GEGHAM GHARIBJANIAN: “ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF IRAN BECAME THE GREATEST
REVELATION IN MY LIFE”

TEHRAN, December 17 (Noyan Tapan). Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of Armenia to Iran Gegham Gharibjanian said goodbye
to the neighboring friendly country and its Armenian Community,
completing his 6-year diplomatic mission in Iran.

A farewell party was held upon the joint initiative of the three
Armenian Dioceses of Iran at the hall of the “Ararat” cultural
organization on December 11. Head of the Armenian Diocese of Isfahan
Archimandrite Babken Charian, Head of the Atrpatakan Diocese Nshan
Topuzian, two MPs from the Armenian community in the parliament of
Iran, employees of the RA Embassy, representatives of the “Alik”
(“Wave”) institution and other guests went to say goodbye to Gegham
Grigorian.

Doctor Anna Hovhannisian, the Head of the Armenian Diocesan Council
of Tehran, came up after the artistic part of the arrangement. She
highly estimated the diplomatic activities of Gegham Gharibjanian,
coming up on behalf of the three Dioceses.

In his speech of gratitude Ambassador Gharibjanian said: “Six years
ago, when I arrived in Iran as the RA Ambassador for the first time,
the fact that there is an admirable community with mighty potential
and mighty spirit here became, perhaps, the greatest revelation in my
life. And if I knew only some notable representatives of the community
that time, I know all of them now. I wish you every success and good
luck. Thank you.”

According to the Tehran “Alik” (“Wave”) newspaper, the honorable
guests handed the Ambassador a souvenir on behalf of the three Armenian
Dioceses after the completion of the official part of the arrangement.

ARMENIAN SPOKESMAN URGES AZERBAIJAN TO NEGOTIATE WITH KARABAKH

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
17 Dec 04

(Presenter in studio) The press secretary of the Armenian Foreign
Ministry, Gamlet Gasparyan, has said while commenting on Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev’s remarks concerning Azerbaijan’s inclination
towards a stage-by-stage settlement that Armenia’s position on
the negotiations to resolve the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict remains
unchanged.

We state again that the negotiations to resolve the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict within the framework of the Prague process are held in a
package form and we are ready to continue doing that.

Gasparyan added that if the Azerbaijani side is still hesitating
as to who to hold the negotiations with, we have to repeat – with
Stepanakert.

RUSSIANS ABROAD COULD SOLVE DEMOGRAPHIC SHORTFALL – TV

Channel One TV, Moscow
17 Dec 04

Russia needs to make use of the huge “gold reserve” of Russians
living in the states of the former Soviet Union to compensate for
its shrinking population, presenter Svetlana Sorokina said in “Basic
Instinct” on Russia’s Channel One television on 17 December. But in
order to do so, it needs to take a close look at how it regards those
Russian-speaking people and at its foreign policy towards the former
Soviet states, studio guests said.

Taking part in the studio debate on how Russia needs to interact with
Russians abroad were:

the editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy, Aleksey Venediktov;

the head of the Centre for Strategic Research into Religion and
Politics of the Modern World, Maksim Shevchenko;

a member of the Duma Security Committee, member of the One Russia
faction, Police Lt-Col Aleksey Rozuvan;

the head of the Russian Centre for International Scientific and
Cultural Cooperation at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Eleonora
Mitrofanova;

the leader of the Motherland action in the Duma, Dmitriy Rogozin;

a member of the Federation Council, who lived in Turkmenistan for 40
years, Galina Buslova;

the executive director of Moscow Council of Russian Compatriots,
Vitaliy Skrinnik;

the leader of the headquarters for protection of Russian schools in
Latvia, Aleksandr Kazakov;

and a young man from Volgograd, originally from Samarkand in
Uzbekistan, Andrey Zuyev.

Lessons from Ukraine

Asked what lessons in terms of defending the interests of the
Russophone population should be learned from the events occurring
in Ukraine, Shevchenko said that Russia needed to look closely at
exactly what its foreign policy aims were. “The first lesson is
that we should more clearly and precisely formulate both Russia’s
foreign political interests and the role of those people whom Russia
takes under its protection in the light of those foreign political
interests as formulated.” The area of Russophone eastern Ukraine, he
said, is “such a self-sufficient territory that Moscow should perhaps
stop taking it as an instrument for exerting influence on European
or Ukrainian affairs. It seems to me that Donetsk and Kharkov and
Lugansk are in fact entirely ready for partnership relations with
Russia, with Moscow. The problem is that Moscow is not ready to see
them as partners but only as compatriots who are an instrument of
interference or influence, or in some game.”

Venediktov questioned rhetorically whether Russia’s attempt to get
involved in the situation in Ukraine was genuinely in defence of the
interests of Russian compatriots or political manoeuvring. “Genuine
defence of the interests of our compatriots should find expression in
two ways,” Venediktov said. “Either we invite them here – and they
really do represent a gold reserve. Russia’s demographic situation
is very bad. Yet according to various estimates there are up to 22m
people now who regard themselves either as Russians or Tatars or
Chuvash, who have gone through state education here. This is the gold
reserve. Or, we must help them there, so that in the final analysis
they do not lose their links with the language and culture, with the
motherland. Neither of these things has been done.”

Rogozin said there was a need to define the terms used. “In my view,
in the Russian Federation nobody is interested in the subject of
compatriots, we have not even managed seriously to tackle the concept
of exactly who we mean by the term compatriots – what do we mean
– ethnic Russians? Or a Tatar living in Riga for whom the Russian
language is the main language by which he identifies himself? What is
he, a compatriot? Or nothing for us?” There is no official support for
Russians abroad, Rogozin pointed out. The Duma comes out with grand
statements along the lines of “hands off our compatriots in the Baltic
states”, he said, and then forgets about it the next day. Whereas the
USA and some European states regard protection of their compatriots
abroad as a matter of national security, Rogozin went on, “for us it
is PR, in the best case” or an instrument to be used. What is needed,
he said, is some sort of official body to tackle work with Russians
abroad, a point picked up by Mitrofanova, who believes the Russian
Centre for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation at the
Russian Foreign Ministry should be turned into a federal agency.

Citizenship law

Vendiktov condemned at length what he described as Russia’s
“detestable” and “shameful” citizenship law, which he said closed off
avenues for people to get citizenship. He said the law, which speakers
pointed out had already been subject to considerable amendment,
needed to be further simplified. The case of Andrey Zuyev, a young
man originally from Samarkand in Uzbekistan, who has been living in
Volgograd for four years, was taken as an example of the difficulties
people from the former Soviet states have when they try to return to
Russia. He has been unable to get citizenship, and without documents
he cannot get a proper job. Rogozin promised to look into Zuyev’s case.

Despite the need for labour in Russia, Duma Security Committee member
Rozuvan said, “we cannot simply take in everybody who wants to come to
Russia. Just imagine what would happen!” Having sparked heated debate
on the subject, Rozuvan insisted that there had to be differentiation
between who could be given citizenship. “There has to be this sort
of gradation. Because today the Russian who has landed up outside
the confines of his country should have prior claims to return here
than, for example, an Uzbek or an Armenian who was not born in Russia
at all and never spent any time there but today suddenly wants to
become a Russian citizen.” Pressed on the subject of mixed marriages,
Rozuvan said there nevertheless had to be “a simplified procedure for
ethnic Russians. Under the present law they all have equal rights
and that is not proper.”

Buslova pointed out that details of the simplified procedure for
getting Russian citizenship had not been announced in Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which is why Russians in those countries
were in their present plight.

Turkmenistan

Rogozin took up the “outrageous situation” of Russians in
Turkmenistan. “This is a catastrophe, a complete catastrophe. Because
when we abandoned the agreement on dual citizenship with Turkmenistan –
yes, of course it was a strange agreement, we have dual citizenship
with a country governed by, I don’t know, Saddam Husayn No 2, even
worse, even crueller. Turkmenbasy, I mean, of course. There are
today 95,000 citizens of the Russian Federation there today, Russian
Turkmens, who cannot leave Turkmenistan for Russia on a Russian
passport. They cannot leave Turkmenistan until he, Turkmenbasy, puts
a stamp on their exit visa in their passport. And our people can do
nothing. The Americans take their citizens out of Turkmenistan, all
kinds of European conferences and congresses debate Turkmenistan and
condemn the despotic, fascist regime in Turkmenistan. We have 100,000
of our people there whom we are obliged under the constitution to
protect, and we do nothing,” Rogozin said.

Rogozin went on to add: “Turkmenistan is a state which not only
oppresses its own citizens and the citizens of other states, including
Russia. It is a state which uses the state machine to manufacture
narcotics on an industrial scale and transfer them to Russia in
industrial quantities. Narcotics, especially heroin from Afghanistan,
are a weapon of mass destruction.”

