FINNISH PRESIDENT IN TBILISI
By Christina Tashkevich
The Messenger, Georgia
Sept 29 2005
Rustaveli Avenue on Wednesday adorned with Finnish and Georgian flags;
the road was closed as President Tarja Halonen arrived at the Tbilisi
Marriott Georgia’s ambitions to join the European Union and the role
of the EU in the settlement of conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia
were on the top of the agenda during the first visit of Finland’s
head of state to Tbilisi.
The President of Finland Tarja Halonen arrived in Tbilisi on Wednesday
for a two-day visit that included a meeting with Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili.
Saakashvili once again noted that Georgia is trying diligently to
settle the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia peacefully.
At a briefing in Parliament with the Finnish president on Wednesday,
he said that Georgia does not want upheaval at a time when it “needs
economic development.”
Saakashvili said his government is ready to work together with Russia,
the United States and the countries of the European Union in settling
the conflicts.
“I hope that during consultations together with the Russian Federation
we are able to create such mechanisms to avoid further problems,”
Saakashvili said.
President Halonen said at the briefing that Finland is well informed
about the current state of the conflicts in Georgia and that Georgia
can rely on her country’s support in this issue.
She called on sides to look for mechanisms that can resolve the
conflicts in a peaceful way. “Peaceful settlement is the most
sustainable solution,” she said.
Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Salome Zourabichvili noted on
Wednesday that Finland will receive the EU presidency in the second
half of 2006. “This will be the time when we will enter into the
fulfillment phase of the action plan and when the issue of further
EU expansion will be raised,” she said.
The Georgian media reports that also on the agenda during Halonen’s
visit were prospects for Finnish businesses investing in Georgia.
Aleksandre Rondeli, the president of the Georgian Foundation for
Strategic and International Studies, praised Finland as an “exemplary
country” and its president as “a famous politician who knows what’s
going on in the region.”
President Halonen is on a tour of the Caucasus countries spanning
the dates September 26-30. She arrived in Tbilisi on Wednesday from
Armenia and after Georgia will move on to Azerbaijan, together with
her husband, doctor Pentti Arajarvi.
The Helsinki daily Helsingin Sanomat reported this week that this is
not Halonen’s first visit to the Caucasus. She visited Georgia in 1980
and Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1996 as Finland’s Minister for Foreign
Affairs, when she contributed to negotiations on the Nagorno Karabagh
conflict. However, it is the first visit of a Finnish president to
Georgia after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“The EU is heavily involved in the development of the three
countries. Georgia is especially keen to develop its ties with the
West, and all three are seen as likely to join the E.U. at some time
in the future,” the newspaper wrote on September 26.
Halonen’s visit comes less than two months after a delegation of the
Finnish Border Department headed by department chief Jaakko Smolander
arrived in Georgia. During the delegation’s three-day stay in early
August, a joint declaration on cooperation was signed between the
two country’s boarder guards and the Finnish representatives toured
Georgia’s northern frontier with Russia.
During her visit to Georgia President Halonen also met with the
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli and Speaker of Parliament
Nino Burjanadze.

ANALYSIS-EU DREAM HAS ALREADY TURNED SOUR FOR SOME TURKS
By Jon Hemming
Reuters, UK
Sept 29 2005
ISTANBUL, Sept 29 (Reuters) – It may take 10 years before Turkey joins
the European Union, but even at this nascent stage of negotiations
EU demands have inflamed Turkish nationalism.
The constant stream of criticism from the European Union has revived
memories of Western meddling in the 19th and early 20th centuries that
put an end to Turkey’s empire and, but for a nationalist uprising,
would have dismembered Turkey itself.
“The whole issue of nationalism represents the most difficult and
the deepest gap between Turkey and the EU,” said one Turkey-based
EU diplomat.
While the EU was formed to overcome the discredited nationalism that
came close to destroying the continent in World War Two, Turkish
identity was forged by Kemal Ataturk’s 1920s nationalist struggle
that fought off French, British and Greek invaders and suppressed
Kurdish and Islamist threats.
Thus European calls for more rights for the Kurds, pressure over
Cyprus and for Turkey to recognise the Armenian genocide 90 years ago,
unite the far right, far left and many in the secular establishment
against what they see as underhand EU plots.
“Turkey is experiencing the same betrayal by intellectuals that
broke up the Ottoman Empire,” said nationalist party leader Muhsin
Yazicioglu this month.
LEFT AND RIGHT UNITE
While most Turks still favour joining the EU, support has fallen from
73 percent a year ago to 63 percent in a recent survey. However,
as Turkey and the EU get down to the nitty-gritty of negotiations,
support could fall even further, analysts say.
“There is only one fault line in Turkey and that is between those for
and against the EU,” said Istanbul University professor Mehmet Altan.
Meanwhile, opposition in Europe to Turkey’s membership — as high as
80 percent in Austria and 74 percent in Germany — feeds the sense
of suspicion and discrimination felt by many Turks.
This has made for some strange bedfellows.
Scruffy leftists with bushy Lenin beards found themselves rubbing
shoulders with smart dark-suited right-wing nationalists last weekend
at a demonstration against an Istanbul conference by liberal academics
discussing claims of Armenian genocide.
“No EU, no USA, but a completely independent Turkey,” the leftists
chanted, pointing angrily at the EU flag flying above the exclusive
private university hosting the conference.
“Turkey is Turkish and will stay Turkish,” the rightists clamoured,
in similar vein.
The EU closely watched the conference controversy.
“We see this is a question of whether the Turkish mentality can change
and whether openness can prevail over those who prefer a nationalist
view of their history,” the diplomat said.
Both the right-wing Nationalist Action Party and the Turkish Communist
Party are planning anti-EU protests on Oct. 2, the day before Brussels
is due to start long and difficult talks that could lead to Turkey’s
eventual entry to the bloc.
However, more worrying for Turkey’s EU supporters and Turkish liberals
dreaming of shedding their oriental past is the depth of nationalism
in the establishment and the army.
STATE CHALLENGED
For most Turks, Kemal Ataturk is still a hero who saved Turkey from
foreign forces during and after World War One, restored national
pride and turned the country towards Europe.
However for some, his state-centred, top-down legacy sits uneasily
with the pluralist, democratic EU Turkey seeks to join.
“The way to democratise this country, to realise individual rights
and freedoms, to transform a Kemalist state into a democratic state
which values people is the EU,” said Altan.
The so-called “deep state” and the powerful military are uneasy about
surrendering any sovereignty to Brussels, he said.
Europe is “trying to change our national culture by imposing foreign
values, fashion and languages that do not match Turkish customs and
traditions”, complained Turkish Chief of General Staff Hilmi Ozkok
this year.
Increased Kurdish rebel attacks and a violent nationalist backlash
have raised tension in Turkey ahead of Oct. 3 and undermined Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government which has cast aside its Islamist
roots to champion Turkey’s EU cause.
However, many in Erdogan’s own party, including ministers, come from a
nationalist background. They, and many across the political spectrum,
could baulk at too many concessions to EU demands on Cyprus, the
Kurds and minority rights.
“When they get bored by this EU process and because they cannot
offer any logical counter-argument, they’ll get angry and work up
nationalist reaction,” Altan said. “It is a reaction by those fattened
in the past and represents their helplessness.”

U.S. RADAR STATION IN AZERBAIJAN WILL NOT AFFECT NEGATIVELY AZERI-IRANIAN RELATIONS
Today, Azerbaijan
29 September 2005 [09:18] – Today.Az
Azerbaijani political scientists agree in views that the construction
of the U.S radar station in the territory of the country must not
affect negatively the Azerbaijani-Iranian relations.
