WE HAVE BUILT FOUNDATIONS OF DEMOCRACY, FM SAYS
ArmenPress
June 18 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS: Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian
said today the main task set by Armenia is to build a democratic,
economically prospering state, living in peace. Speaking at he first
meeting of the Armenian Assembly of Parliamentary Friendship, uniting
Armenians, elected to various countries’ legislative bodies, Oskanian
said Armenia has progressed in all these directions since restoring
its independence, reaching a point requiring additional efforts to
continue and consolidate the progress.
Oskanian said despite weighty achievements on the road of building
a truly democratic state, Armenia is still half-way from this
destination, having passed only the easiest part of it.
According to the minister, the two-digit economic growth rates of
the recent years is not yet sufficient to have a positive impact on
the lives of all segments of the population. “This means we have to
exercise greater efforts year after year to be able to maintain the
onward trend,” he said.
In a reference to Karabagh problem Oskanian said negotiations go on
to reach a final peace deal with Azerbaijan. “Armenia has entered in
a stage that it needs every kind of assistance. We have built the
foundations on which we have to construct our home of democracy,
economic development and peace,” he said.

PRIORITIES FOR WB PROJECT ON SCM DEFINED
ArmenPress
June 18 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS: According to Armenian trade and economic
development deputy minister Garnik Badalian, World Bank (WB) technical
assistance for Armenian standardization, certification and measurement
(SCM) in the amount of 1.5 mln dollars will be received this September
which will be provided within the framework of respective credit
project.
Badalian also said that WB representatives have conferred with the
heads of the system for prioritizing the necessary equipment. They
also agree that 1.5 mln is a small sum but some priorities have been
established. “We have decided to establish one very well equipped
laboratory against which other laboratories will be measured,” he said.
The deputy minister said that other donor organizations including
USAID are applied for technical support to SCM.

Armenia to help in Iraq reconstruction
United Press International
6/18/2004
WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) — Armenia is the latest country to join
President Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing,” in rebuilding Iraq.
In an interview with UPI earlier this week, Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian said his country would contribute, albeit in “a very
symbolic” way.
“We are ready to become engaged in rebuilding Iraq, but our resources
are very modest, so it’s going to be a very modest contribution,
nevertheless, the willingness is there.”
Armenia, Oskanian said, will be contributing doctors, medical personnel
and experts to help clear mines, as well as trucks, drivers and
technicians. The force amounts to about 100 people.
The minister said he believes all neighboring countries in the region
should contribute to the normalization of Iraq. Iraq’s Armenian
community is comprised of roughly 25,000 people.

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say. Part B (Russia)
June 18, 2004, Friday
THE SKINHEADS ARE COMING
SOURCE: Russkii Kurier, June 18, 2004, pp. 12-13
By: Alexander Tarasov
Disastrous economic depression has left millions of Russians out of
work since 1991. The education system collapsed. Between 400 and 450
schools have been shut down nationwide every year the last several
years – for financial reasons only – and most their students found
themselves unable to continue their education. According to the
official data compiled by army enlistment and recruitment offices in
Siberia, between 7% and 11% of conscripts were illiterate in 1997.
Every third offender of high school age lacked even a basic education
in spring 1999. Crime, alcohol abuse, and drugs have inundated Russia –
and particularly its youths.
The new generation was an ideal target group for primitive ideologies
based on violence and individualism – criminal and politically criminal
(xenophobic, racist, anti-Semitic).
Skinheads in Russia did not have a systematic ideology at first. They
were but impromptu racists, xenophobes, macho, militarists, and
anti-intellectuals. Constant propagandistic campaigns mounted
one after another by ultra-right parties, however, are turning
skinheads into conscious fascists, anti-communists, orthodox
fundamentalists, and anti-Semites. In fact, Russian skinheads were not
extremely anti-Semitic at first. Their racism was directed against
representatives of non-Caucasians – Negroes, mulattoes, Mongoloids.
Attacks at Jews were infrequent. Brainwashed by the ultra-right,
however, skinheads learned the major anti-Semitic myths – concerning
the Jid conspiracy, Bolsheviks as agents of the world Zionism, and
the Russian people oppressed by the Jids.
Russism, a fairly exotic ultra-right ideology, is quite popular
with skinheads. Boasting of their Orthodox roots, Russism is
fairly indulgent towards Aryan paganism (in the spirit of national
socialism, that is) because “the race is above faith” and “blood
unites while religions separate.” Russism creates a bridge between
pre-revolutionary Orthodox monarchism and national socialism. According
to this ideology, there were two “great Aryan leaders in the 20th
century” – Tsar Nicholas II and Adolf Hitler. Moreover, Hitler was an
avenger for Nicholas II, “ritually sacrificed by Bolsheviks and Yids”
and tried to bring “the Cross-Swastika into Yid-oppressed Russia.”
