MOSCOW POLICEMEN DECLARED A WAR ON “ETHNIC GANGS”
by Viktor Tkachyov
SOURCE: Noviye Izvestia, No 76, p.6
Russica Izvestia Information Inc.
RusData Dialine – Russian Press Digest
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
Moscow police are preparing for a citywide crackdown on so-called
ethnic gangs after two policemen were shot dead by what prosecutors
described as members of a Georgian crime group.
Police will stake out known hangouts of ethnic gangs until the
killers of police officers Andrei Ashurkov and Sergei Rebrikov,
who were gunned down early Friday in southern Moscow, are found,
a police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity customary
when discussing police operations, said Tuesday. “Ethnic gangs” is
an umbrella term that generally refers to organized crime groups,
primarily from the Caucasus.
Ashurkov and Rebrikov responded to a call from residents of an
apartment building on Ulitsa Kirovogradskaya who said they heard cries
for help from the apartment of an Armenian businessman and his family,
police said.
Ashurkov and Rebrikov walked into a hail of automatic gunfire upon
entering the apartment at around 7:30 a.m., and both died at the
scene, City Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Sergei Marchenko said. Six
suspects wearing tracksuits and black leather jackets fled the scene,
he said. No suspects have been detained. Rebrikov, 39, is survived
by a wife and daughter. Ashurkov was 28.
Following a funeral for the two officers Tuesday, deputy police chief
Vladimir Chugunov said Moscow police were “fighting an uncompromising
battle and even a war against bandits.”
The Mayor’s Office emphasized the ethic background of the victims.
Spokesman Sergei Tsoi said the “ethnic Russian police officers, who
died heroically” and “acted professionally in defending an Armenian
family,” would be awarded state honors posthumously. Authorities
closely track and publicize statistical evaluations of crimes committed
by foreigners, primarily from other former Soviet republics. These
statistics are cited by some groups to justify anti-immigration
policies.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PLANE CRASH RELATIVES IN AGONISING WAIT FOR LOVED ONES
Agence France Presse — English
May 3, 2006 Wednesday 4:25 PM GMT
SOCHI, Russia
Relatives of those who died when an Armenian plane crashed into the
Black Sea on Wednesday stared out from the 13th floor of a support
centre set up in a local hotel, wishing the return of those who
disappeared beneath the waves.
Distraught and with rings under her eyes, Larisa Sarkasyan said she
had come with a friend to the centre at the Hotel Moscow in this
Russian resort town, seeking news of her friend’s daughter, a member
of the cabin crew of the plane that crashed earlier in the day with
the loss of all 113 people on board.
“I’d wanted Mara to take something to Moscow for me, but her mother
told me she’d gone to Sochi instead — it was her first time on that
flight,” Larisa said, recalling the last hours before the death of
the 35-year-old crew member.
“Then, in the night, I found out the plane had crashed. I didn’t dare
to call, but asked my husband to,” she said.
Mara’s 12-year-old son had hardly begun to grasp what had happened.
“He’s still hoping his mother will come back,” Larisa said.
Nearby, psychologists were on hand to offer help, while investigators
questioned relatives of the dead, asking them to describe their
perished loved ones to aid the identification process.
Many relatives had come on a special flight from the Armenian capital,
Yerevan, following the crash of the Airbus A320 operated by Armenia’s
Armavia.
Other relatives gathered at the morgue in this southern town that
for most Russians conjures up images of sun, sand and respite from
harsher climes.
But authorities were for the most part staying tight-lipped.
“Mum called 10 minutes before the expected landing time to say
the plane was about to land — she already had a phone signal,”
said Akop Akopyan, who was there with his father and had lost his
mother, Zara, 49. “Ten minutes later the plane had disappeared from
the radar screens.”
Some relatives tried to extract information from policemen guarding
the morgue.
“My friend had a beauty spot on his left cheek. Have you seen him
among the bodies?” one man asked of a policeman on guard.
Two young women managed to get a policeman to show them a photograph of
one of the dead that he had taken using a camera on his mobile phone,
but it was not the body they sought.
“I’m looking for my boyfriend,” explained one of the women.
With fragments from just 49 bodies recovered by Wednesday evening,
some relatives faced a long and agonising wait, whether standing at
the morgue or staring out to sea from the hotel window.

TEARS, ANGER AS RELATIVES MOURN ARMENIAN AIR CRASH VICTIMS
Agence France Presse — English
May 3, 2006 Wednesday 11:17 AM GMT
Stunned and in tears, the distraught families of passengers killed
when an Armenian plane plunged into the Black Sea battled Wednesday
to come to terms with the sudden loss of their loved ones.
In anguished scenes at Yerevan airport, many pinned the blame for the
crash in the early hours on Russian and Armenian aviation officials.
“My little boy was on there. He wasn’t even 25 years old,” said one
tearful mother among those at the Armenian capital’s airport.
Most relatives had heard about the crash from watching television or
after being telephoned by other family members.
Many of the 113 people who died when the Armavia Airbus A320 crashed
as it tried to land near the Russian resort town of Sochi were making
family visits, reflecting the close ties between Russia and its small
Caucasus neighbour.
Russian and Armenian officials have both blamed the crash on poor
weather conditions, saying the pilot aborted a first attempted
landing because of rain and poor visibility before wheeling round
for a second attempt.
A teenage boy, Apet Tatevosyan, appeared barely able to grasp the
news as he waited in the airport hall, as emergency workers and
officials bustled.
“My mum was on the plane. She had gone to visit her sisters who she
hadn’t seen in 15 years,” he said. “We thought she was going to call
— when she didn’t, I was worried and called our relatives in Sochi
who told us the news.”
His disbelief was echoed by Andranig Avetisyan, who also lost a
loved one.
“I lost my niece. She lives in Sochi and had come to visit us in
Yerevan,” Avetisyan said.
A woman who said she her husband had been killed lashed out at the
state of the planes operated by the Armavia national carrier.
“They tell us that these planes are in a good state. And then what?
They call that a good state!,” exclaimed the woman furiously.
The mother who had lost her son blamed Sochi’s Adler airport for
hesitating to let the plane land in heavy rain that was lashing the
coast at the time.
“If the airport had quickly allowed the plane to come in to land,
the disaster would never have happened,” she said, as a white-coated
doctor approached her to administer a sedative.
A team of four doctors was on hand at Yerevan, while Russian
authorities said psychologists were being deployed in Sochi to help
the bereaved when they arrived to help with identification of the dead.
“We have seen hysteria, hypertension, heart attacks. We have also
provided psychological help to those who need it,” said one doctor,
Larisa Arsenyan.
Some 78 of the bereaved left for Sochi early Wednesday. More were
expected to follow on a second flight later in the day.

NO EVIDENCE OF TERRORISM BEHIND ARMENIAN PLANE CRASH: PROSECUTOR
Agence France Presse — English
May 3, 2006 Wednesday 7:06 AM GMT
Investigators have found no evidence that the crash of an Armenian
plane off Russia’s Black Sea coast on Wednesday resulted from
terrorism, Russia’s deputy prosecutor general, Nikolai Shepel, said.
“At this stage we don’t have any information to suggest the possibility
of a terrorist act against the plane,” Shepel was quoted by Interfax
news agency as saying.
Investigators continued to scour the site of the crash about six
kilometres (four miles) from the coast near the resort town of Sochi,
in which 113 people died, Russia’s emergency situations ministry said.
In particular they hoped to find the black box flight recorder that
would provide clues to the crash’s cause.
The Airbus A320 disappeared from radar screens as it made a second
attempt to land at Adler airport near Sochi early Wednesday, after
visibility had been severely reduced by heavy rain.
The prosecutor general’s office said earlier it had launched criminal
proceedings for violation of air traffic procedures leading to loss
of life.

ABRAMYAN OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO FAMILIES OF A-320 PLANE VICTIMS
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday 11:06 AM EST
The President of the Union of Armenians of Russia and the World
Armenian Congress, Ara Abramyan, has offered deep condolences to the
next-of-kin of those who died in the A-320 plane crash near Sochi,
southern Russia.
“There were Russian and Armenian citizens on board the plane. It is
a great tragedy for our people. We mourn over this loss,” Abramian
said in a statement.
The two countries’ presidents decided to announce May 5 as the day of
mourning in Russia and Armenia, which would embody solidarity between
our peoples and the readiness to lean on each other’s shoulder and
find consolation in each other in minutes of great distresses and loss,
the statement said.
Abramyan said the Sochi-based Union of Armenians set up a center for
helping relatives of the A-320 victims arriving in the city.
He assured that the two organizations he heads would contribute to
the relief aid fund for the families of the victims, if it was set up.

VETERAN TEST PILOT SUSPECTS HUMAN ERROR CAUSED A320 PLANE’S CRASH
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
Russia’s veteran test pilot, Magomed Tolboyev, has said he tends to
suspect the role of a human error as the chief factor that led to
last night’s crash of an Armenian airliner near the Russian Black
Sea resort city of Sochi.
Tolboyev, currently the president of the Aviatsia aviation corporation,
has said, the planes of this type have what he described as the “curved
image problem,” and the crew might have lost their bearings. At the
same time Tolboyev did not rule out mistakes by both crew and air
traffic controllers.
Interviewed live on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Tolboyev said
that the plane’s equipment allowed for making a landing in extremely
bad weather.
Air engineer, expert in civil aviation and flight safety Alexei
Komarov, who edits the Aviatransportnoye Obozreniye review, said that
according to statistics, A320 was a very reliable plane. Of the more
than 2,500 liners of this type in operation around the world a mere
twelve have suffered crashes.
The governor of the Krasnodar Region, Alexander Tkachev, tends to
share the human factor version, although in his opinion it is a
preliminary one and requires further confirmation.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry has blamed the Armenian
plane’s crash on bad weather. The Transport Ministry says this version
is most likely.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has ruled out a terrorist
attack. Public Relations Officer Nataliya Vishnyakova has said with
reliance to the investigators’ early findings “a terrorist attack
should be ruled out, because there is no objective evidence pointing
to this.”
There where 113 passengers and crew on board the crashed plane.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry 26 of them had Russian
citizenship. There were some Georgian citizens on board, too. Also
on that plane was Armenia’s former interior minister, chief of the
KGB security service Major-General Usik Arutyunian.
According to the latest reports, the bodies of 46 victims have been
recovered and brought to Sochi. Two have been identified.

BOOK OF CONDOLENCES OPENED AT ARMENIA EMBASSY IN MOSCOW
By Tamara Frolkina
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
A book of condolences was opened at the Armenian Embassy in Moscow
over the air crash near Sochi.
“The book was opened on behalf of all Armenians living in Russia,”
President of the Armenians Union Ara Abramian told Itar-Tass on
Wednesday. “The Union of Russian Armenians is doing its best to help
the families of the crash victims,” Abramian emphasized.
“Relatives are accommodated at the Sochi hotel Moskva, the medical
and psychological aid and the food are provided for them,” he pointed
out. “They will stay in the hotel until all issues concerning the
air crash and its aftermath are settled,” Ara Abramian remarked.
“There are many Russians among those killed in the air crash, as a big
number of Armenians have dual citizenship. It is needed to wait for
the results of the expertise in order to find out what really happened,
as the airplane was said to be in the ideal state,” he indicated.
The A-320 airliner was carrying 113 people, including 26 Russian
citizens. According to the preliminary information, all people aboard
the plane were killed. Former interior minister and chairman of the
Armenian State Security Committee Maj-Gen. Usik Arutyunian is among
those killed. According to the latest reports, the bodies of 39 crash
victims, including one girl, were found.

RUSSIA’S ARMENIANS HELP FAMILIES OF A-320 CRASH VICTIMS
by Tamara Frolkina
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 3, 2006 Wednesday
The Union of Armenians of Russia is lending a helping hand to the
families of those who died in the A-320 plane crash near Sochi,
southern Russia, the Union’s President, Ara Abramyan, told Itar-Tass
on Wednesday.
“The relatives are accommodated at the Moskva hotel in Sochi. There
they will get necessary medical and psychological assistance and
free meals. They will stay there until all issues connected with the
catastrophe and its effects are settled,” he said.
“Among the victims there may be many Russian citizens, as most
Armenians on board of the plane had dual citizenship. It is necessary
to wait for the results of the inquiry into the causes of the crash.
The plane is said to have been in perfect condition,” Abramyan said.
There were 113 passengers on board the A-320, including 26 Russian
citizens.
There were no survivors. Among the victims was Armenia’s former
Interior Minister, chairman of the KGB security service, Major-General
Usik Arutyunyan.
According to the latest data, 39 bodies, including that of a small
girl, have been recovered on the site of the accident.

GREENWAY BOARD SEEKS ARMENIAN PARK DELAY
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | May 3, 2006
Boston Globe, MA
May 3 2006
Members of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy board
don’t have the authority to reject a proposal to build a memorial
park along the Greenway, but its chairman said yesterday it would
exert influence to delay or relocate the park.
“We have talked, on the conservancy board, about not having any
memorials or statues on the Greenway for at least five years,”
said Peter Meade, chairman of the conservancy’s 10-member board,
which includes Edwin Schlossberg, the husband of Caroline Kennedy
Schlossberg, granddaughter of Greenway namesake Rose Kennedy.
Yesterday the board was briefed for the first time on a proposal to
build a park that would memorialize the Armenian genocide along the
Greenway, a series of parks being created along the corridor of the old
Central Artery. A state law, passed in 2000, directed the Massachusetts
Turnpike Authority to study building an Armenian memorial.
The conservancy, which was set up to endow, maintain, and organize
events for the Greenway, has no direct authority over what is built
there; the turnpike authority controls that. But, asked whether the
board has a say in the matter, Meade said, “I think we do.”
Fred Yalouris, director of architecture for the Big Dig, said what
goes on that location is “not part of the conservancy’s area of
purview.” But he added, “Obviously, we will talk with them.”
Yalouris said the Armenian proposal “fit perfectly” on the space
available, next to a planned history museum. Asked whether it was of
concern to him that the proposal memorializes Armenians in particular
more than other immigrant groups, Yalouris said, “Yes it is, but it’s
what they proposed.”
“This is like a public park at no expense to the taxpayer,” he said.
The proposed Armenian park would be the sole memorial along the
Greenway. There is not even a plan for a bust or statue of Rose
Kennedy. Throughout Boston, there are numerous memorials to ethnic
groups and causes, such as the New England Holocaust Memorial, erected
near Faneuil Hall in 1995. But many people involved in Greenway design
during the last decade — from neighbors to members of the Mayor’s
Central Artery Completion Task Force — have said they wanted to
steer clear of statues or monuments to causes.
The memorial park’s supporters emphasize that it is intended as a
tribute to all immigrant groups, not just Armenians.
When Erkut Gomulu, president of the Turkish American Cultural Society
of New England, objected to the placement of an Armenian memorial
on the Greenway at yesterday’s board meeting, Meade said: “This is
exactly what we’re trying to avoid on the Greenway. There will be a
number of groups coming to say, ‘What about me?’ ‘What about us?’ ”
The memorial has also drawn critics because the Armenian Heritage
Tribute and Genocide Memorial Foundation, which proposed the park to
the Greenway board yesterday, has not gone through a public process,
as advocates of other projects have.
Instead, the Armenian group got its chance because of a 33-word
section of law passed in 2000 directing the turnpike authority to
study building “a monument to the Armenian Genocide 1915-1922.”
State Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat who
is Armenian-American, supported the law, and has been involved in
planning for the memorial. “We had some legislation passed directing
the turnpike to look into the feasibility of siting a park,”
Koutoujian said.
The legislation did not specify a location, but the turnpike is
formally proposing the design on a Greenway parcel of a little under
a half acre between Cross Street and Surface Road near Faneuil Hall.
Neighborhood groups have reacted favorably to the design itself,
which would feature an elaborately designed sculpture, fountain and
reflecting pool, and a labyrinth of pavement and grass.
Turkish groups have long disagreed with Armenians over whether what
happened starting in 1915 constituted a genocide of 1.5 million
Armenians. Gomulu, the president of the Turkish American Cultural
Society of New England, unsuccessfully opposed the legislation that
paved the way for the current proposal.
“This amendment represents an intolerable degree of ethnically oriented
propaganda infiltrated to public spaces,” wrote Gomulu to one state
official when the 2000 law was being proposed.
James M. Kalustian, president of the board of directors of the Armenian
heritage foundation, said his group met privately with many public
officials, including Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, to inform them
about the proposal.
“The mayor was supportive in the meeting,” Kalustian said. “I don’t
know what his official stance is.”
Menino declined to comment yesterday.

AZERBAIJAN: ATTENTION TURNS TO GOVERNMENT-NGO RELATIONSHIP FOLLOWING ALIYEV’S RETURN FROM WASHINGTON
Rovshan Ismayilov
EurasiaNet, NY
May 3 2006
During his recent visit to the United States, President Ilham Aliyev
said his government would reach out to the non-governmental groups in
an attempt to hasten Azerbaijan’s democratization pace. For that pledge
to be put into practice, both the government and NGOs will have to
make adjustments in what to date has been an adversarial relationship.
Azerbaijani leaders have tended to view NGO activities warily out
of apparent suspicion that civil society initiatives are a cover
for an attempt to topple the government. Such suspicions were on
display during the parliamentary election campaign last November,
when officials took measures to hinder NGO participation in the
electoral process. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
NGO representatives continue to complain about government
restrictions. In particular, the government is keeping many groups in
legal limbo by not taking action to officially register them. “Civil
society groups, especially youth groups experience problems with
registration,” said Farda Asadov, the executive director of the
Open Society Institute-Assistance Foundation Azerbaijan. [OSI-AF is
affiliated with the New York-based Open Society Institute, which also
operates EurasiaNet].
Azerbaijani officials deny that the government is hampering NGO
activity. Hadi Rajabli, an MP from the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party and
chairman of parliament’s Social Policy Committee, maintained that the
government had corrected problems in the NGO registration process. “We
do have more than 2,000 organizations and their influence [in the
policy-making process] is confirmed by laws,” Rajabli said. “Some
organizations prepare draft laws and we discuss them in committees. But
their opinion is not necessarily the absolute truth, and it is up to
us whether we pay attention or not.”
Rashid Hajily, director of the Baku-based Media Rights Institute
(MRI), strongly disputes Rajabli’s claim about improvements in the
registration process. “The same registration difficulties exist now
as before,” Hajily said. “Authorities are very selective in the issue
of the state registration of NGOs. For example, since November 2002
we [MRI] have applied for registration more than 10 times and have
failed each time. The Ministry of Justice did not provide us with
logical reasons of their refusal.”
The registration issue will be one of the main benchmarks for
measuring Aliyev’s effort to improve government-NGO ties. Some
NGO activists remain cautious about Aliyev’s commitment. Over the
past year, the “general state of democracy in Azerbaijan has taken
a turn for the worst,” argued Hajimurad Sadaddinov, the director
of the Azerbaijan Foundation for Development of Democracy and the
Protection of Human Rights. At a May 1 appearance in New York,
sponsored by the International League for Human Rights, Sadaddinov
claimed that government manipulation prevented him from winning
during last November’s parliamentary elections. [For background see
the Eurasia Insight archive]. However, he held out hope that, in the
aftermath of his Washington visit, Aliyev will take steps to improve
the country’s civil society image. Specifically, Sadaddinov said he
expected the government to release individuals classified by human
rights groups as political prisoners.
Meanwhile, Asadov and other NGO representatives say that
non-governmental organizations can do a few things to build trust
and widen the channels of communication with the government. A top
priority for NGOs should be improving the transparency of their
operations. Given a shortage of funding in the domestic arena,
many NGOs rely heavily on foreign grants and donations. At the same
time, financial disclosure has been problematic. According to Azay
Guliyev, an MP and head of the National NGO Forum, the country’s
roughly 2,000 registered NGOs received a collective total of $2.1
million in foreign grants and donations. But Guliyev believes the
official figure drastically underestimates the real amount going to
NGOs. Part of the problem is connected with the registration issue,
as unregistered NGOs cannot issue officially recognized accounting
reports. But other NGOs, for a variety of reasons, are not as open
as they could be on the use outside funding.
Asadov said NGOs should also be more assertive in offering solutions
to existing policy dilemmas, as well as engage in coalition-building
to enhance their ability to influence policy debates. Unity would both
raise organizations’ public profiles and make NGOs more difficult for
the government to ignore. NGOs “fail to establish a dialogue with
the government in most cases due to the authorities’ reluctance to
communicate,” Asadov said.
Despite the difficulties, Asadov said there have been a few instances
of successful governmental-NGO cooperation, including the participation
of an NGO coalition in the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative
(EITI). “Now we have NGOs working together with the government in
the EITI commission, ensuring transparency of oil revenues,” Asadov
said. In general, he added, officials still seem reluctant to reach
out to NGO representatives.
A particular problem area concerns youth-oriented groups. Asadov said
many older, well-established NGO activists are reluctant to encourage
the development of a younger generation of civil society advocates.
“Due to limited funding, some organizations [NGOs] monopolize
particular spheres, preventing some youth groups from participating,”
Asadov said.
Government harassment has been a far larger obstacle to the development
of youth-oriented groups, NGO activists argue. Officials appear to
be especially suspicious of youth activists’ involvement in civil
society-related projects, in part due to the prominent roles played
by young people in Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003 and Ukraine’s
Orange Revolution in 2004. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. Underscoring that suspicion was the 2005 arrest of Ruslan
Bashirli, head of the Yeni Fikir youth group, on charges of conspiring
to carry out a coup attempt. Human Rights activists say Bashirli
is a political prisoner. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. Bashirli’s trial, which began in April, is closed to the
public. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Some youth initiatives have managed to overcome official suspicion.
For example, a Baku-based youth movement, Alumni Network, is pressing
ahead with a campaign, dubbed the Future Does Not Come on Its Own,
which strives to pressure the government into using profits from oil
and gas exports to promote education. In particular, the group wants
the government to fund 500 scholarships for deserving Azerbaijanis to
study at top-notch universities around the world. “We want Azerbaijan
to be a country of well-educated people, who will ensure the prosperity
[of the nation] when oil production declines,” said Emin Abdullayev,
an Alumni Network leader. The group has gone so far as to prepare a
draft presidential decree on the scholarship idea.
Another youth group, the American Alumni Association (AAA), has
gained prominence by promoting public debate on several issues,
including easing traffic congestion in Baku, education reform and
the allocation of oil and gas revenues for the public benefit. Ramin
Isayev, a Harvard University alumnus who currently works as a manager
of a foreign oil company in Baku, is working on a draft policy paper
concerning the utilization of energy revenue. The paper is based on
a March 18 public hearing, sponsored by the group.
“With the inflow of huge oil revenues, our country has an opportunity
to rapidly develop,” Isayev said. “However, if we do not manage oil
revenues and these opportunities in a wise manner, then we might miss
these opportunities and disappoint our current and future generations.”
“Since I am one of those few relatively more fortunate ones, who
made a successful journey from a refugee camp [He is refugee from
Armenia] to Harvard, I also feel great responsibility for making sure
that more and more people in our country are able to fulfill their
dreams – we may call this the American Dream, the Azerbaijani Dream
– the dream of a normal human being,” Isayev added. When finished,
the group hopes the policy paper can assist in a broad NGO push to
influence the government’s State Oil Fund strategy. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Isayev, Abdullayev and other youth activists say they are driven
not by political concerns, but by a wish to ensure the long-term
prosperity of the nation. “I expect our policy paper be received
very enthusiastically by the government, since we make only economic
policy recommendations and we have no political agenda. This is a
wonderful opportunity for our creative government officials as well,
to build for the sake better future for all,” Isayev said.
Editor’s Note: Rovshan Ismayilov is a freelance journalist based in
Baku. Havilah Hoffman, a EurasiaNet editorial assistant in New York,
also contributed material to this report.