Houston Chronicle, United States
Sept. 15, 2006, 1:45PM
Russia fears increase in ethnic violence
By STEVE GUTTERMAN Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
MOSCOW – Fighting involving ethnic Armenians and others in a Volga
River town left one person dead and at least three injured this week,
officials and news reports said Friday, fueling fears of a rise of
ethnic violence across Russia.
The violence came about a week after clashes and rioting targeting
Chechens in the northern town of Kondopoga left two people dead and
underlined the potentially explosive tension between ethnic Russians
and often darker-skinned people from the Caucasus and Central Asia, in
some cases migrants.
One ethnic Russian man was killed and three were injured in a brawl
with ethnic Armenians at a cafe in the town of Volsk early Sunday,
said Alexei Yegorov, police spokesman in the Saratov region, where the
town is located.
Yegorov said the fight was not motivated by ethnic bias, but Ekho
Moskvy radio reported that it was followed Monday by an attack on
ethnic Armenian students at a technical college in the town that left
one student with a knife wound.
Yegorov denied the attack took place and also denied what Ekho Moskvy
reported was further ethnic tension early Friday in the town some 700
kilometers (450 miles) southeast of Moscow. He said two ethnic
Armenians had fled the town following Sunday’s fight and were being
sought by police.
Ekho Moskvy said that in addition to the three Russians injured in the
cafe fight, one ethnic Armenian was also injured. It said the man who
was killed was a 25-year-old former paratrooper who had served in the
conflict in Chechnya.
While authorities sought to downplay the ethnic element in the
violence, it has raised fears that similar rampages could spread to
other Russian cities where increasingly aggressive nationalist groups
bristle at people from Russia’s Caucasus provinces and neighboring
ex-Soviet nations.
Russia has seen a marked rise in xenophobia and racist attacks in
recent years and rights groups say authorities do little or nothing to
combat xenophobia, often treating hate crimes as hooliganism.
Asked about the violence in Volsk, Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander
Buksman said his office is gathering information about such incidents
around the country to try to determine whether there is a common
cause, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Dozens of nationalists demonstrated Thursday in Moscow, demanding
tighter controls over migrants from the Caucasus living in university
dormitories and the cancellation of provisions encouraging students
from other ex-Soviet nations to study in Russia.
About 150 were detained and some were fined for minor infractions, the
Interfax news agency quoted Moscow police spokesman Yevgeny Gildyev as
saying, but several dozen were allowed to hold a rally _ a soft
approach by the Russian authorities who usually move quickly to
disperse unsanctioned demonstrations.
The pro-tolerance group SOVA said 11 young people were sentenced in
the western city of Belgorod this week to prison terms ranging from 1
1/2 to 5 years for attacking a Roma family with knives and metal rods,
seriously injuring two people.
SOVA said it was just the fourth time that a Russian court has ruled
that defendants organized and participated in an extremist
organization. Court officials in Belgorod could not immediately be
reached for comment.

noticias.info (press release), Spain
OSCE Office supports launch of Armenian Chamber of Advocates website

/noticias.info/ YEREVAN, 15 September 2006 – The official website of
the Armenian Chamber of Advocates was launched today with support from
the OSCE Office in Yerevan.
The website, , will ensure everyone who needs qualified
legal aid will be able to receive it. Information on the website will
be available in Armenian, English and Russian. It will feature legal
documents, membership opportunities, links to international and local
organizations, contact details of all registered advocates, as well
as, public defenders who can provide free legal aid.
“Raising public awareness of the activities of the Armenian Chamber of
Advocates will give citizens the opportunity to benefit from
professional legal assistance, in line with OSCE commitments and
European standards,” said Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, Head of the
OSCE Office.
Ruben Sahakyan, Chairman of the Armenian Chamber of Advocates, added:
“The website will serve as a useful tool for informing the public
about our activities and enhancing our co-operation with other similar
organizations abroad.”
The Chamber was established in 2005, and is the only professional
legal association in Armenia, currently bringing together 476
advocates and 28 public defenders.

ArmeniaNow.com, Armenia
Peak Experience: Climber says `Masis’ at top of mountaineering achievements

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Karo Hovasapyan has followed Noah. And when he reached the Biblical
hero’s landing site, the mountain climber fell to his knees.

The climber.

`When I reached the summit of Masis, I was dead on my feet so I fell
to my knees with tears of delight burning my eyes.’ says mountaineer
and polar explorer Karo Hovasapyan, who fulfilled his dearest dream by
hoisting the Armenian tricolor on the snow-white top of the Mount
Ararat, now the property of the Turks, but the spiritual peak of every
Armenian.
Climbing Ararat was not Hovasapyan greatest mountaineering
experience. He has reached the highest peaks of the six continents,
including Mount Everest and the North and South Poles.
Toping `Masis’ (as it is known by Armenians), however, was his
greatest joy.
`I have felt excitement and pride each time I climbed the mountains,
but standing on the top of the Mount Ararat symbolizes something very
special that I think every Armenian should feel,’ says the mountain
lover.
Hovasapyan and 10 others launched their Ararat expedition on September
3, and reached the peak 5,165 meters later, on September 6.
He says climbing Masis (the bigger Ararat) was not a complicated task
in terms of mountaineering. However it was difficult to get
permission.
A citizen of the US and Russia, Hovasapyan had been denied permission
to climb in Turkey, three times. His fourth application succeeded
because Hovasapyan had joined Russian mountaineer Shataev’s
expedition. Shataev has been making expeditions on Mount Ararat in
search of the Noah’s Ark for the last seven years.
Hovasapyan has been the only Armenian who has reach the North Pole and
the South Pole and will soon become one of only 11 alpinists who have
been able to conquer the highest points in seven parts of the world.
`I have only the Mount Winson peak in Antarctica to reach. I think I
will manage it this December,’ he says.
A carpenter by background, and a native of Tehran (then Russia, Canada
and, finally the USA), Hovasapyan, age 47, has been enchanted by
alpinism since childhood, when the heroes of the books about mountain
climbers became his everyday friends.
`I dreamt of passing the same route, of overcoming all those
difficulties. It seemed to be a challenge. You take the dare, you
overcome and ask nature to help you, to make you its part,’ says
Hovasapyan.
Hovasapyan got acquainted to the whims of nature in the Geghama
Mountains and on Mount Aragats (the highest peak in Armenia), which he
climbed six times.
But the idea of overcoming Everest would haunt him. `I had been
dreaming of reaching Everest for 23 years but I managed to do it only
last year.’
Hovasapyan reached the roof of the world at first attempt losing 14
kilograms of his weight in two months.
He reached the summit of Everest on May 30th 2005 at 6:15 a.m. seeing
the sunshine on the whole world’s panorama in front of him.
Hovasapyan’s two dreams of reaching the tops of Ararat and Everest
have coincided in time: he has reached both summits at 6:15 a.m. and
it has become a symbolic time for him.
`I am lucky. The weather on the summit was perfect that day and I
managed to stay there for 30 minutes and enjoy the wonderful view of
the dawn,’ the mountaineer says.
Staying on the top of Ararat for so long turned impossible because of
the strong wind, when the climber was forced to go down in ten
minutes.
Hovasapyan says the weather on Masis is difficult to forecast. It
changes quite frequently and unexpectedly.
And still, no weather has ever hindered Hovasapyan to climb the
mountain he wanted to and to hoist the flag of independent
Armenia. Until last Friday (September 8) Hovasapyan himself hadn’t
been in Armenia since 1988, when he came to be a rescue worker after
the Spitak earthquake.
He does not live in Armenia but its flag is with him even in the most
difficult moments.
`In the future I will give the flag that has overcome all the
difficulties with me as a gift to Armenia. That will be the first
flag that has been hoisted on the highest peaks of seven parts of the
world,’ says Hovasapyan.

Investor’s Business Daily
Modern Chattel
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 9/15/2006
Immigration: In its latest jab at America, the United Nations is
touting the supposed economic benefits of immigration. It needs to
start looking at why people are leaving their home countries in the
first place.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid some lip service to
the ill effects of immigration, but concluded “governments are now
beginning to see international migration through the prism of
opportunity, rather than fear,” Reuters said.
That’s just ducky. And in a way, Annan’s right. Some governments do
benefit from immigration. Just not the ones he thinks.
Some 200 million people, or 3% of the world population, have fled
their countries, sending $250 billion in remittances in 2005,
according to World Bank estimates.
That doesn’t particularly benefit the Western nations they live
in. But it’s a great deal for lousy Third World governments.
“Remittances are the largest source of external financing for
developing countries,” said Dilip Ratha, a World Bank official, as
quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle. “They tend to be more stable
than other types of external financing.”
In other words, emigration substitutes for economic opportunity, and
bad governments enjoy the incoming cash as a reward for irresponsible
governance. Remittances beef up their foreign reserves, giving the
effect of export and tourism earnings, or foreign investment. It also
lets them spend freely.
That’s why in places like Mexico remittances have reached record
highs, often exceeding foreign investment, and siphoned off the best
and brightest from their countries.
In both Mexico and the Philippines, governments hail overseas workers
as “heroes.”
Alone, Mexico is on course to take in $24 billion in remittances in
2006, a 20% increase from 2005, from about 5 million immigrants
sending cash back.
That’s great, as far as the Mexican government’s concerned. “We’re
going to live with these increases for the next few years because for
many Mexicans it’s very attractive to emigrate to the U.S.,” said
Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez.
The Philippines is expected to take in almost $12 billion in
remittances from 8 million emigres, 11% higher than last
year. Congratulating itself, the central bank attributed the rise to
better-educated workers leaving the country and sending their earnings
back – something known as brain drain. A survey showed one in three
Filipinos want to emigrate, and 21% consider their government “totally
hopeless.”
The failures don’t stop there. Indeed, they’re found around the world.
In the Dominican Republic, the $2.4 billion in remittances it receives
are 50% larger than total exports, distorting the nation’s economy.
“This is so significant that many consider remittances as one of the
fundamental pillars of the Dominican economy,” gushed U.N. Development
Program resident representative Niky Fabiancic.
Meanwhile, Annan’s home of Ghana expects $8 billion in remittances
this year. The nation’s president cordially thanked Ghana’s overseas
workers for their largess.
Armenia also is seeing a big jump in cash from workers abroad this
year – so much that Armenia’s currency, the dram, has been driven up
in value, hurting Armenian exports.
“According to the central bank, the country has a trade deficit of $1
billion, but gets $1.3 billion in remittances,” said ex-Prime Minister
Hrant Bagration. The country fears that all that extra cash sloshing
around in its banking system could turn into inflation.
Zimbabwe has 80% unemployment, 1,200% inflation and as many as 90% of
its college graduates working abroad. Remittances are the only thing
keeping the odious Marxist regime of Robert Mugabe afloat. Half the
population depends on remittances, and Zimbabweans have told the local
press that without them, they would die.
As the report shows, the U.N. seems to think the West has a duty to
provide jobs for every citizen in a failing country that refuses to
develop itself in wealth-creating ways. This is essentially a wealth
transfer from the West that props up failing states with little regard
for economic development or human rights.
The only real beneficiaries of Annan’s endorsement of this new global
slave trade are the worst governments on earth.
Related Resources:
Continue your investing education at the IBD Learning Center.
For a wealth of detailed investment insights and successful investor
profiles, go to Investor Education.

ArmeniaNow.com, Armenia
Lessons in Change: `Exceptional’ school year starts with confusion for
parents of first graders

By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow reporter

When the new school year started two weeks ago in
Armenia, the opening bell rung sour notes for some
parents confused by republic-wide changes in the
education structure.
Beginning this year, Armenia converts from a 10-year,
to a 12-year program (see
;AID=1577&lng=eng&IID=1087).
Unaware of the new reforms in education, disbelieving their children
are ready for school life, or taking into account the unhygienic
conditions in some schools, many parents have kept children at home
who should be enrolling for the first time.
As the situation became apparent, the Minister of Education and
Science, Yerevan Municipality officials and other representatives of
the education discuss to how they can overcome this `exceptional year’
and the difficulties and problems that the new educational system has
created.
(To accommodate the conversion, this year should see two kinds of
`first graders’ – junior and senior – 5.8-6.5 year olds, and 6.5-7
year olds.)
`We have schools this year that have no first grade pupils or have
just a few, which causes problems. This is unprecedented,’ says Narine
Hovhannisyan, the Head of the General Education Department at the
Ministry of Education and Science.
Since Soviet times and until this year, children began school at 7. A
World Bank credit program has provided for the systemic changes,
however the mental shift has not yet penetrated.
The 12-year education is a requirement for all the countries that have
joint the Bologna Treaty. Armenia has joined the Treaty in 2005. The
purpose of the Bologna process in Europe is to create a joint
educational system. Armenia is the last among the CIS countries to
join the 12-year education system.
`This is based on international experience,’ says Nurijan Manukyan,
head of the General Education Supervision Department at the RA
Ministry of Education and Science. `The 10-year education system is
still operative in the African and Asian countries. And we are
committed to striding evenly with the world, we are committed to
advancement and every failed year will keep Armenia back from world
developments.’
Many Armenian parents, however, have chosen to be out of stride,
believing that six year olds should be concerned with toys instead of
books.
According to the data of the Ministry of Education and Science, the
number of first graders this year should have grown from about 40,000
pupils registered last year to at least 52,000 as the schooling was to
include also children aged 5.8 and older.
However, unlike the estimations of the experts who supposed to have
nearly 15,000 children of 5.8 and older, the preliminary surveys have
shown the number of children under 6 going to school so far, at nearly
10 times less.
`Many parents believe if they don’t take their children to school this
year but take them the next year the children will learn 11 years
instead of the 12,’ says the education department’s Hovhannisyan.
`Besides, many parents who were aware of the changes took their
children to school earlier, which also caused problems.’
Narine Hovhannisyan says there have been schools even in the central
part of the capital that have had just one or two applications for
admission to the first grade.
In Yerevan and particularly in the Kentron community, 10 of the 36
schools did not have a single `junior’ first class pupil on September
1.
`The law provides opening first grade even if there is just one pupil
registered, but in practice it is more suitable to encourage parents
to take their children to other schools if there are only 2 or 3
applications,’ says Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Kamo Areyan.
School principals disagree. They believe having no first grade and
sending children to other schools discredits their schools.
The experts at the Ministry of Education assert they need to take
measures to overcome the situation, adding that they have anticipated
problems that must be worked out over the coming years.
`If the school lacks first grade this year, it will not have graduates
either. If it does not have applications next year, it will lead to
its self-liquidation,’ says Manukyan. `The principals and the teachers
should care for attracting pupils to their schools.’
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmeniaNow.com
Sport Roundup: Pyunik showing championship form
(again)

By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Football
FC Pyunik (Yerevan) with 50 points remain a clear leader and top title
contender after round 19 of Armenia’s national football
championship. The defending champions are followed by the capital’s FC
Banants and Ashtarak’s FC Mika.
FC Ararat also has real chances to contest a medal this season. Under
the new coach Varuzhan Sukiasyan the Yerevan footballers have not lost
a single point yet.
Meanwhile, footballers playing in Armenia’s top league continue to
sign for foreign clubs. Artashes Baghdasaryan has left Yerevan’s FC
Kilikia to join Austrian Superfund, and Banants striker Vahe
Tadevosyan will play for Switzerland’s FC Arau.
FC Pyunik midfielder (and of the National and youth teams), Levon
Pachajian has been given on loan to Israel’s FC Hapoel (Petah Tikva)
until spring 2007.
(Source: based on Armenian Football Federation reports and information
from A1 Plus’ website)
Judo
At the European youth championships in the Estonian capital of
Tallinn, Armenia’s Anush Hakobyan (52 kg) won the silver
medal. Another Armenian athlete participating in the event Paylak
Vardazaryan became a bronze medalist.
(Source: Armenpress news agency)
Wrestling
Armenian wrestlers will take part in the Greco-Roman and freestyle
wrestling world championships due to be held in China from September
22 to October 1.
Armenia’s team of Greco-Roman wrestlers includes: Roman Amoyan (55
kg), Karen Mnatsakanyan (60 kg), Artak Harutyunyan (66 kg), Movses
Karapetyan (74 kg), Tigran Sahakyan (84 kg), and Yuri Patrikeev (120
kg).
The freestyle wrestling team includes eight wrestlers, including one
woman: Vahan Simonyan (55 kg), Armen Karapetyan (60 kg), Zhirair
Hovhannisyan (66 kg), Ruslan Kokaev (74 kg), Vadim Laliev (84 kg),
Shamil Gitiev (96 kg), Ruslan Basiev (120 kg), and Karine Shadoyan (63
kg).
(Source: Armenpress news agency)

ArmeniaNow.com
Spin Doctors: Marriott fitness team rolls out another
charity ride

By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

An international fitness consultant has kept his
promise of a year ago, to turn a charitable spinning
marathon into an annual event.

Last year’s spinfest prompted the 2006 repeat.

This Saturday, September 16, will see the second
annual `National Charity Schwinn Cycling Marathon in
Armenia’ with hopes that it will raise even more than
it did last year for a charitable project.
Last October’s similar spinning marathon drew about 50
cyclists representing a number of organizations and
hundreds of onlookers and guests who also had a chance
to contribute to charity while 11 (one-wheeled)
bicycles were in motion for six hours. As a result,
Armenia’s first spinfest raised $3,200 for the Nerses
Mets Special Boarding School.
Co-organizer of the event, Marriott Hotel Fitness
Consultant Andrzej Hentszel, from Poland, says: `I
feel very happy that I can organize it again. We hope
to raise even more money for charity this year,
especially that now we have sponsors who support our
preparations.’
All money raised during this year’s marathon will be
spent to support Yerevan Special School N 15 for Deaf
Children and Children with Hearing Disabilities.
Charity cyclists who have reserved bicycles already
began training at Marriott Hotel on weekday nights in
preparation for the Saturday event.
Schwinn “Spinning” is an indoor training on a special
bike accompanied by loud music with a clear beat.
Participants spin according to the trainer, and each
rider can change speed and resistance of the bike.
The six-hour marathon will begin near Armenia Marriott
Hotel in the capital’s Republic Square at 2.00 pm
Saturday. Throughout the event participants and guests
will be entertained by singers, dancers, comedians,
and will have a chance to watch fashion and martial
art shows.
`Our goal is not only to make it to the end of the
marathon, but we mostly wish to collect funds for
charity. We want people to come and join us, support
our charity goals and simply have fun with us,’ say
Hentszel, who together with instructor and event
co-organizer Mher Grigoryan, plans to repeat their
achievement of last year, by spinning all six hours.
Other participants may replace each other.
Each participant offers a symbolic contribution of
10,000 AMD (about $26) for each hour spent on the
bike.
Raffle tickets, at 2,000 AMD, will give buyers a
chance to win a flight to Vienna for one person and a
weekend stay for up to two people, as well as gifts
and prizes.
Armenia Marriott Hotel will also support the school
with the entire revenue made on September 16 in the
outside restaurant `Vienna Café’.
Hentszel says the motto of the marathon remains the
same: `There are no losers – we all can feel like true
winners’.
The event is held in partnership with Armenia Marriott
Hotel, ArmenTel, Austrian Airlines, HSBC Bank, Kotayk,
the British and US. Embassies in Armenia, Quality
School International (QSI), IAB Center.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
FM OF AZERBAIJAN RECEIVES USA DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ON
EURASIA AFFAIRS
[September 16, 2006, 10:52:59]
Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan on 15 September received the USA Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense on Eurasia Affairs Mr. Jim MacDougall.
The guest highly assessed the reforms conducted in Azerbaijan in
military sphere, noting that the country comes closer to NATO
standards. Emphasizing that NATO is not only a military organization
and it also unites political elements.
Minister Mammadyarov noted that there is decisive move in the defense
sphere.
Highly estimating development in Azerbaijan, J. MacDougall pushed to
forward the importance of equal partner relations in the defense
field, took interest in the talks aimed at settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
Informing the guest on major elements of these negotiations,
E. Mammadyarov, first of all, noted necessity of withdrawal of the
Armenian armed forces form the occupied Azerbaijani territories, and
then, return of refugees and IDPs to native lands and maintenance of
their safety, restoration of infrastructure and communications.
Noting significance of the ecological investigations to be conducted
by the international experts in the field o prevention of arsons,
committed by Armenians at the occupied areas, the Minister also stated
that would be sent experts of OSCE, UN and other structures.
Informing on the large-scale projects being implemented in the
Republic, including realization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline, completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas main, realization
of intensive works connected to Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway,
the Minister brought to notice that because of aggressive policy,
Armenia remained out of this projects.
In meeting, also discussed were a range of issues representing mutual
interest.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanARMENIAN.Net
Cilicia Vessel to Arrive in Yerevan Today
16.09.2006 15:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Cilicia Armenian vessel, which is a copy of a
thirteenth-century commercial ship, will arrive in Yerevan September
16, reported Ayas club of sea research, which initiated the
round-the-world voyage of Cilicia. The vessel will be exhibited in the
central square of Yerevan during festivities on the 15th anniversary
of Armenia’s independence, marked on September 21. Next spring the
vessel will drop its anchor in Lake Sevan to be turned into a museum
later.
Having sailed along medieval commercial routes through the Black,
Mediterranean, North and Baltic Seas, as well as the Atlantic, Cilicia
vessel reached Batumi port in Georgia in the beginning of September.
During its voyage Cilicia repeated for the first time within the past
800 years the route of Cilicia traders. Within 2 years the ship passed
15 thousand nautical miles and visited 63 ports in 26 countries of
Europe and the Mediterranean basin, becoming a symbol of peace and
good, to which Armenian people have always been committed to, reports
Novosti-Armenia.

Messenger.ge, Georgia
Friday, September 15, 2006, #175 (1195)
Georgia needs European reforms more than European integration
Georgia’s dream of EU integration is no secret, the EU flag is even
emblazoned on the ruling National Movement’s logo, and the first step
along this long and winding road-hopes the government-is the European
Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and its attendant action plan. The
negotiations are over and the plan is due to be signed off at a
ceremony during the visit of the EU’s Neighbourhood Commissioner
Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The action plan has a five year term, during
which major and lasting reforms are expected of Georgia. With
characteristic bravado, the government has promised to complete these
reforms in three years rather than five.
The ENP sets out a bilateral relationship which offers deeper
integration with countries bordering the EU. However, the policy
“does not have an enlargement perspective”, in the EU’s words, and is
results based, meaning that any further economic and political
integration is wholly contingent on the neighbour country achieving
the reforms prescribed, and the neighbour countries still have no
guarantee of an invitation to join the EU. Also, the South Caucasus
was not even considered to be part of Europe’s neighbourhood until
2004, when the three countries were hastily tacked on to the scheme.
Head of the delegation of the European Commission to Georgia and
Armenia, Torben Holtze, praises Georgia’s institutional and economic
reforms, macro-economic development and customs and tax
reform. However, Georgia came in for criticism over the supremacy of
the rule of law, the freedom of the media and the fact that more than
fifty percent of Georgians live in poverty.
The EU also upbraided Georgia on its huge military spending, something
Ferrero-Waldner recently panned Georgia and Azerbaijan for. The EC
delegation recommend Georgia spend some of those vast sums on
education, reports the newspaper Rezonansi.
Under the ENP action plan, over the next five years (or three years if
you’re as optimistic as the government) Georgia is expected to
entrench the supremacy of the rule of law, improve the business
climate, decrease poverty, cooperate with the EU in security matters
and seek peaceful resolution of the Abkhazian and South Ossetian
conflicts. Even in ten years Georgia will have its work cut out.
In an interview earlier this year the EU’s top Caucasus expert Dov
Lynch, who is convinced of Georgia’s importance for Europe, commented
that, in spite of Georgia’s repeated assertions that they are a
European country and their eagerness to accede to all the structures
and bodies associated with that status, Georgia is less successful at
implementing the necessary reforms suggested by the EU than
neighbouring Armenia. There is some irony in this, as there are no EU
flags flying on public buildings in Yerevan, and Armenia is a close
ally of Russia.
The government, which is still characterised by a high degree of
revolutionary fervour, must make sure that the rule of law is indeed
supreme, and not something that can be put aside for temporary
benefit, if they are to fulfil the action plan, and move a little
closer to Europe.
The Rose Revolution alerted a complacent EU to the reality of the
South Caucasus as a region, hence the three countries hasty inclusion
on in the ENP. For the EU it is vitally important to have a stable,
predictable and prosperous region on its south-eastern flank, a region
which borders three EU candidate countries, Turkey, Romania and
Bulgaria, as well as the Middle East. For Europe to achieve this it
needs the South Caucasus countries to be representative, stable and
predictable as only democratic states can be. It needs property to be
protected and international norms and rules to be observed. Above all,
the EU wants peace in the region, and the end to the quasi-states,
that funnel people, drugs guns and possibly worse to Europe. This is
why the South Caucasus is included in the ENP, but Europe may find its
desires more difficult to achieve here than it is used to.
Because the ENP “does not have an enlargement perspective” the
incentives for the governments of the region to adopt reforms which
may curtail there own powers are not so apparent. Although it is clear
that having open societies and rule of law based states is in the
interest of all three countries of the South Caucasus, it may not be
in the interests of their rulers. Unlike in Eastern Europe, and now in
Turkey, where the EU could say ‘if you want to be in our club you have
to follow our rules’, with the ENP there is no invitation to join the
club. Hopefully the Georgian government will realise that the reforms
themselves matter more than the integration they may or may not bring.