Official in Georgia’s South Ossetia urges merger with Russian neighbour
Regnum, Moscow
8 Aug 05
A round table of political parties and public organizations of the
Republic of North Ossetia – Alania and South Ossetia [part of Georgia]
was held in Vladikavkaz in late July. As a result of the round table,
an address to Russian President Vladimir Putin was adopted calling
for the unification of the two Ossetias. Also, the decision was made
on the unification of political parties of North and South Ossetia.
After the round table, the head of the South Ossetian delegation,
the deputy chairman of the South Ossetian parliament and the chairman
of the committee for foreign policy, defence and security, Yuriy
Dzitstsoytty, answered several questions from a Regnum correspondent.
[Dzitstsoytty] It is very gratifying that the idea was born there,
in North Ossetia, and that the impetus was given from there. This is
very pleasing. We considered several issues, among them the situation
in South Ossetia. The participants in the meeting adopted an address
to President Putin. It is gratifying to note that the project has
been prepared by the North Ossetian side and that our participation
was very insignificant.
We don’t know yet what will come out of this, but it is very comforting
that public organizations and political parties of North Ossetia
are beginning to understand that Ossetia cannot be separated. I was
delighted to see such a broad spectrum of North Ossetian political
parties represented at the meeting, from the communists to the Union
of Right Forces party and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.
[Correspondent] What will be the outcome of the unification of
political parties and public organizations of the North and South
Ossetias?
[Dzitstsoytty] I think this is a healthy and very good idea.
Unification can’t happen overnight or through the adoption of one
particular act. It takes place at the level of people. This is a
business in which northern and southern Ossetians are involved. The
unification also takes place at the level of parliaments. I suggested
at the meeting that the interparliamentary assembly of the two
Ossetias, which was established in 1996, be re-established. And the
idea went down quite well. The unification of political parties is
another major step towards a single Ossetia.
[Correspondent] The fraternal republics have repeatedly agreed
to maintain cooperation over the last 15 years that have passed
since the break-up of the USSR. However such agreements were purely
declarative. Being a “poor relation”, South Ossetia had no privileges
or other perks from its northern brother, but 2003 can be considered
as the year that kick-started the implementation of the programme of
socioeconomic integration of the two Ossetias. What is your assessment
of the current state of integration between North and South Ossetia?
[Dzitstsoytty] The level of integration is actually very high. We
have to consider the fact that there have been no interruptions
in power supplies of late and the construction of a gas pipeline
has started. The only problem is the ill-famed customs service. It
needs to be strictly controlled on the part of the North Ossetian
administration. I have repeatedly crossed the Russian-Ukrainian,
Russian-Polish, Polish-German, French, Armenian borders, but never
encountered such lengthy delays and inspections.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Anglican Primate to join a Canadian ecumenical delegation to Armenia
BY DIANA MAVUNDUSE
Anglican Church of Canada (press release), Canada
Aug 15 2005
AUGUST 15, 2005 — The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada,
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, is part of a five-member ecumenical
delegation set to visit Armenia from Aug. 24 to Sep.1, 2005.
The visit organised by the Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic
Orthodox Church, is in response to an invitation by His Holiness
Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, to
visit the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. It is the first ever visit by
such a delegation from Canada to Armenia. Led by the Primate of the
Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Bishop
Bagrat Galstanian, the delegation will discuss future prospects for
the role and mission of Christian churches and cooperation between
the Eastern and Western churches. The delegation will also meet with
Armenian government officials.
Other members of the delegation are: Archbishop Sotirios, Metropolitan
of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Canada, Archbishop Brendan
O~RBrien, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
and Professor Richard Schneider, President of the Canadian Council
of Churches.
The dates for this visit were chosen to coincide with celebrations
commemorating the 1600th anniversary of the invention of the Armenian
alphabet, which take place between Aug. 24 and Sept.1st. The delegation
will have an opportunity to participate in the celebrations.
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin is the pre-eminent centre of
authority in the worldwide Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.
Located near Yerevan, the capital city of the Republic of Armenia,
it includes The Mother Cathedral of the entire Armenian Church, the
residence of the Catholicos, a monastery, the Gevorgian Theological
Seminary and a museum that houses the religious artefacts and
treasures of the Armenian Church. The Cathedral dates to the 4th
century, and is considered to be the oldest Christian cathedral in
the world. Holy Etchmiadzin became the seat of the Catholicate of the
entire Armenian nation in the 4th century, following the conversion
of King Tiridates III to Christianity by St. Gregory the Illuminator
in AD 301. Christianity became a powerful force in preserving the
identity of the Armenians who have lived under foreign rule for much
of their history.
The Armenian Orthodox church is a member of the Oriental Orthodox
family of churches that includes Coptic, Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopian,
Eritrean and the (Indian) Malankara. There is an on-going theological
dialogue between Anglicans and the Oriental family. In November 2002,
the Anglican-Oriental Orthodox International Commission reached an
Agreed Statement on Christology.
The Rev. Canon Harold Nahabedian of St. Mary Magdalene, Toronto,
(the only Armenian Anglican priest in Canada), is a member of the
Commission.
Formal dialogue between the Anglicans and the Eastern Orthodox
churches stemmed from recommendations of the Lambeth Conferences of
1988 and 1998 and the decisions of the Oriental Orthodox Churches that
the Anglican-Orthodox dialogue be upgraded from a forum (1985-1993)
to a commission.
Armenians dispersed throughout the world after the Armenian Genocide
of 1915 when 1.5 million Armenians perished and millions more fled.
Today there are more Armenians living outside the country than inside
Armenia. It is estimated that over 80,000 Armenians live in Canada.
In 2002, the Federal Government of Canada designated 24 April as a
day of remembrance of the 1915 genocide, the first genocide of the
20th century.
The relationship between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Canadian
Diocese of the Armenian Orthodox Church, dates back 125 years, when
in the absence of Armenian sanctuaries, the Anglicans offered the
Armenians liturgical space and hospitality in Anglican churches.
Through the Scholarship of St. Basil the Great, administered by the
Anglican Foundation, the relationship between the Armenian Orthodox
Church and the Canadian Anglicans has been strengthened and become
better known.
The scholarship, established by Bishop Henry Gordon Hill, retired
bishop of the Diocese of Ontario, is meant to facilitate exchanges
between members of the Anglican Church of Canada and members of the
Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Assyrian Church of the East.
In 1997, Rev. Sargis Boyajyan of the Armenian Orthodox church was the
second recipient of the scholarship. He studied theology and English
and is now serving in the diocese of Montreal.
Another recipient, the Rev. Canon Philip Hobson, travelled to Armenia
and Jerusalem where he spent four months sharing in the life of the
Armenian Apostolic Church and lecturing on the Anglican Church.
For further information on the visit please contact: Deacon
Hagop Arslanian, assistant to the Primate Armenian Holy
Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese 615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont
Quebec H2V 3H2 Tel: 514~V276-9479 Email:[email protected]
Website:

Azeri soldier reported killed in Armenian truce violation
Source: Space TV, Baku
15 Aug 05
Our national army has lost another serviceman. Soldier Else Kazimov
Surrey oglu, 19, died in Fuzuli District as a result of fire from
the Armenian armed forces on 13 August. He was conscripted from the
Ganca military enlistment office in 2004.

News 24, South Africa
Aug 15 2005
Passengers fought for control
15/08/2005 14:17 – (SA)
Athens – Trapped inside a Boeing 737 circling aimlessly in the Greek
skies, a number of the 121 passengers on board a Cypriot airliner
that crashed on Sunday probably knew the fate that awaited them.
Though the recordings of the cockpit’ conversations have yet to be
examined, the report of two Greek F-16 fighter pilots shadowing the
Helios Airways airliner points to a desperate effort to grab the
plane’s controls moments before the fall.
The last glimpse the fighter pilots had into the cockpit showed two
unidentified persons trying to regain control of the plane, the Greek
authorities said.
Minutes earlier, the fighter pilots also saw “the co-pilot slumped
over and perhaps unconscious and the pilot not in his seat”, said
government spokesperson Theodoros Roussopoulos, adding that the
cockpit oxygen masks had been activated.
