AN ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING
Kommersant, Russia
Oct 4 2005
Last week, for the fourth time, Russian president Vladimir Putin
appeared on live television to talk to the people. Each time, people
asked various personal questions. There were three or four of them
each time. Vlast analytical weekly investigated the consequences
those calls had for the callers in previous years.
Live on December 24, 2001
Question: “Dear President, I am seven years old. Our house burned
down and we have no place to live. We live with Grandma, and have to
rent an apartment. I rarely see mama because she has to work a lot. I
miss her.”
Answer: After reading that message from Vanya Bogdanov, the president
said that he has no right to solve the problem directly but he added,
“I am sure that the world is not without kind people. We have many
philanthropic organizations and foundations. I have grounds to believe,
Vanya, that they will help you and your family.”
An hour later, two St. Petersburg city officials arrived at the
Bogdanov residence and explained that “the situation is under control
and there will be help.” On December 26, a segment about Vanya and his
family (mother, grandmother and great-grandmother) was shown on ORT
television. Journalists confirmed that their house in the village of
Berngardovka, Leningrad Region, did burn down in March 2001, and the
grandmother receives a pension of 1300 rubles per month and works as
a nurse for 1000 rubles per month. The boy’s mother worked at several
places in order to pay for the apartment.
It was reported on the December 30, 2001, News of the Week program
that the Bogdanovs had received a new apartment on Komendantsky
Prospekt. But on January 8, 2002, Tribuna newspaper reported contacted
deputy head of the administration of Vsevolozhsky District, Leningrad
Region, Elena Rubleva, who knew nothing about the provision of the
new apartment. The Bogdanovs were not eligible for aide for children,
she said, “because the mother earns more than the poverty level.” She
added that “According to our information, only the kitchen of the
house burned and it is still habitable.” She promised to “set up a
commission.” In February of that year, the press established that
the family had indeed received a three-room apartment.
A Vlast correspondent tried to find Vanya Bogdanov in St. Petersburg.
Members of the News of the Week film crew remembered that they had
shot a segment about “the new apartment on Komendantsky Prospekt”
on the edge of the woods at the end of Korolev St. “The apartment
was pretty poor and on the top floor,” they recalled. The city
administration, Primorsky neighborhood administration and Komendantsky
housing committee were unable to find the family’s address. Housing
committee and neighborhood administration employees searched databases
of apartments allotted by special order in 2001 and 2002, but found
no traces of Vanya Bogdanov and his family.
“Everyone remembers the story, but we can’t find the data,” head of the
Primorsky neighborhood administration Yury Osipov said. City officials
who worked there at the time told Vlast that they remember that a
businessman with a Caucasian last name (one of the kind people the
president mentioned?) helped them acquire an apartment for Vanya and
his family at the request “either of city r of federal authorities.” It
is possible that the apartment was purchased under a different name.
Question: Ten-year-old Pavel Shvedkov from Ust-Kut, Irkutsk Region,
complained to the president that “Our school is frozen. We haven’t had
classes for three weeks… The teachers say that if the authorities
in our town don’t learn to provide heating, we will all stay in the
second grade… What should we do?”
Answer: The president said that he was confident that the governor of
Irkutsk would “in a very short time restore activity to your school.”
On December 27, 2001, Ust-Kut Mayor Evgeny Korneiko resigned, the
school was repaired on order of regional authorities and the heating
was restored. The winter break was shortened at the school that year.
Pavel Shvedkov told Vlast that he doesn’t intend to speak to the
president again. “Let others try it,” he said. After the winter
vacation was cut short that year, several students boxed his ears.
Shvedkov transferred to a special school for mathematics and physics
and spends all his spare time studying. Other residents of the city
are still thankful to him for saving Ust-Kut from the cold, however,
he says.
The story doesn’t end there though. During the president’s next
live appearance, On December 19, 2002, the following communication
was received. “On your last appearance, a schoolboy from Ust-Kut
in Irkutsk Region called you and said that he couldn’t go to school
because there was no heating there. The situation is even worse now…
Two weeks ago, an 82-year-old war veteran froze to death in his own
apartment in Ust-Kut.” The president stated that the tragedy “should
be thoroughly investigated,” but added that “the cause is trivial.
They built a boiler or even two boilers, but didn’t complete them…
Not only the local authorities, but, I think, Boris Alexandrovich
Govorin, governor of Irkutsk Region, should, of course have paid
special attention to it.”
The heating system of Ust-Kut was fully renovated a month later. At
the end of 2003, there was trouble again with the heating in Ust-Kut.
On December 23, 2004, the new mayor, Vladimir Senin, and his deputy,
Alexander Ksenzov, were accused of negligence. That investigation
is still underway. On August 26, 2005, Alexander Tishanin became
the new governor of Irkutsk Region. The president did not consider
Govorin for reappointment. Minister of Regional Development Vladimir
Yakovlev reported to the Federation Council on September 21, 2005,
that there is a problem with heating in Ust-Kut again this year.
Question: World War II participant Antonina Emelyanovna Arzhanova
complained to the president about her tiny pension of 1000 rubles
per month.
Answer: Putin assured the pensioner that war veterans’ pensions would
be raised to 3400 rubles. In January 2002, after the Volgograd veteran
was declared a group-two invalid (middle seriousness of handicap),
her pension was raised from 1018 rubles to 1700 rubles.
Now, as Arzhanova herself told Vlast, she received a pension of 4200
rubles, a 1000-ruble supplement for veterans and 1950 compensation
for social benefits, a total of 7150 rubles. Arzhanova states that
she is still “dissatisfied” with her pension. Thanks to the call to
the president, she was also able to obtain a hearing aid and the “For
the Defense of Stalingrad” medal. (In 1942, she was part of the 14th
Independent Air Observation, Notification and Communications Battalion
in Elista, which informed Stalingrad – now again called Volgograd –
of the movement of airplanes on the front.) She received her medal
in mid-2002 after numerous verifications.
Question: Tatyana Alexeevna Desyuk, who identified herself as a
creative artist, asked the president about gas supplies to small
villages. “A gas pipeline passes near us, but we have no gas in our
homes… The issue is solved on the territorial level, but there is
very little,” she said.
Answer: The president demanded information from Gazprom, which
was delivered to him in the studio. He promised “the gasification
of Kazachy-Malevany will be completed by January 2002.” Gas was
introduced into the village on January 31, 2002, and, as reported by
RTR television, ceremonially turned on by Krasnodar Territory Governor
Alexander Tkachev on February 4. Gas workers told journalists that
the hookup they accomplished in 20 days had been preceded by fives
months of construction work.
Live December 19, 2002
Question: “Supreme Commander!” Warrant Officer Oleg Kozlov addressed
the president. “I was granted the title Hero of the Russian federation
in 1994 for military action on the Tajik-Afghan border. At the moment,
neither I nor my family is Russian citizens. Could you help me?”
Answer: Putin said that he was “annoyed” to hear of the situation.
And, since “the president has special authority is this sphere,”
he promised that “in the course of the next week, that problem will
be solved conclusively.”
Investigation by Vlast showed that Oleg Anatolyevich Kozlov was born
in 1972 and raised in the Tajik town of Kulyab, where he trained to
be a plumber and was drafted into the Russian border forces in 1993.
The served as a sniper in the paratroopers maneuver group of the 117th
Border Division. On August 18-19, 1994, during an attack by Afghan
Mojahedis on the Turg checkpoint, Kozlov single-handedly covered the
left flank of the defense and shot several enemies gunmen. Kozlov
received two honors for his feat. First, he was named Hero of the
Russian Federation by Presidential Order No. 1965 of October 3, 1994,
and he was made a warrant officer by order of his unit commander.
Kozlov next gained public attention in 1996. Komsomolskaya pravda
newspaper reported that Tajik policemen had attempted to take away
Kozlov’s warm camouflage jacket. “How could the feisty Tajiks know
that Oleg was recently named a Hero of Russia?” the paper wrote. “In
the brawl with the policemen, he showed that he was not only a good
sniper, but a pretty good boxer as well.” According to the newspaper,
“Oleg made it out of the fight with the jacket on, only to get a
dressing down from his superiors.”
Later, Kozlov turned down the chance to train in a military school and
left the border forces. He spent two years as a civilian then joined
the 191st Motorized Infantry Guard Regiment in Kurgan-Tyub under
contract as a sergeant major. In January 2001, an article about him,
“The Choice of Warrant Officer Kozlov,” appeared in the official
Ministry of Defense newspaper Krasnaya zvezda (The Red Star). It did
not mention his lack of citizenship, although it did mention his lack
of housing.
