Category: News

Armen Press
July 12 2004
PRIME MINISTER ANDRANIK MARGARYAN TO VISIT RUSSIAN FEDERATION ON JUNE
12
YEREVAN, JULY 12, ARMENPRESS: On July 12 Armenian Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan left for the Russian Federation on a two-day
official visit at the invitation of Mikhail Fradkov, the chairman of
the Government of the Russian Federation. The Armenian delegation,
headed by the Prime Minister, includes Vardan Khachatrian, the
minister of finance and economy, Karen Chshmaritian, the minister of
trade and economic development, Sergo Yeritsian, the minister of
science and education, Armen Avetisian, the chairman of the
government affiliated state customs committee, Tatul Margaryan, the
deputy minister of foreign affairs and also senior officials of the
staff of the government and the ministry of foreign affairs.
On July 13 Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan will have a meeting
with his Russian counterpart, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. This
will be followed by enlarged Russian- Armenian talks with
participation of all members of Russian and Armenian delegations. The
prime Ministers of Armenia and Russia will also meet with
representatives of mass media.
Within the frameworks of the visit Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian is expected to have also bilateral meetings with some
high-ranking Russian official. During his stay in Moscow the Prime
Minister will visit the “Armenia” pavilion of the Pan-Russian
Exhibition Center and will meet with its director M. Musayev.

Armen Press
July 12 2004
OSCE ACTS BEYOND FRAMES OF RESPONSIBILITIES, ARMENIAN OFFICIAL SAYS
YEREVAN, JULY 12, ARMENPRESS: A deputy parliament chairman Vahan
Hovhanesian from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) argued
today that Armenia has joined Russia and seven other ex-Soviet states
to accuse the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) of unjustly interference into their domestic affairs because
of the OSCE decreasing role in handling international issues. “The
responsibilities assigned to the OSCE are successfully carried out by
other international organizations, a clear indication of the falling
role of the OSCE,” he said.
In a joint statement ex-Soviet countries said last week that in
part the OSCE does not respect such fundamental principles as
non-interference in internal affairs and respect of national
sovereignty by meddling into their domestic affairs. The statement
was signed by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova,
Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Georgia, Azerbaijan and
Turkmenistan refused to sign it.
Vahan Hovhanesian went on to argue that there is no now such a
problem that would require the OSCE’s joint efforts and therefore the
organization has to seek new initiatives, which, however, are beyond
its frame of commitments. He also added that Armenia cannot agree
with a motion, put forward by the OSCE leadership that resolutions
can be taken without a consensus.

Armen Press
July 12 2004
$48,000 PLEDGED FOR STARTING CONSTRUCTION OF CENTER FOR HANDICAPPED
YEREVAN, JULY 12, ARMENPRESS: Levon Nersisian, the chairman of
Astghik (Starlet) union of handicapped people, told Armenpress that
nine international and local organizations pledged $42,000 in
donations for starting the construction of a rehabilitation center on
2 hectares of land in a Yerevan Nor Nork community, allocated to it
by a government decision. Nersisian said his union has developed a
program called Hope Shelter, which conforms all internationally
accepted standards of handicapped people care, which he said costs $6
million.
He said the Union hopes that the construction of the
rehabilitation center will be finished in 2008 and its full operation
will require another four years.
The program supposes a unique approach towards meeting the needs
of handicapped people. Around 60 disabled children are supposed to be
serviced by a 148-member staff. The center will also take care of
local old people and foreign old-age tourists.
From: Baghdasarian

Armen Press
July 12 2004
ARMENIAN EMBASSY HOSTS PRESENTATION ON ARMENIAN SCIENCE AND LAKE
SEVAN
YEREVAN, JULY 12, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian foreign affairs
ministry said that on July 7, 2004, the Embassy of Armenia in the USA
hosted members of the Federal Water Quality Association and the
Greater Metropolitan Washington Area Section of the Armenian
Engineers and Scientists of America for a presentation on Armenian
science and environmental issues. Arman Kirakosian, Armenian
Ambassador to the U.S., delivered the keynote address, entitled “The
State of the Science in Armenia, with a View Toward the Water
Environment of Lake Sevan,” to an audience of some 60 experts,
researchers, and officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Department of Agriculture, Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Civilian Research & Development Foundation, and other public and
private entities.
In his presentation and the Q&A that followed, Ambassador
Kirakosian presented the modern state of scientific infrastructure,
policies, and directions in Armenia. He described the many challenges
facing the Armenian scientists today, such as drastic decrease in
government funding, greater need for commercial viability and
involvement of the private sector in directing and funding R&D, and
curtailing the so-called ‘brain-drain.’ Despite these challenges, the
Armenian scientists continue to make progress in many areas of
fundamental and applied science due to perseverance and support from
their foreign colleagues and international donors, the Ambassador
noted. He also presented the government’s plans to strengthen science
and education sectors.
Turning to Lake Sevan, Ambassador Kirakosian described the
severity of the man-made ecological problems in Lake Sevan during the
twentieth century, caused by extensive irrigation and hydropower
usage. The resulting 18-meter drop in water level and disruption of
water balance in the lake was a good example of Soviet era
environmental damage, he added. The Ambassador then noted the current
positive trends in Lake Sevan ecology, but stressed the need for
continuing attention for and greater international cooperation to
preserve the unique environment of Lake Sevan.

Financial Times (London, England)
July 10, 2004 Saturday
All life is here
Ten years after writing a book that became a word-of-mouthsensation,
this author returns with a more ambitious novel: an epic story
displaying writing that is both lyrical and ruthlessly succinct
By HENRY HITCHINGS
BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS
by Louis de Bernieres
Secker & Warburg Pounds 17.99, 640 pages
Occasionally a novel comes along that redefines the contours of
popular fiction. Perhaps the best example of recent years is Captain
Corelli’s Mandolin, in which Louis de Bernieres blended sun-drenched
romance with epic gravity. Captain Corelli was a word- of-mouth
sensation, a beneficiary and then a mainstay of the emerging
book-group phenomenon. A few years ago it was barely possible to
travel on a commuter train or flop down on a beach without seeing
someone immersed in the story of the sleepy Ionian island convulsed
by the second world war. The book has sold nearly three million
copies in English, and has multiplied the number of tourists to
Cephallonia.
But de Bernieres has been slow to follow up his success; it is now
ten years since Captain Corelli was first published.
Birds Without Wings is, very obliquely, its sequel (or rather,
prequel). Its events periodically connect with those of the earlier
novel – for instance, we are reunited with the formidable Drosoula,
mother of Mandras the handsome fisherman. But here the story takes
place in Anatolia, not Cephallonia, and in the first quarter of the
last century, amid the crumbling fabric of the Ottoman Empire.
Specifically, we are in the remote village of Eskibahce (modelled, it
appears, on the real-life “ghost town” of Kayakoy near Fethiye).
Eskibahce is a polyglot colony of Turks, Armenians, Greeks and Arabs,
where Muslim and Christian happily rub shoulders. It is, like de
Bernieres’ previous half-imaginary societies, a place that unites the
chimerical poetry of Gabriel Garcia Marquez with the fine-grained
domesticity of Trollope.
Eskibahce is the novel’s heart. There is no clear protagonist, nor
any presiding narrative voice. Instead this is a story about the
disintegration of a community, and de Bernieres allows a multitude of
characters to jostle for attention, at first to suggest the richness
of the community’s life, and then to register its erosion.
Among these characters are Philothei, the local beauty, and her
admirer, Ibrahim the goatherd, who wins her affection with the gift
of a dead goldfinch; apparently inseparable friends Karatavuk and
Mehmetcik, whose childhood innocence gives way to savagery as their
society is torn apart by conflict; and the prosperous, sad Rustem
Bey, whose wife Tamara is stoned for adultery, and whose Greek
mistress Leyla gamely takes her place.