It should be noted that there are three major directions of skinhead
movement in the world – neo-Nazis, communist skinheads, and traditional
skinheads. Most Russian skinheads are neo-Nazis, while throughout
the rest of the world the traditional ones prevail.
The first skinheads in Russia were teenagers aged 13 to 19,
students of technical colleges, pupils of secondary schools, or
unemployed. The situation eventually changed. Equipment alone with all
necessary trimmings (boots, the bomber, stripes, tattoos, etc) costs
approximately 15,000 rubles. The poor do not have this sort of money to
throw around. A skinhead nowadays is frequently an owner of a pocket
computer and cell phone. Skinheads form small groups, essentially
gangs of three to ten men. On the average, such gangs last several
years. There are, however, larger and better-organized structures.
Skinlegion and Blood & Honor – Russian Subsidiary (B&H) were the
first to appear in Moscow. B&H is an international organization of
Nazi skinheads outlawed in some countries as extremist or fascist.
B&H – Russian Subdivision and Skinlegion included between 200
and 250 activists each. There was some sort of discipline in the
organizations, hierarchy, etc. United Brigades 88 (UB 88), the
third large organization, appeared in 1998, when fairly small White
Bulldogs and Lefortovo Front merged. The name of the organization
is quite revealing. The figure 8 stands for H, the eighth letter
in the Latin alphabet – therefore 88 stands for HH or Heil Hitler!
Hammerskin Nation appeared shortly afterwards – calling itself a
subdivision of the namesake international organization.
Skinhead gangs appeared precisely in the largest and best developed
cities – where social split of the population is particularly
noticeable. “The second wave” has inundated small provincial townships
as well.
No one fought the movement. OMON busy tackling residents of the
Caucasus, skinheads “gallantly” chose their own targets – people from
Central Asia or the Third World. Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Nizhny
Novgorod are known as the centers of skinhead movement in Russia. In
Moscow, skinheads concentrate on Africans and Indians. St. Petersburg
skinheads attack Africans, Nepalese, and Chinese. In Nizhny Novgorod,
it is men from Central Asia (mostly Tajik refugees) who are in the
focus of attention.
The police were always unbelievably indulgent. In Nizhny Novgorod,
Tajiks feared going to the police because every such approach
inevitably ended in their own arrests (with traditional references to
“illegitimate presence on the territory of the Russian Federation”)
with the following extortion of bribes or – whenever there was nothing
to be extorted – a beating and deportation. Feeling impunity, skinhead
movement grew up fast. These days, there are 50,000 skinheads in
Russia. Between 5,000 and 5,500 skinheads live and operate in Moscow
and the region, up to 3,000 in St. Petersburg and the environs, over
2,500 in Nizhny Novgorod, more than 1,500 in Rostov-on-Don. There
are over 1,000 skinheads in Pskov, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg, and
Krasnodar each, and several hundred in each of the following cities
– Voronezh, Samara, Saratov, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Omsk, Tomsk,
Vladivostok, Ryazan, Petrozavodsk. Back in 1992, there were just a
dozen skinheads in Moscow and five or so in St. Petersburg. Skinhead
gangs exist in approximately 85 Russian cities nowadays.
Ultra-right and nationalist parties and organizations view skinheads
as their potential recruiting pool. In Moscow, the Russian National
Socialist Party (Russian National Union before 1998) was the first
to turn its attention to skinheads.
Liberty Party (Russian National Republican Party before 2000) handles
skinheads in St. Petersburg, and Russian National Unity and the Russian
Guard (a splinter group) in the Trans-Volga region and Krasnodar.
It should be noted as well that most ultra-right parties began
working with skinheads only when advised to do so by their Western
counterparts. Emissaries of neo-fascist groups have been regularly
coming to Russia since 1997 from the United States, Germany, the Czech
Republic, and Austria. They came with recommendations on how skinheads
should be handled, The United States for example was represented
by KKK, Germany by Viking Youth (banned in Germany itself), German
People’s Union, Steel Helmet (also banned), National People’s Front,
Right Union, etc. Fascist emissaries know no visa barriers.
Skinheads feel at home in most Russian cities. The police and the
authorities are clearly on their side. Choi Yun Shik (President of the
Association of South Korean Students studying in Moscow) and Gabriel
Kotchofa (President of the Moscow Association of Foreign Students)
claim that the Moscow police refused to press charges against
skinheads in literally hundreds episodes. Colonel Mikhail Kirilin
of the Public Relations Center of the Federal Security Service and
Vladimir Vershkov of the PR Department of the Moscow Municipal Internal
Affairs Directorate told The Moscow Times that these services do not
regard skinheads as something dangerous. Perhaps, existence of the
skinhead movement is even beneficial to some because they are someone
on whom blame for the crimes committed by others may be pinned. The
raid to the camp of Tajik refugees in the Moscow region in 1997 (when
an infant was murdered) was pinned on skinheads, but it was clear
from the very beginning that the operation was much too professional.
There are numerous reports that Nazi skinheads are encouraged,
organized, and used by ruling circles of Russia. There were the
reports in the past that the Nazis had the protection of the regional
authorities (Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, Pskov region)
and law enforcement agencies (Saratov, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod,
Volgograd, Samara). It was established in 2002 that Nazi skinheads
were trained at the camp of the Moscow OMON. It would have been
impossible without permission from the upper echelons of the federal
Interior Ministry. In fact, close contacts between the Moscow police,
Russian National Unity, and skinheads were exposed in November 2001
when racist policemen Adanjaev and Yevdokimov were facing trial.
Dismissed by the authorities and ignored by the media, skinheads
progressed to pogroms. The first pogrom took place at the Vietnamese
hostel near Sokol metro station in Moscow on October 21, 2000. The
authorities and the media kept the matter under the lid, and
skinheads smashed up the Armenian school on March 15, 2001. The
police – when they came – merely dispersed skinheads. Not a single
arrest was made. Ignoring protests of the Moscow Armenian community
and official structures of the Republic of Armenia, city fathers did
not lift a finger to do anything about it.
A pogrom at the marketplace in Yasenevo was next. It was too serious
an incident to keep under the lid. Six skinheads were eventually
brought to trial.
The following pogrom began at the marketplace near Tsaritsyno metro
station and ended by the Hotel Sevastopol where Afghans reside. At
least 300 skinheads participated. Over 80 people were injured, 22 ended
up hospitalized, 4 were killed (a Moscow Armenian, citizen of India,
citizen of Tajikistan, and a refugee from Afghanistan). A public outcry
followed. Moscow authorities were forced to set up a special division
to fight youth extremism. The Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed
a lack of any information on the problem and was very uncooperative
when approached for help.
Only five skinheads faced trial.
Yasenevo and Tsaritsyno pogroms set the example. A wave of pogroms
swept the country.
Before “the second wave,” skinheads in Russia numbered between 35,000
and 40,000. When the wave is finally over, they will number between
75,000 and 80,000. And since youth subcultures never disappear in
Russia completely (not like in the West), it is reasonable to assume
that skinheads are here to stay.

Associated Press Worldstream
June 17, 2004 Thursday
Putin to attend back-to-back summits of former Soviet republics to
step up security, economic cooperation
by BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA; Associated Press Writer
ASTANA, Kazakhstan
Russian Vladimir Putin and leaders of several other former Soviet
republics plan to boost security and economic ties at back-to-back
summits in the Kazakh capital, wrapping up a week of intense regional
diplomacy in strategic Central Asia.
The meetings Friday of presidents from member states of the
Russia-dominated Collective Security Treaty and Eurasian Economic
Community come after the summit in the Uzbek capital Tashkent a
day ago of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security group
including China, Russia and four Central Asian nations.
As members of the Collective Security Treaty, the leaders of Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan are expected
to discuss regional security and plans to beef up their collective
rapid reaction forces.
The alliance has nine battalions based in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Kazakhstan and Russia and plans by 2010 to form a mobile force intended
to quickly respond to security threats to its members.
Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry said treaty members will sign an
agreement on joint use of one another’s military facilities.
Russia has been recently seeking closer military and security
ties with former Soviet Central Asia, apparently trying to counter
increased U.S. influence here. The United States set up military
bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to back its anti-terror campaign
in neighboring Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks nearly three
years ago.
Last year, Russia opened a military base in Kyrgyzstan under
the Collective Security Treaty to provide air support for future
anti-terrorist operations.
Russia’s moves have also been prompted by security concerns because
of the spread of radical Islam in Central Asia after the 1991 Soviet
collapse.
After the security summit, leaders of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will on Friday sign agreements on adopting
unified laws and circulation of securities among the Eurasian Economic
Community.
The group was created in 2000 to restore lost economic ties after the
1991 Soviet collapse. Russia has 40 percent of the voting rights in
the organization and covers 40 percent of its budget.
In February, the countries agreed to form a customs union by 2006.
They are also working on creating a transport union and coordinated
migration policies, and are discussing unified energy and agricultural
markets.
At Thursday’s summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China
offered US$900 million in credit to other treaty countries, which also
include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The
group also inaugurated an anti-terrorism center in Tashkent.
That summit was preceded by official visits here by Chinese President
Hu Jintao and Putin, who signed separate bilateral cooperation
agreements with Central Asia’s most populous country.

Former Soviet republics put finishing touches on Eurasian integration deal
by BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA; Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
June 17, 2004 Thursday
ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Senior officials from five former Soviet
republics put the final touches Thursday on draft agreements aimed
at pushing forward their economic integration.
The agreements on adoption of unified laws and circulation of
securities among the Russia-dominated Eurasian Economic Community
will be signed by the nations’ leaders Friday in the Kazakh capital
Astana. The group also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan.
Gregori Rapota, the group’s secretary-general, said Thursday the
agreement on common laws would be a “first step toward handing
over some (lawmaking) functions to a supranational parliament.” The
securities agreement would help ensure free capital flow between the
countries, he said.
The nations’ deputy prime ministers also discussed plans to
introduce favorable railway tariffs and create a joint water and
energy consortium to end regional disputes over sharing resources,
said Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Sauat Mynbayev.
The Eurasian Economic Community was founded in 2000 to restore lost
economic ties after the 1991 Soviet collapse. Russia has 40 percent
of the voting rights in the organization and covers 40 percent of
its budget.
In February, the countries agreed to form a customs union by 2006.
The nations have a total population of more than 180 million.
The five countries are also working on creating a transport union and
coordinated migration policies, and are discussing unified energy and
agricultural markets. They also plan to move toward a single currency.
Three other former Soviet republics – Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine –
have observer status in the group.
The group’s summit Friday will be followed by a meeting of leaders
of the Collective Security Treaty, a security alliance including the
five economic community members and Armenia.
Friday’s meetings in Astana come after a summit Thursday of a security
grouping of China, Russia and four former Soviet republics in Central
Asia in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

Putin speaks at forum in Eurasian University in Astana
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 18, 2004 Friday 12:22 AM Eastern Time
ASTANA, June 18 — Russian President Vladimir Putin is participating
in the work of the international forum on “Eurasian Integration:
Current Development Trends and Globalization Challenges,” which has
opened in Astana.
The forum takes place in Eurasian National University. It was founded
in 1996 at the site of Akmola University.
Under the Kazakh presidential decree, the institution of higher
learning has a special status.
Graduates from the university have state diplomas recognised in
CIS countries.
Education in several fields of specialization is given here to students
from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, China,
Mongolia, Yemen, Lebanon and Turkey.
The Kazakh branch of Moscow Lomonosov State University was founded
at Eurasian University in 2001.
Foreign leaders and heads of international organisations visited
Eurasian University more than once.
CIS presidents Vladimir Putin, Askar Akayev, Saparmurat Niyazov,
Alexander Lukashenko, Leonid Kuchma and Ilkham Aliyev addressed
students here.
NATO secretary general George Robertson, Spanish King Juan Carlos,
Pope John Paul II and Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski visited
the university.

CSTO countries discuss collective security in Kazakh capital
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 18, 2004 Friday 12:22 AM Eastern Time
ASTANA, June 18 — Leaders of the Collective Security Treaty
Organisation (CSTO) member states at their summit here on Friday
discussed collective measures of security building and CSTO
strengthening.
Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and
Tajikistan, as well as the CSTO Secretary General, Nikolai Bordyuzha
began a round-table discussion in a narrow format.
Journalists attended only the summit’s opening ceremony and after
that the session was continued behind closed doors.
Russian president’s aide Sergei Prikhodko said earlier that the leaders
of the six countries would discuss in greater detail the situation
in the Middle East, including, possibly, the U.S. Greater Middle
East initiative, proposed at the recent Group of Eight (G8) summit,
the situation in Afghanistan, interaction in fighting terrorism,
and in combating drugs trafficking.
In this connection, Putin will inform the other presidents of the
results of the G8 summit. The Heads of State will touch upon matters
concerning the CSTO cooperation with other organisations, the United
Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
in particular.
Prikhodko mentioned the following three most important items on the
agenda of the CSTO summit: a real coordination of foreign policies
within the framework of international organisations, the establishment
of real functioning of the structures of the CSTO itself and joint
actions of air defence systems.
Heads of six CIS countries – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed the Collective Security Treaty in
Tashkent in 1992. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus joined the treaty
in 1993.
The treaty came into force for all nine countries in April 1994. But
in April 1999 Azerbaijan, Georgia and Uzbekistan decided not to sign
a protocol on the treaty’s prolongation.
In 2002, the treaty was transformed into a valid international
organisation-CSTO.
The CSTO regulation said the member-countries take joint actions to
form an efficient collective security system within the framework of
the Organisation, create regional military groupings and coordinate
their efforts in fighting international terrorism, drug and arms
trafficking, organised crime, illegal migration and other threats.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Nazarbayev notes growing threat to CSTO stability, security
By Mikhail Petrov
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 18, 2004 Friday 12:22 AM Eastern Time
ASTANA, June 18 – President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
has pointed to the “increased threat to stability and security” to
member-countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).
Speaking at an enlarged meeting of the CSTO summit in the Kazakh
capital Astana on Friday he urged to “reduce to minimum the doubling
of functions within the framework of the organisation, concentrate
on the military-political component and intensify cooperation against
challenges and threats of today.”
Addressing the presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia
and Tajikistan the Kazakh leader noted that the CSTO member states
have considerable prospects for military-technical cooperation.
“At today’s meeting we should consider priorities of our activities
for the near-term prospect,” Nazarbayev said.
The Astana summit opened with a discussion in private held behind
closed doors. Russian president’s aide Sergei Prikhodko said
earlier that the main subjects for discussion could be divided into
three parts: the actual coordination of the foreign policy within
international organisations framework, set-up of real functioning of
structures of the CSTO itself and joint operations of its anti-aircraft
defence systems.
The Collective security Treaty (CST) was signed in Tashkent in 1992
by heads of six CIS countries – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus
joined the treaty in 1993.
The treaty came into force for all the nine countries in April 1994
for a term of five years. However, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Uzbekistan
decided not to sign a protocol on the treaty’s prolongation in
April 1999.
In 2002 the CST was reorganized into a full-fledged international
organisation – the CSTO.
Under the CSTO charter, its member states take joint measures to
form within the framework of the organisation a viable system of
collective security and create regional groups of troops, coordinate
their efforts in the fight against international terrorism, drug
trafficking, weapons smuggling, organised crime, illegal migration
and other menaces to their security.

CSTO rapid deployment forces to hold joint exercises (adds)
By Mikhail Peterov
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 18, 2004 Friday 12:22 AM Eastern Time
ASTANA, June 18 — Rapid deployment forces of the Collective Security
Treaty Organisation (CSTO) will hold joint exercises in Central Asia
in late July-early August, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov
told a briefing at the outcome of the CSTO summit here on Friday.
He said the first phase of the war games will take place in Kazakhstan
and the second, in Kyrgyzstan.
“In the exercises, Russia will be represented by combat units and
commando forces, which will be airlifted to the scene of the exercises,
as well as combat planes and helicopters,” the minister said. “The
aircraft will carry out real bomb-droppings and simulate actions in
an unfamiliar theatre of operations,” Ivanov said.
According to Ivanov, “these war games will demonstrate the CSTO rapid
deployment forces’ resolve to rebuff any attempts to destabilize
the situation.”
Ivanov also said the summit had mapped out the main directions of
the coalition military cooperation up to 2010.
According to the minister, Russia and Uzbekistan in 2005 intend to
hold joint exercises “with the use of warplanes, helicopter gun ships
and commando forces.”
“The war games will be held in a mountainous test range near
Samarkand,” he indicated.
Answering a question on a possible return of Uzbekistan to the
Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) Ivanov said, “Russia
builds its relations with Uzbekistan so that the partner could feel
welcome and convenient. If Uzbekistan shows no wish to join the CSTO,
Russia doesn’t intend to persuade it,” the minister said.
“We are ready to hold talks and do not plan to run away and hide head
in the sand.”
Heads of six CIS countries – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – signed the Collective Security Treaty in
Tashkent in 1992. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus joined the treaty
in 1993.
The treaty came into force in all nine countries in April 1994. But
in April 1999 Azerbaijan, Georgia and Uzbekistan decided not to sign
a protocol on its prolongation.
In 2002, the Collective Security Treaty format was transformed into
a valid international organisation-CSTO.
The CSTO rules say the member-countries take joint actions to form
an efficient collective security system within the framework of
the Organisation, create regional military groupings and coordinate
their efforts in fighting with international terrorism, drug and arms
trafficking, organised crime, illegal migration and other threats.