Russia, Armenia join forces to catch money forgers
Centre TV, Moscow
2 Jul 04
[Presenter] The Russian and Armenian police have conducted a major
joint operation. Over two years the police tracked an international
gang of money forgers. As a result, 22 members of the well-organized
criminal organization have been arrested.
The underground printing press was found in an ordinary Moscow Region
flat. The forgeries were made by citizens of Russia and Armenia. They
had a well-organized network of middlemen through which the false
R1,000 and R500 notes were distributed across Russia.
In total, the initial investigation has recorded 192 instances of
forged money being sold in 48 Russian regions.
[C/r 1216-1253; video shows sheets of forged R500 notes, computer
equipment, banknotes being printed off.]

The west should invest in central Asia
By Jean Lemierre
FT.com site
Jul 01, 2004
A worrisome disparity is developing between countries that spent
decades together behind the Iron Curtain. On one side of the emerging
divide are the eight countries of central Europe and the Baltic region
that joined the European Union on May 1 – hard-won recognition of
their economic and political transformation. But further east, beyond
the new borders of the EU, economic and political transition in the
seven poorest countries emerging from the command economy system has
been slower; half the population still lives below the poverty line.
In many parts of central Asia and the Caucasus, poverty, ethnic
tensions, the slow pace of reform and high indebtedness combine to
pose a threat to regional and global security. This is particularly
true in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Geographically and ideologically, these seven countries were closer
than the new EU members to the heart of the former Soviet Union and it
is taking them much longer to emerge from its long shadow. They have
not had the offer of EU membership to encourage them through arduous
and often unpopular reforms. Widening the embrace of the EU to
include eight new central European and Baltic states will only go so
far to stabilise the post-cold-war situation, if, over the horizon,
trouble is brewing. Pent-up social frustration born of a lack of
opportunity in these seven nations may heighten tensions, even
extremism. In the long run, private-sector growth and job creation
coupled with political reform are the only means to defuse tensions.
Of course, if economic transition were easy to accomplish in these
states, it would have happened already. The publicly owned European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development was created in 1991 to foster
such transition in 27 countries of the former Soviet sphere and the
bank is the largest single investor there. But, in spite of our
expertise, local presence and mandated interest in doing business in
the seven poorest countries, we have had difficulty raising the level
of our investment there. Given the challenges of doing business in
these countries, it is easy to understand why private-sector investors
shy away.
Yet the EBRD’s local offices see many promising investment
opportunities. These range from big oil, gas and mining deals to
family-owned bakeries, middle-sized lumber businesses, small-scale
hydro-power producers, dairies and growing textile mills.
Unfortunately, opportunity is not enough. The slow and uneven pace of
economic and political reform in these countries discourages foreign
investors and local businesses alike. There remain too many vestiges
of the command economy system and big government, and there is not
enough commitment to improving commercial law, the functioning of
courts and regulatory bodies, and fighting corruption.
The least painful path to economic growth is to cut red tape and then
get out of entrepreneurs’ way. At the EBRD annual meeting last year,
one Kyrgyz entrepreneur reported that 160 permits were needed to start
a small business in her country; that was an improvement on the old
days when 193 permits were required. A year later, the situation has
not changed much. Both local business growth and foreign investment
would be encouraged if governments cut through the thicket of
restrictions on foreign currency exchange and on cross-border trade
and travel.
Trade depends on transport and here we have seen many encouraging
signs of greater regional co-operation. The upgrading of the ancient
Silk Road linking the Caucasus and central Asia is an example of
national governments, donors and international lenders working
together on regionally important infrastructure. The
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline has built better relations between
Azerbaijan and Georgia and introduced more than a dozen top
international banks to those countries.
A new EBRD initiative aims to promote greater investment and
accelerate economic reform in these seven still-poor countries by
accepting higher risk to make investments, improving banking services
for small and medium-sized businesses, encouraging small-scale
infrastructure projects, and promoting legal reform and regional
trade.
As every euro invested in a project by the EBRD typically attracts two
more from other sources, we expect this initiative will increase
private investment. The expansion of the EU’s borders has brought
Europe closer to the Caucasus and central Asia. There is no better
time to promote economic development there, increase prosperity and
underpin stability for the region, and beyond.
The writer is the EBRD’s president

Ten CIS leaders gather for informal summit in Moscow
ITAR-TASS news agency
2 Jul 04
MOSCOW
The presidents of Azerbaijan [Ilham Aliyev], Armenia [Robert
Kocharyan], Uzbekistan [Islam Karimov], Moldova [Vladimir Voronin],
Ukraine [Leonid Kuchma], Kyrgyzstan [Askar Akayev], Georgia [Mikheil
Saakashvili], Belarus [Alyaksandr Lukashenka] and Kazakhstan
[Nursultan Nazarbayev] are to visit Moscow on 2-3 July at the
invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the press service of
the Russian head of state has said.
The heads of state will exchange views on preparing a CIS summit in
[Kazakh capital] Astana scheduled for September, other issues of
mutual interest as well as joint celebrations marking the 60th
anniversary of World War II.

