MEETING OF ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTS NOT TO PRODUCE NEW RESULTS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 11 2006
YEREVAN, July 11. /ARKA/. Meetings of Armenian and Azerbaijani
Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Ilkham Aliyev will not produce
any new results in the aspect of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement,
Speaker of the RA Parliament Tigran Torosyan stated, commenting on
the possibility of such a meeting in Saint Petersburg.
“From now on, the Presidents’ meetings will not produce any new results
until there have been elaborated mechanisms of clarifying which side
is backing out of the agreements,” Torosyan said at his meeting with
Head of the OSCE Yerevan Office Vladimir Pryakhin.
The sides also addressed the statements and expectations of the OSCE
Minsk Group Co-Chairs regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.
Torosyan stated that the sides’ behavior must be clearly appraised
when the goal is a final settlement of the conflict. Specifically,
Azerbaijan’s bellicose statements and propaganda of hatred must be
taken into account.
“The sentiments imparted to the public are an indicator of
settlement. Of course, the Co-Chairs should be cautious and reserved
in their appraisals for the conflicting parties to draw closer to
each other. However, no appraisal of negative sentiments is made,
which encourages a formal approach to the settlement,” Torosyan said.
Speaking of Azerbaijan’s speculations over the last few months,
Torosyan pointed out that that country is disseminating misinformation
on fires in the NKR and adjacent territories at all levels, including
international organizations.
He said that as far back as June 15 the NKR Defense Office applied
to the OSCE office for monitoring, but no clear official answer
was received.
In his turn, Ambassador Pryakhin promised to convey Speaker Torosyan’s
concern to the OSCE top officials. P.T. -0–

YOUNG PEOPLE UNDER 25 CONSTITUTE 20% OF ARMENIA’S POPULATION
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 11 2006
YEREVAN, July 11. /ARKA/. Young people under 25 constitute over 20% of
Armenia’s population, UN Resident Representative to Armenia Consuello
Vidal stated on the occasion of International Day of Population.
She reported that 30% of young people in Armenia are unemployed, which
arouses concern. In this context, Vidal pointed out the importance
of supporting Armenian young people.
According to her, this is a present-day requirement.
On April 1, 2006, Armenia had a resident population of 3,218.9ths
people.
At the end of May 2006, a total of 114.7ths job-seekers were registered
by the State Employment Service, 104,200 of them (90.85%) being
unemployed. The unemployment status was granted to 90.4ths people –
78.81% of the unemployed population. P.T. -0–

Banker’s heart in the right place
12 July 2006
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand
July 12 2006
Girol Karacaoglu peppers his conversations with concepts such as
wanting to hug customers and do the right thing, but even with fine
ideals, taking on the big banks is hard. Sue Allen reports.
There is something unusual about Girol Karacaoglu and PSIS. In all
but its legal structure PSIS is a bank, but Dr Karacaoglu insists
its goal is not huge profits.
It doesn’t want to open call centres, the board agonises over raising
account charges, low-income earners are welcome and “hugging” customers
is almost part of staff training.
PSIS is a financial services cooperative that wants to “do the right
thing”, he says.
So he cannot understand why more customers are not flocking to open
accounts. “There is a small trickle of disaffected customers of the
big banks coming to us. It’s not a flood.”
But it’s not all bad. Since Dr Karacaoglu took over three years ago,
he has stemmed the tide of customers leaving.
For the past 18 months between 250 and 300 new customers have signed
up each month.
The average age of new customers is also falling – about 60 per cent
are 45 or younger, something that delights him.
PSIS was founded in 1928 to provide public servants with low-cost
financial services. It came close to collapse in 1979, its very
success almost its undoing.
Having provided cheap financial services, the board and management
wanted to extend the concept to low-cost televisions, holidays,
alcohol, almost anything.
“The heart was in the right place,” Dr Karacaoglu says. “It was trying
to do the cooperative thing at a much broader level but these people
didn’t understand that kind of business, so it got too diversified.”
He has only praise for his predecessors, who succeeded in turning
the organisation around.
AdvertisementAdvertisementBy the time he turned up for his interview,
PSIS had opened its doors to the general public and was financially
stable, but it needed to grow.
One of the key questions he faced was how to make a cooperative
“relevant and sexy” to today’s New Zealanders.
To get an idea of how, and if, a cooperative finance house could
survive, PSIS looked to Britain. There, the Cooperative Bank turned
its fortunes around by trading on being a cooperative and on the
values of ethical banking.
Though PSIS is smaller and does not have a commercial banking arm to
fall back on, it believes its cooperative structure and values will
be key to future success.
“For some reason I don’t understand, values seem to have become an
attractive story. Whereas in the heydays of the sharemarket boom,
no one gave a damn about values.”
Two years of research has shown that the same people PSIS was set up
to serve – low-income families – are still disadvantaged by the big
retail banks.
“They are still the people who are not getting the attention and
respect that the high-wealth and high-income individuals do.
“Those are the people being pushed away and shoved either to atms
or the Internet because they are not the ideal customers for them
(retail banks). What we’re saying is those are precisely the people
we want to hug and do business with.”
These days PSIS has 32 branches and is aiming for 132,000 customers by
the end of the year. It offers all the personal banking services of a
high street bank, including text and phone banking. The only product
it does not offer is a credit card, but that is being looked into.
The cooperative is hoping to get bigger by aiming at families earning
between $30,000 and $80,000 a year.
PSIS’ research has shown that someone earning as little as $20,000
can be a profitable customer, if he or she does all their banking
with PSIS. At present, customers are “cherry picking” services such
as no transaction fees on current accounts with $500.
“For us, cooperative means co-operation: you help me and I help you.
You help me by doing all your banking with us. I help you by giving
you low rates of interest in loans, high interest rates on deposits,
good insurance premiums and good transaction fees.”
FOR Dr Karacaoglu, and PSIS, it always comes back to core values –
the same values that appealed to him from his first interview.
It was a job, he says, that fitted better with his personal values
than previous ones. “I thought it would be lovely to work in an
organisation where you can do the right thing and doing the right
thing gives the profits, rather than the other way round.”
It’s a long way from his birthplace – the coastal town of Mersin in
Turkey – to heading PSIS from an office overlooking Wellington Harbour.
The son of an Armenian father and Lebanese mother, he attended an
American school in Turkey, which eventually led him to the prestigious
Robert College in Istanbul, and a partial Fulbright scholarship to
do a PhD in economics at Hawaii University.
The status of his school and university was almost an automatic
right to print money. The first turning point came when he chose
economics over business. “My father almost had a heart attack when
I told him I chose economics, because in his mind it was a road to
relative poverty.”
The next detour came when he turned down a position at the management
accountancy firm of Arthur Andersen – the only Turkish candidate ever
to do so. His brother was later offered the job.
Does he ever regret choosing economics over business? “No” It is a
passion. “In Turkey the people who succeed are the entrepreneurs.
They always make fun of me, the professor.”
He took a lecturing job at Victoria University after his father
advised him not to return to teach in Turkey in the unstable days of
the early 1980s.
Dr Karacaoglu then worked for the Reserve Bank, National Bank,
Tower Portfolio Management, Prudential Assurance and for Westpac,
before joining PSIS in 2003.
It is a job with some unusual characteristics. Unlike most retail
banks, PSIS has the luxury – and the challenge – of not having to
make huge profits to return to shareholders.
That said, Dr Karacaoglu stresses that PSIS is financially sound.
This year it made a pretax profit of $10.6 million, broke through
$1 billion in assets, and has about $820 million in both deposits
and loans.
Capital adequacy on a risk-adjusted basis is 18 per cent, well above
the 8 per cent minimum required for registered banks. The dark days
of 1979 are always in mind.
For Dr Karacaoglu and the management, the challenge is calculating how
to return profits to customers throughout the year through lower fees,
lower home-loan rates and higher interest rates on deposits, rather
than a one-off distribution at the end of the year to shareholders.
A second challenge is getting the PSIS message across with a relatively
small advertising and marketing budget.
As PSIS gets bigger, it will have its work cut out ensuring it sticks
to one of its main selling points – treating customers as individuals.
But Dr Karacaoglu is determined that as long as he is at the helm,
PSIS will keep hugging customers till they come round to his way of
thinking and get their friends to join too.

The Life and Death of a PR Terrorist
By Thomas de Waal
The Moscow Times, Russia
July 12 2006
In Shamil Basayev, public relations and terrorist cunning met in a
diabolical combination. He cultivated his image as Russia’s public
enemy No. 1. His most hideous operations, the seizure of the theater in
Moscow in 2002 and of the school in Beslan in 2004, were orchestrated
with the aim of terrifying the Russian public, attracting world media
attention, embarrassing the Kremlin to the greatest possible degree
and winning support from jihadists abroad — and in his own terms
he succeeded. The killing of innocents was almost incidental to the
design, the matter of whether hostages lived or died being a remote
concern for someone whose worldview had no space for the lives of
little people.
Basayev was not an Islamist. He came from a fairly pious Chechen
family, but grew up in a Soviet world, studying in Moscow, selling
computers and speaking Russian. Later on, he allied himself with
visiting jihadists, such as the Saudi Emir Khattab, more because he
valued their military and financial support than because he signed up
fully to their beliefs. I have seen no evidence that he and Khattab
made their incursion into Dagestan in 1999 out of a desire to set up
a caliphate, as some Russians have claimed. That assumption attributes
a long-term vision to a short-term military adventure.
Basayev was not a politician. In his brief and nonsensical tenure
as prime minister of Chechnya, he undermined Aslan Maskhadov, his
president and rival, and took no interest in matters as boring as
the Chechen economy. Although he talked constantly about Chechen
independence, he made nothing of the de facto independence granted to
the region from 1996 to 1998. Yet he was actually more pragmatic than
he liked to let on: I find it impossible to believe that he survived
and evaded capture for so long in Chechnya without making deals and
non-aggression pacts with his rivals in the pro-Moscow government.
The only time I met Basayev, in 1998, I ran into nothing but
cynicism. I had come to Grozny to try to learn something about the
fate of the two British hostages, Camilla Carr and Jon Jones. I went
to his house and saw the fearsome Khattab standing outside with his
black medusa-like locks. The two men were a contrasting pair. While
Khattab glowered at me with a terrifying stare, but refused to speak
to me, Basayev, in a T-shirt and baseball cap, willingly came out and
talked. The reality was far less frightening than the image. He was
soft-spoken and did not look me in the eyes as he treated me to his
rambling views about world politics, the tragic fate of Russia and
the future of Chechnya. The hostages did not interest him. It later
transpired that Basayev knew a great deal about who was holding Camilla
and Jon, but he taunted me by saying, “The country that invented
James Bond should be able to find two missing people in Chechnya.”
Basayev was a permanent warrior. From Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992
(he was one of the last men to leave the besieged Azeri citadel of
Shusha before the Armenians came in) to Abkhazia in 1993, Chechnya in
1994, Budyonnovsk in 1995 and Dagestan in 1999, he treated life as an
eternal conflict in which no opportunity to fight a battle should be
ignored. To that was added an obsession with vengeance against Russia,
born out of the Chechen blood revenge culture and, in particular, the
deaths of 11 members of his close family in a Russian bombing in 1995.
His fearlessness, cunning, propaganda skills and cruelty made him
unique. Although loathed by many Chechens, mainly women, he was a
hero to a certain category of Chechen young men, who celebrated his
death-defying exploits and outrageous mockery of the Kremlin.
The good news is that Basayev is almost irreplaceable. Two of his
kind do not come around twice in a generation. The bad news is that
his removal came many years too late — and not just because many
hundreds of people might otherwise be alive. The Russian leadership has
eliminated or exiled the moderate wing of the Chechen pro-independence
movement, which wanted to negotiate and could have brought alienated
Chechens back into some kind of political process.
Consider the situation of a young twentysomething Chechen male who
has been part of the rebel movement for the last decade. He has seen
friends and family members die and quite probably has been wounded or
tortured by Russian security forces. He has almost no education. If he
watches Russian television he will see reports of his comrades being
“destroyed” as if they were vermin.
Now this man has no leaders left. What route does he follow? One route
is collaboration. The so-called “Kadyrovtsy” who comprise Chechnya’s
pro-Moscow security forces are mainly ex-fighters, taking a rest
from the hills and earning a decent salary in a new uniform. Their
loyalty is entirely provisional and on the day after their leader,
Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, is replaced or arrested,
there is no knowing what they will do next.
The other road is radical Islam. In the last five years, a network of
shadowy jamaats, or Islamic groups, has sprung up across the North
Caucasus, from Dagestan to Karachayevo-Cherkessia. Its adherents
are anonymous pious young men from marginalized social groups. Not
for them the theatrics of Basayev; they will operate like tiny ants
gnawing away at the fundamentals of Russian power in the region.
Nine years is a long time in the North Caucasus. It is interesting to
look at a set of pictures from the inauguration of Aslan Maskhadov
as president of Chechnya in February 1997 — a ceremony attended,
lest we forget, by officials from more than 40 regions of Russia. In
one photograph Maskhadov is seated on the right of Akhmad Kadyrov,
then mufti of Chechnya, later the man who would betray him, join up
with Vladimir Putin and become a hero of Russia. On Maskhadov’s left
are Ruslan Aushev, then president of Ingushetia and Alexander Lebed,
the man who signed the agreement with Maskhadov to end the first
Chechen war. Nearby is Basayev. Of these men, Aushev is the only one
still alive, and he has been removed from power.
The grouping of these men together is a reminder how different and
subtle the politics of the North Caucasus are. Even seeming enemies
keep in touch and communicate and do deals. They do not live by the
vague categories of “hero,” “terrorist” or “patriot.” They are driven
by ties of obligation to large groups of people. But this generation
of leaders is all but gone now and we now have the more difficult
task of predicting the intentions of a mass of anonymous gray men,
who are not interested, as Basayev was, in broadcasting their views
far and wide to the outside world.
Thomas de Waal is Caucasus editor at the Institute for War and Peace
Reporting in London.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Moldovan president: It is exteremely incompetent to see something
anti-Moldovan in Russia’s new approach to gas export
Regnum, Russia
July 12 2006
Moldovan president believes that there is no political component in
events, which happens between Russia and Republic Moldova in sphere
of supplying energy carriers; Vladimir Voronin stated at a news
conference in Chisinau on July 11, a REGNUM correspondent informs.
“Russia has changed its course in the sphere of gas export concerning
all countries without exception: Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, and
Armenia. It is the highest degree of incompetence to see here something
exclusively anti-Moldovan,” Mr. Voronin admitted.
The Moldovan president stated that such logic is very unusual,
especially for ordinary people in CIS countries; “however, we are ready
to get used to the logic.” “Really, if we have proclaimed ourselves
to be an independent state, let us be independent according to honest
rating,” Mr. Voronin said.
At the same time, the situation is a little different in wine embargo
situation. “But exclusion confirms the rule here too,” Mr. Voronin
pointed out. “Though the Republic of Moldova has not received any
official document concerning law quality of our production from the
Russian side, in reality, it is very difficult to find political
component in this case too. Look, the Russian market is practically
closed today for wine export from the whole world. Wine embargo has
been put de facto on France, Chile, and Argentina.”
Russia just entered the stage of its foreign policy’s reforming and
renewing, the Moldovan president concluded.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish author back in court
United Press International
July 11 2006
ANKARA, Turkey, July 11 (UPI) — The case against Turkish author Elif
Shafak, who is charged with “insulting Turkishness” under Article 301
in the Turkish Criminal Code, was reopened.
Shafak wrote “The Bastard of Istanbul,” in which a character
references Armenian genocide, Thebookstandard.com reported Tuesday.
An Istanbul public prosecutor dismissed the charges last month, based
on arguments that the book is a work of fiction and therefore cannot
be prosecuted.
But a complaint from a member of the Unity of Jurists caused the
seventh high criminal court to overrule the decision. Similar charges
have also been brought against Shafak’s translator Asli Bican and
publisher Semi Soekmen, of the Metis Publishing House.
“The situation in Turkey has changed since the introduction of
Article 301 last year,” Director of the Writers in Prison Committee
at International PEN Sara Whyatt, told Thebookstandard. “I think the
trials are intended to harass and intimidate these writers and
journalists. Elif Shafak is at the beginning of what could be a long
and painful process.”

AGREEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL AUTOMOBILE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ARMENIA
AND GEORGIA COMES INTO EFFECT
Yerevan, July 11. ArmInfo. An agreement of international automobile
communication between Armenia and Georgia exempting all types of
vehicles from road and customs payments came into effect on July 6
2006, Armenian Transport and Communication Ministry press-service
told ArmInfo.
Earlier, the above payment for cars was 10,000 AMD, for buses –
20-60,000 AMD depending on place of boarding, for lorries -15-150,000
AMD depending on the carrying capacity.

ARMENIAN AND LEBANESE FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSS ISSUES ON AGENDA OF
BILATERAL COOPERATION
YEREVAN, JULY 11, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On July 11, RA
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received Lebanese Foreign Affairs
and Diasporan Minister Fawzi Salloukh who is in Armenia on a three-day
official visit.
The sides expressed satisfaction that Armenian-Lebanese relations
are based on the centuries-old friendship, mutual sympathy and many
communities between the peoples.
Minister Oskanian said that Armenia highly evaluates the warm attitude
of the Lebanese people to the Armenian people after the Armenian
Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and attaches importance to the Armenian
community’s role in strengthening of bilateral relations.
In response, the Lebanese Foreign Minister emphasized that the
Armenian community of Lebanon played a great role in the country’s
restoration after the war and now continues to play a positive role
in the country’s internal life.
The Minister specially emphasized the role of a bridge of the community
in the relations between the two countries.
The interlocutors discussed issues on the agenda of bilateral
cooperation paying a special attention to deepening of cooperation
in the economic sphere.
They attached importance to organization of the meeting of the
Armenian-Lebanese Intergovernmental Economic Commissions in the
future. The sides also touched upon issues relating to development
of the legal-contractual base and cooperation at international
organizations between the countries.
The meeting participants also touched upon the developments around
the Iranian nuclear programs, Iraqi events, Israel-Palestine conflict,
as well as the current developments in the Nagorno Karabakh settlement
and other problems of the Caucasian region.
Below is the biographical data of the Lebanese Foreign Minister
provided to NT from RA Foreign Ministry Press Service:
Fawzi Salloukh was born in 1931 in Lebanon. In 1960 he was admitted
to the system of Lebanese diplomatic service. In 1978-1985 he was
the Ambassador of Lebanon in Nigeria, in 1985-1987 in Algeria. In
1990-1994 he was Ambassador in Austria, simultaneously representative
of Lebanon in UN and International Nuclear Energy Agency. In 1994-1995
he was the Ambassador of Lebanon in Belgium, Luxemburg, simultaneously
a representative in EU.
He has published books in Arabian, has been awarded numerous orders.
He is married, has three children.

EurasiaNet, NY
July 11 2006
BTC SECURITY QUESTIONS PERSIST
Alexandros Petersen 7/11/06
A EurasiaNet Commentary
Touted as the biggest official event in Turkey’s history, the July
13 launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline marks the
long-awaited completion of a project that is as much about geopolitics
as energy. But amid the celebrations, questions persist about pipeline
security.
The stakes are sizeable. Stretching 1,760 kilometers, with eight
pumping stations and 101 block valves, BTC is the second longest
pipeline in the world. The $4-billion project, completed a year later
than originally expected, is projected to have a daily capacity of
1 million barrels.
The BTC runs through difficult and dangerous territory. Not only
does the route pass through forbidding mountains and remote locales,
including over 14 seismic faults, but it runs dangerously close
to the region’s frozen conflicts and hotspots: Nagorno-Karabakh,
South Ossetia, the North Caucasus, Abkhazia, Armenian enclaves in
southern Georgia, and the restive Kurdish regions of southeastern
Turkey. The region has experienced an episode of sabotage as recently
as January, when suspicious explosions in North Ossetia cut off gas
and electricity supplies to Georgia. [For background see the Eurasia
Insight archives]. The pipeline also faces threats on the local
level. Despite reimbursement and reinstatement of the land from the
British Petroleum-led BTC consortium, locals staged frequent blockages
during construction, and illegal tapping attempts were found even
before oil began to flow in May 2005.
Faced with a host of potential threats, the BTC consortium has
implemented stringent security measures. While there is substantial,
tell-tale infrastructure above ground, such as block valves, devices
which change the oil’s flow direction, the pipeline itself is buried
at least a meter underground along virtually the entire route. Once
the land above is reinstated, the pipeline right-of-way should look
the way it did before construction, making it difficult for potential
saboteurs to find its exact location. Large, above-ground structures,
such as pump stations, have elaborate security measures, from concrete
blast walls to closed-circuit cameras and armed guards.
These measures may look impressive on paper, but their effectiveness
is questionable. A three-week research trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan
by this observer found that the rush to finish laying the pipeline
had often resulted in security systems that were either not well
thought out or badly implemented.
In one instance, a pump station had been surrounded by security
cameras, but the flood lights supposed to complement them had been
installed behind the cameras, negating their purpose. Blast walls,
although able to prevent truck bombs, are useless against much more
likely mortar or grenade attacks. Two layers of reinforced gates are
useful to protect the entrance to the facility, but only if they are
kept closed. In many cases, local staff flouts security procedures
for the sake of expediency. British Petroleum (BP) security personnel
have had to begin the re-installation of security measures after the
pipeline’s completion.
The pipeline route is also extensively monitored and patrolled.
Sensors along the entire length allow for any disruptions to be
immediately spotted on a constantly monitored digital map of the
pipeline. In addition, a joint agreement between the BTC consortium
and the Azerbaijani, Georgian and Turkish governments facilitates
patrolling arrangements. Georgia has gone a step further, signing
a bilateral agreement with BP to allow for complementary security
arrangements. BP field security teams regularly check above-ground
facilities and the company employs local Georgians to patrol the entire
right-of-way on horseback. The conglomerate additionally is operating
an extensive community relations program, aiming to maintain a strong
rapport with residents living along the route.
These residents could form a first line of defense for the pipeline
by potentially alerting officials to any suspicious activity. In
addition, the agreement provides for patrols by units of Georgia’s new
700-member Strategic Pipeline Protection Department (SPPD), outfitted,
trained and funded by BP.
To date, BP has been less involved in security measures for the
two other BTC host countries. Azerbaijan has not signed a similar
bilateral security agreement with BP, but talks are continuing.
Turkey has not indicated that it is interested in such an agreement,
preferring to let its armed forces handle pipeline security.
Long hailed for its geopolitical significance, the BTC pipeline is
likely to take on additional prominence in 2007 when Kazakhstan begins
transporting 3 million tons of oil this year via the conduit.
[For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. President Nursultan
Nazarbayev is expected to be among those leaders attending the July
13 ceremony in Ceyhan, according to reports.
While energy security will reportedly feature in talks among
leaders of the host countries, opportunities for fresh energy deals
will most likely not be missed, either. Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili, who left for Ceyhan on July 11, is expected to discuss
with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan the prospect
of buying an additional 2 billion cubic meters of gas from the
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline “at reduced prices,” the Azerbaijani
news agency Trend reported.
In addition to Saakashvili, Nazarbayev and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, the Ceyhan ceremony on July 13 is expected to attract four
foreign ministers, 16 energy ministers and two deputy prime ministers,
Trend reported. Deputy Energy Secretary Jeffrey Clay Sell will head
the US delegation, according to the White House.
Editor’s Note: Alexandros Petersen is a military and international
affairs analyst based in London and Washington, DC.

Saakashvili Speaks of U.S. Visit, Conflicts, Hints on Cabinet Reshuffle
Civil Georgia, Georgia
July 11 2006
President Saakashvili, who convened a news conference on July 11 upon
arrival from trip to the United States and Croatia, spoke much about
his recent talks with President Bush describing them as “historic” and
announced about planned visit of the U.S. Vice President to Georgia.
He also hinted that he may reshuffle the cabinet, but added “no
dramatic changes” will take place.
During his 40-minute press conference Saakashvili also spoke about his
opponents and slammed the current political environment where personal
humiliation prevails and called for civilized political debates “on
any kind of topic.” But he said nothing about the Sandro Girgvliani
high-profile murder case, which has recently once again topped the
country’s political agenda.
‘Historic’ U.S. Visit
Saakashvili said that his recent visit, as well as timing of the
visit, was “a historic” as it came ahead of a summit of the G8 leaders
scheduled for July 15-17 in St. Petersburg.
“[Timing of the U.S. visit] is an indicator of role of our small
country in the world’s big politics,” Saakashvili said.
“It was historic because the U.S. President for the first time has
stated about the U.S. firm support towards Georgia’s NATO membership,”
Saakashvili said.
“The second important thing: [the U.S. President] has openly supported
Georgia’s territorial integrity,” he added.
Saakashvili also said that after the Bush’s statements Russian
President Putin again spoke about “Kosovo precedent” and principle
of universality while dealing with conflicts.
“But the statements by the U.S. President are more valued,”
Saakashvili said.
He said that there is unanimous position about Georgia among the
political circles of the United States.
“We should use this huge support,” he added.
He said that Georgia has “very intensive relations” with the United
States. “In a period of two and a half years we [Saakashvili and Bush]
had three officials meetings,” the Georgian leader said.
He said that an agreement was reached during the visited that the
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Georgia “in coming few
months.”
After visiting the United States, President Saakashvili participated
in the Croatia Summit 2006 on July 9-10 in Dubrovnik, which gathered
senior officials from the South East Europe to discuss the region’s
Euro-Atlantic aspirations.
Secessionist Conflicts/Russia
At the news conference Saakashvili reiterated that Georgia is committed
to solve secessionist conflicts through peaceful means.
Recently the South Ossetian side has been intensively warning about
possible incursion of Georgian troops. About 8 000 Georgian troops
are currently participating in the large scale military exercises at
the Orpolo firing range.
“Troops are not going from Orpolo to Tskhinvali,” Saakashvili said
at a news conference.
He also denied allegations of the secessionist authorities that in the
United States Saakashvili received an approval on forceful resolution
of the conflicts.
“I am not kind of a leader who travels abroad for taking permissions,”
Saakashvili said.
He also said that Georgia will solve conflicts “peacefully together
with Russia, or without Russia.”
“No one else has a key to a solution to these conflicts except of
Russia, but of course we should understand that we will anyway solve
these conflicts… We are not going to drag-out resolution of these
issues,” Saakashvili said.
He criticized Russian President Putin’s statements made on July 6 in
which he recalled referendum in Chechnya and hinted about this option
as one of the ways to solve conflicts.
“I really do not want a kind of referendum which was held in Chechnya,
because referendum in Chechnya was held at the expense of slaughter
of hundred of thousand of people, at the expense of a huge human
tragedy… Are they offering us to hold a referendum of this
kind? Absolutely unacceptable statements are made,” Saakashvili said.
He described recent statements by the Russian officials as “a hysteric
reaction” to the Georgia’s policy.
He also criticized Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in the Abkhaz
conflict zone and said that “Georgian territory’s intensive annexation
is taking place behind these peacekeeping troops.”
“Time for making decision on peacekeepers is approaching… We are
waiting for the Parliament’s decision about his issue,” he said.
The Georgian Parliament is expected to consider the Russian
peacekeeping troops’ performance in the Abkhaz conflict zone at a
special session on July 13-15 as it is envisaged by the Parliament’s
resolution passed in October, 2005.
Saakashvili noted that he wants to meet with his Russian counterpart
after the G8 summit. Apparently the meeting will take place on the
sideline of the CIS summit in Moscow in July.
He said that it is not difficult for him to talk with Putin, “who is
very intelligent person.”
Saakashvili also noted that Georgia has to take a decision about the
CIS membership as well.
“We are counting everything. We are not going to deceive ourselves
about this issue. We are not going to take a decision which might
create even a slight problem to our entrepreneurs,” Saakashvili said.
‘Huge Challenges’ Ahead
Saakashvili said that Georgia is facing “huge challenges” ahead and
added that Georgia has “very strong friends, but we also have very
strong enemies.”
“Georgia is under the huge attack. Georgia is the country which faces
the greatest ever economic embargo… Georgia is in the situation,
when several days ago we became deprived of free movement with
Russia [after Moscow closed down Zemo Larsi border crossing point],”
Saakashvili said.
“We will not suffer much from the economic point of view with this
decision, as no Georgian exports are carried out anyway to Russia.
But it is very negative for people and it is especially negative for
Armenia,” Saakashvili said.
He also warned that “a scenario of energy blockade, which will be of
larger scale that it was this January, is planned for this winter.”
Cabinet Reshuffle
President Saakashvili said at the news conference that no major
changes are expected in the cabinet, which he hailed as stable.
“There always have been certain corrections in the cabinet, but it
has become very stable as well recently… Team will remain unchanged.
Of course persons might change but it will not mean change of a
course,” he said.
Saakashvili noted that he will consider possibility of appointment
of Giorgi Papuashvili, the Environmental Minister, on the position of
Chairman of the Constitutional Court with the Parliamentary Chairperson
Nino Burjanadze.
“But no final decision is taken about this issue… Let us see,”
the President said.
“But I can say directly that I do not expect any dramatic changes,”
Saakashvili said.
Dismissal or resignation of at least one Minister will automatically
lead to a resignation of the entire cabinet, as it will be sixth
replacement among the government members since the current cabinet was
approved in February, 2005. According to the law the entire cabinet
should resign if one-third of its members change.
The opposition parties are slamming Saakashvili for his refusal to sack
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili who is accused by the opposition
leaders of covering up some top-level police officials who have
allegedly been behind the Sandro Girgvliani high-profile murder case.
“I am really surprised with the hysteric tone of some politicians.
There is a huge concentration of stupid [persons] in the politics,”
Saakashvili said.
He said that personal humiliation of opponents prevails in the Georgian
politics, which is unacceptable.
“As a President, it is important for me to create a political
environment free of this kind of debates and these dirty things,”
Saakashvili said.