Category: News

Three Armenian theaters to perform at next festival
Yerkir/arm
December 10, 2004
Back in January, 2004 Ministries of Culture of Armenia and Syria
signed an agreement on cultural collaboration, which implies not only
organization of mutual cultural events in both countries but also
interaction in many cultural fields.
This year Syria has organized days of the Armenian culture. In frames
of the same agreement, the Armenian Edgar Elbakian theater toured in
Damascus during a festival this year.
Razmik Abrahamian of the Ministry on Culture says that the Armenian
theater greatly impressed the Syrian spectators with a two-hour
performance of Fridrich Dyurenmath’s `Last waltz.’ The performance was
followed by long applauds.
The festival had been suspended for 16 years and restarted after
4-hour talks of the director and president. The raised funds went to
the government. Our actors highly praised the level of organization of
the overall event.
Although the festival did not foresee any prizes, several actors,
including Armenian Vladimir Msrian, were given respect ceremonies.
The Armenian performance was so appreciated that the next year three
theaters will be invited.
A the end of the interview, Razmik Abrahamian said that unlike
previous years, when the Armenian community of Syria was gathered only
around the church, now you can feel the presence of the Armenian
state.

New York Times
Dec 13 2004
Deportation Case Riles Colorado Town
By KIRK JOHNSON
RIDGWAY, Colo., Dec. 8 – The Sargsyan family came from Armenia in the
1990’s already primed with many of the attributes that small-town
rural America respects. They worked hard, paid their bills on time,
learned English rapidly, excelled in school and were good-looking as
well, people here say.
In this mostly white ranching and retirement town of about 700
people near the Telluride ski resort, the Sargsyans also brought a
tincture of foreign exoticism that many residents found bracing.
“These are the kind of people you want as immigrants, the kind that
made this country great,” said Dr. Richard Engdahl, pastor of the
United Church of the San Juans, which meets in the local community
center.
But what happened next says as much about the town as it does about
the family. After the Sargsyans were threatened with deportation
earlier this year – they had entered the country on student visas and
gotten jobs instead, the government said – a kind of collective howl
went up here over what was perceived as a terrible injustice.
The anger filtered through the tiny Ridgway School, where Hayk
Sargsyan (pronounced sarg-SEE-yan) is a senior in the 17-member class
of 2005. And it erupted from Dr. Engdahl’s church, where Hayk’s
sister, Meri, is a pianist.
The Sargsyans were in trouble – Hayk, Meri and two other family
members were placed in detention in early November – and many people
said that was all they needed to know. Dr. Engdahl offered at least
half a dozen sermons on the subject.
Heidi Comstock, an assistant office manager at a medical clinic up
the road from Ridgway’s one traffic light, said, “This was an
opportunity to make a difference at a time when there’s a feeling of
helplessness on a lot of other levels about the world.”
A fund-raiser with Armenian food and a silent auction raised $15,000
for legal bills. Students began a letter-writing campaign to anyone
who might be able to help, from the county commission to the
Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement bureau.
A seven-hour bus trip was organized to visit the four family members
who were being held at the immigration detention center near Denver,
and about a third of the town’s 150 middle and high school students
went. The student body president, Rachel Overton, 17, said the
experience taught her how to properly organize a protest rally.
[On Thursday, the family members in detention were released; they are
still awaiting the outcome of their case. A spokesman for Immigration
and Customs Enforcement said officials had decided that the Sargsyans
presented neither a risk of flight nor a threat to national security.
On Saturday, the town held a welcome-home reception at a park.]
But the effort to save one family has also exposed the town, people
here say, to some thorny questions and consequences. The family
patriarch, Ruben Sargsyan, 62, who had been a scientist in Armenia
working on optics for the Soviet space program, lost his job frying
doughnuts on the night shift at a local bakery after the furor
erupted, residents say.