On December 19, 2002, Kozlov became known to the whole country. True,
he pronounced his name indistinctly in his nervousness. Because of
that, he was referred to in the media (even in Krasnaya zvezda in
the article “Every Question Is the Main One” on December 21, 2002)
under the name Orlov until December 25. Then it became known that the
president had kept his promise and signed Order No. 1439 granting
citizenship to Kozlov, his wife Svetlana and children Vlada and
Anastasia. The media got his name right after that.
The process of granting them citizenship had begun quickly. An hour
after the broadcast on December 19, Kozlov was invited to come to
the Russian embassy. Tajik officials reacted to the broadcast as well.
Even though he did not mention his housing problems to Putin,
on December 31, he moved to a new three-room apartment provided by
order of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov. Kurgan-Tyub Mayor Subkhon
Rakhimov handed the keys to Kozlov personally and a sign was mounted
at the entrance to the building saying “A Hero of Russia lives here.”
The story does not end at this happy point, however. In April 2003,
Krasnaya zvezda ran an article entitled “Does Russia Need Heroes?”
with the subtitle “The citizenship of Russian servicemen has become
a pawn in political games.” Kozlov’s situation was depicted in an
entirely different light in that article. Here is an excerpt from it:
“Some journalists couldn’t resist the temptation of sensationalism…
The sergeant major [Kozlov] was gullible and inexperienced in political
intrigues and information games’… The Hero of Russia did not suspect
that someone would simply use him as a blind’ to fulfill a certain
task… It is sad that the question he presented lead millions of
television viewers into confusion… Oleg Kozlov could have calmly
formalized his Russian citizenship without the broadcast and appeal
for help. The sergeant major just didn’t have tome because of service
duties… The issue of formalizing citizenship was very quickly solved,
which clearly did not fit into the plans of some political circles…”
In an interview in May 2003 in Krasnaya zvezda, Maj. Gen. Yury
Perminov, commander of the 201st Division, said of Kozlov that “He
never coma to me with that question for some reason. Obviously,
individual servicemen have not figures something out here or are
sincerely confused. We are conducting explanatory work.” Just what
“explanatory work” they did on Kozlov is not known. In 2004, he left
the Army and moved to Moscow.
Question: Natalia Bugaeva, an 11-year-old resident of Birobidzhan,
Jewish Autonomous District, asked the president why they put up an
artificial tree in the town square instead of a live fir.
Answer: The president recalled that December 19 was Jewish Autonomous
District Governor Nikolay Volkov’s birthday. “I think it would
be correct for the governor to give himself and the residents of
Birobidzhan a New Year’s present and put up a live tree on the square,”
he said.
The next day, a natural fir was brought from the taiga to the town and
set up next to the artificial tree. Later the local administration
opted for a mixed tree: live branched mounted on a metal frame. The
Vlast correspondent for the Jewish Autonomous District reports that
a place has been designated on the town square where a tree from the
taiga will be transplanted for use as the municipal New Year’s tree.
Qusetion: “I am 106 years old. I receive a pension of 1200 rubles.
Why is my pension so small?”
Answer: The president read the question from Anna Shaginyan of North
Ossetia himself and promised that the Pension Fund would check her
account and “if there is the slightest reason to raise it, it will
be done.”
The Armenian community in North Ossetia tells Vlast that, after her
call to the president, Shaginyan’s pension was raised by 500 rubles.
She received that pension only for a few months, dying on May 10,
2003. In December 2003, Izvestiya newspaper cited head of the North
Ossetian pension fund Bella Ikaeva as saying that Shaginyan’s pension
had been 1612 rubles. The reason for the modest size of the pension was
that she had a short wok history (only 27 years) and low-paying jobs.
Live December 18, 2003
Question: Lyudmila Karachentseva thanked the president for help during
a flood, but said that “Now we don’t have water. There is 1 million
rubles allotted to a waterline next year, but the estimated cost of
that line is 62 million… How can we overcome this problem?”
Answer: “I think the necessity of restoring your waterline has
been taken into consideration by the territorial authorities and
the money should be received,” Putin answered. “But, in any case,
I will nonetheless check on it. I promise you that.”
Stavropol authorities did not react to the president’s promise and, in
August 2004, Dmitry Medvedev, head of the presidential administration,
wrote a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov asking him to deal
with the problem personally. The administration of Novaya Derevnya
tells Vlast that there is still no waterline in the village.
