AZG Armenian Daily #166, 16/09/2005
UN
ARMENIA AMONG UN CO-CHAIR COUNTRIES
60th session of the UN General Assembly opened in New York. UN Yerevan
office informed that the main committee of the General Assembly was elected
in the beginning of the sitting. The committee is going to work during the
whole session. Jan Eliasson from Sweden was elected the head of the
committee. Besides, 21 countries in chair were elected. Armenia is one of
these countries. It’s worth reminding that Armenia is represented by Prime
Minister Andranik Margarian.
UN Yerevan office also informed that the main six committees were elected.
They added that the fourth committee deals with special political and issues
of decolonization and Yashar Aliyev, permanent representative of Azerbaijan
to UN, leads that.
It is noteworthy that “the situation in occupied territories of Azerbaijan”
issue is included on the initial agenda of the general committee.

AZG Armenian Daily #166, 16/09/2005
Turkey-EU
AUSTRIA AGAINST TURKEY’S MEMBERSHIP TO EU
Erdogan Delivers Lessons of Morality to Europeans
Citing the CNN-Turk TV, Liberty Radio informed that Turkish PM strictly
criticized the EU member countries, which put forward new preconditions on
the eve of the membership negotiations with Turkey. “Turkey has committed
all of its commitments. Putting forward new demands after that, as well as
disputes on the eve of the negotiation process contradict the morality of
the international diplomacy,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in New York.
The British Guardian wrote in its September 14 issue that Austria stated on
October 3 that it is incorrect to unfold negotiations with Ankara. Vienna
considers it expedient to begin negotiations with its neighbor Christian
Croatia. Croatia was to begin membership negotiations in the spring of 2005,
but the process was delayed when Zagreb refused to hand Ante Gotovina,
criminal of Balkan wars, to the Court of Hague.
The Great Britain, as well as France agreed that Turkey should acknowledge
Cyprus to achieve EU membership.

Azerbaijani minister says elections will be free despite rigging charges
By DAVID KOOP
.c The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) – Azerbaijan’s foreign minister said Thursday that his
nation has made major steps toward holding free elections, despite
opposition charges the Nov. 6 vote will be rigged and rising
anti-government protests in this former Soviet republic.
Elmar Mammadyarov also played down prospects that the oil-rich Caspian
nation could see a popular uprising similar to those that have taken
place in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and
Kyrgyzstan.
“The government, and president himself, are committed to conducting
free and fair elections,” Mammadyarov told The Associated Press in
New York, where he was attending a U.N. summit.
“We have taken strong steps to meet international standards. This
vote will be much fairer than what we have done before,” he said.
The opposition had demanded that Azerbaijani election commission
members be fired in the wake of the fraudulent October 2003
presidential vote and municipal elections the following year, but the
government has refused to budge.
On Saturday, more than 2,000 orange-clad opposition members rallied in
the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, demanding that President Ilhan Aliev
resign and that authorities ensure that parliamentary elections in
November are free. Protests have become almost weekly affairs.
Azerbaijan formally launched the election campaign Wednesday after
authorities registered more than 2,000 candidates running for 125
parliament seats in the vote.
But an uprising that topples the government is considered unlikely,
The United States considers the mostly Muslim country of 8.3 million,
which has troops in Iraq, an important ally. And the West, which at
least tacitly supported the uprisings that ousted leaders in Georgia,
Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, has sunk large investments into energy
projects here.
Mammadyarov said the situation was different in Azerbaijan, with his
country in the process of a “political maturation process” and
called for protests to be peaceful.
“Protesters shouldn’t beat police and police shouldn’t beat
protesters,” he said
He said the Islamic militancy shaking the region isn’t a threat to the
vote. “So far we can handle it,” he said.
The foreign minister also said Azerbaijan was willing to contribute to
the world’s oil security and stabilize gasoline prices with its
reserves.
In May, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey opened the
$3.2 billion (euro2.62 billion) Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, sending the
first flow of Caspian Sea oil that is seen as key to reducing the
West’s reliance on Middle East oil.
The Caspian is thought to contain the world’s third-largest oil and
gas reserves, and Azerbaijan could be supplying up to 1.6 million
barrels a day by 2009-2010, he said.
With respect to Azerbaijan’s bitter dispute with Armenia over the
disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, Mammadyarov said a solution was
not near.
“I wish I could tell you that we are close to the breakthrough, but
in reality there are problems,” he said.
He said a recent meeting between the nations’ leaders created a
framework for negotiation. But he said the dispute needs leaders “who
think like statesman not politicians pursing national interests.”
Tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains high more than a decade
after a 1994 cease-fire ended a six-year war that left
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, in
Armenian hands.
The 1988-1994 war killed some 30,000 people and drove 1 million others
from their homes. The unresolved conflict damages both nations’
economies and raises the threat of renewed war.
09/15/05 20:52 EDT
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Representatives of ex-Soviet breakaway regions seek recognition,
closer ties with Russia
.c The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) – Representatives of four ex-Soviet breakaway regions
reiterated their intention Wednesday to seek international recognition
and closer ties with Russia, and a Russian lawmaker said it was high
time the provinces were recognized as sovereign states.
Officials and academics from Georgia’s breakaway provinces of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh disputed by
Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova met
at a conference in Moscow and pledged to pursue independence efforts.
Igor Akhba, Abkhazia’s envoy to Russia, said his region was determined
to become independent from Georgia and seek closer ties with Russia.
“The people of Abkhazia have voted for an independent republic of
Abkhazia, … we are building an independent, lawful state in
accordance with international law,” Akhba said.
Taimuraz Kokoyev, dean of the South-Ossetian University, said his
province also had similar aims and hoped one day to become part of
Russia.
“The people of South Ossetia have decided their destiny long ago
… the Ossetian people will keep seeking to join Russia,” Kokoyev
said.
Representatives from Nagorno-Karabakh and Trans-Dniester also said
they relied on Russia’s help in their efforts to win international
recognition.
All the regions broke away from central governments in separatist wars
in the early 1990s, cultivating close ties with Russia.
Konstantin Zatulin, a lawmaker from the Kremlin-backed United Russia
party, called the sovereignty of these entities a reality that should
be accepted. “Fighting with reality is as complicated as peeing
against the wind,” Zatulin said.
Modest Kolerov, a member of the Russian presidential administration
charged with regional relations, said all the ex-Soviet republics
needed to ensure freedom of speech, religion and citizenship to their
citizens.
“We are acting to provide these fundamental rights to our fellow
countrymen in the former Soviet republics,” the Interfax news agency
quoted Kolerov as saying.
09/14/05 10:01 EDT

Armenian angst_
yid050914-100101-3544r
By Michael Mainville
Special to The Washington Times
Published September 14, 2005
Naira Yeremyan knows her home doesn’t look like much, but it’s all she
has. A ramshackle collection of wooden boards, concrete slabs and
mismatched bricks, it sits amid the winding streets of Kond, a
desperately poor neighborhood perched on a hilltop overlooking the
Armenian capital, Yerevan.
What the neighborhood does have is a view.
Below Kond, Yerevan stretches out for miles before opening onto the
Armenian plain and the ice-capped peak of Mount Ararat in Turkey. That
view has wealthy property developers salivating over the prospect of
putting up luxury apartments in Kond. And it’s the bane of Miss
Yeremyan’s existence.
“This house is 60 years old, my grandfather and grandmother came here
to escape the genocide in Turkey. My mother was born here; I was born
here. This home is part of our family. And now they are saying we
cannot live here, that we have to leave and get almost nothing in
return,” said Miss Yeremyan, 37.
Three months ago, municipal authorities told the 14,000 residents of
Kond they would have to leave their homes by the end of the year to
make way for modern housing. They will be paid between $2,000 and
$5,000.
‘We’ll be homeless’
“You cannot buy a house anywhere in Yerevan for that amount. We are
going to be homeless. They are throwing us out on the streets,” said
Miss Yeremyan, who shares the house and a monthly pension of about $30
with her 63-year-old mother.
Miss Yeremyan has organized sit-ins, petitions and court challenges,
but her protests are ignored. “The authorities will not listen to us,”
she said. “There are corrupt and influential people behind this, and
they can do whatever they want.”
Kond is not unique. Armenians across the country face the same
obstacles: crippling poverty, endemic corruption and powerlessness in
the face of what critics say is an increasingly authoritarian
government.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. At independence after the breakup
of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia seemed a dream come true for a
people with a tragic history. Less than a century after the Armenian
genocide of 1915-18, when between 500,000 and 1.5 million Armenians
were killed in the Ottoman Empire, the world’s 4-million-strong
Armenian diaspora finally had a national homeland.
Money has poured in to rebuild the country, especially from America’s
million Armenians and the U.S. government. According to the State
Department, Armenia receives more U.S. aid per capita than any other
county except Israel. With wealthy backing and strong grass-roots
support, Armenian-Americans form one of the most effective and
well-organized ethnic lobbies on Capitol Hill.
When the White House tried to reduce U.S. assistance to Armenia this
summer, Congress blocked the move, bumping up the Bush
administration’s allocation of $55 million to $75 million for 2006.
President dominates
But instead of thriving — and despite U.S. aid — Armenia has
languished. Its politics are moribund, dominated by President Robert
Kocharian, whom critics accuse of falsifying elections and cracking
down on the opposition. Despite economic growth in recent years, the
economy remains in shambles and half the population lives on less than
$2 a day.
The result has been an exodus, the reverse of early hopes for Armenia.
Instead of hundreds of thousands of dispersed Armenians flocking to
their homeland, more than 1 million Armenians have left for Russia and
the West. According to some estimates, the country has lost more than
30 percent of its working-age population.
“People are leaving because they don’t see any hope for the future,”
said Avetik Ishkanyan, chairman of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia,
a human-rights group. “And the worst part is that the ones who are
leaving are from the most active part of society — these are the
people we need to bring about changes in this country.”
Critics lay much of the blame at Mr. Kocharian’s feet. They say the
president — elected for a second time in 2003 — is running a corrupt
and despotic regime, giving free rein to businessmen close to him and
