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UNITED STATES HOUSE SPEAKER ACCUSED FOR TAKING BRIBES FOR STOPPING GENOCIDE
RESOLUTION
Friday, August 05, 2005. Vanity Fair has an interview with FBI whistle
blower Sibel Edmonds, who was fired “after she accused a colleague of
covering up illicit activity involving Turkish nationals”. Among others,
Edmonds says wiretaps of the Turkish Consulate reveal remarks by a Turkish
official who claims the price for the Speaker of the House of
Representatives Dennis Hastert to withdraw the Armenian Genocide Resolution
in the fall of 2000 “would have been at least $500,000”.
Here’s an excerpt from the Vanity Fair article:
Thanks to Hastert, the resolution vehemently opposed by the Turks, passed
the International Relations Committee by a large majority. Then, on October
19, minutes before the full House vote, Hastert withdrew it.
At the time, he explained his decision by saying that he had received a
letter from President Clinton arguing that the genocide resolution, if
passed, would harm U.S. interests. Again, the reported content of the
Chicago wiretaps may well have been sheer bravado, and there is no evidence
that any payment was ever made to Hastert or his campaign. Nevertheless, a
senior official at the Turkish Consulate is said to have claimed in one
recording the price for Hastert to withdraw the resolution would have been
at least $500,000.
&nbs p; Hastert’s spokesman says the congressman withdrew the genocide
resolution issue only because of the approach from Clinton, “and to
insinuate anything else just doesn’t make any sense.” He adds that Hastert
has no affiliation with the A.T.C. [American Turkish Council] or other
groups reportedly mentioned in the wiretaps: “He does not know these
organizations.” Hastert is “unaware of Turkish interests making donations,”
the spokesman says, and his staff has “not seen any pattern of donors with
foreign names.”
more at:
ANORTHOSIS SEND THE CONQUERORS OF THEIR CITY STRAIGHT TO HELL
(Gibrahayer Nicosia August 8, 2005) During the week that thousands of
Cypriot refugees were commemorating the invasion of their city by the
Turkish army 31 years ago, Anorthosis of Famagusta invaded the Black Sea
city of Trabzon and ousted the local football team from the prestigious
Champions League preliminaries.
The Turkish nation was sent to national mourning, administration and
players were stoned while leaving the stadium by angry Turkish mobs and
their star coach Senol Gunes – who led the National Turkish football team to
the best three teams in the World Cup 2002 – was asked to resign by a
hostile Turkish press which characterised the Cyprus victory as a “national
humiliation”.
The Turks won the battle of intimidation, rock-throwing and abuse. The
Turkish harassment of the Anorthosis delegation (which also included 90
fans) started with their arrival at the airport in Trabzon, continued at the
hotel and ended on the football field.
The thousands of flags of the pseudo-state, the rhythmic chants of an
ignited crowd, even the recorded messages of Ataturk from the stadium
speakers were not enough to stop the Cyprus team’s victory. We were beaten
“fair and square” on the pitch as one Turkish newspaper wrote.
The 1-0 victory of Trabzonspor proved inadequate to overturn the 3-1
first leg score. Right after the match the Anorthosis delegation was
escorted by local police squads straight to the airport, not before being
attacked by Turkish mobs who threw stones on their convoy. The attack was
broadcast live from local sport correspondents and then straight to Cyprus
through Syria, where more than 6,000 Cypriots were waiting for their heroes
at 4:00 am in the morning after an all-night party in every town on the is
land.
Anorthosis face Glasgow Rangers tonight at GSP in Nicosia. If they go
through they will become the first Cyprus team to survive three rounds of
preliminaries in the Champions League.
How a football club came to symbolise Cyprus – Cyprus Mail article by Elias
Hazou at ;cat_id=1
TURKEY AND FRANCE CLASH OVER CYPRUS
ANKARA (Reuters/Bloomberg)–Turkey and France clashed on August 4 over
whether Ankara should recognize Cyprus, a European Union member, before it
begins its own EU entry talks on October 3.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could not accept any new
conditions for opening the talks and that he was upset by comments from
France that Ankara must first accept the internationally recognized Greek
Cypriot government.
“It is out of the question for us to discuss or consider any new
conditions with regards to October 3,” Erdogan told reporters in televised
comments. “We are saddened by the statements of the French prime minister
and of
President (Jacques) Chirac,” he added. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin
said on August 2 it was “inconceivable”
that Turke y start talks with the EU without recognizing one of its 25
member states, though he did not say if Paris would deploy its veto.
Chirac has not publicly commented on Turkey’s EU talks this week, but
the French daily Le Figaro, quoting unnamed ministers, reported that the
president told a cabinet meeting he agreed with his prime minister. Chirac’s
office declined to comment on the report. Chirac has traditionally backed
Turkey’s EU bid but now faces growing opposition among French voters to
admitting the large, relatively poor, mainly Muslim country into the wealthy
bloc.
PRESSURE
Maintaining pressure on Ankara, French Foreign Minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy repeated Villepin’s criticism on August 4. “Not wanting to
recognize one country in the Union while wanting to join [is] not
acceptable,” Douste-Blazy told Le Monde newspaper in an interview. “We would
like there to be an extensive discussion on this question within
the EU,” he added.
Ankara recognizes only a breakaway Turkish Cypriot enclave in northern
Cyprus. The island has been split along ethnic lines since Turkish troops
invaded in 1974 after a brief Greek Cypriot coup backed by the military
junta then ruling Greece.
France can block the start of talks–as can Cyprus–as the 25 EU states
must approve a negotiating mandate unanimously before they can begin.
Villepin said France would decide its position after talks among EU foreign
ministers in September. Turkey cleared the last formal hurdle to the start
of its entry talks last Friday by signing a protocol extending its customs
union to new EU members including Cyprus. However, Ankara also issued a
declaration making clear the signing did not mean a change in its stance
over the island, whose Greek Cypriot government is viewed in Brussels as the
sole legitimate authority.
Turkey says recognition can come only after a comprehensive peace
settlement on the Mediterranean island. Ankara believes it has done all it
can reasonably be expected to do about Cyprus by backing a UN-brokered peace
deal last year which Turkish Cypriots also endorsed in a referendum. The
plan was not supported by the Greek Cypriots.
Despite the latest French comments, Erdogan said he was confident
Turkey would begin entry talks on schedule.