Presenter Sorokina asked “why 100,000 citizens of the Russian
Federation in Turkmenistan have been forgotten by the State Duma”,
adding that she has never heard of the Duma issuing a note of protest
to Turkmenistan.

“Gold reserve”

Asked what should be done now to make use in the long term of the
“gold reserve” of Russians abroad, Skrinnik proposed completing work
on setting up a federal agency for work with compatriots, which should
monitor the diverse situation in different countries. Rogozin commented
that “nobody will respect Russians outside Russia” until the Russian
government itself defines its policy on compatriots. Venediktov backed
up the point, adding that a specific state programme of support for
compatriots abroad was needed, in addition to “a tough response on
the part of the state to all infringements of the rights of Russians
abroad”. Second, he said, specific work and support is needed for
those who have returned to Russia.

Buslova pointed out that a programme of resettlement could be drawn
up to take advantage of abundance of jobs, land and housing in the
Far East, where Defence Ministry accommodation has been evacuated.

Shevchenko pointed out that whilst Russia needed to open its gates wide
to immigration in order to make use of and retain its vast territory,
“we need an internal mechanism of absorption, it seems to me, so that
Chinese, for example, who come to Russia would not be seen as enemies
like they are in America, but as citizens of the Russian Federation
who would like to live in our country”.

Venediktov added that countries which previously had empires,
such as Britain, had special ministries, such as the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, tasked with dealing with the consequences of
loss of empire. Russia should follow their example, he suggested.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US says it acknowledges Armenian tradgedy

Turkish Daily News
Dec 17, 2004

Boucher: Our position on the Armenia question is pretty well known

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

The United States says it acknowledges the “terrible tragedy” the
Armenian community in Anatolia faced during the World War I years,
but declined to comment on whether the European Union should make it
a precondition for the start of accession talks with Turkey.

“Our position on the Armenia question is pretty well known. We’ve
acknowledged the terrible tragedy that befell the Armenian community
in Anatolia in the final years of the Ottoman Empire,” State Department
Spokesman Richard Boucher said at a press briefing.

He said Washington had been encouraging civil society and diplomatic
discussions about the tragedy as well as political dialogue between
Armenia and Turkey on the issue.

Boucher indicated the U.S. position on the issue had remained unchanged
since the president issued a traditional message on April 24, 2003,
the date that Armenians say is the anniversary of the alleged genocide.

Turkey categorically rejects Armenian charges that genocide was
committed against Armenians living in eastern Turkey in the final
years of the Ottoman Empire.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling on
EU leaders to open entry talks with Turkey. It also urged Ankara to
acknowledge the alleged genocide but made it clear it would not be
a condition for the start of accession talks.

ABDULLAH GUL CONSIDERS THAT ISSUES OF OPENING OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH
BORDER AND RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE NOT INCLUDED IN EU CRITERIA

YEREVAN, December 17 (Noyan Tapan). The issues of opening of
Armenian-Turkish border and recognition of Armenian Genocide aren’t
included in the EU criteria. Abdullah Gul, Foreign Minister of Turkey,
declared this answering the question of the Yerkir-Media Armenian
TV company. According to the Regnum agency, Gul declared to the TV
company: “These issues are absolutely different. We’ll speak about
these issues separately but they aren’t within the framework of EU.”

Answering the question, when Turkey considers it possible to open the
Armenian-Turkish border, Gul said: “Our region needs development of
cooperation and neighbourly relations. That’s why we attach importance
to settlement of the problems between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” He
expressed hope that “the issue will be solved in peace and will be
closed for ever.” The closure of the issue, according to him, means
“formation of a new atmosphere in the region.”

Gul even made it clear that besides Armenia, the Armenian Diaspora
should also bear the responsibility for the Armenian-Turkish relations:
“I think it is doing wrong complicating Armenia’s business. Turkey is
the most important and largest country of the region, it’s large both
in the respect of number of its population and economic power. So,
we want not only our country but the whole region, including Armenia,
to develop, and peace and security to be established in the whole
region. It’s no use instigating hostility, renewing the issues,
in which the historians should be engaged, and attaching topicality
to these issues. I am sure that the Diaspora also has an important
obligation in this issue.”

Turkey remains at odds with U.S. over Iraq war
By Amberin Zaman, Special to the Los Angeles Times

post-gazette.com
Tuesday, December 14, 2004

ANKARA, Turkey — When a U.S. ambassador to Turkey asks to see the
country’s leader, an appointment is usually made within days. But
recently, it took the current envoy six weeks to get an audience with
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The delay was a another sign, many analysts and policymakers in the
Turkish capital say, of the deepening rift between Turkey and its
most powerful ally. The split reflects anger among Turks over the
war in Iraq and their growing pressure on their government to stand
up to the United States.

Using exceptionally harsh language, Turkish officials and politicians
in recent weeks have attacked the Bush administration, with much of
their invective reserved for U.S. policy in Iraq.

The opening salvo came from Erdogan, who last month referred to Iraqi
insurgents killed in a U.S.-led assault on the city of Fallujah as
“martyrs” and exhorted the Muslim world to unite behind Turkey
“against powers that are seeking to assert their hegemony.”

Tensions shot up when Mehmet Elkatmis, a lawmaker from Erdogan’s
conservative Justice and Development Party, which has Islamist roots,
likened the U.S. occupation of Iraq to “genocide” and said the
U.S. military might have used atomic weapons against Turkey’s neighbor.

“Never in human history have such genocide and cruelty been witnessed,”
Elkatmis declared. “Such a genocide was never seen in the time of
the pharaoh, nor of Hitler nor of Mussolini.”

Angered by the Turkish government’s halfhearted rebuttal of Elkatmis’
remarks, several U.S. officials have warned that the next time Congress
considers legislation labeling the mass killings of Armenians by
Turkish forces during World War I as genocide, the Bush administration
might not quash the bill.

The latest spat comes before a summit Friday of European Union leaders,
who will decide whether to open talks aimed at admitting Turkey to
the union. The United States has long lobbied for Turkey’s membership,
and Washington’s influence over seven former Soviet bloc nations that
joined the EU last year so far has bolstered the Turks’ case.

Emerging from a 90-minute meeting with Erdogan yesterday,
U.S. Ambassador Eric S. Edelman sought to downplay the chill,
describing the talks as “constructive, thorough and frank.” Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul called the tensions a misunderstanding.

“Why would we want to weaken ties with a superpower?” he said in an
interview with the daily newspaper Hurriyet.

But for all the upbeat talk, analysts predict further turbulence.

“Despite 50 years [of partnership], it is clear that Turkish-American
relations will remain fragile and replete with mini-crises,” said
Asli Aydintasbas, a longtime observer of ties between the two nations.

Turkey, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s sole majority-Muslim
member, served as a bulwark against communism during the Cold
War. During the 1990s, the Turks allowed U.S. warplanes to use bases
in their nation to patrol a “no-fly” zone over northern Iraq after
the defeat of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Thousands of Armenians in Brussels anti-Turkish demo

Agence France Presse — English
December 17, 2004 Friday 6:52 PM GMT

BRUSSELS Dec 17 — Thousands of Europeans of Armenian origin
demonstrated during a European Union summit here Friday, and denounced
a decision by the bloc’s leaders to open membership talks with Turkey.

“This is not a negotiation. It is a capitulation. Political Europe
is very seriously compromised,” Laurent Leylekian, the director of
the Euro-Armenian federation, said in a statement.

After a day of frantic haggling, the bloc’s leaders struck a
hard-fought deal Friday securing Turkish promises on the divided
island of Cyprus in return for Ankara winning the historic prize of
a start to EU entry talks.

“This stunning result is without any doubt due to the inflexibility
of Ankara, which has not ceded anything, but also down to the patent
weakness of the union’s political structures,” Leylekian said.

Organisers said some 8,000 people — police gave the figure of 2,300
— of Armenian origin had demonstrated in the Belgian capital during
the key summit, calling on Turkey to admit to genocide against their
people nearly 90 years ago.

They insisted such an acknowledgment must be a precondition for Turkey
to begin talks on joining the EU.

Turkey has always denied the mass killing of Armenians during World
War 1 was genocide, saying the deaths were not ethnically motivated
but resulted from a crackdown on collaborators with the Russians.

The demonstrators outside the EU headquarters came from Armenian
communities in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Russia.

Twenty busloads brought demonstrators from Paris, while planes were
chartered to ferry in others from Athens and Stockholm.

Speakers addressing the crowd included Garo Housepian, an elected
official in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille. He said a
delegation had been received here by the Dutch, who currently preside
over the EU.

Meanwhile in Armenia, more than 200 young people demonstrated outside
the European Union Commission’s office in the capital Yerevan.

