SESSION OF ARMENIAN-GEORGIAN COMMISSION ON BOARDER DEMARCATION TO BE HELD IN NOVEMBER

YEREVAN, June 2. /ARKA/. Session of Armenian-Georgian Commission on
Boarder Demarcation is to be held in November. According to Armenian
Government’s Press and Public Relations Department, the arrangement
was made during a meeting between Armenian PM Andranik Margaryan and
his Georgian counterpart Zurab Nogaideli in Tbilisi. At the meeting,
the head of the two republic’s Governments discussed issues related
to Armenian-Georgian border demarcation and said matters related to
separating lines would be discussed at the November session. Speaking
about transport issues, the sides expressed mutual interest in
launching Abkhazian section of Georgian railway as soon as possible
thinking this will be beneficial to both republics. M.V -0–

RA DEFENSE MINISTER RECEIVES U.S. SENATOR CHUCK HAGEL

YEREVAN, June 2. /ARKA/. RA Defense Minister Serge Sargsian received
today U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel and the delegation leaded by him.
According to the Press Secretary of the RA Defense Ministry Seyran
Shakhsuvaryan, Sargsian noted during the meeting that Armenian-American
relations at a good level of development. He also added that the
bilateral military cooperation which started three years ago had
considerably enlarged. The same can refer also to cooperation
of Armenia and NATO. Speaking about the Karabakh issue, Sargsian
expressed confidence that the problem can be settled peacefully
and noted the great role of OSCE MG in this process. In his turn,
the Senator thanked Sargsian of the efforts in fighting international
terrorism, as well as for the participation of Armenia in peacemaking
operations in Kosovo and Iraq. L.V.-0-

‘Vodka limon’, un retrato del agridulce sabor de la pobreza y el amor

El Tiempo, Colombia
Jueves 2 Junio 2005

Una pareja de viudos se encuentra en medio del helado paisaje del
Caucaso kurdo. En Colombia se vera el proximo 3 de junio.

Él, Hamo de mas de 60 años, le cuenta a su esposa, en su tumba, las
cosas nuevas de cada día.

Ella, Nina de 50 años, tambien le relata a su fallecido esposo que ha
sido de su vida últimamente.

Los dos terminaran en una callida relacion en medio de la nieve y el
cruento invierno que azota la villa donde viven, en medio de las
montañas.

El director Hiner Saleem (‘Passeurs de Reves’, de 1999, cuyo nombre
en español fue ‘Mas alla de nuestros sueños’) rodo su filme justo en
una zona similar a su país natal, Kurdistan (Irak), de donde tuvo que
salir como refugiado político, luego de la persecucion que emprendio
Saddam Hussein contra los kurdos.

Ese sitio es en Armenia, donde miles de personas sobreviven como
refugiados y desplazados, en medio de la miseria.

Actualmente, Saleem, de 41 años, reside en París.

‘Vodka limon’ obtuvo el Premio San Marco por Mejor Película, en la
seccion Contracorriente del Festival de Venecia en el 2003.

–Boundary_(ID_SaOwyv4bxXqWND7u9s/JTw)–

Daily Yomiuri, Japan
June 3 2005

Basescu: EU expansion ‘treaty obligation’

Kazuo Nagata Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

Romanian President Traian Basescu said Thursday he was still certain
his country would join the European Union in 2007 as scheduled, but
further enlargement of the union would be extremely difficult as a
result of Dutch and French rejection of the EU constitution in
national referendums.

“We already signed the accession treaty on April 25. All EU member
states have agreed and signed with Romania on the accession and it’s
a treaty obligation for both parties,” Basescu, who was visiting
Tokyo, said during an interview, referring to the treaty signed in
Luxembourg and ratified on May 18 by the Romanian parliament.

“The EU constitution is another matter. It is mainly in connection
with the future institutional development of the EU that the French
and Dutch people rejected it in referendums, and we consider there
will not be an influence on the accession process of Romania,”
Basescu said, stressing the scheduled EU enlargement process to take
Romania and Bulgaria into the fold on Jan. 1, 2007, must remain on
track.

