Neue Zürcher Zeitung
15. April 2005

Yerevan rejects history commission

Erewan lehnt Historikerkommission ab

AUTOR: van Gent A.

“Versuch Ankaras, Zeit zu gewinnen”

Armenien hat Ankaras Vorschlag einer gemeinsamen Historikerkommission
zur Untersuchung der Vorwürfe eines türkischen Genozids an den
Armeniern abgelehnt. In Erewan glaubt man nicht, dass die Türkei ihre
Militärarchive wirklich öffnet. Das türkische Militär hat unterdessen
angekündigt, Dokumente zu der Frage zu veröffentlichen.

Der armenische Aussenminister Oskanjan hat den Vorschlag des
türkischen Parlaments abgelehnt, eine gemeinsame Historikerkommission
zu bilden. Es handle sich um einen Versuch Ankaras, Zeit zu gewinnen,
sagte er. Die Türkei fordere ohne Scham, die Geschichte nach ihren
Vorstellungen neu zu schreiben. Am Mittwoch hatte Ankara an das
östliche Nachbarland Armenien appelliert, alte “Tabus zu brechen” und
eine gemeinsame Expertenkommission einzurichten. Diese solle den
Vorwurf des türkischen Völkermords an den Armeniern Anfang des
letzten Jahrhunderts untersuchen und “unbegrenzten” Zugang zu den
nationalen Archiven haben. Nur auf diese Weise könne verhindert
werden, dass “unsere Vergangenheit unsere Gegenwart und Zukunft
verdunkelt”, hiess es in einer Erklärung, welche von den Vorsitzenden
aller Parlamentsparteien unterzeichnet worden war.

Expertenkommission eine Totgeburt?

Zugleich hatte der türkische Aussenminister Gül vor dem Parlament
erklärt, Ministerpräsident Erdogan habe seinem armenischen
Amtskollegen Kotscharjan den Vorschlag einer gemeinsamen
Expertenkommission in einem Brief unterbreitet. Die Parlamente
europäischer Länder forderte er hingegen auf, von einer Wertung der
blutigen Ereignisse in Ostanatolien während des Ersten Weltkriegs als
Völkermord Abstand zu nehmen. “Alle diese Anträge verletzen uns und
führen in der türkischen Öffentlichkeit dazu, die Absichten von
verbündeten Ländern mit Fragezeichen zu versehen”, sagte der
Aussenminister. Die Geschichte könne nicht von Parlamenten, sondern
nur von Historikern beurteilt werden.

Kurz bevor sich der Startschuss für die Zwangsdeportationen und
Todesmärsche der armenischen Bevölkerung Ostanatoliens zum 90. Mal
jährt, wird die Türkei von ihrer Geschichte eingeholt. Aus
armenischer Sicht sind damals über eine Million Menschen ums Leben
gekommen – Erewan spricht von einem zentral organisierten und
ausgeführten Völkermord und fordert die Anerkennung der Ereignisse
als Genozid durch die internationale Gemeinschaft. Die Türkei
akzeptiert seit kurzem, dass damals im Krieg Hunderttausende von
Türken und Armeniern umgekommen waren – von einem Völkermord will sie
aber nichts wissen. In der Geschichte der Türkei gebe es kein
Kapitel, “dessen wir uns schämen, das wir verdrängen, vergessen oder
vertuschen müssten”, wiederholte Regierungschef Erdogan am Mittwoch.

Noch ist in der türkischen Staatsspitze ein Umdenken in der
Armenierfrage nicht auszumachen. Auch bleibt unklar, inwiefern die
türkische Armee überhaupt bereit ist, der von der Regierung
vorgeschlagenen Kommission ihre aufschlussreichen Archive zu öffnen.

Armee veröffentlicht Dokumente

(afp) Unterdessen hat die türkische Armee aus ihren Archivbeständen
mehrere hundert Dokumente zu den Ereignissen freigegeben. Nach einem
Bericht der Zeitung “Vatan” will das Militär innerhalb der nächsten
Monate vier Bände mit insgesamt etwa 1000 Dokumenten publizieren. Die
ersten beiden Bände zum Zeitraum zwischen 1914 und 1918 sollten noch
in dieser Woche in den Handel kommen, schrieb die Zeitung am
Donnerstag. Die Veröffentlichung bietet erstmals einer breiteren
Öffentlichkeit die Möglichkeit, Quellen des türkischen Militärarchivs
zu studieren. Nach Angaben der Armee erhielten seit 1984 lediglich 21
Forscher die Genehmigung, Dokumente im Archiv der Generalstabs
einzusehen.

Weiterer Bericht im Inlandteil

Venice Commission head points to drawbacks in Azeri electoral code

Turan news agency, Baku
14 Apr 05

There are drawbacks in Azerbaijan’s election legislation that need to
be rectified, the secretary of the Venice Commission of the Council of
Europe, Gianni Buquicchio, has said. In an exclusive interview with
the Azerbaijani news agency Turan, Buquicchio regretted the
Azerbaijani authorities’ failure to implement some of the commission’s
recommendations. He said the most important of them concerned the
principles of forming electoral commissions. If the commission’s
recommendations had been fulfilled, the authorities could have avoided
certain problems, he stressed. The following is the text of report by
Azerbaijani news agency Turan:

14 April: (An exclusive interview with the head of the Venice
Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, to Turan news agency)

[Correspondent] The head of the Azerbaijani presidential
administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev, recently said that the authorities
will not amend the country’s Electoral Code. His remarks imply that
Azerbaijan’s electoral laws are quite democratic and are approved by
the Council of Europe. Do you agree with this opinion and what can you
say about the role representatives of the Venice Commission play in
the work on Azerbaijan’s Electoral Code?

[Buquicchio] The Venice Commission has been cooperating with
Azerbaijan on electoral issues for several years. Back in 2003, the
commission reached an extensive opinion on Azerbaijan’s Electoral
Code. Unfortunately, a number of our recommendations were not fully
implemented by the authorities. The elections in 2003 and 2004
illustrated that it is necessary to improve not only the management of
the electoral process, but also relevant laws.

In March 2004, the Venice Commission made a series of recommendations
on the election legislation and electoral practices in
Azerbaijan. They were prepared in cooperation with the OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and highlighted a number of
drawbacks in the Azerbaijani Electoral Code.

In February 2005, the Azerbaijani authorities suggested discussing
possible changes to the code. A discussion with representatives of the
authorities was held in Strasbourg on 1 March. It was decided that the
authorities would prepare a draft of changes to the code and submit it
to the Venice Commission for examination in April.

[Correspondent] The Electoral Code was adopted in Azerbaijan in
2003. Then the main dispute was about the principles of forming
electoral commissions. The Venice Commission offered a compromise
solution, but the authorities used it only partly, keeping electoral
commissions under government control. Does the Venice Commission
expect to put forward new proposals in the light of the forthcoming
parliamentary elections?

[Buquicchio] We think that if the authorities had adopted and
implemented some recommendations in 2003, they could have steered
clear of certain problems concerning the formation of electoral
commissions. We hope the draft changes the authorities will submit to
the Venice Commission in April will include proposals on the formation
of electoral commissions.

This new round of cooperation with the Azerbaijani authorities has
started and I hope we can still make considerable recommendations in
the run-up to the parliamentary elections in November and the
Azerbaijani authorities take our suggestions into account.

[Correspondent] Is the issue being raised of restoring the
proportional representation system that was abolished in Azerbaijan in
2002?

[Buquicchio] This issue was not discussed. I would like to take this
opportunity to say that we do not give preference to a particular
electoral system. Both the first-past-the-post and proportional
representation systems are democratic and are extensively used in
Council of Europe member countries. It is up to the country to choose
either system. The Venice Commission can only advise on technical
aspects of elections and electoral laws.

[Correspondent] How much does the Azerbaijani Constitution and the
judicial system meet the European standards? Changes were made to the
Azerbaijani Constitution in 2002. Do these changes fully reflect the
commitments Azerbaijan assumed on entry into the Council of Europe?

[Buquicchio] The commission expressed its opinion that the
constitution should be amended in an effort to improve the balance
between the executive and representative branches of power. We think
the parliament could receive more power. The Council of Europe
Committee of Ministers also insists on invigorating the division of
power and ensuring the independence of the judiciary.

[Correspondent] Does the law on advocacy meet the Council of Europe
requirements?

[Buquicchio] This is a controversial issue. The Council of Europe and
the Azerbaijani authorities have repeatedly discussed it. At present,
the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers (the Ago Group) is
monitoring the situation. A final opinion will be delivered after the
monitoring is completed.

[Correspondent] Can the system of appointing judges in Azerbaijan be
considered democratic?

[Buquicchio] The law on legal counsel and amendments to the law on
courts became effective in January 2005. The new procedures of
appointing judges are already in force. It is premature to assess the
new procedure at this point. However, the Council of Europe is
carefully following the situation.

[Correspondent] Has the Venice Commission offered assistance in
developing the status of autonomy for Nagornyy Karabakh?

[Buquicchio] The commission has gained extensive experience in issues
of possible settlement to ethnic and political conflicts. At the same
time, I would like to say that the commission can take part in this
issue only at the technical and legal levels, not political.

The Nagornyy Karabakh issue is the prerogative of the OSCE Minsk
Group. Therefore, the commission’s involvement in this issue would be
possible only at the request of all interested sides or international
organizations.

A1plus

| 14:30:17 | 15-04-2005 | Social |

THE COURT BLAMES THE JOURNALISTS

`The most transparent trial was that of October 27, and as for the link
Court-press, it is quite loose today; most of the journalists are completely
incompetent in order to highlight the trial processes’. This was the opinion
of the RA Economical Court head Hovhannes Manoukyan.

Today during the seminar titled «Transparentizing of the RA Economical Court
work» Mr. Manoukyan expressed the opinion that the RA Economical Court has
by now worked transparently, and he found the issue of objectively
highlighting the court activity by the Mass Media extremely important.

The aim of the seminar was to raise public awareness about the Court
activity and to achieve a more efficient cooperation of the Court and Mass
Media. According to Mr. Manoukyan, the journalists must learn and get ready
to objectively highlight the issues about the Court.

He informed that a month ago an information center was created in the RA
Economical Court which will contribute to the active cooperation of the
Court with the press.

By the way, according to Mr. Manoukyan, all the trials about «A1+» have by
now been transparent, «If there have been shortcomings in the highlighting
of the Mass Media, that is only the result of the wrong work of the press».

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus

| 15:43:02 | 15-04-2005 | Politics |

THE AUTHORITIES HAVE NO WILL POWER

On the initiative of the `Cooperation for the sake of Open Society’ a round
table was organized today with the theme of the RA Law about `Organizing
meetings, marches and demonstrations’. A suchlike discussion was also held
last year when the organizers and the participants underlined that they are
not satisfied with the current legislative situation and offer to
immediately improve the Law.

A year has passed, but no points have been changed in the Law, points most
of which do not correspond to the RA Constitution and the Human Rights
Convention. Ileyn Konkievich, deputy head of the OSCE Yerevan office was
also present at today’s discussion. He is surprised by the fact that the NA
has taken no legislative initiative by now.

Why? We asked this question RA Justice Minister David Haroutyunyan. In the
OSCE resolution adopted last October the responsibility of changing the law
was imposed on the RA Government. Avoiding answering the main question the
Minister hinted that it is these discussions that will bring us to
legislative initiatives.

`I would like to share the optimist of the Minister if the offers which
sounded here are included in the legislative initiative without violations.
But this is where I seriously doubt the will power of our authorities as the
offers sounding here have been sounding for a long time. I do not see the
will power in the NA’, this was what Vardan Pogosyan said in answer to David
Haroutyunyan.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 15, 2005 Friday 3:11 PM Eastern Time

EU to help Georgia control northern borders

By Alexander Mineyev

LUXEMBOURG

The European Union will help Georgia to control the northern borders
with due consideration of the Russian position and in cooperation
with Moscow, the EU foreign ministers said in Luxembourg on Friday.

