AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Aug 15 2005
ISSUES OF INTEGRATION OF AZERBAIJAN TO EU STRUCTURES DISCUSSED
[August 15, 2005, 23:06:06]
Foreign minister of the Azerbaijan Republic Elmar Mammadyarov on 15
August met the delegation headed by the secretary of state of the
Swedish Premier office Lars Danielsson, now visiting the country.
Noting that the key goal of the visit is to have comprehensive
information on the current situation in the country, discuss
opportunities for bilateral relations between two countries, Mr. Lars
Danielsson expressed pleasure to visit Azerbaijan.
Minister Mammadyarov highlighted on the economic and socio-political
situation in the Republic, on the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh
conflict and current status of the peace negotiations to resolve the
question, on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum
gas and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars transport large-scale energy and transport
projects, as well as on the works to integrate to the Europe and
Euro-Atlantic structures as priorities of the foreign policy of
Azerbaijan.
Minister Mammadyarov informed that Armenia has occupied 20 percent of
territory of the country, and pursued the policy of ethnic cleanse,
underlining necessity of resolution to the problem in the frame of
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and noted that the occupation
factor is inadmissible in the XXI century, and that the problem
should find its solution in peace way and negotiations. Existent
of conflict in the region is major obstacle for integration to the
European structures, Mr. Mammadyarov emphasized.
The Minister spoke of the prospects of the cooperation of Azerbaijan
with the European structures, its steps made towards the “New
Neighboring Policy of Europe” and participation of the country in
the frame of NATO’s PfP program, as well as the democratic society
building process in the Republic.
In the meeting, also were exchanged views on a number of other
questions of regional and international significance, the reforms in
UN, humanitarian and social-economic situation in the Northern Cyprus
and others.

The Ottawa Sun
August 9, 2005 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
COURT TOLD OF HORRIFIC CAR ATTACK;
EX-BOYFRIEND WANTED TO KILL ME: DOC
BY DEREK PUDDICOMBE, OTTAWA SUN
A HEALTH Canada employee says she felt like a caged animal waiting
to be slaughtered at any moment as her former lover continually
threatened to kill her if she didn’t continue their relationship.
Three months after Lillian Arakelyan, 39, said she broke off what
she called an abusive and controlling relationship with her Armenian
boyfriend living in the U.S., he was back in Ottawa waiting for her
in an underground parking lot at her Cooper St. apartment building —
the spot where she says a brutal attack and assault took place.
Arakelyan said she had just got into her car on the morning of Aug.
3, 2004 and was about to close the car door when Gagik Artsrunyan
grabbed her and pulled her from the vehicle.
THROWN, KICKED, PUNCHED
“He grabbed me and dragged me to his car and threw me in the back
seat of his car,” said Arakelyan, who described to the court how she
was repeatedly kicked and punched during the alleged attack.
After the struggle she broke free, but said the accused caught up
with her, began to choke her, and again dragged her to his car.
Breaking free, she managed to make it to her car and began to drive
away. But she said the accused again caught up with her and jumped
into the back seat area, where he proceeded to punch her in the back
of the head.
“He was threatening to kill me and said nobody leaves him and that
he would follow me everywhere,” said Arakelyan.
Managing to drive to the Ottawa police station on Elgin St., Arakelyan
got the attention of two officers.
Arakelyan said her former boyfriend told police he only wanted to
retrieve a few belongings from her home. With promises to leave
Arakelyan alone and leave the country, he left.
However, for the next three days Arakelyan, a Canadian citizen
since 2001 after arriving in the capital from Armenia to complete
post-graduate work at the University of Ottawa, said her life was a
living nightmare.
‘I FELT TRAPPED’
The foreign-trained physician told the court that Artsrunyan hadn’t
left the country and had made dozens of phone calls and visits to
her home and witnessed him sitting in a car outside her home.
“I didn’t want to leave my apartment and I felt trapped fearing for
my life,” Arakelyan told Crown prosecutor Walter Devenz.
Arakelyan told the court she first met Artsrunyan in Armenia when
she was 16, but hadn’t heard from him since arriving in Canada seven
years ago.
She said he contacted her in May or June 2003, suggesting they start
a relationship.
After some hesitation, a relationship ensued with Artsrunyan, living
in Portland, Ore., at the time, but the affair quickly deteriorated.
Artsrunyan is charged with two counts of criminal harassment, three
counts of uttering threats and forcible confinement and assault.
The trial continues today.