And the uncertainty about the family’s permanent status has led some
people to say they fear a loss of innocence as a small town
accustomed to participatory democracy bumps up against a vast and
faceless bureaucracy. If a local official in Ridgway makes a
boneheaded decision, a resident can step up and say so the next time
they bump into each other at the True Grit Café, which is the closest
thing to a town nerve center. The Department of Homeland Security,
with its tens of thousands of employees of somber mandate to protect
the nation, does not lend itself to hands-on folksiness.
“People here still have this faith and belief that if we write the
right letter and reach the right politician, we can make a
difference,” said Susan Lacy, the secondary school principal at
Ridgway School. “I worry about the students becoming cynical too
soon,” she added.
Students like Rachel Plavidal, a 17-year-old classmate of Hayk, say
the government is simply wrong in prosecuting the Sargsyans.
“It’s definitely giving me a negative impression of the government,
that they could do this,” she said. “It just seems like the laws are
being compromised.”
Other people say the effort illuminates how little attention is paid
to other immigrants in the community, especially those from Mexico.
And most people admit that the support probably would not be so
universal if the family were Muslim. The Sargsyans are loved, many
people say, because they fit in so well, and they fit in because they
personified the shared values and ideals of the town.
“These people stood up and took part in this community, and let’s
face it, they have more in common, culturally, with this community
than a lot of the Hispanics,” said Rodney Fitzhugh, a lawyer who
practices in Ridgway and nearby Montrose and who represented a member
of the Sargsyan family, Nvart Idinyan, 30, in a divorce case a few
years ago.
Mr. Fitzhugh said that he supported the campaign for the family, but
that he also hoped it made people think about immigrants not as well
loved as the Sargsyans.
“I champion it in part because it might shed light on these other
cases,” he said.
The Ouray County sheriff, Dominic Mattivi Jr., said he thought the
Sargsyan case revealed the uneven enforcement of immigration law by
the government in small communities like Ridgway, where Hispanic
immigrants have become economic mainstays, especially in the
construction and tourism industries.
“Unless a Mexican commits a felony, they don’t want to hear about
it,” Sheriff Mattivi said of the immigration service.
And the rules are tough to enforce, he said, given the proximity and
porousness of the United States’ border with Mexico. One Mexican
resident who was recently convicted on a drug charge was deported,
Sheriff Mattivi said, but was back in town and at work just two weeks
later.
The family’s visa troubles began after Ms. Idinyan’s divorce, when
her ex-husband turned in the family to the authorities. Family
members say the ex-husband, a United States citizen who has since
left the country, was also the person who arranged the family’s
immigration, defrauding them in the process. He took money from the
Sargsyans and other Armenians, they say, for arranging student visas
that he falsely promised did not require enrollment in school.
The family’s lawyer, Jeff Joseph, has filed an application under a
visa program for victims of immigrant trafficking. Mr. Joseph said
the two boys, Hayk and Gevorg, who is a sophomore in chemical
engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder, were legally
adopted before their 16th birthdays by Ms. Idinyan’s new husband, Max
Noland, who is a United States citizen, and that they should be
protected from deportation by that shield as well.
A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Carl Rusnok,
said he could not comment on the outlook for the family’s case. He
said he thought the matter would be concluded within the next few
months.
Dr. Engdahl at the Church of the San Juans said the Sargsyan case was
bigger than one town or one family because of the questions it raised
about how security fears after Sept. 11 were changing the nation.
“The country once welcomed people like them, but if we’re not that
country any more, because we’re so concerned about being violated,
what does that do to the United States?” he said. “That’s the
question we should be asking.”

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +3741. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +3741. .562543
Email: [email protected]:
PRESS RELEASE
9 December 2004
Foreign Minister Oskanian’s participation at EAPC Ministerial and his
meetings in Brussels
As a continuation of the meeting in Sofia, the Foreign Ministers of Armenia
and Azerbaijan met in the morning on December 9 with the participation of
co-chairmen of the Minsk Group of the OSCE.
Ministers Oskanian and Mamediarov exchanged their views on issues regarding
the current stage of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process. As a result of
the meeting, both parties agree to continue the “Prague format”
negotiations.
On the same day Minister Oskanian met with Ambassador Talvitie, Special
Representative of the EU on the South Caucasus. They discussed issues of
cooperation between the EU and Armenia with respect to the New Neighborhood
policy, and they also discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
Afterwards Minister Oskanian met with Robert F. Simmons, NATO’s Secretary
General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia. Parties
discussed NATO-Armenia relations, focusing on the Individual Partnership
Plan.
Minister Oskanian also participated in NATO EAPC’s regular meeting of
Foreign Ministers.

Lexington Herald Leader, KY
Dec 13 2004
Church mulls taking up arms to defend itself
Today’s topic: Christianity in Iraq
By David George
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Leaders of the ever-dwindling Christian population in
Iraq say bombings of their churches and attacks against their
communities may force them to take up guns.
Two more churches were bombed in Mosul last week, the latest attacks,
and some Christians say extremist Muslims are terrorizing them with
the intent of ousting them and seizing their houses and belongings.
Iraq is home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world,
made up largely of ethnic Assyrians, an ancient people who speak a
modern form of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. But as the turmoil
increases, hundreds of Christian families are leaving each week for
exile in Syria and Turkey.
Some Christians have called for the establishment of a “safe haven”
in Iraq’s north, where they would be protected by special Iraqi army
units. Others are threatening to add a Christian militia to Iraq’s
already militarized society.
“Assyrians need security, so we need a legal army within the Iraqi
army to protect ourselves,” said Michael Benjamin, a leader of the
Assyrian Democratic Movement.
Said another Assyrian leader, Yonadem Kanna, “We do not want to
transform our movement into a militia, but if we need to we can arm
more than 10,000 people.”
Christians are only a sliver of Iraq’s population, but their leaders
argue that driving them from Iraq would make it unlikely Iraq could
ever develop into a nation that values religious pluralism and
tolerance. Estimates of how many Christians have left Iraq in recent
months range from 10,000 to 40,000 people.
Christians have lived in the region nearly since the dawn of
Christianity. They are believed to number about 800,000, or about
three percent of Iraq’s population.
Many Christians have collaborated with U.S. forces, hoping that Iraq
will become a democratic and free secular state. Their links to
Americans, often as translators, have put them under threat. Some
anti-U.S. Sunni Muslims said that anyone aiding the Americans should
be killed, or even beheaded.
“The Christians have no future here,” said Athnaiel Isaac, a
23-year-old deacon in Baghdad. “We may be under the same pressures
that made the Jews leave Iraq (following World War II).”
Isaac said he will leave soon for Syria and that his al-Wehda
district of Baghdad is emptying of Christians.
“I know about 100 families that have left the al-Wehda neighborhood
in the last three months,” Isaac said.
Other Christians said the nation’s turmoil leaves them vulnerable.
“The extremist Muslims are attacking us because the coalition forces
are not controlling the country,” said Hayraw Bedros, an Armenian
Christian.
Many of Iraq’s churches have thrown up protective walls or placed
perimeter barrels filled with cement to protect against car bombs.
Some services have been cancelled after coordinated church bombings
in Baghdad and Mosul Aug. 1, in which 11 people died, and subsequent
bombings Oct. 16, Nov. 8 and again last Tuesday.
In last week’s attacks, insurgents bombed an Armenian-Catholic church
and the Chaldean bishop’s palace in Mosul.
Christians say they have had to find new places for worship.
“I used to go before to Saint George Church but now it’s destroyed,”
said Lilia Hermez, a 70-year-old Baghdad resident.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Dec 13 2004
Red Cross is now in three new languages
The organization’s local chapter added Armenian, Korean and Spanish
versions on its website; use increasing already.
By Jackson Bell, News-Press and Leader
SOUTHWEST GLENDALE – Now it’s a lot easier for some to surf the
website for the Glendale-Crescenta Valley chapter of the American Red
Cross.
In late October, the emergency organization completed an update to
its website allowing users to peruse certain pages in Armenian,
Korean and Spanish.
Officials say the website’s popularity has taken off, noting that
there has been a 20% increase of visits to the site.
“The Red Cross’ mission is to help people prepare for and cope with
emergency,” said Ron Farina, the chapter’s executive director. “With
a multiethnic community like Glendale, it’s essential that we are
able to communicate in all ways possible. And one of the key ways is
with a website.”
About two years ago, the organization hired Browne Global Solutions,
a company that specializes in translation, to add the three minority
languages most present in the city on the website. People can click a
button and access main pages on the site.
Two months ago, the company also updated the website’s “Together We
Prepare” section, which includes directions on how to prepare a home
or workplace for disaster. It also lists where to donate blood.
“The Red Cross wants to reach out and be of service to these
individuals in the community so they know they are important to us,”
Farina said.
Armenians in the community would normally avoid using the website
because they are not fluent in English, said Alina Azizian, the
executive director Armenian National Committee’s Glendale chapter.
But to have the website translated into Armenian makes it more
accessible to them.
“[The Red Cross] is really reaching out to the community, and in this
community, there are a lot of Armenians,” Azizian said. “I think a
lot of people will feel less alienated to the organization [because
of this].”

Los Angeles Times , CA
Dec 13 2004
Worshipers End Wandering
After 30 years of fundraising, a small Armenian congregation in the
Coachella Valley is about to complete its own church.
By Barbara E. Hernandez, Special to The Times
PALM DESERT – The smell of incense permeated the church as Father
Stepanos Dingilian, wearing a silver-and-blue robe, presided over the
service. After the choir sang haunting hymns in Armenian, Dingilian,
speaking English, gave a sermon about faith.
The message seemed appropriate. After nearly 30 years of saving and
start-and-stop efforts, the small congregation of the Armenian
Apostolic Church of the Desert is finally going to have a home of its
own, Riverside County’s only Armenian church.

“This was a test for us,” said parish council member Alice Safoyan,
78. “We learned the hard way how to do it.”
For years the congregation met at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church –
where Dingilian presided as visiting priest – but the church’s 50
registered families will soon leave St. Margaret’s behind.
After almost three decades of dinners, galas and open pleas for
money, the congregation’s meeting hall is finished and the church is
being built.
Final permits must be obtained before the meeting hall in Rancho
Mirage can be used for the congregation’s first service Dec. 19, said
George Kirkjan, chairman of the parish council. A dedication and
fundraiser weekend for the church building is scheduled Jan. 29 and
30.
Kirkjan, 69, a date grower originally from Los Angeles, spent the
last 27 years in the desert and has long looked forward to the
opening of an Armenian church.
“At the beginning, we had big ideas but not a lot of money raised,”
he said.
Over the years, the congregation raised $1.3 million, but there’s
still some work to do – to the tune of $1 million more to finish the
church, which is modeled on the larger St. Hripsime Church at
Echmiadzin in Armenia, built in the 7th century.
The Armenian Apostolic Church of the Desert is part of the Western
Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, an Eastern Orthodox
church.
The congregation began using the Episcopal church in 1977 for a
monthly afternoon service during the Coachella Valley’s cooler
months. The practice continued for decades while the parish council
debated building a church. When not meeting at St. Margaret’s,
worshipers drove to Orange County or Los Angeles for services.
Although Southern California’s Armenian population is estimated to be
300,000 to 400,000, only about 120 Armenian families live in the
Coachella Valley, Dingilian said.
It was important to build the meeting hall before the church, members
said, because religious services can be held in a meeting hall, but
some events, such as dinners and receptions, can only rarely be held
in a church.
Hovak Najarian, 73, a member of the church choir and resident
historian, said that after a few years serving on the parish council,
he noticed that some of the initial enthusiasm for building a church
began to dwindle.
“Some of the old-timers had died and nothing was happening,” said
Najarian, who was appointed to the council in 1979. “There were a lot
of people not so sure we should be building a church because of its
upkeep.”
Some said they should continue to have their services at St.
Margaret’s. One member wearily suggested taking everyone on a cruise
with the money that had been raised, he said.
The congregation’s relationship with St. Margaret’s was partly forged
by Najarian, who is also a member of the Episcopal congregation. He
grew up in Florida and, because there were no Armenian churches
around, became an Episcopalian.
“I didn’t grow up with Armenians. The only ones I knew were my
parents,” explained Najarian, a slim man with silver hair and
twinkling blue-gray eyes. “[My parents] came here to have a place to
worship and not be persecuted, and I feel like I almost owe it to
them to keep this going.”
Building the new church, he said, allows him to honor and share his
Armenian heritage.
In 1982, council member Ara Herbekian found and negotiated the
purchase of about five acres in Palm Desert for an Armenian Apostolic
Church, but the recession of the 1980s limited donations and
virtually halted construction.
By 1999, the original land couldn’t be used because the city, citing
traffic concerns, would not allow the project to proceed. The land
was sold for close to $300,000, which helped the parish council
purchase 4.6 acres in Rancho Mirage. Today, that land would sell for
three times the amount, said Shirley Adams, realtor with Tarbell,
Realtors in Indio.
“The timing was perfect,” said council member Rita Walden, 70, of
Indian Wells.
Walden, who heads church fundraising, said raising money helped the
council avoid borrowing.
Mailings to Armenian families across the nation raised $20,000, and
Armenian Americans from the Los Angeles area also contributed to the
church fund.
“Our feeling was that by building the church, it would become the
heart of our Armenian community here,” Walden explained.
At the new meeting hall, landscaping pays homage to many Armenians’
agricultural roots in the Coachella Valley, with date palms and
citrus trees framing the drive.
Although city permits, a new security system and dust control caused
some financial hiccups for the congregation, many believe that the
church building – now little more than a foundation and underground
wiring – could be completed as early as 2006.
“I have no doubt in my mind it will be finished and it will be
beautiful,” Safoyan said.

Global Politician, NY
Dec 13 2004
The Circassian Genocide
12/14/2004
By Antero Leitzinger

The genocide committed against the Circassian nation by Czarist
Russia in the 1800s was the biggest genocide of the nineteenth
century. Yet it has been almost entirely forgotten by later history,
while everyone knows the later Jewish Holocaust and many have heard
about the Armenian genocide. “Rather than of separate, selectively
researched genocides, we should speak of a general genocidal tendency
that affected many – both Muslim and Christian – people on a wide
scene between 1856 and 1956, continuing in post-Soviet Russia until
today”, writes Antero Leitzinger. This article was originally
published in “Turkistan News”.
——————————————————————–
A professor of the university of Munich (München), Karl Friedrich
Neumann (not to be confused with the later Naumann), wrote in 1839 a
book titled “Russland und die Tscherkessen” (published in the
collection “Reisen und Länderbeschreibungen”, vol. 19, in 1840). He
describes, how Russia settled Christians to the parts of Armenia
gained from Persia in 1828 – actually, Neumann had written about the
issue already in 1834. (p. 68-69) Neumann considered this a very
sound policy and predicted, that all Caucasus would become under firm
Russian rule within the next decades. (p. 125) European powers would
not intervene, because it was the destiny of all Europe to rule over
the lands of Turks, Persians, and Hindus. (p. 129-130)
Neumann was no racist, but he certainly advocated colonialism and was
a Russophile in relation to the southern lands. He had a Darwinist
approach many years before Charles Darwin or Herbert Spencer
presented their ideas. This appears to have been more typical to 19th
century German thought than any anti-Armenian sentiments. Neumann
makes it clear in his very first words of the preface: “The European
humanity is selected by divinity as ruler of the earth.”