However, Basescu said the French and Dutch referendums revealed
people’s “concern” about EU enlargement and the results “obliged”
European leaders to carefully examine the impact of what he called
the first wave of enlargement–10 countries admitted to the union in
May 2004 plus Romania and Bulgaria in 2007–on European citizens’
everyday lives before they can convince their people to invite more
countries to join.

Basescu said he supported the entry of Croatia, a former Yugoslav
republic, and Turkey, both of which are scheduled to open accession
talks with the EU later this year, but it might be a while before the
newly rising democracies in the former communist bloc, such as
Ukraine and Georgia, could be considered candidates for EU
membership.

Citing the example of the formation of the GUAM coalition of Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova to seek security and economic
cooperation in the Black Sea region, Basescu said countries yet to
open negotiations with the EU could first foster regional forums “to
keep the momentum for integration” alive and well.

Basescu, who became president in December, was visiting Japan to
attend Romania’s national day event at 2005 World Exposition Aichi on
Wednesday. He was scheduled to fly back home later Thursday after
meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Acknowledging it will likely be “no earlier than 2012,” or five years
after the planned EU accession, before Romania can adopt the euro,
Basescu stressed that his country’s economy was “dynamic” and he
expects “minimum 6 percent of annual growth in gross domestic product
for the next few years,” in calling for investment by Japanese firms.

He also stressed the EU, by including newly developing economies like
Romania, could enjoy the advantage of the additional market.
“Everybody talks about how much the [existing members] are supporting
the applicant countries, but nobody talks of the advantage the
applicants can bring,” Basescu stressed.

Romania, which became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization last year, is reported to be negotiating with the United
States to host U.S. military bases on its soil. Basescu, citing “open
or frozen conflicts” in areas such as Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia
and Abkhazia, all in the Black Sea region, said it would be in
Romania’s interest to have U.S. forces present in the region.

“For our security, NATO’s and Europe’s security, we strongly believe
part of the NATO or U.S. forces in Europe has to be redistributed to
a NATO country around the Black Sea area, which can be Bulgaria or
Romania,” Basescu said, but stopped short of confirming whether a
decision had been made to host a base in his country.

Touching on the situation in Iraq, Basescu said Romania would
continue its military presence there for the time being. “We will
fulfill the mission in Iraq. We will be there until the elected
government of Iraq says they would like to see Romanian troops out,”
he said.

Asked about the Iraqi transitional government’s request recently to
the U.N. Security Council for the extension of the deployment of
coalition forces, Basescu declined to say whether his country was
ready to accept an extended mandate.

Whether Romania would keep its troops in Iraq beyond the end of this
year as the current U.N. Security Council resolution mandates
“depends [on] how far the mandate would be extended,” Basescu said,
adding that he would analyze a new resolution once it comes to the
Security Council and would reach a conclusion based on consultations
with allies, including the United States and Japan.

Azerbaijani police force refugees off road after protest over eviction plans
By AIDA SULTANOVA

The Associated Press
06/02/05 12:19 EDT

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Azerbaijani police forced a crowd of angry
refugees off a road they had blocked Thursday to protest efforts
to evict them from the homes where they moved after being displaced
by war.

About 30 people, mostly women, blocked a road on the outskirts of the
capital Baku to try to attract the attention of President Ilham Aliev,
who they said often travels along the route.

Police physically forced the protesters off the road after they
refused to budge, and some said they were treated brutally. One woman
was bleeding from her chest and said she had been kicked and dragged
by police after fainting.

The protesters said they are being evicted from houses they moved
into after fleeing their homes over a decade ago during a war with
Armenian forces over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which drove about
1 million people from their homes.

Many Azerbaijanis displaced by the six-year war, which ended in a
cease-fire in 1994 and left Nagorno-Karabakh and a chunk of surrounding
territory in ethnic Armenian control, still live in temporary housing.

Protester Mirvari Agayeva said several displaced families had moved
into privately built homes they bought in 1993, along a railway line
used to transport oil products. But she said a nearby oil refinery
that claims to own the land has been trying to evict them for months.
They recently received letters from its director ordering them out
immediately, she said.

“Let them give us apartments and we will move out,” said Mirvari
Orujeva, a 66-year-old woman who lives with three of her nine children
and several of her 28 grandchildren in a cluster of small buildings
totaling seven rooms.

Liberation, France
jeudi 02 juin 2005

Livres
Histoire

Memoires armeniennes

Quatre ouvrages sur le genocide de 1915 montrent comment les
massacres furent planifies par l’Empire ottoman.

Par Marc SEMO

Victor Berard
La Politique du Sultan. Les massacres des Armeniens : 1894-1896 Le
Felin, 150 pp., 17, 95 ~@.
Peter BalaFkian
Le Tigre en flammes ; le genocide armenien et la reponse de
l’Amerique et de l’Occident Phebus, 502 pp., 22,50 ~@.
Annick Asso
Le Cantique des larmes. Armenie 1915, paroles de rescapes du genocide
La Table Ronde 291 pp., 21 ~@.
Bardig Kouyoumdjian et Christine Simeone
Deir-es-Zor. Sur les traces du genocide armenien de 1915
Actes-Sud/France Inter, 125pp. 22 ~@.

e martyre des populations armeniennes de l’Empire ottoman a commence
au moins vingt ans avant les deportations et les tueries
systematiques de 1915-1916 qui firent au moins un million de morts.
Les historiens s’accordent a dire aujourd’hui que ce fut le premier
genocide du XXe siècle. Meme en Turquie, le tabou se fissure et une
partie des intellectuels commencent a examiner cette page sombre du
passe alors qu’Ankara ne reconnait officiellement que 350 000
victimes et nie le caractère planifie du carnage. Parmi les nombreux
livres publies a l’occasion du 90e anniversaire du genocide se
detache notamment le recit de Victor Berard (1864-1931). Ce brillant
helleniste, fin connaisseur de l’Empire ottoman, raconte la genèse
dans les annees 1890 quand commencèrent les massacres aussi bien en
Anatolie orientale qu’a Istanbul de cette population chretienne
jusque-la plutôt privilegiee dans l’administration imperiale et
appelee “la nation fidèle”. Alors que la Russie avancait ses pions en
Transcaucasie et que naissaient les premiers groupes nationalistes
revolutionnaires armeniens, le paranoïaque sultan Abdul-Hamid II
lanca les persecutions.

L’ecrivain francais dresse un extraordinaire portrait de cet
autocrate sanguinaire, “devenu sultan par la grâce du meurtre et des
complots”, vivant perpetuellement dans la peur “qui l’a rendu prudent
et reflechi, finassier et cauteleux”. Victor Berard, qui connaît bien
la capitale de l’Empire, enquete sur les tueries de 1896 et note :
“Les massacres n’ont rien eu d’un mouvement populaire. Tout etait
prepare d’avance, assommeurs et bâtons, mouchards et charrettes. Tout
a marche et tout s’est arrete au premier signal. Tous ont respecte la
consigne : “le Maître (le sultan, ndlr) a permis de tuer les
Armeniens”.” Ce fut encore pire dans les provinces de l’Asie mineure
où, selon ses estimations, entre 1894 et 1896, “plus de 300 000 etres
humains ont ete tues car outre les assommades publiques, les
fusillades en bloc et les massacres a la lance et au sabre (…),
combien de femmes, d’enfants et de vieux crevant de misère et de faim
dans les champs non cultives et dans les villages infestes par
l’odeur des cadavres?”. Ces tueries annoncaient celles a venir.

“Les horreurs hamidiennes servirent l’idee que l’on pouvait massacrer
en toute impunite”, assure l’historien americain Peter Balakian,
soulignant que malgre l’indignation de la presse europeenne et
americaine, les chancelleries occidentales n’ont rien fait : “Cette
absence de reaction et de sanction politique laissa la voie libre au
sultan et la societe turque s’engagea dans une culture du massacre
qui deshumanisa les Armeniens au fil d’un processus evolutif qui
aboutira au genocide de 1915.” En 1908, Abdul-Hamid II fut depose et,
après une brève parenthèse democratique, l’Empire fut repris en main
par les très nationalistes “jeunes-turcs” du Comite Union et Progrès
qui renforcèrent l’alliance avec Berlin et Vienne. Ils entrèrent en
guerre a leurs côtes, mais cette aventure fut rapidement un fiasco.
Panique par l’avance tsariste et de possibles soulèvements des
Armeniens, qui voyaient les Russes comme des liberateurs, le
gouvernement “jeune-turc” decida de resoudre de facon definitive le
problème. Et ces horreurs ne restèrent pas limitees a l’Anatolie
orientale.

“Les conditions de la presente guerre ont ete utilisees par le Comite
Union et Progrès pour resoudre la question armenienne”, notait
cyniquement Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, vice-consul allemand a
Erzurum, ville de l’Est au coeur de la tragedie. Selon le livre
passionne de Peter Balakian, ces massacres se sont deroules devant de
nombreux temoins occidentaux, notamment americains, presents sur
place comme missionnaires ou enseignants. “La destruction de la race
armenienne progresse a grands pas”, note, desespere, l’ambassadeur
americain Henry Morgenthau dans un telegramme de septembre 1915. Le
New York Times consacra cette annee-la 145 articles, soit un tous les
deux jours et demi, a ces massacres, “organises par le gouvernement”
et evoquant “une campagne d’extermination systematique”. Les
autorites americaines ne firent pourtant pas grand-chose et entrèrent
finalement en guerre contre l’Allemagne et l’Autriche, mais pas
contre l’Empire ottoman, en esperant ainsi pouvoir continuer a
envoyer des aides d’urgence aux populations armeniennes. Cela ne fut
pas de grande utilite.

Bien que planifies par au moins une partie du gouvernement, les
massacres se deroulèrent dans le chaos. Les elites etaient eliminees
les premières par les gendarmes ou les “tchetes-tchetas”, ces tueurs
de l’Organisation speciale recrutes parmi les criminels. Ils
s’occupaient ensuite des autres hommes. Les rescapes de ces tueries,
pour la plupart des femmes et des enfants, partaient a pied en
longues colonnes sans cesse pillees et massacrees tout au long de cet
interminable exode vers la Mesopotamie. Les attaques etaient menees
par des bandes kurdes mais aussi par des Tchetchènes ou des
Circassiens qui se vengeaient sur les Armeniens des horreurs
infligees aux leurs par les Russes. Ce calvaire est raconte dans les
temoignages recueillis dans les bibliothèques ou dans des archives
familiales par Annick Asso “en hommage aux centaines de milliers de
morts restes sans sepulture”.

Les deportes qui echappèrent aux tueurs, aux maladies et a la mort de
faim arrivèrent jusqu’aux camps de Syrie, dont Deir-es-Zor. “Dans
cette region ont eu lieu les derniers massacres alors que
gouvernement jeune-turc avait accompli la tâche qu’il s’etait
assigne. Ici ce fut le terminus pour un peuple”, ecrit Christine
Simeone, decrivant comment “les Tchetchènes les depouillaient du peu
qui leur restait avant que les Bedouins ne les achèvent”. Elle a
accompagne le photographe Bardig Kouyoumdjian qui a parcouru ce bout
de desert et rencontre les enfants et petits-enfants des orphelins du
genocide recueillis par les Bedouins, souvent de force. “Visages
d’aujourd’hui descendant des enfants du desert, depouilles de leur
armenite, d’une identite dechiree reduite a des lambeaux de recit,
une image pieuse, un objet symbolique”, ecrit dans la preface
l’historien Yves Ternon evoquant “ces dernières mains tendues d’un
passe qui s’engloutit”.

–Boundary_(ID_DsjCvAjXltKj3M9SSK+Klw)–

ARMENIAN LOCAL ELECTIONS REMAIN INTRA-GOVERNMENT CONTESTS AMID OPPOSITION APATHY
By Emil Danielyan

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Jamestown Foundation
June 2 2005

Thursday, June 2, 2005

Over the past 15 years Armenians have grown accustomed to a great
variety of political groups vying for power in their country. They
must therefore be amazed by the glaring lack of choice in unfolding
local elections across Armenia, races that are largely contested
by candidates representing rival government factions or competing
business clans.

The Armenian opposition is again showing little interest in local
governments, adding to popular indifference to the polls. Opposition
leaders say that they want to concentrate their efforts on removing
President Robert Kocharian and that free elections are impossible
without regime change in Yerevan.

Elections in more than two-thirds of some 930 Armenian towns, villages,
as well as Yerevan districts are scheduled for this October. Most other
hamaynkner, or local communities, will elect their chief executives
and “councils of aldermen” in the course of this year. Some of them
have already done so in recent weeks.

Virtually none of those polls featured a major opposition candidate.
They were mostly two-horse races pitting candidates affiliated with
or endorsed by Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s Republican Party
of Armenia (HHK) against contenders backed by other pro-government
forces or wealthy individuals. One election, held in the northern town
of Alaverdi on May 8, was contested by two candidates representing
different HHK factions. The defeated candidate accused the winner,
Alaverdi’s incumbent mayor, of massive vote rigging.

Nonetheless, the Armenian authorities did manage to display unity
in some cases. Nobody, for example, dared challenge Markarian’s
27-year-old son Taron, who ran unopposed in Yerevan’s northern
Avan district. He was “elected” Avan prefect with 97% of the vote
on May 22, becoming the youngest head of a local government body
in the country. In fact, Taron Markarian told the 168 Zham weekly,
he would have an even higher government position were his father not
prime minister.

The election in Yerevan’s nearby Nork-Marash district, scheduled for
June 5, will also feature one candidate: its incumbent prefect. A local
businessman pulled out of the race at the last minute after failing
(for unknown reasons) to win the endorsement of the People’s Party
of Armenia (HZhK), one of the most popular opposition groups.

“We are not participating in those elections because we have no
candidates,” HZhK leader Stepan Demirchian said on May 11 without
elaborating. He said his party would instead field candidates for
the October polls.

Another prominent opposition leader, Aram Sarkisian, admitted that
his Republic party would not do even that, as party leaders believe
Armenian local elections cannot be democratic as long as Kocharian
is in power.

Haykakan Zhamanak, a daily staunchly opposed to Kocharian, deplored
this line of reasoning in a May 19 editorial. The paper wrote that
by letting the ruling regime maintain its grip on local communities
the opposition only lessens its chances of toppling the central
government. “Opposition parties now have trouble meeting people in the
regions, and one of the reasons for this is that government stooges
who become community prefects or village chiefs are duly following
government instructions,” it argued.

Nonetheless, money and control of electoral commissions do appear
to be the main factor deciding the outcome of those ballots. Most
Yerevan district chiefs and town mayors are wealthy, government-linked
persons who have extensive business interests in their respective
communities. For them, vote buying is the easiest way to get apathetic
and impoverished voters to the polling stations. The central
government usually turns a blind eye to their questionable activities
because the local bosses play an important role in manipulating
presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, another party represented
in Kocharian’s cabinet, has repeatedly expressed concern about the
growing influence of what it calls “apolitical elements.” One of its
leaders, Armen Rustamian, warned last February that failure to rein
them in and ensure the freedom and fairness of the October elections
could result in bloodshed.

Armenians may have received a taste of things to come on May 29,
when a mayoral election in Hrazdan, a town 50 kilometers north of
Yerevan, was marred by violence and fraud allegations. According
to official results, its incumbent mayor, Aram Danielian, narrowly
defeated his main challenger, Artur Shaboyan, who is not affiliated
with any party. Shaboyan refused to concede defeat.

As voting there drew to a close, scores of masked police officers
reportedly attacked and indiscriminately beat up Shaboyan’s proxies
and supporters outside three polling stations. Eyewitnesses said
the special police units used electric-shock equipment. More than a
thousand people rallied in Hrazdan the next day to demand a recount
of ballots.

“A new fact has emerged,” another newspaper, Aravot, reported from the
scene. “You don’t have to be an oppositionist in order to be beaten and
electrocuted. All you need is to protest against vote falsifications.”

(Aravot, May 31; Haykakan Zhamanak, May 24, May 19; 168 Zham, May 19;
RFE/RL Armenia Report, May 11)

MOSNEWS, Russia
June 2 2005

Moscow Girl Found Guilty of Killing Rapist
Created: 02.06.2005 18:00 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:00 MSK, 6 hours
ago

MosNews

A Moscow court Thursday sentenced Alexandra Ivannikova, a young Moscow
woman, to a two-year suspended sentence for killing a man who tried
to rape her. The court also ruled she should pay $9,000 to the family
of the attacker, Russian news agencies report.

A year and a half ago Ivannikova stopped a car in the street – a
common practice in Russia, where taxi services are less developed –
to travel home.

The driver, ethnic Armenian Sergei Bagdasaryan, drove her to a dark
side street instead, where he locked the car doors and demanded that
Ivannikova perform sexual intercourse with him, threatening that she
“will never be found” if she refused, Ekho Moskvy reported.

Bagdasaryan pulled down his trousers and underwear and reached for
the woman, but Ivannikova, who had already been raped once before,
was carrying a small kitchen knife in her purse. She stabbed the
driver in the hip and struck his femoral artery.

She then managed to escape from the car and call the police.

Ivannikova’s defense cited temporary insanity and self defense as
reasons for the incident. Experts also found alcohol in the driver’s
blood.

The defense called for Ivannikova, the mother of a young child,
to be acquitted. The prosecution demanded three years in prison for
the woman.

The court eventually found Ivannikova guilty and gave her a two-year
suspended sentence. The court also satisfied the rapist’s father’s
claim for $9,000 in moral and material damages.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 2 2005

AZERBAIJAN’S PRIME MINISTER MEET WITH PARTICIPANTS OF 3RD MEETING OF
COUNCIL OF THE HEADS OF CIS COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY CHAMBERS
[June 02, 2005, 17:57:42]

Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Artur Rasizade meet on June 2 with
the participants of 3rd Baku meeting of Council of the heads of CIS
Commerce and Industry Chambers, reports AzerTAj.

The Council’s members have informs the prime minister about the Baku
meeting’s agenda noted at the same time the high organizing level
of the event. They also have emphasized the active European Union –
CIS commerce and industry chambers cooperation necessity. Therefore
is very important to establish a new Center under the Council on
preparation of entrepreneurs.

Prime Minister Artur Rasizade has focused on the economic situation
in the country, and said that every year there are great GDP grow and
developing of the private sector has been noticed. The government keeps
also in the center of attention all social problems of population. The
country’s leadership is successfully implemented the global energy
projects. But unresolved up to now Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict over
Nagorno Karabakh still the republic’s main problem, said Mr. Rasizade.

Who will manage Ataturk Airport Terminals.

Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 @ 9:40 PM CEST by webmaster

Luchtzak Aviation, Belgium
June 2 2005

SN30952 writes “This are the firms that bid for the management
contract Ataturk Airport Terminals (tender scheduled for June 10.)
Here is the list:

Turkish Ictas operates Antalya Airport’s second international terminal
(AYT Terminal 2) and joins with british TBI (Luton Airport-Britain).

Turkish Celebi joins with german Fraport that manages Antalya
international lines terminal with turkish Bayindir.

Canadian company, SNC joins with french ADP (Aero de Paris) that
operates airports in France.

Malaysian Company KLI joins with italian ADR (Auroport Di Roma)
that operates Leonardo Da Vinci and Fiominico airport in Rome.

Alsim Alarko joins the bidding with argentinian Corporacion
America SA, owned by an Argentinean Armenian businessman. Eduardo
Eurnekian’s consortium operates 32 airports in Argentina and Zvartnots
International Airport in Armenia.

The company that provides the highest bid in a closed envelope bid
will win the lease for the international and domestic airport terminals
for a period of 15.5 years.”
From: Baghdasarian