Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

Opinion: The Planting of Ideas
By Carolyn Mugar and Jeff Masarjian
Boston Globe
October 24, 2006
“THE PLANTING of trees is the planting of ideas,” says Dr. Wangari Maathai,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and environmentalist. But what does she mean?
Hosted by Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition, she will address this question at
Faneuil Hall today.
In a world faced with such weighty problems as global warming, dwindling
fossil fuels, and the gap between rich and poor nations — the planting of
trees may seem of little importance. Yet, as the founder of the Green Belt
Movement, Maathai has taught us that tree planting is a critical step toward
helping to protect the environment and fight poverty.
A Kenyan, Maathai has dedicated herself to fighting two of her country’s
starkest problems: poverty and deforestation. With less than 2 percent
forest coverage, Kenya is well below the UN recommended minimum of 10
percent. Maathai’s movement has held fast against these daunting challenges,
forging an ingenious path forward — one that simultaneously addresses both
crises. It is an approach built upon education and direct engagement with
local communities.
Led by Maathai, the Green Belt Movement organizes poor rural women in Kenya
to plant trees. Each new tree yields multiple benefits in their lives —
reversing the tide of deforestation, restoring Kenyan’s main source of
cooking fuel, and strengthening the community.
The Green Belt Movement has incorporated education on women’s rights into
its environmental programs, empowering disenfranchised Kenyans to fight for
a sustainable and viable economic future. All these actions make clear what
Mathaai means by comparing the planting of trees with the planting of ideas.
And she is not alone in that view. All around the world, NGOs and other
concerned parties are taking comparable steps to protect the environment and
combat poverty. In Armenia today, estimated forest cover is less than 8
percent; a dramatic decrease from a healthy 25 percent at the turn of the
last century. Moreover, its environment, one of the world’s most
ecologically diverse with seven different climate zones, is in grave
jeopardy.
Currently, due to lack of alternative energy sources, the 40 percent of
Armenians living below the poverty line are overreliant on wood for fuel. If
the trend of poverty-driven deforestation continues, much of Armenia will
become a desert in just 20 years. Like Kenya, deforestation threatens to rob
Armenia of its natural beauty and resources.
That’s why, similar to the Green Belt Movement’s efforts, an organization
called the Armenia Tree Project offers public education programs. We
recently developed a new interactive environmental curriculum, “Plant an
Idea, Plant a Tree,” which offers instruction on how the health of Armenia’s
ecosystem is closely tied to its economic future. We have introduced this
curriculum in all 1,400 of Armenia’s public schools. In rural villages, our
staff trains and works with subsistence farmers on planting and forestation
techniques. At our large-scale nursery and environmental educational center,
we instruct college students and professionals on environmental stewardship.
In our 12 years, Armenia Tree Project has made enormous strides, planting
and restoring more than 1,250,000 trees and creating hundreds of jobs in our
backyard nursery micro-enterprises for Armenia’s rural poor.
In the 30 years of the Green Belt Movement’s existence, an astonishing 30
million trees have been planted and 30,000 Kenyan women trained in forestry,
food processing, bee keeping, and other trades. Their example inspires our
work.
Such accomplishments suggest that in a world overwhelmed by seemingly large
and unsolvable issues, the long-term solutions may well lie in simple but
practical actions, taken on the local level.
Carolyn Mugar is the founder and Jeff Masarjian the executive director of
Armenia Tree Project.
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

CHARLES AZNAVOUR: THE OTHER GENOCIDE SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN
AZG Armenian Daily
24/10/2006
French-Armenian world famous singer Charles Aznavour expressed
his opinion about the passage by the French National Assembly of
the bill penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide, Agence France
Presse reported.
Aznavour thinks that the bill should be applied to all genocide and
not only the crime against the Armenians.
He thinks that it’s great that the lawmakers have considered this
issue but the other genocide should not be forgotten either.
The 82-year-old singer also expressed joy over awarding Turkish
novelist Orhan Pamuk with the Nobel Prize. Aznavour thinks that Pamuk
is justly discussing the issue of recognizing the Armenian genocide
by Turkey.

VLADIMIR YAKUNIN’S OPINION NEGATIVE ABOUT CONSTRUCTION OF A RAILWAY BYPASSING ARMENIA
Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 23 2006
President of the “Russian railways” OJSC Vladimir Yakunin considers
that the project of construction of the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi
railway is an attempt to exert pressure over Armenia.
Yakunin told “Echo Moskvi” radio station that his attitude toward
the construction of the railway bypassing Armenia is negative,
Mediamax reports.
