Category: News

PA asks US pressure on Israel to withdraw
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Jerusalem Post
Nov 22 2004
Palestinian leaders on Monday asked for Washington’s help in holding
elections to choose a successor to Yasser Arafat and called for the
establishment of an independent Palestinian state in 2005.
The Palestinian demands were made during a meeting in Jericho between
outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell and a number of senior
Palestinian officials.
The Palestinian team was headed by PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu
Mazen) and included Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, acting Palestinian
Authority Chairman Rouhi Fattouh, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath,
Minister of Negotiations Saeb Erekat and Finance Minister Salam Fayyad.
It was Powell’s first visit to the region in 18 months, and Palestinian
officials expressed hope it would lead to the resumption of normal
ties with Washington in the post-Arafat era.
“We hope this visit marks the beginning of a new chapter in our
relations,” said one official. “We’re aware that without the US we
would not be able to move ahead with the peace process.”
The official said Jericho was chosen for security reasons, expressing
hope that future meetings would be held in the Muakta compound in
Ramallah.
The 60-minute meeting focused on preparations for the chairmanship
of the PA, sated for January 9.
Erekat told The Jerusalem Post after the meeting that he was encouraged
by Washington’s position vis a vis the elections. “The position
of the US Administration is encouraging because it is determined
to enable the Palestinians to hold free and democratic elections,”
he added. “The US is also determined to revive the peace process.”
Erekat said the PA was still waiting for Israel’s formal approval to
allow Jerusalem’s Arab residents to participate in the elections. He
said five voting centers would be opened at the Armenian Quarter in
the Old City, Salah Eddin Street, A-Tur (Mount of Olives), Shufat
and Bet Hanina.
Qurei expressed fear during the meeting that Israel’s planned
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was part of a ploy designed to thwart
the road map plan for peace in the Middle East. He said the withdrawal
should be coordinated with the PA in advance.
“At the meeting with Powell we also discussed various issues, such as
the need to remove Israeli army checkpoints and release Palestinians
prisoners from Israeli jail,” he said. “The American side listened
to our demands and reacted positively.”
Describing the meeting as “vital and positive,” Shaath urged the US to
put pressure on Israel to withdraw its troops to their pre-September
28, 2000 positions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to facilitate the
voting process.
“We also discussed the need to halt settlement construction and the
building of the separation wall,” he added.
Shaath emphasized the importance of abiding by the 2005 deadline set
by the road map to establish a Palestinian state.
Powell, who also visited the offices of the Palestinian Central
Elections Committee in Jericho, said Washington is prepared to assist
the Palestinians in holding the elections.
“I think this moment of opportunity should not be lost,” he said.
“What I’ve heard today is that the Palestinians are committed to
reform. I think we can make a pretty good case that this is the time
to assist the Palestinians as they go forward.”
He said his talks with the Palestinian leaders also dealt with security
issues and funds needed for a well-organized election.
Abbas and Qurei later went to the PA’s central prison in Jericho,
where they met with Ahmed Saadat, Secretary-General of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who is accused of masterminding
the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, and Fuad Shobaki,
a senior Arafat aide implicated in the attempt to smuggle the Karine
A weapons ship in 2001.
In Gaza City, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar lashed out at the US, accusing
it of being biased to Israel. “We must warn against US policy in
the Middle East,” he said. “The US has an agenda that is different
from ours. Their intentions will be tested according to the extent
of pressure they put on Israel. We fear that Powell’s visit is aimed
at covering up for future Israeli crimes.”
Zahar also rejected any attempt to disarm Hamas, saying his movement
would not give up the armed struggle against Israel. He pledged,
however, to work with the PA to hold the elections on time.

Turkish journey: End of the road
BBC News
Nov 22 2004
The BBC’s Istanbul correspondent Jonny Dymond is exploring Turkish
life across the vast country as it lobbies the European Union to open
membership talks.
He sent the last in a series of reports from the town of Kars, near
the Armenian border.
I woke up in my hotel in Kars – an establishment unlikely to make the
Best Hotels in Eastern Turkey guide – to find news from England on
the television.
The town of Kars lies near Turkey’s border with Armenia
A correspondent in London was explaining to a presenter, who appeared
to be doing her best to restrain her incredulity, that the British
government had announced plans to ban smoking in public spaces.
The words of the correspondent, who was on a telephone line, were
illustrated by file footage of people smoking in London.
Many of them were sitting outside, and a disproportionate number were
blonde, gaily enjoying a cigarette whilst sipping mineral water or
having a glass of wine. London life looked suspiciously like a
Mediterranean holiday.
Rarely had I felt so far from home. Kars is very, very cold. No one
is sitting outside. And, this being Turkey, everyone smokes. In case
you are wondering, there are precious few blondes knocking about
either.
Click here to see Jonny Dymond’s route across Turkey
Kars has attracted a little more attention than usual in the past
couple of years because Turkey’s most internationally famous
novelist, Orhan Pamuk, used it as the setting for his latest novel,
Snow.
A question of identity
In the book, Kars – a forgotten city in the country’s north-west
corner on the border with Armenia – plays host to Islamist
terrorists, Kurdish nationalists and secular Republicans.
Over the space of three days, in which the city is cut off from the
outside world by snow, they pronounce, denounce, launch a coup and
generally shed some light on that ridiculously complicated question
of Turkey’s identity.
I freely admit that Snow had drawn me to Kars. I ran into a French
journalist on my final night there. I asked her why she had come.
“The closed Armenian border, of course,” she said. Ah yes. That too.
The money left Kars in the 1960s, drawn west
The city was once part of the Russian empire and, immediately after
World War I, became an independent republic – the South East
Caucasian Republic. It happily gave itself up to the Turkish Republic
when that came along in 1923.
It was also, a while ago now, rich. It was a trading city, and the
houses of Russian and Armenian merchants can still be seen, their
fine construction and exterior decoration incongruous amongst the
drab concrete buildings that now dominate the city.
Many of these houses were pulled down in the 1960s – the government
either not interested in the history of the town, or only too happy
for it to be eradicated.
Glorious past
The current owner of Huryurt (“Free Land”), one of three local
papers, fondly remembers a time when balls and concerts were a
regular event in the city.
In one corner of the newspaper’s office sits a 150-year-old printing
press that until last year had been used to crank out the 400 copies
that the paper prints every day.
Erol Huryurt showed me one of the earliest papers, framed on the
wall. “This evening” went the headline. The short article was a call
to a dance to be held in the city centre.
“All the night will be full of surprises. So we would advise you not
to miss it”.
Newspaper owner Erol Huryurt
But the money left Kars in the 1960s, drawn west. Kars was cut off,
its airport closed, its trade to the east ended by the presence of
the Soviet Union.
And now, with the border to Armenia shut once again, the life of the
city is still draining away.
The shops are shabby, the goods careworn before purchase. Into the
chill air chimneys puff smoke that in the evening hangs in the cold
deserted streets. Groups of men stand idly on the roadside, looking
lost and defeated.
Unemployment is something around 50%.
The mayor is doing his best. When we talked he showed me picture
after picture of the cultural festivals he had arranged.
He has high hopes of a film festival to be held in January – a
curiosity this, a film festival in a city that currently has no
cinema. It’s all good clean fun.
But you have to wonder how many Slovak dance troupes and Circassian
marching bands a town can take until it cries out “No more!”
Facing east
Kars hopes for the best from Europe, but its eyes are still firmly to
the east. In the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed, a wave
of Turkophilia swept Turkey – it was to lead a new Turkic Union of
the east, it would resume its rightful place as the pre-eminent
regional power.
The dream died pretty quickly when it became clear that the old
Turkic states had more in common with Moscow than they did with each
other, but it lives to some degree in Kars.
Today Kars lives in the shadow of its past
Erol’s son Erdil does not go misty-eyed over the balls and dances of
the past. Over lunch in what seemed to be Kars’ only decent
restaurant, he talks of an unlikely future when the city might become
the capital of the Caucasus.
The mayor’s brother, Alican, joined us.
Alican, a businessman, was not so interested in wild talk of leading
the Caucasus. Instead he, and nearly everyone in Kars, just wants the
border with Armenia reopened, so trade can restart, and life can
return to the dying city.
As with so many changes in Turkey, all eyes are on Europe to do
something to sort out the problem.
I drove out to Ani, once a city of 100,000 that was said to have
rivalled Constantinople in its glory, now a place of wonder where you
can stumble for hours amongst the stunning remains of ruined 10th-
and 11th-Century churches and mosques.
>>From inside the first ever mosque to be built in Turkey I peered down
at the river that separates the country from Armenia, and at the
ruined bridge which once carried travellers on the Silk Road on their
way West.
I had reached the end – the end of Turkey, and the end of the long
haul from West to East.
It was a fitting finale to the journey: Turkey’s eastern border,
perhaps to be Europe’s new eastern frontier, ancient churches and
mosques rising like tombstones out of the long wild grass.

A highly dubious result
The Economist
Nov 22 2004
>>From The Economist Global Agenda
A huge protest has gathered in Ukraine’s capital amid signs that the
expected winner of its presidential election, Viktor Yushchenko, was
robbed of victory by ballot fraud. Will the authorities crush the
protest or is a revolution—of the “velvet” or the blood-soaked
variety—in prospect?
ACCORDING to the exit polls, Ukraine’s pro-western opposition leader,
Viktor Yushchenko, was heading for clear victory in the final round
of the country’s presidential election, held on Sunday November 21st.
They showed Mr Yushchenko on 54%, compared with 43% for Viktor
Yanukovich, currently Ukraine’s prime minister, whose bid for the
presidency is backed by the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, and
Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin. Yet as voting continued overnight,
the opposition leader’s apparent walkover somehow turned into a
narrow win for the official candidate. On Monday, the Ukrainian
electoral commission said that, with over 99% of votes counted, Mr
Yanukovich had an unassailable lead of almost three points.
Ukraine’s election
Nov 19th 2004
Ukraine’s presidential election
Nov 4th 2004
Ukraine, Belarus and Russia
Oct 28th 2004
Ukraine’s presidential election
Oct 28th 2004
Ukraine’s presidential vote
Aug 12th 2004
Russia, Ukraine
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe reports from
its independent electoral observation mission in Ukraine. The EU
issues statements on the elections and gives information on foreign
relations. See also the US State Department. “Governments on the WWW”
provides a comprehensive resource on the government and politics of
Ukraine, including the previous election results.
Elections and debt relief for Iraq Nov 22nd 2004
The falling dollar Nov 22nd 2004
Yukos under siege Nov 19th 2004
Bush’s cabinet reshuffle Nov 18th 2004
The Buttonwood column Nov 16th 2004
About Global Agenda
Fearing a repeat of the widespread irregularities seen in the first
round of voting last month, thousands of Mr Yushchenko’s supporters,
dressed in orange, his campaign colour, gathered in sub-zero
temperatures in the main square of the capital, Kiev, on Sunday
night. They called on the government to recognise his victory, and by
Monday morning, as the country’s electoral commission began issuing
tallies showing Mr Yanukovich in the lead, their numbers had swollen
to perhaps 50,000. “Remain where you are,” the opposition leader told
his followers, promising that tens of thousands more protesters were
on their way, “on carts, cars, planes and trains”, to demonstrate
against the alleged defrauding of the election. Many protesters began
to pitch tents along Kiev’s main avenue. “Our action is only
beginning,” said Mr Yushchenko. By the evening, their numbers were
said to have risen above 100,000.
Western observers immediately denounced the election. Senator Richard
Lugar, a Republican sent by President George Bush to monitor voting,
accused the Ukrainian government of supporting a “concerted and
forceful programme of election-day fraud and abuse”. The European
Union said all 25 member countries would be summoning their Ukrainian
ambassadors to register a formal protest. But Mr Yanukovich’s
campaign manager, Serhiy Tyhypko, insisted that his man had won,
arguing that the exit polls were not reliable. Mr Putin congratulated
Mr Yanukovich on his victory.
All through the campaign, Ukraine’s news media have been highly
skewed towards Mr Yanukovich, barely giving the opposition leader a
mention. Ahead of the first round of voting, the official candidate’s
supporters were accused of intimidating electoral officials to try to
swing the vote his way. Mr Yushchenko even accused them of being
behind an attempt to poison him, which has left his face bloated and
scarred. In Sunday’s run-off, suspicions centred on possible
fraudulent multiple voting in the Russian-speaking east of the
country, where support for Mr Yanukovich is strongest. According to
the official electoral figures, turnouts there were implausibly high,
at up to 96%.
Mr Yanukovich had some strong cards to play in the election campaign:
he recently awarded big increases in pensions and public-sector pay;
and the Ukrainian economy is booming, helped by a bumper grain
harvest and rising exports of steel and chemicals. Nevertheless, even
some in Mr Yanukovich’s eastern power base have grown sick of his
regime and the oligarchic business clans that prop it up.
Foreign observers have been taking a close interest in Ukraine’s
election, not just because it is one of eastern Europe’s largest
countries, with 49m people, but because the outcome could have
important consequences for the whole region. Mr Yushchenko presented
himself as a pro-western, free-market reformer who will seek
membership of the EU and the American-led NATO defence alliance,
while cleaning up corruption and enforcing the rule of law. Mr
Yanukovich, in contrast, stood for deepening Ukraine’s close links
with Russia. If Mr Yushchenko had gained the presidency and led
Ukraine towards becoming a westernised democracy with European-style
prosperity, voters in Russia and elsewhere in eastern Europe might
have begun to demand the same.
A win by Mr Yushchenko would have been a huge blow to Mr Putin, who
twice visited Ukraine during the election campaign to back Mr
Yanukovich (while denying this was the purpose of his trips). The
Russian president’s attempts to exert control over former Soviet
states would be greatly diminished if the second-largest of them were
to escape from his grip and join the West.
So what now? Much depends on the determination of Mr Yushchenko’s
supporters. Already, there is talk of a general strike. The city
councils of Kiev and another big city, Lviv, have refused to
recognise the official result of the election. Will there now be a
crescendo of protests and civil disobedience until they reach a point
where Mr Yanukovich has no option but to step aside? After all,
something rather similar happened last year in another former Soviet
state, Georgia, where people power forced its then president, Edward
Shevardnadze, to resign following dodgy parliamentary elections.
Mr Shevardnadze was forced to quit after it became doubtful if
Georgia’s armed forces would obey any order to crush the protesters.
The question is whether Ukraine’s security forces would react in the
same way: on Monday night, they issued a statement promising that any
lawlessness would be put down “quickly and firmly”.
Though Mr Yushchenko is now hoping for a Georgian-style bloodless
revolution, there are also some less promising precedents among the
former Soviet states: only two months ago, Belarus’s president,
Alexander Lukashenka, “won” a rigged referendum to allow him to run
for re-election. The EU is said to be planning to tighten its
sanctions against his government but so far there is no sign that he
will be dislodged from power. Azerbaijan and Armenia both held flawed
elections last year: in Azerbaijan, there were riots after the son of
the incumbent president won amid widespread intimidation and bribery,
but these were violently put down; and in Armenia, voters reacted
with quiet despair at the re-election of their president amid reports
of ballot-stuffing. If Ukraine follows these precedents, hopes for
change there will be dashed.
–Boundary_(ID_F/8Wh8ME2zAhqGCbBEQDVg)–

New Armenian TV Feed Debuts Today
Voice of America
Nov 22 2004
On Monday, Nov. 22, VOA begins a new weekday feed for Armenia TV.
Available Monday through Friday, Armenian TV Magazine covers current
news topics along with insight into the background and implications
of the story.
The 10-minute feed goes to Armenia TV at 0715 UTC (11:15 a.m. in
Armenia). This new weekday edition of Armenian TV Magazine joins VOA’s
30-minute weekend program of the same name. For more information
on the staff or to catch up on programs, visit the webpage at

Sofia Echo, Bulgaria
Nov 22 2004
Double Dutch in Bulgaria
Koos Schouten
FIRST of all, I have to mention Martin Petrov who plays football for
Wolfsburg, the current leaders of the German Bundesliga.
A German TV commentator named him the “Celebration King” of German
football after he scored his fifth goal in two matches, bring his
total to eight for the season. ‘Marto’ as the Wolfs fans call him has
now officially become their most popular player. (Who’s surprised?).
Any opponent of the Bulgarian National Team better beware the man
from Vratsa will definitely appear in front of your goal and know no
hesitation.
On a different note:
“After a series by visits by Bulgarian politicians to Turkey,
organisations of Bulgarian emigrants in that country came to Bulgaria
to enquire about alternatives to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms
(MRF) for the forthcoming parliamentary elections. More than 85 per
cent of the Bulgarian emigrants to Turkey, who voted for the MRF in
previous elections, are not satisfied with what the movement has done
for them during its three-year term so far as junior coalition
partner in the ruling majority. This is one of the results in a
survey by Turkkan’s organisation. (Sega).”
This doesn’t surprise me at all, it has been proven in many countries
that minority parties representing religious and/or ethnic groups are
rarely successful. In my opinion, it makes much more sense for the
Bulgarian emigrants in Turkey, but also elsewhere in the world to
seek representation by leading parties that represents their
political views. In this new era of a United Europe, voters should
aim to develop a broader view in politics and not just worry about
their ethnicity.
For Bulgarian Turks, Muslims, Armenians and Roma to be represented by
minority parties will only push them further into the minority
corner. Parties such as the MRF only serve their leaders and can be
used only as whipping boys in coalition governments where they are
treated with respect only when their vote is needed.
Charity:
Last Saturday Night there was a charity Pub Quiz in JJ Murphy’s Irish
Pub for the benefit of the ONE LIFE Charity for Children with Cancer
and other Life shortening diseases. There were some 125 participants
in the pub and a pleasant evening was had by all. The organisers of
this event were also responsible for the bike ride a few weeks ago
from Sofia to Plovdiv. Although the charity events were well
attended, the average donation was less then 20 leva per person. I
believe that this is way too low considering that almost all were
expats.
Just to reassure you, the funds collected are all used for charity
and the accounts are audited by KPMG’s Gilbert McCall.
So, if you feel that you financially underachieved at either of these
events or even worse did not attend, please call Laura Thomas on
0888-546555 and she will send a volunteer to your office or residence
to collect your donation.
Politics:
It warmed my heart that after months of bickering the parties of the
right are finally getting their act together and will present the
Bulgarian voters with a real choice. I understand that there will be
two more meetings before Christmas and that by that time they will
once again present a United Front.
Although Mr. Gotta’ Yellow Army has brought some highly capable
people such as Milen Velchev into the lime light, they never remotely
lived up to their promises.

Saakashvili Outlines Priorities at Party Congress
Civil Georgia, Georgia
Nov 22 2004
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on November 22, while
speaking at the first congress of the ruling National Movement –
Democrats party, that Georgia’s key priorities include reintegration
of the country, development of democratic principles and establishment
of good relations with all the neighbor countries, including Russia.
“We have to return Abkhazia and reintegrate Georgia. Georgia will be
uniform and free, only when we hang the most beautiful five-cross flag
on the Roki pass [breakaway South Ossetia] and river Psou [breakaway
Abkhazia],” President Saakashvili said.
“Each citizen should know, that Georgia’s reintegration has not
occurred yet. This process is extremely difficulties and requires
victim. It is important to restore [territorial] integrity and this
may cost our lives,” the President added.
He said, the Georgian authorities are ready to establish good relations
with all the neighbor states, including Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan
and Armenia.
“However, everybody should know that we are ready to compromise,
but not at the expense of our integrity and independence,” he added.
In the President’s opinion, Georgia will be completely free when not
a single foreign soldier remains on its land.
Mikheil Saakashvili also emphasized on supremacy of law, civil
consciousness and integration of all nationalities living in the
country in the political life.
“In order to achieve success in terms of development, one should
base on the following two criteria – professionalism and devotion
to Georgia. Nationality has no sense regarding these two criteria,”
Saakashvili said.
“We declare war against poverty and we will win in this war by all
means. We will return Georgia, our main slogan will be “Let’s Return
Georgia,” the President added.
–Boundary_(ID_mPZlu3a+TIPvc6NN3CV7WQ)–

Pope meets Azeri leaders
Baku Sun, Azerbaijan
Nov 22 2004
VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II received Muslim, Orthodox Christian
and Jewish religious leaders from Azerbaijan, calling their visit
Thursday a symbol of tolerance and declaring that religion must never
be used for violent aims.
“No one has the right to present or use religion as an instrument
of intolerance, as a means of aggression, of violence, of death,”
the Pope told the group.
He said Christians, Muslims and Jews must appeal together for an end
to violence in the world “with justice for all.” “This is the way of
religions,” he said.
The audience was scheduled to repay John Paul’s 2002 trip to
Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic and mainly Muslim nation with
a Catholic population of only 300 people.
The Vatican said the Pope wanted to hold up Azerbaijan as an example
of coexistence and cooperation among religions and express hope that
“a full peace in the spirit of reconciliation” may be achieved in the
region — a reference to the country’s conflict with Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave. A cease-fire ended
fighting in 1994 after some 30,000 people were killed and more than
a million people fled their homes.

RAO UES of Russia off to discuss winter energy supply to Georgia
Itar-Tass, Russia
Nov 22 2004
TBILISI, November 22 (Itar-Tass) – Member of the RAO UES of Russia
board Andrei Rappoport arrived on a one-day working visit in the
Georgian capital on Monday. He heads the federal network company that
is a daughter company of the energy holding.
“The goal of Rappoport’s visit is to discuss energy supplies to Tbilisi
in the winter period,” a source in the Tbilisi energy distribution
company Telasi told Itar-Tass. RAO UES of Russia owns 75 percent
of the Telasi stock since the summer of 2003. Rappoport will hold a
meeting with Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.
Telasi provides energy supply to Tbilisi. This company imports energy
from Armenia to Russia in conditions of the energy crisis in the
autumn-winter period. Telasi imports 100 megawatt of energy from
these countries the other day.
The Georgian government and RAO UES of Russia signed a memorandum on
energy supplies to Georgia in autumn and winter this year in Tbilisi
on October 1.

Around the Valley
Telethon will raise funds to complete highway
Fresno Bee, CA
Nov 22 2004
Armenia Fund Inc. will broadcast its annual Thanksgiving fund-raising
event, Telethon 2004 Make it Happen, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday
on Fresno’s KJEO Channel 32 and Comcast Channel 14.
The 12-hour event will raise funds to complete the remaining 56 miles
of the North-South “Backbone” Highway in Karabakh.
Upon completion, the 105-mile highway will link 150 towns and villages,
providing crucial economic, trade and development opportunities.
The telethon also is aimed to provide continued assistance in health
care, education and infrastructure development in the Republic
of Armenia.
Details: (800) 888-8897 or on the Internet at

ARMENIAN PARTY PROPOSES DISCUSSION OF ISSUES OF SHAHUMIAN AND
GETASHEN OCCUPIED ARMENIAN TERRITORIES AND REFUGEES
PanArmenian News
Nov 22 2004
YEREVAN, 22.11.04. The Armenian party proposes to bring up for
discussion the issues of Shahumian and Getashen occupied Armenian
territories and Armenian refugees. Written proposals on that were
submitted by the Armenian party in the course of the session of
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly session in Venice November 11-17.
Chairman of the Committee for Defense, National Security and
Internal Affairs of the Armenian Parliament M. Shahgeldian told
about the course of the discussions at a press conference November
19. During the event, where the question of the security system of
the South Caucasian countries was also discussed, the draft of a
German representative on the countries of the region was heard. The
final report will be presented at the next session. A proposal on `the
seven occupied territories of Azerbaijan` is introduced into the report
instead of `the four territories` present in the initial document. In
M. Shahgeldian`s words, the inclusion of the issue in the UN General
Assembly agenda influenced on making such an alteration. In the course
of the debates a French representative also suggested the introduction
of the issue of lifting the blockade of Armenia, held by Turkey. The
Armenian party also made its written proposals. These specifically
remind of the occupied Armenian territories of Shahumian and Getashen,
as well as persons of Armenian nationality displaced from Azerbaijan
by force. It should be reminded that Getashen territory was occupied
by the Azeri forces in the summer of 1991 with the direct support of
the Soviet army. Shahumian region was occupied in the summer of 1992
due to bribed Russian generals. Thousands of Armenians were deported
by force or annihilated in the course of those operations.