“European countries must not weaken because of false reforms in Turkey
and must not integrate into their ranks a country that committed the
great crime against humanity, genocide,” they declared in a letter
to the commission office.

“In agreeing to start negotiations, European countries are taking on
responsibility for this crime,” it added.

In fact the theme of Armenia was not on the official Brussels summit
agenda. Turkey’s EU hopes had instead been threatened by a standoff
over calls for Ankara to recognize Cyprus, diplomats said.

Armenians say 1.5 million of their number died in a genocide between
1915 and 1917. Turkey disputes the scale and nature of the killing,
saying the deaths were not ethnically motivated but resulted from a
crackdown on parts of the population accused of collaborating with
the Russians during World War I.

Separately, in Italy, the anti-immigrant Northern League party which
forms part of the government of Silvio Berlusconi, organised several
demonstrations against the decision to open talks with Turkey.

The party is demanding a referendum be held in Italy on the issue
and has called supporters to demonstrate on Sunday in the northern
city of Milan.

War and cold have depleted Armenia’s only natural resource: trees

Agence France Presse — English
December 17, 2004 Friday 6:52 PM GMT

YEREVAN Dec 17 — It is one of Armenia’s most revered sites, but for
the poor, the trees around the giant Genocide Memorial outside the
capital make more than a pleasant setting for the monument, they are
their only source of heat as a bitter winter approaches fast.

Ever since Armenia became locked in war over Nagorno-Karabakh, an
enclave in neighboring Azerbaijan in the 1990s, it has been under
an energy blockade from the oil-rich post Soviet republic as well as
its historic foe to the south, Turkey.

As a result, when the war was in full swing much of the tiny
land-locked nation’s forests were cut to be used as fuel when the
heat supply was cut by Azerbaijan.

The conflict with Azerbaijan frozen in an uneasy cease-fire, Armenia
has a new gas pipeline linking it to Russia, but today the problem
for many Armenians is the fuel’s price, so the cutting continues.

“During the Soviet Union we had as much gas as we wanted,” Vladimir
Gregorian, a 75-year-old pensioner, said as he pulled a cart stuffed
with brush and branches down a slope leading out of the woods around
the Genocide Memorial.

He said his 20-dollar monthly pension was not enough for him to buy
a new gas line for his house or even pay for the gas itself, so he
heats water for baths with wood collected in the area.

But environmentalists warn that if wood cutting in Armenia continues in
an unsustainable way, much of the country’s harsh mountainous terrain
could turn to desert, a process they say would be irreversible if
left to itself.

“The winters of 1991 and 1992 were very severe, Armenians had
no alternative but to cut trees and burn park benches,” said
Susan Yacubian Klein, the director of the Armenian Tree Project,
a US donor-sponsored organization dedicated to reforestation and
sustainability.

But today loggers continue to cut forests illegally, Yacubian Klein
said, delivering their contraband goods to cities in covered trucks,
“If forest cutting continues at the same rate in 20 years Armenia
will face desertification.”

Today deforestation is already causing erosion and landslides and
is throwing dust that used to be held down by roots into the air
of Armenia’s cities, and according to the Armenian Tree Project the
situation could get worse.

In some areas, roads have collapsed as a result of the powerful
erosion forces that deforestation has unchained in rivers.

But there are ways to revitalize the forests. The ATP has launched a
number of projects including one around the Genocide Memorial where
workers use a technique called coppicing to rejuvenate tree stumps.

By cutting away excess shoots that grow out of a stump people can
help one healthy branch utilize the tree’s root system to grow into
a tree. However the work “is just a drop in the bucket,” Yacubian
Klein admitted.

In 1900 forests covered 25 percent of Armenia, after 70 years of
Soviet rule that figure dropped to 12 percent, but the decline of
wooded areas in the last decade has been the most dramatic, bringing
forest cover to just eight percent.

Armenia’s energy crisis has had at least one benefit.

Its isolation and lack of hydrocarbon reserves has lead to some
innovative ideas about alternative energy sources, in contrast to
its two Caucasus neighbors, Georgia and Azerbaijan, whose policies
have been dominated by a geopolitical tug-of-war for pipelines,
electricity cables and global alliances.

A few years ago a small firm called SolarEn started up a project to
explore solar energy in Armenia and has since branched out to wind
power and hydrogen powered fuel cells.

Spurring companies like this on is legislation requiring the state
electricity monopoly to buy electricity generated by alternative
means at a higher price to encourage private investment in the sector.

SolarEn is not in the black yet but its sales of affordable solar
powered water heating systems and alternative energy consultancy
services have given it an annual turnover of nearly 100,000 dollars.

Its sister firm Zod Wind is involved in a 25 million dollar project
to build a set of wind turbines in the east of Armenia next year and
an Iranian firm has already begun construction of two wind turbines
in the south as a 3.5 million dollar gift to the country.

“We don’t have oil, we don’t have gas, all we have is the sun and
the wind,” said SolarEn Executive Director Viktor Afyan, “we need to
use it.”

Number of violations of Armenian border expected to grow
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
December 17, 2004 Friday

YEREVAN, December 17 — Russian border guards believe the number of
violations of the Armenian border can be expected to increase next
year, Lieutenant-General Sergei Bondarev, chief of the Russian FSS
Border Guard Department in the republic, stated on Friday, summing
up the work done by his subordinates in 2005.

“We are expecting an exodus from Iraq of people of Armenian origin,
trying to get away from the zone of hostilities,” he added. Attempts
of Kurd fighters to cross the border from Turkey are also expected.

Due to the CIS visa-free regime, people will be coming to Armenia
from those countries next summer with a view to eventually leaving
the republic through check points or across the border, the general
stated. “Therefore, as of May, we shall take steps to toughen the
protection of the state border and to re-deploy our forces to its
most difficult sectors,” Bondarev noted.

Iranian citizens of Armenian origin may be expected to migrate to
Armenia in case the far from smooth relations between the United
States and Iran become even worse,” the general stated.

He also believes the number of specialists crossing the border is
bound to increase due to the construction of the gas pipeline from
Iran to Armenia and the continuing works to build of a hydraulic
power plant on the Araks River.

Growing trade turnover between Armenia and Iran tends to increase
automobile traffic over the border. All this calls for measures to
improve the work of Russian border guards and to bring it in line
with international standards, Bondarev stressed.

Summing up the results of the work of Russian border guards on
Armenia’s border with Turkey and Iran, the general said they were,
on the whole, successfully coping with their tasks.

For instance, 119 border violators and 674 persons with false
documents were apprehended this year on the sector of the border
they are guarding. Three hundred and five of them were not allowed
to cross the border. As many as fifty-five pieces of cold steel were
confiscated and more than 23,000 U.S. dollars worth of contraband goods
were handed over to Armenian customs officials. The number of people
crossing the border through check points grew by 70 per cent in 2004
as compared to 2003 and the number of motor vehicles – by 50 per cent.

Russian border guards have been provided with the latest technical
means and with automated control facilities, the general noted. “We
are now arresting border violators practically every day, who trying
to get into Armenia are to leave it with forged or wrongly made out
documents,” the general stated.

Bondarev explained the increasing number of arrested violators of the
Armenian border by the notably improved work of all the check points
and by the fact that the number of border controllers was increased
by 60 officials at the “Zvartnots” international airport, the main
gateway of Armenia. “All this has allowed us to bring our border
control techniques in line with the world standards,” Bondarev noted.

Czech News Agency (CTK)
CTK National News Wire
December 16, 2004

HEAD OF REFUGEE CAMP MEMBER OF PEOPLE-SMUGGLING RING

BRATISLAVA, Dec 16 ; (YOP)

The Slovak rail police and the illegal migration police unit broke
up a people-smuggling gan on Tuesday and Wednesday that transported
refugees from the Adamov camp to Austria and the head of the Adamov
camp was part of the 15-member gang, rail police chief Tibor Gaplovsky
said today.

The gang brought the refugees to Bratislava, where they were loaded
on to freight cars and shipped to Austria.

“This is an international crime network connected to other groups
outside Slovakia,” Gaplovsky said. The head of the group is allegedly
an Armenian. Two Azerbajianis, three Russians, an Afghan and eight
Slovaks were also part of the group.

“The group was able to transport at least 115 people through Slovakia,”
Gaplovsky said. However, the total number of refugees is probably
several times higher.

Daniel M. (52), head of the Adamov, west Slovakia, refugee camp was
allegedly part of the group. He gave the refugees passes to leave
the camp in return for money.

The gang charged 200 to 600 dollars per refugee. A total of 800
police officers took part in the bust. The gang members have been
charged with criminal conspiracy, illegal border crossings and money
laundering and they face up to 15 years in prison.