“It divides the unity of the railway network that remained from the
Soviet Union,” Vladimir Yakunin said. Moreover, he noted that it is
an attempt of exact states to exert pressure on our friendly country.”

ARMENIA: MUSEO DEL GENOCIDIO,UNA FIAMMA PER RICORDARE/ANSA
dell’ inviata Eloisa Gallinaro
ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
18 ottobre, 2006
CAPO CHIESA ARMENA,SENZA AMMISSIONI TURCHIA SEMPRE IN PERICOLO
(ANSA) – EREVAN, 18 OTT -‘Mets Eguer’n’, il grande crimine: cosi’
gli armeni hanno definito per anni lo sterminio di un milione e mezzo
di persone da parte dei turchi tra il 1915 e il 1923. Il termine
genocidio non c’era ancora. Sarebbe nato insieme all’ Olocausto,
e solo dopo e’ stato usato anche per gli armeni: ma in molti, all’
estero, hanno continuato ad ignorare “il grande crimine”, prima che la
decisione francese di punire per legge, come reato, la negazione del
genocidio armeno, scatenasse in mezzo mondo rivendicazioni e polemiche.
In Armenia il negazionismo non e’ nemmeno preso in considerazione e il
ricordo e’ doloroso: tra i quattro milioni di persone che vivono nella
piccola repubblica ex sovietica quasi tutti hanno perso congiunti
e hanno avuto famiglie decimate in quei terribili anni a cavallo
della Prima guerra mondiale. C’e chi ne parla in maniera ferma, ma
sommessa, come il viceministro degli Esteri Armen Baiburtian, che
vorrebbe vedere riaperti quei confini che la Turchia tiene chiusi,
strangolando economicamente il Paese. E chi lo grida forte, come il
Catholicos Gareghin II, capo spirituale di tutti gli armeni.
A parlare per tutti, senza retorica, e’ il Museo del genocidio,
spartano memoriale in cemento grigio che domina Erevan dalla ‘Fortezza
delle rondini’, una collinetta alla periferia sud-ovest della capitale
armena. Accanto alla fiamma eterna, che arde al centro di un cerchio
delimitato da lastroni ricurvi, come a proteggerla, uno spiazzo erboso
ospita le targhe che ricordano i visitatori illustri. Vicino a ogni
targa un piccolo abete. C’ e’ quella di Romano Prodi, venuto qui il
19 settembre 2004 da presidente della Commissione europea. Quella
di Papa Giovanni Paolo II, giunto in pellegrinaggio il 26 settembre
2001, che ricorda “come i figli e le figlie di questa terra hanno
sofferto”. E quella, recentissima, del presidente francese “Jacques
Chirac e Signora”, passati qui il 30 settembre 2006.
Altre lapidi, allineate lungo un muro, celebrano i ‘Giusti’, come
Anatole France; come l’ italiano Giacomo Gorrini, dal 1911 al 1915
Console d’ Italia e Trebisonda e testimone oculare dei massacri,
denunciati in un’ intervista al Messaggero il 25 agosto 1915; come l’
ambasciatore americano in Turchia Henry Morgenthau, ebreo, che il 10
luglio 1915 scrive in un telegramma da Costantinopoli al segretario
di Stato che “le persecuzioni degli armeni hanno raggiunto limiti
senza precedenti”.
Come l’ appello di Papa Benedetto XV, datato 10 settembre 1917,
a Mohammed V Sultano degli Ottomani perche faccia qualcosa: il
documento originale e’ stato donato al museo e portato personalmente
da Papa Woytila.
All’ interno del museo, oltre ai documenti, le gigantografie dei
massacri: gli impiccati nella piazza di Aleppo nel 1916, il corpo
scheletrico di una donna e dei suoi due bambini morti di fame nel
deserto siriano di Ras-el-Ain, i teschi ammucchiati, gli orfani nel
deserto della Mesopotamia nel 1917.
Immagini uguali a quelle piu’ note della Shoah, “contro l’ oblio e
per la memoria”, come ricorda la ragazza che ci fa da guida.
Il panorama, di fronte al Museo del genocidio, e’ mozzafiato: il
massiccio dell’ Ararat coperto di neve e’ a soli 30 chilometri, ma e’
oltre il confine sigillato, in territorio turco. E gli armeni devono
accontentarsi di una gloria nazionale dallo stesso nome: il pregiato
cognac Ararat, uno dei preferiti da Winston Churchill.