The South Caucasian situation was on the agenda of their informal
meeting.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister and EU Council President Jean Asselborn
told a press conference that Georgia had asked for larger
international monitoring of its northern border and demilitarization
in South Ossetia. He said Georgia wanted to fill the gap with the end
of the OSCE observation mission mandate.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer lauded the OSCE observation
mission and said that the EU could not exchange the mission mandate
without consensus in that organization and they would be considering
another solution. Fischer said they had an open dialog with Russia on
the subject.

European Commissioner for External Relations and Neighborhood Policy
Benita Ferrero-Waldner told Itar-Tass that cooperation with Russia
was important. On one hand, Georgia wants an international mission on
the border, but, on the other hand, one must see the priorities, she
said.

Ferrero-Waldner thinks that good relations between Russia and Georgia
are a priority of the EU.

The European Union will also use the neighborhood policy for the
settlement of mothballed conflicts in the South Caucasus.

The action plans to be signed with Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan
will include human rights and settlement of conflicts,
Ferrero-Waldner said.

Economic aid is the key method the European Union will be using, she
said. A delegation of the European Union and a EU special
representative will be stationed in each of these countries and work
on the solution of these problems, she said.

The role of Russia is very important in this respect, Ferrero-Waldner
said. The settlement of conflicts on the post-Soviet territory is
part of the EU-Russia external security roadmap, which may be adopted
at the EU-Russia summit in Moscow on May 10, she said.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 15, 2005 Friday

UN rights committee adopts anti-Belarus resolution

By Konstantin Pribytkov

GENEVA

Western countries rallied at the UN human rights commission on
Thursday to secure approval of an anti-Belarus resolution.

Twenty-three out of the 53 members of the Commission voted for the
document, with more than half the members either opposing or
abstaining.

However, the resolution was eventually passed, as the Commission’s
regulation allow approval by a simple majority.

Among the states objecting to the resolution were Russia, China,
Cuba, Armenia, Indonesia, South Africa, Egypt and some other
countries.

Ukraine, together with EU countries and the United States, supported
the resolution. Before the beginning of the voting, Ukraine came out
against the proposal by the Russian delegation not to consider the
resolution on Belarus. As a result, Moscow’s initiative was rejected
by a margin of one vote.

“It’s a sad day for the Commission. A heavy blow was dealt to its
reputation,” Russian permanent representative at the UN’s Geneva
office Leonid Skotnikov told Itar-Tass.

He said he was surprised at how Ukraine had voted.

Belarussian ambassador Sergei Aleinik, for his part, stated at the
session that the resolution was yet another attempt to present to the
international community a distorted view of his country and excuse
interference in its internal affairs.

“We are disappointed and bewildered by Ukraine’s vote. The neighbors
who respect each other, do not behave themselves in this manner,” the
diplomat told reporters.

The resolution on Belarus extends by one year the mandate of the
human rights rapporteur, former Romanian foreign minister Adrian
Severin.

In the report at the present session, he pointed at that the
Belarussian people lacked identity and claimed that the country poses
a threat to regional security and stability.

He also insisted on the necessity of changing the Belarus government,
as well as on radical restructuring of the Belarussian society.

Aside from the resolution on Belarus, Ukraine also supported the
West-proposed resolutions on Cuba and North Korea. Russia voted
against these documents.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 15, 2005 Friday

EU to use neighborhood policy for settling mothballed conflicts

By Alexander Mineyev

LUXEMBOURG

The European Union will use the neighborhood policy for the
settlement of mothballed conflicts in the South Caucasus.

The issue was on the agenda of the Luxembourg EU-Russia ministerial
session on Friday.

The action plans to be signed with Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan
will include human rights and settlement of conflicts, European
Commissioner for External Relations and Neighborhood Policy Benita
Ferrero-Waldner said.

Economic aid is the key method the European Union will be using, she
told Itar-Tass. A delegation of the European Union and a EU special
representative will be stationed in each of these countries and work
on the solution of these problems, she said.

The role of Russia is very important in this respect, Ferrero-Waldner
said. The settlement of conflicts on the post-Soviet territory is
part of the EU-Russia external security roadmap, which may be adopted
at the EU-Russia summit in Moscow on May 10, she said.

Financial Times (London, England)
April 14, 2005 Thursday
London Edition 1

Carving up the Middle East’s resources

By JAMES DRUMMOND

If the birth and tortured early history of Iraq’s oil industry are
any guide, the omens for foreign investment in the country’s
hydrocarbon sector are not great.

The full scale of the country’s potential became apparent in 1927
when the Baba Gurgur 1 well outside Kirkuk in northern Iraq flowed at
95,000 barrels of oil a day.

By then, the country had become the scene of operations of the
infamous Calouste Gulbenkian, an Armenian trader born in Istanbul who
founded the Turkish Petroleum Company and became known as Mr Five Per
Cent because that was his share of TPC.

In its first incarnation, the other shareholders in the TPC were
Anglo-Persian – better known today as British Petroleum – Royal
Dutch/Shell and Deutsche Bank. After the First World War, Deutsche
lost its stake.

Subsequently, the CFP, the French state-owned oil company, and the
Near East Development Company, consisting of Standard Oil of New York
and Standard Oil of New Jersey, joined the consortium.

The Turkish Petroleum Company then morphed into the Iraq Petroleum
Company but not before Gulbenkian had committed his partners in the
TPC to the famous Red Line agreement in 1928.

Under the accord, none of the TPC partners was allowed to invest
inside a specified area without the agreement of the others.

The area was massive, covering most of the area of the old Ottoman
empire. It included Turkey in the north but excluded Kuwait and Iran.
Gulbenkian thus had an effective veto on investment by many of the
world’s leading oil companies in what became the most lucrative oil
play in the world.

The veto earned him a fortune and obstructed the US attempts to
exploit Middle East oil.

In its first incarnation, the Turkish Petroleum Company had secured a
concession in Iraq until 2000 in which the company paid royalties to
the Iraq government of just 15 cents a barrel. The concession was
unilaterally revoked in the early 1960s by the radical government of
Abdel Karim Qassim that ousted the monarchy.

Bahrain News Agency
April 15, 2005 Friday 9:10 AM EST

Rice to tour southern Caucasian countries in May

Manama

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to embark in early may on a
tour in southern Caucasian countries that includes Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Armenia, said the azeri ”525” newspaper on Friday.

The newspaper quoted diplomatic sources as saying that rice was to
meet with the leaders of the three countries and talks will focus on
deepening relations with the US in the military and security fields,
as well as resolving the Azeri-Armenian dispute over
nagorno-karabakh.

US President George W.Bush will visit Georgia on may 10 coming from
Moscow after participation in the 60th anniversary of the fall of
fascism.

Newsday, NY
April 15 2005

Suspected arms smuggler heads to court

BY PATRICIA HURTADO
STAFF WRITER

A man suspected of conspiring to import weapons into the United
States has been arrested by FBI agents in Armenia and is slated to be
presented before a Manhattan federal court judge Saturday morning,
officials said Friday.

The man, Armen Barseghyan, was brought to New York on a flight to
Kennedy Airport Friday, said sources, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity.

Barseghyan is just the latest individual to be charged in an ongoing
case that was announced last month by the office of U.S. Attorney
David Kelley in Manhattan. In that case, 18 men were charged with
attempting to import military weapons, including surface-to-air
missiles, into the United States and sell them to a confidential
informant who was posing as an arms buyer working for al-Qaida.

Kelley said at the time that when he announced those charges that the
defendants claimed to have various sources for their weaponry,
including individuals in Armenia, Chechnya and the Georgian Republic,
as well as former members of the Soviet Union’s secret police known
as the KGB.

Investigators also announced at the time that they had seized a
variety of deadly weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and
AK-47s. Anti-tank weapons were also promised in future shipments,
officials said.

Kelley said his office was working with federal law enforcement
officials overseas to disrupt the pipeline and identify others
involved in the importation of these weapons.

Friday, Herb Hadad, a spokesman for Kelley, confirmed Barseghyan’s
arrest and his presentment Saturday but declined further comment on
the charges against Barseghyan.