RIA Novosti, Russia
March 04, 2005

AFGHAN TRANSIT TO SPEED UP GEORGIA’S ACCESSION TO NATO

TBILISI, February 4 (RIA Novosti) – Georgia believes that the
agreement on granting NATO a corridor for the transit of military
cargoes and personnel to Afghanistan via Georgia has brought the
republic closer to NATO membership.

“Everyone knows that Georgia wants to join NATO, and I think this
agreement is a major step towards this goal.

It will help Georgia to speed up its Euro-Atlantic integration,” said
Nikolai Rurua, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on
defense and security.

Military expert Koba Liklikadze claims that NATO will soon sign
similar agreements with Azerbaijan and possibly with Armenia and
Central Asian states,
“NATO has signed such agreement with Tajikistan; so, Georgia was not
the first here,” Mr. Liklikadze said.

Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili, who signed the
agreement with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in
Brussels on March 2, refused to make far-reaching forecasts. “Our
relations with NATO is not a one-way road,” she told the Georgian
television company Imedi after signing the agreement in Brussels. “We
are ready to contribute to cooperation with the bloc when NATO needs
us.”
According to the Defense Ministry of Georgia, the infrastructure of
the main air force base in Marneuli was geared to NATO standards and
is ready to accept bloc’s forces involved in the Afghan operation.
The Turkish government spent $85 million on the technical
modernization of Marneuli airfield.

The base has modern military hardware that ensures the fulfillment of
combat tasks by any type of aircraft in night- and daytime
conditions. The infrastructure of the modernized airfield includes a
3km strip with modern lighting equipment (its assembly cost $2.4
million), a modern command station, a warning system, an airfield
security system, and other equipment.

Europe Information Service
Euro-East
March 4, 2005

EU/SOUTH CAUCASUS: TIES SHOULD BE ENHANCED THROUGH ACTION PLANS,
COMMISSION SAYS

The European Union should boost its political and economic ties with
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, in return for progress on reforms
under bilateral action plans. That was what the European Commission
recommended on March 2, issuing a series of country reports on
countries covered by European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and
suggestions for what the main elements of prospective action plans
should be. ENP is the initiative looking to enhance the EU’s
relations with its post-enlargement neighbours to the East and South.

Reports and reforms.

The Commission adopted on March 2 so-called country reports on Egypt
and Lebanon, and the three South Caucasus countries Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia. These three countries were added to the ENP
in mid-2004. The country reports give a factual account of the
political, economic and institutional situation in the countries
concerned, and of their relations with the EU.

The reports focus on areas which the Commission says would form the
basis of any future action plans, namely:

– Political reform: strengthening democracy, good governance and
dialogue on human rights;

– Economic reform: including promoting a good business and investment
climate;

– Trade, market and regulatory reforms: promoting trade and helping
partner countries to integrate into the global trading system,
encouraging partner countries to apply the standards of the EU’s
internal market;

– Cooperation in the field of justice, liberty and security: judicial
reform and migration issues;

– Infrastructure networks (energy, transport and telecommunications,
information society) and cooperation on the environment;

– People-to-people contacts: education, research and development,
culture, civil society, and the opening of certain Community
programmes.

The reports “indicate the need for continued reform in Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia and for progress in a number of key areas”.
The Commission said that the governments concerned had declared their
determination to address the various challenges identified, to
develop relations with the EU and to integrate further into European
structures. It said it believed that ENP action plans could be used
to strengthen relations and promote implementation of the necessary
reforms. The Commission recommended to EU member states that they
agree that work should begin on the plans.

Priorities and carrots.

The Commission also suggested the key objectives for the prospective
three to five-year action plans. These include, for example, the
decommissioning of Armenia’s Medzamor nuclear power plant and making
progress in Azerbaijan’s WTO accession.