Victims died before crash
“It seems the deceased, in most cases, although not all, expired
before the crash,” said interior minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos,
though he cautioned it was “something we will have to confirm”.
Among the victims of Greece’s worst aviation disaster were a German
pilot and 10 Greeks were the only non-Cypriots who died, an updated
passenger list revealed. The sombre roll call of the 121 victims
included a four-year-old girl, Theti Nicolaou, and nine other children
aged 10 or less.
The 110 Cypriot dead included four Armenian Cypriots and 106 Greek
Cypriots, the new passenger manifest released by Cypriot communications
minister Haris Thrassou showed.
Details about the Greek dead were still not “100% ” as a group booking
was made through a tour operator, Thrassou said.
Greek aviation experts said on Monday it seemed the plane had a problem
with its oxygen supply, starting about 10 minutes after takeoff from
Cyprus on Sunday.
Greek television reported autopsies would determine whether the
victims died of asphyxiation due to a lack of oxygen in the aircraft.
Plane out of control
Greek air traffic controller Manolis Antoniadis said the plane was
on automatic pilot when it entered Greek air space and began to turn
in circles.
“It was out of control,” Antoniadis said, adding “there had to have
been a fast and brutal problem to cause the death of the pilots in
the cockpit”.
According to the Greek private TV station Alpha, a passenger sent
a text message to a cousin saying: “We’re cold, the pilot is blue.
We’re going to die. Farewell.”
But the authorities are examining the veracity of this claim, as the
same person later apparently claimed to have received the information
by directly speaking to his relative. The SMS itself has yet to be
produced in front of the cameras.
The Helios Airways plane was due to land at Athens airport.
The head of the crash investigation, Akrivos Tsolakis, said on Monday
the plane’s second “black box” containing recordings of the pilots’
cockpit conversations had been discovered but that it was in a “very
bad state”.

Russian Police Claim Biggest Spammer’s Murder Solved
MosNews, Russia
Aug 15 2005
MosNews — Vardan Kushnir, murdered in late July in Moscow, may have
fallen victim to a 15-year-old girl and her three friends, a popular
Moscow tabloid, Moskovsky Komsomolets, reported Monday.
Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen
of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his
Moscow apartment on July 27. He died after suffering repeated blows
to the head.
Kushnir, 35, headed the English learning centers the Center for
American English, the New York English Center and the Center for
Spoken English, all known to have aggressive Internet advertising
policies in which millions of e-mails were sent every day.
In the past angry Internet users have targeted the American English
center by publishing the Center’s telephone numbers anywhere on the Web
to provoke telephone calls. The Center’s telephone was advertised as
a contact number for cheap sex services, or bargain real estate sales.
Another attack involved hundreds of people making phone calls to
the American English Center and sending it numerous e-mails back,
but Vardan Kushnir remained sure of his right to spam, saying it was
what e-mails were for.
Under Russian law, spamming is not considered illegal, although
lawmakers are working on legal projects that could protect Russian
Internet users like they do in Europe and the U.S.
The police also examined another lead suggesting that Kushnir could
have been attacked by robbers.
On Sunday the Moscow criminal investigation directorate detained a
group of young people on suspicion of murdering Kushnir with a view
to rob him. The investigators believe that a 15-year-old girl and
two boys, 18 and 17 years of age, along with a 27-year-old accomplice
had broke into Kushnir’s apartment.
One of the boys wielded a baseball bat which he used to beat the man
to death. The detainees insist Kushnir had invited them to his place
himself where he made passes at the girl by the name of Vika. Her
friends tried to stop him, then Kushnir grabbed a knife and the
young men hit the man with an empty bottle on the head in order to
defend themselves.
Incidentally, the detained young men claim the girl was not involved
in the brawl and insist on her innocence.
Vardan Kushnir was an Armenian-descended spammer who ran the American
Language Center, and who is believed to have spammed the entire
population of Russian-language Internet users with ads for his
language courses.
According to some estimates, his ads reached 25 million users at his
peak, between 2003 and 2004. Although only Muscovites were eligible
to sign up, the ads went to many other countries, including Ukraine,
the United States and Israel.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

German pilot and four Armenians the only foreigners
EiTB, Spain
Aug 15 2005
There were also 12 Greek dead with the other 104 victims all Cypriots.
