Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 12 2005

Russia clarifies stance on Garabagh conflict

Russia is ready to act as a mediator and guarantor in the settlement
of the Upper Garabagh conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin said
following a Tuesday meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib
Erdogan.
Putin pointed out that Armenia and Azerbaijan must reach common
agreement first. He noted that official Moscow is a mediator and can
be involved in settlement of problems as a guarantor for possible
agreement. `Russia does its best to resolve problems in the
post-Soviet countries,’ the Russian President stressed.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 12 2005

Azerbaijan, Armenia to build new HPS

A new hydropower station will be constructed over the Araz River,
close to Ordubad district of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, on own
expenses of the Azerbaijani government. Views were exchanged on the
issue in a meeting of the Azerbaijani-Iranian economic commission
held on January 8-10, a source from the Azerenergy open joint-stock
company told AssA-Irada.
According to chief engineer of Azerenergy Marlen Asgarov, the
necessity of developing the feasibility study of the new hydropower
station by the end of this year was stressed during the meeting.
The Armenian side has also decided to use the water potential of the
Araz River jointly with Iran. The two countries’ energy ministers
have been assigned to lead the intergovernmental commission, which is
to coordinate the construction of the Mehri hydropower station over
the Araz River.
The commission has approved the feasibility study of the station, the
construction of which requires at least $120 million according to
initial estimations.
Some experts say that part of the Araz River, which passes through
the Armenian-Iranian border, is unfit for construction of a
hydropower station. Therefore, the mentioned station is planned to be
built over the river section crossing across the occupied lands of
Azerbaijan.*
From: Baghdasarian

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 12 2005

Dutch film on Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict contain distortions

A short film, Hope dies last, by Dutch director Susanna Kroger has
sparked serious concerns by Azerbaijani Diaspora organizations
operating in the Netherlands, the State Committee on Work with
Azerbaijanis Abroad told AssA-Irada.
sThe film tells about 3 Armenian and 2 Azerbaijani soldiers, who
became missing during the battles waged in Upper Garabagh.
The Netherlands-Azerbaijan Society and more than 100 members of the
Azerbaijani Diaspora organizations held discussions with the Dutch
All-nation Council of Churches and the Dutch Red Cross Society on the
film following its presentation held in Amsterdam. Members of the
Armenia Diaspora organizations participated in the discussions as
well.
During the discussions Azerbaijanis expressed their dissatisfaction
with the film, stressing that it doesn’t contain the truth and has
been distorted in favor of Armenians. Dutch specialists also
expressed their discontent with the film.*

ArmenPress
Jan 12 2004

KOCHARIAN CONGRATULATES NEW PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT

YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert
Kocharian welcomed the election of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the
Palestinian Authority in January 9 election, saying in a
congratulatory message that Armenia hopes that the new Palestinian
leader will restore Middle East peace talks and work toward
establishing stability in the region. Kocharian also wished Mahmoud
Abbas good health and fruitful activity.
“Our government assesses the decisive majority of votes you
received in the polls as a significant momentum for peace and
stability in the Middle East,” Kocharian’s message said.
Abbas, who enjoys broad international support, replaces Yasser
Arafat, who dominated Palestinian politics for 40 years until his
death in November.

ArmenPress
Jan 12 2004

FRENCH ARMENIAN GOES ON HUNGER STRIKE DEMANDING MEETING WITH
PRESIDENT CHIRAC

MARSEILLE, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS: A French Armenian woman in
Marseille went on hunger strike on January 6 in an Armenian church
requesting a meeting with president Jacques Chirac whom she wants to
put forth Turkey’s recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide as
precondition for joining the EU.
Les Nouvelles d’Armenie Internet website reports that the 50-year
Koular Gharibian, a writer, explained what had prompted her to take
the step. ” I was outraged by debates in France over Turkey’s
possible membership with the European Union. Germany is part of the
EU, but it had acknowledged the Holocaust and apologized to Jews ,”
she said.
She first requested a meeting with Chirac in 2004 October
announcing her decision to go on hunger strike if he refused to
accept her.
She sent a second letter to Chirac before going on hunger strike
saying she would end it after Chirac agrees to meet her and gives
assurances that Turkey would be allowed to join the EU after
recognizing the 1915 genocides and apologizing to Armenians.
“Would president Chirac allow me to fell victim to the hunger
strike?” she said.

ArmenPress
Jan 12 2004

TRAINING COURSES ORGANIZED FOR UNEMPLOYED IN KAPAN

KAPAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Social Security Fund had
released more than 1 million drams for an employment center in Kapan,
the capital of southern province of Syunik, which will use the money
to organize computer training courses for 20 local unemployed people.
The course is part of a government supported program for teaching the
unemployed new professions.
The head of the local employment center told Armenpress that
several local companies said they will hire the unemployed after they
finish the two-month course. Participants will be given also
allowances, in the amount of an unemployment benefit during the
training. Sixty other unemployed, including 10 disabled persons are
set to have similar courses this year.

ArmenPress
Jan 12 2004

ARMENIANS LINE UP TO RECEIVE SOCIAL SECURITY CARDS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS: Armenian labor and social affairs
minister Aghvan Vardanian told reporters today, after meeting with
president Robert Kocharian, that some 1.6 million Armenians have
already received social security cards out of 2,2 million people who
have applied.
He said more people are lining up at regional labor and social
affairs centers to apply for cards, after the ministry warned that
wages, social benefits, pensions and other allowances will be paid
only to card holders.
He said introduction of the system has not and will not create
problems neither for people nor the ministry and other government
agencies, but added that there are people who are trying still to
impede the full operation of the system.
The government first suggested to introduce the system of social
security cards last year and the first bill appeared as “identity
cards”. According to the reform, each Armenian citizen must have the
lifetime card with a 10-digit number of a citizen’s personal data,
which will be used for opening a bank account, paying taxes, applying
for state benefits and identification at healthcare facilities.
The government said the cards would increase the efficiency of
state-run agencies and help it reduce the volume of corruption,
however, the idea was opposed strongly by the Armenian Church, whose
main counter-argument was that the name “identity card’ must be
replaced by another one, as the word “identity card” contradicts
Biblical precepts, found in the New Testament Book of Revelation. The
government met halfway this demand and changed the name of the
“identity cards” into “social security cards.”
According to the law, the use of the cards is mandatory for all
financial transactions including receiving pensions and family
benefits, paying taxes and social insurance.

Noth County Times, CA
Jan 12 2005

Snow, love, change in subtly amusing ‘Vodka Lemon’

By: DAN BENNETT – Staff Writer

The mellow, humorous “Vodka Lemon” brings both joy and low-key
heartache from an unlikely locale.

The setting is the Armenian badlands following the Soviet departure,
a snowy place where life is rough for some folks no longer receiving
Soviet subsidies. The central character is the elderly widower Hamo
(Romo Havinian), who is barely making it, but maintains his optimism,
knowing that a son who moved to France for work may soon send money.

Hamo rides the bus to the cemetery every day to visit the grave of
his beloved wife. He shyly befriends a widow who is also there every
day, and romance beckons for the lonely couple. Problems when the
money from the son never shows up, but with Hamo’s spirit renewed by
the arrival of new love, hope lingers.

“Vodka Lemon,” the title coming from the name of an empty bar in the
film, is a funky, often funny —- though bittersweet —- ode to
people both recovering from and seeking change. Blessed with unusual
visuals, amusing sidebar characters and optimism despite the odds,
the film is a welcome little oddball.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Jan 12 2005

GERMAN MARSHAL FUND OF US REALIZING PROJECT CONNECTED TO AZERBAIJAN
[January 12, 2005, 22:53:51]

On January 12, Chairman of Milli Majlis (Azerbaijan Parliament)
Murtuz Alaskarov has received the delegation of the German Marshal
Fund of the United States.

Warmly having welcomed the visitors, Mr. Alaskarov has told:
`Existing between Azerbaijan and the USA friendly links develop on
ascending. Due to efforts of heads of the states, our relations have
reached the level of strategic partnership. The documents signed
during visits of the national leader of Azerbaijan people Heydar
Aliyev in the USA, have created a fine basis for development of our
connections. After the meeting of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliyev with the President of the USA George Bush carried out last
year in Istanbul Summit of the NATO in development of our connections
began a new stage. Our inter-parliamentary links extend and become
stronger also. Due to the Memorandum signed during visits of the US
congressman Kurt Weldon in our country in 2003-2004, have been
created groups of friendship for development of relations between the
Milli Majlis and the US Congress. I hope, your current visit renders
positive influence on expansion of our relations and the further
development of our connections.

Then, Chairman of Milli Majlis has in detail informed visitors on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict and has expressed hope
that the USA as one of co-chairmen of the Minsk Group would increase
the efforts directed on settlement of the given problem. He has noted
that Azerbaijan takes active participation and in antiterrorist
operations of the United States. The US Government should take into
account it and undertake concerning the aggressor strict measures.

Having expressed gratitude for warm reception and the detailed
information, head of the delegation Mr. Ronald D. Asmus has told:
`The German Marshal’s Fund has prepared a project on creation in the
USA the extensive information base connected to Azerbaijan, and to
the beginning on the basis of the given information of wide
discussions among the public. The purpose of visit to Azerbaijan will
be to collect large information on this country, carry out exchange
of views with representatives of the state, the Government and
Parliament.

At the meeting, the sides have exchanged opinions on other questions
representing mutual interest.

Calgary Sun (Alberta)
January 12, 2005 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION

POLITICAL DIVA;
IRON LADY YULIA TYMOSHENKO DRIVING ORANGE REVOLUTION

BY PAUL STANWAY, CALGARY SUN

She is the Belinda Stronach of Ukrainian politics, and then some.
Blond, beautiful, wealthy, and a staunch defender of free-market
economics.

But the comparisons end there.

Yulia Tymoshenko’s past is as clouded as Stronach’s is untroubled.

Dubbed the “Joan of Arc of the Orange Revolution,” the fiery
Tymoshenko is either loved or hated, depending on your political
outlook.

As Ukrainian politician and journalist Yuri Boldyrev recently put it:
“She doesn’t do middle-of-the-road. She is an iron lady.”

Even her background has become a matter for debate. Officially,
Tymoshenko was born in 1960, in the eastern industrial city of
Dnipropetrovsk, a Russian-speaking arsenal of Soviet totalitarianism
amid a sea of Ukrainian farming villages.

It was once the power base of Leonid Brezhnev, and after independence
served the same purpose for pro-Russian Ukrainian president Leonid
Kuchma.

Depending on who you talk to, Tymoshenko may have been born into
privilege or into poverty. She is either of solid Ukrainian stock, or
maybe half-Armenian.

What is not in question is that she owed her education and her rise
through the government bureaucracy to the old Communist party.

A Ph.D-level economist, by the early 1990s she was running United
Energy Systems of Ukraine, one of several monopolies set up by the
Kyiv government to import energy.

Along the way, Tymoshenko amassed a fortune that has been variously
estimated at between $4 billion and $11 billion.

According to author Matthew Brzezinski, whose 2001 book on the
economic pillage of the former Soviet empire, Casino Moscow, devotes
an entire chapter to Tymoshenko, there is evidence of kickbacks from
United Energy to the Kyiv government.

Making a vast fortune when the average Ukrainian was struggling to
make ends meet doesn’t seem like a good way to endear yourself to the
masses.

And it didn’t. As head of United Energy, she was reportedly protected
by an entire platoon of former Soviet special forces bodyguards.

Tymoshenko was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in 1996, but it
wasn’t until 2000, as a member of Viktor Yushchenko’s short-lived
administration, that the blond bombshell began to develop a
reputation as an economic reformer.

Knowing where all the bodies were buried, she stuck it to her former
colleagues in government and the monopoly industries (recovering $2
billion in “misdirected” funds), and developed a reputation as an
anti-corruption crusader.

When she was briefly arrested on charges of smuggling natural gas
(while head of United Energy), it was widely believed to be a
political move designed to discredit her.

Her husband was also arrested on charges of defrauding the state, and
there was a suspicious car accident in which she was nearly killed.

Discrediting or bumping off critics had become a trademark of
President Kuchma’s increasingly unpopular regime (Yushchenko’s
poisoning being the most infamous), and being a target did wonders
for Tymoshenko’s street cred.

By the time of last year’s disputed presidential election, it was the
fiery Tymoshenko who led street protests against the widespread vote
fraud.

Many in Ukraine’s independent media credit her with being the
backbone of the revolution.

In one of the more memorable moments of that confrontation, she
placed carnations on the shields of riot police and urged them to “be
on the side of the citizens of Ukraine.”

It was Tymoshenko who was subsequently allowed through police lines
to negotiate a peaceful stand-off.

As a result of all this, she has been widely tipped as Ukraine’s next
prime minister, but her strident opposition to the country’s vested
interests and still-powerful bureaucracy might be a problem if
Yushchenko’s first priority is national unity.

And there’s also the question of that colourful business history.

Whether she’s for real or just for herself is, so far, anyone’s
guess.

But if she’s the real deal, this political diva could be the driving
force behind any pro-market, pro-Western economic reforms undertaken
by Ukraine’s new government.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress