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Karachai-Cherkessia: Small Minority Asserts Itself
[12:46 pm] 28 October, 2006
The Nogai community wants local autonomy, but that will require
delicate negotiation with other ethnic groups.
In one of the most ethnically diverse parts of the North Caucasus, a
tiny nation is making waves by staking a claim for greater power over
the area in which they live.
The Nogai people in the republic of Karachai-Cherkessia, part of
Russia, have been demanding autonomous status for years. But on
October 8, they took a decisive step by holding a local referendum on
the issue.
Led by a pressure group called Birlik, or Unity, the Nogais want at
least part of the administrative district of Adyge-Khable, where most
of their 14,500-strong community live in eight villages, to be turned
into a Nogai Autonomous Region. Their leaders argue this will keep the
community and its distinctive culture alive.
But boundaries are not neat in the Caucasus, and there are Cherkess
people living in the district who have serious misgivings about the
move.
The vote went off peacefully, unlike many past elections in
Karachai-Cherkessia, and the result was 94 per cent in favour of the
change. Ten thousand people took part in the vote.
But it is only a first step – the Nogais will next have to seek
approval for their plan from other groups through a republic-wide
referendum. Assuming they get this, the matter will then go to the
local parliament, and finally to the Russian prime minister in Moscow.
Aside from the legal process, the key issue is one that probably lies
outside the control of government: whether the Nogais’ claim will be
handled with enough delicacy to ensure that they and the Cherkess can
arrive at some sort of workable solution.
If not, there is a real danger that the issue will join the list of
unsolved disputes that plague the North Caucasus, with the potential
for armed conflict always on the horizon.
Given the somewhat arbitrary manner in which the then Soviet
autonomous republics were sliced up in the USSR, many of the
`nationalities’ or official ethnic groups have kin elsewhere in the
region – and these might be dragged into an escalating conflict. The
Cherkess have the Kabardans and Adygei, who together share the
Circassian identity and culture; the Karachai have the Balkar (sharing
a republic with the Kabardans next door), and there are strong ties
between the Nogai here and others in Stavropol to the west, Dagestan
to the east and as far away as Russia’s lower Volga region.
Politically, Karachai-Cherkessia works by achieving a balance of power
between the main ethnic groups. The substantial ethnic Russian
community tend to side with the Karachai or the Cherkess, while the
two most significant minorities – the Abaza and the Nogai – have to
ally themselves with one or other of these groups to ensure they have
a place at the table.
In the tough world of post-Soviet local politics, the Abaza usually
back the Cherkess, to whom they are related culturally and
linguistically. The Nogai have tended to back the Karachai, who like
them speak a Turkic rather than Caucasian language.
The Nogai have a handful of people high up in regional politics –
Karacha-Cherkessia’s deputy prime minister Janibek Suyunov and the
press and ethnic affairs minister Valery Kazakov among them – but none
in the world of commerce.
In a region in which the republics are called after the bigger ethnic
groups who live there, having one’s own `autonomy’ – political as well
as cultural – is seen as an important way of staking out one’s
position.
If the Nogai get their district, they will get control over cultural
issues such as language, and a degree of self-government. There is
little of economic value on the territory: while on paper they would
seem to have large industrial and agricultural enterprises, in
reality, these businesses are wrecks.
The 30,000 Abaza have pursued their claim more robustly. In autumn
2005, activists seized the parliament building in the city of
Cherkessk and refused to let deputies leave until they agreed to an
Abaza district being set up. Russian prime minister Mikhail Fradkov
signed off on the deal in August this year.
The Circassians, especially those in Adyge-Khabl district, are nervous
about the Nogai laying claim to land that they see as theirs.
Ali Aslanov, who heads the district’s Circassian association, told
IWPR, `We’re not against the Nogais setting up their own district on
our territory. But they want to make our village of Adyge-Khabl its
[administrative] centre. We will never allow this to happen, even if
that means we have to fight them.’
One reason for the Circassians to be especially touchy about the local
administrative centre is that in their language, the very name -Adyge
Khabl – means `Adygei (ie. Circassian) village’.
Originally, the activists of Birlik were calling for the entire
Adyge-Khabl district to be renamed Nogai district, with the village of
the same name to get a new title – Nogai-Yurt (`Nogai Place’).
However, by the time the referendum took place they had backtracked
significantly, and – in recognition of the Circassian’s concerns –
they are now prepared to accept Nogai autonomous status for only that
part of the bigger Adyge-Khabl district where their community is
concentrated.
The Nogai are distinct from most other North Caucasian peoples, who
despite huge linguistic differences share many common cultural
traits. By contrast, the Nogai were originally nomads, and still
occupy the steppes rather than the mountains to the south; their
traditional culture and language resemble those of the Kazaks of
Central Asia.
One tradition they do share with the Circassians, Karachai and others
is Islam. Clerics still enjoy a lot of respect, and mosque attendance
is rising, especially among the young.
`The number of young people coming to the mosques on a regular basis
has been increasing at lightning speed,’ said businessman Magomet
Sanglibayev, who is head of Birlik. `People are happy about this
trend, because the faith saves young people from many bad habits.’
Despite the positive effects of religious observance, Sanglibayev has
some reservations about what the imams are telling people, `We
understand that the kind of Islam that’s being preached in our mosques
is ascetic in character. It shuts off young people’s access not just
to vice, but also to the joys of the modern world. We want modern,
educated young people, not fanatical militants.’
A `Nogai Battalion’ has fought alongside the rebels in Chechnya for
years, but Muslim extremism has not really taken hold among the Nogai
of Karachai-Cherkessia.
As elsewhere in the region, there are Islamist cells operating
covertly here, called `jamaats’ – literally `societies’. But these
seem to coexist with the `official’ Muslim structures – the clergy and
the mosques – in sharp contrast with the situation in
Karachai-dominated areas to the south of the republic, where clerics
have been killed by suspected jamaat members.
It is questionable whether the Nogais’ claim will ever pass all the
bureaucratic hurdles.
The Abaza, who have got the Russian premier’s assent to set up their
district, are finding it hard to make it a reality, as
Karachai-Cherkessia’s government is dragging its feet over the
publication of a map that would show where the new district lies.
There is a major hitch – Karachai people in the current Ust-Jeguta
district are contesting the Abaza claim, in a dispute that has run for
more than a year.
Dana Tsei is the pseudonym of a freelance journalist in
Karachai-Cherkessia.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Caucasus Reporting Service 362

Panorama.am
13:29 28/10/06

CRU EX-MEMBERS MAKE CHARGES AGAINST ASSEMBLY DECISIONS
Several ex-members of Constitutional Right Union (CRU), who were
expelled from the party or left it on the own will, submitted a claim
to a district court of Yerevan with charges against the present
leadership. They say that CRU has undergone an internal coup and
Hrant Khachatryan, CRY chairman with years of track record, was
artificially dismissed from the post of chairman. The ex-members want
the court to consider invalid the last decision of CRU assembly.
However, up to today, CRU leadership has got no application, which
should have been forwarded to it according to Civil Code. CRU
leadership says most of ex-members have low and high level posts at
the government./Panorama.am/

October 29, 2006
Nothing is secret
Your cellphone calls may have many listeners …
By _JEREMY LOOME_ (mailto:[email protected]) , EDMONTON SUN
On a typical evening, a man in Edmonton gets a phone call from a man
in Karachi, Pakistan.
The call is relayed through a series of stations via fibre optic cable
before bouncing off a satellite and back to the phone carrier’s
ground-based network. Near the man’s home in Pakistan – or perhaps
near the phone company relay station – a small but powerful antenna
array picks up the call. It streams the content to a second array,
which then bounces it back to another satellite, this time operated
not by the company, but by a branch of the Australian government.
They’ll probably never know it, but the two have just been caught in
the web of information gathering known as Signals Intelligence. Since
1947, a year before George Orwell penned his cautionary novel 1984 and
warned that Big Brother Is Watching, that’s what has happened across
the globe, to calls and messages of all sorts. If you’ve communicated
over distance with anyone, ever, there’s a chance someone listened in.
It’s frequently complicated by increasing security around
communications – particularly fibre optic lines – as well as laws
governing privacy. But if it’s transmitted through the air or
electromagnetically, someone can intercept it.
Canada has played a key role in that initial network, governed by a
top-secret agreement drafted in 1948 called UKUSA. Its contents have
never been revealed. In the years since the Cold War with the Soviet
Union prompted its creation, the original five nations operating
Signals Intelligence – which essentially amounts to the intrusion on
private communication from any nation but their own – have been joined
by dozens of others, each intent on both bolstering national security
and protecting national interests. It’s technically against
international conventions but nobody protests too loudly, because just
about everyone does it.
Along with surreptitious listening technology placed in other nations
and along the lines of communication that run between them, each
nation operates its own stations, chock full of an array of cutting
edge eavesdropping equipment.
In Canada, the most important sits in Leitrim, a sleepy community of
Ottawa that was just countryside when the station, codenamed CAF97,
was first constructed in 1941. Now, it sits a scant distance from the
end of Bank Street, where the city’s longest street turns into Highway
31, taking busy urbanites past the capital’s airport and subdivisions.
Although the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) never talks
about its operations publicly, Leitrim – a Canadian Forces base – is
long believed to have monitored Russian submarine and shipping
activities in the Arctic.
It’s been a decade since the network was revealed in Nicky Hager’s
book Secret Power: New Zealand’s Role in the International Spy Network
and it wasn’t until 1999, and the publication of a privacy report for
the European Union, that Signals Intelligence agencies admitted they
existed. By then, the end of the Cold War had left Signals
Intelligence -SigInt to those involved – adrift; they were relegated
in importance to the back of the bus, with efforts aimed at preventing
corporate and industrial espionage.
But Sept. 11, 2001, changed that. Now, Signals Intelligence is at the
forefront of the spy game, and Canada is up to its neck in it. Once
our neighbours came under direct attack, the needs of signals
intelligence came under scrutiny, with its budget rising from $140
million in 2000 to more than $220 million in same-year dollars by
2007.
– – –
That doesn’t, however, suggest that we now live in a world akin to the
film Enemy of the State, where rogue NSA agents chase down Will Smith
with technology that would make Bill Gates cry mercy. Legislation
prohibits our version of the NSA – the Communications Security
Establishment – from eavesdropping on our citizens, or even those with
dual nationality.
Of all the nations to employ SigInt, we have some of the most
stringently applied rules to protect our rights, says Bill
Robinson. The London, Ont., man runs an intelligence blog, Lux Ex
Umbra, and has become an expert on SigInts.
“The privacy concerns are legitimate and have to be balanced against
the requirements of intelligence gathering,” says Robinson. “Certainly
we have been leaning heavily the other way, towards privacy
protection. We’re not being listened to all of the time, if only
because the SigInts community does not have the people or technology
to waste listening in on everyone, everywhere.
“We get the odd whistleblower from Canada with concerns but we tend to
have fairly marginal complaints levelled.”
From: Baghdasarian

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email [email protected]
Internet
PRESS RELEASE
October 27, 2006
Contact: Elizabeth Chouldjian / Taline Ghazarian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
ANCA INAUGURATES NEW NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
— Foreign Minister Oskanian, Community Leadership and Grassroots
Activists Gather to Celebrate Milestone in the Growth of
Armenian American Political Influence in the Nation’s Capital
— Boujikian, Mouradian, Melkonian, and Aramian Families,
and The Lincy Foundation Honored for Major Donations
WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian American community and religious leaders
from throughout the United States joined with Armenia’s Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian for the inauguration, on October 21st, of
the Armenian National Committee of America’s (ANCA) new national
headquarters.
The centrally located, state of the art building provides the ANCA
with a permanent home in the heart of the nation’s capital and a
powerful platform from which to further expand the role that
Armenian Americans play in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy.
The blessing of the headquarters by Armenian Church leaders and the
formal ribbon cutting ceremony were preceded by a reception at the
nearby Beacon Hotel. In his welcoming remarks, ANCA Executive
Director Aram Hamparian recognized the many dignitaries present,
and greeted the establishment of a new headquarters as a major
milestone in the growth, progress and reinvention of the Armenian
Cause.
During his moving remarks, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian stressed the importance of cooperation between the
Armenian government and the Diaspora on regional issues, democratic
and economic development, and the strengthening of the U.S.-Armenia
relationship. Welcoming the establishment of the new ANCA
headquarters, he shared that, “This organization is very close to
my heart and I want to thank all those people, whom I consider to
be real visionaries, who donated to this building because this
organization – simply judging from the work they have done and the
results they have achieved – has absolutely outgrown the space that
they were operating from. They deserve this building, they deserve
a better space, so that they can do more work.”
ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian offered thanks to the more than 10,000
individual donors who made the purchase of the new building
possible, noting that, “We are not simply an organization that is
able to call upon the wealth of a few, but rather we are an
organization that calls upon the grassroots . . . without their
involvement, their participation – morally and financially – we
cannot be successful.” Hachikian specifically highlighted the
generosity of a number of prominent donors, including Mr. and Mrs.
Manas and Donnalee Boujikian, Mr. and Mrs. Khachig and Elo
Mouradian, Mr. and Mrs. Frank and Houri Melkonian, The Aramian
Irrevocable Trust, and the Lincy Foundation, who made the purchase
of the ANCA Headquarters and the expansion of key programs possible
through contributions of $100,000 or more.
In what proved to be the most poignant and moving remarks of the
day, Ms. Jocelyn Micolucci, beloved daughter of Mrs. Margaret
Aramian Ragan, and niece to Martha Aramian and Sue Aramian, spoke
of the important role of the ANCA in maintaining the connection
between Armenian generations. She stressed the importance of the
generation of Armenian Genocide survivors – represented by her own
grandparents Ghazar and Nevart Aramian – remaining connected to
their families through a shared devotion to the Armenian Cause. “I
am very pleased with this organization, as it is extremely
important for not just my generation but that of my children and
their children, to understand who and what my Medzhayrig and my
Medzmayrig were, and what we are as a people,” explained Ms.
Micolucci, who was joined by her husband Louis at the ANCA building
inauguration.
Following the reception, the building was formally blessed by
Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic
Church of the Eastern U.S., Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian,
Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Western U.S.,
Armenian Apostolic Church of America Diocesan Legate Bishop Vicken
Aykazian, and Father Sarkis Aktavoukian of Soorp Khatch Armenian
Church in Washington, DC. After the formal ribbon cutting by
Foreign Minister Oskanian and ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, all in
attendance were treated to tours of the new building.
Among the Armenian government officials joining Minister Oskanian
at the opening were Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakossian and
Armenian Ambassador to the U.S, Tatoul Markarian. The Very Rev.
Rene Levonian and Dikran Youmshakian represented the Armenian
Missionary Association of America. The Armenian Relief Society was
represented as was the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural
Association, Homenetmen Armenian Athletic and Scouting Organization
and the Armenian Youth Federation.
The new ANCA headquarters was purchased in February to reinforce
the presence and expand the political power of Armenian Americans
in the United States. The four-story building, formerly owned by
AOL founder Steve Case, is located near prestigious Embassy Row,
blocks from the White House and the nation’s leading think tanks.
The newly renovated structure features the latest in computer,
communications, and networking technology.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanARMENIAN.Net
Armen Darbinyan: «We Want Turks to Become Better»
27.10.2006 16:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «I suppose we are «exploiting» the
fact of the Armenian Genocide very lubberly. Maybe, we
have the task now, which is fulfilled to a certain
degree – to make Turkey and Turks recognize their
responsibility for that bloody action in their
history. Make them, put pressure upon them, make them
understand and only then go further,» Rector of the
Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, former PM of
Armenia Armen Darbinyan stated at the University
October 27. «Judging from our policy, we want Turks to
become better. This is my assessment of our actions,»
Darbinyan remarked. «Our urge to worldwide recognition
of the fact of the Genocide resulted in recognition of
the Armenian Genocide and Turkey’s need to apologize
to us by 22 countries. What does apologize mean? Only
strong ones apologize. Germans apologized for the
Holocaust to the Jews publicly and adopted a law,
criminalizing denial of the Jewish Genocide on the
part of German citizens.
«Turks are not ready to apologize to us. We want to
press on them and make them purer, better, more noble,
but we will not manage by default, as they are not
ready to it. Maybe, by recognition of the Genocide we
make closer a date, when they will be ready to realize
what they have committed – but we speak not of
ourselves, but Turks. Thus, we make actions, put them
in the center of our international policy – actions,
which finally should result in improvement and
ennoblement of Turks. Maybe, it is a good task, but I
believe we have more important ones… We have the task
to ennoble ourselves. This is a task we have to solve
– otherwise the loss we have suffered will remain
unrequited,» the former PM of Armenia said, reports IA Regnum.

PanARMENIAN.Net
French Senate against Armenian Genocide Bill?
27.10.2006 17:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `The majority in the French Senate
object against the Armenian bill,’ writes the Sabah.
Senate Group Head of the ruling party UMP Josselin
Rohan said: “If the Armenian Genocide bill comes to
the Senate, we will object to it with all our might.
Our relationship with Turkey can not be taken in
pawn.” `This draft is a diplomatic mistake. It does
not have any use to anybody, but it is harmful in many
aspects,” she said.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Armenia Disposed to Serious Work and Effective Cooperation with EU
27.10.2006 18:24 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert
Kocharian met with Ambassadors of EU member states,
accredited in Armenia. During the meeting the
President welcomed the completion of consultations
over EU-Armenia Action Plan within the European
Neighborhood Policy and hoped for the Plan to be
finally adopted in November, owing to which EU-Armenia
relations will get more coordinated. «The package of
proposals of the Armenian party evidences that we are
disposed to serious work and we expect effective
bilateral cooperation,» Kocharian added. At the
instance of the diplomats the Armenian leader
presented latest developments in the Nagorno Karabakh
settlement, situation in the Russian-Georgian
relations, impact of the tension between Russia and
Georgia on Armenia’s economy. The interlocutors also
discussed the matter of the coming elections,
specially noting the need for these to be fair and
free. Kocharian said that long-term and short-term
international observation missions will be invited for
monitoring electoral processes.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanARMENIAN.Net
CIS Council of Heads May Convene in Minsk November 28
27.10.2006 18:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The sitting of the CIS Council of
Heads will probably be held in Minsk November 28,
reported representative of the CIS Executive Committee
S. Ordabayev. In his words, Chair of the CIS Council
of Heads proposed the date and the hosting party –
Belarus – accepted it.
The draft agenda of the session will be arranged at
the coming sitting of the CIS Council of FMs and the
Council of Heads of the State. The Executive Committee
does not have official information on the date of
these sessions, Ordabayev reported. We remind that the
sitting of the CIS Council of Heads was earlier
scheduled October 17, but was postponed later, reports Trend.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #206, 28/10/2006
Home
SEVEN YEARS PASS AFTER TRAGEDY
RA National Assembly Commemorates 7th Anniversary of
October 27 Terrorist Act
Yesterday marked the 7th anniversary of the terrorist
act at RA National Assembly committed in 1999. The
press service of RA National Assembly informed that
this morning, the Armenian deputies laid flowers on
the monument to the victims of the tragedy in the yard
of the Parliament building. Tigran Torosian, Chairman
of RA National Assembly, stated that although 7 years
have already passed since the tragedy, the witnesses
and the relatives and friends of the victims will
never forget it and they demand justice. He added that
anyway they should not only mourn but also learn a
good lesson from this tragedy to avert any repetition
of such crimes in the future.
The terrorist group led by Nairi Hunanian killed the
Chairman of Ra National Assembly Karen Demirchian,
prime minister Vazgen Sargsian, vice speakers Yuri
Bakhshian and Ruben Miroyan, MPs Henrik Abrahamian,
Mikael Kotanian, Armenak Armenakian and minister
Leonard Petrosian on October 27, 1999. According to
the court decision, the terrorists had been sentenced
to life imprisonment.
By Marietta Khachatrian

AZG Armenian Daily #206, 28/10/2006

Karabakh issue
SERGE SARGSIAN: AZERBAIJAN’S MILITARY OPTION WILL FAIL AGAIN
“Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be settled
peacefully and only through mutual concessions,”
Armenian defense minister Serge Sargsian stated in an
interview with Janes Intelligence Center that studies
military and security issues. Yet, he said that
Azerbaijan’s policy does not contribute to such a
settlement. “Today [Azerbaijani] officials are talking
about resuming the war. The country’s military
expenses were doubled last year,” the minister said.
According to neutral experts, Azerbaijan is unable yet
to resolve the conflict militarily, Sargsian said. “If
hostilities resume, Armenia will again have
advantage.” Touching upon Azerbaijan’s petrodollars
and the country’s desire to use them to bring a
solution to the Karabakh issue, the minister reminded
that in 90s Azerbaijan also had the odds as it had
more soldiers and more weaponry inherited from the
USSR. “They rounded up the Armenians of Karabakh, and
few believed that we can succeed. With all the
forecasts for big oil revenue, Azerbaijan won’t have
the odds it had 14-15 years ago. It’s military option
was a failure then and will be a failure today either.
Hopefully, sooner or later Azerbaijani authorities
will give up this approach.”
Speaking about Armenia-NATO relations, Armenia’s
defense minister touched upon Turkey underscoring that
the latter’s policy has been damaging NATO’s authority
in Armenia. “Russia’s military base in Armenia was
founded in conditions of an external threat, and to a
certain degree served as deterrent for possible
aggression. Unfortunately, the threat is still there
as there was no considerable improvement in our
relations with Turkey. This country continues its
blockade of Armenia, which is in fact an act of
animosity towards us. Turkey also backs Azerbaijan in
Karabakh issue, and stipulates that Armenia should
attend to Azerbaijan’s whim if it wants improved of
relations with Turkey,” Serge Sargsian said.
By Nana Petrosian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress