TURKEY REFUSES TO ACCEPT SWISS COMPANY’S BID FOR AIRCRAFT CONTRACT
By Burak Ege Bekdil, Ankara
DefenseNews.com
April 10 2006
A Swiss aircraft manufacturer has been denied permission to join the
bidding for Turkey’s procurement of basic jet trainers for “political
reasons,” officials said.
Defense officials saidPilatus has not been allowed to obtain a Request
for Proposal (RfP) for an approximately $500 million contract for
the purchase of basic trainer aircraft for the Turkish Air Force.
“There is an understanding that Swiss bidders should not join Turkish
military contracts,” a senior official said. “We don’t think Swiss
contenders would be reliable partners in defense contracts.”
A Foreign Ministry official here said that it would be unrealistic to
expect a Swiss company to join a defense program in Turkey, especially
at a time when “serious disputes deeply strain bilateral ties.”
A Swiss diplomat in Ankara admitted that the Swiss company had been
“red-listed” in Turkey.
In 2003, the Swiss canton of Vaud officially recognized genocide
against Armenians by Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1921. The lower house
of the Swiss parliament, against the Bern government’s advice, soon
adopted a similar resolution, unleashing an angry response from Ankara.
Switzerland was a regular supplier of small arms and ammunition to
Turkey until 1991, when it imposed an arms embargo against Ankara,
citing human rights violations. Despite the embargo, Swiss suppliers
sold armaments to Ankara through licensing.
Switzerland quietly ended its embargo last year, but Ankara continued
to keep Swiss weapon suppliers on its “red list.”
Pilatus would have been the fourth international bidder in the Turkish
jet trainer contract if it had been allowed to submit its offer. The
three bidders for the program are Brazil’s Embraer, Korea Aerospace
Industries (KAI) and U.S. company Raytheon.
1677356&C=europe

CONFESSIONS OF A MAP-MAKER
By Philippe Rekacewicz
Le Monde Diplomatique, France
April 10 2006
Earlier this year, Le Monde diplomatique published the second edition
of its atlas (1), and the United Nations Environmental Programme, in
partnership with the paper, published a translation of the part of it
that focuses on environmental issues (2). It’s a difficult business
being a mapmaker. Maps, as mere visual representations of the idea
of the world, are just as subject to diplomacy, border disputes and
international struggles as real geopolitical territory.
In 2002 I was at a meeting in Prague at the end of an international
economic forum on the management of water resources in Eurasia. The
Azerbaijani delegate suddenly spoke: “This is not acceptable. Mr
Chairman, I refuse to continue if our work is to be based on the
document you have just submitted.” He had just spotted a map of the
Caucasus which suggested that Nagorno-Karabakh, the cause of a war
between Azerbaijan and Armenia, was a part of Armenia. For Baku,
it is occupied territory and an integral part of Azerbaijan. Any
other representation is unacceptable. The chair proposed a break in
proceedings so that the offending document could be removed. But the
Armenian delegate protested and the meeting degenerated into a slanging
match. Only hours later, after the offending borders had been blanked
out and the maps reprinted, was it possible for work to resume.
The name of the sea separating South Korea and Japan has been a source
of friction for years. Korea calls it the East Sea, Japan the Sea of
Japan. The websites of both foreign ministries (3) draw attention to
detailed files on the background to the dispute. To avoid trouble,
and endless letters from embassies, cartographers often leave out the
name altogether. (Which only goes to show that long-term pressure may
pay.) Rather than risk censorship, or the loss of valuable contracts,
many publishers prefer to remove anything that might upset readers. At
the end of the 1990s the World Bank asked its map department to stop
publishing maps of such sensitive areas as Kashmir.
You have to understand that geographical maps are not the same thing
as territory. At best they are only a representation of reality on
the ground. Maps merely reveal what map-makers or their superiors
want to show. They inevitably present a truncated, partial, even
deliberately misleading picture of reality.
Readers may be taken in by the final form of a map, with its mass
of details and neat precision. Merely being printed gives maps
some authority, and they often bear the seal of governments or
international bodies. But even the most detailed topographical maps
demand considerable imaginative thought and painstaking design, each
item being carefully chosen, some highlighted, others disappearing
altogether. The individual or organisation producing a map is
responsible for selecting objects and events, as well as deciding
how they are visually represented. Their work demands imagination
and creativity, but there is also scope for lies and manipulation.
At the beginning of the 1990s the disappearance of the Iron Curtain
gave map-makers a superb opportunity for an unusual field test. We
ventured into the border zone, in former East Germany, in the same
state of mind as 16th- or 17th-century explorers entering uncharted
territory. The only information we had came from topographic maps
so distorted as to bear almost no relation to the terrain. Along a
strip of land 10-20km wide, all the key geographical features – roads,
villages and major infrastructure – had been erased from the maps.
The authorities had made it very difficult for strangers to find
their way. They had also clearly marked the edge of their empire.
These circumstances drew our attention to grey areas, which are all
too common in map-making. Maps may mislead the reader by omission,
offering a truncated view of reality. Map-makers are always forced
to choose, selecting the geographical features that will appear. But
such decisions often depend on how much they know and on their overall
worldview. And maps, when used for political ends, may deliberately
distort reality. Seemingly inoffensive charts may prove highly
effective tools in a propaganda war, enabling governments and big
corporations to disseminate their ideological claims.
Governments are extremely secretive about their cartographic activities
and the satellite images on which they are now based. They classify as
top secret any document of strategic, economic or military value. In
the 1980s certain Gulf states used to subcontract the printing of
maps to France’s National Geographical Institute.
They demanded that the printing presses be covered with sheets and
watched over by armed guards. All the test runs and offcuts had to
be pulped.
We map-makers must make a point of demolishing the illusion that
there can be an official, universally accepted representation of the
world’s political divisions. There is no such thing as the right map
showing the approved version of a country. Finding the relevant form
of cartographic expression is a constant challenge. Each approach has
its own truth, backed by a rationale, but there are no rules nor is
there a supreme authority to which to turn in search of easy answers.
No one has the final word on what are only intellectual constructs,
inspired by a culture, history and geography. If necessary the UN,
constantly buffeted by conflicting forces, is the public body best
placed to suggest a fair solution.
Maps are also pictures, the creation and production of which owes
a great deal to art. More exactly, to quote Jean-Claude Groshens
(4), they are “at the meeting point between art and science”, works
made of colour, form and movement, yet containing exact quantitative
and qualitative data. But as we marvel at the elegant masterpieces
produced by ancient cartographers, we should not forget that their
true political purpose was to provide monarchs with a representation
of the land over which they ruled.
Our cultural environment conditions us to interpret colours in a
certain way. We expect to find threatening forces portrayed with
dramatic hues. We may recall the colours used in maps during the cold
war: red for the baddies, blue for the goodies. According to Michel
Pastoureau, blue is “calm, peaceful, the favourite colour of all
western countries because it is neither aggressive nor transgressive”
(5). Yet Nato is far from being peaceful. Colours are misleading.
Green, for instance, does not represent the same thing in Norway
(environmental protection), Saudi Arabia (Islam) or Ireland, where
as the dominant colour of the national flag it rallies people of
Irish descent all over the world. Look at maps of Africa produced in
Europe and you will see they make considerable use of yellow ochre
and dark green, to represent the continent’s dry dusty savannah and
its dense equatorial forest. But it is apparent from a brief tour of
the markets of Ouagadougou or Bamako that Africa’s true colours are
much more vivid.
A primary schoolteacher in Chad, obliged to use textbooks imported
from France, once complained to me: “There is something wrong. The
maps are so pallid. It’s almost as if they were sick.”
Maps may claim to be works of art, providing they do not restrict
themselves to representing geographical features but also express
people’s perception of human society and the ways we organise the
space we occupy. To achieve this, map-makers must both watch from the
sidelines and join in the game. They must be observers, economists,
demographers, earth scientists, geographers and artists, enabling them
to build, or rather invent, their worlds. They must conceive and draw
a carefully balanced mixture of the world as they see it and as they
would like it to be.

PACE SPRING SESSION STARTS
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 10 2006
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly started its spring
session today.
The correspondent of the Europe bureau of APA reports from the session
that before the session PACE President Rene van der Linden held a press
conference dedicated to the opening of the spring session. Informing
abut the issues to be debated at the session, van der Linden also
touched on the rerun of parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. The
PACE president said they focus their attention on the elections in
Azerbaijan and added that this issue will be on the agenda of the
summer session.
“Azerbaijan is the member of PACE. We shall focus our attention on
the rerun of parliamentary elections scheduled for May 13 and will be
discussed at the summer session,” Mr.van der Linden said. “Depending
on the process of the elections, PACE might consider the issue on
Azerbaijan delegation’s mandate,” he added.
PACE president also touched on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.
Noting that both Azerbaijan and Armenia are Council of Europe member
countries, Mr.van der Linden expressed interest in reaching a positive
result in the negotiating process for the settlement of the conflict
between the two countries.
Saying that it is regrettable that the Presidents of the two countries
could not reach an agreement at Rambouillet, van der Linden stressed
the importance of the sides reaching a consensus to solve the problem.
Commenting on changing of format of the talks, replacement of mediator
OSCE Minsk Group with the Council of Europe, the PACE president did not
consider it advisable to replace the OSCE Minsk Group with COE format.
Then the spring session of PACE started. PACE President Rene van
der Linden made an opening speech. Parliamentarian from the former
Yugoslavia Igor Ivanovski presented his report on the conclusion of
the bureau session. The report also touched on the re-elections in
Azerbaijan. Mr.Ivanovski proposed to reconsider the number of the
members of the Subcommittee on Nagorno Garabagh.

AIR FRANCE OPENS REGULAR FLIGHTS TO ARMENIA
ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 10 2006
YEREVAN, April 10 (Itar-Tass) – Air France has begun regular flights
between Paris and Yerevan.
Airbus A-320 planes seating 159 business and economic class passengers
will be used on the route.
Cities in Eastern and Central Europe are Air France’s priority
destinations, Air France Senior Vice President for Europe and North
Africa, Etienne Rachou said.
“Our company tries to keep abreast with the development of our
countries’ relations, contribute to higher economic and tourist
exchanges with Armenia, bearing in mind the large Armenian Diaspora
in France,” he said.
Air France hopes that passengers from Los-Angeles, U.S., where the
largest Armenian Diaspora resides, will guarantee high seat occupancy
rates. The company offers many connection flights across the Atlantic
Ocean.
“This is a strong political message on the eve of the Year of Armenia
in France festival,” French Ambassador to Armenia Henry Cuni said.
The launch of Air France flights to Yerevan “proves that Armenia is
of strategic interest to French investors,” he said.

GAZPROM TO RAISE GAS PRICES FOR BELARUS FROM 2007
RIA Novosti, Russia
April 10 2006
MOSCOW, (Igor Tomberg for RIA Novosti) — Gas prices for Belarus
“should be at least three times higher,” said Alexander Ryazanov,
deputy CEO of Gazprom. This means about $140 per 1,000 cu m.
The news shocked the Minsk authorities, which had said they were
ready to pay a higher price but apparently did not imagine it would
be so high. The price rise will tear nearly a $2 billion hole in the
Belarusian budget.
According to a contract between Gazprom and Beltransgaz, the Belarusian
state-owned gas company whose pipelines carry Russian gas to Europe,
this year the Russian gas monopoly is to deliver 21 billion cu m of gas
at 2005 prices ($46.68). In return, Minsk promised to assist Gazprom’s
operation in the republic, notably not to change gas transit tariffs.
First, the two states are creating a union state, Gazprom deputy CEO
Alexander Medvedev, director general of Gazexport (a 100% subsidiary
of Gazprom), said, explaining the non-market price. Second, Belarus is
the only country where Gazprom owns the trunk gas pipeline and leases
the land under it. And third, the gas holding has resumed takeover
negotiations with Beltransgaz, he said. If the negotiations are
successful, Gazprom will take under its control the entire Belarusian
gas transportation network.
But the talks are apparently skidding because Ryazanov said a
price compromise was contingent on Gazprom’s involvement in the gas
transportation and distribution infrastructure of consumers.
Minsk flew into a fury. Such statements “are an element of blackmail
and outrageous behavior,” said Stepan Pisarevich, head of the
Belarusian upper house’s commission on the economy, budget and
finance. Price rising is an unavoidable element of discussions on the
creation of a joint venture on the basis of Beltransgaz and Gazprom,
he said.
Pisarevich recalled that gas prices for Belarus were stipulated in
the Union State Treaty and the agreement on creating equal conditions
for economic entities.
Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said almost the same. “The Belarusian
government will adhere to the existing agreements on equal energy
prices for the economic entities of the Union State,” he said.
Gazprom has the same price policy for all former Soviet republics,
company press secretary Sergei Kupriyanov said when commenting on the
harsh statement by Belarusian politicians. The gas price for Belarus
is based not only on the Union State Treaty, he said, but also on
other documents regarding gas pricing and the creation of a JV on the
basis of Beltransgaz. Kupriyanov said the JV was to be created in 2003.
But some Belarusian politicians view the situation differently. Roman
Vnuchko, head of the lower house’s commission on the monetary and
credit policy and banking, said Gazprom exposed itself to blackmail
by selling gas to Belarus at Russia’s domestic prices.
“Belarus is a headache for Gazprom; it is a precedent that prevents
the gas holding from raising prices for other partners,” Vnuchko said.
Settling price relations with friendly Armenia was another
difficulty. As if on prompting, Gazprom’s top managers made their
statement about leveling off prices for all consumers during the
visit by the Armenian president.
Gazprom (and the state as its beneficiary) are often accused of a
selective approach. Though gas prices were rapidly raised for other
ex-Soviet states, Belarus continued to get the fuel at Russia’s
domestic prices. Therefore, the latest decision of Gazprom looks like
a political win for the gas holding and the Russian authorities.
However, the level at which information is made public is also
important. The holding’s management is not in a position to set prices
for Belarus. Politics is too closely connected with the economy in
the case of Belarus. Belarussian experts claim that Vladimir Putin
had once offered Alexander Lukashenko to give economic entities,
both state and private ones, a free hand in solving their economic
problems. Presidents should discuss purely political matters, Putin
allegedly said.
This is exactly what Gazexport head Ryazanov meant: Gas prices and
the issue of ownership of the gas transportation infrastructure are
purely economic matters.
Gazprom will hardly triple gas prices for Belarus next year because the
republican economy would not survive even a double price. The issue
is to be discussed by politicians, and the results of playing the
“gas card” may surprise even Gazprom. This may accelerate the merger
of Belarus and Russia or transition to the common currency.
However, the current situation has again put the finger on Moscow’s
resolve to throw around its energy weight in foreign policy.
Igor Tomberg is a leading researcher of the Institute of Economics
at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and
may not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.

ACADEMY OF ART PLANS TO ESTABLISH ORCHESTRA
Mehr News Agency, Iran
April 10 2006
TEHRAN, Apr. 10 (MNA) — The Academy of Art is planning to establish
an orchestra of string instruments, the Persian service of CHN reported
on Monday.
The orchestra, which will probably be called the Academy of Art
Orchestra, is to be conducted by veteran musician Shahin Farhat.
Farhat said that the orchestra would begin with fifteen musicians
and would perform at seminars held by the academy, adding that it
would record the music produced by the academy or other Iranian
organizations.
“The ‘Iran Symphony’, recorded in Armenia with the Armenian
Philharmonic Orchestra, was sponsored by the Academy of Art, so the
academy must have an orchestra of its own so we don’t have to go to
Armenia for recordings,” he noted.
The academy’s program for this year includes workshops on publishing
old music manuscripts, studying the music of the Isfahan School in
the Safavid era, and Iran’s dastgahi music. In Iranian music, a set
of notes, their special characteristics, and an associated group of
traditional melodies that constitute a basis for improvised performance
is called a dastgah.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

5 PACE REPRESENTATIVES TO VISIT BAKU ON APRIL 25-26- IGOR IVANOVSKI
Author: R. Abdullayev
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
April 10 2006
5 representatives from 5 different committees of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will visit Baku on April
25-26, regarding the re-run parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan.
This information was first released by the representative of the PACE
bureau on Progress and Assembly permanent commission, Igor Ivanovski
during his speech at the spring session of PACE, the Trend reporter
reports from Strasbourg.
He has also suggested an idea of organizing a meeting of Azerbaijani
and Armenian MPs and discussions to revise the number of PACE committee
members on Nagorno-Karabakh.

AZERBAIJANI DM SAFAR ABIYEV RECEIVED SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF NATO SECRETARY GENERAL ROBERT SIMMONS
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 10 2006
Today Defense Minister of Azerbaijan, general- colonel Safar Abiyev
has received Robert Simmons, special representative of NATO Secretary
General on Caucasus and Central Asia, Defense ministry press service
has told APA.
Mr. Abiyev has stated in a meeting that Azerbaijan cooperates actively
with NATO, fulfills obligations on Individual Partnership Activity Plan
(IPAP). Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict’s not being settled prevents
successful development of Azerbaijan-NATO relations: “Armenia
does not meet international law norms. International Community
should impact on Azerbaijan in this issue. If the conflict is not
solved in a peaceful way, Azerbaijan will restore its territorial
integrity itself.” Mr.Simmons in his turn has pointed out that
perspectives of NATO-Azerbaijan are great, implementation of IPAP
will give impetus to Azerbaijan to strengthen its defense capacity:
“As concerns Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict NATO support peaceful way
of the conflict solution.”

ISSUE OF REFUGEES IN SOUTH CAUCASUS TO BE DISCUSSED AT PACE SESSION
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
April 10 2006
Relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union will
be the principal subject of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of
Europe (PACE) spring session that is to be held in Strasbourg current
April 10-13.
Debates on Memorandum of Mutual Understanding between the two European
organizations will be conducted in the course of the session,
PanARMENIAN.Net reports. The Council of Europe Secretary General
Terry Davis and Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs
Committee Elmar Brock will participate in the discussions.
The reports on the role of a native language in school education,
refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia,
struggle against corruption in the Council of Europe’s member states
will be discussed at the session.
As for the issue of refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Georgia, it will be discussed on the ground of the PACE
Committee on Migration’s Report presented February 6, 2006 by a
representative of Latvia Boris Kilevich.
The report runs, in part, that non-settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict results in difficulties referring to the refugees’
situation and hampers the countries’ development in the economic and
social-political sphere, the CE Communications’ Directorate reports.

THE NEXT MEETING OF THE SINGLE PARTY OF PEOPLE’S FRONT OF AZERBAIJAN TOOK PLACE
Author: J. Shahverdiyev
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
April 10 2006
The next meeting of the Single Party of People `s Front (SPPF) of
Azerbaijan took place. The issue of future visit of the head of state
to US has been discussed at the meeting, Trend reports.
MPs have highly evaluated this visit, emphasizing the importance
of Azerbaijani- American relations development and strengthening
of the strategic partnership. It was stated that US have to stop
aiding Armenia within the frames of Millennium Call program and
other humanitarian projects, as Armenia still did not free the
occupied Azerbaijani territories on the basis of 4 UN Security
council resolutions.
Recent events in Iraq were also discussed at the meeting. It was
noted that dislocation of the coalition troops in Iraq pushes it more
and more to civil war. MPs argued that during his visit Azerbaijani
president should raise the matter of Azerbaijanis living in Iran in
case of military campaign against that state.