AsiaNews.it, Italy
July 2, 2004
ARMENIA
Government plan against poverty

Everan (AsiaNews) – President Robert Kocharian has announced a
12-year-plan to tackle poverty in his country. The decision arrives
after the World Bank voiced its decision to loan 210 million euros by
November 1st, for the construction of schools, roadways and irrigation
systems in Armenia.
The World Bank is the greatest creditor of Armenia, a country of 3.2
million, which is also expecting funds from the US Millennium Challenge
Account to accomplish similar projects. Kocharian depends on such
financial assistance for the continuation of his government. Securing
these funds will allow him to enhance the life of the country’s
residents. More than half of Armenia’s citizens live below the poverty
line; the annual per capita income is just above 500 euros.
The situation is very serious in suburban regions, but also in Everan,
where only half the population enjoys running water 24 hours a day,
and electricity is constantly interrupted.
The scourge of corruption torments the economy, once one of the most
flourishing republics of the Soviet Union.
In this year’s international report on political transparency, Armenia
came in 78th (from 133 countries). The main areas of the economy are
monopolized by groups connected with the political leadership.
Protests of the people in last months seem to have done brought about a
change in the government’s tactics.
Vartan Khachatrian, the Finance and Economy Minister, affirmed that
structural reforms, necessary to transition to a free market, were
`almost complete’.
According to analysts, the hurry of the government to show reforms and
its fight against poverty is an attempt to cool social tensions.
(F.C.)

Interfax
July 2, 2004
Baku concerned over U.S. planned aid for Nagorno-Karabakh
Baku. (Interfax-Azerbaijan) – The Azerbaijani authorities are concerned
over U.S. plans to provide the self-proclaimed republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh with financial assistance.
“It is not ruled out that this money will be spent on house
construction projects in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories as part of
Armenia’s illegal policy aimed at providing its people with
accommodation in the seized Azerbaijani districts,” reads an
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry press release.
“Azerbaijan would like to know how the United States is going to ensure
that these funds are spent on exclusively humanitarian projects and in
compliance with international law,” the document says.
The U.S. Congress has recently approved an initiative submitted by its
sub-committee responsible for providing international assistance to
allocate $5 million for Nagorno-Karabakh as part of its aid program for
the 2005 budget year.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister fears that this assistance might have
a negative effect on settling the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and another seven
neighboring districts as a result of a 1990s conflict with Armenia over
ownership of Nagorno-Karabakh. The OSCE Minsk Group, comprising the
United States, Russia, and France, has been helping the two countries
put an end to their disputes.

Interfax
July 2, 2004
Armenian police target sex slave trade
Yerevan. (Interfax) – Two people are under arrest following a joint
operation undertaken by Russian Interior Ministry and the Armenian
police service, aimed at curbing the activities of criminal groups
involved in selling girls in Armenia into sex slavery in the United
Arab Emirates.
“After the abduction the girls were moved to Russia where documents
were made to move them to the United Arab Emirates to be exploited as
sex laborers,” Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told a news
conference in Yerevan on Friday.
Two Russian citizens have been arrested one of whom was in charge of
sending the girls on their way from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport and the
other rented “decent apartments” in Moscow where they were kept before
flying to their destination.
Nearly 100 cases of abduction have been documented, he said.
Asked about the so-called Armenian Mafia, Nurgaliyev said that it would
be wrong to believe that just one ethnic group is involved in criminal
activities. But he admitted Armenians are in command of about five
criminal mobs in Russia. The work aimed at stopping them is being
carried out with the aid of the Armenian police, he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azer Tag
July 2, 2004
FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS PACE SECRETARY GENERAL
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov met
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Bruno
Haller.
Minister Mammadyarov described Mr. Haller’s the visit to Azerbaijan as
a positive event, which would give additional impetus to development of
active cooperation between the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan and PACE in
the sphere of integration of the country into the European structures.
The PACE Secretary General in his turn emphasized the importance of to
Azerbaijan of establishment of the country’s close cooperation with
PACE. The guest remembered the meeting between heads of South Caucasian
parliaments held in Strasbourg in May and pointed to political
significance of such events. He expressed satisfaction with fulfillment
by Azerbaijan of its commitments and obligations to the Council of
Europe.
Touching upon the measures for peaceful resolution of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Minister E.
Mammadyarov said in particular that the fact that the conflict remains
unsolved so far has a negative impact on development of the region, and
causes economic and humanitarian problems not only for Azerbaijan but
also Armenia itself.
Bruno Haller noted that PACE would be actively cooperating with the
Milli Majlis and other governmental structures of Azerbaijan in future,
and stressed as a Secretary General he would do his best in this
direction.
During the meeting, the parties have also exchanged views on a number
of other issues of mutual interest.