stifling any dissent.
“There is a huge gap between those in power and the majority of
Armenian society,” said Stepan Demirchian, leader of the opposition
Justice coalition and son of a Kocharian rival killed in 1999 when
gunmen attacked parliament and shot several prominent
politicians. “And when we try to resist, when we try to bring
democratic change, they respond with violence.”
In April 2004, inspired by the peaceful Rose Revolution in neighboring
Georgia, thousands of Armenians took to the streets to denounce
Mr. Kocharian and reputed vote fraud in 2003 elections. After more
than 50,000 people demonstrated on April 12 and 13, the president sent
the police to break up the protest with stun grenades and water
cannons.
Hundreds arrested
“More than 600 citizens were arrested; political party offices were
ransacked; journalists were beaten,” Mr. Demirchian said. “And, after
all these acts of violence, the authorities tell us we have to be
patient, that it is a long road to democracy.” Government officials
insist the crackdown was necessary to maintain order and that
opposition parties are simply trying to seize power.
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan says the opposition uses the pretense
of supporting democracy to gain support abroad as it attempts to
overthrow the government. He says he knows that Armenia’s democracy is
not perfect, but claims it is improving.
“The government is stable and the country is on the path to becoming a
fully democratic country,” he said. “A lot has been done, but a lot
remains to be done.” Under pressure from the West, Armenia will hold a
national referendum this year on a package of constitutional
amendments designed to limit the power of the presidency and protect
judicial independence. Mr. Oskanyan says the reforms will be key to
ensuring democratic growth.
“Once we complete our constitutional reforms, Armenia will move
forward in leaps and bounds,” he said.
Opposition leaders see things differently. They say the reforms are
only symbolic, and see the referendum as a potential trigger for the
kind of mass protests that drove out authoritarian governments in
Georgia and Ukraine.
Aram Sarkisian, the leader of the radical Republic Party, said
opposition parties are gearing up to organize mass demonstrations
after the referendum, which he contends is sure to be fraudulent.
“The situation in our country is terrible. People are leaving because
they have no hope,” he said.
“Armenian society is ready for revolutionary change — peaceful and
civilized change.”
Mr. Sarkisian said he met with White House and State Department
officials during a June trip to Washington and emerged confident of
American support for a revolution.
“The United States supported the Georgians and the Ukrainians, and
they will help the Armenian people,” he said.
Still, experts say it’s unlikely the opposition could organize a
successful revolution or win Western support. Fractured by infighting
and with no clear leader, the opposition is more likely to fall apart
before posing any threat to Mr. Kocharian.
“The opposition is too weak, and the government is just democratic
enough to keep the West from supporting drastic changes,” said a
Western official in Yerevan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Some decide to stay
Chatting over rich coffee and ice-cold Coca-Cola in Yerevan’s trendy
ArtBridge Cafe, a group of students and recent graduates agreed that a
revolution is next to impossible.
Unlike so many other young Armenians, they’ve decided to stay and try
to build their country.
“I will not leave Armenia. I want do to things for my country, make it
a better place to live,” said Artak Ayunts, 26, a university
lecturer. But the group was skeptical about radical change. They don’t
believe Armenians are ready for a revolution, and say it could take
decades of slow progress before the country is free and relatively
prosperous.
“People don’t believe in themselves. They think someone else should
always make changes for them,” said Mr. Ayunts.
“The biggest problem with Armenia is the Armenians,” joked philosophy
student Gevorg Abrahamyan, 28.
News World Communications, Inc.

PUBLICATION OF “ARTICLES. INTERVIEWS. SPEECHES” BOOK BY
ARTASHES GEGHAMYAN
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14. ARMINFO. “Articles. Interviews. Speeches” book
by Armenia’s NA deputy, leader of “National Unity” party Artashes
Geghamyan (500 copies) was presented today in Yerevan. Numerous
interviews, articles and speeches of Geghamyan at various
international forums, during his pre-electoral campaign, meetings
with electors and speeches in the Parliament within last 30 years
have been included in the book. Armenia’s NA deputies and
representatives of country’s public organizations took part at the
presentation ceremony.

Panel passes resolutions calling Armenian killings ‘genocide’
Thursday, September 15, 2005
(09-15) 14:40 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) —
Over the strong objections of President George W. Bush’s
administration, a congressional panel Thursday endorsed two
resolutions denouncing the deaths of Armenians early last century as
genocide ‘ a sensitive issue in relations with Turkey.
The House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee voted
35-11 to approve a resolution calling on Turkey to acknowledge the
culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman empire in the
1915-1923 killings.
A second resolution passed 40-7, calling for U.S. foreign policy to
reflect an understanding of the Armenian genocide and for the
president to recognize the deaths as genocide.
It is not clear if or when the resolutions will be brought before the
full House of Representatives.
Armenians say that Ottoman Turks caused the deaths of 1.5 million in a
planned genocide. Turkey said the toll is wildly inflated and
Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the collapse
of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks also fear that Armenia will use the
genocide claims to make territorial demands against Turkey.
The State Department sent a letter to committee members saying the
debate “could damage U.S.-Turkish relations and could undermine
progress by Ankara and Yerevan as they begin quiet talks to address
the issue and look to the future.”
Turkey is an important strategic U.S. ally. It is a democratic,
secular Muslim state bordering on Iraq and a NATO member. The
relationship, though, has been strained since Ankara refused to allow
U.S. troops in the country for the Iraq war.
The State Department said the “resolutions could undermine efforts to
rebuild a partnership between the United States and Turkey in pursuit
of America’s broad national security interests in the eastern
Mediterranean, Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East.”
The sponsor of the first resolution, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, said
he was sensitive to Turkey’s importance and that he considers it an
ally of the United States.
But “that alliance cannot be used as a tool to escape from the past no
matter how uncomfortable that past is,” said Schiff, whose California
district includes tens of thousands of Armenians.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., the panel’s top Democrat, said he was
reversing his own position in supporting the resolution. He said
though Turkey was a good friend, it needed to show more solidarity
with the United States on important matters, noting the issue of
U.S. troops, among others.
The committee’s Republican Chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, said he doubted
the relationship with Turkey would be harmed and stressed the
resolutions do not hold Turkey or the Turkish people accountable for
the killings. He said the resolutions “merely recognize the fact that
the authorities of the Ottoman Empire deliberately slaughtered the
majority of the Armenian community in their empire.”
“Denial of that fact cannot be justified on the basis of expediency or
fear that speaking the truth will do us harm,” he said.

Ad in Australia draws anger from Turkish community
Source: Australian Insult?
An Australian recyclable paper firm has caused widespread outrage and
anger with an advertisement using four members of the Melbourne
Turkish community. In a picture imitating the famous cover of the
Beatles’ Abbey Road album, the four Turkish men are shown crossing a
street, following eachother on a crosswalk. Underneath, the legend
says “We get enough rubbish from overseas without importing recycled
paper.”
The four men in the picture have complained that they were not told
prior to the photoshoot what would be written underneath the picture.
The firm, called Reflex, has yet to comment on the matter.
One of the four men, 52 year old Ismet Gungordu, who emigrated to
Australia 25 years ago, said he and his friends were tricked: “They
promised us $3,200 all together, and said it would be an entertaining
photo shoot. In around 2 hours, they shot 200 pictures of us. We
thought everything had gone well. Then we saw the ad. They have put
us in a strange position. I don’t know whether there are Armenians or
Greeks who are against Turkey in the ad firm. Whether or not we should
open a court case against them, and what we should do, I am not sure.”
Hurriyet, 16 September 2005
Journal of Turkish Weekly

Azeri pressure group desecrates British memorial
ANS TV, Baku
15 Sep 05
A group of members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization’s [KLO]
youth council have spattered black paint over the monument to British
soldiers [who fought against Turkish troops in 1918] not far from the
Martyrs’ Avenue.
This was done in protest against another visit by Deputy Speaker of
the British House of Lords Baroness Caroline Cox to [the breakaway
region of] Nagornyy Karabakh.
The KLO demanded that the memorial be removed from the Martyrs’ Avenue
and that Cox stop her visits to Nagornyy Karabakh.
[Assa-Irada news agency, Baku, in Russian 0400 gmt 14 Sep 05 said that
Cox has become the “tool of Armenia’s propaganda machine”]

Azeri president, Asian Development Bank official discuss ties
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
14 Sep 05

Text of report by Azerbaijani private TV station ATV on 14 September
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received the executive director of
the Asian Development Bank, Paul Speltz, today. The president praised
a high level of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the organization
and expressed the hope that joint projects would be implemented in the
future as well.
Aliyev said that although Armenia’s aggression had been a serious blow
to Azerbaijan’s economy, the country managed to make progress over the
past several years.
For his part, the guest thanked the president for creating conditions
to work in Azerbaijan and spoke about some plans.