The cast is enriched by the presence of minor eccentrics such as
Mohammed the Leech Gatherer and Ali the Snowbringer (so-called
because on the night of his birth it snowed for the first time in 75
years), as well as charismatic figures of authority – the holy men
Father Kristoforos and Abdulhamid Hodja, and Iskander the potter, who
provides the book’s title when he reflects that “Man is a bird
without wings”, while “a bird is a man without sorrow”.
Real historical characters play their part too: Enver Pasha, the
Turkish minister who drew his country into the first world war by
attacking Odessa with the Nazis, the German general Limon von Sanders
and Mustafa Kemal, the brilliant commander known to posterity simply
as Ataturk.
It is the surge of military ambitions that explodes the sanctity of
Eskibahce and scatters its inhabitants. The strongest part of the
novel is an 80-page sequence which follows Karatavuk as he finds
himself fighting the allies at Gallipoli. “Intoxicated with the idea
of martyrdom”, he suffers in the trenches, surrounded by rotting
corpses, and frequently bent double with dysentery while flies drink
the moisture from his eyes. Troops eat their own donkeys. The bodies
of their dead comrades are used to buttress collapsing trenches. Yet,
in the depths of squalor, there blooms a generous camaraderie: de
Bernieres has a remarkable ability to evoke the tenderness of
relationships even as he depicts their brutality, and his mordant
sense of human comedy increases the pathos of what is, in effect, a
critique of militant nationalism.
Throughout the novel, the author switches deftly between minute
description – of the shape Leyla’s white cat, Pamuk, makes as she
shelters beneath her favourite orange tree, or of what maggots do to
a corpse – and wide-ranging historical synthesis. The strength of his
writing lies in that he can be both lyrical and ruthlessly succinct –
he can move seamlessly from energetic humour to poignancy, and from
easy charm to a searing anger.
These qualities run right through Birds Without Wings. It is a more
ambitious novel than Captain Corelli, and in many ways a better one.
But, with its slow beginning, complex geography, somewhat unfamiliar
historical territory, and (to British eyes) strange- looking names
and improbable orthography, it is unlikely to be as successful.

European Report
July 10, 2004
COUNTRY REPORTS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANS IN VIEW FOR SOUTHERN CAUCASUS
TRIO.
The EU is set to draw up Action Plans with Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia to boost ties under European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP),
although not before the European Commission has prepared in-depth
reports on the political and economic situation in these countries.
This was confirmed by the July 5-8 visit to the Southern Caucasus* of
‘shadow’ Enlargement/Neighbourhood Commissioner Janez Potocnik,
during which the ENP initiative was the primary focus. Commission
officials told Europe Information that the idea was to produce the
country reports by Spring 2005. The preparation of jointly-agreed
Action Plans could then get under way during the course of next year.
The word from sources in Yerevan, Armenia, where Mr Potocnik
concluded his visit, was that the country report would ideally be
finalised by the end of 2004, although realistically this was more
likely to happen by next Spring. EU Member States agreed to include
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in ENP on June 14.
* Georgia July 5-6, Azerbaijan July 6-7, Armenia July 7-8
From: Baghdasarian

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 12, 2004 Monday 1:25 AM Eastern Time
Armenia gets first tranche of food grant from EU
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
The European Commission has extended the first tranche of food grant
to Armenia worth 1.5 million euros, Armenian Minister for Finance and
Economy told Itar-Tass late on Sunday.
The total grant will amount to 9.5 million euros. The rest of the aid
will come in two parts, four million euros each, within a year.
According to the minister, the EU aid is “extremely important and
useful for Armenia”.
The European Union is financing the agriculture, social sphere,
statistics, real estate cadastre, and the system of state governing
of Armenia. The agrarian block includes forestry.
The head of the EC delegation to Armenia and Georgia, Torben Holtze,
this is the eighth program of aid to the republic. Starting from
1997, these two former Soviet republics have received aid worth 68.5
million euros. Armenia’s share is bigger than that of Georgia, he
added.
According to the diplomat, the aid program will be continued. Under
the program under development, which will cover the period up to the
year 2007, Armenia is expected to get 30 million euros.
Late this year, or early in 2005, the Armenian government is expected
to hold a forum of donor-countries, the finance minister reported.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 12, 2004 Monday 1:25 AM Eastern Time
Media advisory: meeting at Federation Council
Federation Council
Press Service
Speaker of the Federation Council Sergey Mironov will meet with
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan at the Federation Council
(26, Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street, meetings hall) at 12.30 on Wednesday,
July 14.
Please apply for accreditation to the press service of the Federation
Council before 11.00 on July 14.
Press Service telephone numbers are 292-1877, 292-7525.
Fax: 292-4305.
Itar-Tass

Associated Press Worldstream
July 12, 2004 Monday 1:24 PM Eastern Time
Armenian ship sets off on Europe-wide voyage
YEREVAN, Armenia
An Armenia sailing vessel modeled after a 13th century ship set off
Monday from a Georgian port on a trip that will take it past 22
nations.
The ship, Kilikiya, left the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti en route
to Venice, Italy. It will spend the winter in Venice, and then depart
for Amsterdam next spring.
Karen Balaian, president of the Club of Maritime Investigations which
is sponsoring the trip, said the ship, which was built in the
Armenian capital using 13th century drafts and drawings, will follow
a popular trade route used in the 13th century.
Officials hope that the ship will be met in each port by members of
the Armenian Diaspora. Another goal, they said, is to remind the
world that ancient Armenia was not landlocked like the present day
nation, Balaian said.

El Pais
July 12, 2004
Los conflictos eternos de Georgia
PILAR BONET
Tbilisi
“En Armenia, todos tienen un tio que les manda dinero desde el
extranjero; en Azerbaiyan tienen petroleo, mientras que en Georgia
teniamos una depresion por la perdida de nuestro territorio hasta que
llego Mijail Saakashvili y nos infundio confianza en la
reunificacion”. Merab, uno de los muchos seguidores del presidente
georgiano, caracteriza asi el estado de animo de su pais en relacion
a los vecinos del Caucaso y a las regiones secesionistas de Osetia
del Sur y Abjazia, practicamente independientes desde que rechazaron
las incursiones armadas dirigidas contra ellas desde Tbilisi, en
1991-1992 y en 1992-1993, respectivamente. Miles de muertos y un
exodo de centenares de miles de personas fueron el precio de una
situacion que ha permanecido enquistada desde entonces.
Osetia del Sur, rodeada de montanas en la legendaria Ruta Militar del
Caucaso, y Abjazia, en el litoral del mar Negro, tienen sus Gobiernos
y sus Parlamentos no reconocidos en el mundo, pero no hubieran podido
sobrevivir sin Moscu, que actua como garante de su seguridad y que ha
repartido pasaportes entre la mayoria de sus habitantes. Osetia del
Sur pretende tener 90.000 ciudadanos, y Abjazia, cerca de 300.000,
pero las cifras son confusas. Muchos han emigrado a Rusia en busca de
mejores perspectivas y las autoridades de Osetia del Sur y Abjazia
tratan de demostrar que la mayoria de los georgianos que huyeron han
regresado a sus hogares de antes de la guerra. Sin embargo, los
desplazados georgianos (sobre todo los procedentes de Abjazia) se
hacinan aun, esperando el regreso, en hoteles destartalados de
Tbilisi y en multiples residencias improvisadas y dispersas por
Georgia.
Osetia del Sur limita con Osetia del Norte, que es parte de la
Federacion Rusa, y los secesionistas quisieran fundirse con sus
hermanos septentrionales “como se han unido los dos Vietnams o las
dos Alemanias”, en palabras de una portavoz local, y convertirse asi
en parte de Rusia. No es tan facil. Moscu reconoce la integridad
territorial de Georgia y es ademas garante de la estabilidad en
Osetia del Sur a tenor de un acuerdo tripartito de 1992. Desde
entonces, tres batallones pacificadores (uno ruso, otro osetio y otro
georgiano a razon de 500 hombres por cada parte) y una mision de la
OSCE han velado por el alto el fuego.
Durante mas de una decada, la supervivencia en el enclave
secesionista ha dependido del trafico de mercancias por una frontera
controlada por los rusos y los osetios, pero no por los georgianos.
Desde Rusia entraban en la region camiones de cereales, abonos,
viveres y gasolina, que se vendian (sin pagar impuestos a Tbilisi) en
el concurrido mercado de Ergeneti (al sur de Tsjinvali, la capital de
Osetia), o seguian camino hacia otros destinos en Georgia.
En primavera, Saakashvili instalo puestos contra el contrabando en la
zona controlada por los pacificadores georgianos y, desde entonces,
el mercado de Ergeneti es un desolado paisaje desierto jalonado por
los depositos de “petroleo de Rusia”, de todas las formas y tamanos.
Durante nuestra visita, unos campesinos (osetios y georgianos)
liquidaban sus existencias de azucar y abonos, mientras mas de una
veintena de camiones rusos hacian cola para pagar las tasas de la
aduana georgiana en Gori (la patria chica de Stalin).
Tsjinvali conserva las huellas del asedio georgiano en sus casas
destruidas y melladas. Sin embargo, una de sus principales calles
lleva el nombre de Stalin y la biblioteca municipal, que no recibe
libros desde los noventa, tiene las obras completas de este politico,
que los osetios consideran como un paisano aunque nacio fuera de su
demarcacion. En el mercado, mujeres que en otra epoca fueron
contables, profesoras y funcionarias venden hoy hortalizas y juran
que se resistiran a la cruzada unificadora de Tbilisi. “Si no fuera
por los rusos, nuestros ancianos se hubieran muerto de hambre”,
exclama Evelina. Por tener la ciudadania rusa, los jubilados de
Osetia (como los de Abjazia) cobran las pensiones rusas. La minima,
de unos 20 euros, esta muy por encima de las maximas georgianas, de
nueve euros, y de los sueldos medios, de cerca de siete euros, de la
republica secesionista. El rublo ruso, y no el lari georgiano, es la
moneda de curso tanto en Osetia del Sur como en Abjazia.
En Abjazia, el trauma de la guerra es mas profundo que en Osetia. Si
entre Tbilisi y Tsjinvali se puede viajar con el unico requisito de
identificarse en los puestos de control georgianos y osetios, de
Tbilisi a Sujumi, la capital de Abjazia, solo es posible desplazarse
con ayuda de la ONU, que tiene observadores militares alli, o de las
tropas de pacificacion rusas, que actuan en nombre de la CEI y que
vigilan la linea del alto el fuego establecida en 1994 a lo largo del
rio Enguri.
Con sus bellisimas playas y sus exuberantes paisajes, Abjazia fue una
zona de vacaciones privilegiada en epoca sovietica. Hoy, los turistas
rusos desafian la propaganda georgiana, que trata de asustar a los
potenciales veraneantes con cronicas de asaltos y bandidos, fenomenos
que por otra parte se dan tambien en el territorio controlado por los
georgianos. Por 20 euros por persona a pension completa, en algunas
playas, como la de Pitsunda, es posible olvidar que esta region fue
escenario de una sangrienta guerra. En Sujumi, en cambio, hay
demasiadas evocaciones de la muerte, como la sede del Parlamento,
parecida al palacio presidencial de Dudayev en Grozni, hoy demolido,
o las lapidas de los caidos en combate. Entre los voluntarios de los
pueblos montaneses del Caucaso que socorrieron a los abjazos habia
chechenos, como Shamil Basayev, que se caso con una abjaza y que
despues llegaria a ser un lider guerrillero en su propia republica.
Los rusos compran casas en Abjazia con muy pocas garantias, porque la
legislacion local no contempla la propiedad privada de la tierra y el
futuro es incierto. Algunas instituciones rusas, como el Ministerio
de Defensa o el de Energia Atomica, conservan aun residencias de
vacaciones en la costa abjaza, pero, aparentemente, invierten poco en
renovarlas y el paisaje de edificios bombardeados y venidos a menos
resulta fantasmagorico. Como en Osetia, los georgianos quisieran
controlar la frontera con Rusia y acusan de contrabando a las tropas
rusas. “De momento se trata de viveres, combustibles o cigarrillos,
pero no de armas o narcoticos. El incidente mas embarazoso fue la
captura de un barco turco con un cargamento de pasaportes abjazos”,
afirma un funcionario internacional.
El presidente Saakashvili estrecha el cerco a Osetia del Sur y
Abjazia, pero tambien trata de seducirlas, enviandoles abonos y
pagando pensiones a quienes las acepten. Mas alla de lo publico, hay
indicios de que partisanos y agentes secretos georgianos se infiltran
en los dos territorios, utilizando para ello a la poblacion georgiana
local. Los dirigentes de Osetia del Sur aseguran que unos 2.500
georgianos armados han penetrado en sus dominios mientras colegas
rusos dicen haber visto a decenas de georgianos armados no
pertenecientes a las tropas pacificadoras.
En el valle de Gali, en Abjazia, los georgianos han repartido abono
con ayuda de una estructura clandestina, pese a la oposicion de las
autoridades abjazas, segun aseguran medios proximos a las patrullas
de la ONU, que vigilan la zona, aunque no la controlan en su
totalidad. No todos los que van armados sirven causas politicas. Hay
tambien bandidos de todas las nacionalidades. Uno de ellos,
georgiano, mato recientemente al jefe de policia abjaza de Gali. Tras
cualquier incidente, los justos pueden pagar por los pecadores. Las
techumbres del pueblo de Majudzhe, poblado por georgianos, fueron
quemadas despues de que un coche abjazo estallara sobre una mina
cerca de alli.
Saakashvili goza de simpatias en Occidente y sabe presentar su caso
bajo la optica de la lucha de la pequena Georgia contra la gran
Rusia. Osetios y abjazos, que se habian relajado con los anos,
desconfian profundamente de los georgianos y estan alarmados por los
vientos que soplan desde Tbilisi. La clase politica georgiana, con
pocas excepciones, entiende mal lo que quiere decir autonomia, como
lo demuestra el reciente estatuto aprobado para la republica de
Adzharia, segun el cual los dirigentes locales son propuestos por el
presidente georgiano, quien puede disolver el Parlamento y el
Gobierno de la region. Los nuevos lideres georgianos abren los brazos
a abjazos y osetios, pero los independentistas no se sienten parte
del pueblo georgiano y los georgianos no entienden por que su amor no
es correspondido. Hay algunas excepciones, como David Berdzenishvili,
jefe del partido republicano, que se ha pasado a la oposicion a
Saakashvili tras haber formado parte de su mismo bloque politico.
Berdzenishvili conoce la experiencia espanola y entiende lo que
significa el federalismo asimetrico, pero ese no parece ser el caso
del presidente, que ha jurado reunificar las tierras de Georgia sobre
la tumba de un rey medieval, David el Constructor (1089-1125), y que
ha sustituido la bandera de la republica menchevique independiente
(1918-1921), restablecida al desintegrarse la URSS, por otra que fue
usada para ir a las Cruzadas. Rusia es clave para una solucion
pacifica del problema, pero no todo depende de ella, porque abjazos y
osetios tienen sus propias ideas y hay quien piensa que la causa de
estos pequenos pueblos todavia puede encontrar partidarios dispuestos
a luchar entre los orgullosos guerreros del Caucaso y entre los
cosacos que la pasada primavera hicieron una demostrativa incursion
relampago en Abjazia.