“We will start the negotiations on October 3. We think only of the
negotiations,” Erdogan said.
The talks are expected to last many years and Turkey is not expected to
join the EU before 2015 at the earliest.
THE NEXT ISSUE OF GIBRAHAYER E-MAGAZINE WILL BE PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY 30
AUGUST
WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL OUR SUBSCRIBERS FOR THEIR CONTINUOUS SUPPORT.
IF YOU ARE TAKING A BREAK, HOPE IT IS A PLEASANT ONE.
NORTHERN CYPRUS GIVES WARM WELCOME TO AZERIS
AzerNews, Azerbaijan. Aug 4 2005. 80 Azerbaijani businessmen and journalists
arrived in the non-recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
last Wednesday on a first direct flight from a foreign country to the
Turkish-populated part of the ethnically divided island over the last 31
years. Citizens of Northern Cyprus welcomed the Azeri representatives with
tears in their eyes.
Economic relations between Azerbaijan and TRNC and investment
opportunities in the country, which faces international isolation, were
discussed during the three-day visit. The two countries’ businessmen signed
two agreements on cooperation in conclusion of a business forum on Friday,
covering trade and banking. The participants also discussed ways of
collaborating in the area of tourism, construction and agriculture.
& nbsp; ‘One nation-three states’ UATB chairman Erentok said that
Azerbaijan and Turkey have been referred to as ‘one nation-two states’ so
far. “But from now on, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Northern Cyprus should be
called ‘one nation-three states’, he said during the business men’s meeting
with the national leader, ex-president of Northern Cyprus Rauf Denktash on
Friday.
Denktash called the opening of the Baku-Lefkosha flight as a
significant event for Northern Cyprus, saying that Azerbaijan should be
considered a model for other countries.
“Like the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan, the Northern Cyprus is still
under occupation. The Greek community of Southern Cyprus is not willing to
unite with the Turkish community of Cyprus within a federation and is trying
to keep the entire Cyprus under its control. But they won’t succeed in this.
TRNC exists and will continue to exist.”
Erent ok underlined that UATB will further work to develop relations
between Azerbaijan and Northern Cyprus. In conclusion of the meeting,
Denktash was elected honorary member of UATB. Denktash and his son Serdar
Denktash, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, will visit Baku on
August 15.
Diplomatic tensions Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos has
condemned the Azerbaijani business men’s visit. “Opening flights to Northern
Cyprus is unacceptable”, Turkish NTV channel quoted him as saying.
Papadopoulos said he has forwarded a letter expressing his objection to
President Ilham Aliyev. “The leadership of Greek Cyprus has decided to take
active steps to prevent such flights. We have filed a complaint to the
International Civil Aviation Organization”, the document says.
Informal reports say that Greece has threatened to open a flight to
Upper Garabagh in response to Azerbaijan’s deci sion to start direct flights
from Baku to Lefkosha.
A presidential administration official has said that Azerbaijan’s plans
to forge ties with TRNC should not perturb anyone. The country will continue
working in this direction. “These steps are aimed at preventing isolation of
Cyprus Turks from the international community”,
said head of the President’s Office international relations department
Novruz Mammadov.
Turkish Prime MinisterErdogan said during his visit to Russia that
Baku’s recent steps ‘de facto imply recognition of the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus’. “I hope that Azerbaijan’s policy in this area will
continue”, he said.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
If anyone had paid ten times the amount of what the Turkish Chamber of
Commerce paid to TIME magazine to circulate a DVD denying the Jewish
Genocide, would TIME magazine have circulated it?
Thank you H.B. from Larnaca
We have just returned from our vacation trip to Ireland and the Republic of
Cyprus. Our stay in Cyprus was nice and instructive. Yes, there is a
“Green Line” in Nicosia, Europe’s “Last Divided City,” and I took many
pictures. It appears that our Turkish “friends” are engaged in their usual
political man oeuvres of signing the EU Customs Union protocol so EU
accession negotiations can commence, but issuing a separate document “not
recognizing” the existence of the Cyprus Republic as an EU member state.
Naturally, this approach is legally inconsistent. However, the UK appears
to support it. Per the BBC article below, France today (8/2/2005) denounced
the Turkish moves. Feel free to distribute this information to
others.
I have just come across the Gibrahayer e-magazine and I must say I am rather
impressed by what I have seen. I thought I will send you a quick e-mail
about this.
I hope you and your family are all well.
Best Regards Serko Armaghanian – Redhill, UK.
SYSTEM OF A DOWN Contribute Over $20,000 For Genocide Awareness
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JUST OUT READ ARTSAGANG JULY ISSUE BEFORE IT REACHES YOU BY POST
You can now read the Armenian community’s 20- page monthly Armenian
publication (July 2005 issue number 124) in front of your computer in pdf
format at:
FORMER OIL-FOR-FOOD CHIEF QUITS U.N.
Sevan calls payoff allegations false, says Annan ‘sacrificed’ him
UNITED NATIONS Monday August 8, 2005 (CNN) – The former director of the U.N.
oil-for-food program resigned Sunday, denying wrongdoing and blasting the
organization and its leadership a day before he is to be accused of
profiting from illegal deals.
Benon Sevan resigned from the United Nations in a letter to Kofi Annan,
accusing the secretary-general of “sacrificing” him for political
expediency. more at:
BENON SEVAN’S ATTORNEY LASHES AT INQUIRY COMMITTEE
`The conduct of the Independent Inquiry Committee (`IIC’ or `Committee’)
headed by Paul Volcker has reached a point where it is no longer useful to
attempt to respond internally to the IIC’s insupportable and biased findings
against former Under-Secretary-General Benon V. Sevan,’ said Mr. Sevan’s
attorney, Eric Lewis of Baach Robinson & Lewis PLLC. `They have been out to
scapegoat him from the beginning,’ Lewis stated. `The IIC is unaccountable
to anyone; some of its own staff do not trust its objectivity and have
resigned; and now the IIC tries to change the subject again by falsely
attacking Benon Sevan’s integrity.
Gibrahayer received the following press releases. Click here to read them.
NEWS IN BRIEF
¢French the Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, answering the journalist
Jean-Pierre Elkabach, declared in connection with Turkey which has just
accepted Cyprus in Customs union, without recognizing the existence of it,
that “It would not be conceivable to accommodate a country (speaking about
the negotiations envisaged on October 3) which would not have recognized
each member of the European Union. It up to Turkey to prove its will to
come in the Union.”
¢Armenia sent a note of protest to the leadership of the Council of Europe
on Monday against the mysterious di sappearance of its national flag
displayed outside the Strasbourg headquarters of the respected human rights
organization.
4B8A-8012-DEC5D5C1CE88.asp
¢A Yerevan-based travel agency hopes to find a new niche in Armenia’s
burgeoning tourism industry, pioneering weekend tours of Armenian-controlled
territories in Azerbaijan that surround Nagorno-Karabakh.
¢Iranian archaeologists recently discovered over 50 ancient sites dating
back to the Urartian era northwest of Lake Urmia which seem to confirm the
theory of Urartian settlement in the region.
¢The European Commission said on Thursday it had written to Turkey
complaining about legislation on religious foundations that did not meet EU
standards for the rights of non-Muslim communities.
¢The Cyprus govern ment is looking into the spectrum of its relations with
Azerbaijan, hoping that it will review its decision for direct flights to
the occupied areas and will respect international law and the sovereignty of
the Cyprus government, Cyprus Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Sotirios
Zakhaios has told CNA.
¢On Wednesday, 27 July 2005, four deacons under the spiritual jurisdiction
of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, the Reverend Deacons Sahag
Bicakciyan, Sevan Civanyan, Harutyun Babigyan and Hayg Koparyan were
officially called to the Holy Order of Priesthood by His Beatitude Mesrob
II, Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul and All Turkey.
SPORTS NEWS AND CALENDAR
¢Refugee Football Club Anorthosis of Famagusta – Cyprus earned a sweet
defeat at Trabzonspor of Turkey 1-0 but secured qualification to the third
round of qualifications in the Champions League having won 3-1 in Cyprus two
weeks ago. They face Glasgow Rangers tonight (Tuesday August 9, 2005) in
Nicosia at GSP Stadium at 9:00 pm.
¢Troodos Open Tennis Championships. Seniors Men’s singles +35 Finals on
Friday 12 August 2005 at 3:30 pm at the Dolphin Club in Troodos.
NEWLY ARRIVED BOOKS AT MOUFFLON BOOKSTORES
BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS by Louis de Bernieres
(author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin)
Tel:22665155 [email protected] ,
ARMENIAN MUSIC By Arek Dakessian in Beirut
This section is dedicated to bringing Armenian Music closer to us, shedding
light on the Armenian music scene, its history and how all this has affected
the Armenian Question.
THE REBIRTH OF ROCK
After the nap rock music had been taking in the seventies, it woke up,
in the eighties, bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden hit their peaks in
this decade… The cold war was sending its last cold winds to the world,
Pink Floyd hit the public with The Wall… this was the trend of rock now,
politically motivated, deeply meaningful lyrics accompanied by the new
generation of guitarists, taught by the bands in the sixties, who were
stronger in technical terms, a little more mature in musical terms, they
knew how to strike the chords a little more passionately than the
sixties-bands. But maybe I say that subjectively, each decade had its own
unique taste.
So basically the whole world is head-banging. Armenia was too, the
rebirth of rock had affected us too, we had many new bands like “Vostan
Hayots”, “Ro De U”, “Asparez”, “Breeze”… Candlelight concerts were also
popular, the bards were still singing, Roupen was close to his peak, if not
on it, Meschian was still performing, Vahan Artsruni and Gurgen Melikian
were two other bards performing in the candlelight…
Roupen, the bard whose lyrics were more emotional than political, converted
to singing political, yet evermore emotional songs because of the hectic
political lifestyle, other bard-bands like Ararat came close to being
categorized as punk rock, another bard-band Zorikian used more melancholic,
morose tunes; the casual Armenian tune really. Punk rock was beco ming all
the more famous, “Slayer” was already a household name despite the
censure… Quite simply, the eighties are the blooming years of rock music!
In 1989, to have the Armenian signature on all this, the earthquake hit
Leninagan and Spitak brought to the ground in a matter of seconds. I might
be reviving old memories here, and maybe sad ones, but it’s interesting how
we come together as people in times such as the latter. My dad tells me when
he had gone to donate money, he had seen one of his students, they started
talking and the student (who was quite poor) told my dad that the money he’s
paying is the money he had saved up to get married, the wedding was
postponed in one country to save one in another. The Entertainer of the
Century, Charles Aznavour gathered up the elite of French music (who mind
you contained 3 other Armenians at the time) and sang “Pour toi Armenie”,
this marked the fact that Armenian bands started to take on a new role.
When you think about it, it’s very typical of our Armenian nature, in
the eighties the Karabagh war was under way, Armenians in Azerbaijan got
massacred, (Ararat was no longer the football powerhouse it once was),
Armenia turned independant… all this, with the renaissance of rock, made
Huge rock bands come along, people some traveled to the States to give
concerts, some collapsed and turned into a production company (this is the
bright side), some introduced punk rock, others introduced death metal (at
the time death metal was different than now)… We had the guitars –
sensational ones by the way – the voices, the brains, the melodies, the
themes, we had it all really, we even had an Armenian production company to
make sure records were released. One might ask, if it weren’t for the events
in the eighties our rock bands could’ve made it into the big-time, but then
again, who knows what would’ve happened without the events in the eighties,
they were the inspiration…
Here is a link to download some Armenian music from, you will find some of
the older bands and be impressed by the maturity of the new ones:
g i b r a h a y c a l e n d a r
¢Armenian Youth Federation annual Panagoum at the Camping site of The
Archbishopric of Morphou in Kakopetria. A fun and educational program for
Armenian youth now in its 28th year. Fourth week of August 2005. Lunch and
cultural program for parents and friends on the last day of Camp. Details to
follow. Contact: Nareg Tavitian on 99488926, Raffi Mahdessian on 99441588 or
Simon Aynedjian on 99437073
¢AYF weekly meetings continue every Monday at AYMA at 8:00 pm
¢Watch the contests of the Cyprus teams in Europe at AYMA: Anorthosis Vs
Glasgow Rangers on Tuesday 9 August at 9:00 pm and on Thursday 11 August AT
8:45 Apoel Vs Macabe followed by Dynamo Buch arest Vs Omonia at 9:45 pm.
¢Armenian Radio Hour on The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation via real audio
on . Broadcast 17:00-18:00 local Cyprus time (14:00-15:00
GMT). Armenian news every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.
¢The Armenian Prelature announces that the next permit for the Armenian
Cemetery visitation at Ayios Dhometios on the Green line, is on Sunday 21
August, 2005.
JOIN THE BIGGEST
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ARMENIAN
E-MAGAZINE
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Catching drug traffickers a new priority
Stars and Stripes (European edition)
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By Russ Rizzo
A year ago, Tom Lohman was part of a two-man team in Stuttgart tasked
with fighting drug-related terrorism throughout Europe.
Now, he is one of a dozen members of U.S. European Command’s
counternarco-terrorism office that has found itself much busier this year.
As the Department of Defense takes a larger interest in drug trafficking
around the world because of links between the illegal drug market and
terrorism, people such as Lohman are finding more work, funding and
areas of control at their fingertips.
Lohman, manager of EUCOM’s counternarco-terrorism program since 1997,
said he recently has been freed to help investigate drug activity in
areas around Europe.
A change in policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks freed
Department of Defense money for operations to crack down on drug
networks around the world, even if the drugs were not coming into the
United States, Lohman said. The reasoning was simple: terrorists were
using money from drug trafficking to fund operations, and they were
using traditional drug smuggling routes to transport weapons.
Lohman’s office is paying to send EUCOM Special Forces and contract
workers to Azerbaijan to train the Azeri Navy in maritime security for
the Caspian Guard Initiative, a new program aimed to increasing security
in the Caspian Sea and countries that border it, he said.
In the process, Lohman said, U.S. officials are gaining a foothold into
a drug route that has been the target of much speculation by U.S.
officials but not much investigation.
`There is very little actual intelligence information that can be
sighted as far as drugs transiting either in the sea or in the area near
the sea,’ Lohman said. `The more we look, the more we think we’ll find.’
Money devoted to countering narco-terrorism could eventually pay for new
boats and surveillance gear the Azeri government would use to stop drug
smugglers, Lohman said.
Lohman said his office will participate in a similar way with the
Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative, which aims to train soldiers
in northern Africa.
He said he was also working with countries along the Adriatic Sea and
Balkan states, although he declined to give specifics.
`We’re really trying to link terrorism with the drug threat,’ Lohman
said `Sometimes it’s very obvious, sometimes it’s subtle, and sometimes
it’s not there.’

Pentagon aims to bolster security in Caspian Sea region
Stars and Stripes (European edition)
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By Russ Rizzo
The Department of Defense will oversee a $130 million effort in the next
six years to increase security in the volatile Caspian Sea region,
according to European Command officials coordinating the effort.
The U.S. hopes to improve patrolling on the Caspian Sea and secure
borders of countries in the area to stop the flow of terrorists, weapons
and drugs, and to stabilize a region with significant U.S. political and
business interests, officials said.
The program, called the Caspian Guard Initiative, focuses on Azerbaijan
and Kazakhstan – the two most western-leaning countries in the area that
lie on opposite sides of the sea – but could expand in future years,
said Army Lt. Col. Scott Sweetser, who helped coordinate the program for
European Command.
European Command Special Forces and contractors began training members
of Azerbaijan’s Navy last year on intercepting terrorists, drugs and
weapons trafficked on the Caspian Sea. Future training will include
border patrol, Sweetser said.
In both countries, the U.S. hopes to build command-and-control centers –
similar to the one used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – as
well as centers to direct air and maritime security operations, Sweetser
said.
The U.S. also built an interim maritime command and control center in
Baku, Azerbaijin, which it hopes to expand, Sweetser said. The U.S.
State and Energy departments also are taking part in the program.
Interest in the region developed as EUCOM officials looked at potential
threats in their area after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
Sweetser said.
`We started to look at where the threats were and realized this one was
glaringly obvious,’ Sweetser said.
Azerbaijan is a particular interest to the United States because it
shares borders with Russia to the north – with the nearby region of
Chechnya – and Iran to the south, making it potential transit point for
terrorists, Sweetser said.
`You’ve got a central point, if you drew a line between those, that make
Azerbaijan vulnerable to the movement of terrorists,’ Sweetser said.
The new interest in the region also comes as Azerbaijan situates itself
as a key player in the U.S. effort to reduce dependency on Middle East
oil. An oil pipeline running from Baku to Tbilisi, Georgia, to the
Mediterranean port city Ceyhan, Turkey, opened earlier this year and is
considered crucial to that cause, according to news reports.
EUCOM officials were quick to downplay the role of oil in the Caspian
Guard Initiative, saying that securing natural resources are only part
of the overall strategy.
`The idea is to protect regional stability,’ Sweetser said. `If you
create regional stability, it makes the security of economic
infrastructures that much [greater].’
;article=30850
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Samtskhe-Javakheti to Supply Food for Armed Forces
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2005-08-10 11:36:43
The Georgian Ministry of Defense (MoD) launched on August 10 measures
aimed at procuring agricultural products for Georgian armed forces in
the Samtskhe-Javakheti region.
The initiative is a part of a state social program for this region
that will help ease the economic consequences that will result from
the withdrawal of the Russian military base from the predominately
Armenian-populated town of Akhalkalaki, in Samtskhe-Javakheti.
According to the Defense Ministry, special information stations will
be set up on August 10 in the Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda districts
which will disseminate information about the amount of food-stuffs
needed in the army. A special group from the Defense Ministry’s
Procurements Department will work in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region for
a week to study the situation at the scene.Samtskhe-Javakheti to
Supply Food for Armed Forces

Unfinished Business in Russia
Stratfor.com
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By Peter Zeihan
It should come as no surprise that the most dynamic part of U.S. foreign
policy relates to Russia. Condoleezza Rice, appointed as Secretary of
State at the beginning of the year, began her government work during the
end of the Cold War, when she served as former President George H. W.
Bush’s Soviet expert at the National Security Council. Now that she is
in the big chair at Foggy Bottom, she has surrounded herself with
members of the same team from her previous stint in government service.
Of particular note are former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick,
former U.S. ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns, and Robert Joseph, former
special assistant to the president and senior director for proliferation
strategy, counterproliferation and homeland defense with the National
Security Council (NSC) — a wordy way of saying that he was really
important. The three now serve essentially as Rice’s No. 2, 3 and 4 at
State.
As we stated when Rice was appointed in January, the State Department is
now “staffed by a team that helped knock the Soviet Union off its
superpower perch. Russia can look forward to four years of a State
Department with the resources and the will to ratchet back Moscow’s
influence throughout the Baltics, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central
Asia and even its western Slavic flank. The confrontation over Ukraine
was just the beginning.”
Personnel changes have not been limited to the top tier. Vershbow’s
replacement as ambassador — William Burns — fits the mold set by Rice
and her top team. He served at the U.S. embassy in Moscow as
minister-counselor for political affairs during the 1980s, a position
and time that would tend to shape one’s political views. He is now
coming back to Moscow after several years of knocking Israeli and
Palestinian heads together.
In the case of Russia, however, the transformation is much deeper than
“just” a fresh ambassador, secretary of state and top management team.
The rank and file of the entire Russia desk at the State Department is
being overhauled. Considering that most State Department personnel swap
out positions every two to three years to avoid the dangers of going
native, a certain amount of turnover is expected, but the top-to-bottom
housecleaning in the case of the Russia team appears to be far more
thorough than any scheduled rotation.
The big shift began — and the direction of U.S. policy was set — at
the V-E Day celebrations in Moscow in May. During that trip, the Bush
team bracketed a whirlwind tour past a parade stand in Moscow between
deep, long and extremely friendly visits to Latvia and Georgia. The
message was clear: the United States is now more concerned with the
comings, goings and concerns of Vaira Vike-Freiberga and Mikhail
Saakashvili — the Latvian and Georgian presidents — than it is with
the Russians, and this message was sent on the Russians’ national day.
In the Russian mind, it is all snapping into place: color “revolutions”
in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine; NATO and EU expansion right up to
the Russian border; the commencement of pumping on the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline; and now a thorough personnel shift in
the State Department that is stocking the top ranks with people who were
present at — and played a role in — the Soviet defeat. The Kremlin’s
belief is that the West, led by the United States, is committing to a
full-court press into Russia’s geopolitical space in an attempt to
permanently remove Russia as a threat.

Jihadists and Lager Louts: Blair’s Tsurris
Jewish Comment .com
Thursday 11th Aug 2005 at 00:20
Contributed by : Carol Gould

[tsurris – Yiddish word for miserable problems]
*********************
It is the day before Thursday yet again, and in London we tend to get
nervy at this point in the week because July 7th and 21st were
Thursdays. It is worrying that tomorrow is 11 August (Madrid happened
on the 11th and of course 9/11 ..) and that eight and eleven add up to
nineteen. In recent years radical groups operating without
interference inside the UK have celebrated September 11th with
veneration of the `Magnificent Nineteen.’
So, here we are being told by the Metropolitan Police that the next
attack is not a matter of if, but when. Intelligence gatherers have
declared that the attack will centre on the City of London, our
financial district. It is vulgar to try to blow one’s own trumpet and
say `I told you so’ at times like these, but for years in these
columns we have been lamenting the rhetoric being used by radical
organisations throughout the British Isles. Tonight on the news Avi
Dichter, the head of the Israeli security services, the Shin Bet, said
it is vital to nip the terror in the bud. He cited the targeted
killings of major militants using military helicopters.
Assassinations from helicopters hovering overhead will never happen in
London. However, reading an interview with Hassan Butt, a Muslim
activist in the UK who cares nothing for Britain and does not have any
feelings about the killing of Londoners, one could imagine an enraged
reader taking in the comments by Butt and wanting to throttle this
young radical. Butt had been vociferous about the grievances of
British Muslims just after September 11th, 2001. Four years later, his
sentiments have not changed.
This provokes a far-fetched but, we think, valid premise: does the
death of six million in the Holocaust give licence to Jews around the
world to blow up Germans? Does the 1915 massacre give Armenians the
right to go out and slaughter Turks? British Muslim leaders have taken
to wheeling out events from the founding of Islam to the present day
as unresolved issues needing a renewed, brave confrontation with the
West. In a disturbing poll conducted by the BBC today, only 29% of
British Muslims questioned said they think they should integrate into
British society. I am moved to look up at the wall of my living room
and gaze at the photograph of my late grandfather, Harry, who is
dressed as a Yankee Doodle Dandy and, with a moustachioed pal, waves a
fistful of American flags. This photograph was likely taken in 1910,
and both young men look ecstatic. They are so thrilled to be in
America, even if they can barely speak the language. As Janet Daley,
the expatriate American columnist observed on BBC `A Question of
Security,’ Britain does not have any structures in place to make
immigrants feel they are being inducted into a special and exciting
national identity, whereas the United States makes citizenship an
experience and celebration.
The only instance in American history in which hatred of the nation
spilled over into civil disobedience was the height of the civil
rights movement, when radical elements influenced public figures and
sportsmen to raise their fists in the Black Power gesture rather than
singing the Star-Spangled Banner. These African Americans did indeed
have a grievance, but what has Britain done to harm the scores of
angry young Muslims spewing fury in the media and on the streets, and
who burned the Union Jack and US flag in Grosvenor Square in May of
this year? I asked Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about this at the
World Affairs Council in Philadelphia that same week and he seemed
lost for words; what, when all is said and done, can the nations’
leaders do to placate these viscerally angry, British-born militants?
They have been given every opportunity in this country and many have
claimed tens of thousands in state benefits including housing, child
support, Incapacity Benefit, mobility cars, free pills plus medical,
optical and dental care and Income Support. The thanks the British
taxpayer gets is pronouncements from these non-workers that Jihad is
now in full swing and that the `covenant of security’ ( the passive
acceptance of radical activity by British authorities over the past
decades) ended with the re-election of Tony Blair.
Last year I had a vision of Britons waking up one morning to be
greeted by streets filled with tens of thousands of young men with
AK-47 machine guns, mowing us down in a giant Jihadist insurgency. The
people to whom I mooted this `remote view’ of things to come must have
thought me close to lunacy. This week, the `Independent’ newspaper
reports that intelligence sources feel there is a trained and ready
insurgency inside the British Isles armed with Kalashnikov and AK47
equipment. Reading Hassan Butt’s comments in today’s London newspapers
that Jihad is coming and that he has utter contempt for British
values, one can only feel that we are in a situation in which we have
`shut the stable door after the horse has bolted.’
Turning to the troubles within white British society, tonight’s main
BBC and ITV news addressed the national crisis of alcoholism. It is a
disease out of control; where Britons go, their reputation for
loutishness and violent, abusive behaviour under the influence of
massive amounts of alcohol follows with dread in Europe. Last year I
was in a fashionable French restaurant with American friends with whom
I had been commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of D Day in
Normandy. There was a loud commotion and soon we could see that a
group of heavily inebriated British tourists had become violent . The
Gendarmes arrived and we watched in disbelief as the Britons reeled
and collapsed onto the floor. They were so drunk they could not
stand. It was impossible for the officers to lead them out because
they were unable to walk. How many times one has seen this over the
years; the tragedy is that this sort of drinking now plagues the
young. On the BBC images were shown of pleasant and decorous behaviour
by pub patrons in the 1960s. Today, describing the state of our
drinking culture, Judge Charles Harris QC said, ‘These people are
simply savages.’
This takes me to the other major story in Britain: the continuing rage
in Manchester over the purchase of its legendary soccer team by
American Malcolm Glazer. Fans staged a protest and the images on
television were enough to convince a viewer that the Glazer sons
should steer clear of Manchester and perhaps the United Kingdom
altogether. The anger of the fans was frightening. At a time when
Britain is threatened with a Lebanon-style internal insurgency from a
legion of Jihadists, Britons continue to get into a fury about an
American running Manchester United. We had letters form furious
readers who said we did not understand British culture and not to
comment on soccer, but can anyone reading this imagine a crowd of
Americans threatening the life of a Briton who had bought, say, the
New York Yankees or Philadelphia Eagles?
What do these issues — loutishness and soccer rage — have to do with
the Jihadists? For those of us who were purveyors of fine culture in
theatre, film and television we have seen this great tradition
vanish. Scouring the pages of `The Evening Standard’ newspaper one can
find no new writing in the West End theatre. Every show is a revival
or a re-hash of an American musical. Thirty years ago London was the
world’s nerve centre for new writing : Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter,
Alan Bennett, Michael Frayn, Peter Nichols and other giants of the
creative world were generating a classic a month. Now, British theatre
and television are mired in a doldrums the likes of which can only be
called a tragedy. Into this maelstrom of a disappearing British
cultural identity come the Jihadists. It would be absurd to say that
impeccable behaviour at soccer games; the presence of Olivier, Gielgud
and Richardson on the West End stage and responsible pub conduct would
make the Jihadists have some respect for the culture they are expected
to absorb. What would make life in Britain more pleasant would be a
return to the days of glamour, elegance and dignity that characterised
daily discourse in this island nation. The idea that Gordon Ramsay and
Anne Robinson (her humiliation of contestants never ceases to horrify
me) are major celebrities is an indicator of the vast earthquake in
British society that has taken place in the past decade.
The Jihadists must be confronted and dealt with, but our own crumbling
society also needs attention. When the terrorists go, we may be left
with our own terror. The bottle must cease dominating our lives. The
solution to this nightmare, which is seeing children as young as
thirteen years of age in hospital with liver failure, will be an
uphill struggle. Perhaps our geneticists should research the reason
why alcohol is so abhorrent to Jewish youth! A world without Jihadists
and lager louts is too much to hope for but a troubled Britain,
preparing for Olympics 2012, will have to start somewhere. The message
to Tony Blair? Get real.

Global Gold Corporation Acquires Tukhmanuk Mine in Armenia and Closes
Private Placement
BISNIS Mining and Metallurgy Update
10 August 2005
New Info on Product Certification Available!
The majority of U.S. companies exporting products to Eurasian countries
are likely to encounter product certification issues in one form or
another. Even for seasoned U.S. exporters, Eurasia-style product
certification procedures may seem intimidating. BISNIS now has general
overviews of certification processes in eight Eurasian countries
available to help you understand and navigate these issues, see
The other good news is that
several U.S.-based certification companies provide professional services
and advise on these procedures, for a non-exhaustive listing see the
BISNIS website at
For
additional information regarding product certification in Eurasia,
please visit BISNIS website at
************************************************************* ********
Press Release: Global Gold Corporation Acquires Tukhmanuk Mine in
Armenia and Closes Private Placement
Greenwich, CT — August 1, 2005 — Global Gold Corporation (OTCBB-GBGD)
() today acquired the Tukhmanuk gold mine, plant,
and surrounding exploration sites in Armenia and, on July 29, closed a
private placement raising three million dollars. Global Gold will use
the proceeds to fund the Tukhmanuk acquisition and expansion as well as
to further its mining and exploration projects and for working capital.
The transaction involved the issuance of four million shares of common
stock at $0.75 per share. Each new share issued carries a warrant to
purchase one half of one additional share at $1.50 per share. The
warrants are exercisable on or before July 31, 2007. Lead investors
include current shareholders Firebird Global Master Fund, Ltd., Firebird
Republics Fund, Ltd, and Firebird Avrora Fund, Ltd () and
new shareholders East Capital (), Falcon QPLP, and
Dover Industries.
The Tukhmanuk property is adjacent to Global Gold’s Hankavan property in
central Armenia, between the Aragatsotn and Kotayk provinces. In
addition to the central property the acquisition includes a 200,000
tonne per year capacity plant and the Damlik, Mirak, Grebnevaya,
Ozyornaya, Emin Yourt, Voskedzor, and Dalma exploration sites. The
property is held by the Armenian company Mego-Gold, LLC, for which
Global Gold’s subsidiary Global Gold Mining, LLC (“GGM”) agreed to pay
$3,500,000. GGM is initially paying $1,500,000 for 51% of Mego-Gold and
paying the balance of the purchase price for the remaining 49% within
two years.
Global Gold Corporation is an international gold mining, development and
exploration company with mining properties in Chile and Armenia. Global
Gold Corporation is located at 104 Field Point Road, Greenwich, CT
06830. The main phone number is 203-422-2300. More information can be
found at
To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly
historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business
strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions,
goals, future financial conditions, future collaboration agreements, the
success of the Company’s development, events conditioned on stockholder
or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are
forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The
forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to
certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from the statements made.

Contact: Global Gold Corporation, Drury J. Gallagher, 203-422-2300,
[email protected]

Source: Global Gold Corporation
********** Forwarded by: *****************************
Ellen S. House, BISNIS Trade Specialist for Mining and Metallurgy
U.S. Department of Commerce
Tel: 202/482-2284, Fax: 202/482-2293
Additional information on this sector in Russia and Eurasia is available
via BISNIS Online at

Wednesday 10, August 2005
Experts Warn Of IT Staff Shortage In Armenia
By Nane Atshemian
Armenia’s information technology industry, the most advanced in the
region, is beginning to experience a shortage of skilled labor that
could stall its further growth unless urgent government measures are
taken to reform the education system, IT experts warned on Wednesday.
They said that the number and especially the professional level of young
people graduating from the IT programs of local universities is
increasingly lagging behind the needs of one of the most dynamic sectors
of the Armenian economy.
The sector has seen substantial growth over the past decade, creating
thousands of well-paid jobs in the unemployment-stricken nation. Foreign
and mostly U.S. companies in computer software development and other
IT-related activities have been the main driving force behind the
growth. At least a dozen of them have branches in Armenia.
The existence of relatively cheap and skilled workforce in country that
was once dubbed the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union has been
principal factor behind the foreign investments. But According to the
director of the Armenian Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF), a World
Bank-funded agency promoting the sector’s development, Armenia will risk
losing this trump card unless it embarks on a sweeping overhaul of its
system of higher education.
`There are now IT companies that are looking for 50 to 100 specialists,’
Bagrat Yengibarian told RFE/RL. `There is a great need in specialists.
Our task is to create conditions in the university system that will
enable companies to hire qualified specialists. We can not make Armenia
attractive by saying that the private sector itself should prepare
specialists.’
`Big Western firms like Lycos and Synopsis can enter our universities
and train their future cadres. But smaller companies interested in
Armenia cannot do that,’ Yengibarian added.
The main sources of IT-related knowledge in Armenia are the computer
science departments of Yerevan State University and the Armenian State
Engineering University. The number of applicants seeking to study there
has risen dramatically in recent years, with high school graduates
attracted by the prospect of finding a job in a sector where the average
monthly wage is currently worth $500. Experienced Armenian programmers
may well earn $1,000 or more these days.
However, the post-Soviet decline in overall educational standards in
Armenia coupled with a lack of government funding for universities has
clearly taken its toll on the quality of IT learning in Armenia.
`Our universities are only now beginning to teach modern technology,’
said Arman Valesian, chairman of the organizing committee of an annual
computer programming contest sponsored by the EIF and other IT
associations. `Kids mainly learn it on their own or through private
courses. If they could do that in university it would be much easier for
the industry to hire staff. But companies now spend at least three
months to retrain university graduates [before hiring them].’
The latest programming contest began this week, featuring about 200
participants below the age of 30. Thirty best-performing programmers
will be short-listed for a special training course to be taught by
specialists from Armenian and foreign IT firms.
`The younger they are, the more flexible is their mind,’ Valesian
observed. `For example, we have a 16-year-old boy who solved five
problems in 75 minutes.’
Analysts say another problem is that despite declaring the sector’s
development a top priority of its economic policy, the Armenian
government has yet to embark on a radical re-orientation of the
education sector toward IT or at least to expand its existing computer
science programs. Armenia’s state-run technical colleges, which were
primarily designed to serve the now defunct Soviet-era heavy industry,
continue to release every year hundreds of mechanical and other non-IT
engineers whose chances of finding a job are slim.
Yengibarian, the EIF director, believes that the government should come
up with an IT development plan tied to a broader strategy for the
country’s economic development. That strategy, he said, should provide
answers to the following questions: `In which direction will Armenia
move in the next ten years? Are we going to prioritize cheap or
qualified labor? What steps are we going to take to ensure that the
university system does not lag behind development?’
(Photolur photo)
Bus Fare Increase In Yerevan Raises Questions
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Municipal authorities defended a 30 percent increase in the key public
transportation fare in Yerevan which took effect on Wednesday and
appeared to cause widespread discontent among commuters.
A ride on a privately-owned minibus, the principal means of
transportation in the Armenian capital, will now cost 130 drams (30 U.S.
cents). The decision to raise it from 100 drams, taken by Mayor Yervand
Zakharian on Tuesday, was expected for the last few weeks.
`To be honest, the measure was long overdue. We didn’t resort to it in
view of the people’s living conditions,’ Vrezh Asatrian, a senior
official at the Transport Department of the Yerevan municipality, told
RFE/RL.
Asatrian claimed that the tariff hike was requested by over 50 private
firms that operate minibus lines across the city of one million. `They
argued that the prices of fuel, spare parts and bus repair have gone
up,’ he said. `Their concerns are justified.’
However, minibus drivers disputed the claim, saying that the higher fare
could mean fewer passengers and reduce their revenues. `There is no way
the route operators could do that,’ said one of them. `It’s the
municipality that took such a decision.’
Citing municipality officials, Armenian newspapers reported earlier that
the price rise will be primarily aimed at boosting the revenues of
state-owned buses that find it difficult to compete with private
carriers. Most of those buses were purchased from Belarus last year with
a loan borrowed by the Armenian government from the Russian-based
Interstate Bank of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The smallish buses were never likely to be cost-effective and the city
authorities have trouble repaying the loan. A top executive of a
state-run company operating them was fired recently for failing to
generate enough revenues. But Asatrian denied any connection between
this and the fare increase.
Critics say that instead of raising fares the authorities should have
limited the disproportionately large number of the mostly old minibuses
that only aggravate the city’s chaotic traffic. The minibus business is
highly lucrative and is mostly controlled by government-connected
individuals.
(Photolur photo)
Church Restoration Raises Hopes For Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press Writer
(AP) – Rainwater seeps through the conical dome of Akhtamar’s
thousand-year-old church, washing away biblical frescoes from one of the
finest surviving monuments of ancient Armenian culture. Bullet holes
pock the sandstone walls. After a century of neglect and decades of
political wrangling, Turkey has begun restoring the church, a renovation
that comes as Turkish leaders face intense pressure from the European
Union to improve their treatment of minorities.
The 2 million Turkish Lira ($1.5 million) restoration, ordered and paid
for by the Turkish government, began in May and is raising hopes that a
small, cautious thaw in relations between Turkey and neighboring Armenia
could expand.
The church is the lone building on a tiny island in a lake. It is
covered in scaffolding as masons replace fallen roof stones to stop the
rainwater and rebuild the basalt floor, which was dug out by treasure
hunters. Experts also will try to restore the frescoes in the interior.
“This is our positive approach, our message,” says Turkey’s prime
minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has staked his rule on winning
membership in the EU.
The European Union urged Turkey last year to consider registering
Akhtamar in UNESCO’s World Heritage List and is pressing the country to
reopen its closed border with Armenia and re-establish diplomatic ties
with its neighbor. Turkey has taken cautious steps toward improving
connections Armenia and a member of Erdogan’s political party visited
its capital earlier this year, but relations remain extremely cool
because of animosities over ethnic bloodletting a century ago.
Eastern Turkey was once a heartland of Armenian culture and more than a
million Armenians lived in the area at the turn of the 19th century. But
they were driven out by what Armenia contends was a policy of genocide
by Turks, a charge the Turkish government vehemently denies.
Akhtamar, called the Church of Surp Khach, or Holy Cross, was one of the
most important churches of those ancient Armenian lands. It was built by
Armenian King Gagik I of Vaspurakan and inaugurated in A.D. 921. Gagik’s
historian, Thomas Ardzruni, described the church as being near a harbor
and a palace with gilded cupolas, peacefully surrounded by the lake.
Only the church survived.
By 1113, the church had become the center of the Armenian Patriarchate
of Akhtamar and an inspiration to mystics in the area. The island was
the center of a renowned school of scribal art and illumination. The
region was a thriving center of Armenian culture, but was engulfed in
ethnic conflict as the Turks’ Ottoman Empire splintered at the end of
World War I.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered by Turks.
Turkey strongly denies there was any genocide, arguing that the death
toll has been inflated and saying that the Armenians who were killed
died as a result of civil unrest.
Today, there are virtually no Armenians in eastern Turkey, and Akhtamar
has been empty for decades. Some of its reliefs are stained with paint
and eggs thrown by vandals. Bullet holes, apparently from shepherds who
used the site for target practice, mar the walls.
The church is considered one of the most important examples of Armenian
architecture. Elaborate reliefs project up to 10 centimeters (4 inches)
from brownish-red sandstone walls, almost like sculptures. Some depict
biblical stories such as Jonah being swallowed by the whale and Daniel
in the lion’s den. Others show cows, lions, birds and other animals to
remind worshippers that the church is an image of paradise.
Erdogan’s government asked the Armenian Christian patriarch in Istanbul,
where nearly all of Turkey’s remaining 65,000 Armenians live, to name an
architect to help with the restoration. Zakarya Mildanoglu, the
architect picked, says he hopes the restoration helps improve relations
between Armenia and Turkey, but adds: “We need to be patient. Things
that happened a century ago cannot be healed overnight.”
Mesrob II, the Armenian patriarch, wants the government to open the
church for religious services and special festivities once a year. The
church is officially closed to services since there are no Armenian
Christians in the region. “I think that Akhtamar is a symbol for
perfection in Armenian architecture and also mysticism,” Mesrob II says.
Azeri Opposition Group Attacked For `Ties With Armenian Intelligence’
(AFP) – Some 200 supporters of a pro-government group in Azerbaijan
attempted to storm the headquarters of an opposition party Wednesday in
a new sign of tension ahead of November 6 parliamentary elections, an
AFP correspondent on the scene said.
Protestors chanted “Shame!” as they pushed against a police cordon in
the ex-Soviet republic’s capital Baku while trying to break into the
opposition National Front party building. The crowd, from the Muasir
Musavat (Modern Unity) party, said they were incensed by an opposition
leader’s alleged contacts with agents from Azerbaijan’s neighbor
Armenia.
The leader of the Yeni Fikir opposition movement, Ruslan Bashirli, was
arrested last week and charged with allegedly accepting Armenian money
to finance a revolution in Azerbaijan. Yeni Fikir has an office in the
National Front headquarters.
The opposition has denied the accusation, which is potentially damaging
because of tense relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, rivals that
fought a war in the 1990s over the territory of Nagorno Karabakh. The
last two days have already seen scuffles and stone throwing between pro-
and anti-government supporters in Baku.
Europe’s top election-monitoring body, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), on Tuesday condemned violent attacks
directed at the opposition. The head of the OSCE office in Baku,
Maurizio Pavesi, called on the authorities to prevent “violent and
unauthorized public meetings” or risk causing the “deterioration” of the
electoral campaign.
PRESS REVIEW
Most Armenian newspapers have suspended their publication due to the
period of summer holidays.

Armenian expert sees revolution as only way to establish democracy
Mediamax news agency
10 Aug 05
YEREVAN
“A revolution is the only way to establish democracy in Armenia,”
Narine Lazarian, chairwoman of the board of the National Press Club,
said in Yerevan today.
There are all preconditions for a revolution to take place in the
country, she said addressing a seminar entitled “Possibility of a
revolution in Armenia: preconditions and consequences”.
The head of the National Press Club said that “the incumbent political
elite in Armenia is losing its position and is not capable of
resolving current problems”. Lazarian said that “the incumbent
authorities have established a monopoly on politics, are hindering
healthy political competition and are openly promoting corruption”.
She went on to say that a revolution was the only way to establish
democracy in Armenia as “it will provide tools for fighting crime and
building a true civic society”.

Azeri ruling party pickets opposition office
Space TV, Baku
10 Aug 05
[Presenter] Another protest was staged outside the office of the
People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party [PFAP] today. The police managed to
stop the picket staged by members of the [ruling] New Azerbaijan Party
[NAP] who protested against the actions of Ruslan Basirli [leader of
the New Thought youth movement who is suspected of cooperating with
the Armenian special services].
[Correspondent] Before the protest started, members of the Sabayil
district police department gathered outside the PFAP office to ensure
security and one got the impression that there would be no incident.
Shortly afterwards, the first groups of pickets came from the office
of the New Azerbaijan Party. The pickets were chanting – Down with
[PFAP leader] Ali Karimli. Despite the police cordon, they attempted
to approach the party office, but failed.
The police tried to push the protesters away from the party office.
The NAP picket against collaboration in Tbilisi between Armenians and
the leader of the New Thought youth movement, Ruslan Basirli, has
already ended.
[Video showed the pickets carrying banners, chanting slogans and
police]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress