FILM ON DESTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS IN GEORGIA TO BE PRESENTED IN MOSCOW
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.07.2006 13:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Initiated by Mitk Union of Armenian Youth of Moscow
Yeghishe Gevorgyan’s Stones of Ancestors documentary will be screened
at Rolan cinema. According to the Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians
of Russia, the bi-serial film of ethnic Armenian film director from
Austria shows destruction of Armenian monuments in contemporary
Georgia and presents the current lamentable state of the Armenian
cultural legacy in that country. The film is built in the form of
an interview with Armenian, Russian and Georgian public figures,
who evidence falsification and destruction of cultural and spiritual
monuments of other peoples on the territory of modern Georgia. All
facts in the film are cited without author’s comments.

OSCE MG: KOCHARIAN AND ALIYEV SHOULD SHOW INITIATIVE IN KARABAKH ISSUE
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.07.2006 13:49 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yesterday OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs made a recurrent
statement. It says that principles of conflict settlement in Nagorno
Karabakh, the Co-Chairs have presented to Azerbaijan and Armenia,
are interpreted in different ways. The statement specifically notes,
“Taking it into account we consider necessary to make the following
statement.
Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group reported to the OSCE Permanent
Council on the outcomes of the talks with parties of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. They presented a report on intensive mediation aimed
at coming to an agreement over settlement basic principles within
past seven months. The report contains information on the outcomes
of the three individual and joint visits of the co-chairs to Baku
and Yerevan, two meetings with Azeri and Armenian FMs, Rambouillet
and Bucharest meetings with participation of Kocharian and Aliyev
and visits to the region in May at the level of Deputy FMs of OSCE
MG Co-Chair countries.”
The statement notes that mediation efforts of the co-chairs have
resulted in handing fair, balanced and practical basic principles over
NK settlement. “This proposal may result in singing of a settlement
agreement desirable to both parties. The essence of those principles
lies in withdrawal of Armenian troops from regions around NK and
providing a special model to Kelbajar and Lachin regions (including the
corridor between Armenia and NK). The date and form of demilitarization
of those regions should be determined at later stages of the talks –
at the time of holding a referendum on NK status. According to those
principles, the parties will stop threatening each other and will
fulfill their promises on international and bilateral security.”
Over the issue of the coming referendum on determining the status
of Nagorno Karabakh the Co-Chairs noted that arrangements should be
held for its holding. “It is a pity that the Presidents during their
latest meeting in Bucharest could not agree over those principles. We
believe that both Presidents should take the initiative in their hands
to attain progress in the settlement. In case the Presidents come
to an agreement, we are ready to assist in concluding a treaty.” The
Co-Chairs said no additional meetings are planned on their initiative
in the near future. “In case the Presidents agree to continue the
talks, we can again engage in the matter,” reports Azeri-Press.

FRANCE IMPATIENTLY AWAITING YEAR OF ARMENIA START
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.07.2006 16:03 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ September 12 Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian and French FM Philippe Douste-Blazy will open the Year of
Armenia in France, French President’s Diplomatic Advisor Laurent Bili
stated at a press conference in Yerevan. In his words, both sides
are ready to introduce the program of events including exhibitions,
concerts, meeting with Armenian art workers. “Events will be held not
only in Paris but also in the other French cities. We are impatiently
waiting for the opening of the Year of Armenia, since this country
is dear for us,” Bili said.
He also said that the main purpose of the Year is to represent this
country to the world. Mr Bili is convinced that the Year of Armenia
in France will become symbolic for both states. “Armenia is a wonder
of a young state with centuries-old history. The French will be
represented the art of ancient and modern Armenia and the art of the
Armenian Diaspora.
Culture is a dialogue of civilizations. It also promotes tourism and
economic development,” Laurent Bili underscored.
As for the financing, the French government will assign 0.5 million
euros. “Some private persons also gave consent to finance the events. I
suppose the sum will total in 1.5-2 million euros. However this figure
is preliminary,” the French President’s Advisor said.

OSKANIAN: RUSSIA SHOULD TAKE MEASURES TO PREVENT XENOPHOBIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.07.2006 16:05 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During bilateral meetings Armenia always raises the
issue of murders and appliance of violence against Armenians in Russia,
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated at a press conference
in Yerevan. In his words, the Russian side also voices concern over
the incidents. “The Russian authorities should take serious measures
to prevent violence and xenophobia, otherwise this can become a threat
for the country. For our part we will continue to pay rapt attention
to the cases of appliance of violence against Armenians in Russia,”
the Armenian FM said.

CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA TO ISSUE COINS DEDICATED TO CHESS PLAYERS
Armenpress
Jul 3 2006
YEREVAN, JULY 3, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Central Bank said it was
planning to issue memorial coins with a nominal value of 10,000 Drams,
dedicated to the victory of Armenian men chess players at the 37-th
Chess Olympiad in Italian Turin.
The Armenian team visited last weekend the resort town of Dilijan
in Tavush province where they were granted the title of its honorary
citizens. The local municipality has also donated land plots to each
chess players and the Armenian Chess Federation.

DROUGHT EFFECTS ONLY MOUNTAIN AND SUB-MOUNTAIN AREAS
Armenpress
Jul 3 2006
YEREVAN, JULY 3, ARMENPRESS: Officials from the government-affiliated
water committee and agricultural ministry have downplayed the purported
aftereffects of a long string of dry days that have affected largely
mountain and sub-mountain areas, where irrigation is not available.
Speaking to a round table discussion on the consequences of the drought
that was interrupted just few days ago, they said the overall volume
of damages suffered by farmers is being examined now by experts.
Mamikon Gasparian from the agriculture ministry said the irrigated
agriculture is immune against drought. The drought has sustained
damages only to those mountain and sub-mountain areas which have no
irrigation. Gasparian said farmers in lower areas who have access
to irrigation have overcome the panic and are now watering their
lands regularly.
Adibek Ghazarian from the water committee said lands received 15-20
percent of extra water. He said water reservoirs have enough water
for organization of due irrigation and pumping extra water out from
the lake Sevan was not discussed yet because the available resources
are enough to meet the demand.

TWO ARMENIAN BOYS STABBED IN MOSCOW
Armenpress
Jul 3 2006
MOSCOW, JULY 3, ARMENPRESS: Moscow police are looking for unidentified
assailants who beat up and stabbed two Armenian boys in the Moscow
Underground, Russian news agencies said quoting a source in Moscow
law enforcement services.
It said the Armenians were attacked on July 1 afternoon. Both were
taken to hospital with knife wounds. The assailants escaped. Reports
from the Russian capital said also a Kazakh citizen, a student taking
an advanced training course at the Military Engineering Academy,
was attacked and stabbed in Moscow on the same day. A police unit
dispatched to the scene found out that the Kazakh had been attacked
and stabbed by ten assailants, four of whom were young women. The
injured Kazakh citizen was hospitalized.
His life is not in danger,” a source in Moscow police told Interfax
on Sunday.
“The assailants, all of them aged 17-18, fled,” the source said. On the
same day, officials at a city hospital informed police that two Uzbek
citizens had been admitted to a hospital with multiple stab wounds.
“Police officials later found out that the two were attacked and
stabbed on Saturday evening in southwestern Moscow. The assailants
fled,” the police said.
The victims are in grave condition, police officials said. More than
100 attacks incited by nationalistic hatred have been recorded in
Russia since the beginning of the year, officially about two dozens
of them ended in deaths of the victims.
In most cases, the attacks are committed by so-called skinheads,
activists of a nationalistic youth movement.

RUSSIA INVESTIGATES ATTACKS ON MINORITIES
By Anton Troianovski, Associated Press Writer
Hinesberg Journal, Canada
July 3 2006
MOSCOW – Prosecutors said Monday that they are investigating the
weekend stabbings of five ethnic minorities as hate crimes.
Russia has seen a wave of hate crimes in recent years, with hundreds
of attacks reported, including many on dark-skinned immigrants from
former Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains region.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian condemned the attacks
and urged Russia to do more to head off a rising tide of violent
xenophobia.
Meanwhile, three suspects in the Saturday stabbing of a Kazakh
citizen were arrested for a racially motivated crime, the Interfax
news agency reported.
Alexander Brod, who heads the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, said
the surge in attacks might be tied to two high-profile conferences
that opened in the capital on Monday before a summit of the Group of
Eight major industrialized nations that begins next week in St.
Petersburg.
Interfax quoted an Armenian community leader, Ara Abramian, as saying
the attacks were “a direct provocation before the G-8 meeting,”
and sharply criticized Moscow law enforcement for failing to prevent
such assaults.

UK REPORTER BARRED FROM RUSSIA BECAUSE OF CHECHNYA
Kavkaz Center, Turkey
July 3 2006
Russia has refused a visa to a British journalist well-known for his
coverage of Chechnya and the turbulent Caucasus, citing the needs of
“state security”.
Thomas de Waal, who has previously worked in Moscow for the
English-language Moscow Times, the BBC and the Times, said on Monday
he had been due to attend the presentation of a Russian version of
his book on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
But the Federal Migration Service refused him a visa.
The service was not available for comment on Monday but in its letter
refusing the application, which was obtained by Reuters, it cited
a 1996 law that says a visa can be refused “in the aims of securing
state security”.
De Waal said he had cooperated with Russian officials in the past
on Nagorno-Karabakh, a South Caucasus region officially part of
Azerbaijan but ruled by Armenians, and did not believe they would
bar him for his views on the conflict.
“This clearly has to be because of the other main thing that I write
about, which is Chechnya,” de Waal, 39, told Reuters by telephone
from London.
Russian officials have been very sensitive about Western criticism of
the war in Chechnya, where they have struggled to crush separatism
for more than a decade, and local journalists have been prosecuted
for sympathising with the rebels.
President Vladimir Putin in 2002 said a foreign journalist critical
of Russia’s policy in the region become a Muslim and be circumcised
“in such a way that nothing grows back”.
Russia barred U.S. channel ABC news from Russia after it ran an
interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev.
Press freedom groups say Russia tries to intimidate journalists into
only reporting the Kremlin view on Chechnya. A Russian journalist in
February was convicted of provoking racial hatred after he printed
articles by rebel leaders.
De Waal is best known in Russia for appearing as an expert witness for
the defence at the extradition trial of rebel leader Akhmed Zakayev
in London. He said this could be behind his failure to get a visa.
The British court in 2003 declined to extradite Zakayev, giving him
political asylum instead — a move that infuriated Moscow, which
calls Zakayev a terrorist.
“It is possible that the wheels turn rather slowly, or that this is
a cumulative account of things I have done over the last 10 years,”
de Waal said. He last visited Russia in January 2005.

IGOR MURADYAN: ABKHAZIAN-OSSETIAN-NAGORNO KARABAKH PROBLEM: THE US’ POLITICAL FIASCO
Regnum, Russia
July 3 2006
Three subjects of the ethnic politics, three unrecognized South
Caucasian states, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh,
are different in many parameters. Each of them has its own peculiar
problems, its own unique fate, but also some things in common; and
now we are witnessing one more quite special common factor looming
large for all: the reality of war – not just minor demonstrative
clashes on border but real war.
The South Caucasus is facing a new Abkhaz-Ossetian-Nagorno Karabakh
problem – a problem of war that can lead to total fiasco of the policy
of the Western community and, first of all, of the US.
Obviously, in Georgia the wars will not last for long: from several
weeks to several months, with several time-outs. Georgia may well
manage to gain control over some new positions in South Ossetia and
low-lands in Eastern Abkhazia, but it may also be crushed, with all the
three sides sustaining large-scale losses. This may lead to disastrous
human casualties in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, who will, therefore,
get more yielding in political issues. Depending on the scale and
scenario of the war, Georgia may either win – or lose so much that
further war will have no sense. Most probably, Georgia’s enemies will
manage to retain control over bigger part of their territories. Given
more political will, the Georgian army could successfully start war
even today. The only factor that might keep the Georgian authorities
back is human casualties. However, if Georgia continues building up
its army as actively as it is doing now it will shortly have no other
decent way as to start new war. The availability of strong forces
and growing internal political and social problems will be decisive
in the matter.
Azerbaijan is also eager to fight. Azeri generals keep calling for
war, thereby, encouraging arms race and military spendings. Now its
arms supplier is not only traditional Ukraine but also CSTO member
Belarus. The general staffs of two western powers say that in case
of active military actions in Karabakh, the Azerbaijani army may
well lose their offensive capacity in just three weeks. They say
that position war is very inconvenient for Armenia and, therefore,
that country will try to knock out Azerbaijan with just one-two
heavy blows. Azerbaijan will try to strike the nuclear power plant
in Metsamor and some other vital centers in Armenia, in response,
Armenia will destroy sea and other oil and gas facilities and oil and
gas pipelines in Azerbaijan. In a couple of hours the West will lose
$14bln-$16bln and any hope for Caspian oil import in the following
5-7 years. The Caspian Sea will face an ecological disaster. There
will be no need for the Armenians to get very close to oil pipelines,
they have enough people knowing how to carry out such operations.
Unless supported by Turkey, Azerbaijan may either lose its statehood
at all or be given new borders and name – something the Iranians will
be really happy to see. With military experts giving advantage to the
side who will start the war the first, Armenia has no reason to wait
for Azerbaijan’s “victorious march” but will have to start the war
itself – at least, three days before the enemy’s planned attack. It
is better to have advantage at the front than in the findings of
international experts as a victim to aggression. Azerbaijan will lose
25,000-35,000 soldiers and up to 100,000 civilians, Armenia will lose
10-12 times less.
After some delay, the international community will try to stop the
war – of course, only when it sees that Azerbaijan is on the verge of
a military and national disaster. If the Armenians try to destroy the
west-sponsored oil-gas complex, the US and NATO will, most probably,
decide to strike a counter-blow on the Armenian positions. This will
not lead to Russia’s interference. Russia will interfere only if the
Armenian territory is attacked, while the US will interfere if Turkey
meddles in or if Armenia gets into an extremely hard situation. In
this case, the US will put an end to the war irrespective of its
results. Will it be able to? Can the war be avoided at all? – idle
question and vain supposition.
All the three problems could never and can never be solved in the
format the western community suggests. “Territorial integrity” can be
restored only by war. The very thesis and principle of territorial
integrity means a war that goes beyond the conventional idea of war
and implies genocide and mass deportation as obligatory addendum to
military actions. The US has never planned to solve these problems
in this way, i.e. to restore the territorial integrity of Georgia
and Azerbaijan at any price. The US has already got all it wanted
in the South Caucasus, namely, it has already ensured successful
oil transportation from the region. The last trifling thing the US
had to do was just to gain control – together with the UK – over the
“Caucasian Panama Canal.” For this purpose, it carried out a consistent
policy from Arytau to Batumi. All the other tasks were either
subservient or – if going beyond those tasks – were either ruled out
or stifled by feigned political games and endless negotiations. What
kind of policy is this? Anti-Georgian, anti-Armenian, anti-Azeri,
anti-Russian or anti-Iranian? This policy is purely American. The
US is absolutely unwilling to see war in the region. War means the
failure of its tremendous efforts to ensure the safe operation of the
Caucasian-Caspian, or, more correctly, American-British energy complex
in the region. The Americans may want some political tension in some
parts of the region but only provided they have full control over them.
Can we assert or deny that by expanding into the South Caucasus the
US has been and is partly or fully preventing military actions in
the local conflict zones? In the last 15 years the US has failed
its policy in a number of regions. Even disorganized, bankrupt
and capitulated Iraqi society has proved to be a hard nut to crack
for the US. With all its might and power, the US has no sufficient
military force for active suppression in even one – not very big –
country, and has, in fact, failed to guarantee peace and security in
any single country or region it held a military campaign in. Let’s
not dwell on the ideological and stylistic differences between the
relevant policies of the Republicans and the Democrats.
War is at the door. Despite their strategic interests, the Americans
has been led by their partner-opponent Europeans into absolutizing
the principle of territorial integrity – something they regard quite
cynically. By their political-propaganda games, they have convinced the
“victims” that they have the right to use military force to restore
sovereignty over their lost territories. The US has come up with
dubious initiatives to encourage arms race for ensuring the safety
of energy communications – initiatives that have resulted in extreme
militarization in the region. We can’t deny the influence of both
complex and individual factors on the military-political situation in
the region. The positions and interests of the western and eastern
great powers are certainly complex factors. However, the region’s
countries are becoming a loomingly large source of concern for the
US in terms of their plans to resolve their conflicts by war.
It couldn’t be otherwise.
By implementing its policy, the US has contributed to the collapse of
the CAFE Treaty and, together with its Western and Eastern European
allies, has launched an arms race in the South Caucasus. The only
question is what they are training national armed units for. The US has
“guaranteed” that they will not be used in ethnic conflicts. At the
same time, the US and NATO are actively stimulating the militarization
of the region. No doubt, this is part of the US’ policy to ensure
the safety of its oil complex. However, all these efforts are not
augmenting the US’ sway or diminishing Russia’s presence in the region,
but are, on the contrary, undermining the US’ policy and ruining the
oil complex together with the whole “Eurasian corridor” (“corridor”
is always something vulnerable, something that leads to war).
This spring the author questioned 88 British and US experts as to
security problems in the South Caucasus and the possibility of new
wars in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh. None of them
has denied that the US cannot guarantee non-resumption of war. At
the same time, they clearly differentiated two questions: are there
enough factors proving that new war is possible and is the US able
to prevent this possibility. This refers to all the three conflicts.
Pacifist Europe will react to war stoically. Their conservative
media will call for interference and protection of oil facilities and
pipelines, but no single European soldier will set foot in the region
or will come here just to keep peace when the fight is already over.
It will be for the US and Russia to react, of course, if Turkey is
kept away and Iran is not very active.
Igor Muradyan – expert of Caucasus analytical center.