According to the Commission, the action plans – to be negotiated with
each country separately – should provide among other things for:
support for market economy reforms leading to gradual economic
integration into the EU’s internal market; increased financial
support including an extension of the European Investment Bank’s
mandate to the South Caucasus countries as of 2007; possible dialogue
on visa cooperation and readmission agreements (on taking back
illegal immigrants); and possible “new enhanced” agreements with the
EU to replace the current Partnership and Cooperation Agreements on
their expiry.

The Commission also said that it intends to open a delegation office
in Azerbaijan in 2005. Sources explained that the Commission already
has a full-scale office in Georgia, and was preparing to open a
delegation in Baku on the same basis as the smaller-scale operation
(called a “regionalised” delegation office) in Yerevan, Armenia.

EU External Relations/Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner said that 2005 would be “the year of delivery” for
neighbourhood policy, beginning the implementation of action plans
already adopted and developing new ones: “The challenge for the EU
and for our partners will be to turn the commitments and aspirations
contained in such plans into reality, through measurable reforms
bringing concrete benefits for our neighbouring countries and their
citizens.”

—

ENP action plans have already been negotiated with Israel, Jordan,
Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Tunisia and Ukraine.
Formal endorsement is still awaited with Morocco, the Palestinian
Authority and Tunisia, with sources saying that this is expected in
the coming weeks. EU member states decided in June 2004 to include
Armenia, Azerbaijan and in Georgia ENP, on the basis of a strategy
paper issue by the Commission that May. The Commission was invited to
report on progress made by each country with regard to political and
economic reforms.

—

Next steps.

EU member states must now formally decide whether work on action
plans with the South Caucasus countries should begin. The Commission
said that work would start immediately once this had happened.
Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili told Europe Information
New Neighbours that she hoped that EU member states would agree in
March to launch the action plan. Commission sources said the aim
would be to try to conclude the new plans this year.

Global Politician, NY

Failure of IMF and World Bank in Fmr USSR: Uncommon Poverty of the
Commonwealth

3/6/2005

By Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

The Lucerne Conference on the 9 months old CIS-7 Initiative ended two years
ago with yet another misguided call upon charity-weary donors to grant the
poorest seven countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic,
Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) of the Commonwealth of Independent
States financial assistance in the form of grants rather than credits.

The World Bank’s Managing Director, Shengman Zhang, concluded with the
deliriously incoherent statement that “donor assistance in the form of
highly concessional finance and debt relief will only succeed if linked to
effective reform”. None of the other five co-sponsors – the IMF, the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) and the indefatigable Dutch and Swiss governments –
questioned this non sequitur.

Since independence a decade ago – aided and abetted by the same founts of
Washington wisdom – the seven unfortunates have regressed to a malignant
combination of unbridled autocracy and perpetual illiquidity. Poverty soared
to African proportions, the region’s economies shriveled and public and
external debts mounted dizzyingly.

Ever the autistic solipsists, the IMF and World Bank maintained in a press
release that the talk shop “broadened and deepened the debate to include a
range of economic, institutional and social issues that must be tackled if
the seven countries are to achieve the targets of the Millennium Development
Goals”.

The release is strewn with typical IMF-newspeak.

The destitute, oppressed and diseased people of the region should achieve
“ownership of the reform agenda” in accordance with “clear national
priorities”. Worry not, reassures the anonymous hack: the World Bank has
embarked on Poverty Reduction Strategy processes in all seven fiefs.

The cynical cover-up of the west’s abysmal failure in the region comes
replete with unflinchingly triumphant balderdash: the policies of the
Bretton-Woods institutions are “putting the countries themselves in the
driver’s seat of reforms”. According to Mr. Zhang, corruption in the CIS-7
is “moderating” and the investment climate is “beginning to improve”.

The solution? “More regional integration” – in other words, more trading
among the indigent and the demonetized. This and better access to markets in
“the rest of the world” will assure “recovery and future prosperity”.

Mr. Zhang conveniently neglected to mention the Stalinesque rulers of most
of the CIS-7, the political repression, the personality cults, the blatant
looting of the state by pernicious networks of cronies, the rampant
nepotism, the elimination of the free media and the proliferation of every
conceivable abuse of human and civil rights, up to – and including – the
assassination of opponents and dissidents. To raise these delicate issues
would have been impolitic when the IMF’s largest shareholder – the United
States – has embraced these despots as newfound allies.

And from fantasyland to harsh reality:

According to the World Bank’s own numbers, with the exception of Uzbekistan,
the current gross domestic product of the reluctant members of the CIS-7 is
between 29 percent (Georgia) and 80 percent (Armenia) of its level ten years
ago.

Armenia’s annual GDP per capita is a miserly $670. More than half the
population is below the poverty line. These dismal results are despite seven
years of strong growth pegged at 6 percent annually and remittances from
abroad which equal a staggering one eighth of GDP. Armenia is the second
most prosperous of the lot. Its inflation is down to two digits. Its
currency is stable. Its trade is completely liberalized (a-propos Zhang’s
nostrums).

Azerbaijan, its foe and neighbor, should be so lucky. Close to nine tenth of
its population live as paupers. This despite a tripling of oil prices, its
mainstay commodity. The World Bank notes wistfully that its agriculture is
picking up. Its oil fund, insist the sponsoring institutions, incredibly, is
“governed by transparent and prudent management rules”.

Georgia flies in the face of the Washington Consensus. Petrified by a
meltdown of its economy in the early 1990s, a surging inflation and $1
billion in external debt – it adhered religiously to the IMF’s prescriptions
and proscriptions. To no avail. Annual GDP growth collapsed from 10 percent
in 1996-7 to less than 3 percent thereafter.

The Kyrgyz Republic is a special case even by the dismal standards of the
region. Again, nine tenths of its population live on less than $130 (one
half on less than $70) monthly. Poverty actually increased in the last few
years when economic growth picked up. At $310, the country’s GDP per capita
is sub-Saharan. Is this appalling performance the outcome of brazen
disregard for the IMF’s sagacious counsel?

Not so. according to the CIS-7 Web site “the Kyrgyz Republic is currently
the most reformed country of the Central Asia and sustains a very liberal
economic regime.” The Kyrgyz predicament defies years of robust growth,
single digit inflation, a surplus in the trade balance and other
oft-rehashed IMF benchmarks. That the patient is as sick as ever casts in
doubt the doctors’ competence.

Moldova – with $420 in GDP per capita and 85 percent of the population under
the line of poverty – is only in marginally better shape, mainly due to the
swift recovery of its principal export market, Russia.

The best economic performance of the lot was Uzbekistan’s. It is often
wheeled out as a success story and used as a fig leaf. Uzbekistan’s GDP is,
indeed, unchanged compared to 1989. GDP per capita is $450 – but only one
third of the population are under – the famine-level – national poverty
line.

But a closer scrutiny reveals the – customary – prestidigitation by the
proponents of the Washington orthodoxy.

With the exception of Belarus, another relative economic success story,
Uzbekistan resisted the IMF’s bitter medicine longer than any other country
in transition. Its accomplishments cannot be attributed by any mental
gymnastics to anything the west has done, or said. The CIS-7 Web site
describes this contrarian polity thus:

“Today significant distortions in foreign exchange allocation remain,
reflected in a large difference between the official and curb market
exchange rates (about 60% in mid-2002). The current economic system retains
the key features of soviet economy, with the state owning and exercising
quite active control over the production and distribution decisions of a
significant number of Uzbek enterprises.”

There lurks an important lesson.

Central Europe – with its industrial and liberal-democratic past should not
be lumped together with east Europe. The moral seems to be that transition
in the former Soviet Union, in the east and in the Balkans was a foolhardy
and ill-informed exercise, administered by haughty and inexperienced
bureaucrats and avaricious advisors.

The countries who resisted western pressures and chose to preserve Soviet
era institutions even as they gradually liberalized prices and unleashed
market forces – seem to have fared far better than the more obsequious lot.
This is the Chinese model – as opposed to the “shock therapy” prescribed by
western armchair “experts”. Tajikistan – with $170 GDP per capita and an
unearthly 96 percent of its denizens under the poverty line – may be
regretting not having heeded this lesson earlier.

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. is the author of Malignant Self Love – Narcissism
Revisited and After the Rain – How the West Lost the East. He served as a
columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb,
a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the
editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open
Directory and Suite101.

Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of
Macedonia. Sam Vaknin’s Web site is at

The Statesman (India)
March 4, 2005

DIVERSITY MATTERS: ARMENIAN: WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Love has nothing to do with religion is the motto the Armenians,
small in numbers as they may be, live by. And live, they do.

MATHURES PAUL reports

An Armenian rugby team no longer exists and the few enthusiasts today
play for other teams. Of the many thousand Armenian merchants who
began arriving in India 16th century onward, only a handful remain.
When the English arrived, these people lent East India Company money
to purchase zamindari rights in Bengal and together pioneered the
jute trade. Kolkata’s Armenian community consists of about 200
members and is best symbolised by their church and college. The
latter – the Armenian Philanthropic Academy – was founded in 1821 and
later moved to Free School Street.

Few know that William Makepeace Thackeray was born here. “The very
existence of these two institutions says we are here to stay. There
was an inflow after the 1914-15 genocide that saw two million people
dead. My grandfather settled here because Kolkata was considered the
land of opportunities; Bengal was a thriving trading centre. But for
a community to survive, a friendly environment is a must and Kolkata
gave us that,” says Zaven Stephen, a young filmmaker. Though staunch
followers of the church, the Armenians are not conservative, at least
when it comes to inter-community marriage.

Victoria Stephen, employed with a private firm says: “How can I plan
beforehand who I should fall in love with? My mother is a Hindu and
she follows her customs. The community does not look down upon her;
love has nothing to do with religion. Yes, the question of retaining
one’s lineage is important, but is it more important than being able
to freely choose one’s partner?”

The understanding is echoed by rugby player Henrik Terchoonian: “I
married a Punjabi girl but will that make my children less Armenian?”
His love for the city is undying: “I came here at the age of nine.
Students from Iran often come here for school education. Hopefully
some would make the city their home.” Living in Bengal for more than
400 years has wrought some changes. “I love Indian food; my favourite
is biryani. In fact, only on special occasions do we prepare strictly
Armenian fare. Moreover, since some of the spices are not available
here we have to settle for variations,” says Victoria.

But how does an old-timer feel? “I arrived here in December 1934.
Then there were at least 3,600 Armenians. Most of them were into coal
mining, jute trade and construction. After 1947, they left for the
USA, the UK and Australia as they thought things would change for the
worse.

They were wrong; India as a business destination is looking up. But
those who left are dead. In fact, there are no marriages or
engagements now, only funerals to attend,” rues Mr Charles Sarkies,
superintendent of Sir Catchick Paul Chater Home. The Armenians have
been great architects. Some of the city’s prided buildings are ample
proof of this. TM Thaddeus built Park Mansions, JC Galstaun will be
remembered for Queen’s (earlier Galstaun) Mansions, Galstaun Park,
Harington Mansions and his own palatial residence, the palace of
Nizam of Hyderabad. Another famous landmark is Stephen Court, built
by Arratoon Stephen. He is also credited for Stephen House in BBD Bag
and the main edifice of Grand Hotel. It is said that at his residence
hung a watercolour of Akbar and his Armenian wife, Mariam Zamani.
“The community was undoubtedly very well off. Now women have to work.
This may sound old fashioned but women were then not allowed to
work,” says Mr Sarkies, the pukka gentleman.

But would women – good-looking as they are – take up professions such
as modelling? Victoria disapproves of the idea: “Armenian women
generally are good-looking but they prefer to use their brains. We
are a bit conservative and pick professions that are ‘noble’.” The
Armenians are born champs when it comes to rugby and boxing. None can
forget names like Emil Vartazarian, Daniel Janoyan, Hovsep Hovsepian
and Haik Sookias in rugby and Baby Arathoon in boxing (he was a rugby
hero too). However, the enthusiasts’ only consolation now is that
Emil coaches the Tamil Nadu Police.

The Armenian Club, earlier a major hot spot, now bustles once in a
blue moon. There are only 22 members and they play bingo instead of
bridge, which used to be a passion earlier. “There are more Armenians
in Kolkata than in Mumbai or Delhi,” smiles Peter Hyrapiet. “Chennai,
where we had a big settlement, does not have a single Armenian today.
Yet, the Armenian Association is the trustee of St Mary’s Church in
Chennai.”

In West Bengal, the situation is much better than it was a decade
back – the church has helped in establishing an Armenian trauma care
centre and the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute for
Cardiac Sciences in Mukundapur.

One should also mention the name of Sir Catchick Paul Chater, the
benevolent man of means who bequeathed much of his fortune to the
church and the people at Paul Chater Home. For most, memories are all
they have. Mr Sarkies’ eyes glow when he recalls how JC Galstaun’s
racehorses ran amuck inside the office of Little Sisters of the Poor.
“And when he apologised, they said we’ve been praying for a horse
driven carriage! On another occasion, he went to London and placed
‘10,000’ on a horse. When the bookie reminded him that England’s
currency was the pound, he doubled the bet and won.”

Reality, however, is different. The church lacks a priest and the
community a rugby team. But the Armenians are optimistic. As Zaven
says: “Much of my life has been spent with the church choir – it has
become an important part of my being. So has India which is my
motherland while Armenia is my fatherland. I’ve never been to
Armenia, but the church and the school have made up for that. If ever
I get an opportunity to go abroad I will, but only to return and
serve my community. After all, India is one of the fastest growing
economies.”

PanArmenian News
March 4 2005

`MEASURES TO PREVENT’ ADOPTION OF DRAFT RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN
GENOCIDE IN BUNDESTAG TAKEN IN ANKARA AND BERLIN

04.03.2005 14:07

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Measures were undertaken both in Ankara and Berlin
to prevent the adoption of the draft resolution `Commemoration day on
occasion of the 90-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide – Germany
should contribute to the reconciliation of Turks and Armenians’,
stated Turkish MFA Press Secretary Namik Tan during yesterday’s press
conference. In his words, the adoption of resolutions on the Armenian
Genocide recognition has not contributed to surmount problems
available between Turkey and Armenia so far. N. Tan noted that
official Ankara does believe that the German ruling coalition will
not approve the initiative. `We believe that both parties attach much
importance to the problem and will give a correct assessment to it
thus preventing collapse of the excellent relationships between
Germany and Turkey’, Mr. Tan said. To remind, the other day leader of
the Christian Democratic Union Angela Merkel submitted the above
mentioned draft resolution, which was included into the April agenda
of the Bundestag.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 4, 2005 Friday

Rushailo optimistic about CIS prospects

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushailo believes there are no
reasons for calling in question the future of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS). He told journalists about it in Yerevan. At
the same time, he admitted that “there are some problems connected
with the fulfilment of the adopted resolutions within the CIS
framework.”

“Perhaps, the CIS Charter should be amended in the future. CIS was
created ten years ago, and the legal acts, that were adopted that
time, should be updated,” he said. According to his information, “an
inventory of the CIS legal basis is being drawn up, with a view to
establishing the spheres in which changes and amendments should be
made for the purpose of improving the efficiency of CIS.”

“We are examining the experience of the European Union and other
international organisations,” he continued. “In our opinion, the
experience of Latin America is interesting for us, especially in the
economic sphere: It is difficult to automatically apply some schemes
in CIS for a number of political, economic and other reasons. This is
why we should take the fragments, which proved to be especially
effective in other international organisations, and should try to use
them in CIS.”

