HAUNTED BY HISTORY; ANI, A DISPUTED CITY
The Economist
June 17, 2006
U.S. Edition
Efforts to excavate and conserve a little-known historical site are
snarled up by regional rivalries
The ruins of a contested capital are still hostage to geopolitics
WHATEVER you think about ghosts, it is hard to speak of this desolate
plateau on Turkey’s eastern edge without using the word “haunted”. A
millennium ago, Ani rivalled Byzantium as one of the great cities
of the Christian world. At its height, the Armenian capital had
over 100,000 inhabitants. Now all that stands is an impressive wall,
and the gaunt but beautiful remains of churches and mosques randomly
scattered across a vast expanse of grassy earth. On a hot day in early
summer, with flowers blooming and birds swooping through the ruins,
the place is utterly empty.
Ani’s location at one of Eurasia’s nodal points, where rival
civilisations either clash or co-operate, has been both a blessing and
a curse. The “silk route” linking Byzantium with China ran through
it. But less than a century after it became the Armenian capital in
961, the city began falling victim to waves of conquerors, including
Seljuk Turks, Georgians and Mongols. In 1319 it was devastated by
an earthquake.
Even as a ruin, Ani has been a disputed city. In 1921 when most
of the site was ceded to Turkey, the Armenians were dismayed. They
have since accused the Turks of neglecting the place in a spirit of
chauvinism. The Turks retort that Ani’s remains have been shaken by
blasts from a quarry on the Armenian side of the border.
Turkey’s authorities insist that they are doing their best to conserve
and develop the site. “By restoring Ani, we’ll make a contribution
to humanity,” says Mehmet Ufuk Erden, the local governor. “We will
start with one church and one mosque, and over time we will include
every single monument.” The culture ministry has listed Ani, with
an Armenian church on an island in Lake Van, among the sites it is
keenest to conserve. For a country that was reluctant, until recently,
to accept the cultural heritage of non-Turks, this is a big change.
But some scholars say more is needed. “Piecemeal restoration is no
substitute for a master plan for Ani as a whole,” argues Stefaan
Poortman of the Global Heritage Fund, a California-based conservation
group that helps to manage endangered historic sites. And making a
master plan for a site straddling two countries is impossible unless
they co-operate. Could it happen? In September, some 14 Black Sea
countries hope to meet in Istanbul to dicuss their cultural heritage.
So Turks and Armenians will get a chance to talk about Ani, if
history’s ghosts can be exorcised.

NOT QUITE A ROW OF SIXES; RANKING ECONOMIC POLICIES
The Economist
June 17, 2006
U.S. Edition
The World Bank reveals what it thinks of its clients
ARMENIA and Zimbabwe belong at opposite ends of any alphabetic roll
call of nations. They also belong at opposite ends of the World
Bank’s pecking order of developing countries, which it has unveiled
for the first time. Each year the bank gives countries between one
and six marks for their efforts to do the sort of things of which
it approves, such as curbing budget deficits, keeping tariffs low
and even narrowing the gap between the sexes and looking after the
environment. Armenia scored 4.3 overall; Zimbabwe 1.8.
Points mean prizes: the 16 indicators help decide who gets what from
the pot of $33 billion the bank can disburse to its poorest members
over three years. Until now, the bank had let on only which of five
broad tiers countries fell into. Now everyone’s score is on the bank’s
website for all to see.
Armenia tops the class largely because of its stunning macroeconomic
record. Its GDP grew by 14% in 2005, whereas Zimbabwe’s shrank by
6.5%. Armenia’s inflation rate is lower than Japan’s (it has done
almost too well, you might say). Prices in Zimbabwe, where official
statisticians track the debauching of the currency with admirable
precision, rose by 1,193.5% in the year to May.
The bank’s assessments draw on the judgment of staff in situ and
in Washington, DC, guided by a detailed questionnaire. A country
deserves four marks out of six for its trade policy, for example,
if its average tariff is less than 16% and its customs houses run
smoothly, marred only by the odd demand for “tea money” to speed
things up. A country where women cannot easily request a divorce and
where female genital mutilation is neither a crime nor uncommon would
score just one for gender equality.
The indicators faithfully mirror “the evolution of the development
paradigm”, as the bank puts it. They provide a long checklist of
things that matter, but no sense of the proper sequence of them, nor
of trade-offs between them. To earn full marks for fiscal policy, for
example, a country must show it can cut public spending in economic
adversity without “jeopardising the quality and quantity of public
goods”. The sprawling range of concerns, from current-account deficits
to teenage pregnancy, bespeaks broad-mindedness. But, in practice,
countries that score well on one of the indicators tend to do well
on most.
The bank deliberated at length before disclosing its ratings. Some
outside advisers did worry that publishing the results might spook
investors or tempt politicians to “abuse the ratings for political
gain”. But if an enterprising politician were to use a poor score to
press for reform, the numbers might do as much good as the money that
follows them.

BLING-BLING BOYS FROM ABROAD; KENYA
The Economist
June 17, 2006
U.S. Edition
Armenians deported from Kenya
An odd saga with Armenians has mocked the government
“THE last six days have been humiliating for this nation,” opined
Kenya’s Standard newspaper this week. “Our sovereignty has been
violated. Our nationhood has been insulted. Our borders have been
encroached by hostile forces.”
Earlier this year two men claiming to be Armenian brothers, confusingly
calling themselves Artur Margariyan and Arthur Sargsian, came to
the nation’s attention. They were alleged, said Kenya’s opposition
politicians at the time, to be mercenaries responsible for organising
raids by police commando units on television and newspaper offices. The
raids were supposedly an attempt to muzzle Kenya’s largely free
press by powerful figures in the embattled government appointed by
President Mwai Kibaki-and specifically to stop investigative reporting
on government corruption.
It was the Armenians’ style that caught the eye. They were not
mercenaries, they insisted, but worthy businessmen involved in
property, diamonds and a night club. Their bling-bling image-dark
glasses, gold chains and wads of cash-delighted Nairobi’s hip-hop crowd
and appalled others, particularly those whom the Armenians came up
against. The brothers’ claims to be relatives of Armenia’s president
sounded shaky. Some even doubted whether they were Armenian at all.
They certainly seemed to have protectors high up in Kenya’s
government. But it was only after the two men allegedly pulled
guns on customs officials at Nairobi’s main airport last week that
the extent of their ties was revealed. The police commissioner,
Hussein Ali, had them deported on June 9th and their Nairobi house
and buildings searched. Inside, according to police reports, were
a Mercedes with government licence plates, AK-47 machine guns with
presidential security unit serial numbers, Ceska automatic pistols,
Kenyan passports bearing the photos of the Armenians but with other
names, a document appointing one of the men a Kenyan police detective,
plus masks and jackets similar to those used in commando raids on
the media outlets. Among other items was a security pass granting
the Armenians access to secure areas of the airport; this, along
with the alleged way the men claimed a piece of luggage at gunpoint,
particularly upset diplomats, some of whom reckon that Nairobi and
its airport remain a target for jihadist terrorist plots.
Distancing himself from the Armenians, Mr Kibaki has suspended several
senior policemen and immigration and airport officials. An inquiry
may reveal who the Armenians really were, what they did and whether
they were in the pay of the government. It is unlikely to improve
the government’s reputation or help the forlorn, indecisive Mr Kibaki.

SATIRE THAT COULD LAND BRITISH ARTIST IN A TURKISH JAIL
Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent and Suna Erdem in Istanbul
The Times (London)
June 17, 2006, Saturday
A BRITISH artist is facing up to three years’ jail in Turkey for
exhibiting a collage that depicts its Prime Minister as a dog being
awarded a rosette by President Bush in a pet show.
Police in Istanbul seized Michael Dickinson’s Best in Show -in which
he superimposed the head of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on to a dog’s body
-from his exhibition in the city.
He has been told that he is likely to be charged with “insulting the
dignity of the Prime Minister”. The show’s organiser, Erkan Kara,
will go on trial on September 12 on the same charge.
Mr Dickinson, 56, said: “It’s such an Alice in Wonderland feeling.
The law is so absurd…This law exists in Turkey about insulting
‘Turkishness’ or the State. You’re not allowed to state your opinion.”
The case could greatly embarrass Turkey and Britain, for it raises
questions about Turkey’s human rights record as it seeks EU membership,
with Tony Blair’s backing.
After an international outcry, charges of “insulting Turkishness”
were dropped against the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who had upset
the authorities with remarks on the killings of Armenians in 1915-17.
Pamuk’s case was dropped in January after the justice ministry refused
to issue a ruling on whether the charges were valid.
Mr Dickinson, born in Durham, has lived in Turkey for 20 years,
teaching English at Yeditepe University. His younger brother, John, is
the father of 13-year old Caroline Dickinson, who was murdered while
on a school trip to France in 1996. He spent most of his childhood
in Kuwait, where his father worked for the Kuwait Oil Company. He
was educated at the Anglo-American School with his two brothers,
and later at boarding school in Yorkshire.
His exhibition was staged in Istanbul by the Global Peace and Justice
Coalition.
The collage, hung with anti-war images, refers to the Prime Minister
having taken legal action over cartoons depicting him as various
animals. Upset at Mr Kara’s plight, Mr Dickinson said: “I don’t want
anyone to go to prison for me.”
Charles Thomson, of the Stuckist art movement, to which Mr Dickinson
belongs, has told Mr Blair that it is intolerable for an EU applicant
to censor political comment.
“I trust you will communicate your strongest condemnation and ask
for this case to be abandoned,” he wrote, urging Mr Blair to oppose
Turkey’s EU membership until it changes its stance on human rights.
Mr Thomson has also written to Olli Rehn, the EU Enlargement
Commissioner, saying that in the Union the collage would be considered
acceptable free expression.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said: “Everybody will have to wait and
see whether the court decides if this is about freedom of expression
or not.” A spokesman said that Turkey’s laws should be respected
and suggested that the international community was too hasty in
condemning it.
“We have laws here and just as it was the artist’s prerogative to
depict the Prime Minister as a dog, it is the prerogative of the
Prime Minister -and this could have been anyone -to decide that this
was insulting and sue him. We will see what the judges say about this.”

BATUMI WELCOMES FIRST DIRECT TRAIN FROM YEREVAN
by Tengiz Pachkoria
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 18, 2006 Sunday 12:10 PM EST
The first direct train from Yerevan was welcomed at the Batumi railroad
terminal on Sunday. The train brought representatives of the Armenian
and Georgian railroad companies, who attended the train seeing-off
ceremony in Yerevan on Saturday.
The six-car train will be a quicker and cheaper way of transportation
than buses, the officials said.
Plenty of Armenian tourists have been visiting Georgian Black Sea
resorts, and bilateral and economic contacts between Armenia and
Georgia have broadened in the recent years. Georgian and Armenian
trains will be making the shuttle trips.
There was no direct railroad line between Yerevan and Batumi not
only in the 1990s but also in the Soviet period – two cars were first
brought to Tbilisi and then attached to a Tbilisi-Batumi train.

ARMENIA TO LAUNCH A THROUGH RAILWAY SERVICE TO GEORGIAN PORT
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 16, 2006 Friday 06:50 PM EST
A ceremony of opening a through railway service to the Georgian port
city of Batumi will be held in the Armenian capital Yerevan Saturday.
“Under an agreement between Georgia and Armenia, a passenger train
will begin cruising between Yerevan and Batumi as of June 17,” an
official at the Georgian Economic Development Ministry said.
The route will be serviced in turns by Georgian and Armenian railway
organizations. Trains consisting of six coaches will depart from
Yerevan on odd-numbered days of the month and from Batumil, on
even-numbered days.
A through passenger service between Yerevan and Batumi was non-existent
even during the Soviet era, when several Yerevan-to-Batumi coaches
were included in the trains bound for the Georgian capital Tbilisi,
where they were reattached to the trains bound for Batumi.
In the post-Soviet years, the route was non-existent either.
Nor will the trains bypass Tbilisi this time, too, since the only
railway route is via the Georgian capital.
Armenian Transport Minister, Georgian Economic Development Minister
as well as top railway officials from both countries will take part
in the gala ceremony in Yerevan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIA TO DO ITS UTMOST TO INVESTIGATE CRIMES AGAINST ARMENIANS
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 16, 2006 Friday
The Russian authorities will do their utmost to investigate and prevent
all manifestations of violence and murders of Armenians in Russia,
visiting Russian presidential envoy in the Southern Federal District,
Dmitry Kozak, said at a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian.
He pointed out, though, that such incidents involving Armenians were
not ethnically motivated ones.
Russia, including the Southern Federal District, is a favorable
environment for the Armenian Diaspora. Its representatives actively
participate in the country’s politics and economy.
Margarian expressed the confidence that the Russian authorities and the
heads of regional legislatures would take serious steps to find those
guilty, bring them to justice and prevent such crimes in the future.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian pointed out that attacks
on the Armenian citizens in Russia “are seen in Armenia as casual.”
“Armenia is ready to pool efforts with Russia to prevent such incidents
in the future,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIAN BUSINESSES EXPAND PRESENCE IN ARMENIA – KOCHARIAN
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 16, 2006 Friday
Russian businesses have been expanding presence in Armenia,
President Robert Kocharian said, as he received Russian presidential
representative in the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, who
is in Armenia on a working visit.
“Economic ties have been growing stronger and Russian businesses are
ever more present in the Armenian economy,” Kocharian said.
Effective transport links between the two countries will be crucial
to wider trading and economic cooperation, he said.
The theme of transport was high on the agenda of Dmitry Kozak’s talks
with Prime Minister Andranik Migranian.
The Armenian prime minister said the regular operation of the railway
ferry the Caucasus-Poti and resumption of railway traffic through
Abkhazia would provide major support for Russian-Armenian economic
cooperation.
As he visited the Russian military base in Armenia, Kozak thanked the
Armenian leadership for creating a favorable environment for Russian
military personnel.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A LYON, LA VIE CACHEE D’ALEX ET DAVID, DEUX ENFANTS QUI VEULENT ETRE COMME LES AUTRES
Le Monde, France
18 juin 2006
” Oh ! J’ai oublie mes cartes Yo Gli Yo pour les montrer a mon copain
Leo “, s’exclame Alex, 10 ans, cartable au dos, en sortant de classe.
Rien ne distingue Alex des autres enfants qui se bousculent a la
sortie de l’ecole Victor-Hugo a Lyon. Sinon que sa mère, a lui, ne
vient jamais le chercher. Chaque fois, c’est une personne differente
qui vient l’attendre a la sortie de l’ecole. Car depuis que, le 19
avril, les policiers sont venus signifier a leur mère, Samira, un
ordre de depart pour le lendemain, Alex et son frère cadet, David,
7 ans, vivent caches.
Depuis près de deux mois, parents d’elèves et enseignants des pentes
de la Croix-Rousse a Lyon sont ” entres en resistance ” pour soustraire
Samira Babaïan et ses deux enfants a la police et empecher leur renvoi
vers l’Allemagne. L’Allemagne, pays où Samira Babaïan, Azerie d’origine
armenienne, a debarque de Russie pour demander l’asile. Asile qui lui
a ete refuse. En France, où elle est arrivee en novembre 2005, l’Etat
refuse d’etudier sa nouvelle demande de protection, en vertu d’un
accord europeen, dit Dublin 2, qui veut qu’un dossier depose dans un
pays de l’espace Schengen doive etre traite jusqu’au bout par celui-ci.
Cet argument n’est que ” du vent ” pour les parents d’elèves de la
Croix-Rousse, quitte a enfreindre la loi. Illegale, leur action peut
leur valoir jusqu’a cinq ans de prison et 30 000 francs d’amende.
Mais pour eux, la question de la ” desobeissance civile ” ne se pose
meme pas. ” Je l’ai fait comme un acte citoyen, temoigne Sandrine
Riot-Sarcey, mère de famille du quartier qui a heberge Alex. Lorsque
j’ai eu connaissance de la situation de cette famille, je suis tombee
des nues. Il ne m’etait pas possible de continuer a vivre comme si
de rien n’etait. ”
” La seule chose angoissante, c’est de savoir comment faire pour ne
pas mettre en danger les enfants, comment reagir par exemple si des
policiers s’approchent lorsqu’on est avec eux dans la rue “, confie
Valerie Tranchand, autre mère de famille qui a accueilli Alex.
Ils sont comme cela une bonne vingtaine de parents a s’etre relayes
pendant plusieurs semaines pour cacher quelque part Samira et David,
et ailleurs Alex. Aujourd’hui la famille vit a nouveau reunie dans un
” endroit sûr ” a Lyon. Mais parents d’elèves et voisins continuent
de se relayer pour accompagner les enfants a l’ecole. Dans l’unique
pièce où ils vivent, Alex et David ont epingle sur le mur, au côte d’un
grand dessin signe de tous les enfants de leur ecole les soutenant,
un memo leur rappelant qui et quel jour les prend en charge. Il n’est
surtout pas question de sortir avec leur mère dans la rue. Alex a aussi
appris un numero de telephone par coeur. Si d’aventure il se faisait
arreter, il a pour consigne de partir en courant puis d’appeler ce
numero. Quelqu’un viendra le chercher.
Et cet ete, ces ” protecteurs ” l’enverront dès le 30 juin en ”
vacances ” loin de Lyon avec sa mère et son frère. Et un système de
permamence est en train de s’organiser pour pouvoir, meme en plein
ete, mobiliser rapidement en cas de coup dur. Pas de treve estivale
pour la mobilisation lyonnaise, qui demande qu’au moins le dossier
de demande d’asile de la famille Babaïan puisse etre examine.
–Boundary_(ID_v26JJ3AJIidwXgch+0gEXA)–

UNE EXPOSITION SUR L’ARMENIE FERMEE EN RAISON DE TENSIONS AVEC DES TURCS
Valentigney (Doubs) 17 Juin 2006
Agence France Presse
17 juin 2006 samedi 2:59 PM GMT
Une exposition comprenant une quarantaine de cliches sur le thème
de la memoire armenienne, qui se tenait a Valentigney, a dû fermer
ses portes en raison de tensions avec des membres de la communaute
turque locale, a-t-on appris samedi auprès des organisateurs.
L’exposition de photos se tenait sous un chapiteau a l’occasion d’une
fete folklorique et s’inscrivait dans le cadre de l’annee de l’Armenie.
Dans la journee, une dizaine de personnes de la communaute turque
locale sont venues demander que deux photos soient retirees de
l’exposition au motif qu’elles faisaient reference au “genocide
armenien perpetre par les turcs”.
Le photographe Antoine Agoudjian ayant refuse que ces deux cliches
soient retires, les organisateurs de la fete ont ferme l’accès au
chapiteau, en accord avec la mairie.
Interroge par l’AFP, M. Agoudjian a denonce “une situation ubuesque”
et “une atteinte grave a la liberte d’expression alors meme que la
France a reconnu officiellement le genocide armenien”. Il a precise
qu’il refusait que ses photos soient exposees toute la semaine dans
la MJC de Valentigney, comme cela etait prevu.
Les photos sont extraites d’un livre qu’Antoine Agoudjian a publie
chez Actes Sud.
–Boundary_(ID_sDhYaVZ4uOEzMxkvZc2C6A)–