirely too much credit to considered thought in the result.

I’m sure it’s polite to dissect the choice between Ilyumzhinov and
Kok as if all the delegates had deeply pondered the future of global
chess before casting their votes. (That they were motivated by
geopolitics is even more risible.) The sad truth continues to be that
there are quite a few delegates who have nothing in mind but their
own enrichment and when one of the candidates also has that
enrichment in mind he’s going to be very tough to beat. With the many
federations that are essentially without players, the delegates are
beholden to no one. No responsibility, no accountability… hey, a
new watch!

The system of one vote per federation is nice and democratic but
preposterous if the long-term best interests of the sport are in
mind. Why should a federation delegate from a poor nation with few or
no international players care about potentially mythical corporate
sponsorship and TV deals for Grandmasters if he can get a box of
clocks instead? I’m not even saying he’s wrong to choose
self-interest, or the immediate interests of his tiny federation. The
problem is the system. How can FIDE tackle long-view issues requiring
investment and planning when short-term benefits are handed out
instead?

The United Nations – itself a dysfunctional organization not
necessarily to be held up as a model – has the Security Council to
cut down on such patronage, among myriad reasons. If Ilyumzhinov’s
FIDE continues to ignore the needs of the vast majority of players,
expect the major federations to increasingly go their own way. The
only cards FIDE holds are the rating list and the increasingly rare
burst of Kirsan cash. Both are replaceable. It’s useless to speak of
reform while Ilyumzhinov is still in charge. Despite the close
election (when it comes to chessplayers represented, Kok probably
won) it’s unlikely FIDE will acknowledge the tremendous amount of
opposition to Ilyumzhinov’s policies and methods. At the very least
they will continue to be as oblivious as before to their failures.
Where are those candidates matches? My guess is that the delegates
from Somalia and Belize don’t much care. And why should they?

Even the biggest feather in Ilyumzhinov’s cap, the Kramnik-Topalov
match, has been plucked from a turkey. I’m happy about the match
because I like matches and chess and don’t like loose ends; it’s the
follow-up that is depressing. Having a unification match that leads
to a world championship tournament is like having the Beatles reunite
and play only Ringo songs. The greatness of chess and its champions
was founded on titanic matches. Big players, big cities, big
sponsors. Adding a supertournament to the calendar is hardly a
substitute.

According to FIDE there will never be another legitimate world
championship match. Offering a shot to the highest bidder in the top
20 is not the same. Giving a fair shot to anyone with the ability to
fight through a cycle was why FIDE took over the championship. Now,
if Radjabov’s Azerbaijani backers can put up a million dollars he
gets a match, but Anand doesn’t. The only shot Anand gets is in a
tournament little different from Linares or Sofia, trivializing the
title the way the knock-outs did. Decreasing the status of the world
championship title – historically the only event big enough to
penetrate the mass media in many countries – decreases the status of
the game.

In other news, a shout-out to Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky, who proved
that an Israeli can win a world championship even if FIDE doesn’t let
the humans play. Their program Junior just won the world computer
chess championship in Turin. Their program also continues to play the
most risky, interesting chess.

28.Rd5! against Rajlich (the engine Rybka under its programmer’s
name) in the diagrammed position was a very pretty pin+clearance move
to save the draw. It doesn’t always work, but Junior continues its
tradition of offering material to enter visibly dubious positions
that it fights out of successfully. Perhaps a Nakamura sponsorship
deal should be arranged.

.asp?pid=189

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
June 9 2006

The Meaning of the Mount Agri (Ararat) in the Armenian Issue Print

By Dr. Sedat Laciner

Friday , 09 June 2006

Mount Aðri (Ararat) is like ‘the Ergenekon’, or ‘the Gokturk
Scriptures of the Armenians’. The Armenians believe that they are the
descendants of the Noah’s children. According to an ancient Armenian
belief, the Deluge was not only a tragic catastrophe for the
Armenians, but also a great punishment and a test which came from the
God. There are similar approaches in other Christian sects as well.
But there are only a few who identify themselves with the Mount Aðri,
or Ararat as they call it, as much as the Armenians do. First of all,
the geographical proximity led to emotional proximity. This devotion
may be, regardless of religion, due to the genetic transmission of
the tradition of worshipping to the mountain.

This adoration can be observed in the Ottoman period or even before.
The Mount Aðri, arising with its splendor, was perceived by the
Armenians as a place to gather on its ‘skirts’. But none of the
moments in history has this adoration to the Mount Aðri been as
`exalted’ as today. The contemporary Armenians, so to say, deify the
Mount Aðri. They only remember Armenianness and revenge fever when
they see the Mount Aðri.

The current situation is not a good one and it is also not the result
of a natural process. The secessionist Armenian movement that started
before 1915 has sought help from many instruments such as terrorism,
assassinations, military coup, riot and collaboration with the
occupiers. The movement has never admitted defeat and the more it was
defeated, the more aggressor it became. It wanted to stand up as it
fell down and some time later, it turned out to get delight from
pain. The Armenians were first exiled to the Middle East, then to
Cyprus, to Europe and to other small regions. The feeling that the
journey was not complete did not perish as the Armenians arrived at
the final destinations like the U.S. and France. Perhaps, there has
left no place to arrive at geographically, but the journey in the
minds has severely continued. Some of them migrated first to the
Caucasus and then to Russia. Moreover, their exodus still continues.
The number of Russian Armenians who emigrated to the Western Europe
and the Northern America after the end of the Cold War increases day
by day.

Where is the motherland, where is the foreign land?

These two became fully mixed. An Armenia which doesn’t include the
Mount Aðri is not perceived as a motherland.

It is hard for the Armenians to say `motherland’ to an Armenia which
excluded Van adn Agri.

Well then, will these wounds heal if Turks give Van and Ararat (the
Mount Aðri)?

Is the issue that simple to say `what would you lose if you give us
Aðri?’ as the Armenian-origin French singer Charles Aznavour asked.

In Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet (May 14, 2006), the answer of
Levon Ananyan, the chairman of the Armenian Writers Union, to Ece
Temelkuran’s question reflects the same points:

`If you knew the meaning of Ararat (the Mount Aðri) to us, you would
carry it here by lorries! It is a mountain for you, but it is our
roots. We are an emotional community. You fear that we will demand
Ararat, but it is a hearty issue for us.’

In short, we also see in Ananyan’s speech that Armenia is not viewed
as the real motherland. He sees the issue as `the motherland is where
Ararat is’. And what he doesn’t see is the fact that the Mount Aðri
is very important to the Turks as well; that it is a hearty issue for
the Turks too. This is because the Mount Aðri is also a homeland for
the Turks. Just like Istanbul, Van or Izmir…

Frankly speaking, I find the Turkish approach much more sounder. The
Turks know that they came from the Altay Mountains and the Central
Asia. But they don’t need a mountain or a scripture to make somewhere
homeland. They embrace and pay respect to the place they live in as
homeland. Even if you carry lorries of soil from the Central Asia, it
will not compare to Izmir for Turks. Same logic is also true in
religious aspect. The Turks will not differentiate between Gallipoli
and Mecca. Afyon is sacred, so is Ordu.

Another dimension of Armenian `disorder’ is the Ararat compassion of
Armenians in the Diaspora. The Ararat, which is seen from Armenia,
can not be seen from California or Marseille (Diaspora). An
overwhelming majority of Armenians in the U.S. or France have never
seen Ararat and sat by the Van Lake. Most of them believe that they
will be slaughtered if they come to Turkey. They dream of Van and
Agri in such an `ignorance’. They name their shops with Anatolian
cities. They set up football teams and name it Malatyaspor. I don’t
know what the name of this disorder in psychology is. I call it
`disorder’, because the words `homesickness’ or `nostalgia’ are weak
for this situation.

***

The Armenia’s situation is lamentable today. Unemployment is over
30%. The population is still decreasing. The unemployed youngsters
still emigrate. The Armenians, who have migrated at least 3-4 times
since 1915, keep on moving. They not only seek job or food but also
homeland. However, the homeland is the abandoned Armenia. They don’t
even care about it. If millions of Armenians around the world had
invested some billions of dollars each year, Armenia would have
revitalized. Not only the emigration would have stopped but it would
also have attracted migrations from Turkey.

As long as the Armenians look at the Turkish territories from Armenia
and sigh, they will never have a homeland because the true homeland
is where you live. It is where you show your sympathy for homeland.
It is where you earn a living and live peacefully. The Armenians
perhaps will gather, if not today, on the skirts of the Mount Aðrý in
the future. But it will be never possible with this mentality. Let’s
assume that they were able to obtain some land from Turkey through
violence and fraud. They will not have a homeland even in this case
because the Armenians don’t know what homeland means. If Turkey had
given Ararat to Armenians, the Armenians would have only had a
mountain, but they would have lost Ararat. If they had been given
Van, they wouldn’t have settled there. They would have only had a
lake but they would have lost `Vaspurakan’, because they don’t know
the value of Van. Can those who don’t grasp the value of Armenia
grasp the value of new lands? They live in a world of dreams. The
yesterday’s pains are more appealing than today’s peace for them.

REFUGEES UNHAPPY WITH GEORGIAN HOTEL PROJECT
By Revaz Sakevarishvili in Batumi

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
June 8 2006

People displaced by war and now living in Black Sea hotels complain
that they are being short-changed by a scheme to rehouse them, to
make way for a huge redevelopment programme.

A massive tourism investment project on Georgia’s Black Sea coast is
getting under way despite complaints from refugees who say they will
not move out of their hotel accommodation because the compensation
on offer is too small.

Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, visiting Kazakstan late
last year, said a consortium of Kazakh investors led by TuranAlem
Bank would invest “between 800 million and one billion [US] dollars”
in developing tourist infrastructure on the Black Sea coast of Ajaria.

The announcement raised high hopes in Ajaria, but media reports in
Kazakstan are now suggesting the scale of the investment will be much
lower, at around 200 million dollars. It is unclear why the figure
has fallen so much.

TuranAlem’s press secretary in Almaty, Valentina Vladimirskaya, told
IWPR that many parts of the investment project, for which the bank
is providing financing, were still at an early stage.

“TuranAlem Bank is giving credits to companies which are investing
this money in various projects in Georgia,” she said. “Some of these
projects are being negotiated, while others have reached the signing
stage. Kazakh banks plan to attract western partners and finance
these projects gradually.

“The reconstruction of the Radisson Iveria in Tbilisi and the
surrounding territory area has already been agreed – this project
specifically is worth 150 million dollars. As for the overall sum [for
the whole of Georgia including Ajaria], it’s very hard to name it.”

In Ajaria, people have been eagerly anticipating the investment boom
as a potential source of jobs and money.

The regional government of Ajaria has been working since the beginning
of the year to make the project a reality. In February, the head
of the local government Levan Varshalomidze ordered that the entire
state-owned company Resorts of Ajaria consisting of 20 hotels, rest
homes and sanatoria should be sold to a new company, Ajaria Resorts
Holding, established to implement the Kazak investment project. A 53
per cent share of the Meskheti Hotel was also included in the sale.

The total price for the sites, including the Meskheti shares, was set
at 17.5 million dollars, of which just four million is the value of
the state-owned hotels.

The other 13.5 million dollars represents compensation to help rehouse
just under 2,000 refugees from Georgia’s civil wars, who have lived
in the hotels for more than a decade.

Ajaria’s deputy finance minister Tamaz Mgebrishvili, who has been
overseeing the process, rejected suggestions that the 21 hotels were
being sold off cheap. “Given the condition of these buildings, it is
a very realistic price, since most of them need serious repairs and
several need to be completely demolished,” he said.

Tourism has been a major source of income for Ajaria, especially since
Georgia lost the Black Sea coast of Abkhazia following the conflict
of 1992-93. Every summer, Ajarian resorts overflow with holidaymakers
from Georgia and further afield.

Last year, there was a big influx of tourists from Armenia. Tengiz
Surmanadze, head of the ABK+ tourist firm, told IWPR, “This year we
forecast that there will be even more Armenian tourists. The flow
has increased from Ukraine and Russia and also from Central Asia.

“As for Georgians, you know the joke: if you can’t find someone in
Tbilisi in summer, go to Batumi and you’ll definitely see him there.”

The compensation money is intended to help the refugees, mostly from
Abkhazia, and works out at about 7,000 dollars for each of the 1,921
families still housed in the Black Sea hotels.

However, this part of the plan has not gone smoothly. All the refugees
were supposed to have moved out of the hotels by May 30, but some
are still there.

Paata Jalagonia, who chairs a regional human rights group, said 500
families were holding out because they had not agreed to the terms
of the compensation package.

“They are six to eight people in a family occupying two or three
rooms, but for the 7,000 dollars on offer they can’t even buy a
one-room apartment, which in Batumi goes for an average of 11,000 or
12,000 dollars. So they are demanding an increase in the scale of the
compensation, so that it corresponds to the amount of space they now
occupy,” he said.

However, it looks unlikely that the refugees will get what they want.

Nodar Andguladze, a spokesman for Ajaria Resorts Holding, said the
compensation had been allocated according to a definition of family
size agreed with the Georgian government.

“The list of families who ought to receive compensation was given
us by the health ministry,” he said. “So if someone has a complaint,
they should apply to the ministry.”

Many families are contesting the way they were designated. Among
the 116 cases being reviewed by the prosecutor’s office in Ajaria is
that of Mirian Kalandia, who currently lives in two hotel rooms with
his wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson. Until March, they were
defined as being two families, but are now being treated as one and
are thus only entitled to a single compensation package.

While these arguments go on, the investors have already begun work.

In the Kolkhida sanatorium, the glass has been taken out of windows
even though there are still refugees living there.

“The time-frame has already been decided on by us and the government,”
said Andguladze. “For example, the Medea and Meskheti hotels and the
Kobuleti sanatorium should begin operating in 2007.

Five thousand people, mostly locals, will be employed at each stage
of the project. The hotels we build will serve all sections of the
population and there is big demand for them. So we definitely have
to meet our deadlines.”

Deputy health minister Aleko Shvelidze said that if the investors
and the refugees could not agree, “other options” would be used to
rehouse the refugees. “In any case, I promise that no family will be
left on the street,” he said.

This reassurance is not enough for a group of refugees, who have been
demonstrating outside government headquarters in Batumi in recent days.

“There is no other way we can achieve anything,” said Vakhtang Ardia,
who said he was almost removed from the list of registered refugees.

“A grandfather, grandmother, two children, two daughters-in-law and
a grandson are living in two rooms. We are being driven out and given
money just for one room,” he said.

“If they want to tell us to our faces that we shouldn’t have children,
then we can go and look for somewhere else to live, somewhere where
people will treat us like normal human beings.”

Revaz Sakevarishvili is a Georgian freelance journalist.

ARMENIA DIASPORA CONFERENCE

AZG Armenian Daily
09/06/2006

The third Armenia Diaspora conference will convene on September 18-20
in Yerevan.

This year will also mark the 15th anniversary of Armenia’s
independence. In that context, ArmeniaDiaspora III will examine,
analyze, assess our past and consider how history and current
geo-political realities raise new issues before our nation, and how
the possibilities and prospects for resolving them together.

The agenda of ArmeniaDiaspora III will consist of various strands.

On September 18, at the first plenary, we will explore the
current condition and future prospects for Armenia-Diaspora
relations and cooperation – a traditional concern which requires
new approaches, taking into consideration ever-changing geopolitical
development. During this session, speakers will include the leadership
of the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, the Catholicos of
All Armenians, the Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, as well as
other spiritual leaders, and the heads of all Diaspora-wide structures.

During the second half of the day and on the next day, we will focus
on the second agenda item – rural development in Armenia. To secure
Armenia’s total development, and from the perspective of certain
strategic concerns, the comprehensive development of Armenia’s rural
communities must be assured.

Therefore, our objective is to rally the resources of the Armenian
government and Armenia’s business community, the Diaspora and
international organizations, to renovate rural infrastructure,
facilitate economic development and create the necessary contemporary
conditions to live and work in rural communities.

As a starting point, and for obvious strategic reasons, we have
decided to begin with Armenia’s border villages.

Participating in this agenda item will be the representatives of
those communities, organizations, groups as well as those individuals
who have already agreed to take part in this program. Of course,
those conference participants who are interested in this topic may
also attend.

Beginning Tuesday and continuing through Wednesday, September 20,
there will be a forum entitled “New Answers to Old Questions for a New
Nation-State in the 21st Century.” Armenian identity in the context
of globalization – preservation, language, culture, education, dual
citizenship, repatriation as a phenomenon, the history of Armenian
repatriation, its organization, new repatriation possibilities,
prospects, as well other issues will be on the agenda.

Also on Wednesday, the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the Ministry
of Trade and Economic Development will be holding a forum on economic
developments and prospects.

On Thursday, September 21, independence day celebrations will take
place throughout the capital.

All conference participants are invited.

On Friday, a major exhibition on Armenia’s economic activity,
agricultural development, prospects and partners will take place in
the same venue as the conference, at the Demirchian Sports Complex,
and all conference participants will be encouraged to attend.

Additional information about the agenda, registration forms, as well
as modalities of participation will be available over the next several
weeks at or at

The conference is open to all who wish to be present and take part
in Armenia’s future.