The German pilot and a family of four Armenians were the only
foreigners among 121 killed in a Cyprus airliner crash, a Cyprus
government announcement said.
There were also 12 Greek dead with the other 104 victims all Cypriots,
the announcement said in releasing the official passenger list of
Sunday’s crash in Greece of a Helios Airways Boeing 737 flight from
Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague with a stop in Athens.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zukerman takes his audience on a magical trip
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News
18 Aug 05
Music is the art of what cannot be expressed in words. It can go
beyond the things that words cannot express and the mind cannot
perceive. The area of music is the area of ambiguity, what cannot be
held with hands and dreams. That people can speak this language is
one of the greatest riches that God could have given us, and God gave
this richness generously to Pinchas Zukerman and his chamber orchestra.
An example of the support Zukerman has given to young artists is Joan
Milkson, a violinist in Canada who is of Greek origin but from the
Greeks who left Turkey in the 1922-1923 period to go to Greece. Later
on the family went on to Canada. After many years, today Milkson is the
first violinist of the Ottawa National Symphony Orchestra. Zuckerman
helped her and others because this is the kind of thing he likes to
do. She is also president of the Young String Performance Foundation
and in charge of the Tassos Prassopoulos Music Foundation, which
takes care of the children of talented musicians. The former Greek
Ambassador to Canada Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos remembers how Milkson
described Zukerman when he and his partner, the TDN’s Gul Demir, gave
a farewell dinner for Turkish Ambassador Erhan Ogut and his wife,
AyÅ~_e, who were leaving. Unfortunately Zukerman and his wife were
out of Ottawa at the time and couldn’t attend the dinner.
Milkson mentioned how Zukerman extends his hand to help young people.
She herself played with him. Another such person he supported was a
young southern Albanian girl named Areti, who went on to the Julliard
School of Music as a scholarship student.
Zukerman had never been in Turkey before, and so his first visit to
Istanbul for a recent concert was a totally new experience for him. He
brought with him his chamber players – violinist Jessica Linnebach,
violist Jethro Marks, violist Asham Pillai and cellist Amanda Forsyth,
who is Zuckerman’s beautiful wife.
In fact there were some people who never thought he would come to
Turkey. But there he was, with his chamber orchestra. Two magnificent
women, Israeli Consul General Amira Arnon and Cultural Attaché Batja
Keinan, were responsible for bringing this great artist here. He
came with the idea of promoting peace, and he paid the expenses of
the trip himself.
Zukerman and his chamber orchestra gave a concert devoted to Mozart
and Dvorak in Aya Irini, an ancient Byzantine church just within the
outer walls of Topkapı Palace.
Zukerman and his chamber orchestra took the audience on an imaginary
trip. It was fascinating because often you see poker-faced musicians
playing exciting and cheerful music. Not these! They smiled with each
other and acknowledged special passages in the music that must have
reminded them of other experiences. There was magnificent harmony
and empathy among them all.
What makes Zukerman so strong on stage? Is it his charisma or is it
that he’s a superior artist? Yes, these exist but his real power is
caused by his confidence. He can be unconditionally persuasive before
an audience through the sincerity of his confidence and power. Also,
he says his violin is part of his body. He touches the strings with
his five senses. It is as if his violin has become his sixth sense.
The audience was hypnotized when they were on stage. We were glued
to our seats and listened to the works of Mozart and Dvorak until
the end as if we had been charmed.
Author Ragip Zarakolu was in the audience that night, and his
reaction to Zukerman and his friends playing for “Friendship” was
that friendship was “the thing which Turkish society needs most at
the moment.”
Among the members of the audience were Greek Orthodox Patriarch
Bartolomeos, Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II, diplomats including
the German ambassador from Ankara and the German consul general
in Istanbul, Ä°shak Alaton, Nuri Colakoglu, Barbaros Cag and his
lovely wife Sema Cag, Nazan Olcer, Ebru and Haluk Sanver and other
distinguished guests.
If there was anything jarring, it was that members of the audience
would applaud at the wrong times. This really brought Ahmet Vefik
PaÅ~_a to mind. The three-time grand vizier towards the end of the
19th century was governor of Bursa. He translated Molière and other
works and set up a theater in Bursa, where he used to get up and try
to educate the audience on when to applaud and so forth. Perhaps we
need him today.
We could also point out there is a need for air-conditioning in Aya
Irini, but that’s probably not going to happen; the old building would
not be able to withstand the resulting vibrations. But we watched
people putting up fans around the stage in order for Zukerman and his
chamber orchestra to be cool enough. It was interesting to see how
Zukerman had the fans replaced so that they would be more comfortable.
At the end Zukerman made a nice gesture. He was presented with a
beautiful bouquet of flowers and after thanking the presenter he
turned and threw it to Israeli Consul General Amira Arnon, who was
one of those responsible for his coming to Istanbul. And she in turn
presented it to Batja Keinan.
Arnon was supposed to give a dinner for Zukerman and his chamber
orchestra in her home, but she was in the middle of packing out to
leave, so Haluk and Ebru Sanver responded to the SOS with one of
their superb Ottoman-style family dinners that everyone enjoyed,
ending up poolside with coffee and chat.
Do you think there’s some way to persuade Zukerman to participate
in the 2006 Istanbul Music Festival? Surely he will want to come to
Istanbul again now that he has made its acquaintance. But if he doesn’t
have time right now, what would happen if some of us hijacked him,
his beautiful wife and the excellent other members of his chamber
orchestra for next year?
–Boundary_(ID_r+YuEJD0e+LcVbueAY7GEg)–

Beating water in the mortar
TDN
15 Aug 05
Opinion by Dogu ERGÄ°L
Dogu ERGIL
People engaging in serious things like taking and giving life and
making larger-than-life political statements on complicated matters
during vacation seasons have both amazed and bothered me. July and
August are vacation months, and for serious people vacation is a
serious business without which one cannot generate the energy to
carry on a successful and creative working year. Those people who do
not take vacations either take themselves more seriously than others
or take their work less seriously than those who take vacations for
a more productive year. I have always been suspicious of people who
don’t take vacations to diversify their lives and interests. A limited
life with fixed agendas is an invitation to stereotypes and perhaps
to fanaticism. Fixed agendas are like beating water in mortar. This is
a lovely Turkish expression meaning to do futile things with no zest.
Summer did not deter terrorists or radicals. They went on with the
only thing they knew, blowing up people and blackmailing governments
and people alike. Al-Qaeda on the international and the PKK on the
domestic scene did not delay the execution of their criminal craft.
They spoiled our vacations and poisoned our spirits, which had strayed
away from all “serious” matters.
Fortunately, a group of intellectuals have publicly denounced PKK
terrorism, finding an instant echo in responsible Kurdish circles that
have neither been intimidated nor co-opted by the PKK. The manifesto
of these responsible Kurdish intellectuals came after the murder of
Fahrettin Fidan, an outspoken political figure in the Kurdish political
camp who lately had started to advocate the futility of violence and
the negative influence of Abdullah Ocalan, the incarcerated leader
of the PKK, on the organization.
Initiation of violence by the PKK at a time when Turkey is preparing
for accession talks with the European Union is obviously blackmail
to halt or threaten to halt the process. The Turkish government has
not been able to find a solution to defuse the PKK.
But more important that, the government was unable to succeed in
convincing the majority of the Kurds to put pressure on the PKK to
abandon violence or to distance themselves from its bloody tactics,
although they for the most part do not condone violence.
The inability of the incumbent government to achieve these ends
emanates from the continuous failure of Turkish public administration
to understand the root cause of the “eastern problem.” The “east”
has always been problematic with its tribal and feudal socioeconomic
formation, massive illiteracy, lack of productivity and employment
capacity and gender inequality due to a traditionalism that is further
exacerbated by religiosity. Lack of individualism and individual
liberties aborted democracy and entrepreneurship and kindled the
spirit of rebellion. So many discrepancies sooner or later would
find their expression in a kind of opposition to the existing system
and its symbols. The PKK insurgency is the last of a long series of
Kurdish intransigencies.
Successive Turkish governments since the last decades of the
Ottoman period have viewed the “eastern question” as a security
liability rather than as a matter of development, democratization,
participation and inclusion. Rebellions, first of the Armenians
(during the last decades of the Ottoman era) and later of the Kurds
were viewed by their consequences, not for their causes, and were
duly repressed. Military methods were followed by evacuations and
displacements. Yet the “east” remained underdeveloped, non-integrated
and suspect for harboring different ethnic groups with a propensity for
autonomy and possibly independence. The lingering “eastern question”
produced yet another problem: the Kurdish problem. The notorious
terrorist Kurdish organization is the fuse of the Kurdish problem,
which has grown in the womb of the “eastern question.”
The recent debate occupying public opinion originated from revitalized
PKK violence and public protest of it by outspoken Turkish and Kurdish
intellectuals. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed a healthy
interest in talking to the representatives of this group. The prime
minister wanted to get their opinion before flying to Diyarbakir
and facing the people from whom he would demand support to halt
PKK violence by letting them know that his government is aware of
the difference between the Kurdish problem and ethnically motivated
violence carried on by the PKK.
Both the content of the conversation that has taken place in
Ankara between the prime minister and the representatives of the
intellectuals as well as the public speech he delivered in Diyarbakir
carried positive motives that gave some hope but did not change the
official paradigm in the practical sense.
What raised hopes for a new understanding of the problem were the
following:
1- Official mistakes have been committed in the past in terms of
discrimination against the region and its people;
2- A great nation and state can admit and repair its past mistakes;
3- Nationalism is the wrong approach for solving problems because it
is divisive rather than uniting; and
4- Enlarged democracy and economic prosperity will be the cure of
the problem.
However, this is as far as he could go, given the limitations of the
established official order that he is responsible for carrying on. He
is not on record as being more creative on the issue, which has been
delegated to the security bureaucracy.
What was missing from his speech, delivered in Diyarbakir at a time
of rising hope in search of a lasting solution to this old sore of
Turkey, which has led to so much bleeding and political entropy?
1- He did not offer a definition of the “Kurdish problem”‘
2- He claimed his government had the resolve to solve the problem
but did not say how; and
3- He offered no practical agenda upon which effective policies and
hopes could be built.
Could this be the reason for the lack of enthusiasm of the people who
convened to listen to him deliver his speech? Or could it be that
his limitations were already known and that this fact kept people
at home or at work and away from the public meeting? Whatever the
reason, if this government, which openly disavows ethnic, regional
and religious nationalism, fails to understand the complexity of
the Kurdish problem (and reduces it to security measures as in the
past) and fails to garner the public support of the Kurds to detach
themselves from any method or organizations that see violence as the
only way to hammer in or to obtain rights for the Kurds, then Turkey
will suffer from the impasse for more time to come.
–Boundary_(ID_UKSuWLc9dKwQeRUQXseRrw)–

Cyprus plane crash victims “frozen solid”
By Brian Williams and Karolos Grohmann | August 15, 2005
Reuters, UK
Aug 15 2005
ATHENS (Reuters) – Most of the bodies recovered from a Cypriot plane
that crashed near Athens with 121 people on board were frozen solid,
a Greek official said, suggesting the airliner was a flying tomb
before it plunged to earth.
As accident investigators combed the crash site for clues, aviation
experts were baffled at what appeared to have been a catastrophic
failure of cabin pressure or oxygen supply in freezing temperatures
at 35,000 feet — nearly 10 km (6 miles) up, higher than Mount Everest.
One expert said reports of extreme cold suggested there was no air
circulating in the cabin.
“Autopsy on passengers so far shows the bodies were frozen solid,
including some whose skin was charred by flames from the crash,”
the Defense Ministry source, with access to the investigation, told
Reuters on Monday.
The Helios Airways Boeing 737 was carrying 115 passengers and six
crew when it crashed 40 km (25 miles) north of Athens on Sunday.
There were no survivors.
Rescue workers recovered the body of the pilot, a German identified
as Martin Hans Gurgen, and said they had found the plane’s black box
flight recorders, including the one that records pilot conversations,
and would send them to France for analysis.
The recovery of the black boxes is crucial to determining the cause
of the worst air disaster in Greece and the worst involving a Cypriot
airline.
Greek TV reported on Sunday that the pilot had told air traffic
controllers the plane was experiencing problems with its air
conditioning system shortly before contact was lost.
A passenger list released by Cyprus’ Transport Ministry showed a family
of four Armenians living in Cyprus, 12 Greeks and 104 Cypriots were
killed in the crash. There were 17 children under the age of 16 on
board, the youngest aged 4.
Relatives of some victims were on their way from Cyprus to the crash
site to start the grim task of trying to identify loved ones.
At Larnaca airport in Cyprus, from where the doomed plane took off,
crew and passengers on Monday refused to board an aircraft belonging
to Helios Airways, the state-run Cyprus News Agency reported.
About 100 passengers due to fly from Larnaca to Sofia demanded to
travel on planes of other airlines. “First the crew refused to board,
then the passengers,” the agency said.
But a Helios spokeswoman denied a Cyprus Transport Ministry statement
that its planes had been grounded.
The Mediterranean island of Cyprus started three days of mourning with
flags at half mast in a long weekend holiday that is the busiest of
the summer for Greeks and Cypriots.
TERRORISM RULED OUT
The plane was on a flight from Larnaca to Prague with a stop in
Athens. Greek authorities ruled out any hijacking or terrorism links
to the crash.
The flight was declared “renegade” when it entered Greek air space and
failed to make radio contact. Two F-16 air force jets were scrambled
to investigate and reported that the co-pilot was slumped in the
cockpit and the pilot was not visible.
Defense Ministry officials said 90 minutes elapsed between the alert
being raised and the plane crashing at 12:03 p.m.
Greek government spokesman Theodore Roussopoulos said the F-16 pilots
reported that with the pilots out of action there may have been a
last-gasp effort by others on the plane to bring it back under control.
“The F-16s saw two individuals in the cockpit seemingly trying to
regain control of the airplane,” Roussoupoulos said. It was not known
if they were passengers or other crew.
“The F-16s also saw oxygen masks down when they got close to the
aircraft. The aircraft was making continuous right-hand turns to show
it had lost radio contact.”
A passenger on the doomed plane said in an SMS text to his cousin in
Athens: “The pilot has turned blue. Cousin farewell, we’re freezing.”
Kieran Daly, editor of Air Transport Intelligence, told Reuters:
“When he talks about being extremely cold, that really suggests that
there was possibly no air circulating in the cabin at all.”
Other questions included how the plane appeared to fly for so long
with the pilots unconscious or dead. Media speculated it was on auto
pilot and crashed when it ran out of fuel after being in the air for
twice the scheduled flight time.
The Defense Ministry said it suspected the plane’s oxygen supply or
pressurization system may have malfunctioned, which could have led
to death within seconds for all on board.
Loss of cabin pressure was identified as the probable cause of other
similar but smaller-scale air crashes in recent years.
Golfer Payne Stewart and five others were killed when their Learjet
aircraft crashed in the United States in 1999 after flying for more
than four hours without radio contact.

U.S. TROOPS IN AZERBAIJAN? MOSCOW SAYS NO, BUT BAKU SAYS MAYBE
By Taleh Ziyadov
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
The Jamestown Foundation
Aug 15 2005
Monday, August 15, 2005
Reports of potential U.S. military bases in Azerbaijan have intensified
in the wake of another expected visit to Baku by the U.S. Secretary
of Defense. Donald H. Rumsfeld is expected to arrive in Baku sometime
this month, but this information has not yet been confirmed. While in
Azerbaijan, Rumsfeld would likely meet with local military officials
and possibly President Ilham Aliev himself.
In recent months, a number of high-ranking U.S. political figures
have visited Azerbaijan, including former secretary of state
Madeline Albright, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
Paula Dobriansky, as well as various diplomats and congressional
representatives. Dobriansky delivered a special invitation from U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov. Last week Mammadyarov flew to Washington
and held talks with Secretary Rice.
The State Department’s increasing attention to Azerbaijan is not
surprising, as the U.S. government has been actively trying to ensure
that the November parliamentary elections will be free and fair. In
addition, the Pentagon stepped up its contacts with the Azerbaijani
Army after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
But the growing U.S. presence in Azerbaijan has alarmed some officials
in the Azerbaijani government. Their argument for caution is based on
U.S. support for the “color revolutions” that toppled the governments
of Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. The Azerbaijani government
has been suspicious of the activities of some U.S.-based NGOs that
allegedly sponsor Azerbaijani opposition parties.
Another worry is the consequences of a potential deployment of U.S.
troops in Azerbaijan. Until now, President Aliev, like his predecessor
and late father, Heidar Aliev, has called for a balanced foreign
policy, in which the interests of several powers are played against
each other, but relations with all remain non-conflictual. However,
the possibility of having U.S. bases or troops in Azerbaijan runs
counter to the interests of two other regional powers: Russia and
Iran. Giving preference to one power over the other would change the
geopolitical balance in the region, a development that the Azerbaijani
government sees as destabilizing.
Finding itself in a very uncomfortable situation, Baku has been trying
to maneuver within the limited space available. The non-aggression
pact with Iran signed in May 2005 seeks to mitigate potential damage
to Azerbaijani-Iranian relations should there be a U.S. deployment in
Azerbaijan. The pact prohibits the use of either country’s military
bases by a third country in order to attack the other.
More importantly, while official Baku has slowly distanced itself from
Washington, it has started to move closer to Moscow. Relations between
Azerbaijan and Russia have improved in recent years and increased
since the beginning of this year. Several high-ranking officials
from Russia, including former president Boris Yeltsin, have visited
Baku. In addition, Azerbaijani officials have also promoted increased
Russian involvement in the upcoming parliamentary elections. There
will be Russian exit polls along American exit polls on election day.
Several opposition newspapers have argued that the warming relations
between Baku and Moscow are a result of holdovers from the Soviet
government who continue to hold important positions in the Azerbaijani
government. These officials are the ones who feel the most insecure
about the growing U.S. presence in the South Caucasus and want to
secure their interests, both national and personal, playing Russia
against the United States.
Even the recent scandal in which the leader of an opposition youth
organization, Ruslan Bashirli, was caught on videotape receiving
a $2,000 donation from representatives of supposedly Georgian
and Armenian democratic movements reflected the concern over U.S.
involvement (see EDM, August 8). In the videotape, Bashirli claimed
that it was the United States — specifically the National Democratic
Institute (NDI, which Albright chairs) — that is preparing a
revolution in Azerbaijan. Some in Azerbaijan believe that the Russian
security services helped their Azerbaijani counterparts secretly
film this meeting, which was later used to discredit the leader of
the main opposition party, Ali Kerimli.
There are also reports that if Washington secures its main demands or
gets a green light for the deployment of American troops, it will not
support a color revolution in Azerbaijan. However, the Azerbaijani
government is not willing to say “yes” to the Pentagon, unless the
United States offers substantial help in solving the territorial
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Karabakh region.
Although the United States is one of the co-chairs in the OSCE’s Minsk
Group that mediates the conflict, many in Azerbaijan say that Russia
holds the keys to solving this long-standing conflict.
In any case, demands from the Pentagon and Rumsfeld have never
been easy to satisfy, nor easy to ignore. Azerbaijan’s involvement
in NATO’s Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) may help the
Azerbaijani government in reaching a compromise, at least for the
short-term. The parties could likely reach some sort of an agreement
that would allow for the short-term deployment of American troops in
Azerbaijan. However, the prospects for a permanent U.S. military base
in Azerbaijan remain questionable.
Whatever the outcome of Rumsfeld’s upcoming visit to Baku, the
geopolitical battle between the United States and Russia in the South
Caucasus and Azerbaijan’s struggle to accommodate both will continue
to intensify. The main question is whether or not the Azerbaijani
government will be able to balance the interests of both states
effectively or will simply favor one power over the other. The second
choice would involve some geopolitical risks and would have critical
consequences for the future of Azerbaijan.