Category: News

Zaman, Turkey
June 15 2004
EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU
[COMMENTARY]
OIC to be Determining Force in New World Order
As evidenced by the agenda topics of the 31st Islamic Countries
Foreign Ministers Conference in Istanbul, the 35-year old
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) looks at the main issues
concerning world societies across a wide spectrum.
Today, the OIC is developing to harmonize with the ever-changing
conditions of the world. When this organization’s experiences to date
are taken into consideration, some unique qualities that distinguish
it from other international institutions have emerged. Undoubtedly,
these characteristics will play a role in operations today and in the
future.
One of the greatest innovations of the 21st century in the arena of
international affairs is the establishment of international
organizations with missions of cooperation and their gradual
acceptance of important roles. In addition to the United Nations,
small scale regional integrations have been established among
countries that are dealing with common problems or have similar or
close standing in terms of geographical position as well as political
problems and development paths.
One of the reasons for this is that an imbalance in the interests and
trade among countries that are playing an effective role in world
politics and an imbalance between industrialized and developing
countries has become more apparent. As such, the idea of cooperation
among developing countries is increasingly gaining importance.
Therefore, regional groups or institutions formed by countries that
can unite around geographical proximity, complementary economies and
other qualities have turned out to be indispensable elements of
foreign relations for these countries.
Even though the OIC, established in 1969, is not very different from
other international and regional institutions and the United Nations
system in terms of structure, it has some unique qualities in terms
of basics, purpose and design. The term ‘Islamic countries’ in
general is used for countries with a Muslim majority population and,
in some other cases, for countries that describe the identity of
their people as Muslim. Islamic countries spread throughout Africa,
the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and South
America. Today’s Islamic world consists of countries that are making
efforts toward development. Islamic countries that have secured
independence have become members of the United Nations and other
international organizations and, at the same time, have formed
regional institutions such as the Arab League and the Africa Union
later. In addition, some of them have taken place in the Cold War
block and some in the Non-Aligned countries movement. In 1969, the
OIC was established to incorporate different regions of Islamic
geography with nearly 25 countries mostly populated with Muslims,
including Turkey. The bonding element in its establishment is that
member countries have a common religion and similar cultures. Its
first reason being formed on the other side, is the solution of
common problems, primarily the Jerusalem and Palestinian issue, in
solidarity.
Along with being the only international organization gathered around
the notion of a common culture and civilization, another unique
characteristic of the OIC is that the goals of the organization over
the past 35 years have varied a great deal and expanded considerably
to include all the issues emerging in the world and of interest to
member countries on the organization’s agenda. At the same time, its
membership has increased continuously to 57 as of 2004. One of the
important factors that play a role in this is that Muslim populated
countries are declaring their independence with the collapse of the
Soviet Union and other socialist states. The expansions of the
Soviets in the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Balkans and Southeastern
Europe have led to new participants in the organization either as
members or observers. Many sub-organizations, research centers,
commissions and other institutions affiliated with the OIC have been
formed due to the expansion of activity areas.
Another characteristic of the Organization is that, close up, many
Islamic countries amongst themselves and also with many Western and
Eastern countries, have developed activities around relations,
culture, research, and information for the first time through the
mediation of this organization. It has been observed that some
countries that barely had relations among themselves and some
educational, cultural and civil society organizations started
relations for the first time. In addition, scientific congresses
organized by the Islamic Research Center for History, Art and Culture
(IRCICA), established in 1980 in Istanbul, has been especially active
in the Balkans, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, some South and
Southeast Asia countries, Caucasus, Central and North Asia and the
Russian Federation. Research and publication are among the first
activities of the OIC in these countries. As for the other quality of
the Organization, it should be stated that through the work of the
IRCICA, the OIC is the only international organization that has
included art and art channels in international relations.
If it is required to evaluate the results and content of the work of
the OIC and its existence at the point it has reached today, it could
be said that the Organization has the task of establishing a common
ground for member countries to express joint determinations and
attitudes in the presence of other international organizations and to
provide a platform from which they can speak on national issues and
seek support. Initiatives to achieve membership of Bosnia-Herzegovina
in the United Nations could be given as an example on this subject.
General issues related to all members such as disarmament and
security cooperation as well as the conflicts in different regions
including Palestine, Cyprus, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sudan, and
Armenia-Azerbaijan are discussed by the Organization. Among the
vastly varying economic development subjects, projects with the
purpose of assisting Islamic countries that are among the less
developed countries are especially conducted. On the other side,
again through the activities of the IRCICA, the Organization follows
cultural developments in the world and studies Islamic culture and
civilization and its introduction to the world, corrects stereotypes
about Islam and Islamic countries, and increases solidarity and
cultural cooperation with minorities and all Muslim communities
around the world.
When one considers the development of this Organization as an
umbrella for Islamic countries and outline so far, one may wonder
whether or not the OIC has succeeded in reaching its targets. When
the diversity among Islamic countries in respect to one another in
terms of political system, level of economic development, national
culture policies and many others as well as both domestic and foreign
politics issues, is taken into consideration, despite all these
problems, positive results have been achieved despite all these
obstacles and collaboration has been reached. This indicates that the
Organization has formed a successful joint platform even though it
has not been echoed much. The Organization has also provided many
important benefits from the perspective of voicing individual
countries’ issues from international platforms and developing
bilateral and multilateral relations.
It should be noted, however, that the conditions in the world when
the OIC was formed and the conditions today are greatly different.
With the collapse of the socialist systems, the bi-polar world has
disappeared. In the globalization determining the new world order,
the significance of country blocks and international organizations is
increasing.
Apparently, countries and groups of countries will be represented by
international organizations gradually and international forums will
express themselves through these organizations. If the OIC gains a
new dynamic to adapt to new world conditions, adopts new concepts and
principles and benefits with the support of member countries as an
international institution representing Islamic countries, it could
undertake more active roles in the upcoming term and help Islamic
countries have louder voices in world politics, and economic and
cultural relations.
This commentary was written exclusively for Zaman by Prof. Ekmeleddin
Ihsanoglu, the IRCICA Director General in Istanbul and OIC Secretary
General Candidate.

Lori-Berd power plant to cost $90-$100 mln
Interfax
June 15 2004
Yerevan. (Interfax) – It will cost $90 million – $100 million to build
the Lori-Berd hydro power plant in Armenia’s Lori region, Alexander
Beck, representative of the German engineering company Fichtner,
which is working on a feasibility study to build the hydro plant,
told Interfax.
The study for the plant, with a capacity of 56 megawatts, will be
finished by the end of 2004 and will be financed by an EU grant.
Feasibility studies under the EU program to build five to seven
hydro power plants with a total capacity of 70 megawatts in Armenia
are planned to be completed by the end of 2004. The Lori-Berd is the
largest of the plants.
German Bank Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau plans to extend Armenia
a loan worth 30 million euros in 2005 to implement the program to
build small hydro power plants.
Fichtner works in the power and environmental protection sectors.

Gazprom might limit gas shipments to Georgia
Interfax
June 15 2004
Moscow. (Interfax) – Gazprom might move to limit gas shipments to
Georgia, the company’s deputy executive board chairman Alexander
Ryazanov announced at a Tuesday press conference in Moscow.
Gazprom management plans to meet with Georgian representatives to
discuss issues of Georgian debt, for which there has yet to be a
payment schedule, Ryazanov reported. Georgia owes $12 million for gas;
factoring in debts for gas supplied earlier Georgia’s overall debts
are reaching $50-$60 million.
Ryazanov said Gazprom has suggested to Georgia the setting up of a
joint venture for upgrading the trunk gas pipeline running through
Georgia to Armenia, but a decision has yet to be made.

NO VACANT FREQUENCIES IN YEREVAN?
A1 Plus | 20:24:36 | 14-06-2004 | Social |
Grikor Amalyan, the head of the Radio and Television National
Commission, said Monday that there are no vacant broadcasting
frequencies in Yerevan while they are abundant in provinces.
The commission decided to provide Cable Television Systems Center
company with license.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU includes Southern Caucasus countries in neighbourhood policy
EurActiv.com, Belgium
June 15 2004
In short:
Fine-tuning its European Neighbourhood Policy, the Council has
decided to include Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the process.
Brief news:
The EU will include Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in its European
Neighbourhood Policy framework through which it aims to improve
relations with the Union’s new neighbours to the East and South (see
also EurActiv 13 May 2004). The decision to this effect, which was
reached by the External Relations Council in Luxembourg on 14 June,
has been hailed by EU foreign ministers as a “significant step
forward in the Union’s engagement with this region”.
The broad aim of the ENP is for the EU and its neighbours to “share
the benefits of an enlarged EU”. The ENP “offers the prospect of an
increasingly close relationship, in the spirit of the Council’s
conclusions of 16 June 2003”. The Council decided to pursue the ENP
through specific Action Plans with the countries concerned. The plans
should have a minimum duration of three years and should promote
regional cooperation.
According to the Council conclusions, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
will be given the same opportunity to develop links with the EU,
including through action plans, and will be treated on their
individual merits in line with the general policy of the ENP.
Meanwhile, the Council has invited the Commission to finalise
exploratory talks on the draft Action Plans with Jordan, Moldova,
Morocco, Tunisia, Ukraine, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU foreign ministers to extend “neighborhood policy” to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
Pravda, Russia / RIA Novosti
June 15 2004
14:19 2004-06-15
At their Monday session in Luxembourg foreign ministers of the 25 EU
member states decided to extend the “European neighborhood policy”
to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
These countries will be given equal opportunities to develop
relationship with the European Union, including via joint plans of
action, read the session’s materials released by the main secretariat
of the EU Council.
The EU General Affairs and External Relations Council at its session
also pointed to the need to complete work on draft plans of action with
the states already included in the policy, that is, Ukraine, Moldova,
Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Besides, the Council confirmed the EU’s readiness to build partnership
relations with Libya.
As to Moldova, the foreign ministers spoke in favor of accelerating
political settlement of the Trans-Dniestria conflict, confirming that
the EU was determined to cooperate with Russia and Ukraine to help
resolve it.
They also expressed their anxiety concerning “insufficient progress”
in the process of Russian arms withdrawal from Trans-Dniestria. The
Council urged the region’s authorities not to hinder the withdrawal.
Apart from this, the ministers stated that the EU was interested in
building partnership relations with Belarus.
However, the republic may be included in the neighborhood policy only
after it elects a truly democratic government, it was emphasized.
The Council also confirmed its readiness to assist Belarus in
overcoming the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe, as well as
in education, healthcare, environment protection, trans-border and
regional cooperation and development of independent mass media.

ABELYAN UNIMPRESSED BY HARRISON
sportinglife.com, UK
June 15 2004
William Abelyan is confident of taking Scott Harrison’s WBO world
featherweight title on Saturday night after watching the Scotsman
struggle in his two fights with an ageing Manuel Medina.
Harrison, who defends his title against the American-based Armenian
at Braehead Arena this weekend, controversially lost his belt to
the wily Medina on points last July before regaining it with an 11th
round stoppage in the brutal rematch in November.
But 25-year-old Abelyan believes Harrison’s problems with the veteran
Mexican, who was 32 at the time, prove that the title is there for
the taking.
He said: “I couldn’t believe that Medina went 11 rounds with him in
the second fight. When Medina was going to fight for the IBF title,
I was his sparring partner and I dropped him a couple of times.
“Manuel Medina is an old man and I couldn’t understand why Harrison
took 11 rounds to beat him.
“I saw the Harrison tapes about three times. He fights like a typical
Mexican fighter, he just comes to you and so I’ll be waiting for him.
“When I step inside the ring and I’m just going to do my stuff and
then come out. Boxing is my hobby, Scott and his fans won’t affect
me and I’m ready for anyone.
“I’m not going to say I’m going to knock him out but I will do my
stuff and the knockout will come.
“Getting the WBO title on Saturday will be the best fight of my life.
My home country is the United States now but after this fight I’m
going to celebrate in Armenia.”
Abelyan insists he was destined to be a champion after a tough
childhood in California all but forced him into the boxing game.
He said: “When I was a little kid I loved to fight and I was a
little troublemaker. They expelled me from the school for beating up
a football player but then they told me to come back. But I didn’t
want to go back so I studied at home.
“In America when you fight outside they give you a fine and so I
changed my mind.
“Why pay the government a fine when you can go inside the ring and
fight – and then the government can pay you?
“But I’m not a fighter, I’m a boxer and I’m going to show Harrison
what’s going to happen on Saturday night.”

Armenia nuclear plant license extended
Interfax
June 15 2004
Yerevan. (Interfax) – The commission for the regulation of public
services in Armenia has extended the operating license for Armenia
Nuclear Power Plant, a source in the commission’s press service
told Interfax.
The source said that the decision to extend the license was reached
on June 8 this year and came into effect from June 10.
The previous license for the plant, issued 15 years ago, expired
on June 10 this year. An application to receive a new license was
submitted to the commission a month ago the source said.
Armenian Nuclear Power Plant plans to halt operations on June 15,
for 65 days for maintenance and for fuel to be loaded.
The plant generated 1.9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2003,
or 36% of the total generation of electricity in Armenia.
ZAO Inter RAO UES, a subsidiary of Russia’s Unified Energy System,
and Armenia signed a contract in September 2003 to hand over trust
management of the NPP to Inter RAO UES.
Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, which has two reactors with a total
capacity of 815 megawatts, was closed in 1988 due to political and
economic reasons. The NPP’s second reactor was restarted at a capacity
of 407.5 megawatts in 1995.
Armenian Economic Development and Trade Minister Karen Jshmartian
announced earlier that a program for the mothballing of the plant
should be prepared by the end of 2004.

Yemen Times, Yemen
June 15 2004
Accessing Yemen’s historical importance and possible future role –
past traits predestine future’s potentialities:
Yemen’s great past and future (Part 1/2)
By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis For the Yemen Times
General View of Zabid showing old castle. (Hodeidah Gov)
It is certainly an auspicious event to see Yemen’s intellectuals
joining forces to face the various challenges of the future, and to
express their ideas about the possible ways the country will catch up
with the developed countries within our global world. The weight they
may exercise within the future politics of the country will certainly
determine the speed of the development, and the extent of the good
news anybody truly wishes to hear from the Great Old Land of the
Hadrami Frankincense and the Sabaean Wisdom. On this way towards fast
recovery, there is a need for criticism, when one needs an analysis
of what went wrong, but there is also a necessity for an overall
synthesis and better perception of the great historical past.
Geographical and Historical Determinism
Throughout world history, few factors have been so determining as the
geography of a land, and the basic traits of civilization that a
people developed at a certain historical moments. Egypt and Meroe in
today’s Sudan have been the Nile valley countries, flat and
delineated by the propinquity of the desert. Babylonia was the flat
land between two rivers (Mesopotamia, Beyn un Nahreyn); Assyria was
the land of Transtigritane, combining the vast Mesopotamian plains
and the surrounding mountains. Persia was the land of the plateau at
the east of Zagros series of mountains, and the Hittites felt at home
at the Anatolian plateau of Cappadocia that is demarcated by the
Taurus and the Pontus series of mountains. Greece is the land of
small plains among isolated mounts, and of little islands. In Lebanon
the phenomenon is very striking; at the coast, the Phoenicians of
Tyros, Sidon, Arad, Byblos, and other cities – states were turned to
long navigations and open seafaring, whereas 50 km inland Aramaeans
at the Bekaa valley, as well as further on in Damascus, Haleb, Homs,
were excelling in cattle-keeping, agriculture and land route trades
(as far as China!), being totally disinterested in the sea!
A unique turning point called Yemen
Where does Yemen stand in the ‘global’ world of the ancient Middle
East?
Land of the mountains and the small valleys among them, area of an
unprecedented Wadi-phenomenon at Hadramawt, focal point of land
routes and desert routes of trade, territory encompassing long and
rich coastal strips, turned to various seas, to the Red Sea and to
the Indian Ocean as we call these seas now, Yemen has long been the
most African part of …. Asia, or… the Asiatic part of Africa!
Undoubtedly, Yemen linked India with Egypt, East Africa with Assyria,
Persia with Sudan, Rome with China, all ways – land, desert and sea –
involved. But whenever a certain expansion of the many, various and
diversified Yemenite peoples, tribes and states took place in the
past, it was manifested in Africa. This is probably due to physical
delimitations, the Oman coastal strip being too limited a place for
expansion, the Hedjaz coastal strip being an uninviting place, the
greatest part of the peninsula being desert (Rub’ al Khali), and
other lands being simply … too far! What is closest to Yemen is
either the high seas or Africa…
Notwithstanding the great achievements of the Sabaean kingdom dating
back to the beginning of the first pre-Christian millennium, which
can be admired by modern visitors in several places of the Yemenite
North, and were hinted at within the Biblical texts (Books of Kings)
by ancient narrators, the first historical mention of the kingdom of
Sabaa goes back to the middle of the 8th century BCE. It is a
reference to tribute and gifts presented to the Assyrian emperor
Tiglat-Pileser (Tukulti – apil – Esharra) III (745 – 727) by Sabaa,
as well as by Arabs of the Hedjaz, and other countries. Despite the
Assyrian and the Babylonian expansion in the East and the North of
the peninsula (Yathribu was the summer residence of the Babylonian
Nabonid Kings in the 6th century BCE), Sabaa was too far for the
Sargonid Assyrian empire and the Nabonid Babylonian royal
pretensions.
Assurbanipal (669 – 625) ruled from Central Iran to Upper Egypt, and
from the eastern coast of the Persian Gulf to the western coast of
Turkey, but Yemen escaped his dominion by simply paying tribute.
Cambyses, the Achaemenid Shah of Iran, in the second half of the 6th
century, was ruling from Napata of Kush (today’s Karima in Sudan) to
Central Asia, but again Yemen was spared! Alexander the Great, at the
end of the 4th century, invaded all the lands between Macedonia and
India, but Pentapotamia (Pundjab), not Yemen, seemed closer to either
Pella (his first capital) or Babylon (his ultimately chosen capital)!
During all these long centuries, the peoples and the tribes of
ancient Yemen could not be kept united under the scepter of a
descendant of the famous Queen Balqis. Yet, writing was introduced as
early as the 6th century BCE, or to put it better, it was invented!
It would be essential at this point to stress the originality of the
event! At a moment the Assyrian – Babylonian cuneiform (‘al kitabeh
al mesmariyeh’ in Arabic), syllabogrammatic Writing (the term means
that the cuneiform characters were of syllabic phonetic value) was
diffused in Iran (introduction of the old Persian Ach
Shibam’s skyscrapers, in Hadrmout Gov.
aemenid cuneiform writing system that was in use for about 300 to 400
years), and the Phoenician and the Aramaic alphabetic writings were
diffused throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East
(more precisely among Greeks, Israelites, Romans, and Persians), the
different peoples of Ancient Yemen, instead of adopting a foreign
writing system, developed their own syllabogrammatic writing, no less
than 1200 years before the arrival of Islam!
Through a historical overview of almost 1400 years of Yemenite
pre-Islamic history (based on Assyrian – Babylonian, Yemenite,
Persian, Ancient Greek, Latin and Aramaic sources), we can get a
clear diagram of several basic cultural characteristics. The
geographical divisions of the land of Yemen, many mountains and
plains, various coastal strips, all oriented differently to the outer
world, were probably the reason of the political disunion that mostly
characterized Yemen. Of course, this was repeated throughout Islamic
times, but it would be wrong for us to perceive disunion in terms of
enmity, fratricide or civil wars. We should rather see the various
ancient Yemenite states in terms of specific task assignments. The
war of Sabaa and Himyar against Qataban (around 115 BCE) is rather
due to Sabaean and Himyarite reactions to the Qatabanic performance
in respect of preserving the Yemenite thalassocracy and the complete
navigation control throughout the Red Sea at a moment of rise of
Ptolemaic Egyptian seafaring and sea trade in which Aramaeans seem
definitely involved. The different Yemenite states, Sabaa, Awsan,
Hadramawt, Main, Timna, Qataban, Raydhan and Himyar, were often in
agreement with regard to the role each one had to play in its own
domain with regard to a generally conceived Yemenite interest.
However, reunification considerations we attest only as late as the
end of the 2nd century CE, and it is the Himyarites, who seem to be
more conscious in this regard.
Yemenite expansion in Africa, in terms of population, language and
scripture.
Despite the lack of unity, or perhaps due to this phenomenon, many
waves of Yemenites have reportedly crossed the Bab el Mandeb straits,
and settled either in the African Red Sea shore opposite the Yemenite
coast, or further in the African inland.
What the famous Abyssinian legend and the great epic text Kebra
Negast (the Glory of the Kings) narrate is rather an extension to the
Biblical and the Quranic texts’ references to the legendary Queen of
Sheba – Balqis – Makeda, and to her contacts with Solomon, the King
of Israel. But it reflects perfectly well the reality of the
millennium-long, repeated Yemenite waves of Asiatic immigrants to the
Horn of Africa area. Menelik, as son to Solomon and Balqis – Makeda,
is an abstraction made for poetic reasons within the text, and it
concerns all the numerous Yemenites, who repeatedly and in successive
waves expressed their predilection for Africa.
It is not only literary sources and archaeological evidence that
testify to this event; full epigraphic and linguistic support is
offered for this assertion, since the ancient Abyssinian language and
scripture (dating back to the early Christian era) have derived from
the earlier attested ancient Yemenite semitic dialect and
syllabogrammatic writing. Gueze, as is called the ancient Abyssinian
language, is very important to Christianity, as one of the languages
and the scriptures of the Evangiles and the New Testament – along
with Aramaic – Syriac, Greek, Coptic, Latin, Armenian and Georgian.
Gueze is the ancestral linguistic form of modern Abyssinian languages
like Tigrinia, Tigre and Amharic (Amarinia) that are widely spoken in
Eritrea and Abyssinia.
The name itself of Abyssinia (‘-b-sh-t, Abashat) is mentioned in
Ancient Yemenite texts and epigraphic documentation as the name of a
… Yemenite tribe! This tribe, or at least a sizeable part of it,
migrated to Africa and transferred there its name that lasts until
now, as ultimate proof of the Yemenite origin of a large part of the
populations of Abyssinia and Eritrea.
‘Returning’ the compliment, Gueze – that was never lost, since it
still is the religious language and scripture of the Christians of
Ethiopia and Eritrea – helped a lot in the deciphering of the ancient
Yemenite epigraphic monuments. It was as useful as Coptic to
Champollion deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. Without Coptic,
Champollion would have failed; without Gueze the likes of Conti
Rossini and Rhodokanakes would have failed too.
Part 2 next issue
;p=culture&a=1
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ROBERT KOCHARIAN RECEIVES PRESIDENT OF VOLGABURMASH COMPANY
ArmenPress
June 15 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS: President Robert Kocharian received
today Andrey Ischuk, a member of the upper chamber of the Russian
Federation’s parliament and the president of Russian Volgaburmash
company. Ischuk has arrived in Armenia to accomplish the preparatory
work for the purchase of the controlling stake of the Yerevan-based
Nairit plant.
Volgaburmash is an advanced machine works in Russia and is one of the
leading world enterprises in engineering. It has also experience in
running enterprises outside Russia, particulalry, in Ukraine.
Kocharian’s press office said that Andrey Ischuk briefed the president
on the pace of the preparatory work, as well as on the planned
investments in the plant. He said Volgaburmash is resolute in its
intention to restore the previous fame of Nairit plant and is designing
aggressive plans aimed to increase the volumes of production and sale.
He also said the preparatory work is moving to an end and the deal
will be signed in late June. Kocharian welcomed the entrance of the
company in Armenia, expressing confidence that Armenia will have a
stable and reliable partner in the person of Volgaburmash.