PRESIDENT KOCHARYAN RECEIVES AGBU CONGRESS DELEGATES

A1plus
6 Oct 04

President Kocharyan received overseas delegates of 83rd congress of
AGBU, Armenian benevolent organisation, held in recent days in
Yerevan.

He welcomed the congress participants and stressed the importance of
such a kind of events.

The union chair Perch Sedrakyan, in turn, said positive changes are
visible in Armenia though there are many obstacles that are
successfully being overcome.

Armenian-US working group discuss wide-ranging issues

Mediamax news agency
6 Oct 04

YEREVAN

The ninth session of the US-Armenian Task Force on economic
cooperation took place on 4 October in Washington, the press service
of the Armenian Foreign Ministry told our agency today.

The session discussed issues pertaining to the implementation of a
poverty reduction strategy in Armenia, maintaining a higher rate of
economic growth, an improvement in social conditions, reforms in the
banking sector and the development of power, agriculture and water
systems.

The Armenian delegation included Finance and Economy Minister Vardan
Khachatryan; the presidential aide Vagram Nersisyants; the chairman of
the Central Bank, Tigran Sarkisyan; the chairman of the State
Committee for Water Resources, Andranik Andreasyan; and the Armenian
ambassador to the USA, Aram Kirakosyan.

Georgian border closure not to affect Russian-Armenian relations – paper

Hayots Ashkarh, Yerevan
6 Oct 04

Text of Vardan Grigoryan report by Armenian newspaper Hayots Ashkarh
on 6 October “Situation at Verkhniy Lars and around it”

The fact that hundreds of lorries bound for Armenia have been stranded
at the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border is
being assessed differently.

The situation was created after the incredible terrorist act in Beslan
when the Russian leadership decided to close land borders with Georgia
and Azerbaijan. But this has affected Armenia more than the countries
mentioned. It turns out that due to limited communication
opportunities and the blockade imposed by Turkey and Azerbaijan,
Armenia has found itself in this situation “through no fault of its
own”.

It has nothing in common with the rumours disseminated recently that
allegedly by closing the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the
Russian-Georgian border, Russia is trying to punish Armenia along with
Georgia for cooperation with NATO or for the intention to send
Armenian servicemen to Iraq. If Russia had really wanted to punish
Armenia, it could undoubtedly have found more effective levers.

This forcible step taken by Russia in the context of the antiterror
fight has created a very contradictory situation in both
Russian-Georgian and Armenian-Georgian relations.

The speaker of the upper chamber of the Russian State Duma, Sergey
Mironov, who was in Yerevan recently, promised that the situation
would be settled. Moreover, he hinted that the problem of the
Transcaucasus railway link to Sukhumi would be also
settled. Certainly, it is a very pleasant piece of news for Armenia,
but at present the settlement of such a complex problem is coming up
against the political dispute about the return of Georgian refugees to
Gali District, as well as the fact that the Sukhumi-Zugdidi sector of
the railway is badly damaged.

A question arises: Are these measures of Russia fruitful while it is
evident that terrorists penetrate this country through mountains and
gorges? Georgia, which has sea ports and receives large western loans,
does not at all submit to Russia’s requests to capture and extradite
them [terrorists] to Russia. Thus, the problem is not in closing the
Verkhniy Lars checkpoint but in turning the measures against Georgia
into “targeted” ones. We think that in this context economic and
political steps could be taken which will not directly affect
Armenia’s interests. This gives us the hope that they will finally
find mutually acceptable solutions that will take Armenian cargo
transportation out of this misunderstanding.

By the way, the closure of the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint may be used by
some forces to call into question Russian-Armenian strategic
partnership. Certain political forces in Armenia are interested in
this, they are spreading incredible rumours about Moscow-Yerevan
relations and politicizing the problem. But the majority of the public
understand that the situation created at the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint
is not that problem which can cast doubt on Armenian-Russian strategic
partnership. Russia is not the country which Armenia can have problems
with because of this kind of incidents. Thus, we are sure that today’s
search for mutually advantageous options to resolve the situation
created around the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint will yield positive
results and thwart all attempts to discredit Armenian-Russian
relations.

Russia agrees to let cargo through Georgian border to Armenia

Noyan Tapan news agency
6 Oct 04

YEREVAN

Russia has given the go-ahead for the opening of the road through the
Verkhniy Lars border checkpoint [in Georgia] for cargo bound for
Armenia following a telephone conversation between Presidents of
Armenia and Russia Robert Kocharyan and Vladimir Putin on the evening
of 5 October. This checkpoint has been closed for a long time over the
Beslan events.

Our agency has learnt from the press service of the Armenian Ministry
of Transport and Communications that talks are under way with the
Georgian side to arrange unimpeded and quick delivery of goods to
Armenia.

CIS defence and security committee opens session in Armenian capital

Mediamax news agency
6 Oct 04

YEREVAN

A three-day session of the permanent defence and security commission
of the CIS Parliamentary Assembly began in Yerevan today.

The Mediamax parliamentary correspondent reports that those taking
part will discuss a number of proposals for basic model legislative
programmes for combating crime and illegal trading in narcotic and
psychotropic substances and also programmes for cooperation in the
military-technical spheres.

Not taking part in the forum are any representatives from Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The chairman of the permanent
defence and security commission of the CIS Parliamentary Assembly,
Viktor Voytenko, said he was sorry that colleagues from these
countries were absent.

Armenian nuclear plant back after major repairs

Arminfo
5 Oct 04

YEREVAN

The Armenian nuclear power plant was connected to the national power
grid today at 1419 local time [0919 gmt], the director-general of the
plant, Gagik Markosyan, has told Arminfo news agency.

He said that the Armenian nuclear power plant was closed for major
repairs and refuelling on 31 July 2004. The reactor is repaired once
every four years. The director-general said that the uniqueness of
the repairs in 2004 was that the amount of work was unprecedentedly
large.

[Passage omitted: Fuel was sent from Russia]

Austrian defense expert argues against Turkey’s EU membership

Kurier, Vienna
5 Oct 04

The issue of Turkey’s EU membership has now entered the intensive
phase of the debate. Irrespective of any arguments for or against, it
is somehow regarded as a fact that Turkey joining the EU will be of
considerable advantage in security-policy and strategic terms.

Turkey’s geostrategic position and large armed forces, the argument
goes, give the European Union greater influence and security
benefits. This argument is entirely inappropriate. The opposite is
true. A NATO member, Turkey is firmly integrated in the Euro-Atlantic
security system. There is no need to act out of security policy
concerns.

Let us look at Turkey’s geostrategic position. Turkey shares borders
with Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, among others. Relations
with these countries may be called problematic. Turkey has no respect
for minority rights, although it is a country with considerable
minorities. Because of its strategic partnership with Israel and/or
the strategic triangle with the United States and Israel, Turkey is
not only a player in the Middle East, but it is directly and
indirectly involved in Mideast problems. The European Union would have
external borders with Iraq and Iran, thus becoming a frontline state
in the largest crisis region in the world.

As a result, the European Union would not, as it hopes, reach the
status of objective mediator in the Middle East as a result of
Turkey’s membership, but become itself part of the Middle East
problems. Turkey is confronted to a great extent with problems of
transnational terrorism and organized crime and would bring these
problems into the EU. On top of this, Turkey is a kind of “natural”
competitor of Russia when it comes to influencing the Caucasus and, in
particular, Central Asia. Its accession would contribute nothing at
all to the EU in security policy terms, if the European Union wants to
develop its own security policy profile alongside NATO.

[Passage omitted]

People remain in limbo a month after Russia closed border with Georgia – TV

NTV, Moscow
6 Oct 04

[Presenter] Hundreds of people have been caught between two
states. Russia announced the closure of its border for people crossing
from Georgia. Tbilisi promised to solve the problem quickly. But
passengers on scheduled buses and lorry drivers have been living in
their vehicles for over a month.

Here reporting from the so-called neutral territory is Nugzar
Kereselidze.

[Correspondent] In the Dariali Gorge on the Georgian military road 50
lorries and buses have been caught in a stubborn trap. Having passed
through the Lars border crossing in Georgia they did not manage to get
across the so-called neutral zone of a sector of the Russian-Georgian
border under review when Russia closed its frontier. The official
reason for the closure of the border was the Beslan tragedy, and the
necessity to apprehend all the people involved in the terrorist
attack. The closure was made unexpectedly in the course of a few
hours. For this reason hundreds of vehicles piled up on both sides. In
the course of the next few days their number even increased, partly
because the Georgian authorities gave a promise, as is said, to come
to an agreement about opening the border. However, a month later
passengers from Armenia are living in buses. There are many women and
children among them.

[Unidentified woman] People have been here for a month and two
days. They are living or surviving. It’s worse than survival. There
are children, sick people and old people. And the older people are
suffering. In the evening it’s cold. Really cold.

[Correspondent] When the passengers ran out of the food they had
brought with them the drivers came to their aid with food that was
beginning to go off. What had actually gone bad was thrown into the
river Terek. A businessman from Yerevan, (?Artur Bagasyan), had to get
rid of 30 tonnes of peaches.

Several vehicles from Azerbaijan, Belarus and other countries turned
round and went to Russia through South Ossetia using the Roki tunnel
where the border had not been closed. This caused bewilderment in
Tbilisi.

[Korneli Salia, chief of headquarters at the Georgian Department of
State Border Protection, captioned] Russia did not close this sector,
which we don’t understand. It turns out that Russian official bodies
support the separatists prospering in South Ossetia.

[Correspondent] More and more freight has now started passing into
Russia through South Ossetia, despite the fact that a lot of money has
to be paid for escorts and security. But businessmen have no
choice. They agree to pay more rather than lose everything.

–Boundary_(ID_Y/RVwc+1BcSe9PEJgqn2GQ)
Content-typ e: message/rfc822

From: ACNIS Info <[email protected]>
Subject: ACNIS Marks Tenth Anniversary
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PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Center for National and International Studies
75 Yerznkian Street
Yerevan 375033, Armenia
Tel: (+374 – 1) 52.87.80 or 27.48.18
Fax: (+374 – 1) 52.48.46
E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
Website:

October 5, 2004

ACNIS MARKS TENTH ANNIVERSARY

Raffi Hovannisian and Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja Keynote Gala

Yerevan–The Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS),
an institutional pioneer of independent policy research and analysis in the
post-Soviet space, celebrated its tenth birthday today with an official
banquet at the Armenia Marriott Hotel.

The gala event brought together public figures, ambassadors, heads of
diplomatic missions and international organizations, scholars and
intellectuals, businessmen, media and NGO representatives, the Center’s
former and current employees, and contributors, associates, friends and
supporters from Armenia and the Diaspora.

A complete exhibit of the Center’s publications from 1994 to 2004, including
occasional papers, monographs, yearbooks and special publications, was on
display in the foyer of the “Tigran the Great” ballroom, where the
festivities took place. The participants were presented with complimentary
copies of the Center’s newly-released jubilee volume entitled “Accounting
for the Decade,” encompassing a survey of its first decade of public service
and featuring Center activities, analytical articles, congratulatory
messages, public opinion polls, and an interview with founder Raffi K.
Hovannisian.

Raffi Hovannisian, the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the new Republic
of Armenia, welcomed the invited guests. Recalling that the fifth
anniversary of the Center, scheduled for October 29, 1999, did not take
place because of the national tragedy in parliament, Hovannisian invited a
moment of silence to remember the victims of October 27, the national heroes
and unknown soldiers who fell on Armenia’s road to freedom and independence,
as well as departed Center employees Tigran Hairapetian, Bagrat Sadoyan,
Valeri Aidinian, and Ashot Khalatian.

After the invocation and blessing of the table by Bishop Navasard Kjoyan,
Prelate of the Araratian Diocese, Raffi Hovannisian remarked: “The Armenian
Center for National and International Studies and its first ten years have
been committed to the cause of institution-building and, often against the
odds, to the forging of an infrastructure for a new political culture in
which the free competition of ideas reigns within a national framework, and
where rational and national policy options are sought in the domestic and
international arenas through the creation of a comprehensive policymaking
system for the Republic of Armenia and the nation entire.”

At the end of his opening presentation, Hovannisian expressed words of
gratitude to the Center’s supporters in Armenia and around the world, its
past and present employees, its colleagues and critics, and all those owing
to whom the Center at ten is sound, solid, self-confident and at once
self-renewing. On behalf of all ACNIS stakeholders, Noune Aidinian, a
long-time Center executive, was noted for her decade of professional
dedication.

Armenian duduk melodies, performed by distinguished artist Gevorg Dabaghian,
complemented the supper service with nourishment for the soul.

Raffi Hovannisian then introduced His Excellency Erkki Tuomioja, Minister
for Foreign Affairs of Finland, who delivered the keynote address on
“Security in the Globalizing World.” In his vision, modern nations can
profit from globalization through mutual integration and simultaneous
maintenance of national identity, whereas isolated countries or marginal
groups might themselves come to constitute the cause for security dilemmas.

“In a globalizing world, we all are more and more dependent on each other,
which leads to closer cooperation between states than ever before,” the
Minister asserted. “The European Union is developing and responding to new
challenges and how we in Finland see security in today’s world. The newly
independent states in the Western Balkans and in the former Soviet Union
have unfortunately not developed without difficulties. We have witnessed
many armed conflicts and even war both inside and between countries, with
great losses and human suffering. Both old and new threats have escalated,
especially terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,
but also issues such as ethnic intolerance, environmental threats,
pandemics, drugs, cross-border organized crime and uncontrolled migration.
According to the Security Strategy, the EU needs to be more active in
pursuing its strategic objectives. It also needs to be more capable, more
coherent and work in close cooperation with partners. These principles apply
to the full spectrum of instruments for crisis management and conflict
prevention at the EU’s disposal, including political, diplomatic, military
and civilian, trade and development activities. The Union is not and will
not become a military great power, but it can become an effective actor in
conflict prevention and crisis management.”

In a musical interlude, the guests then enjoyed Shoghakn folk ensemble
soloist Hasmik Harutiunian’s vocal offering of “Lullabye Medley,” “Love
Ballad of Van,” and “Homeland.”

The evening concluded with a moving public rendition of the Armenian
National Anthem, and evening enjoyment provided by folk-jazz pianist Vahagn
Hairapetian and his friends.

Founded in 1994 by Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi K.
Hovannisian and supported by a global network of contributors, ACNIS serves
as a link between innovative scholarship and the public policy challenges
facing Armenia and the Armenian people in the post-Soviet world. It also
aspires to be a catalyst for creative, strategic thinking and a wider
understanding of the new global environment. In 2004, the Center focuses
primarily on public outreach, civic education, and applied research on
critical domestic and foreign policy issues for the state and the nation.

For further information on the celebration and a related photo display, call
(3741) 52-87-80 or 27-48-18; fax (3741) 52-48-46; e-mail [email protected] or
[email protected]; or visit

–Boundary_(ID_Y/RVwc+1BcSe9PEJgqn2GQ)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BBC News
Oct 6 2004

Analysis: EU’s Turkish challenge

By Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online world affairs correspondent

Turkey’s accession to the European Union would not only bring a huge
Muslim population into the EU, but would extend its boundaries deep
into the Caucasus mountains and down towards the plains of ancient
Mesopotamia.

Turkey – a bridge between East and West?

The EU would have borders with Syria, Iraq, Iran, Georgia and
Armenia.

For some this would be a good thing. Turkey was once the “sick man of
Europe” as its empire began to decay and other powers circled around,
fighting each other, as in Crimea.

Turkey as a bridge

Now it would be a link between East and West, between a continent
with a Christian history and a land of Muslim faith in which both
would respect religion, but not rely on religion to determine the
course of government.

It would extend the ties developed with Turkey through Nato into the
more fundamental ties of political association.

It would build on the strong secular nature of Turkish public life
forged by the great Kemal Ataturk, who fought the British at
Gallipoli before leaving a legacy of modernism influential to this
day.

Turkey’s acceptance, it is felt, would erase the centuries of
conflict in which the Ottoman Empire sought to stretch its hand into
Europe and where memories of battles against the Turk still linger.

The EU, after all, is designed not to forget history but to overcome
it.

The siege of Vienna

Only recently was one such battle, the siege of Vienna in 1683,
invoked by a European commissioner to argue against Turkish entry.

“The liberation of 1683 would have been in vain,” declared Dutch
commissioner Frits Bolkenstein.

In that siege, it was the Polish King Jan Sobieski who led a force
which drove the Turks away. How appropriate, those favouring Turkish
entry now argue, that Catholic Poland and Muslim Turkey might one day
join together in the Union.

How much more compelling would be a final rapprochement between
Greece and Turkey – and a settlement in Cyprus which would obviously
have to be part of any accession agreement.

An enlargement too far?

For others, Turkey would be an enlargement too far. Turkey is not
really a European country, they argue, despite its foothold on the
European continent across the Bosphorus.

The reforms are sufficient for talks, but not yet sufficient for
membership

Your say: Should Turkey join?

Its population, already 69 million, is second only to that of
Germany, which has 82m. But projections for Turkey’s people go up and
for Germany’s go down so that by mid-century, Turkey would probably
have the largest population in the EU.

That population, it is further argued, would be mainly Muslim and
despite the influence of the secular Ataturk, the influence of the
fervent Enver Pasha might one day prevail.

Enver Pasha, one of the “Young Turks” who overthrew the remnants of
the Ottoman sultanate, had a vision of extending Turkish and Muslim
rule to the peoples of the Caucasus. During World War I, he threw his
lot in with the central powers of Germany and Austria and attacked
the Russians during a winter campaign, which proved disastrous.

The Armenian people of eastern Turkey were force-marched south and
west, in one of the earliest examples of ethnic cleansing in the 20th
Century.

But it is not the past as much as the future which worries some
modern European governments.

One basic rule of the EU is the free movement of goods and people.
The prospect of millions of poor Anatolians flooding into the EU is
one which easily raises European concerns. Restrictions on such
movement for some years might well form part of accession conditions.

The third view

There is a third view – that accession talks might not even lead to
Turkish membership.

John Palmer, political director of the European Policy Centre in
Brussels, said: “It is certain that the EU will set a date for
negotiations with Turkey at the summit in December.

“The reforms are sufficient for talks, but not yet sufficient for
membership. They will be unusual talks. Both sides agree that it will
be 15 to 20 years before a decision is required. In my opinion,
Turkey will not worry about the time. What matters is that the
process of Turkish transformation is linked to the process of
negotiation.

“The separate question is whether at the end of this, there will be a
yes decision by both sides. I do not think that there is a
pre-ordained outcome to that.”

Turkey will force the EU to debate what it is and what it wants to
be.

I first became aware that Turkey might not be a welcome member of the
European club in 1984, when Claude Cheysson, who had just ended a
spell as French foreign minister, asked a group of British
correspondents over an excellent dinner in Strasbourg: “Is Turkey
European?”

Being an accomplished diplomat, he had avoided giving a direct reply
about Turkish membership and accompanied his own question with a
shrug of the shoulders and a quizzical smile. Turkey was something to
be left for another year – or century. We moved on to the cheese.

His question has not yet been fully answered.