Although Neumann respected the bravery of Circassians, he anticipated
their destruction by Russia, because in a modern world, there would
be no place for chivalrous “uncivilized” people. Neumann estimated
the total number of Circassians, including the Kabardians and Abkhaz,
at 1.5 million persons, or 300.000 families. (p. 67) Both the Russian
figure of 300.000 persons, and the Circassian figure of four
millions, were exaggerated.
Neumann divided the Circassians into ten tribes: Notketch, Schapsuch,
Abatsech, Pseduch, Ubich, Hatiokech, Kemkuich, Abasech, Lenelnich,
Kubertech (in German transliteration). They formed a loose
confederation very much like old Switzerland, with democratic
majority votes deciding the affairs of villages. Their princes had no
privileges, and were regarded only as military commanders. Women were
more free than anywhere in the Orient. There was no written law, and
death penalties were unknown. Many Circassians were Muslims, but
there were also Christians and pagans, all completely tolerated.
Russian prisoners-of-war were used as slaves, but if they were of
Polish origin, they were regarded as guests. Therefore, Poles
recruited in the Russian army, deserted en masse at every
opportunity, and even Russians often declared themselves to be Poles.
(p. 123) Slavery as such included no shame. Circassians used to sell
their own family members as slaves to Turkey and Persia, and many
went to slavery voluntarily, returning later on back home as rich and
free men. (p. 124) This system could be compared to the Gastarbeiter
emigration from Turkey since the 1960s. We should also remember, that
in those times, slavery or serfdom existed in Romania and Russia as
well.
The Circassians had been fighting against Russia already for forty
years when appealing to the courts of Europe in a “Declaration of
Independence”: “But now we hear to our deepest humiliation, that our
land counts as a part of the Russian empire on all maps published in
Europe… that Russia, finally, declares in the West, that
Circassians are their slaves, horrible bandits…” (p. 140-141)
The fight continued for two more full decades, until a national
Circassian government was set up in Sochi. In 1862, Russia began the
final invasion, annihilation and expulsion, as predicted by Neumann
well in advance.
According to Kemal H. Karpat, “Ottoman population 1830-1914” (Madison
1985), “Beginning in 1862, and continuing through the first decade of
the twentieth century, more than 3 million people of Caucasian stock,
often referred collectively as Cerkes (Circassians), were forced by
the Russians to leave their ancestral lands…” (p. 27)
Salaheddin Bey mentioned, in 1867, a total of 1.008.000 refugees from
the Caucasus and Crimea, of whom 595.000 were initially settled in
the Balkans. (p. 27) Half a million followed by 1879, and another
half a million until 1914. (p. 69) Most of them were Circassians,
although there were Crimean Tatars, Chechens, and other Muslim people
among them. Hundreds of thousands Circassians perished on their way.
Neumann’s estimate of 1.5 million Circassians corresponds to 1/30
ethnic Russians, or 1/3 Czechs, or 3/4 Slovaks. (p. 66) According to
Neumann, there were over two million Armenians in the world. (p. 69)
Now, according to the Soviet census of 1989, the number of Russians
has increased to 145 millions, whereof 1/30 would be almost five
millions. There are 10 million Czechs and 5 million Slovaks, which
would lead us to assume that there should be over 3 million
Circassians. Armenia alone has a population of over 3 million
Armenians, despite of the past ordeals; 2 million Armenians live
elsewhere. The number of Czechs, Slovaks, and Armenians has more than
doubled in 150 years, while the number of Russians has tripled; but
where are the missing millions of Circassians?