Rushailo stressed that “it is the leaders of the CIS member countries
who will have a final say on all those matters.” CIS includes 12
countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and
Ukraine.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 4, 2005 Friday

Russia’s Vneshtorgbank to open its filial in Ukraine

LIPETSK

Russia’s Vneshtorgbank will open its branch bank in Ukraine in March,
Vneshtorgbank President and Board Chairman Andrei Kostin told
journalists,

The bank seeks to expand its activities in countries of the former
Soviet Union. In particular, the bank is planning to buy a bank in
Moldova and has been looking for opportunities in Kazakhstan, Prime
Tass reported.

Recently, Vneshtorgbank bought a controlling block of shares of the
United Bank of Georgia, and last year- a controlling block of the
Savings Bank of Armenia.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 4, 2005 Friday

GruzRosEnergo finds break in Kavkasioni power line

By Tengiz Pachkoria

TBILISI, March 4

Specialists from the GruzRosEnergo Georgian-Russian joint venture
have found a break in the Kavkasioni high-voltage power line, which
transmits electricity from Russia to Georgia. The power line was
damaged late on Wednesday night.

GruzRosEnergo head Shota Maisuradze told Itar-Tass on Friday that
snowfalls had damaged Kavkasioni in Karachayevo-Cherkessia, a
highland territory of Russia bordering on Georgia. GruzRosEnergo
specialists have the right to repair the power line on territories of
both countries.

“Bad weather prevents repairmen from reaching the damaged zone,” he
said. Several days may pass before they reach it, he added.

Russia’s average electricity exports by the Kavkasioni power line
make 300 megawatt (250 megawatt on regular hours and 350 megawatt on
peak hours), which meets about 20% of the domestic demand.

Currently Georgia receives electricity from a national hydropower
plant and 260 megawatt of electricity imported from Armenia. Snow
melting had raised the water level in the pond of Georgia’s largest
hydropower plant, Inguri, which made it possible to engage all the
three units of the power plant and produce 200 megawatt of
electricity more than usual.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 4, 2005 Friday

Azerbaijan’s president pins great hopes on coop with Georgia

By Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman

BAKU

Azerbaijan’s President Ilkham Aliyev believes that the potential of
economic cooperation with Georgia must be used to the maximum extent
possible. He made a statement to this effect at a meeting with
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, who has arrived in Baku on a
working visit.

About the condition of Azerbaijani-Georgian relations Aliyev said
“mutual understanding, cooperation and mutual support between the two
countries is at the highest level.”

Aliyev said this was a very important factor to both Azerbaijan and
Georgia, whose well-being was tightly inter-connected.

The Georgian prime minister said he would exert every effort to make
bilateral relations more dynamic. As he talked to journalists,
Nogaideli mentioned such major themes of negotiations in Baku as
preparations for the meeting of the bilateral inter-government
commission for economic cooperation, to be held in Tbilisi in April,
and cooperation in the customs, transport and financial spheres.

According to some sources, Nogaidelli discussed the rescheduling of
Georgia’s debt to Azerbaijan on the earlier extended loans, and the
situation on the border, where about 500 railway carriages with
transit cargoes are waiting for customs clearance.

Azerbaijan since 2004 has thoroughly checked all transit cargoes
bound for Georgia in order to prevent their eventual delivery to
Armenia, with which Baku has no economic ties due to the continuing
dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan’s First Deputy Prime Minister Abbas Abbasov has told the
media Georgia has expressed the readiness to provide guarantees
including those in writing the transit cargoes from Azerbaijan would
not be taken to Armenia.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 4, 2005 Friday

CIS Executive Secretary meets with WWII veterans in Yerevan

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Visiting CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushailo has had meetings
here with veterans of World War II and the people who worked at
industrial and agricultural facilities in the rear.

He handed to them special diplomas and money grants and answered
numerous questions from them.

He stressed the Armenian people’s very important contribution to the
Great Victory over Nazism.

Earlier in the day, the CIS Executive Secretary jointly with Armenian
Defence Minister Serge Sarkissian visited Victory Park in Yerevan to
lay a wreath at the Tomb on the Unknown Soldier.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress