Rushailo to head CIS observers mission at election in Azerbaijan
By Larisa Klyuchnikova

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 13, 2005 Tuesday 10:25 AM Eastern Time

MINSK, September 13 – Vladimir Rushailo, the executive secretary
of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), will head the CIS
observers mission at the parliamentary election in Azerbaijan in
November. A meeting of the Council of permanent representatives of
the CIS at bodies formed under the charter and other bodies of the
CIS made this decision in Minsk on Tuesday.

The mission’s centre will begin working in Azerbaijan on October 3-4,
Asan Kozhakov, the deputy chairman of the CIS executive committee,
told Itar-Tass. Kozhakov said Rushailo planned to visit Baku on
September 23 and to announce the opening there of the centre of the
observers mission of the Commonwealth of Independent States at the
invitation of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Kozhakov said real monitoring would take place – representatives of the
mission would work at all polling stations, would observe canvassing,
would analyze election laws and, after the voting, would sum up the
election results. Two members of the CIS, Ukraine and Armenia, will
not send their observers to Azerbaijan.

GERMAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA SURE THERE WILL BE NO FRAUD DURING NATIONWIDE REFERENDUM ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13. ARMINFO. The nationwide referendum on the
constitutional reforms in Armenia must be held with no fraud, German
Ambassador to Armenia Haike Peitsch says in an interview to ARMINFO.

She says that her other foreign counterparts are of the same opinion.

Armenia is ready to hold honest, fair and transparent elections and
the government can ensure this.

Peitsch notes the importance of the constitutional reforms for
Armenia’s further democratic development as constitution is a priority
document for regulating public relations. It is important that the
political structures make a correct decision and the public be able
to take a direct part in the reforms and to express its opinion,
says Peitsch.

If held correctly and legally the reforms will bring Armenia one
step closer to developed democratic society and European values. The
opposition should also realize its share of responsibility for the
matter. Its role in the country’s democratization is very important
and it should not only take part in the parliamentary discussions
of the constitutional reforms but also present its positions on the
issue. In its turn the government should respect the opposition’s
views which will be a major achievement on its way to democracy and
will lead to serious constitutional reforms.

Considering the further development of the constitutional reforms the
CE Venice Commission will be able to correctly assess how democratic
Armenia is and how it is developing.

GIBRAHAYER
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DR ANTRANIK ASHDJIAN ANNOUNCES HIS CANDIDACY

Dr.Atamyan’s candidacy expected to follow
Gibrahayer September 12, 2005. A prominent community activist – a dentist by
profession – with an impeccable track record in community affairs is bidding
to become the next Armenian representative in the Cyprus House of
Representatives, in the by-elections that will take place on Sunday October 9, 2005.
Besides his current position as Chairman of the Armenian National Committee
of Cyprus – a post which he has continuously held for the past eight years –
Dr.Antranik Ashdjian has been on the Editorial Board of the Artsagang
Armenian language monthly since its founding ten years ago.
He has on many occasions participated in conferences, seminars and
discussions in Cyprus, Armenia, Brussels and elsewhere, addressing issues concerning
the Armenian nation, the Armenian Cause, the Armenian Church, and the Armenian
Community in Cyprus as well as minority rights. Together with the late
representative Bedros Kalaydjian, he played a key role in formulating the Armenian
community’s positions and visions regarding its status in a post-solution
Cyprus.
He has written numerous articles on these issues which have been published
in Cypriot (Greek and Armenian language) and Diaspora publications.
Dr.Antranik Ashdjian – a graduate of the Semmelweis Medical University of
Budapest – speaks and writes Armenian, Greek, English and Hungarian fluently.
With his perfect knowledge of the Greek language he has – on numerous occasions
over the years – appeared and advocated on Armenian related issues on
national TV and all local printed and electronic media.
In 1998 he was ordained a Deacon in the Armenian Apostolic Church of Cyprus
which he has been serving since childhood.
Dr. Ashdjian has been a member of the Diocesan Committee for the 1700th
Jubilee of the Proclamation of Christianity as State Religion in Armenia and
numerous delegations of the Catholicosate of Cilicia in Ecumenical meetings and
conferences.
He has also been active in the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) and served
for several terms in the AYMA/HMEM committee.
In AYF’s first International jamboree held in Armenia in 1997, he met his
wife Aline – a Kuwaiti Armenian whom he married in 1999. Aline works as an IT
professional in PricewaterhouseCoopers, and is an active member of The
Armenian Relief Society (HOM) of Cyprus, Hamazkayin Oshagan Cyprus Chapter and The
Nareg School Parents and Teachers Association. Their daughter Alik aged five,
currently attends first grade in Nareg Armenian School.
Dr. Ashdjian has been instrumental in the publication of the coloured
tri-lingual album titled “The Armenian Apostolic Church in Cyprus”, as well as the
Armenian-Greek-English booklet containing the Armenian Liturgy aimed at
bringing non-Armenian speaking families closer to the Church and the community. He
is also responsible for the publication of “Keghart” – the periodical of the
Armenian Prelacy of Cyprus and assists in the publication of “Ardziv”, a
literary weekly published in Lebanon.
Although no other official candidacy has been announced to the press to
date, it is speculated by community circles that Dr. Ashdjian’s candidacy will
not be the last. Nareg School’s Committee Chairman Dr. Vahakn Atamyan’s name is
certain to join the name of candidates. Dr.Atamyan is the President of the
Ararat AGBU Futsal team and has served for several years on the School Board
of the Melkonian Educational Institute.

A TENNIS PLAYER FROM ARMENIA LANDS IN CYPRUS

A top ranked 15 year-old tennis player, Zaruhi Harutyunyan from Armenia has
landed in Cyprus.
She has decided to stay in Cyprus and travel the tennis circuit. To that
end, community officials offering assistance to the talented girl have already
arranged for her to train with the Cypriot National Tennis team at the
Federation’s National Tennis center and work is under way to arrange issues related
to her accommodation and support team who are going to help her make her mark
on the tennis circuit.
Harutyunyan decided to stay in Cyprus after the Aphrodite Cup – a world
ranking Junior tournament – in which she lost to -three years her senior – world
number 228 Zuzanna Likhova of the Czech Republic.
With limited possibilities and opportunities in Armenia, she is hoping that
her risks away from home will soon be rewarded.
As a nine year old, Harutyunyan won the Palm Springs – California Under 12
tournament and subsequently won tournaments in Bulgaria, Germany, Holland,
France, England in the under 14 and the under 16 categories.
Like every community undertaking, this too needs generous community support.
With the 6,000 subscribers reading Gibrahayer e-magazine every week, I am
certain that Armenians from across the globe will offer their assistance too.
Let us all give it to her.
With her practice schedule and physical training already planned and taken
care of by interested parties in Cyprus, the community can show its assistance
in several other ways.
She will soon go on the world tour. She needs support for travel and
accommodation, sponsors for clothing, a budget for her initial take-off, where she
will be attempting to break the tennis scene.
You would be amazed with the seemingly little things that are important
right now.
She is 15 and does not have a driving license and needs rides to and fro the
practice grounds every day… twice.
She needs to “replace” her family vacuum, of a widowed mother from a car
accident, and a four your old sister.
Take a moment to think about the needs of this brave young girl who has
given up everything we often take for granted

With her kind of potential I am certain she will give back to her homeland
what our homeland is unable to give to her right now.

Simon Aynedjian – Gibrahayer e-magazine
All contributions will be publicised in the coming issues of Gibrahayer
e-magazine. Email or call me on +357 99437073.
THE FIGHT TO SAVE MELKONIAN CONTINUES
..follow the latest news regarding the Pan-Armenian mobilization against .
the decision of the AGBU to shut down Melkonian school …

OUR OPINION
To realise and reinforce the fight to save Melkonian, it is important that
all parties involved as well as all individuals connected to the
administration and running of the school and decision-making processes of the last
decades, come out of their shelters and account for the reasons they perceive as to
why Melkonian was shut down.
Until today, this has not been done.
Only blaming the AGBU central board for a decision which was the final piece
to a puzzle, is both wrong and unethical.
It also shifts blame to the wrong-doings of the people who in the past ran
the school as a political bastion, and benefited from the funds and leverages
the school provided.
AGBU central board no doubt have their part of the blame. They too should
account for their wrong doings.
Who are the brave to stand on the ashes of Melkonian and account for the
biggest blow on our community after the Turkish invasion?
Gibrahayer e-magazine – September 6, 2005
â~@¢25 Turkish journalists will shortly pay a “working visit” to Yerevan on the
initiative of the Turkish
Foreign Ministry. The Star newspaper (Turkey) reports that the visit will
take place in
the framework of the events preceding the Sept 23-25 Istanbul Armenian
Conference, an event that is to consider alternative opinions on the Armenian
Genocide and to establish contacts for developing ties between Armenia and Turkey.
â~@¢A public conference scheduled for September 22 will address Turkey’s
violations of basic rights as it prepares to begin accession talks with the
European Union (EU) on October 3. Organized by the European Armenian Federation, the
conference, “December
2004–October 2005: Has Turkey Changed?” is supported by the largest
political group in the European Parliament, the EPP-ED–the Group of the European
People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats in the European
Parliament.
â~@¢Cyprus escalated a row over Turkey’s refusal to recognize it, suggesting on
Thursday an emergency European Union ministerial meeting just one week
before Ankara is due to open membership talks. EU president Britain said it hoped
to avoid such a foreign ministers’ meeting, which would leave little time to
agree on a negotiating mandate before the planned October 3 start of talks.
â~@¢ The Armenian government approved on Thursday $200,000 in assistance to
victims of Hurricane Katrina. Deputy foreign minister Arman Kirakossian said the
money will be released from government’s reserve fund and will be
transferred on a special US government bank account early next week.
â~@¢Armenia’s defense ministry denied Azeri news reports that an Azeri soldier
had been killed in a skirmish with Armenian forces in
Mountainous Karabagh on September 7. The Azerbaijan ANS channel had reported
that Azeri army positions near a village in the northern section of the
frontline around had Karabagh came under ‘intensive’ automatic gunfire from
Armenian troops.
â~@¢Raging with its hypnotically dark, dense and arty style, “Mezmerize” is
System Of A Down’s recently released third album and perhaps its hardest-hitting
effort to date. With their newest album already topping the music charts in
the United States, Systm f Down are looking to unleash Mezmerize in Armenia.
â~@¢As part of its ongoing objective to develop activities and programs that
promote the growth of young Armenian American professionals and strong leaders,
the Armenian National Committee-Professional Network (ANC-PN) hosted its
inaugural Summer Trip to Armenia. Over 40 young Armenian American professionals
from across the nation embarked on the 13-day trip, which
traversed the Republics of Armenia and Mountainous Karabagh Republic.
I hear hurricanes a blowin’
And I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers overflowing
I hear the voice for rage and ruin.

So don’t go out tonight
It’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise.

Bad Moon Risin by Creedance Clearwater Revival

RECENTLY REPATRIATED ARMENIAN CYPRIOT FAMILY OPEN UP AUTO SERVICE CENTER IN
NICOSIA

Gibrahayer. Nicosia September 12, 2005. An Armenian Cypriot family recently
back from Australia have opened up an Auto service center in Nicosia. The
Parikians who moved from Australia after fleeing the Turkish invasion of 1974
are back to their homeland and are throwing roots in the country they left 30
years ago.
The Showroom / Autoservice center – Style V – is situated on Dimosthenis
Severis Avenue (next to Yianopoullos Jewellery). The center will be fully
operational as of this week, and in October it will also engage in auto styling
and car sales.
The Parikians are hoping to bring to their new business the expertise they
have gained over the years in Australia and are confident that the Armenian
community of Cyprus will support their repatriation.
You can reach them for a free consultation at 22 661999, fax 22661955 and on
the following mobile number. 99753232.
You can also reach them by email at [email protected]_
(mailto:[email protected])

DENIED CITIZENSHIP

LOS ANGELES (AP) â~@~T A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a judge did
not err in granting U.S. citizenship to two Armenian men convicted more than 20
years ago of planning to bomb the Turkish Consulate in Philadelphia.
The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ends a long struggle
by Viken Hovsepian and Viken Yacoubian, who plotted to bomb the consulate in
retaliation for the massacre of Armenians by Turks in 1915. The Turkish
government denies a massacre occurred.
The men, who have been out of prison since the early 1990s, now have
doctorates, have renounced violence and volunteer many hours a week in the Los
Angeles Armenian-American community, said Mathew Millen, an attorney who helped
handle the immigration portion of their case.
Federal law currently forbids convicted terrorists from becoming citizens.
But anyone convicted of an aggravated felony before November 1990 can be
granted citizenship if they have been “of good moral character” for five years
prior to their application, Millen said.
The men were in their early 20s when they and two others were arrested in
1982 after authorities tape-recorded them planning the bombing. Authorities at
the time said they were linked to the Justice Commandos of the Armenian
Genocide.
Hovsepian was sentenced to six years in prison in 1984, while Yacoubian was
sentenced to three years in prison and 1,000 hours of community service.
Yacoubian is now principal of the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School in
Los Angeles’ Little Armenia and has obtained a doctorate in counselling
psychology from the University of Southern California, according to court documents.

RECOMMENDED SITES

TATIANA’S CORNER returns soon … after Tatiana returns from The People’s
Republic of China
This corner is reserved for local artist Tatiana Ferahian’s comic strips
which are amalgamations of Armenian-Cypriot social commentaries, painted with
her usual wry and ironic humour, to stimulate and encourage awareness and
interest toward our community’s everyday happenings.

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TURKEY’S WAR WITH HISTORY

September 8, 2005 LA TIMES EDITORIAL – Orhan Pamuk, arguably Turkey’s most
famous novelist, knew it was risky to ask what had happened to hundreds of
thousands of Armenians killed during the era of the Ottoman Empire. But the
threats didn’t silence him.
Pamuk wondered out loud about the fate of Turkey’s Armenian community, and
the more recent killings of 30,000 Kurds in a war against armed separatists
that began in 1984, during a February interview with a Swiss newspaper.
Seven months later, and one day before European Union ministers were
scheduled to discuss Turkey’s bid to join the union, a Turkish public prosecutor
charged Pamuk with insulting his country.
In Turkey, it is a crime to “denigrate” Turkish identity, punishable by up
to three years in prison. It is up to government authorities to define the
meaning of “denigration.” Pamuk is scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 16.
The timing of Pamuk’s prosecution suggests a deliberate attempt by
conservatives within the Turkish government to derail the country’s EU negotiations.
It clearly violates the conditions set for Turkey’s EU membership, such as
guaranteeing free-speech rights.
In spite of a plethora of evidence gathered by Henry Morgenthau, the U.S.
ambassador in Constantinople from 1913 to 1916, that detailed how the Turkish
government engaged in the systematic annihilation of Armenians, the Turks
still refuse to admit culpability. Instead, they argue that Armenians who
collaborated with the invading Russian forces were deported to Syria and that many
of them died of exposure, famine and disease on their journey.
Pamuk, whose book, “My Name Is Red,” has been translated into more than 20
languages, and other Turkish intellectuals have called for a public debate on
their country’s past.
Last May, Turkish academics organized a conference in Istanbul on the fate
of Ottoman Armenians. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek postponed the conference
the day before it was supposed to open.
These skirmishes are part of a bigger battle between traditionalists and
those who favor European-style modernization.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should order a halt to Pamuk’s
prosecution, and his government needs to foster more freedom of expression and thought
in Turkey. Striking arbitrary laws that give the government the right to
imprison “critics” of Turkey would be a start. So would an open debate on the
fate of the country’s Armenian population in the early 20th century.

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WHERE ARE WE IN THE INFINITE UNIVERSE?
A theory about coincidences or simultaneous occurrences and infinity

Professor Hovhanness I. Pilikian is an internationally acclaimed film
producer, theater director, a classical music composer, a classical scholar and
social scientist, fluent in many modern languages, including French, German,
Arabic, Armenian and Chinese.

Coincidences or Simultaneous occurrences are puzzling phenomena. Most
people have experienced them, and some on many occasions â~@~S when you would be
thinking of a person, and suddenly he/she appears (â~@~speak of the Devilâ~@~] they
say), or the telephone rings and there he/she is at the other end of the line.
Folk wisdom ascribes it to the powers of the Devil, while scientists scratch
their heads for an acceptable theory.
On one occasion, I picked up the telephone to ring the London
Iranian-Armenian poetess, Mrs. Shoghik Minassian, only to find her at the other end of the
line without the telephone having yet rang… she had picked up the telephone
to make a phone call herself. In even more of a complex and extremely
unlikely version of this â~@~S I have dialled the London based Painter from Armenia,
Artour Oshakantsiâ~@~Ys number, to discover him at the other end of the line
having picked up the telephone with the intention of telephoning me!
Coincidences are the chance occurrence of two unlikely events, seemingly
connected, sometimes the same, happening simultaneously, often at the same time,
overlapping, and even if not, still unlikely to occur, let alone out of the
blue, for no logical reason at all â~@~S it is how Matter behaves at the
subatomic Quantum level that scientists are still unable but struggling to explain…
click here for more:
BOOKS BY TURKISH WRITERS AT THE MOUFFLON BOOKSTORES
THE FRESH VOICE OF TURKEY’S VERY BEST, ORHAN PAMUK AND ELIF SHAFAK ARE IN
CYPRUS
Tel:22665155 [email protected] ,
ARMENIAN MUSIC By Arek Dakessian in Beirut
This section is dedicated to bringing Armenian music closer to us, shedding
light on the Armenian music scene and its history.

DEREK SHERINIAN His latest album, released on the 9th of November 2004,
features a number of high-profile guests such as Zakk Wylde, Steve Stevens, Simon
Philips, Marco Mendoza, Brian Tichy…
Currently he is on tour with Billy Idol
Alice Cooper on Derek Sherinian: “There are a few people on this world who
are born rock stars, he is one” Derek was born Laguna Beach Calif. – an hour
south of LA. He started playing the piano at the age of 5, During his school
years, Derek got offered a scholarship to the prestigious Berkley School of
Music in Boston, where – from his junior year on in 1982- he jammed with the
likes of Will Calhoun who went on to play the bass guitar with Megadeth and
others…
After three semesters at Berkley Derek felt he had what it took to get up on
the big stage, and he got a phone call from his Berkley buddy Pitrelli, who
had just been named musical director of the Alice Cooper band, they were
looking for a keyboard player… He auditioned and got it.
Then Sherinian played with Kiss and Dream Theater alongside other bands, he
even formed a band of his own: Planet X, which was supposed to be the name of
his first solo album. Planet X released four albums. Derek himself has
released four solo albums… the number which is the astonishing one is the number
of albums he has been in, and as a band member, essential, is 19!!!
Another one of us who’s made it in the big time!
visit his personal website:
SPORTS NEWS AND CALENDAR
â~@¢ At the US Open Tennis Championships Armenian Argentinean David Nalbandian
lost to world number one Roger Federer 3-0, while Andre Agassi managed to win
a set in the finals of the same event. Federer won US$ 2.2 million dollars
for 15 days of work on the courts.
â~@¢In the European Futsal (five-a-side football) competition, Tal Grig
Yerevan needed an Emil Mesropyan goal, three seconds from time to keep them on
track for qualification from the four-team UEFA Futsal Cup preliminary round
mini-tournament. The Armenian champions’ successful spot-kick ensured a last-gasp
5-4 victory against Dinamo Tirana of Albania .
â~@¢Ararat AGBU of Nicosia are representing Cyprus in the Futsal Cup Champions
League from 8-13 October, in a round robin tournament that will take place in
Bucharest. Bidding for qualification are the Albanian, Armenian and English
teams, while Aramis of Hungary and Benefica of Portugal will be teams the
Armenian Cypriot team will be facing in their Group. Good luck to the Cyprus
Champions!
â~@¢15 tear old Zaruhi Harutyunyan of Armenia – participating in the world
ranking ITF Junior Championships (under 18) in Nicosia – made it to the semi
finals of the doubles event and challenged the second seed – three years her
senior – world number 228 Zuzanna Likhova of the Czech Republic eventually losing
7-6, 6-4. In the same tournament Harutyunyan defeated Cyprus number one
Irene Ketseva.
â~@¢( )- Larnaca Open Tennis Championships. Dikran
Bedrossian of London and Simon Aynedjian of Nicosia have teamed up to contest the
seniors men’s doubles tournament.
g i b r a h a y c a l e n d a r
â~@¢AYF weekly meetings continue every Monday at AYMA. Next meeting on Monday
19 September at 9:30 pm
â~@¢Badanegan meetings – for children from 7- 12 years old – have begun. They
take place every Saturday at 4:00 pm at AYMA
â~@¢AYMA / HMEM Chicco football practices take place every Friday at 7:30 pm at
AYMA
â~@¢Armenian Radio Hour on The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation via real audio
on . Broadcast 17:00-18:00 local Cyprus time (14:00-15:00
GMT). Armenian news every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday
â~@¢New Year’s Eve Dinner and Dance in London on December 31, 2005. Harout
Pampoukdjian and his Band will be performing in London at the Royal Lancaster at
Hyde Park – London on Saturday 31 December 2005. Reception at 8:00 pm and
Dinner at 9:00 pm. Tickets at 85.00 and Stage Tables at 95.00. For bookings
contact Janet Mardirossian at 4420 84221662, Yvette Mankassarian at 4420
79375703, Ovsig Saroukhanoff at 88683538 and Alenoush Ohanian at 4420 8998 8048 or
the following email address [email protected] . Special 99.00 per room rate
has been arranged by the hotel for overnight stayers. Organised by HOM
(Armenian Relief Society), Hamazkayin and HMEM.

Dear Subscriber thank you for your interest in Gibrahayer, which is an
independent electronic environment, now in its fifth year, disseminating news &
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Eurasia Daily Monitor
The Jamestown Foundation
Sept 13 2005

WILL TBILISI FACILITATE AN ANTI-ALIEV REVOLUTION IN AZERBAIJAN?

By Zaal Anjaparidze

Monday, September 12, 2005

In recent weeks both the Georgian and the Azerbaijani media have
actively speculated whether the government of Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili would support a popular revolution in neighboring
Azerbaijan. Some analysts tend to link the recently cooled relations
between Tbilisi and Baku with this issue.

On August 26 Azerbaijan’s State Border Service detained a Georgian
citizen, Merab Jibuti, for illegally crossing the border of
Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani law-enforcement officials claim that Jibuti
was connected with the Azerbaijani opposition youth movement Yeni
Fikir (New Thinking), and he reportedly admitted to attending a
secret meeting with Yeni Fikir leader Ruslan Bashirli and his
associates in Tbilisi on July 28-29. Moreover, Bashirli, who was
arrested on August 3 on charges of plotting a coup in Azerbaijan, met
with an Armenian special services agent in Tbilisi and received cash
from him to organize public unrest in Baku. Against the backdrop of
hitherto good Georgian-Azerbaijani relations, this widely advertised
news could not pass unnoticed.

Before this incident Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev had told
border service officials on August 17 that he would not spare any
money in improving control over the border with Georgia in order to
“preserve stability in Azerbaijan.” Aliev’s statement was clear
evidence of Baku’s concerns.

On August 29, the Georgian Intelligence Agency confirmed reports by
Georgian and Azerbaijani media outlet that Batu Kutelia, chief of
Georgian intelligence, had visited Azerbaijan and met with Aliev to
discuss bilateral issues, including cooperation between the Georgian
and Azerbaijani special services to ensure the security of the
region. Meanwhile, the Georgian Interior Ministry denied that
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili had visited Baku on August 15,
while the Azerbaijani media reported that Merabishvili had met with
Aliev. Georgian media speculated that both of these visits were
linked to the investigation of an alleged revolutionary plot in
Azerbaijan and aimed at warming the chilly relations between Aliev
and Saakashvili.

Symptomatically, on September 6 Saakashvili openly stated that
Georgia’s top priority is the victory of democracy worldwide.
Therefore Georgia would always support democracy in any region but
would do so within the parameters of the law. Saakashvili made this
announcement when he welcomed home two activists from the Georgian
youth movement Kmara (Enough) after they had been detained in Belarus
for one week for training the Belarusian opposition youth
organization Zubr in methods of civil disobedience. Kmara was modeled
after the Yugoslav youth group Otpor. It was a key player in the
Georgian Rose Revolution and a contributor to the Ukrainian Orange
Revolution.

The Azerbaijani media, both pro-governmental and opposition, have
actively speculated about the possibilities of a Western supported
“color revolution” in Azerbaijan and the inevitable replacement of
Aliev by an “Azerbaijani Saakashvili.” Russian analysts have
anxiously noted that the Azerbaijani opposition widely uses the
methods tested during the Rose and Orange Revolutions, hinting at the
possible involvement of Georgian envoys in training the anti-Aliev
opposition (RBK, August 17; Nezavisimaya gazeta, August 29). Some
supporters of Aliev have also accused Tbilisi of clandestinely
supporting the anti-Aliev opposition groups.

Aliev and his entourage likely suspect that Saakashvili might be
willing to sacrifice his friendship with Aliev to cause of global
democracy. Symptomatically, Aliev has so far refused to join the
declaration about a “Commonwealth of Democratic Choice,” that
Saakashvili and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko signed at
the Georgian health-resort Borjomi on August 12 (see EDM, August 15).

Most Georgian officials and analysts have vehemently excluded any
possibility of Georgia’s involvement in the would-be revolution in
Azerbaijan.

Any support of an anti-Aliev revolution in Azerbaijan looks almost
suicidal for Georgia both politically and economically, taking into
account neighborly relations and Georgia’s dependence on Azerbaijan’s
goodwill regarding the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and other joint
international energy projects. However, Saakashvili’s opposition
argues that the concerns of Azerbaijani officials over Saakashvili’s
“revolutionary” plans are not groundless, because Saakashvili wants
to curry favor with the West.

Givi Targamadze, chair of the Georgian parliamentary committee for
defense and security, who was an informal consultant for the Kyrgyz
“Tulip Revolution” (see EDM, March 25) said that the Georgian
government “must help and helps indeed” the nationwide public
movements that fight the authoritarian rules “but it is not any kind
of force that plans revolution.” “So far, I don’t see this kind of
movement in Azerbaijan,” he added. Targamadze, a former member of the
influential NGO Liberty Institute, however said that some attempts
“on the level of individual initiative” might take place.

Meanwhile, Levan Ramishvili, director of the Liberty Institute, said
that although Georgian state bodies must not be involved in the
internal processes of Azerbaijan, “The NGOs’ hands are unbound in
this respect.” “We have contacts with certain Azerbaijani NGOs. We
share with them our experience on how to make the changes in a
bloodless way,” he added.

The meeting between Aliev and Saakashvili on the sidelines of the
August 26-27 Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Kazan was
quite cool, sources say. This suggests that, contrary to the claims
by some Georgian officials, the Azerbaijani leadership remains
concerned about the Georgian leadership’s plans regarding the
situation in Azerbaijan.

(Resonance, August 18, 21; , August 26; Civil Georgia,
Turan, Regnum, RBC daily, August 30;Caucasus Press, September 6)

PACE Mulls Karabakh Conflict, MP Demands Armenia to Honor UN Resolutions

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 13 2005

The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagrno Karabakh was discussed by
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Paris on Monday.

Azerbaijan was represented by its delegation at PACE and the
President’s special envoy Araz Azimov, while Armenia – by its
parliament members and a foreign ministry official at the second
subcommittee meeting, chaired by the former PACE president, British
MP Lord Russel Johnston.

Azeri MP Asim Mollazada speaking at the meeting demanded Armenia to
implement the four UN Security Council resolutions on its unconditional
withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territories. He stressed the
need for accelerating a peaceful, stage-by-stage conflict resolution.

“But first, refugees must return home, their security ensured, and
then, communication lines opened and normal relations established
between the two sides. Only after this, the issue of legal conflict
settlement may be considered.”

The subcommittee meeting was attended by the head of British LINKS
non-government organization, the OSCE chairman’s envoy, French
and Russian co-chairs of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group, the OSCE
PA rapporteur on the Karabakh conflict and the European Union
representative on South Caucasus.

Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
September 12, 2005 Monday
Final Edition

Loose association of former Soviet states hasn’t replaced USSR: They
can’t even unite for a common cause

by David Marples, Freelance

Is the CIS dead? The recent summit, held in Kazan, Tatarstan, despite
official publicity making much of an occasion that coincided with
the 1,000th anniversary of the city, provided clear signs that the
association has become practically defunct, and little more than
ceremonial.

The Commonwealth of Independent States was founded in December 1991
by the leaders of three former Soviet republics — Russia, Ukraine
and Belarus — as a means to accelerate the collapse of the Soviet
Union and to ensure that the Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev,
was deprived of any meaningful function. At that time Gorbachev had
tried to persuade several republics to sign a document that would have
prolonged the Soviet Union through decentralization while allowing
Moscow to control defence and foreign policy.

The founders of the CIS anticipated that it would be of benefit to the
various republics (the Baltic States never participated) to continue
to maintain close economic and security links.

Initially the informal capital of the CIS was to be Minsk, Belarus.
Yet, from the outset, there were some serious problems. For one thing,
the legal basis of the new organization was never clarified. The three
leaders who had signed the deal had no consent from their parliaments,
and its secretive nature carried all the hallmarks of a well-laid plot.

Ukraine never accepted formal membership, though it attended meetings
as an observer. The first Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, never
took the organization very seriously, other than during elections,
when he would use the CIS as a symbol of a Russian-led entity in what
he termed the Near Abroad.

As the Russian 14th Army established a breakaway republic at Tiraspol
in Moldova, several states feared that Russia intended to use the
CIS to control its former partners and to establish a new power base.

Other organizations developed outside and parallel to the CIS from
1996, the most serious being the GUUAM, a partnership that received
support from the United States and consisted of countries around
the Black Sea region (Georgia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and
Moldova); the Russia-Belarus Union (Russia and Belarus); and the Common
Economic Space Group (CES — Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan).

Other states have maintained a preference for bilateral relations
outside these entities.

According to U.S.-based Russian analyst Sergei Blagov, Russian
president Vladimir Putin has veered from supporting the idea of a
“divorce” among CIS states, to promoting greater unity after the 60th
anniversary of Victory Day in Moscow last May.

However, the Kazan summit appeared to make it plain that the CIS will
soon be dissolved. There are several reasons why.

First, Turkmenistan declined to attend the occasion, and its president,
Saparmurat Niyazov, declared that his state would become no more than
an observer in the future. Second, Georgia, one of the more activist
republics under President Mikhail Saakashvili, has initiated the
formation of what is termed a group of “democratic states” on the
border of Russia that would be oriented toward the United States
and the EU in particular. Third, Ukraine under Viktor Yushchenko has
stalled on the signing of 29 documents on the Common Economic Space,
agreeing to only about half of them.

The presence of Ukraine in Kazan at all was something of a surprise.
A meeting between Yushchenko and Belarusian president Alyaksander
Lukashenka produced few results and a proposed exchange of visits to
each other’s capitals failed to materialize.

Other states that might have resolved longstanding issues also failed
to do so, most notably Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh; and the Republic of Moldova and its
separatist enclave, the Transdniester Republic.

Though the separation of the CIS states into authoritarian and
democratic regimes is somewhat facile, there is little doubt that
the states that have undergone political changes in recent times
–Ukraine, Kyrgyszstan and Georgia — are perceived by several others
as dangerously subversive, particularly by the virtual dictatorships of
Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, and the genuine dictatorship
in Belarus.

But such states have not found a natural home under Moscow’s influence
either.

Russia indeed remains the most enigmatic of the CIS states, as
Putin appears to have accepted a smaller role on the world stage and
focused more on consolidating his own authority and removing internal
enemies. To date, he has tried to maintain cordial relations with the
United States while increasing his control over parliament and the
media through his security forces. He may thus decline to take steps
to dissuade Turkmenistan from its departure, and other republics are
thus likely to follow.

That still leaves scope for Russia to tighten its links with its
closest allies, Kazakhstan and Belarus, while exerting pressure
on its former closest partner, Ukraine, through economic pressure,
particularly the threat to raise oil and gas prices to world levels.

The CIS served the essential function of legitimizing the rise of
Russia over the Soviet Union, and what was essentially an internal
coup d’etat by former president Yeltsin. But as a loose association
of willing partners, it has failed manifestly to replace the USSR,
or even to unite the former republics in a common cause.

David Marples is a professor of history at the University of Alberta

NOVEMBER OF 2005 WILL BE A REVOLUTIONARY MONTH FOR ARMENIA: OPPOSITIONIST

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13. ARMINFO. The ruling coalition suffered defeat
when discussion draft constitutional reforms in the second reading,
Secretary of the opposition bloc Justice Victor Dallakyan said at
the parliament Tuesday.

Being aware of its defeat, the ruling coalition state that if the draft
fails to pass the referendum, it would not mean the public distrust
in the ruling regime. In reality. The failure of the draft at the
referendum will be the political death of the ruling regime and a
display of the people’s distrust in it. In this case, the ruling
regime must resign as it is in developed democratic states.

Dallakyan called on the population to vote against the draft.

In his turn, another Represetnative of the bloc, Leader of the national
Democratic Bloc Arshak Sadoyan stated that November of 2005 will
become a revolutionary month as the referendum for constitutional
reforms will result in a revolution in Armenia.

Lebanon firm ends Iraq work to save worker

United Press International
Sept 13 2005

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 13 — A Lebanese company announced Tuesday that
it ceased operations in Iraq in response to demands by the kidnappers
of one of its employees.

Geo-Trading, which the kidnappers accused of exporting spirits and
alcoholic beverages to Iraq, said in a statement that it was operating
in Iraq according to local laws and never violated any legislation.

The company’s employee, Garabet Shirikjian, a Lebanese-Armenian,
was kidnapped in Baghdad three weeks ago. He appeared on a videotaped
broadcast on television two days ago begging his company to save his
life by stopping operations in Iraq.

The statement said the company closed all its offices in Iraq,
dismissed its employees and decided not to operate in Iraq in order
to save its employee.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA TO SHOWCASE ITS PRODUCTS AT RUSSIAN EXHIBITIONS

Armenpress

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS: Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov will open
an open-air fair of Armenian products in a downtown Moscow square on
September 24. The two-day event is being organized by the Armenian
Development Agency (ADA) with the support of the Armenian government,
Armenian embassy in Moscow and Moscow government.

Vahagn Movsisian, head of ADA, said sixty Armenian companies will sell
their products and information booklets about another 100 Armenian
companies will be disseminated to visitors. Armenia will also showcase
its achievements in high technology, tourism and hotel businesses at
another exhibition in the southern Russian city of Rostov on Don on
November 17.

ARMENIAN MOD HEAD POSITIVELY ASSESSED ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN MILITARY COOPERATION LEVEL

Pan Armenian News

13.09.2005 03:35

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “There are no obstacles on the way of promotion of
the Armenian-Russian military cooperation,” Secretary of the National
Security Council at the Armenian President, Armenian Defense Minister
Serge Sargsyan stated. It should be noted that the Armenian MOD head
takes part in the final phase of the annual joint Armenian-Russian
military and tactical exercises that are held on the ground after
marshal Baghramyan in Armavir region of Armenia. The Minister
also added that no misunderstanding is available concerning these
matters. “I assess the level of Armenian-Russian military cooperation
as positive. Main indicator of this are the joint Armenian-Russian
military exercises held today and their efficiency,” he emphasized. In
his turn CSTO Sec. Gen. Nikolay Bordyuzha, who has also observed
the exercises, stated the joint exercises were a success. “However,
not the effect of exploding bombs, but efficient cooperation of the
Armed Forces of the two countries is the thing that is important,”
he said. “We observed exercises held at a high level,” Bordyuzha
remarked. At that in his words, there is always space for expansion
of joint activities. “It might be as well for the special forces to
take part in the next exercise to work out counter-terror tasks,”
he summed up, reported IA Regnum.