Commenting negative reaction of some Iranian mass media on the issue,
Vafa Guluzada, the former adviser to the Azerbaijani President,
noted that the position of Iran is natural.
“Iran must understand that Azerbaijan peruses its own goals, but the
United States carries out its own plans in the region,” he underlined.
“Iran must regard extending of the cooperation between Azerbaijan
and the United States as normal,” Uzeyir Jafarov, the military expert
noted in his turn. Issue of license on construction of radar station
is internal affair of Azerbaijan.
“If Iran strengthen it relations with Armenia, but Azerbaijan does not
regard it as serious danger for its national interests, then Iran must
accept the fact of development of the Azerbaijani-U.S. relations,”
he added.
In his turn, MP Anar Mammadkhanov stressed that the Iranian-Azerbaijani
relations would be subjected to any serious changes. “Iran must
understand that Azerbaijan takes the steps not for pleasure, but to
ensure national interests,” he said.
(Trend)
URL:

NATO PA COMMITTEE APPROVES REPORT ON GARABAGH CONFLICT
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Sept 29 2005
NATO Parliamentary Assembly committee on the civil dimension of
security has approved a report on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper
Garabagh conflict.
All the recommendations made by Azerbaijan were included in the first
draft of the document, prepared by German parliamentarian Von Heden.
The report also indicates that Azerbaijan’s territories have been
occupied by Armenia, parliament vice-speaker and head of the Azeri
delegation at NATO PA Ziyafat Asgarov said.
Asgarov told journalists that the Azerbaijani party was earlier
discontent with the first draft, which erroneously said that not 20%,
but 16% of Azeri land is under occupation and that more Armenians
than Azerbaijanis used to live in the conflict zone. “The Azerbaijani
delegation aims to achieve approval of the report by NATO PA as well.
I have discussed this with the Assembly leadership. We stressed that
NATO PA should act the same way the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE) did,” the vice-speaker said. PACE passed
a resolution late in January confirming that Armenia occupies Azeri
territories.

NATIONAL INTEREST ISSUES UNDER DISCUSSION IN THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON FOREIGN POLICY
Macedonian Press Agency, Greece
Athens, 29 September 2005 (13:16 UTC+2)
Issues of national interest and the latest developments in Turkey’s EU
accession course will be discussed in detail in the National Council
on Foreign Policy that meets today under the presidency of Foreign
Minister Petros Molyviatis.
Yesterday, the European Parliament plenary session sent a strong
message to Turkey just a few days before the opening of Turkey’s EU
accession negotiations.
In a resolution adopted by the European Parliament it is mentioned
that a precondition for Turkey to become a member of the EU will be
to recognize the Armenian Genocide committed in 1915, while Turkey
is also called to recognize the Republic of Cyprus as soon as possible.
It is underlined that in case this does not happen, the consequences
on the negotiation process will be serious and could lead even to
its interruption.
It is stressed that the opening of negotiations will be the starting
point of a long process which by nature is open-ended and does not
lead in advance and automatically to accession.
A special reference is made to the serious and persistent violation
(in Turkey) of the principles of democracy, freedom, human rights,
fundamental freedoms, minority rights and the state of law.
Specifically, a reference is made to the problems in the freedom of
expression faced by author Orhan Pamuk. Regarding a very sensitive
issue for Greece, concern is being expressed for the operation of
religious minorities. The law on properties that belong to religious
institutions (=Vakoufia) is mentioned as a characteristic example.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee
postponed the vote for the expansion of Turkey’s customs union with
the European Union.
The postponement decision was reached by the European
Parliament plenary session after a proposal by the leader of the
Christian-Democrats according to which, Turkey is not committed that
it will not proceed with the signing of the statement on the non
recognition of Cyprus during the ratification of the Ankara Protocol
by the Turkish National Assembly.

AMID DISQUIET, TURKISH SUPPORT FOR EU MEMBERSHIP WANES
Middle East Times, Egypt
Sept 29 2005
ANKARA — Turks are losing their enthusiasm for EU membership amid
increasing doubts on whether their mainly Muslim country will ever
be welcome in the bloc and mounting pressure on Ankara to tackle its
most nationally explosive issues, analysts say.
Ankara’s four-decade drive to join the European Union has always
enjoyed strong public support, but the latest polls suggest a
significant drop as the country gears up for long-craved accession
talks on October 3.
A survey released in early September by the US-based German Marshall
Fund of some 1,000 Turks showed that only 63 percent believe that EU
membership would be a good thing, compared to 73 percent last year.
“I have no faith in the EU, they will never allow us in,” said Cengiz
Aybar, a 34-year-old lawyer. “Even if membership talks begin they
will go on forever with no result.”
Hulya Aslan, a 41-year-old retired banker, was just as pessimistic,
arguing that Turkey would never be welcome because of its Muslim faith.
“They are only playing with us,” she said. “They will try to extract
as many concessions as possible before selling us off.”
The main reason for the sour mood is a mounting debate in Europe on
whether Turkey should actually become a member of the bloc. This is
giving Turks the feeling that they are being badly treated, Cengiz
Aktar, director of the EU center at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University,
said.
Rejection of the EU constitution in referenda in France and the
Netherlands earlier this year, influenced in part by opposition to
Turkey’s membership, has taken its toll on the euphoria in Turkey that
followed the EU’s commitment at a December 17 summit in Brussels to
begin accession talks.
In Germany conservative leader Angela Merkel, whose Christian Union
bloc narrowly won the September 18 general elections and is aiming to
lead a ruling coalition, has long wanted to offer Turkey a “privileged
partnership” rather than full membership.
In France another political heavyweight, Nicolas Sarkozy, president
of the ruling UMP party and a possible successor to President Jacques
Chirac, argues against opening membership talks with Turkey for the
immediate future.
“These are not the expressions of new partnership but of new animosity
– Turkey is presented like a bitter enemy of Europe,” Aktar said.
“This has created a bitter and negative environment of which even
the most pro-EU circles in Turkey have had enough,” he added.
Adding to what appears to Turkey like a U-turn on the EU’s commitment
is increasing pressure on Ankara to take steps that many would
consider betraying the country’s basic policies, said Cigdem Nas,
of Marmara University’s European Community Institute.
Tensions have flared over the divided island of Cyprus since July,
when Turkey extended a customs union agreement to the bloc’s 10 newest
members, including Cyprus, but insisted that the move did not amount
to recognition of the island’s internationally acknowledged Greek
Cypriot administration.
The EU hit back by insisting on proper recognition.
Another hot topic is the massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman
Empire during World War I, the forerunner of modern-day Turkey.
Armenians claim that up to 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered
in an Ottoman “genocide”, a claim that Turkey strongly rejects.
“Turkey is being gradually pushed into an internal settling of accounts
and this creates a backlash in a country where nationalism runs high
and the EU has come to symbolize all the foreign pressure on Ankara,”
Nas said.
The past few months have seen the rise of several new civic
organizations that take their names from armed resistance groups
that fought against allied occupation during Turkey’s 1919-21 War of
Independence, and which say that their aim is to save the country from
“treasonous collaborators”.
“Even though there is an ideological anti-EU movement in Turkey,
many know that the EU will be to the country’s benefit. So support
of EU membership will once again increase,” Nas predicted.
“But cornering Turkey on national issues such as Cyprus and the
Armenian massacres would lead to a further backlash,” she warned.

CALL FOR AUTONOMY SPARKS CONCERN
The Messenger, Georgia
Sept 29 2005
Calls this month by the Akhalkalaki-based Armenian organizations
Javakhk and Virk demanding that Javakheti region be granted autonomy
and its own parliament have revived Georgia’s deep-seated paranoia
over separatism.
The organizations are trying to give their entreaty a peaceful and
constructive character and have argued simply that if Tbilisi is
offering similar perks to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, why not to
other regions. But as Georgia’s history shows, the idea of autonomy
has involved at best simmering rivalry toward the central government
(as in the case of Aslan Abashidze’s Adjara) and at worse bloody
conflict. The forum that was held in Akhalkalaki irritated the Georgian
media and was regarded by many as an event staged by Moscow.
Reactionary print media, in turn, has called on the government to
pay serious attention to statements.
Russians did not believe for a long time that they would ever have to
withdraw their military bases from Georgian territory, assuming that
the local Armenian population would never stand for the withdrawal of
the Russian military bases from Akhalkalaki as the base represented
a security guarantee and an important source of income.
But now it is clear that the Russian military base is to finally leave
Akhalkalaki by 2008. In the meantime, the Georgian government tries
to diffuse any unrest among the local population. Some time ago the
Russian newspaper Nezavisimaia Gazeta wrote that: “There are fears
in Tbilisi that separatist sentiment among the Armenians living in
Javakheti can be strengthened and in response, the government tries
to increase financial support for the region’s development.”
The argument that the withdrawal of the Russian bases from Akhalkalaki
will deprive the local population of their main source of income has
already been rebutted. President Mikheil Saakashvili has announced
a program whereby the Ministry of Defense will purchase foodstuffs
from Javakheti farmers in order to provide larder for the Georgian
army. What is more, USD 102 million of the sum to be received from the
U.S. Millennium Challenge program will be spent for the development
of the Javakheti transport infrastructure. It is also planned to put
investments in the region for the purpose of creating new jobs. It
can be safely said that at this point, no other region of Georgia is
receiving so much long-term economic attention.
But all of this is of little meaning for those forces in the region
for whom socioeconomic problems only provided rhetorical fodder for
their demands for separatism. On September 24 Javakhk and Virk held
their third forum in Akhalkalaki. The forum representatives were
dissatisfied with the increased number of Georgian-language schools
in the region and the possibility of Javakheti’s Georgian population
increasing. They stated that in order to overcome these tendencies,
Javakheti should be separated from the other parts of Georgia.
The authors of the resolution adopted in Akhalkalaki state that the
Georgian government makes representatives of ethnic minorities live
in unequal conditions. Moreover the authorities have proposed models
for autonomy to minorities in conflict zones that they do not offer
to other ethnicities who constitute a majority in other regions.
Representatives of Javakhk and Virk have not decided yet what to
demand – autonomy for the region, or to pin their hopes on the
establishment of a Georgian federation and becoming a constituent
entity of said federation.
“This can be autonomy, but if there is no autonomy then there can be
a region with the rights of autonomy with its own constitution. It
should be distinguished just what rights the region will have. I
propose that this region should have its own parliament, government
and laws,” stated representative of Javakhk Manvel Saltenian, as
quoted by Kronika, whereas Virk member Khachatur Stepanian demanded
that Javakheti be given the status of “federation subject.”
In Georgia many suspect that Russia stood behind the Akhalkalaki
forum. This “Third Power,” Kronika writes, “is not going to accept the
loss of Georgia and after Samachablo and Abkhazia now seeks to create
the next hot spot, now in the South.” The heads of the Akhalkalaki
forum themselves deny the existence of any “Russian trail.” They also
claim not to be separatists and state that they are acting entirely
within the frames of Georgian legislation. Khachatur Stepanian, who
also chairs the Council of Armenian Organizations, stated that the
decisions of the form are in complete compliance with the European
Convention of Defending the Rights of Ethnic Minorities, reports the
newspaper Kviris Palitra.
Such demonstrations however have been labeled in the Georgian media as
“acts against Georgia.” “Regardless of whether Russia is controlling
these actions in Georgia or not, it has recently become clear that
some representatives of the ethnic minorities that are sheltered in
our territory are not hiding their cynical attitude towards Georgian
state interests,” writes the newspaper Kviris Palitra. “Stepanian
and Saltenian should not hold their breath for Georgian society to
agree to the establishment of Armenian autonomy,” writes the newspaper
Akhali Taoba.