On September 27, 2005, during another live broadcast, Putin drew
special attention to that problem, saying that Stavropol Region
Governor Alexander Chernogorov’s career depends on its solution (the
president was forward his nomination to the regional legislative
assembly for confirmation within days). On September 28, the
first bulldozer appeared in the village and 80 million rubles were
allotted for the construction of the waterline and 15 organizations
became involved in the project. By the middle of October, the four
settlements that make up Novaya Derevnya (population 607) are supposed
to have water.
“When the village council found out about the broadcast, they thought
for a long time,” Karachentseva recounted, “about what question was
most important to ask the president: about unemployment, drunkenness,
the bankruptcy of the collective farm or that there is no bath in
the settlement and nowhere to bathe. We decided that the question
about the water was the most important because there is practically
no water in any of the settlements.”
Governor Chernogorov told Vlast that the administration had learned
its lesson that “work has to be done a lot more quickly.” He
said that it would cost 130 million rubles, but “the task will be
completed.” Members of the governor’s staff consider the issue a
political ploy by enemy forces. “There are more than 50 settlements in
the territory without water or gas, especially in the eastern part,
but they don’t complain to the president,” noted a source in the
regional administration.
Question: Yakutsk resident Valentina Alexeeva asked the president
to help her obtain an apartment and asked when she would receive
compensation for her son, Alexey Arkadyevich Alexeev, who was killed
in the taking of Grozny on February 4, 1995 and posthumously awarded
the Order of Bravery.
Answer: Putin expressed confidence that the compensation had already
been paid, adding that “I will definitely find you and we will
definitely solve the problems that you mentioned.”
Vlast was unable to find Alexey Arkadyevich Alexeev in the lists
compiled by human rights activists of the dead and missing in Chechnya
for 1994-1996. That may be the result of a lack of full information
from the authorities.
In August 2004, the Alexeev family was given the chance to participate
in the cooperative construction of housing for 35 percent of its
cost. In Yakutsk, that is a good deal. Alexeeva was not satisfied with
it, however, and contacted the presidential administration again,
complaining that the housing wasn’t free. The administration of the
president of Yakutia explained to the administration of the president
of Russia the steps that had been taken, to the satisfaction of
the latter.
Question: Svetlana Olkhovikova, a 15-year-old from Voronezh, asked
the president how she could make her dream come true. “How realistic
is it for a girl to study to be a rescue worker in the Ministry of
Emergency Situations institute?”
Answer: “Girls in Russia today are accepted in practically all the
educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense except, let’s say,
the paratroopers’ school.”
A Vlast correspondent found Svetlana Olkhovikova in Voronezh. She
is now studying in the first year in the international relations
department of Voronezh State University. She did not enter Voronezh
State Technical University, where there is rescue training offered.
“I dreamed of saving people from fire. But I learned that it would be
hard for me to find working in Voronezh with that specialization,”
she said. Now she hopes to become a specialist on relations with
China. She said that she received no offers from the Emergencies
Ministry after her conversation with the president.
Question: “My son heard that your dog has a large number of
offspring… I ask you to send him a letter saying that it isn’t
possible… to give him a puppy.”
Answer: The president read the question and answered, “Why isn’t it
possible? It is possible. I just have to know that the puppy is going
to as good home. We will speak about that later.”
There is no information accessible about the president giving any
boys puppies. But Channel One reported on February 21, 2004, on two
lucky puppy recipients, pensioner Alexey Belevets in Rostov Region
and six-year-old Katya Sergeenkova in Smolensk. They had asked
the president for puppy through other channels. Vlast has learned
that Belevets’s puppy lives in the settlement of Novozolotovka in
Neklinovksy District and is named Darina. She is doing well and,
unlike the other dogs of the village, lives in the house. The puppy
is friendly and devoted to the members of the family, including the
four cats, two parrots and one German shepherd. The other recipient
of a presidential puppy enter first grade this year. Her puppy is
officially named Oscar, but called Osya by family members. He is now
being leash-trained. According to the Austrian publication Presse,
Putin also gave Austrian President Thomas Klestil two puppies in
February of last year.

DEFENCE MINISTER ON VISIT TO ARMENIA
Athens News Agency, Greece
Oct 4 2005
Greece’s national defence minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos on Tuesday
commenced a two-day visit to Armenia, at the invitation of his Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sargsyan.
During his visit, the Greek minister will hold talks with Sargsyan,
and will also meet with Armenian president Robert Kocharyan, prime
minister Andranik Margaryan, and Patriarch Garegin of Armenia.
The agenda of the talks include bilateral military and technical
defence cooperation and reorganisation of the Armenian Armed Forces,
matters relating to NATO and the European Union, as well as the
security situation in SE Europe and the wider region of the northern
Caucasus.
Earlier, Spiliotopoulos attended an inner cabinet meeting in Athens
that ratified four draft bills for deregulating the energy market.

NATO RECOGNIZED ARMENIAN IPAP REPRESENTATION DOCUMENT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 4 2005
The sitting of interdepartmental commission on preparation of Armenia
– NATO Individual Partnership Action Program (IPAP) was conducted in
Yerevan on October 3. In the course of the sitting the participants
discussed the NATO proposals put forward after examination of IPAP
program represented by Armenia. RA government hopes to finish the
work till the end of the year.
Head of RA MFA Department for control over arms and international
security Arman Hakobyan stated the Armenian document had been highly
assessed in Brussels. He added NATO International Secretariat
had recognized the document as the most successful among all the
representation documents presented so far, Panarmenan.net reports.
To remind, on June 10 Secretary of the Security Council, RA Defense
Minister Serge Sargsyan passed IPAP Representation Document and RA
President Robert Kocharyan’s letter to NATO Secretary General Yaap de
Hoop Scheffer. On June 16 RA FM Vardan Oskanyan officially presented
the Representation Document to the NATO Council and answered the NATO
ambassadors’ questions in the presence of NATO Secretary General.
According to Vardan Oskanyan, “Armenia has stated it intends to hold
regular consultations with NATO on the issues referring to foreign
policy and security, as well as reformation and actualization of
Armenian defensive structure under the auspices of NATO”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BAGHDASARIAN DEMANDS STATE FUNDING FOR SAVINGS COMPENSATION
By Astghik Bedevian
Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 4 2005
Parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian demanded on Tuesday that the
Armenian government begin compensating the population for the dramatic
depreciation of its Soviet-era bank deposits, a major theme of his
socioeconomic discourse dismissed as populist by his foes.
Baghdasarian warned his coalition partners against scuttling the
passage of a controversial bill that suggests a partial solution
to the problem. He said agreement on enacting the bill was reached
by his Orinats Yerkir Party, Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s
Republican Party (HHK) and the third coalition partner, the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) at a meeting with President
Robert Kocharian last week.
“I hope that the political agreement will be honored by the Republican
Party and other political forces that joined this initiative,” he
told reporters, alluding to the HHK’s long-running opposition to the
proposed compensation.
The bill in question, which was blocked by Markarian’s cabinet last
year, was unexpectedly included on the Armenian parliament’s agenda
on Monday. It calls for $83 million in public funds to be paid to
the former deposit holders within the next ten years.
Leaders of the National Assembly’s largest faction controlled by
the HHK continue to believe that the proposed sum is too modest to
address the problem and would lead to a waste of scarce government
resources. They indicated that they will block debate on the Orinats
Yerkir bill, arguing that the government’s draft budget for next year
does not earmark anything for the savings compensation.
“The budget must certainly include a relevant provision,” insisted
Baghdasarian. “Armenia will have a $1 billion budget next year. This
means the ongoing economic growth is allowing us to gradually address
socioeconomic problems. If the fight against corruption becomes more
effective, there will be even more funds at our disposal.”
Orinats Yerkir is represented in the government with three ministers.
None of them is known to have opposed the draft budget approved by
the executive last week.

KARABAKH HOLDS ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL CHESS TOURNAMENT
By Emil Danielyan
Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 4 2005
The unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is hosting another
international chess tournament which has brought together some of
the world’s leading chess players and is touted by organizers as the
first event of its kind in the South Caucasus.
The ten-day tournament, sponsored by the Karabakh government and the
Chess Academy of Armenia, got underway at the weekend, with two dozen
players from 11 countries, including the United States, Russia and
China, vying for the top prizes in two separate competitions.
“This tournament is very significant for the chess world,” one of
the organizers, Aram Hajian, told RFE/RL from Stepanakert on Tuesday.
“There has never been a tournament of this strength held anywhere
in the Caucasus,” he said, pointing to the average rating of the
participants. “It’s one of the top chess events happening this year
anywhere in the world.”
The most prominent and highly rated of the contenders is Vassily
Ivanchuk, Ukraine’s top grandmaster who has won European chess
championships in the past. Among other renowned participants are the
veteran Russian grandmaster Alexey Dreev, the reigning U.S. champion
Hikaru Nakamura and one of China’s top players, Bu Xiangzhi.
Armenia is represented at the tournament by its highest rated player,
Levon Aronian, and four other grandmasters. All of them are members
of its national chess team, one of the best in the world. The small
South Caucasus nation boasts 19 grandmasters, the largest per-capita
number of top-class chess players in the world.
Not all of the participants of the Stepanakert tournament are men.
Kateryna Lahno, a 15-year-old Ukrainian and the current women’s
champion of Europe, was deemed strong enough to compete with the
male players.
It is the second international chess tournament held in the
Armenian-controlled territory in less than two years. The first such
event took place in Stepanakert in March 2004 and was dedicated to
the 75th birth anniversary of the late Tigran Petrosian, the Armenian
former world champion who dominated the game in the 1960s. It was
opened by Boris Spassky, the Russian-born grandmaster who had defeated
and replaced Petrosian as world champion in 1969.
The “honorary guest” at the current tournament is another former
chess heavyweight, Lajos Portisch of Hungary.
The 2004 tournament drew protests from Azerbaijan which always
denounces the presence of foreign dignitaries in Karabakh as an
affront to its sovereignty over the disputed region. Reaction from
Baku is expected to be the same this time as well.
Hajian, who is a member of the Yerevan-based Chess Academy’s
governing board, believes that the ongoing tournament is a “very
positive image-building event” for the Karabakh Armenians. “Karabakh
has become well known to the world as the location for a war for
self-determination for the Armenians living here,” he said. “Although
the fighting ended eleven years ago, I think that many people have
not grasped the fact that life here has gone on and that there is a
whole generation of young people and a society in general which is
moving on.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA HOPEFUL ABOUT START OF TURKEY’S EU TALKS
By Emil Danielyan
Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 4 2005
Official Yerevan expressed hope late Tuesday that Turkey will be more
interested in normalizing relations with Armenia and recognizing the
Armenian genocide after the difficult start of its membership talks
with the European Union.
“Armenia hopes that the start of the EU accession process will prompt
[Turkey] to open the border with Armenia as soon as possible and to
make real efforts to protect minority rights and uphold freedom of
speech and other democratic values and standards in the country,”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamlet Gasparian said in a statement.
“We also hope that during the process Turkey will recognize the
Armenian Genocide, something which the European Parliament deemed
a precondition for Turkey’s membership of the EU in its latest
resolution,” said Gasparian.
The resolution adopted on September 28 “calls on Turkey to recognize
the Armenian genocide” and “considers this recognition to be a
prerequisite for accession to the European Union.” It also urges
Ankara to drop preconditions for improving its strained ties with
Yerevan. The demands were rejected by Turkish leaders, with Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledging to “continue on our way.”
Armenia has repeatedly urged the EU make Turkish membership conditional
on genocide recognition and the lifting of the Turkish blockade imposed
in 1993. But EU officials say while the Armenian demands will be on
the agenda of the accession talks, they are not a precondition for
Turkish’s accession to the union, which is strongly opposed by the
Armenian Diaspora in Europe.
Hundreds of Armenians demonstrated on Monday outside a government
building in Luxembourg where the foreign ministers of the 25 EU
member states were discussing terms for the start of the accession
talks. The negotiation process formally began later in the day and
is expected to take 10 years or more.
(GI-Photolur photo: Turkish Foreign minister Abdullah Gul, right,
arrives with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw at the EU
headquarters in Luxembourg on Monday for a working session with EU
foreign ministers.)

ARMENIA TO HOLD CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM NEXT MONTH
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Republic
Oct 4 2005
4 October 2005 — Armenian President Robert Kocharian has signed an
order to hold a referendum on constitutional amendments next month.
Kocharian’s office today said the vote would take place on 27 November.
The Armenian parliament passed the amendments last month.
Kocharian and his government say the changes, which are backed by the
Council of Europe and the United States, aim at ensuring a stricter
separation of powers among the judicial, executive, and legislative
branches of power.