PRAVDA
July 2, 2004
Russian, Armenian law enforcers step up cooperation
16:05 2004-07-02
The Russian Interior Ministry and Armenia’s Police Department will hold
a meeting in Yerevan on Friday. Russian Interior Minister Rashid
Nurgaliyev and Armenian police executive Aik Arutyunyan and other
senior officials of the above agencies are expected to take part in the
meeting.
The conferees will discuss issues of cooperation against organised
crime and efforts to decriminalise their economies.
The law enforcement agencies’ joint activities fall within the
jurisdiction of a series of bilateral and multilateral inter-government
agreements, 16 inter-department agreements dealing with various areas
of police activity, which were signed at the meetings of the Council of
Interior Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Besides, the conferees will discuss efforts against the organised
international criminal groups and the search for their leaders. Drug
and human trafficking will also be central at the meeting.
Mr Nurgaliyev and Mr Arutyunyan have noted the importance of more
intensive information exchanges between their agencies.
The two countries’ law enforcement agencies regularly conduct search
and preventive operations. Moscow police, for example, have uncovered a
criminal group that comprised Russian and Armenian nationals who
produced counterfeit cognac Ararat, reports the Russian Interior
Ministry. Besides, Russian police exposed a group of Armenians who
counterfeited Russian roubles.
254 members and 45 leaders of organised criminal groups largely
composed of Armenian nationals have been brought to trial and 165
relevant criminal cases have been opened, according to the ministry.
Moscow police have also detained Martirosyan, an Armenian national
wanted in his republic for large-scale embezzlement and fraud.
Martirosyan has already been extradited to Armenia.

Baku Sun
July 2, 2004
Armenia optimistic for Turkey

YEREVAN (AP) – Armenia Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said Wednesday
that a brief meeting with the Turkish leader on the sidelines of this
week’s NATO summit convinced him that relations could improve between
the uneasy neighbors.
Oskanian spoke for 10 minutes with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan at the summit in Istanbul, which was also attended by numerous
leaders from non-NATO member states such as Armenia. President Robert
Kocharian had refused to attend, saying that he was dissatisfied with
his country’s relations with Turkey.
`During that meeting I was again convinced that the current Turkish
government sincerely wants to achieve a change for the better in
resolving relations with Armenia,’ Oskanian said, without elaborating.
Armenia and Turkey do not have diplomatic relations. Armenians accuse
Turks of a genocide of up to 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and
1923. Turks claim the number of deaths is inflated and say the victims
were killed in civil unrest.
Armenia and Turkey are also at odds over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region
within Azerbaijan that has been under ethnic Armenian control since a
war that ended in 1994 without a political settlement. Azerbaijanis and
Turks share close ethnic ties, although recently Turkey has expressed a
willingness to improve relations with Armenia.
Oskanian said that he used a separate meeting his with his Turkish
counterpart, Abdullah Gul, to discuss the possibility of resuming
railroad service between their nations. Turkey, which supported
Azerbaijan in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, has maintained an
economic blockade of Armenia, hobbling economic development in this
landlocked ex-Soviet republic.
Oskanian noted, however, that despite gradually developing ties with
Turkey, Armenia would object to Turkey `pretending to be an impartial
mediator’ in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Oskanian also said that he held discussions Wednesday with the U.S.
administration about Armenia’s intention to veto a proposal that would
give Turkey the acting chairmanship of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe in 2007. Oskanian said that Armenia thinks
the role can only be filled by a nation that has diplomatic relations
with all the OSCE’s member states. But he added that Armenia was still
holding talks on the issue.

Baku Sun
July 2, 2004
View of the nation’s biggest problem
Zulfugar Agayev (Sun Correspondent)

Dr. Andrew C. Hess shares his insight
into the Nagorno (Daghlig)-Karabakh conflict.
(Sun photo by Jeyhun Abdulla)font>
Andrew C. Hess, a professor of diplomacy at The Fletcher School, – a
professional school for graduate students at Tufts University in the
United States, – is in Baku. What may seem particularly interesting to
both the Azerbaijani and as well as the expatriates readers is that
Professor Hess has taught the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Vardan Oskanian.
Baku Sun’s Zulfugar Agayev spoke with Dr. Hess and asked him to share
his views on Azerbaijan’s most troubling problem, the Nagorno
(DaghLig)-Karabakh conflict.
Question: How would you predict the future of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict? How long can this conflict over Nagorno (Daghlig)-Karabakh
and the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories last?
Answer: It’s difficult to predict the length of the Armenian occupation
of Azeri territories and also of the dispute over Nagorno
(Daghlig)-Karabakh. Because it is not just a local problem. It is
rather a regional and international affair.
Neither the U.S. nor Russia wants, on the international level, further
instability in the center of Eurasia. There is already enough trouble
in Afghanistan and Iraq that is occupying the full abilities of the
United States.
And on the Russian side, the continuing conflict in Chechnya drains
Russia’s resources at a time when it needs to improve its economic
situation.
There is no interest in keeping the situation unstable in this region.
So, I think that the great powers would like to have some kind of
solution and that is reinforced by an increasing need of Europe for the
oil and gas of this region.
Diplomats are looking at this issue and trying constantly to solve it.
It is a step-by-step affair. So, I would say that we will not see a
quick solution to this conflict.
It will be a matter of conferences and resistance to any flare-up that
would make the conflict more violent.
As Europe becomes more and more dependent on oil and gas here, tensions
probably will go down.
Question: Recently, Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vardan
Oskanian, stated that Azerbaijan will not be able to decide
single-handedly to resume the war to fight back the occupied
territories after the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
is over. What would you say on that?
Answer: I think what he means is that once the oil starts flowing, that
will connect Azerbaijan not only with the European economy, but also
with the world economy. The U.S. and European countries would not like
to see any kind of dramatic decision by Azerbaijan that could affect
the world economy.
So, as a regional, I mean, national state connected to the world
economy, Azerbaijan would have to consider what the reaction of the
world would be.
I think there is truth in what Osanian has said. But correspondingly,
of course. If Armenia takes actions, the same will work.
Question: If the great powers are interested in seeing a stable
Caucasus, as you have said, then why do they not take concrete measure
to resolve the conflicts here?
Answer: The first issue is that there are a lot of other issues, like
the Middle East problem, that is diverting attention of the great
powers.
The second factor is that the oil situation in the world right now is
not that difficult. The price of oil has started to turn down. So,
there is no crisis in terms of oil economics.
Question: What kind of role can Russia have in the resolution of the
Karabakh conflict?
Answer: The judgement of many observers is that Russia could play what
we call a spoiler role in settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
Russia has military units in Armenia. The foreign affairs relationship
and foreign policy of Russia is close to Armenia.
So, all of this means that Russia has an ability to exert some leverage
on the Armenian affairs.
But again, it seems to me that… Russia is preoccupied with the
Chechen problem and with the whole question about what to do with its
southern frontier.
Political leadership of Russia is being very careful about not getting
itself over extended in this area. But it is being pushed by internal
politics in Russia.
Question: Is the continuation of the conflict and the occupation of
Azerbaijan’s territories in the interests of Armenia?
Answer: I don’t think so. I have told this straightly to Vardan and the
leaders of the Armenian community as well.
The reason is that the linkages between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Europe
and development of a new economy in this region is a result of oil. And
other considerations are going to advance the economic, commercial and
political strength of Azerbaijan rapidly as you can see here.
If you compare activities in Baku with those in Yerevan, it is a world
of difference.
So, the increasing economic and political strength of Azerbaijan is
going to place it in a position where it can bargain more effectively
with everybody, the Russians, Americans, Europeans and others.
It would produce more power for Azerbaijan in negotiations directed to
solving the Karabakh problem.
And it will isolate Armenia and put it in a situation where major
support will come only from external Diaspora, which is not that big
and which is not a state.
Russia has so many issues on its southern frontier that it cannot let
its foreign policy be determined only with Armenian policies.
Question: We know that Vardan Oskanian has been a student of yours. By
the way, how successful of a student was he?
Answer: Yes, he was my student in mid the 1980s. He was a very good
student. I had no idea that he would become a foreign minister of
Armenia.