Non lontano da qui, nella evocativa Santa Sede di Echmiadzin, il
Catholicos Gareghin II fa sentire senza esitazione la sua voce:
“L’ Armenia e’ pronta ad aprire le frontiere con la Turchia senza
condizioni. E’ la Turchia che pone condizioni: che il Nagorno Karabahk
resti azero e che l’ Armenia rinunci a denunciare il genocidio. Noi
non possiamo cedere su questi due punti. Fino a quando i turchi non
riconosceranno la responsabilita’ del genocidio, il popolo armeno
vivra’ nel pericolo di diventare di nuovo vittima di una azione
simile”.
Nel monumentale edificio che ospita il ministero degli Esteri, nella
centralissima Respubliki Plosciadi, il vice ministro degli Esteri
Armen Baiburtian scandisce: “La Turchia ha rifiutato di stabilire
relazioni diplomatiche con noi, tiene i confini chiusi. Ma se vuole
arrivare a far parte dell’ Unione europea deve rispettare le minoranze,
i vicini, le nazioni piu’ piccole.
E’ importante riconoscere l’ identita’ del mio Paese e il genocidio
fa parte di questa identita'”. (ANSA).

A PRIZE AFFAIR: TURKEY AND THE ARMENIANS
The Economist
October 21, 2006
U.S. Edition
A Nobel winner
Orhan Pamuk, the French parliament and the Armenian massacres
WAS it for his writing or his commentary? The question has consumed
the country since Orhan Pamuk became the first Turk to win the Nobel
prize for literature (or indeed any Nobel). The comments, about the
mass slaughter of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, led last year to
Mr Pamuk’s prosecution on charges of insulting the “Turkish identity” .
The charges were later dropped on a technicality, but not before they
had attracted a storm of international criticism.
Ascribing to him the Byzantine wiles displayed by some of his
characters, Mr Pamuk’s enemies are now saying that he engineered his
own trial so as to win the Nobel. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the mildly
Islamist prime minister, urged fellow Turks to “put aside polemics”
and congratulate Mr Pamuk, but the (pro-secular) president remained
pointedly silent.
The novelist’s detractors were given a boost, hours before the
award was announced, by the French National Assembly, when it voted
overwhelmingly for a bill to criminalise denial that the Armenians
were victims of a genocide. The bill is unlikely to become law, but
it still sparked a wave of anti-French demonstrations and vows that
France would somehow be made to “pay” for its misdeeds. Why not boot
out some 70,000 illegal workers from neighbouring Armenia, suggested
Yasar Yakis, a former minister from the ruling AK party?
The European Union enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, said that the
French bill “instead of opening up the debate [on the Armenians in
Turkey] would rather close it down.” Mesrob Mutafyan, the Armenian
Orthodox patriarch in Istanbul, voiced fears that his 80,000-member
flock might now become targets for ultra-nationalist vigilantes.
Happily, no Armenian has been hurt (or deported) so far. Nor
have efforts to break the ice between ordinary Turks and Armenians
stopped-an exhibition by Turkish and Armenian photographers depicting
daily life in Istanbul and Yerevan is to open soon.
There may even be a silver lining to the French cloud. Basking on
the moral high ground, Mr Erdogan said he would not be trapped into
responding to France’s “assault on free speech” in kind. The justice
minister, Cemil Cicek, is hinting that Turkey’s article 301, under
which Mr Pamuk and scores of fellow writers and academics have been
prosecuted, may be scrapped. If it is, Turkey’s EU hopes would be
resuscitated-and future award-winning novelists could then claim to
have been judged solely by their works, not their deeds.

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone: 212.319.6383, x118
Fax: 212.319.6507
Email: [email protected]
Website:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 20, 2006
AGBU Breathes New Life Into Gyumri School for Children With Special
Needs
On September 1, 2006, Gyumri Boarding School #3 for students with
special needs, in the northern Armenian province of Shirak, welcomed
this year’s student body to its newly renovated and refurbished
building. Funded by AGBU London and with the contribution of volunteers
from AGBU France, this is the first time this school, which has been
operating for 15 years and enrolls 132 children, has been renovated.
AGBU London provided funds in excess of $10,000 for this comprehensive
renovation project, paying for construction materials and hiring
contractors to complete some of the more specialized tasks. The Chapter
specifically sponsored the construction of new lavatory facilities,
replaced dormitory mattresses and beddings, and installed new flooring
throughout the institution. AGBU France Summer Camp volunteers,
who visited Armenia this past August, participated in the renovation
effort by painting school walls and bringing a much-needed touch of
color and vitality to the facility.
This project is a continuation of AGBU’s commitment to the
reconstruction and expansion of Gyumri, Armenia’s second-largest city,
which was nearly obliterated in the devastating 1988 earthquake. As
part of the organization’s dedication to resuscitating the rich
cultural, educational, and artistic life of the city, AGBU has also
constructed the Gyumri Art Academy, which houses the local campuses of
the Armenian Movie and Theater State Institute, the Music Conservatory,
and the Academy of Fine Arts. In the past, AGBU’s support also made
possible the reconstruction of Gyumri Secondary School #7 destroyed
by the earthquake, and the playground of Lord Byron School. Now,
the organization’s generosity has revived Gyumri Boarding School #3,
and promises an exciting start to the new academic year that began
this month.
Established in 1906, AGBU () is the world’s largest
non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City
with an annual budget of $34 million, AGBU preserves and promotes
the Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and
humanitarian programs, annually serving some 400,000 Armenians in
375 countries.

Vardan Oskanian to resign
Azer Press Agency
Oct 19 2006
[ 19 Oct. 2006 16:18 ]
Armenia Foreign minister Vardan Oskanian said that he will resign
before presidential elections in 2008, APA reports quoting Arminfo.
Vardan Oskanian said that it will be 10 years in 2008 that he occupies
this position and it will not be right to do it during the next five
years. The minister denied the information that he wants to nominate
to presidency and said he has not decided yet what he will do after
the resignation.
“I do not know what I will do. What I know exactly is that my children
and I want to see Armenia as a normal state,” he said.
Oskanian said that he was engaged in external policy for many years
and now wants to talk about internal problems now.
“The elections come up and I see serious problems,” the minister said.
Osdkanyan also said that it is important to lift the barrier between
the government and society. /APA/

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
October 20, 2006 Friday
NATO SETTLES IN THE CAUCASUS;
NATO claims that Russia haad better learn to live with it
: Sohbet Mamedov
NATO functionaries and delegations in Azerbaijan; NATO officials are
frequent guests in Baku, Azerbaijan these days. On his visit to Baku,
President Trajan Besescu of Romania offered assistance in promoting
Azerbaijan’s integration into the European Union and NATO.
NATO officials are frequent guests in Baku, Azerbaijan these days. On
his visit to Baku, President Trajan Besescu of Romania offered
assistance in promoting Azerbaijan’s integration into the European
Union and NATO. His visit was followed by that of Robert Simmons,
NATO Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Caucasus and Central
Asia. A delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly headed by Vahid
Erdem turned up in Baku earlier this week. Erdem met with the Azeri
foreign and defense ministers.
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedjarov, in a brief statement for the media,
described the level of Azerbaijan-NATO cooperation as high.
Asked if Baku planned “an intensive dialogue with NATO (like
Tbilisi),” Mamedjarov replied that the matter was “too delicate”
to be rushed. Defense Minister Safar Abiyev briefed Erdem on the
military-political situation in the southern part of the Caucasus.
The impression was, however, that Erdem was more interested in the
structure of the Azeri Armed Forces, their budget, and nature of
cooperation with NATO.
This conclusion was drawn by some participants of the meeting between
the visiting delegation on the one hand and representatives of the
national parliament and non-governmental organizations on the other.
The meeting was mostly centered around military cooperation between
Azerbaijan and NATO, human rights, democratization of society, and war
on corruption. Neither was Russia’s attitude towards NATO’s interests
in the southern part of the Caucasus was forgotten. “Russia takes part
in our peacekeeping programs. NATO includes a permanent committee for
Russia. There are contacts between NATO and Russia at the levels of
their heads, foreign and defense ministers, and parliaments. It will
therefore be wrong to speak of any serious objections on Russia’s part
to the rapprochement between NATO and countries of the southern part
of the Caucasus,” Erdem said. “And yet, Russia is not going to like it
in the least. It will certainly react to the even closer rapprochement
between countries of the southern part of the Caucasus and NATO. Still,
Moscow learned to live with membership of the Baltic states in NATO. I
don’t think that there are any problems with that nowadays. I’d
say that an even closer rapprochement between the countries of the
southern part of the Caucasus and NATO is possible, particularly
since the process of mutual integration will be quite long.”
Erdem added that Armenia, as close as it was with Russia, did not
“ignore NATO. There are politicians in this country who wish for
closer relations with NATO.” “Observations show, however, that Armenia
is more interested in the European Union. It doesn’t view NATO as a
close partner,” Erdem said.
Some analysts say that NATO needs to be present in the region and
that frequent visits of its representatives study the position of
the population (that of Azerbaijan included).
Erdem said that results of the meetings in Azerbaijan this week
would be mentioned in the final report “NATO’s Role in the Southern
Caucasus.”
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 20, 2006, p. 6
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Attorney General Moonbeam?
Weekly Standard: Jerry Brown Keeps On Running
cbsnews.com
October 17, 2006
While the rest of the nation lurches ahead to Election Day,
California remains stuck in a time warp.
Take the governor’s race between incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger and
State Treasurer Phil Angelides. It started out as the 1984
presidential contest redux, with Arnold reprising the role of Ronald
Reagan (hopeless optimist) and Angelides that of Walter Mondale
(doomed the moment he called for higher taxes). That was before
Angelides set the way-back machine to the 1960s, channeling his inner
Tom Hayden and vowing to sue the Bush administration to return
California’s National Guard troops from Iraq. Unfortunately, for
Angelides, time isn’t on his side; the polls suggest he’s headed for
a double-digit drubbing.
Then there’s California’s other blast from the past: Jerry Brown,
who’s running for state attorney general. It marks the eighth time
that Brown, who succeeded Reagan as governor of California 32 years
ago this January, has sought statewide or national office That
includes presidential runs in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, but doesn’t
begin to cover two terms as Oakland mayor (his current job), a
two-year stint as chairman of the state Democratic party (he’d later
drop his party affiliation before returning to the fold prior to his
Oakland mayoral bid), plus some creative moonlighting as a talk-radio
host, a student of Zen Buddhism in Japan, and a buddy of Mother
Teresa in Calcutta.
It’s a race with dynastic overtones: Jerry Brown’s father, Pat,
served two terms as California’s attorney general and two terms as
governor during the ’50s and ’60s; his sister Kathleen served one
term as state treasurer before getting trounced in the 1994
governor’s race. Despite the lengthy resume, no one is suggesting
that Jerry Brown is geriatric – at 68, he’s five years younger than
California’s senior senator, Dianne Feinstein. Still, it seems
strange that the Brown torch hasn’t already been passed to a new
generation. In November 1982, while Brown was wrapping up his final
year as governor, Mario Cuomo was winning a first term as governor of
New York. Twenty-four years later, it’s Cuomo’s son, Andrew, who’s
running to be New York’s next attorney general – the same job Brown
covets in California.
Brown has attempted to portray his mayoral record as that of a
Giuliani-type city boss who’s tough on crime. But homicides in
Oakland are up nearly 100 percent since Brown first took office. And
that’s just the tip of the iceberg, says Brown’s opponent, state
senator Charles Poochigian, whose campaign eagerly counts the ways in
which Governor Brown was soft on crime: pardoning seven first-degree
murderers; supporting a prisoners’ bill of rights while opposing a
crime victims’ bill of rights; vetoing a bill reinstating the death
penalty (a veto the state legislature overrode); and opposing lethal
injection as California’s method of capital punishment.
Brown has responded that the pardoned murderers were elderly, and
that as attorney general, he would carry out laws allowing
executions. If so, he might want to explain the company he keeps.
Brown’s radio ads are voiced over by Peter Coyote, the actor and Bay
Area fixture who’s a regular at San Quentin death-penalty protests.
And yet Brown will not be easily defeated. He has a 15-point lead in
the polls, better name recognition than Poochigian, and a larger
campaign war chest. Poochigian hails from Fresno, which isn’t much of
a political stronghold (his family settled there to take up farming
after fleeing the Armenian genocide, and his mother still lives on
their original 20-acre plot). But he does have at least two factors
working for him: A Schwarzenegger landslide over Angelides could
sweep fellow Republican candidates into office; and Brown’s support
has not grown beyond 45 percent, suggesting a skeptical electorate.
It wasn’t skepticism but downright fatigue and frustration that led
to Brown’s defeat the last time he ran for statewide office, in the
1982 U.S. Senate race won by Republican Pete Wilson (who also
defeated Brown’s sister in the 1994 governor’s race). Brown had been
governor for the previous eight years – and had traded in the
governor’s mansion for a floor mattress in more Spartan digs, tooled
around town in a Plymouth instead of a state limo, escorted Linda
Ronstadt to Africa, elevated Rose Bird to the state’s high court, and
seemed powerless against infesting Medflies. After Brown proposed the
creation of a state space academy, Mike Royko nicknamed him Governor
Moonbeam. But will voters in this election – some of whom weren’t
alive in 1982, much less eligible to vote – remember those greatest
hits? Are they aware of Brown’s other oddball musings, such as
likening capital punishment to “Hitler’s Germany” and characterizing
corporate America as “an out-of-control Frankenstein”?
It’s that last quote that’s worth remembering. In California,
attorneys general hail from one of two parties, and in office they
pursue one of two paths: serving blue-collar, law-and-order justice,
or attacking white-collar crime. George Deukmejian, an attorney
general during the ’70s and early ’80s and Brown’s successor as
governor, made a name for himself as a death-penalty champion.
By contrast, the man Brown hopes to succeed as attorney general,
Democrat Bill Lockyer, seems obsessed with corporate malfeasance.
Lockyer has used his office to sue Enron, whom he accused of gouging
California during the state’s energy crisis. More recently, he filed
a lawsuit against a half-dozen automakers for allegedly contributing
to global warming, and indicted Hewlett-Packard executives for
corporate espionage.
Where would an Attorney General Brown take California? The post
allows for tremendous political latitude. In California, the attorney
general not only represents the state in civil and criminal court
proceedings, but also acts as a patron saint for consumers’ and
victims’ rights and environmental groups. The job is made-to-order
for any politician with higher aspirations and a fertile imagination.
And Brown seems still to have both. Because he served as governor
before term limits went into effect, he could seek the top job again
in 2010. “I have a bright future, into my late 70s,” Brown has told
reporters.
At the very least it should be interesting. “I will be an unusual
attorney general. I will not be like the other ones,” he said back in
April. Brown also tells reporters he wants to take a “common sense”
approach to the office, which means settling civil lawsuits,
protecting the environment, plus addressing city crime and corporate
abuses. Poochigian, on the other hand, would likely build on his
legislative record, which includes tougher penalties for sexual
predators, gun-toting felons, and identity thieves.
As California secretary of state in the early 1970s, Brown showed
what kind of attorney general he might turn out to be. During his one
term in that position, he brought suits against Standard Oil of
California, ITT, Gulf Oil, and Mobil for violating campaign finance
laws. For Democrats, three decades later, corporate-bashing is, if
anything, more in vogue In New York, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
is about to be elected governor after using his office’s crusades
against the securities, insurance, entertainment, and computer
industries to raise his profile. And for Brown, too, becoming
attorney general would be an opportunity to show off his timeless
knack for self-aggrandizement.
Bill Whalen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he
follows California and national politics.
17/opinion/main2099143.shtml

CAUCASIAN COUNTRIES DELIVER ANOTHER BLOW AT RUSSIAN IMPERIALISTS
Kavkaz Center, Turkey
Oct 15 2006
The 8-year-old Kars-Tbilisi-Baku Railroad Project moves up in the
agenda. The reason is that the Armenian lobby in the United States
has blocked loans to this project in the U.S. Senate. Immediately
afterwards, the fact that Russia, a neocolonial power and master
in Armenia, is about to impose an embargo on Georgia, also brings
another light to the project. This route will be Turkey’s cheapest and
shortest access to Central Asia. Also, Georgia, immersed in economic
troubles, will become a transit center of the region with the help
of this railroad, the Turkish English newspaper Daily News reported.
The Turkish Transportation Ministry sheds light to which phase the
project is at: “The technical project of the route will be completed
at the end of 2006. In 2007, a tender will be held. and the estimated
cost of the project is 0 million.”
The closure of the Turkish-Armenian border in Dogukapý in 1993 has
brought Kars economy to a standstill. Significant volumes of goods
were exported to Iraq and Syria through this gate .
The aim of the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku Railroad project is to expand
the trade volume among Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. This route
will bypass Dogukapý meaning Armenia, the country that has troubles
with Turkey and Azerbaijan, and end in Akhalkalaki, a small city in
Georgia’s southern region. From Akhalkalaki onwards to Tbilisi, the
existing railroad route will be connected to the network expanding
to the entire Caucasus.
For the Turkish and Azeri sides, this project is not only an economic
project but each has a political goal attached to it. While both
countries plan to have access to a huge market of 0 billion, at the
same time, they consider cornering Armenia on issues such as occupation
of Nagorno-Karabakh and the alleged “genocide”. Also, Georgia plans
to become a new transit route to the Caucasus just like Armenia.
Several Kars businessmen insist that the project of the century is
the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku Railroad, not the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
This project means an alternative route that would give them access
to the outside world.
–Boundary_(ID_Se5ZKmqMDC+Bl6Fu+5Kv/Q)–