Just-style.com, UK
Aug 15 2005
TURKEY: Akdas Group Eyes US, China Markets
15 Aug 2005
Turkish men’s suit maker Akdas Group is eyeing expansion to the US
and China as part of an international growth plan.
The company has set a target of 2010 for its launch onto the US and
Chinese markets.
The expansion strategy also involves boosting stores in Turkey to 50
by the end of this year and to 70 by 2007, with an eventual total of
250 stores internationally planned.
The company recently opened a new factory in Istanbul, Turkey, which
will be a base for overseas growth.
Akdas owns the Crispino brand, one of the biggest clothing names
in Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
August 15, 2005
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected]; Web:
Ambassador Markarian Meets U.S. Ex-Im Bank Acting President
On August 12, 2005, Ambassador Tatoul Markarian met with James
H. Lambright, Chairman and Acting President of the U.S. Export Import
Bank and discussed prospects for U.S.-Armenian trade relations and
the potential for the Bank’s programs in Armenia.
Mr. Lambright acknowledged Armenia’s progress in economic reforms
and positive macroeconomic trends, noting that Export-Import Bank
had announced in March the availability of short-term and medium-term
financing for Armenia’s public sector as well. Ambassador Markarian
presented Armenia’s current economic and legal reforms, and the
efforts by the Government of Armenia to promote trade and investment.
It was agreed to work together to promote Ex-Im Bank’s programs in
Armenia and to review Armenia’s risk classification in international
institutions to better reflect the country’s significant achievements
in securing macroeconomic stability and fostering double-digit
economic growth.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijani Official Accuses Opposition of Plotting Coup
CRI, China
Aug 15 2005
2005-8-16 2:36:24 CRIENGLISH.com
Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov accused the opposition
Monday of planning to stage a coup, saying any such attempt will
be foiled.
The prosecutor general warned the opposition that “the Azerbaijani
authorities are strong enough and any such unconstitutional attempts
will be thwarted by legal means.”
Tensions in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation are running high ahead
of the November parliamentary elections.
Former president Ayaz Mutalibov and former parliamentary speaker Rasul
Guliyev, both of whom are living abroad, have announced plans to run
in the elections.
Garalov said Mutalibov and Guliyev will be arrested if they return
to Azerbaijan.
Mutalibov, who took the helm of Azerbaijan after the country gained
independence in the early 1990s, is accused of grave crimes that
include losing Azerbaijani territories to Armenia in the armed conflict
over the disputed, mostly ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Guliyev, who now heads the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, faces
large-scale misappropriation charges.

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
by Christopher Hutsul, Toronto Star
The Toronto Star, Canada
August 14, 2005 Sunday
Sako Ghanaghounian saunters through Kensington Market with his chin up,
a good 15 paces ahead of his mom and dad. En route from his home on
Kensington Ave. to daycare on Bellevue Ave. on a hot summer morning,
the five-year-old greets his friends with the grace of a nobleman. They
all know his name.
“Buenos dias, Tony,” says Sako without stopping.
“Buenos dias, Sako,” responds the fruit vendor, jostling pineapples.
Heading northbound, Sako sidesteps two drunks outside a bar, presses
his face against the window of the butcher shop, waves at Rita, then
steps into the bakery for his usual morning snack – a spinach bagel.
He breezes through waves of fish smell, tromping with sandalled feet
on sidewalks slick with brown stuff leaking from garbage bags and the
occasional oily mash of errant vegetables. He plunks himself down at
Louie’s coffee shop, where Ozzie pours him a tall cup of tap water,
just as he does every morning.
The children who grow up here, the princes and princesses of
Kensington, the market rats, experience a childhood as unique as the
market itself.
What was once a Jewish market, a place to buy poultry and dry goods,
has become a melee of cultures and lifestyles. The pioneers of this
place were the owners of the trendy T-shirt shops, hipster furniture
stores and punk-rock watering holes. Now artists and hippies share
the sidewalks with bullhorn-wielding socialists and teenaged bargain
hunters. This is a village where rich and poor, chic and crazy,
young and old, bump bumpers and bike wheels, finding, miraculously,
a way to get along.
Sako, for instance, was there when market residents and vendors
protested the opening of a Nike-owned store on Augusta Ave. a few
years ago. Residents believed the store’s presence compromised the
independent spirit of the market, and took issue with the company’s
questionable labour practices. Sako was too young to know what was
going on, but his mother, sociologist Mai Phan, wanted to immerse
him in the spirit of activism that flavours market life.
There are other eclectic neighbourhoods in the city, to be sure,
but none could claim to be quite as socially and culturally diverse
as Kensington – especially by day, when merchants from a variety of
backgrounds take to their stores in a community already rich with
Portuguese, Chinese and Vietnamese residents. The Danforth, Chinatown
and Little Italy – all vibrant neighbourhoods – are ethnic cliques
by comparison. Kensington Market, nestled between busy streets,
is emblematic of Canada’s vision of a cultural mosaic.
Love it or hate it, the market captures our imagination, and occupies
a sense of Toronto folklore, past and present. In her novel The Way
the Crow Flies, Ann-Marie MacDonald describes Kensington Market as
experienced by a child.
“The sights and the sounds envelop her, she is comforted by the
ramshackle opulence of it all,” writes MacDonald. “Feathers lilt up
with the breeze of passing feet, narrow streets are gridlocked with
cars at the mercy of pedestrians as disregarding as pigeons. Madeline
looks up; buds are on the trees and the thousand market smells have
begun to blossom too in the warmth of the April noon…”
The market, as described here, is not the cleanest place to raise
a child. In fact, it’s filthy. It isn’t the most restful either.
Rather, it’s hectic day and night and the air is filled with hoots
and honking. It probably isn’t even the safest place. There’s crack
cocaine and petty theft and heavy street traffic.
It would be no place for a child – if not for the colour, the energy,
the art and the diversity.
I spent some time with people who grew up here or who raise children
here to gain an understanding of what the world looks like when home
is Toronto’s famous Kensington Market.
Michele Gould and her daughter, Maizy, couldn’t have picked a worse
time to move into the market. In the days of Toronto’s infamous
garbage strike the market was at its rankest.
Maizy’s folks had moved into the market in 2002 not because they
loved it, but because it made good business sense. Maizy’s dad had
just opened a hair salon on St. Patrick St. and figured if rent
got too steep, he could move the salon into the main floor of their
Kensington Ave. home.
Early on, when Maizy was a baby, it seemed like a mistake.
“When I first moved here, I asked Paul, ‘Why did you drag me to the
armpit of Toronto?'” says Michele. “The whole place (stank).”
But the garbage strike ended, Maizy grew up, and Michele became
acquainted with the merchants. The guys at Casa Acoreana always snuck
Maizy a cookie, and Tony at the fruit market always greeted her with
a shiny apple. Michele’s trepidation melted away. She began to get
the feeling that people were looking out for her family. It reminded
her of the small Newfoundland town she’d grown up in.
“It started to sink in slowly. Little things … like how every Friday
my neighbours and I would gather on our porch for a barbecue to make
as much noise as we could because we had to rival the noise coming
from the Last Temptation,” a local bar, she says laughing. “I think
it’s really cool.”
So does Maizy. The rambunctious little four-year-old kid with an
untameable head of blonde hair lives in a community of artists and
therefore sees the world as a place for expression. For role models
Maizy has to go no farther than Rain, who lives on the ground floor.
Twentysomething Rain, eternally stylish, is an interpretive dancer,
visual artist and fixture at the city’s coolest art parties. Among
other things, she makes small doughnuts out of fabric. She’s idolized
by young Maizy.
“Whenever Maizy plays dress-up, she runs down to Rain’s apartment,”
says Michele. “She wants to show off her outfit.”
And there’s no shortage of other kids to hang out with. There’s
Sako next door, and Molly across the street. Up the way lives Jason,
the rugged tyke whose parents run a fruit shop.
“He’s kind of the street boss,” laughs Michele.
Next year, Maizy will have to venture outside the market. She’s
enrolled in school that has a French immersion program. There’s a
chance they could move.
“I ran the idea of selling the house by her, and she was freaking out,”
says Michele. “She loves it here and never wants to leave.”
That makes Michele uncomfortable. She knows her daughter feels safe
and loved in this neighbourhood, but would hate for it to become a
crutch. “I see some of the kids who have grown up in the market and
never left. So I wonder sometimes if Kensington kids become Kensington
adults. I wonder if it’s actually opening doors or closing them.”
Seth Scriver – a man known better in some circles simply as Seth –
graduated from Kensington kid to Kensington adult when he returned
from a stint at art school in Halifax a couple of years ago. Today,
the 27-year-old lives across the street from his childhood home.
The decision to settle here doesn’t seem to have closed doors for
Scriver. He is a celebrated artist and illustrator, and a sock-puppet
maker. In his drawings and paintings, hairy critters, bulbous monsters
and googly-eyed amoeba frolic in sparse landscapes. This is what you
might draw after spending your life in the midst of the characters who
roam the streets of Kensington. A suited white man is more likely to
turn heads here than squeegee kids with foot-high Mohawks, dreadlocked,
and the caped guy who looks like Gandalf The Grey.
“I was definitely influenced by the people walking around in the
market and the people who came into my parents’ store,” says Seth,
who is friendly and soft-spoken.
Like other kids here, Seth spent his summers in the eighties helping
out in his parents’ store, in his case, the vintage shop Courage My
Love. It wasn’t child labour, just part of his daily chores.
He roamed free in the market with his older sister. They busked at the
corner of Baldwin St. and Kensington Ave., and spent their earnings
on plantain cakes from a Jamaican shop. They played baseball in the
alleyways, mostly with Chinese kids. Seth didn’t actually realize
that he wasn’t Chinese until he was older.
He remembers seeing more animals in the area back then: chickens,
rabbits and other live things for sale.
Plus, there were musicians, painters and craftsmen from around the
world. There was also graffiti.
“I grew up with graffiti all around me and I just thought it was a part
of everyday life, so one day, I just started adding my own,” says Seth.
The graffiti led to drawing and painting, and, eventually, a blossoming
career.
“If I’d lived anywhere else, I don’t think I would have been the same
artist,” he smiles.
For a young Oswald Pavao, the world was split in two. There was
Kensington Market, and everything outside Kensington Market.
Pavao takes a break from his office – the espresso kiosk at the
corner of Augusta and Baldwin – to reflect on a childhood that began
in Portugal, and unfolded in the heart of the market in the late ’60s.
He was 2 when his family left Portugal. They gravitated to Kensington
Market, where they established Casa Acoreana, which has become a
staple of the market, famous for its coffee, bulk candy and spices.
While his parents tended the shop, Pavao explored.
“I tried all the food,” he laughs. “My favourite were the potato
latkes. I couldn’t get enough of those. And the debrezini sausages,
I’d never have that back home.”
The story of his arrival to Kensington from a foreign land is a common
one. After the original Jewish community that established the market in
the early 1900s began to gravitate north in the ’50s, the area became
a kind of ethnic revolving door, accommodating immigrants – Italians,
Ukrainians, Portuguese, Vietnamese and people from Caribbean nations
– as they arrived in waves from their homelands. Today, the market’s
diversity reflects the various cultures that have made their way here
since the mid-century.
But none of that mattered to a young Pavao, who saw the market as a
playground. His mother knew that at any given time, he’d be playing
floor hockey at St. Christopher House, or a game called “Hot Beans”
in the park. (The game required a player to chase his opponents,
attempting to whip them in the pants with a previously hidden belt
before they reached a safety zone). At Christmas, he and his buddies
went door to door collecting canned goods for the food bank. He
did these things with children from a range of ethnic backgrounds –
Chinese, Jewish, black – never knowing that racism existed.
“Everybody treated everybody with respect,” says Pavao. “To see that at
a young age makes you colour-blind. You could try to tell a kid that
grows up there that there’s a difference, and he won’t see it because
he’s colour-blind. This is peaceful. This is like heaven on earth.”
Pavao realized at some point that the diversity and openness he
experienced in his day-to-day life didn’t always extend beyond the
borders of the market.
“We didn’t have an image that we had to live up to,” he says. “You
didn’t have to be a certain way or act a certain way. We could just
say, hey this is who I am. You don’t like the way I dress, that’s
fine, that’s your problem. “It’s just a different atmosphere out in
the real world. Out there, sometimes you go to say hi to someone in
the morning and they look like they’re going to punch your eyes out.
Or I’d hear the N-word, and I’d think, give it a rest. Those are
things that I don’t see here.”
Scott Schieman, a professor of sociology at University of Toronto,
would agree.
“Kids who grow up here would be more tolerant because of the exposure
to diversity,” says Schieman, “and because they’re used to sharing
space with all different types of people.”
Though the market has Jewish roots, it’s taken the form of a kind of
culinary United Nations in recent years. Cultures ranging from Lebanese
to Ethiopian to Mexican to Vietnamese to Armenian are represented here.
Schieman lives near the market, but not in it. He studies
neighbourhoods and their effect on people’s well-being. He says the
market is a vibrant, stimulating place to grow up. Schieman says
the market is also unique in its physical structure and economics.
Whereas other busy parts of town, like the Beaches or Annex, have
busy thoroughfares (Queen St. E., Bloor St.) as their focal points,
Kensington Market is a network of narrow streets, tucked away from
the thoroughfare. All of which gives the impression of a village.
It’s the energy in the streets that makes the market special, says
Schieman. People are less private here. They spill out of their tiny
homes, let life unfold on the streets.
“Sociologists have for a long time been interested in the way a
city’s composition and structure influence the quality of the social
relationships. And it always comes back to, when people are out on
streets, they’re connecting with other people …”
Schieman believes the market’s cultural climate has allowed independent
businesses to flourish, which has led to tight bonds and a heightened
sense of community.
“Rather than going into a Wal-Mart where people don’t know you,
you’re making ties with neighbours and friends, establishing bonds,”
says Schieman.
Despite the blissfulness of Maizy’s childhood and that of her friends,
this neighbourhood is hardly problem-free. Kensington Market is a
gritty place. Fatima Alves, who has worked with kids in the market
over the past 30 years, has seen it all.
It’s naptime in the day care room at St. Stephens Community Centre,
so Alves speaks softly. She doesn’t want to rouse the resting children.
Leafing through a book of old photographs, she leans over to show
me the black-and-white picture of a small fruit shack. “This was my
uncle’s store,” she tells me. “I used to love coming to the market
to visit him. I always felt special here.”
As the child-care director for the centre, Alves has worked with
generations of children, and says the market offers both challenges
and rewards. “These children have a neighbourhood focus … and they
have street smarts.”
Street smarts are important for children here.
It isn’t a place to roam free. Alves stopped taking the kids to tiny
Sonya Park – which is more of a narrow indentation between homes than
a green space – on Oxford St two years ago because there were too many
drunks sprawled out on the playground equipment. You couldn’t play
there without bumping into a homeless person. Now they visit Bellevue
Park, which is larger, but still a gathering spot for homeless people,
squeegee kids and drunks.
“We find it’s hard to get the park sometimes,” says Alves. “It belongs
to everyone, not just us, so a lot of things go on that we’re not
crazy about. There have been some times that we’ve had to leave
earlier than we wanted to.”
These challenges aren’t restricted to the park. One time, they
spotted a man who appeared to be mentally ill outside the day care,
masturbating on a bench. They put a flowerpot in the window to obscure
the view.
“It’s such a diverse neighbourhood that occasionally you get weird
things happening,” says Alves. “But you can’t get too uptight
about it.”
“This is the focal point of the market,” says Toronto Police Sgt.
Daryle Gerry, hopping off his patrol bicycle in Bellevue Park. “You
get all different groups in here. You get children playing, homeless
people hanging out in the corner drinking wine. You get artists,
musicians, people smoking pot …”
Just as he says this, a shirtless, bearded man across the park starts
hollering obscenities at no one in particular. Gerry excuses himself
to tend to the man.
“You get some guys like that,” says Gerry, upon returning from an
attempt to pacify the man. “He obviously has mental problems.”
Gerry has been patrolling the area for five years. He’s says there’s
been a drop in the presence of crack cocaine in the area since they
shut down a crack house a few months ago. Save for petty theft,
there’s little crime in the area. He says it’s a safe place to live,
as long as you don’t mind the odd encounter with characters like the
yeller – not to mention the scent of marijuana.
“Sometimes you have to put up with foul language and criminal activity
in the park, but I’d say it’s a safe place. It has its moments,
just like any other place.”
At 4, Sako has already seen so much – the beauty of cultural diversity
and art, and the struggles of homelessness and mental illness. It’s
all on display in the market, and all a mother can do is try her best
to explain what these things are as they arise.
“I don’t think I could have been as good a mother in another
environment,” says Mai Phan, Sako’s mother, sitting on her front stoop,
which the family shares with a vintage clothes store. “The market
provides an opportunity to teach Sako about life and different kinds
of people … and how to avoid certain things without being scared
of them.
“You can talk to a child about drugs or crazy people or homelessness,
but if you talk about it abstractly, if it’s something they don’t see,
they’re going to be afraid of it.
“If they see it with their own eyes, they’re less fearful – it’s less
intimidating. You can talk about those things honestly.”
Maizy’s mother, Michele, feels the market works both ways. “She gets
tons and tons of love from lots of people, but I sometimes worry that
she’s seeing too much. I’ve seen people doing crack behind the house.
It bothers me, but at the same time, that’s just life. There’s a
balance. I know that people around me care for Maizy and look out
for her, and not every neighbourhood is like that.”
Mai knows when Sako is older, he will face a world outside the market
that’s tenser, more homogenized and less colourful.
“If this is his first reference point, then the suburban lifestyle
will be an eye-opener for him,” says Mai, who grew up in Etobicoke.
“For those of us who didn’t grow up here, this is novel. But for them,
this is normal.
“I’m confident this is the best place we could could have found for
Sako to get him started. Anywhere we go from now, he has that strong
foundation, he could adapt to anywhere. He won’t be afraid of people
or new situations, he likes trying knew things … It has a lot to
do with the fact that we have lived here.”
On an early evening stroll to the ice cream shop, Sako delivers his
final round of hellos to the merchants of his neighbourhood. They’re
closing shop, sweeping the sidewalks, and drawing the shutters.
“Buenos dias, Tony,” says Sako to the fruit vendor.
“No, Sako,” says Tony. “It’s buenas noches. That means good evening.”
For the prince of this village, it’s a good evening indeed.
Kensington “You can talk to a child about drugs or crazy people
or homelessness. If they see it with their own eyes, they’re less
fearful.”
– Sako’s mother, Mai Phan
Kensington “I’m confident this is the best place we could have found
for Sako to get him started.”
Mai Phan, Sako’s mom

Woman who alleges man assaulted her says relationship has 23-year history
Canadian Press NewsWire
August 9, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) – A 39-year-old Ottawa woman who said she feared for her
life after ending a relationship with her lover told court Tuesday
the man had tried to pursue a romantic relationship with her 23 years
earlier when she was a teenager growing up in Armenia.
During her second day of testimony, Lillian Arakelyan said she was
16 when Gagik Artsrunyan began stalking and harassing her after she
rejected his advances.
Artsrunyan, who lives in Portland, Ore., is charged with assault,
two counts of criminal harassment, three counts of uttering threats
and forcible confinement.
Arakelyan disputed a suggestion by defence lawyer Rosalind Conway
that she initiated romantic involvement with the accused at any time.
But Arakelyan, who arrived in Canada in 1998 to study at the University
of Ottawa, admitted to Conway that she met with Artsrunyan for coffee
on at least one occasion when they lived in Armenia.
“He was obsessed with me and harassed me,” Arakelyan said. “He would
wait outside of home and work and wait for me.”
Arakelyan has told the court she was viciously beaten by the accused
in her building’s underground parking lot after being dragged from
her car and thrown in the back seat of Artsrunyan’s vehicle.
She said the assault came three months after she had ended their
relationship.
The trial continues in November.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Start of a New Friendship?
by Theresa Freese
15 August 2005
Transitions on Line, Czech Rep.
Aug 15 2005
Russia pulls its troops out of Georgia after two centuries, but how
significant is the move? From EurasiaNet.
Russia’s military withdrawal from its two bases in Georgia is being
heralded as a “new stage in Russian-Georgian relations.”
The pull-out is proceeding without a ratified framework agreement,
leaving Georgian defense officials to fulfill details without
a guiding document. The third stage of the withdrawal, currently
underway, involves the removal of at least 40 armored vehicles from
the Gonio firing range outside of the Black Sea city of Batumi to
amphibious landing ships destined for the Russian Black Sea port
of Novorossiysk. Twenty T-72 tanks, five BRDM combat reconnaissance
vehicles, 12 KUB self-propelled surface-to-air missiles, and three
Shilka air-defense systems will be withdrawn, Col. Alexander Kiknadze,
deputy chief of the general staff of the Georgian Armed Forces in
charge of the withdrawal, told reporters in Batumi.
“The most important thing in the withdrawal of Russian bases from
Georgia is that the final agreement be signed. That everything is
agreed. That everything is laid out point by point,” Col. Kiknadze
said. “When the final agreement is signed, future stages will be
clear,” Until then, he added, Georgian officials “hope that problems
don’t happen.”
Other military facilities “not used in the interests of GRVZ [Group
of Russian Troops in Trans-Caucasus],” headquartered in Tbilisi,
will be transferred to Georgia by 1 September. Once these stages
are complete, the second phase of the withdrawal will begin sometime
after 1 September, Col. Kiknadze said.
Without a framework agreement, Kiknadze explained that he and
his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valeri Yevnevich, refer to the draft
framework agreement, as well as to the deadlines established in the 30
May Joint Declaration on Russia’s withdrawal. “We agree on questions
as they arise and make decisions.”
Malhaz Mikeladze, Georgia’s ambassador-at-large for political-military
affairs at the foreign ministry, stressed that Moscow bears the burden
for completing the agreement. “On our side, we concluded this work,”
Mikeladze stated. “We look forward to the Russian side making similar
steps. We are ready to sign this agreement.” Mikeladze said the two
sides “reached a consensus” on 17 June on the text of the so-called
Agreement on Timeframe, Mode of Functioning and Withdrawal of the
Russian Military Bases from Georgia. He attributed Russia’s delay
to its “great bureaucracy” and various “internal procedures,” but
said that he remains “optimistic” that the final agreement will soon
be concluded.
An opportunity to set a date for a final agreement may come at the 27
August summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States in
the Russian city of Kazan, where Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet. “[I]t’s up
to these presidents to decide when the framework agreement is to be
signed,” Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said, according
to a 2 August statement released by the Georgian foreign ministry.
Since the military pull-out began on 29 July, four convoys of
approximately 44 military vehicles have left from the 62nd base in
Akhalkalaki and the 12th base in Batumi. Three convoys headed to the
Russian territory of Kabardino-Balkaria and one to the Russian base
in Gyumri, Armenia. Russia has also already transferred to Georgia
the 142nd Armor/Tank Repair Factory in Tbilisi, and is expected to
hand three additional military facilities over to Georgian officials
by 1 September.
Georgian television reported that Batumi residents were on hand
to distribute flowers and champagne to Russian soldiers departing
Batumi on 30 July. “I’m proud when Georgian boots are marching, not
Russian,” said Ketevan Antidze, a Batumi-based political activist
for the governing National Movement Party.
Moscow’s military presence in Georgia stretches back over
two centuries. Today, more than 3,000 Russian military personnel
reportedly remain in Georgia at various bases and facilities, with
numerous Georgian citizens providing services. Under the terms of the
30 May Joint Declaration, the final withdrawal from Akhalkalaki and
the transfer of facilities is scheduled for “no later than the end
of 2007.” The Batumi and GRVZ pull-out is scheduled for completion
by 2008.
In line with a 1999 OSCE Istanbul Treaty, Russia pulled out of its
137th base in Vaziani, outside of Tbilisi, in 2000 and reported to have
done the same from its 50th base in Gudauta, in breakaway Abkhazia.
Many Georgians view the base withdrawal as a potential catalyst for
the resolution of other bilateral issues, in particular negotiated
settlements to the Abkhazia and South Ossetia conflicts. Some also
believe the withdrawal could enhance Georgia’s chances of joining
NATO. “The political value is that we will be a freer country with
greater possibility to operate in international organizations, such as
NATO,” said one Georgian official involved in the conflict resolution
process for South Ossetia and Abkhazia, who requested anonymity.
Even after base withdrawal process is completed, Russian troops will
remain on Georgian soil, acting in the capacity of international
peace-keepers in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. As long as those two
conflicts remain unresolved, Georgia’s NATO accession prospects could
remain uncertain. One U.S. defense analyst said that “the resolution
of these conflicts would be considered by [NATO] as a pre-condition
for membership.” However, the analyst added that “several senior
Georgian officials” have asked NATO to re-evaluate this position
“since it, in essence, provides Russia with an informal veto over
Tbilisi’s moving forward in the NATO accession process.”
Ambassador David Smith, the U.S. representative to the International
Security Advisory Board, an independent defense policy advisory
group, and chairman of the Georgia Forum, established in 2002 to
promote closer Georgia-US relations, agreed that the frozen conflicts
should not block Georgia’s NATO membership efforts. “[W]e should not
shoot ourselves and Georgia in the foot with preconditions,” Smith
said. “Should we ever say that Georgia cannot join NATO so long as
the conflicts are unresolved, rest assured that Moscow will never
allow the conflicts to be resolved.”
President Saakashvili recently praised Russia for taking a “very
brave step” in pulling out of Georgia. Other Georgian government
officials are hopeful that the departure of Russian troops could
speed efforts to negotiate political settlements to the Abkhazia
and South Ossetia conflicts. “As long as the Russian bases are here,
there is still hope for Abkhazia and South Ossetia that Russia will
help,” said one Georgian defense official who asked not to be named.
“When they are not here, it will be easier for negotiations.”
A Tbilisi-based Western diplomat, however, suggested that the base
withdrawal process would have minimal impact on the separatist
regions’ peace processes. “I don’t think they will have an effect
on negotiations over the two territories one way or the other,” the
diplomat said. “I think Russian strategic planners finally realized
that the bases were more or less worthless. … They were kept as an
irritant, a cheap way to keep Georgia on edge.”
Those who live in the vicinity of the two bases are worrying about
the economic impact of the Russians’ departure. The bases have long
been a major source of jobs for local residents, and many now believe
that when the Russian troops depart, employment opportunities will
dwindle. At present, the official unemployment rate in Ajaria, where
one of the Russian bases is located, is 18 percent, while the poverty
rate is 64 percent. Those rates could rise in the coming months. “Who
will employ the unemployed Georgians?” asked one man who owns a kiosk
near a Russian facility in Makhinjauli, just outside Batumi. “What
guarantee do we have after the Russians leave?”
But for others, the expected benefits of the Russians’ departure
outweigh the potential liabilities. “We would like economic relations
with Russia. But we don’t want their bases here,” said Alexander
Chitishvili, former head of an intelligence battalion in the Georgian
National Guard. “As long as they are here, we are a conquered country.”
Theresa Freese is a freelance journalist and political analyst who
has been conducting research on unresolved conflicts in the South
Caucasus since 2003. This is a partner-post from EurasiaNet.

Chicago Tribune, IL
Aug 15 2005
Turkish scholar’s detention contested
Supporters decry his arrest in Armenia
By Catherine Collins
Special to the Tribune
ISTANBUL — In a rare display of cooperation, more than 200
international academics and intellectuals have sent a letter to the
Armenian president urging the release of a Duke University scholar
who went on trial this month in the former Soviet republic.
Yektan Turkyilmaz, a Turkish citizen of Kurdish background, has been
charged with violating the Armenian criminal code, a catchall that
forbids transporting contraband ranging from narcotics and poisons
to nuclear weapons and cultural objects.
Turkyilmaz, a doctoral candidate, was arrested June 17 as he tried
to leave the country with two suitcases of used books. He has been
held in a former KGB maximum-security prison in the Armenian capital,
Yerevan, and faces up to eight years in prison if convicted.
“The political implications of this arrest cause grave concern,”
read the letter, sent recently by a group that included intellectuals
and academics on both sides of the Armenian mass killings divide.
Professors from the Universities of Chicago, Michigan and Minnesota
were among those who signed the letter.
The treatment of Turkyilmaz, the letter said, “would send a deterrent
signal to other independent scholars.”
Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, a staunch advocate for Armenian issues,
also weighed in with a letter to Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
“Your detention of Yektan for seven weeks on any grounds would draw
attention to failings in Armenia’s democratic evolution,” Dole wrote.
“To detain him on grounds as dubious as these calls into question
Armenia’s commitment to democracy.”
The trial started Tuesday and is expected to last up to a month.
Turkyilmaz’s research into how Turks, Armenians and Kurds interacted
for centuries in the Anatolia melting pot touched on the sensitive
issue of the mass killings of Armenians in the waning days of the
Ottoman Empire.
Armenia and Armenian-Americans have been lobbying governments worldwide
to label the deaths genocide. The Turkish government insists the
deaths were the results of a civil insurrection that also claimed
the lives of innocent Turks.
Turkyilmaz’s supporters contend that the emotional topic got the
scholar into trouble, not the books he bought in second-hand stalls
and markets.
In nearly two weeks of interrogation, the academic said through
friends, he was never questioned about his books but instead about
his research and a compact disc of archival information that was to
be the basis for his writing. The disc has been confiscated.
“This should not be a political issue; this should be for the
historians to look into and decide,” said an official at the Turkish
Foreign Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity. “From what we
had heard, this young scholar seemed to support the Armenian side of
the so-called genocide debate. It is such a strange turn of events,
to arrest him.”
For the last two years, Turkyilmaz has conducted research in Turkish
and Armenian libraries and the Turkish national archives. This year,
he was the first Turkish citizen allowed access to the Armenian
national archives, according to an Armenian government press release.
A bibliophile, Turkyilmaz scoured bookstores and open-air markets for
old books. Supporters say no one told him he needed special permission
to take the books from Armenia.
Several American and Armenian scholars have said that they also were
unaware of the restriction. Although the law has been used in stopping
the export of cultural goods such as religious icons and carpets,
it is thought to be the first time it has been applied to books.

FAMILY OF CYPRIOT ARMENIANS KILLED IN AIR CRASH IN GREECE
YEREVAN, AUGUST 15. ARMINFO. There was an Armenian family among 121
passengers killed in an air crash of a Cyprian plane on August 14.
According to the e-magazine Gibrahayer, the Armenian family of 4
persons – Hakob and Hilda Tutunjyans and their two children from
Nicosia were killed. It should be noted that Boeing 737 flying to
Prague crashed in 40 km North from the Athens not far from the town
Marathon at 12:04 p.m. local time. The main version of the crash is
depressurization of the plane. The passengers are likely to be death
at the moment of the crash with the earth. The authorities still do
not make any official statements. The only version of a terrorist
act was rejected later.