ARMENIAN MEMORIAL PLANS OUTLINED
The Boston Globe
July 16, 2006 Sunday
THIRD EDITION
July 7. I’d like to make sure Globe readers understand some facts
about our plans for this important space.
The park is a gift from the Armenian-American community to the people
of Greater Boston, the Commonwealth, and all who visit here. We have
not and will not seek public funds for the design, construction,
or upkeep of the park.
Parcel 13 is roughly a half acre. The vast majority of this space
will be open lawn, trees, benches, and a labyrinth of inlaid stones.
The design includes a geometric sculpture on a 225-square-foot
reflecting ng pool. The sculpture would represent all immigrant groups
who have left their countries of origin and reestablished here in
new and different configurations.
We have also established a $500,000 endowment for an annual lecture
series at Faneuil Hall on human rights, in cooperation with the
Bostonian Society.
We loook forward to being a small part of the renaissance of Boston’s
waterfront and downtown made possible by the Central Artery Project.
JAMES M. KALUSTIAN PRESIDENT ARMENIAN HERITAGE FOUNDATION Arlington

Albuquerque’s Anna Kostanian, 18, is only 4-foot-11 but has high hopes in pro billiards
Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)
July 21, 2006 Friday
When Anna Kostanian first started playing billiard tournaments at
age 13, she heard all the requisite “short” jokes.
“You can’t play unless you’re 5 feet tall” seemed to be a favorite.
Fortunately, Kostanian didn’t treat the admonition like it was a
warning sign for youngsters at an amusement park ride.
No, she went ahead and played the game; played well enough that many
of the adult jokesters, men and women alike, were soundly beaten.
Soon, the detractors changed their tune. “They were telling me I had
a natural talent, so I stuck with it,” Kostanian says.
Today, at age 18, Kostanian is still playing and – at 4-foot-11 –
she remains short.
In the world of billiards, however, Kostanian stands tall.
Last week she won the 19-and-under national billiards championship
in Tucson and a few days ago turned professional. Kostanian soon will
join the Women’s Professional Billiards Association tour.
Kostanian’s progress in the game has been remarkable.
The second daughter of Hrair Kostanian, owner of The Billiard Palace
at Wyoming and Menaul, didn’t start playing until age 10 after she
had moved to Albuquerque. At that time, her dad owned Pro Billiards
at the corner of Candelaria and Juan Tabo – currently the site of a
Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse.
Anna was born in Armenia, but moved to the United States when she
was 1. The family lived in Los Angeles until she was about 8, before
making the move to the Duke City. Kostanian says she’s not sure why
her family moved here – “I honestly don’t know, I never asked them”
– but she can’t quibble with the results.
It would be reasonable to guess that older sister Izolda was
responsible for luring Anna into picking up a cue. But, Izolda, 19,
disproves the theory that proximity of age in siblings keeps them
close through similar interests. “She doesn’t like bars,” Anna says,
completely relaxed while sitting at the Palace. “I like it here.
Everything is free for me.”
Kostanian, who graduated from Eldorado High School in the spring,
says she has not considered an advanced education. She plans to put
all her energies into the WPBA tour, where the top players, she says,
can make a million dollars a year through prize money, sponsors and
endorsements.
Currently, she says, Arroyo del Oso director of golf Tony Hidalgo
is her only sponsor, taking care of Kostanian’s airline flights to
places like San Diego, North Carolina, Illinois and Miami.
The tour has 10 major competitions. To remain a professional, she
has to enter at least eight events and finish in the upper half
of the standings in four. One of the competitions has been held at
Albuquerque’s Sandia Casino the past few years. Kostanian, obviously,
is looking forward to entering that event and playing before hometown
fans. This year’s tour stop is scheduled for Oct. 18-22.
Kostanian says each event begins with 64 players, half of those
automatic bids for fulltime participants. The other 32 go to qualifiers
and those who receive invitations or sponsors’ exemptions.
Kostanian says from what she’s seen, most of the women on the tour
get along well and have a lot of respect for each another. She says
they all tend to stay at the same motels.
Also, she says, there do not seem to be head games with one player
attempting to psych out another. But, if that were to come about,
Kostanian has an advantage. It has to do with being vertically
challenged.
All she has to do is tell them what she already believes:
“I think being short in pool is an advantage. You are closer to the
table and you can see the lines better.”

Letter to the New Republic
The New Republic
July 31, 2006
Golden Dole
Too bad we don’t have a Bob Dole handy right about now to push for
the Darfur intervention the editors demand (“Again, Part II,” June
19). As much as I disliked the former Republican senator, he deserves
credit for forcing Bill Clinton to react to the genocide in the former
Yugoslavia. Dole was a World War II veteran who was wounded in Italy
trying to save his radioman. His heroism and battle injury earned the
interest of Chicago surgeon and Armenian genocide survivor Hampar
Kelikian, who operated on Dole for free. Kelikian told Dole of the
genocide and Dole became aware of that awful crime. Although he lost
the 1996 election, by pushing the issue of genocide in the Balkans,
Dole forced Clinton to act or risk defeat. We need another Dole in
the 2008 election.
Amanda Pollak Kensington, Maryland

A refugee, and a survivor of crime and tragedy who thought God would
keep him safe in the lions’ den
Maclean’s, Canada
July 24, 2006
OHTAJ HUMBAT OHLI MAKHMUDOV;
1961-2006
By BY VASYL PAWLOWSKY
Ohtaj Humbat ohli Makhmudov was born in 1961 in the Azerbaijan Soviet
Socialist Republic’s Kyudamyrsky region. His father, Humbat, was head
of the regional party council of the Communist party. While the large
family was quite well off, it experienced many tragedies. Of the eight
children, two died while Ohtaj was in his teens: a sister, Aubeniz,
in a 1976 gas explosion at the local bathhouse, and a brother, Alih,
the following year in a knife fight.
For Ohtaj, though, the future appeared bright. “He was a very good
student in high school,” says his classmate Azer Husanov, currently
living in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. “He finished in 1979 and
was immediately accepted to the National Economics Institute.” Ohtaj
graduated from the institute with a degree in economics in 1984,
and then opened a store in Baku, which he ran for five years. “This
happened during the perestroika movement, a time in which people had
the opportunity to become successful,” Azer says. “And he jumped on
this chance.”
But the new openness of the Mikhail Gorbachev era in the Soviet
Union unleashed other forces as well. Demands by Nagorno-Karabakh,
a primarily Armenian enclave of the Azerbaijan S.S.R., to unite with
the neighbouring Armenian S.S.R., resulted in prolonged bloodshed
between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Ohtaj, whose family had some years
before unfortunately relocated to the Tertersky region of Karabakh,
decided to move to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. There, “he married
a local woman, who subsequently bore him a son,” recalls Ali Damirov,
Ukraine representative of the Turan Information Agency, an independent
Azerbaijani news service. “Overall, he was quite a simple and quiet
person,” adds Damirov, who knew Ohtaj since 1989. “I used to see him
at the Azerbaijani Centre in Kyiv, which he would occasionally attend
on national holidays.”
In Kyiv, Ohtaj also tried his hand at the retail business. In the
early 1990s, he began trading at the Bessarabskiy Market in the
city’s downtown, and also got involved in wholesale. Ohtaj, Ali says,
was doing quite well, expanding his business and opening kiosks in
some of Kyiv’s other outdoor markets as well. But while friends and
acquaintances are reluctant to speak of details, Ohtaj ran into
problems with criminal elements in the mid-1990s. “At the time,”
Ali explains, “racketeering had become a regular modus operandi in
this part of the world.” That brought further sadness into Ohtaj’s
family: in 1995 his brother Yaver, who had joined him in Kyiv along
with Avuz, another brother, was murdered. Back home, upon hearing
the news of Yaver’s death, Ohtaj’s mother suffered a heart attack,
Azer Husanov says.
Shortly after, Ohtaj went bankrupt. His wife subsequently left him,
departing with their son for Italy in search of better opportunities
— and sending Ohtaj spiralling into depression. “At the end of
the 1990s he spent two years in the Pavlov psychiatric hospital in
Kyiv and was released in 2000,” says Khahani Murmat ohli Huseynov,
an Azeri acquaintance of Ohtaj who has been living in Kyiv since the
early 1990s. Then tragedy struck again: in 2002, Ohtaj’s brother Avuz
died in the same psychiatric hospital where he had undergone treatment.
Ohtaj left Kyiv. Aquaintances say that, as far as they know, he went
to Tertersky. “What he could have possibly been doing there is not
clear,” Ali says. “After all, this place is a completely war-torn
region.” But Ohtaj returned to Kyiv this year, at the end of May. Ali
says he took Ohtaj around town, “to show him how things had changed
since he left. Although he seemed very indifferent to what he saw,
he looked like somebody who had been put through the wringer.”
On Saturday, June 3, Ohtaj visited the Kyiv Zoo. According to
eyewitnesses, he asked many questions regarding the behaviour of
lions and tigers. He returned the next day. At 6:45 p.m., when there
weren’t many people by the lion exhibit, Ohtaj removed his socks and
shoes. He carefully placed them on a cellophane packet, and removed
his jacket and hung it on the back of a chair belonging to one of
the vendors at the zoo. Ohtaj then tied a piece of rope to a metal
handrail and climbed down into the lions’ pit.
The lions may not have taken notice of him. But Ohtaj approached
the animals, waving his arms and, according to witnesses, shouting,
“Because God loves me, the lions will not harm me!” Other visitors
screamed at him to get out. But by that time, Ohtaj had drawn the
attention of Veronica, one of the zoo’s three lionesses. She pounced
on Ohtaj. Andriy Bakaj, an investigator from Kyiv’s Pechersk district
prosecutor’s office who examined his body at the scene, said, “The
deceased had 10 puncture wounds in his neck, two of which were in
the area of his windpipe. He died instantly.”

Russian Experts Have Completed Decoding Data from Armavia
Aviation Week & Space Technology
July 17, 2006
Russian experts have completed decoding data from the Airbus A320
operated by Armenia-based Armavia, which crashed on landing at the
Sochi airport on May 3, killing all 113 on board (AW&ST May 8, p.
39). The experts say the data show the aircraft, its systems and
engines were working normally and there was an adequate fuel reserve.
During the last minute of the flight, the aircraft was operating with
the autopilot switched off.

AWARDS; Antigenics CEO receives humanitarian award from the Sabin Vaccine Institute
Science Letter
July 25, 2006
Antigenics, Inc., (AGEN) announced that the Sabin Vaccine Institute
has awarded the company’s chairman and CEO, Garo H. Armen, PhD,
the 2006 Sabin Humanitarian Award.
The Albert B. Sabin Annual Awards recognize extraordinary figures
in biotechnology, medical research and medical reporting, and were
celebrated at a gala, themed “Celebrating Hope for a Healthier World,”
in New York City.
“In each case, these extraordinary individuals didn’t settle for high
achievement in just one area, but they broadened their horizons and
multiplied their effect,” said H. R. Shepherd, DSc, chairman of the
Sabin Vaccine Institute. “They each found new ways to further medical
science, reaching out to help a greater cross-section of humanity.”
Armen cofounded Antigenics in 1994 with Pramod K. Srivastava, PhD.
Armen is also the founder and chairman of the Children of Armenia
Fund, a charitable organization established in 2000 that is dedicated
to the positive development of the children and youth of Armenia.
>>From mid-2002 through 2004, Armen also served as chairman of
the board of directors of the pharmaceutical company Elan Corp. He
received a PhD in physical chemistry from the Graduate Center, City
University of New York.

PRESS RELEASE Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) – Yerevan Office
53-55 Pavstos Byuzand Street, 375010
Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Inessa Grigoryan
Tel: (+374 10) 522076; 562068
Fax: (+374 10) 522076
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Children of Armenia Fund – New York Office
630 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2100,
New York, NY 10111, USA
Contact: Mariam Dilakian
Tel: 212 – 994 – 8201
Fax: 212 – 994 – 8299
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
For immediate release
Multi-Pronged Health Care Program
Villages of the Armavir District Benefit from
Training in Reproductive Health & Dental and Eye Care Program
Armavir District, Republic of Armenia, July 24, 2006 –¾ The
Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) continues to upgrade and expand the
healthcare component of its Integrated Rural Development Program in
Armavir. During eight weeks in June and July 2006, the communities of
Argina, Dalarik, Karakert, Lernagog, Myasnikyan, and Shenik were the
beneficiaries of the scheduled screening stops by the dental and eye
care mobile clinics. Also in this period, COAF conducted training
in all six communities in reproductive health and rights. These
three projects were implemented through partnered agreements with
the Armenian Dental Society of California (ADSC), Armenian Eye Care
Project (AECP), and Counterpart International (CI), respectively.
The first of these recently completed initiatives is the dental
care project that benefited 233 schoolchildren. In a series of
scheduled stops on the school grounds of each of the Model Cluster
communities, these children were diagnosed and treated in the mobile
dental clinic. The two dentists and nurse on board of the ADSC mobile
clinic are highly qualified and experienced in providing the needed
screening and treatment in a confined environment. Similarly, the
AECP Bringing Sight to Armenian Eyes initiative brought the Mobile
Eye Hospital to the Model Cluster villages to identify eye problems,
screen patients and provide follow-on treatment, as needed. In this
year’s program, 433 adults and 1,143 children were examined. Of those
examined, 192 adults and 87 children were diagnosed with problems and
treated and 31 adults and 55 children were referred to specialized
hospitals for follow-on treatment. Additionally, 46 adults from
socially disadvantaged families received free subscription glasses.
The third project is an integral part of COAF’s Community Health
Education (CHE) program. Raising Awareness of Women in Reproductive
Health and Rights was realized with funding from CI. The goal
of the project was to improve the quality of life of women in
the Model Cluster communities. Specifically, the project aimed
at identifying reproductive health risks and violation of women’s
rights and raising their awareness on reproductive rights, behavioral
risks and prevention of gender-based violence. During the project
implementation period, COAF conducted focus group discussions and
surveys, developed educational materials for training 30 trainers,
who subsequently held training sessions for larger groups throughout
the Model Cluster. In addition, information pamphlets were published
and distributed widely. The project benefited around 1,400 women from
COAF’s six communities.
Through these partnered initiatives COAF continues to fulfill its
commitment to Save a Generation to Preserve a Nation.
The Armenian Eye Care Project is a non-profit organization dedicated
to providing ophthalmologic care to the Armenian people through five
primary programs. These include 1) direct patient care; 2) medical
training and education, including training in Armenia and U.S.
ophthalmology fellowships; 3) public education and awareness; 4)
research; 5) strengthening the Armenian eye care delivery system
through capacity building. The organization is governed by a volunteer
board of directors.
The Armenian Dental Society of California (ADSC) was founded in 1993
and since its inception has undertaken various projects both in the US
and Armenia. One of ADSC’s major undertakings for the past few years
has been its Sponsor a Smile Project. With the aim to address the
lack of access to dental care in Armenia and through the acquisition
and conversion of a bus to a mobile dental clinic, ADSC has been able
to reach out to distant communities in Armenia providing dental care
to thousands of schoolchildren.
Founded in 1965, Counterpart International (CI) is a non-profit
organization dedicated to building a just world through service and
partnership. CI’s program areas include agriculture, civil society,
public policy and advocacy, social, rural and urban development. The
representation of CI in Armenia focuses primarily on the protection
of human rights and humanitarian assistance. It has also an important
grants program to support the activities of local non-governmental
organizations.
–Boundary_(ID_sG I+J0gD4NA3FZcmQtmtzw)–

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone: 212.319.6383,x109
Fax: 212.319.6507
Email: [email protected]
Website:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 24, 2006
ONE-OF-A-KIND CONCERT HOSTED BY AGBU AYA DAMASCUS PACKS THE HOUSE
Presented for the first time ever in Syria, the Armenian Youth
Association (AYA) of AGBU Damascus sponsored the performance of “The
Epic of Gilgamesh” at the St. Sarkis Armenian Church in Damascus on
July 14 and 15, 2006.
With the support of global mobile telecommunications provider Areeba,
over 600 Armenian and Syrian guests enjoyed the unique performance
composed by Kinan Azmeh on clarinet accompanied by computer-illustrated
art created live by Kevork Mourad.
The earliest known work of literature to man, “The Epic of
Gilgamesh” dates back to the ancient state of Babylonia in 3000
B.C. and is still celebrated as one of the world’s greatest pieces of
literature. Currently residing in New York, Syria-born artists Azmeh
and Mourad teamed up to retell the epic poem through the mesmerizing
merger of music and visual art to create a tantalizing experience
that made the ancient story come alive for contemporary audiences.
Upholding the mission of AGBU, AYA Damascus is committed to
preserving and promoting the Armenian identity and heritage. For more
information on AYA Damascus, please email [email protected] or visit
For more information on AGBU and its worldwide programs, please
visit
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A ONE-PRESIDENT SUMMIT; Vladimir Putin the host
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part A (Russia)
July 21, 2006 Friday
By Vladimir Soloviov, Sergei Strokan
Ten CIS presidents are coming to Moscow for an informal summit;
CIS presidents are coming to Moscow for an informal summit. The CIS
is split into pro-Russian and anti-Russian factions, but it hasn’t
collapsed yet – only because the CIS countries aspiring for integration
into the West still hope to settle their conflicts with Russia first.
Turkmenistan is the only CIS country that won’t be represented by
its president, Saparmurat Niyazov, in Moscow. The Turkmenbashi rarely
attends informal CIS summits.
Ten other CIS presidents are coming – even Mikhail Saakashvili,
Viktor Yushchenko, and Vladimir Voronin. Their fiercely pro-Western
Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova were the worst affected by a sharp
turn in Moscow’s foreign policy that sparked gas and trade wars with
insufficiently loyal CIS regimes last year.
A meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Georgian counterpart
Saakashvili will probably be the central event of the informal
summit. Russian-Georgian relations are at a record low. Trade wars and
scandalous political statements have escalated into outright threats.
Conflict resolution in Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be in the
focus of attention at the bilateral talks. Everything points to
the conclusion that Saakashvili is going to Moscow to demand,
not to beg. The president of Georgia has some major cards up
his sleeve. For a start, Georgia withdrew its signature from the
bilateral agreement concerning WTO membership for Russia. Secondly, the
parliament of Georgia unanimously passed a resolution on withdrawing
Russian peacekeeping contingents from the Georgian-Abkhazian and
Georgian-Ossetian conflict areas.
The Kremlin in its turn is determined to keep its obstinate neighbor
under pressure. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it plain in his
interview yesterday that Russian peacekeepers are not leaving. Lavrov
accused Georgia of sabotaging the peacekeeping operation and failing to
implement international agreements on regional conflict resolution. The
Russian minister warned Tbilisi against the use of force, and promised
protection of citizens of Russia “by all available means.”
According to our sources, Moscow is considering tougher economic
sanctions against Georgia. The ban on import of wines and mineral
water from Georgia was just a curtain-raiser, it seems. When he
was meeting with Saakashvili in June, Putin hinted that Russia had
another economic lever to use. “Between $1.5 million and $2 billion
is transacted from Russia into Georgia every year,” he said. “That’s
more than any aid from the third countries.” By plugging the financial
channels, the Kremlin would deprive Tbilisi of one of its major sources
of foreign currency. On the other hand, this is not a measure to be
considered lightly.
Unlike his Georgian counterpart, President Voronin of Moldova
is coming to Moscow to try to make peace with the Kremlin. In a
major press conference shortly before his departure for Moscow,
Voronin took the first step towards restoring relations with Russia
and said that he does not perceive any political motives in higher
gas tariffs. The Kremlin must have taken notice. Voronin’s Foreign
Policy Advisor Sergiu Mokanu says that a bilateral meeting between
the Moldovan and Russian president has been scheduled.
However, Putin will probably find himself in the position of a
referee at the summit. There is no love lost between presidents of
some pro-Russian CIS countries. A triangle of hostility exists in
Central Asia – between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is
usually Dushanbe and mostly Bishkek versus Tashkent. Uzbek secret
services boasted of having captured a Tajik spy shortly before the
summit in Moscow. The spy turned out to be one Furkat Tuigunov,
a citizen of Tajikistan of Uzbek origin. According to the Uzbek
authorities, Tuigunov already confessed and said the Tajik State
Security ministry had recruited him in 2001 and ran him ever since.
Tuigunov allegedly confessed that he had prepared acts of sabotage
on the territory of Uzbek border regions and was tasked to arrange
physical elimination of certain citizens of Uzbekistan. Our sources
indicate that President Emomali Rakhmonov of Tajikistan is going to
raise the topic of Tajik-Uzbek relations at the summit and ask Putin
to intercede on behalf of his country.
Neither can Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan boast of any warm relations
with official Tashkent. Bilateral relations soured after the Andijan
events in May of 2005, when Bishkek refused to extradite 500 refugees
to Uzbekistan but helped them move on to other countries instead. Islam
Karimov of Uzbekistan never forgot it. President Ilham Aliyev of
Azerbaijan and President Robert Kocharian of Armenia are also going
to enlist the services of Russia as a go-between. The Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict resolution is in another impasse at this point.
Conversation with Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus promises to
be particularly trying. Elected the president again last spring,
Lukashenko was enraged to hear an ultimatum from the Kremlin: either
he sells Belarussian gas infrastructure to Gazprom or gas tariffs for
Belarus go up to the European level. Lukashenko resisted it as long
as he dared but eventually succumbed to the pressure for fear to lose
everything (the seat of the president, first and foremost). Alexander
Ryazanov of Gazprom flew to Minsk yesterday to sign the protocol on
assets evaluation.
In other words, the forthcoming summit will be rather like Putin’s
waiting room, where the visiting dignitaries will wait their turn to
air their grievances and problems.
P.S.
The informal CIS meeting is taking place right after the G8 summit
in St. Petersburg, and this nuance cannot help having its effect
on the former. No matter what else might be said about the outcome
of the G8 summit, one has to admit that Russia managed to remain in
the elite club and blunt the attacks of critics of Russian democracy
(for how long doesn’t really matter for the time being). In short, the
painstakingly directed return of Russia to the sphere of international
affairs has taken place according to the script. It follows that
Russia is the only member of the commonwealth of outsiders that
simultaneously belongs to the upper segment of world politics.
CIS leaders do not belong to the pick of the crop of the global
politics, and Russia with its global status becomes their Elder Brother
or promoter of their interests in dealings with the centers of world
power. From this standpoint, membership in the CIS with Russia offers
them practically the only chance of integration into the civilized
world (even though this chance is really illusory). Russia in its turn
is given a chance to shift the CIS to a new phase of development, the
one that will benefit Russia itself. The Commonwealth of Independent
States of the 1990s is about to become the Commonwealth of Dependent
States of 2006. And it isn’t closed to new memberships.
Source: Kommersant, July 21, 2006, p. 8
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Four presidents won’t take part in informal CIS summit in Moscow
Prime-Tass Business News Agency, Russia
Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
July 21, 2006 Friday 9:11 PM EET
Leaders from four countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) are not expected to take part in the organization’s informal
summit taking place in Moscow Friday and Saturday.
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko will not take part in the summit
because he has decided to stay home given the “political situation”
in Ukraine, Irina Gerashchenko, Yushchenko’s press secretary, said
Friday, ITAR-TASS reported.
Ukrainian politicians have so far failed to form a coalition government
and appoint the prime minister since the parliamentary election
in March.
Yushchenko plans to send Russian President Vladimir Putin a letter
explaining the reasons for his decision and assuring him that Ukraine
considers Russia a strategic partner, Gerashchenko said, adding that
the Ukrainian president would also invite Putin to visit Ukraine.
The press service of Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan also said
Friday that Kocharyan would not take part in the summit because he
had come down with a cold, ITAR-TASS reported.
Additionally, the executive office of Georgia’s President Mikhail
Saakashvili also said Friday that Saakashvili had postponed his visit
to the summit, ITAR-TASS said. The executive office did not give a
reason for the postponement.
Merab Antadze, former Georgian deputy foreign minister who is slated
to be appointed conflict resolution minister as a result of the
cabinet’s dismissal on Monday, said Monday that Saakashvili’s visit
had been postponed because the summit’s schedule did not allow the
Russian and Georgian presidents to meet personally. However, they
are expected to meet in the near future, he said.
According to various Russian media reports, Turkmenistan’s President
Saparmurat Niyazov does not usually take part in CIS informal summits
and will not attend the current one as well.
Turkmenistan is an associate member of the CIS, while Ukraine, Armenia
and Georgia are full members. Turkmenistan withdrew from full CIS
membership in 2005.