“The Encyclopaedia Britannica”, 11th edition (Cambridge 1911),
divided the Armenian population equally between Russia and Turkey
(little over a million in each empire), and numbered 216.950
Circassians (including Abkhaz etc.) in Russia. Again we must
conclude, that about 1.5 million Circassians had been massacred or
deported. This disaster exceeded both absolutely and proportionally
whatever fell upon Armenians in 1915. Was it intentional? Yes. Was it
ideological? Yes. The conquest and Christian colonization of the
Middle East was expected not only by Germans, but by most Europeans
during the 19th century, and the expulsion of Muslims from Europe was
considered a historical necessity. Russia had practicized massacres
and mass deportations in the Crimea and Caucasus, and “ethnically
cleansed” Circassia specially in 1862-1864. During that period,
Panslavists like Mikhail Katkov provided the Russian public with
nationalistic excuses for what had started as imperial ambition
(“Third Rome”) and strategic interests (“Access to sea”).
A vicious cycle was created and increased the stakes at both
frontiers: the Caucasus, and the Balkans. Circassian refugees settled
in the Balkans were provoked to commit the “Bulgarian atrocities”,
that inspired some of the Armenian revolutionaries. After the Balkan
Wars, Muslim refugees were roaming in Anatolia, thus spreading
terror, and hostility. This was exploited by Russia, at the cost of
many innocent Armenians. The massacres of 1915 were a tip of the
iceberg – the part best visible for Europeans, who had been actively
seeking and expecting horror news to justify anti-Muslim prejudice,
and to prevent interventions on behalf of Turkey, as had happened in
the Crimean War of the 1850s.
Was it a genocide? That depends on the definition. Rather than of
separate, selectively researched genocides, we should speak of a
general genocidal tendency that affected many – both Muslim and
Christian – people on a wide scene between 1856 and 1956, continuing
in post-Soviet Russia until today.
The article was originally written in October 2000.
Antero Leitzinger is a political historian and a researcher for the
Finnish Directorate of Immigration. He wrote several books on Turkey,
the Middle East and the Caucasus.

Local democracy in Georgia: Council of Europe supports launch of national
forum for local government bodies
Strasbourg, 13.12.2004 – The Council of Europe is supporting the launch of a
forum that will defend the interests of local government bodies in Georgia,
and seek to build a culture of partnership between local and national
authorities. The National Association of Local Self-Government Units of
Georgia will be established on Friday 17 December, when delegates from all
parts of the country will meet in the capital, Tbilisi, to choose a
President for the new organisation. The Association will then be represented
in the Georgian delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
of the Council of Europe.
The event, which is taking place at the Griboedov Theatre on Rustaveli
Avenue, will begin with speeches from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of
Georgia, Salomé Zourabichvili and the Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary
Committee for Regional Policy, Local Self-Government and High Mountainous
Regions, Vano Khukhunaishvili.
Other speakers will include the President of the Congress of Local and
Regional Authorities of Europe, Giovanni Di Stasi, the First Counsellor of
the European Commission Delegation to Georgia and Armenia, Jacques Vantomme
and the President of the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional
Authorities, Halvdan Skard.
Following the opening ceremony, the three presidential contenders will make
brief presentations before delegates vote for the candidate of their choice.
A press conference will take place at 5 pm at the Griboedov Theatre.
For more information please contact:
Olivier Terrien, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council
of Europe
Tel: + 33 3 88 41 22 47 ; Mobile: + 33 6 61 14 89 00 ; Fax: + 33 3 88 41 27
51/37 47 ;
E-mail: [email protected]
Varlam Tchkuaseli, Steering Group on the National Association of Local
Self-Government Units of Georgia ; Tel: + 995 32 223635 ; Mobile: + 995 99
212713 ; Fax: + 995 32 223635 ;
E-mail: [email protected]
ED086b04

CHINA JOINS REGIONAL ANTI-MONEY-LAUNDERING EFFORT – RUSSIAN PAPER
Kommersant, Moscow
9 Dec 04
Text of report by Vadim Visloguzov headlined: “Russia to teach its
neighbours how to fight against dirty money”, published in Russian
newspaper Kommersant on 9 December:
The first plenary session of the Eurasia Group, set up to counteract
the legalization of the proceeds of crime and financial terrorism, was
held in Moscow’s President Hotel yesterday. Having expended a lot of
effort creating its own “mini-FATF” (Financial Action Task Force),
Russia is not averse to spending 1m dollars on teaching its CIS
neighbours the basic methods of fighting against dirty money.
The idea of creating a regional agency of the FATF (Financial Action
Task Force – the group that elaborates financial measures to combat
money-laundering) with its headquarters in Moscow was suggested by
Rosfinmonitoring (Federal Service for Financial Monitoring) chief
Viktor Zubkov back in September last year. Similar regional groups
have now been set up by countries in Europe, southern Africa, South
America, the Pacific region, and the Caribbean.
In October this year Moscow’s organizational efforts were crowned with
success. In addition to Russia, the Eurasia Group (EAG) members are
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and –
strangely enough – China. The other community countries are not so far
in any hurry to join the EAG. Officially this is attributed to the
fact that Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Moldova are
members of another FATF structure – Moneyval (Evaluation of Anti-Money
Laundering Measures) (which unites European countries not yet admitted
to the FATF). Unofficially, the actual founders of the FATF – the G-7
countries – do not want Russia’s influence in the post-Soviet area to
be too greatly reinforced. On the other hand, China’s involvement with
the CIS countries’ financial intelligence community follows from the
fact that China aspires to FATF membership and, under the existing
rules, has to belong to some regional anti-money-laundering
organization at the time of admission.
Yesterday saw the first plenary session of the FATF Eurasia
Group. More out of custom than necessity, the financial intelligence
chiefs held it behind closed doors. The issues decided were mainly of
an organizational character. In the absence of other takers, Russia
took responsibility for financing the EAG’s activity: 1m dollars will
be allocated for the purpose out of the federal budget.
Obviously, Russia is not going to help its neighbours entirely out of
altruistic considerations. According to Rosfinmonitoring’s
information, every year 17m citizens of CIS countries cross Russia’s
semipermeable borders in both directions, carrying millions of dollars
“in their bags”. Moscow’s aim is to gain control of these money
flows. Most CIS countries, however, do not yet have either their own
financial intelligence services or special “antimoney-laundering”
legislation. Viktor Zubkov, now also chair of the EAG, complains that
Rosfinmonitoring often simply has no-one to make contact with in CIS
countries. So, as he particularly stressed yesterday, the 1m dollars
will go mainly on technical assistance to EAG countries in setting up
their own antimoney-laundering systems.
It was also decided yesterday to include Germany, Moldova, and Japan
among the organization’s observers. Judging by Viktor Zubkov’s
statements yesterday, though, there are no plans to expand the group’s
still extremely modest list of full members. “We are open to anyone
who wants to join, but I see no necessity to expand the EAG,” he
commented. In addition yesterday, three working groups were set up –
covering legal questions, the methodology of fighting
money-laundering, and technical support for the process – to take on
the practical work of implementing FATF recommendations.
The next EAG session will be held next April in Beijing.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“NOBODY WILL SUCCEED IN INCITING THE ERKRAPAH VOLUNTEERS UNION AGAINST
THE PEOPLE,” MANVEL GRIGORIAN ASSURES
YEREVAN, December 11 (Noyan Tapan). “I assure you all on behalf of my
friends that we have remained true to the behests and ideas of
sparapet Vazgen Sargsian and will not abandon our cause: to serve our
people and state.” Lieutenant-general Manvel Grigorian, chairman of
the “Erkrapah” volunteers union board and the RA Deputy Minister of
Defence, stated this at the sixth congress of the union on December
11. “Nobody will be able to incite us against the people, nobody will
succeed in this,” M.Grigorian noted. He also assured of the Armenian
army’s fighting efficiency and pointed out that the level of its
training and technical fitting out gives a full guarantee of Armenia’s
security in the region. M. Grigorian also touched upon the issue of
peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. According to him, the
issue of the territories under control of the Armenian side should be
discussed by diplomats: “If the matter concerns these territories’
defence, we are ready to take up arms again and defend them.” He
called on the union members to be united in the name of protection of
interests of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.