Representatives of the Georgian government have stated that there
is no cause for alarm yet. They are supported by the fact that
only a small group of people signed the resolution adopted at the
Akhalkalaki forum. But far more people in Javakheti, and throughout
Georgian regions, would agree that more must be done to develop the
country outside of the capital.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CIS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY VISITS ARMENIA
AZG Armenian Daily #174
29/09/2005
Visit
Executive secretary of CIS, Vladimir Rushailo, arrived in Yerevan
September 27 to take part in the council of CIS interior ministers. At
a short meeting with journalists at the airport Rushailo said that
he will meet with Armenia’s political leadership. They will discuss
the process of realization of Kazan arrangements, first of all
issues concerning economic integration, cooperation in the sphere of
humanities and security and stability issues in CIS. The council of
interior ministers will discuss the last issue on September 30.

NEXT YEAR’S BUDGET TO PROMISE HIGHER SALARIES
By Ara Martirosian
AZG Armenian Daily #174
29/09/2005
Economy
Pavel Safarian, deputy economy and finances minister, presented
yesterday the draft RA budget of 2006 that the Armenian government
passed on September 28. The GDP is expected to grow by 7.5 per cent
next year raising the GDP to 2.4 trillion dram. Inflation is expected
not to exceed 3 per cent.
The planned revenue for 2006 will amount to 380 billion dram against
last year’s 347 billion. The government will spend 450 billion
next year.
Budgeted deficit will be 69.9 billion part of which is supposed to
be filled by inner sources.
The relation of GDP-taxes will hopefully be reduced to 15.1 per
cent. Asked what is the GDP-tax correlation and is there a difference
compared to previous years, Pavel Safarian said that this index does
not differ much from the revenue index.
Deputy minister informed that the budget of 2006 will increase the
salaries of teachers and workers of the educational sphere by 10.000
dram. The money for education will surpass last year’s budget by 8
billion and by 6.7 billion for healthcare. The employees of hospitals
and outpatients will also receive higher salaries. As for the workers
of the cultural sphere they will mark 19 per cent increase in their
monthly earnings.
The average family relief payments will boost from 12.000 to
15.000. The average pension will grow by 1.500 drams. The minimal
salary in the republic will rise from 13.000 to 15.000.
Armenia’s military expenditure for the next year will rise by 13
billion.
The deputy minister considered it natural that the government assigns
more money for the military sphere. Asked what is the overall allotment
to the military sector and whether it is not worrying that Azerbaijan
increases its military expenditure year by year, Safarian said that
the army will get $150 million. In regard to neighboring country’s
intensions, deputy minister gave a rather neutral answer saying that
every state strives to increase allotments for its security.

EXHIBITION OF ARMENIAN ARTISTS AT EMBASSY OF FRANCE
By Melaniya
AZG Armenian Daily #174
29/09/2005
Exhibition
The exhibition of Armenian artists opened at the French Embassy. Over
10 artists represented their pieces at the exhibition. Some of
the artists used to live in France for some period, felt the charm
of Paris, the atmosphere and the spirit of Europe that had great
influence on their creative life.
Henry Cuny, Ambassador of France to Armenia, emphasized the great
importance of art and culture in the history of the human race.
Robert Elibekian stated that Europe, especially Paris, is a source
of inspiration for each artist, as well as a unique place for
establishment.
Armenia, as a wonderland, gives huge energetic potential to the
artists but Europe still dictates rules for the cultural development
of the world.
The pieces by Robert and Areg Elibekian, Aramayis Mkhitarian, Taron
Muradian, T. Voskerchian, Khachatur Azizian and by other painters
created warm atmosphere in the exhibition hall.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress