Category: News

Railway from Russia to Transcaucasia must be unblocked
By Lyudmila Yermakova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
SAMARA, May 14 — The railway from Russia to the Transcaucasia must
function again, holds Vadim Gustov, the chairman of the Committee
for CIS affairs of the Federation Council upper house of Russian
parliament.
“There is a need to look for the solution of this problem, and there
might be a non-standard decision”, Gustov said. He takes part in the
conference on interregional Russo-Armenian cooperation.
Nearly 90 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade cargoes are carried
along the Georgian railway. The transit of Armenian cargoes along
this territory and then through the ports of Poti and Batumi involves
certain problems, Gustov said. The cost of goods transportation over
the first 700 kilometres on the way from Yerevan to Moscow makes up
80 percent of the total transportation costs.
Gustov believes the MPs of the three countries concerned – Armenia,
Georgia and Russia – must participate in the solution of this
problem. “One of the ways is jointly to provide the funds for the
reconstruction of the destroyed part of the railway and then Armenia
might rent this stretch”, he said. Gustov proposes that the road be
guarded by peacekeepers so it could function properly.
“In this way the road will be unblocked and be open again to the
flow of goods to Armenia for the transportation of Georgian goods to
Russia”, Gustov noted. He believes this question should be discussed
in the by the interparliamentary assembly of the CIS countries.

Iran, Armenia sign agreement on gas export
IRNA, Iran
May 15 2004
Tehran, May 15, IRNA — Iran and Armenia signed an agreement in
Yerevan on Thursday to construct gas pipelines that will tranport
Iranian gas to Armenia.
According to the Persian-language daily Hamshahri, the agreement was
signed during a visit by Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh
to Yerevan by and between the Iranian National Gas Export Company
and officials of Armenia.
According to the agreement, Iran will export 1.1 billion cubic meters
of gas to Armenia with the possibility of exports being raised to
2.3 billion cubic meters.
Under the agreement, exports of Iranian gas, estimated at 10 billion
dollars, will be paid through a barter system.
Iran will launch gas exports to Armenia in 2007. Total volume of
gas exports to Armenia is targeted at 36 billion cubic meters, which
could be increased to 47 billion cubic meters.
The agreement is an added step to strengthening the position of Iran
as a secure energy provider, especially of gas.
In addition to exports of gas, the two countries have agreed to the
construction of a gas pipeline that will open a new route for the
transport of Iranian gas to the region via Georgia, the Black Sea
and Ukraine.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Regional coop should promote to implement Russo-Armenian agts
By Lyudmila Yermakova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
SAMARA, May 14 — Cooperation between regions must help implement
agreements reached by Russian and Armenian presidents, believe the
participants in a conference on the interregional Russian-Armenian
cooperation that opened in the Russian city of Samara on Friday.
The conducting of Samara interregional conference simultaneously with
the meeting of the two presidents in Moscow has a particular meaning,
Sergei Mironov, the Speaker of the Federation Council, or the upper
house of Russian parliament, told reporters.
“The fact that President Robert Kocharyan went to Moscow at the same
time as Armenian parliament speaker, Artur Bagdasarian, went to Samara,
one of Russia’s 89 constituent territories, testifies to the stability
of our relations,” Mironov said.
He is sure that the Armenian president’s visit to Moscow and his
dialogue with Vladimir Putin would promote a solution of the problems
witnessed by regions of the Caucasus.
Armenia is “our strategic partner, and our countries have a traditional
special relationship,” Mironov said.
During the conference, Russian and Armenian parliamentarians signed
a number of documents on inter-parliamentary cooperation, as well
as on interaction between the Samara Region and some regions of the
Republic of Armenia.
“We’ve agreed in principle on building up friendship between our
regions,” Artur Bagdasarian said.
He stressed Armenia’s position of the most stable partner that Russia
has in the Caucasus.
Bagdasarian said it was important to augment mutual understanding
at the high level with specific actions and contacts between regions
and with cooperation between regional populations.
Governor of the Samara Region, Konstantin Titov, shared that opinion,
saying that the partnership between the regions “is the most effective
form of cooperation between states”.
The framework agreements that the sides signed Friday “are a serious
basis of the multifaceted Russian-Armenian cooperation,” Titov said.
“The authorities should set up conditions for economy and business
development, essential for implementation of political accords.”

Russia, Armenia discuss econ interaction
By Veronika Romanenkova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
OGARYOVO, May 14 – Issues of the development of trade and economic
ties were high on the agenda of a meeting between the Russian and
Armenian presidents here on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, welcoming the visiting Armenian
leader, said he was confident that their top-level talks on Friday
would contribute to more intensive development of bilateral economic
interaction.
“Not only I am hoping, I’m confident that your working visit today
will help our interaction and intensify our relations,” Putin said.
In 2003, bilateral trade turnover increased by more than 34 percent,
Putin said, adding that it was a record indicator and the best sign
that “we are proceeding in the right direction.”
In his view however, Moscow and Yerevan have many opportunities to
work better and more effectively.
For his part, Robert Kocharyan noted that “the big deal” under which
Armenia repays its debt by giving part of its property to Russia was,
on the whole, an impulse to the development of not only military but
also economic cooperation.
“Until that time, we only talked about military cooperation while
mentioning that economic interaction was lagging behind,” the Armenian
president said.
“Now I can state with full confidence that we began to move in all
directions very synchronously. It serves as a very serious impulse
to effective cooperation and its diversification,” he said.
Kocharyan noted “interesting events in the economic sphere,” such as
the appearance of Russia’s Vneshtorgbank on the Armenian market.
A very interesting contract in the sphere of chemistry has been signed
with the help of Russian investments, implying that “grand chemistry
has come to Armenia,” Kocharyan said.
There are interesting examples of investment activities by Russian
business people in construction and other spheres, according to
the president.
Putin underlined that his meetings with Kocharyan were regular. “We are
meeting for the fifth time in the recent past, to discuss bilateral
ties and coordinate activities on the post-Soviet territory and
international arena,” Putin said.
He added that he was very glad to see Robert Kocharyan.
Kocharyan congratulated Putin on his inauguration as head of the
Russian state for a second term. “I also wish to thank you for the
invitation /to visit Russia/,” he added.
The Armenian president became Putin’s first foreign guest after his
inauguration on May 7. The head of the Russian state welcomed the
Armenian leader on the threshold of his Novo-Ogaryovo residence. The
two presidents then retreated for talks in a conference hall. Taking
part in the negotiations for Russia were Security Council Secretary
Igor Ivanov and presidential adviser Sergei Prikhodko.

Parl heads of four Caucasian states to meet
By Lyudmila Yermakova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
SAMARA, May 14 — Parliament heads of the four Caucasian countries
(Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Russia) will meet without fail,
Russian Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov said on Friday
during a briefing.
The group of four meets once a quarter. But there was some pause to
wait for the results of the Georgian elections, Mironov explained.
The elections have passed, and the meeting can be held, he said.
The next meeting is expected to take place in Tbilisi.
The timing is not set yet. But the meeting will not be postponed for
a long time, Mironov noted.
One of the subjects to be discussed will be the Nagorno-Karabakh
problem, Armenian parliament head Artur Bagdasaryan said.
It is necessary to sit at a negotiating table and search for peaceful
solution to the problem, he said.
Commenting on the recent statement made by the Azerbaijani leaders on
Karabakh problem settlement, the Armenian speaker noted that such
statements were not new, but Armenia remained firmly adhered to
peaceful settlement of the problem.

Putin confident of intensive econ cooperation with Armenia
By Veronika Romanenkova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
OGARYOVO, May 14 – Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was
confident that the Russian-Armenian top-level talks on Friday would
contribute to more intensive development of bilateral economic
interaction.
“Not only I am hoping, I’m confident that your working visit today
will help our interaction and intensify our relations,” Putin said
at a meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.
The head of the Russian state noted that his meetings with Kocharyan
were regular. “We are meeting for the fifth time in the recent past,
to discuss bilateral ties and coordinate activities on the post-Soviet
territory and international arena,” Putin said.
He added that he was very glad to see Robert Kocharyan.
Putin welcomed the Armenian president on the threshold of his
Novo-Ogaryovo residence. The leaders then retreated for talks in a
conference hall. Taking part in the negotiations for Russia were
Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov and presidential adviser
Sergei Prikhodko.

Trade between Samara region, Armenia increases 14 times
By Lyudmila Yermakova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
SAMARA, May 14 — The trade turnover between the Samara region and
Armenia has increased 14 times for seven years, regional governor
Konstantin Titov cited the figure at the conference on interregional
Russian-Armenian cooperation on Friday.
He noted that “the CIS states are serious partners of the region, their
share in the export of the Samara region is stabilising and Armenia
holds one of the leading places in it.” The regional law on investments
that protects the deposits of businessmen promotes the capital inflow
in the region. The Samara region is a big supplier of oil, electricity,
aluminium, produce of machine-building and chemical industry.
The governor noted that the Samara region is traditionally
multinational, and the Armenian diaspora is one of the biggest there
that promotes the development of bilateral cooperation. “The state
support of multifaceted cooperation between Russian constituents
and the CIS states” is needed for the development of this tendency,
the governor pointed out.

Russia-Armenia confer on regional cooperation opens in Samara
By Lyudmila Yarmakova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
SAMARA, May 14 — A conference devoted to inter-regional cooperation
between Russia and Armenia opened in the city of Samara on Friday.
Delegations of the two countries comprising parliamentarians,
businesspeople, public leaders and regional officials are headed by
Speaker of the Federation Council (upper house of Russia’s parliament)
Sergei Mironov and Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia Artur
Bagdasaryan, respectively.
The conference participants expressed the view that direct ties
between regions are a vital component of cooperation between Russia
and Armenia, which also can boost this cooperation strengthening and
developing it.
Mironov called Armenia “Russia’s reliable strategic partner in the
international arena.” He stressed that bilateral economic cooperation
is also developing rather dynamically.
Last year’s bilateral trade turnover increased by almost 35 percent,
as against 2002. Mironov admitted, however that “the economic
potential is just 35-40 percent used.” According to the Russian
speaker, the two states have reserves for expanding cooperation,
such as interregional ties.
Bagdasaryan has agreed with Mironov saying “ties between regions make
it possible to solve many problems more quickly and effectively than
it is done in the centre.”
The Armenian official pointed out that Armenia has adopted the law on
local self-government, which does not restrict the sphere of activities
of local administrations, but encourages them in every way, including
international activity.
Badgasaryan also admitted, “the positive dynamics in bilateral
relations exists, but the cooperation falls short of possibilities.”
Conferences of this kind, in the view of the Armenian speaker, should
be held annually. He proposed to hold the next conference in Yerevan.

The Times (London)
May 15, 2004, Saturday
Historian who sent Bush to war
by Michael Binyon
FROM BABEL TO DRAGOMANS
BY BERNARD LEWIS
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
£20; 350pp
ISBN 0 297 84884 4
£16 (p&p £2.25)
0870 1608080
Professor Bernard Lewis is one of the Western world’s foremost
authorities on Islam. Long a scholar and lecturer at the School of
Oriental and African Studies at London University, he moved to
Princeton 30 years ago, and continued to write incisively and
tellingly not only about the early history of the Muslims, Islamic
theology and Muslim reactions to the West, but also, increasingly,
about how the West should deal with the Muslim world. American
leaders sought him out for advice on the Muslim mind, and since the
September 11 atrocities he has rarely been silent, in demand by
newspapers, universities, conferences and especially at the White
House.
He is now identified as the unofficial author of the Bush doctrine of
spreading, by force if necessary, the values and democracy of the
West in Muslim countries, part of the justification for the Iraq war.
It is a role that has made Professor Lewis, 87, notorious in some
circles. He has become a figure of hatred to many Muslims – partly
because he is Jewish, and is assumed to be lobbying on behalf of
Israel, and partly because he is a relentless critic of what he sees
as decay and spiritual confusion in much of the Muslim world. His
latest book, published last year, on the crisis in Islam, is a
trenchant and incisive analysis of the turmoil now roiling a religion
that he has made his lifetime’s study.
This political role is regrettable. For it has overshadowed Professor
Lewis’s enormous achievements as a linguist – he speaks at least five
Middle Eastern languages – historian and researcher. He is one of a
handful of academics who has been labelled a hawk and whose writings
and research are, therefore, judged largely on the basis on the
policies to which they have been yoked. Richard Pipes suffered the
same fate: a brilliant scholar of the ancien regime in Russia, he was
adopted by the Reagan Administration as its resident apologist for
the anti Soviet line that was seen, at the time, as recklessly
aggressive. The fact that Pipes was largely proved right, after the
fall of communism, never quite restored his academic reputation among
political liberals.
Professor Lewis’s academic credentials are impeccable. Anyone
doubting the breadth of his knowledge and his scrupulously impartial
historical approach has only to dip into this weighty compendium of
his writings. The collection of essays, articles, reviews, lectures
and contributions to encyclopaedias gives a glimpse of his towering
scholarship. The title essay deals with the isolation of the early
Muslims from the learning and experience of the outside world and
their gradual need to find interpreters, “dragomans”, to translate
the manuals and writings, especially on warfare, of a resurgent West.
They tended to rely on people such as Lewis – cosmopolitans, often
Jews, Greeks or Armenians who had mastered another culture by
accident of birth or geography.
Some of the essays are studiously academic – an interpretation of
Fatamid history, the Moguls and the Ottomans, the Shia and attitudes
to monarchy in the Middle East. But the lucid writing is never dry or
obscure, even to the generalist. Even in scholarly analyses,
Professor Lewis brings the wisdom of historical background to issues
that baffle today’s politicians. Why do the Shia in Iraq still lay
such stress on the historical appeal to the wronged, the downtrodden
and the deprived? How much did the Assassins, a 12th-century sect
that prefigured the suicide bombers, influence today’s concept of
martyrdom? Or why, for example, have the rulers of the Middle East
only in the 20th century adopted the title of “king”, a term
originally associated with the West and seen primarily as military
and political rather than traditional weightier titles denoting
religious authority?
Other essays are more topical, political and controversial,
especially to Muslims who resent Western scholars questioning the
contemporary relevance of a theology that is, by definition,
immutable. “The enemies of God”, “The roots of Muslim rage”,
“Religion and murder in the Middle East” and “Not everyone hates
Saddam” deal with the here and now.
Though forthright, Professor Lewis is rarely dismissive or
patronising, although he has become more hawkish over confronting
Islamist activism. “There is an extraordinary belief in some circles
that politics is an exact science like mathematics; and that there
is, so to speak, one correct answer to any problem, all the others
being incorrect,” he says, discussing the Islamic revolutionaries in
Iran. “It is a delusion, a false theory, and its forcible application
has brought untold misery to untold millions of people.”
Professor Lewis is primarily an expert on Ottoman Turkey. This, as he
says in a revealing autobiographical introduction, is because the
Arab world was largely out of bounds to Jews after the establishment
of Israel. History was his first love, but an early fascination with
languages – at one time, he says, he was simulataneously studying
Latin, Greek, Biblical Hebrew and Classical Arabic – drew him to
research in the Middle East. He set out on his first trip there in
1937, enrolling at Cairo University. A year later he was offered the
post of assistant lecturer in Islamic history at the University of
London. With the outbreak of war, he put his languages to good use
with British Intelligence, dealing with Middle East in the Foreign
Office from 1941 to 1945.
After 1949, however, only three countries in the region were open to
Jewish scholars – Turkey, Iran and Israel. He focused on Turkey, and
was lucky to become the first Westerner admitted to the Imperial
Ottoman Archives. It was a treasure-house of neglected learning.
“Feeling rather like a child turned loose in a toy shop, or like an
intruder in Ali Baba’s cave, I hardly knew where to turn first.”
Professor Lewis’s authority rests on his own precept: “The first and
most rudimentary test of an historian’s competence is that he should
be able to read his sources.” He can. Dozens of books and articles
have flowed from his research.
Moving to Princeton in 1974 was a challenge, but a liberation from
the “administrative and bureaucratic entanglements that had built up,
over decades, in England”. Though he reached retirement age in 1986,
and became Emeritus Professor, his political authority grew. He
resisted any censorship or political correctness, just as he resisted
the notion of taboo subjects in many Muslim societies. He says that a
historian “owes it to himself and to his readers to try, to the best
of his ability, to be objective or at least to be fair”. But he
acknowledges the dangers of a historian becoming personally involved
and committed.
That, however, has been his fate. In early studies he says he was
most interested in the period when the Middle East was most different
from the West and least affected by it. Now it is deeply affected,
and scholars are being asked to predict the outcome of this clash.
Eight days after September 11 Professor Lewis was asked to address
the US Defence Policy Board. He has dined with Vice-President Cheney
and advised President Bush. Richard Perle, a lifelong hawk, called
him “the single most important intellectual influence countering the
conventional wisdom on managing the conflict between radical Islam
and the West”.
He has been seen as an apologist for the use of force to instil fear
“or at least respect” in an Islamic world that is on the defensive
and resentful of the West.
Much of this hawkishness can be traced to his loathing of appeasement
before the Second World War and his closeness to a succession of
Israeli prime ministers. It is a pity, for the “Lewis doctrine”, as
some term his call on the West to implant democracy in the Muslim
world, is far from a proven success. And political foolishness, in
Iraq and elsewhere, may yet overshadow the achievements of a great
scholar.
Read on
Islam in the World by Malise Ruthven (Penguin)
A Fury for God: the Islamist Attack on America by Malise Ruthven
(Granta)
The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? by John Esposito (OUP)
Rethinking Islam and Modernity by Abdelwahab El-Affendi (Islamic
Foundation)

Union of Armenians calls for comeback of chamber of nationalities
By Lyudmila Yermakova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
SAMARA, May 14 — The Union of Armenians of Russia called for setting
up a public expert council under the permanent Russo-Armenian economic
cooperation commission.
Bringing forward this proposal at the conference on inter-regional
Russian-Armenian cooperation, the first vice-president of this
all-Russian public organization Khachatur Avetisyan noted that the
participation in the expert council of the Union of Armenians of Russia
“not only would contribute to the development of bilateral ties, but
also increase the responsibility of our diaspora in Russian-Armenian
strategic partnership.”
The largest Armenian community lives in Russia, being “a solid bridge
for Russian-Armenian cooperation,” president of the Union of Armenians
of Russia Ara Abramyan said.
He said in an interview with Itar-Tass that it was time to consider the
comeback of the house of nationalities in Russia’s Federal Assembly,
where many ethnic minorities could represent their interests.
In his view, it is necessary to strengthen inter-regional partnership
while taking into account the demand on the Russian labour market. A
transparent and economically justified tax system should contribute
to it, Abramyan said, adding that it should exclude high tax rates
and the motivation of illegal employment.
A legal socio-economic and psychological adaptation of refugees and
displaced persons is also of considerable importance, he said.
Economic cooperation has a special place in bilateral strategic
partnership, Abramyan emphasized. The repayment of Armenia’s foreign
debt by transferring a number of its companies to Russia’s ownership
is one of the forms to boost bilateral relations.
He believes that the transfer of part of the shares of these companies
– on a competitive basis – to private hands is expedient. It would
be fair to let business people from the Armenian community in Russia
take part in the tender.
The president of the Union expressed concern in connection with
instability in Transcaucasia, in particular in Georgia. In this
connection, he proposed more active involvement of the business and
public potential of the Armenian and Georgian communities in forming
a stable Russia-Georgia-Armenia transport link.
The Union of Armenians of Russia calls for uniting their potential for
the sake of the objectives aimed at strengthening Russia and providing
assistance to Armenia, Abramyan said, reiterating President Robert
Kocharyan’s statement that “Armenia with its diaspora and without it
are not of same weight.”