But the opposition claims the planned reform will play in Kocharian’s
hands.
Opposition lawmakers, who boycotted last month’s vote, have called
upon Armenians to reject the constitutional amendments.
The proposed changes would also remove a legal provision outlawing
dual citizenship for millions of members of the Armenian diaspora.

TALKS POSE TOUGH TEST FOR ANKARA BUREAUCRACY
By Vincent Boland in Ankara
Financial Times, UK
Oct 4 2005
Turkey could be in for a tough few years of political partisanship
as it seeks to meet the requirements of European Union entry while
allowing for an unprecedented level of interference in its internal
affairs from Brussels.
This will pose a severe test of Turkey’s vast and truculent
bureaucracy.
Turks greeted the start of a long process of joining the EU with a
mixture of pride, emotion and criticism on Tuesday, as newspapers
gave celebratory coverage to the middle-of-the-night moment when the
formal accession negotiations got under way in Luxembourg on Monday.
In an emotional column, Mehmet Ali Birand, the veteran journalist
who has covered every event of Turkish history since the invasion of
Cyprus in 1974, wrote that Monday was “the best day of my life”.
But there was dissent from the political opposition.
Deniz Baykal, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s party,
accused Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, of having settled
for a second-class status for Turkey.
Mr Baykal said the accession process did not guarantee entry to the
EU, as it did for every other aspiring member, and did not give Turks
full labour mobility rights. “This is not full membership,” he charged.
Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, insisted on Monday night, however,
that full membership was essential for Turkey “and we have it”.
Some analysts argue that making Turkey more European, or at least
more EU-compatible, ought not to be too difficult.
Resat Arim, director of studies at the Foreign Policy Institute at
Bilkent University, says: “The general look of Turkey may not give
the impression that everything is European, but much of our system
is geared to Europe and on the whole our legislation and regulations
are not basically very different. The accession process should not
be very difficult. There is no reason why it should fail.”
The next few years will pose more than an administrative challenge for
Turkey, however. It is likely to present philosophical, intellectual
and historical tests.
Serhan Cevik, who follows Turkey for Morgan Stanley, the investment
bank, wrote to investors on Monday that the most important benefit of
the accession process would be that it provided “a favourable setting
to address historical baggage and entrenched positions”.
These include the continued division of Cyprus into Greek and Turkish
Cypriot areas (Turkey has nearly 40,000 troops in northern Cyprus); the
pressing issue of Turkey’s stance on the mass killing of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks, which some historians say was the first genocide of the
20th century; and the unresolved question of Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
All of these questions go to the heart of Turkish identity: its
constant struggle to square its geographical, historical and cultural
position between Europe and the Middle East with its modernising
desire to integrate fully into Europe.
Some commentators say the EU process is intimately linked with this
identity question, and may even resolve it.

TAKING IT OUT ON TURKEY
by Josie Appleton
Spiked, UK
Oct 4 2005
The tortured debate about the Turks joining the EU is a product of
crises in the West more than the East.
Turkey appears to be causing drama in the European Union (EU). First
there was talk of crisis, when EU nations couldn’t agree on the issue
of Turkish membership. Austria led the opposition, backed up by blocs
within countries such as France and Germany. Now that accession talks
are agreed, rhetoric abounds about this being a ‘truly historic day
for Europe’.
This isn’t about Turkey, though. Instead, it’s about EU elites
jostling for position. Elites shaken over the recent ‘no’ votes
on the EU Constitution are now trying to take a stand on Turkish
accession. Some hope that Turkish membership will pave the way to
a confident, multicultural Europe; others think that keeping Turkey
out will keep Europe secure. But Turkey is neither the cause of nor
solution to the EU’s problems – and the membership debate can only
expose the EU elites’ isolation and vacuity.
The UK, which currently holds the EU presidency, is the staunchest
supporter of Turkish entry. By letting in a Muslim nation, the Brits
argue, the EU will prove its cosmopolitan credentials. Part of this
is about invigorating Europe internally; sociologists Ulrich Beck and
Anthony Giddens recently argued that accession is part of a project
for a vibrant, post-national Europe, based on diversity (1). European
politicians also hope to win the favour of Muslim communities both
abroad and at home, an argument that gets US backing. The Turkish
prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently claimed that membership
‘would help to build a bridge between Christian and Muslim countries’,
while rejection would reveal the EU as a ‘Christian club’ (2).
Austria and co, meanwhile, counter Turkey in an attempt to win favour
with their own populations. One opponent warned of the danger of
letting in ‘a poor, culturally alien nation’. Former French president
Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who spearheaded the effort to rewrite the
Constitution, has taken this tack in an attempt to save his reputation,
arguing that ‘there is an obvious contradiction between the pursuit
of Europe’s political integration and Turkish entry into European
institutions’ (3).
Both sides are on a hiding to nothing. It will take more than a bit of
‘diverse’ Eastern spice to enliven stodgy EU politics. Similarly, it is
delusional to think that radical Islamists will call off their battles
just because Erdogan has a seat in Brussels, any more than they will
be won over by Bush and Blair reading the Koran. Meanwhile, posturing
against Turkey isn’t going to solve the problems of Giscard and others
– that is a see-through attempt to cover up their own failures.
This debate reveals the isolation of EU leaders from their publics.
On the one hand, both Turkish and European people are told to just
accept that accession is inevitable. Erdogan counsels that ‘in today’s
Turkey, there is no possibility left other than change.
Turkey will no longer yield to political deadlocks to those who are
ideological exploiters of emotion’ (4). Similarly, US deputy assistant
secretary of state, Matthew J Bryza, argued that ‘our friends in the
EU completely understand how important it is to continue that process
of Turkey’s anchoring in Europe. It would be a shame if that process
didn’t complete itself. But I think it will’ (5).
‘The process’ is really a business for Brussels lawyers. Turkey has
been busily passing the kinds of laws that will help it jump through
EU hoops – giving Kurds more autonomy, abolishing capital punishment,
and cleaning up archaic legislation such as the rape law. These changes
aren’t bad things in themselves; the problem is the automatic way in
which they were brought through. ‘We returned the abnormal heartbeat
of this country to normal’, said the prime minister.
The crowd-playing opponents of accession are no better
Supporters present accession as a continuation of Turkey’s past,
especially the dramatic Westernising reforms brought through by Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s. But while Ataturk’s (often heavyhanded)
reforms were driven by revolutionary zeal, today’s Turkish elite is
copying out the EU lawbook. Modernisation now is about bowing down in
acceptance, not seizing the reins of national destiny. Hence the EU’s
insistence that Turkey recognise the Armenian genocide. The Turks are
asked to prove their membership of the Western club by flagellating
themselves – joining UK prime minister Tony Blair in apologising for
the potato famine, and former US president Bill Clinton in apologising
for slavery.
EU publics are viewed with similar contempt. Opposition to Brussels’
plans is seen as the result of a chauvinistic yearning for security.
Beck and Giddens say that suspicion of the EU is driven by ‘social
and economic anxieties’ and an ’emotional return to the apparent safe
haven of the nation’; they warn that there is no option but to adapt
to globalisation and adopt their cosmopolitan attitudes.
Given this, it’s no surprise that both EU and Turkish publics have
started going cool on the idea of Turkish membership. Turkish support
has gone down from three quarters to two thirds over the past year, and
60,000 people gathered in Ankara on Sunday to voice their opposition
to the process. Speaking to the rally, party leader Devlet Bahceli
argued that Turkey was facing ‘an environment of enmity from outside
and an environment of treason from within’ (6).
The crowd-playing opponents of accession are no better, though. This is
a desperate attempt to connect with a distant public, appealing to what
elites see as the masses’ knee-jerk racism. Their attempt at populism
could win them attention, but is unlikely to provide a secure support.
The debate about Turkish membership may be leading to a fracas in the
EU, but Turkey itself isn’t the cause of the problem. The discussion
may look east, but its roots lie in the west.

ARMENIAN AND AZERI FMS TO MEET IN LJUBLJANA ON DEC. 4-5
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 4 2005
Armenian and Azeri FMs may meet within the frames of OSCE member
countries FMs summit in Ljubljana on December 4 – 5. Azeri FM Elmar
Mamedyarov informed of the fact, Day.Az reports.
Elmar Mamedyarov also said the OSCE MG American Co – Chair Steven
Mann was to visit Baku in mid – October. In the course of the visit
the American Co – Chair is to meet Azeri leadership.
The OSCE MG three Co – Chairs are to arrive in the region in early
November. The mediators are expected to negotiate with Azeri and
Armenian Presidents on the Nagorno Karabakh settlement process.