KOCHARIAN SETS UP ANTI-CORRUPTION COUNCIL
ArmenPress
June 2 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
decreed today setting up the Council for Struggling Against
Corruption. A press release by Kocharian’s press office said the
Council is set up for full and effective implementation of the
government-designed anti-corruption policy, elimination and prevention
of reasons giving birth to corruption and improvement of anti-graft
measures by the authorized bodies.
The new body, composed of chief minister of government staff, justice
minister, an advisor to president, chief prosecutor, governor of
the Central Bank, chairman of a government commission for protection
of economic competition, chairman of parliament Audit Chamber and a
head of a presidential oversight service is headed by prime minister
Andranik Margarian.
The Council is supposed to develop effective anti-corruption measures,
monitor and coordinate their implementation in line with Armenia’s
international obligations.

Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), VA
June 2 2004
How To Lead the United States
Out of Its Current Tragedy
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
The following is Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche’s opening
statement and some of the question-and-answer dialogue which occurred
during a press availability for the candidate in New Jersey on May
21.
In the period from the time of Solon of Athens, through the death of
Plato, there was a development in Europe, centered on Athens–but to
some degree also, on what was called Magna Graecia, the southern part
of Italy where a Greek civilization existed–in which there was a
certain high point of development. This development is actually the
birth of what became modern civilization.
However, this civilization failed, at that time. It failed notably in
the case of the Peloponnesian War, which was this long war of Greece
against its former allies in Sparta; which began, with Athens and the
Athens alliance and extended to southern Italy, to Magna Graecia; a
war which was begun under Pericles of Athens, continued under his
successor, the notorious Thrasymachus. As a result of that, Greek
civilization disintegrated, not entirely–its residue didn’t
disintegrate–but Athens, which had been the leading part of
civilization at that point, worldwide as far as we know,
disintegrated. It continued in a Hellenistic form, in the wake of the
success of Alexander the Great, but it degenerated. It degenerated
into what became its successor–the Roman Empire, which was decadent,
and evil, from the beginning.
Now, what is happening now in the United States, is similar to that.
You had–in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece–you had this development,
typified by the rise of what was called the Eleatics, by the
Sophists, and by the followers of Aristotle. And this tradition
continues to this day.
What has happened now to the United States: The United States, which
led the world out of the risk of a fascist world order in World War
II, began to degenerate in the post-war period. Our degeneracy of the
United States, today–our cultural degeneracy–is analogous to what
happened to Greece under Pericles and Thrasymachus: that we have
become Sophists. People are no longer concerned with truth. We put
spin on everything. They’re concerned with popular opinion. They
believe lies. You have to be seen “believing.” And this has gotten us
into this kind of mess.
The Persistence of Fascism
The second part of this story, is that the Nazi system, which began
to disintegrate after the battles of Stalingrad and after the United
States victory in Midway Island against the Japanese fleet, in which
Nazi Germany was ultimately doomed: Some people in Nazi Germany,
around Hermann Göring, decided that Hitler was a nut; and they were
determined that the Nazi system would survive, as a tradition,
survive the defeat of Germany in the war. These people entered into
collaboration with certain people in the United Kingdom and the
United States: people with names such as, Harriman, Morgan, du Pont,
Mellon–who had originally supported Hitler in bringing him to power
in Germany, but for strategic reasons, supported Roosevelt against
the Nazis during the war.
At the end of the war, once Germany was being defeated–for the final
defeat was on the way–these guys, typified by Allen Dulles, brought
the Nazi system into the Anglo-American system. This became the
Anglo-American right wing, typified by that pig, President Truman–who
we got rid of, and replaced him with Eisenhower, who gave us a period
of relative peace.
But then, when Eisenhower left office, Kennedy was not capable of
understanding or dealing with the situation. They killed him. And
once they had killed Kennedy, they moved with the war in Vietnam, the
Indo-China War. Under this period, there was a deliberate cultural
corruption of the United States, called “contemporary liberalism”
today. It’s generally accepted ideology today in the United States.
It’s the reason why neither of the political parties, as parties, are
capable of solving the problems before us. Only someone who
recognizes the same problem that happened to Greece under Pericles,
the same kind of moral corruption which has gripped our institutions
today, would avoid the destruction of worldwide civilization today,
led by the self-destruction of the United States.
What you’re seeing in Iraq: You’re seeing fascism, in the form of
Cheney. Cheney’s policy was perpetual warfare; it was perpetual
nuclear preventive warfare. The wars we’ve seen in Afghanistan, what
we’ve seen in Iraq, are intended to be extended, against Syria–by
January; if Bush were re-elected, and Cheney was still his Vice
President, we would be attacking Syria by January of this coming
year. We would be putting nuclear weapons, bombing the sites of the
power stations in Iran. We would be dropping nuclear weapons on sites
in North Korea. The planet as a whole would degenerate, in a way
comparable to the way that the Greek civilization underwent a partial
degeneration into a relative dark age, as a result of the
Peloponnesian War.
The problem is, that we have no standard of truth generally accepted
in the United States, today. Or, in European civilization generally
today. Truth has been destroyed, especially over the past 40
years–the idea of truth–in favor of what’s called opinion: popular
opinion, or what’s called “spin.” The press lies, the major press
lies. The major political figures lie! The judgment is based on,
“Don’t tell the truth. It will get you into trouble. Work within
popular opinion. If you want to accomplish something, argue for it,
from the standpoint of generally accepted popular opinion.”
So, now we come to a point, in which we have a war in Iraq which can
not be won. Because it’s not a war in Iraq. It’s a war against
civilization. It’s a war on the part of some people who intend to
create an English-speaking world empire, a new Roman Empire, of the
British and the United States. The idea is to eliminate all of the
nation-states, to do the same thing the British Empire has done since
1763: Play the nations of Europe and other nations against each other
with struggles to neutralize them, so they will not be a challenge to
the empire. And foolish nations agree to be played by that game.
The U.S. Constitutional Opposition
Now, I come along. The advantage is, here in the United States, we
have–the United States is the only place this problem can be solved.
Because, if the United States were to act upon certain elements of
its tradition, its Constitutional tradition, we could intervene, and
rally most of the nations of the world to cooperate with us in
getting out of this mess.
You have institutions in the United States, in the intelligence
services, in the professional military, and others, who typify
powerful influences inside the Executive branch of government, who
have friends in the Legislative branch of government, and within
certain institutions within society. These circles tend now to agree
with me, at least in the direction I’m taking. My course of action is
to provide an element of cohesion and leadership among these circles
in the United States, especially around the Executive branch–the
opposition to Cheney and to what poor Bush represents, in the
Executive branch. These circles are capable of recognizing that the
existence of civilization depends upon acting, to get rid of what
Cheney represents, and to find a peace in the Middle East (or,
so-called Middle East), which is being used as a cockpit to
destabilize the world.
The key aspect of this, which is often misinterpreted, is this
question of petroleum. In the preparation for what became known as
World War I, by Edward VII, the King of England–and even when he was
Prince of Wales, before he was actually King–the idea came, of taking
the area of southern Mesopotamia, now called Kuwait, and making it a
personal property of the King of England. The purpose was to take the
oil, which was the richest source of petroleum at that time,
available petroleum, from the Gulf, and grab that petroleum, to use
it as a way of equipping the British military fleet, the naval fleet,
with oil-burning vessels, which would be superior in their mobility
to coal-burning vessels; and to use this as a factor of strategic
control.
Once that was established, the British then conceived … making the
world dependent upon consumption of petroleum, by eliminating
alternatives to petroleum as a source of cheap power. (It’s not
actually cheap power. You haul it all over the world. It costs more
to carry it around, than it does to produce it.) All right.
So therefore, the Middle East area, which has the richest and
cheapest source of supply of petroleum, probably has at least 80
years’ supply for the world as a whole, from the Gulf and adjoining
areas. You take the area from Iraq down to the Gulf and beyond; that
area contains at least 80% of 80 years’ worth of the world’s
petroleum supplies. Therefore, by making the world dependent upon
petroleum, and putting it in the hands of what’s called the London
marketing cartel, which controls this–it’s not the Arab world that
controls it, it’s the London marketing cartel, which controls the way
oil is sold around the world–then you have the grip on the world.
What is happening right now, is that the world financial system is
collapsing. It’s doomed. Nothing can save the present world
monetary-financial system. It’s finished now. Just a question of when
it goes over the cliff. It’s going over. At this time, they’re trying
to prop up the financial system, and the best way to prop up the
financial system was to use hedge funds to gamble on a rising price
of petroleum. In other words, the profits on investment in petroleum,
the petroleum stocks, on financial markets, is the major source of
impetus for profits in the world system as a whole. It is not the
price of production at the source of petroleum production, which is
the problem, the problem of the inflation–we’re now over $40 a
barrel.
That is not the price of production. It’s not OPEC, that is
responsible. It is the London marketing cartel, which is using the
margin of profit, on the basis of an increase in price on the
contracts per barrel of oil, which is now using this as the major
prop of the world financial system: the U.S.-British-dominated world
financial system.
We are now in a hyperinflationary spiral, which is in the process of
blowing up. Just give an example: At about $20 a barrel of petroleum,
presuming no hedge-fund intervention, the price of petroleum around
the world, at $20 a barrel, would not be a threat to the stability of
the world economy. At $30 a barrel, it’s a problem. At $40 a barrel,
it’s a crisis. One more crisis and $50 a barrel, and the whole system
will blow up. But, this is caused entirely by this hedge fund
speculation in this area.
So, that’s the nature of the problem.
So, we have an intertwined relationship, between a war policy–a
nuclear war policy, a world imperial nuclear war policy, by Cheney
and what he represents, behind him–you have at the same time, the
same financial group, which is behind the Cheney phenomenon is
playing this other game with a wrecked financial system. So, we now
come to a point, that the entire world financial-monetary system is
in the process of collapsing.
And in this process, they’ve unleashed a way of trying to control the
planet in the long term, the way the Roman Empire did: by perpetual
warfare. Perpetual warfare, which can not be conducted today by
conventional warfare methods, but only by aid of nuclear warfare. And
therefore, since Israel was created as a nuclear power in the Middle
East, for this purpose of destabilization, we’re now trapped into a
nuclear warfare scenario, as the controlling scenario.
The only way we’ll get free of it, is by getting rid of what Cheney
represents. That also means, overturning those in the Democratic
Party, who are tailing what Cheney represents, who are not exposing
it, who are not fighting it. And therefore, only those forces in the
world, which recognize that the United States could lead a way out of
this problem, and only those in the United States, who recognize that
we in the United States have the responsibility of providing that
leadership, could avoid a collapse of civilization into a dark age
right now.
My Unique Role
My problem is that I’m relatively unique, in terms of political
figures actually leading that process. And you see in the reaction of
many parts of the so-called Arab world, and others–to my proposal on
the alternative, on a doctrine–there are many parts of the world
which are prepared to act in support of what I propose.
That’s the seriousness of the situation. Whatever these clowns say
about my candidacy, whatever they say about what is inevitable in
political candidacy–that is reality. And it’s the way the system
reacts to that reality, not to the polls, which is going to determine
the way this situation goes. They can choose against me: They can
lose everything. We all lose everything. But, we’ve now seen, with
the response to my proposal on the Doctrine, that, if my influence in
the United States is accepted–which will only happen under conditions
of perceived monetary-financial crisis–under those conditions, there
is a way out. And much of the rest of the world is prepared to
cooperate with the United States, on that basis, including Europe.
So, that’s the situation. It’s not a simple kind of problem, which
you hear talked about in the news media. This is reality. And reality
is not what happens from time to time, under ordinary circumstances.
Reality is what happens in times of crisis, when civilizations
themselves are threatened with collapse. We are now at a breaking
point, of potential collapse of a world civilization. This has
happened several times before. It’s threatened now. Sometimes we
escaped from that threat. Sometimes, we did not.
The question is, are we going to escape from that threat? Or, are we
not? And that’s what my candidacy represents. That’s what the issue
is.
Questions and Discussion
Q: My name is Brother Leroy from WHCR [radio] and my question relates
to one of the last points that you made: You said, sometimes we have
escaped from these crises. An example in history, of having escaped
from the crisis?
LaRouche: Most recent was the case of Franklin Roosevelt. Franklin
Roosevelt saved the world from fascism. If Hoover had been
re-elected, then the policies of the United States, under Hoover,
would have been a continuation of the same ones that were going on in
Europe, under the Germans. Then we would be living, today, in the
aftermath of a Nazi world system. It was Roosevelt that saved
humanity from that.
Earlier, the United States was saved from extinction by Benjamin
Franklin–or what became the United States. And after that, by
Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln. These were revolutions. They were called
revolutionaries. Roosevelt was a revolutionary, even though what he
did was nothing but uphold the U.S. Constitution. Lincoln was a
revolutionary, but he did nothing but defend the intent of the
Constitution. Franklin was a revolutionary, but he expressed the
opinion of the highest levels throughout Europe, of civilization.
So, we have had, in European experiences, that kind of thing. For
example, we had a dark age in the 14th Century, in Europe, as a
result of this Norman system, the Venetian system. We had a rescue
from that in the 15th Century, with the birth of the Renaissance.
But, then, beginning 1480, with the rise of this fascist Tomás
Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor in Spain, we had a process of
attempted breakup of civilization by Torquemada. We had a plunge from
1511-1648 into religious war throughout Europe, which we were saved
from by the Treaty of Westphalia.
So, we’ve accosted this thing, in all known history of European and
adjoining civilization, of periods of crisis. In times of crisis,
sometimes leadership and people come together, and take an action,
with great difficulty, which saves civilization, and may take it a
step upward.
The basic problem we have, is, as far back as we know, mankind has
been engaged in a struggle to free us from a condition, in which some
people–a relative few–hold the rest of the people in a condition of
virtual or actual slaves, as human cattle: either herded cattle of
the type that 80% of the people of the United States are today; or,
as hunted cattle, as we treat the people of Southern Africa. That’s
the whole thing: The slave system is an example of that. What is
that? They went in there, they killed a lot of people, they hunted
them down. The Spanish called them “animals.” They said, “They’re not
human. Therefore, we have a right to take them captive, like we take
wild animals captive. We kill the strong ones, the old men, the tough
ones. We keep the young women and the children. We put the young
women and the children into slavery.”
That’s herded and hunted cattle. The rest of us, who are not hunted
down that way, were herded. We’re not allowed to know anything. We’re
not supposed to be “taught things” above our station.
It’s like the whole fight in the Reconstruction period, the fight
around education–away from Frederick Douglass’s policy that the
person is free, to the extent their mind is free; to the extent their
development has reached a highest enough level, so they are part of
society. They’re thinking members of society. They’re free! And once
free in their mind, they’ll be free in their body. It went the other
way: You can be free in your body, as long as we enslave your mind.
And therefore, the educational policy, was “let’s not educate the
freed slaves above their proper station in life.” The educational
policy in the United States, today: “Let’s not educate our children
above the expected kind of employment they’re going to have.” And
that’s how we’ve destroyed ourselves.
So, it’s always this kind of struggle: The struggle against the
tradition of some people holding other people, as herded or hunted
animals. And that’s what’s happened to the lower 80% of our people in
the United States today, the lower income brackets. In these times of
crises, civilization will degenerate, unless someone, in the form of
leadership, intervenes and arouses the people, awakens them to a
great struggle to fight against this tradition of treating human
beings as cattle.
So, we win and we lose. And the most important thing you can do with
your life, is find yourself in the midst of a great crisis, like this
one, and to be able to act in such a way, that you turn the tide,
away from destruction into something good….
The LaRouche Doctrine
In response to another question, LaRouche elaborated on his LaRouche
Doctrine for peace in Southwest Asia.
LaRouche: You have an impossible situation. You have a general
so-called Middle East war, which is a result of a long phase of
orchestration of events in the region; and more specifically, what
happened with the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which a new game
came into play. And the first Bush Administration played a more
cautious role. What Cheney, at that time, as Secretary of Defense,
was a bastard–but they checked him. Then, later, under the new Bush
Administration, at a later point in the crisis, this guy went loose.
And we now have unleashed, as I said, this policy of perpetual
warfare, preventive nuclear warfare: an imperial policy! This is not
an issue of Iraq; it’s not an issue of Afghanistan, it’s not Syria,
it’s not Iran. It’s global intent. One by one, with the threat of
nuclear warfare, to bring these nations into imperial submission.
This creates a situation which we see in Iraq, which from a military
standpoint, was insane. Now, in other countries, Cheney would use
nuclear weapons. For various reasons, they did not use nuclear
weapons yet, at least not–except for one incident at the airport,
outside Baghdad, where there’s a question about what was done there.
They did not use nuclear weapons.
But against Iran, the intention is: nuclear weapons. Either nuclear
weapons used by the United States, or by Israel. And the alternative
is an Israeli attack on Syria, or a U.S. attack on Syria, in January.
The alternative, is either an Israeli–dropping of Israeli nuclear
weapons on the oil stations and the nuclear stations in Iran; or the
U.S. doing it. Or, the U.S. dropping nuclear weapons on sites in
North Korea.
We’re leading an imperial thrust, at the time that the international
monetary-financial system is collapsing.
Now, what this would mean: The United States can not conquer the
world. We’re a degenerate culture, at the end of our skein, under the
present system. Therefore, all this can mean, is U.S. superiority,
military superiority, in this way, could lead the whole planet into
nothing but a new dark age, of asymmetric warfare.
Under those conditions, you have to respond in a special way, which
is what I’ve done. We know that, my knowledge of the Middle East, and
my role in the Middle East gives me a special position: That I can be
trusted. I’m the only leading U.S. figure, who can be trusted, and
that is a view shared by many people in the region; it goes back over
a quarter of a century, more than a quarter-century. So therefore, I
have to use that, to state a policy as my policy, for what I’ve
defined as Southwest Asia, as a policy which the United States should
support, once it’s determined that certain representative
institutions in the region, accept that kind of doctrine, that
approach.
The second thing that’s required, is that Israel, the
Israeli-Palestinian question be resolved, or be put into a form which
is assuredly resolvable, immediately. Otherwise you can not bring
unity, in effect, for this purpose into the region.
That’s my policy.
Now, this involves a number of complications, which I’ve alluded to
in my remarks here today. Because of the sophistry in the situation,
the Israeli-Arab conflict is of a special nature: It’s based on–it’s
very similar to the religious warfare in Europe between 1618 and
1648. There is no way in which an ordinary conflict negotiation would
work. A long period of cultural-religious warfare in the region is
not something you can negotiate away, “like that.” You therefore have
to introduce a commitment, like that that was introduced by Cardinal
Mazarin, in the case of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. Therefore, we
must bring the concept of the Treaty of Westphalia into play in that
region.
Now, what the problem has been, since I first became involved in this
problem in this region, on the Israeli-Arab and related conflicts in
the Middle East, has been that, you could not succeed in getting an
economic development program adopted as the basis for negotiating a
solution. Because the Treaty of Westphalia was based on each nation,
each person in conflict, must agree to commitment to the “advantage
of the other”: That is, must agree to give primary concern to the
welfare of the other. That if the parties that have been warring,
will commit themselves to the welfare of one another, then you can
have peace. And that’s the only way you get peace in this kind of
warfare, religious warfare.
Now, the issue here, becomes water. You fly over the whole region,
you see sand, sand, sand, sand. You see desert. There’s lots of
territory, but there’s no development. There’s not sufficient energy,
despite the fact petroleum’s all over the place. There’s not
sufficient water. The Israelis have been taking water from the
Jordan, from the Litani region, and from the area of Syria. They’ve
been stealing all the water. There’s not enough water to meet the
requirements of the population inhabiting the area. Therefore,
without an energy policy, without a power policy, a power-development
policy, without a hydroelectric policy, without a water policy in
general, without a growth policy in the region, there is no way, to
provide true “advantage of the other,” through development.
Israel has nuclear power, it has nuclear weapons. But, it doesn’t
have any nuclear power to take care of its own territory, as well as
around it. There’s no power. There’s not enough water. There’s no
desalination program, on a scale needed for the population, also.
So therefore, to deal with this, you have to have a commitment, to
peace through development. You have to have agreement among most of
the powers of the region–this includes Turkey, which is a positive
factor here; you have to include Armenia; you have to include
Azerbaijan, as a stability factor, as well as dealing with Iran. You
must dealing with Syria as a state. You must deal with Egypt as a
leading state. You must give a sense, that we are giving security, to
an implicitly increasingly insecure set of states in the region.
Every one of these states, so-called Arab states, are threatened with
destruction, chaos, where government exists today, unless this
changes.
Therefore, you have a situation, where we know we have to hang
together, and work together, otherwise, we’re all going to go Hell
together. Under those conditions, when that perception comes across,
and where there’s a commitment to the solution, I believe that you
can get a solution, which you can otherwise not get.
Britain’s Imperial Game
Q: Would you go back, and touch on the embracing of the Nazi way of
civilization–I’m paraphrasing what you said, I’ve been taking notes
on that–this is when the individuals in Nazi Germany saw that they
were going to lose, and they made a determination that the Nazi way
of life would survive. How was that effected here. Because, you
mentioned that it was embraced by individuals on this side. They
already had a relationship.
LaRouche: Um-hmm. Like Joe Kennedy–the father of Jack Kennedy–was a
Nazi! That simple! That’s why Roosevelt dumped him.
Now, the point was this: It goes back to 1763, when the British
Empire first emerged at the Treaty of Paris, as a victory at the
close of the so-called Seven Years’ War in Europe. So, the
Anglo-Dutch Liberal system became, essentially, an empire. From that
point on, this imperial group, the Anglo-Dutch imperial group, was
determined to have the British system, the Anglo-Dutch system, emerge
as a world empire: a permanent world empire, as successor to the
Roman Empire; at that time under the leadership of Lord Shelburne,
who was about 28 or 30 when this occurred, who became the leader of
this process.
Since that time, the British played a game, always in the interest of
the Venetian-style, financier oligarchical system, to play the
nations of Europe, and other nations, against each other, in such
away that nothing would arise from Europe which would be a challenge
to the permanent power of this imperial power, based in London. At
the same time, the determination was made–again, in 1763–that there
would be no nation formed in the English-speaking colonies in North
America. That’s the general history of the thing.
That struggle is going on to the present time. The system exists. The
system also exists inside the United States. What this evolved into,
in the course of the 20th Century, was the idea of a large British
Commonwealth, which would include the United States, as a major part
of the British Empire. In other words, the United States became the
physically leading element of the intended British Empire–run from
London, but with the power of the United States behind it. The center
of this was largely in two areas: It was in the New York bankers,
such as Morgan, Mellon, Harriman, du Pont and so forth; and in the
Southern Confederacy, the legacy of the Confederacy. These two forces
together represented the idea of the empire.
Now, these forces, coming out of World War I, the Versailles Treaty,
created a system that wouldn’t work. They knew it. So, a group was
assembled, called the Synarchist International, which created every
fascist force on the continent of Europe, between 1922 and 1945. So,
this was a unit, which was integral to the Anglo-American interest.
The Anglo-Americans were the people that put Hitler into power in
1933. But then, toward the middle of the decade, they decided that
they didn’t want a German dictator of the world. They didn’t dislike
fascism. They just didn’t like to have it German-speaking, instead of
English-speaking.
So, for that reason, forces behind Churchill turned against people
like Joe Kennedy, Lord Halifax and company, who wanted Hitler, who
were friends of Hitler and Göring, who wanted an alliance between the
British and Hitler. But other forces, including Churchill, united
with Roosevelt against this. The reason they united was, they said:
We are not going to have a continental European-based world fascist
system.
So therefore, we had an Anglo-American alliance, around Roosevelt,
against Hitler. But, as soon as 1942, after Stalingrad was obvious,
and after the ensuing events at Midway in June, where the U.S. Navy
defeated the Japanese, which meant that the Nazi empire was
doomed–not immediately, but in the long run–at that point, Göring and
company began to move. And they decided that this nut Hitler would go
on with the war–they couldn’t stop that–but they were going to
prepare to create something which would come out of the war as a
rebirth of their system.
Now, all the way through, the Göring circles were closely tied to
Anglo-American-Dutch and so forth financial interests. That is, there
were common stock companies, which were holding companies, which were
owners of the Nazi system, industrial system, and owners also of part
of the American system. In July 1944, when the doom of the Nazi
system was obvious, militarily, after the breakthrough at Normandy,
these guys moved. And they moved through a guy who became–who’s an
enemy of mine, but a guy who also became an enemy, François Genoud.
François Genoud, in Switzerland (who became one of my notable enemies
during the 1980s), was the go-between between the Nazi interests and
Allen Dulles, who brought this Nazi system inside the U.S. system,
and the British system.
So, Truman was the realization of this. Truman was, in effect, a
Nazi! The President of the United States, a Democrat. And Truman and
the British launched the so-called Cold War policy. This was
moderated by Eisenhower, because Truman brought us to the edge of
nuclear war. And, once the United States knew, that the Soviet Union
had developed a thermonuclear weapon–deployable–the United States
said to Truman: “Retire, buddy! You’re finished.” And they brought
Eisenhower in, who was opposed to that kind of policy.
Then, when Eisenhower retired, Allen Dulles and company went back
with the same process, unleashed the Missile Crisis, killed Kennedy,
and moved on to the Indo-China War–and the transformation of our
culture into this so-called post-industrial degeneracy we have today.
Two Forces at Play in U.S.
Q: So that, based on that, at that time of Roosevelt, Truman,
Eisenhower–there’re two forces at play? There’re two forces at play:
the ones that represent–that Dulles represented; and the ones who
would say, “No, this is enough. Enough is enough.”
LaRouche: Or, more–“got to get rid of it.”
Q: Okay. But, there are two forces at play. One, you laid out, was
the Anglo-Dutch financial piece. Who was the other one?
LaRouche: That’s us. I mean, in this country, in our institutions, in
our traditions, we have a Constitutional tradition, which is not just
us living today. It’s something we have from the 18th Century and
earlier; it’s a cultural tradition which we have, which is
transmitted from generation to generation.
And, you find that people in our government; that is, in the
Executive branch, either retired or serving, as military–not Boykin
or Miller, but more sane people–that these sane people, certain
people in our intelligence services; Colby was like that. Colby was a
mixed bag, but Colby was, in a sense, on my side.
So, you had people who were devoted to the American tradition.
Because we think of ourselves as being responsible for this country.
We’re responsible. I mean, the country needs some leadership. We have
to be the repository and supply of leadership, to help pull the
people together, to defend our nation.
Q: That group was outflanked in 2000. It was outflanked.
LaRouche: Well, in part. Because Clinton is a complication. Gore,
yes; Gore’s a terrible character. But Clinton is probably one of the
brightest political figures we’ve had, in high office. But he belongs
to this generation. And, he’s very bright. He can actually
think–unlike many of politicians of the type we have running loose
today. They can’t think! They really can’t! They can scheme, but they
can’t think. But he can actually think conceptually. But Clinton
believes the mystique of his generation. That’s his weak point. So,
what happened in 2000–what was outflanked was me: What you had, is
you had a bunch of racists who excluded me from the election
campaign.
And that kept off the platform–in other words, if I had not been
excluded, the way I was excluded that year, Gore would have been
elected. But it would have been largely to my credit. And, we,
Clinton and so forth, and others, would have preserved control over
the governmental process. We’d have saved the country. But, when
Gore–the damned fool–blew the election, with his nonsense, then you
had this Bush thing!
The fascists took over! And Bush is nothing but an idiot, the young
Bush. But Cheney and company, and what’s behind him, took over. And
they were on their way, as I said–as I said in January, before Bush
was inaugurated: It was inevitable, because Bush is stupid, because
the Administration’s party is stupid, we’re going into the worst
financial crisis, which is already coming on. And because of this, we
have to expect that some Hermann Göring is going to do something,
like setting fire to the Reichstag, in order to bring about
dictatorship in the United States–and that happened on Sept. 11,
2001.
That’s the issue.
Now, we’ve got a point, that I was right. Many people in the
institutions recognize that I was right. They don’t control the
parties, but they are part of our system. And they recognize I was
right. And you now have a fight to get rid of Cheney, which happened,
because we did it. We haven’t got rid of him, yet.
‘An Idiot on the Wrong Side’ As President
Q: The reason I said “outflanked,” is that, it appears as though that
group plays power centers within power centers. Within the Pentagon,
there’s a power group that “answers” to Cheney. And, there is, I
think in the State Department–I call them “power centers”–and that
they have effectively outmaneuvered the structure that has been in
place; but that today, behind the headlines, it appears as though
there is a struggle. That there’s a struggle within the military, or
the military against that group–
LaRouche: Yeah, right.
Q: There is something going on.
LaRouche: Start–look at the way our Executive branch is structured.
Under our Constitution, the Executive branch has an importance which
does not exist in any other country in Europe. Doesn’t exist. Those
are parliamentary systems. Ours is a Presidential system. Under a
Presidential system, under a Constitutional Presidential system, it
is the Executive branch that acts. Now, the Presidential system
doesn’t act too well, if you have an idiot as President. We have an
idiot who’s on the wrong side as President. I don’t know what side
he’s on–I don’t know if he knows what side he’s on.
But, nonetheless, the people who are in the Executive branch–or, like
me, who are outside, but part of it–we represent, like professors who
are no longer in, or that sort of thing, we represent a core of the
Executive branch’s Constitutional tradition in the United States.
What I did, was I concentrated–while people were trying to play other
games–I said, “The only way you’re going to stop this crap: You’ve
got to mobilize and assemble a hard core of the professional
Executive branch of government, to act with concerted influence and
force, to induce the institutions of the country to react, to change
this.”
And that’s what we’ve done. You see it all over the press. We’ve
spilled the beans. We couldn’t act immediately, because you can’t
raise a coup against your own government! But, we moved to
influence–to expose, to expose, to expose, to make clear. And we
have, so far, succeeded, and events have confirmed that. So
therefore, we have, today, a force inside the United States, which is
fighting, against this nonsense. And these are the people, if I were
President tomorrow, these are exactly the people I could depend upon,
as a President, to move things!
What I’m trying to do on this doctrine, on the Southwest Asia
Doctrine, is: If people in this part of the world agree with what I
propose, and many do, then the institutions of the United States
know, that this is the way to go. We move in. We change things. We
make an agreement with the people in this area, on a new policy for
the entire Southwest Asia region. And we know it’ll work; we can make
it work. We just have to get Cheney and company out of the way. I
think that, even with idiot Bush we can handle it. Because his daddy
and company would recognize how dangerous the situation is, and they
probably would support it.
So, we could probably get the Executive–even with this idiot, the
incumbent President of the United States–to say, that this is policy.
If the President of the United States instituted an Executive Order,
stating it was this policy–this doctrine is policy of the United
States–then we have a deal. Then we can move. We can disengage the
troops immediately. Put the country back in the charge of the Iraqis.
We can get out of this mess.
But, the problem we immediately face–once you do that, then you got
to say, “What are you going to do about Israeli-Palestinian
conflict?” And, you’ve got to find ways–and there are ways to deal
with it. You’ve got to be flexible, somewhat, but you know what your
objective is: Your objective is to bring a durable peace agreement,
between the two forces.

PRIME MINISTER MEETS ADB DELEGATION
ArmenPress
June 2 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS: Armenian prime minister Andranik Margarian
received today a delegation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), headed
by ADB deputy secretary Amarjit Vasan. The delegation has arrived in
Armenia to have consultations on Armenia’s membership to the bank.
The government press service quoted prime minister Margarian as saying
that Armenia has already obtained huge experience in dealing with such
influential international lending organizations as World Bank, EBRD
and others, underscoring at the same time establishment of efficient
cooperation with ADB. He said Armenia has been working towards that
end since 1997.
Assessing positively the results of consultations in Armenia, Andranik
Margarian noted, pointing out to ADB’s main directions of activity,
aimed at boosting economic growth in developing countries and reducing
poverty, saying Armenia’s membership to ADB will provide the country
with an opportunity to attract additional means for quicker development
of agriculture, education, health and infrastructures.
Margarian also said that the membership will help Armenia to establish
close contacts with the countries of the region leading in IT sphere
that will give a fresh muscle to IT development in Armenia, a sector
that was announced by the government as one of its priorities.
Among other benefits that Armenia may draw from the membership,
according to the prime minister is an impetus to implementing projects
aimed at reducing the poverty volume, especially having in mind the
favorable terms on which the bank allocates credits.
Amarjit Vasan was in turn quoted by the government press office as
saying that he was pleased too with the outcome of the consultations.
He added that the general conclusion of the Bank’s board,
after negotiating with 63 member countries, World Bank and other
international lending organizations is that it is time to pass to
practical actions for Armenia’s accession.
Margarian said Armenia is ready to solve all required organizational
and other technical problems in due time, expressing hope that the
anticipated cooperation will produce good and tangible results.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
June 2 2004
Armenia Aviation up in the Air
After a string of managers and failed projects Armenia’s national
airline is formally bankrupt.
By Rita Karapetian in Yerevan (CRS No. 236, 02-Jun-04)
The clue to the state of Armenia’s civil aviation industry can be
found in Equatorial Guinea, where six Armenian pilots are expected
to stand trial shortly, accused of spying and plotting a coup d’etat.
The pilots deny these charges, and the Armenian government claims
that they were in the area for perfectly innocent reasons. Foreign
ministry spokesman Gamlet Gasparian said that dozens of Armenian
pilots are being forced to find work in Africa because the state
aviation company Armenian Airlines, AA, has been declared bankrupt
and is facing a Russian takeover.
The company’s management now has just over a week to present a recovery
package to the Armenian economic court by June 12, or it will face
certain liquidation.
Opposition politicians and industry analysts are furious. “Smart
operators from the aviation industry with government support have
ruined a whole strategically important sector of the economy,” said
Dmitry Adbashian, a former AA director, who now runs the National
Aviation Union.
Most of the company’s employees have since lost their jobs and
income. According to Marietta Kazarian, head of the airline’s legal
department, the number of company employees has dropped from 1,500
to 100 people.
“Of the 300 members of the flying team, only around 30 have secured
jobs with different airlines; the rest are looking into opportunities
abroad, ” said Kazarian.
For many pilots, this could be the end of the road. “I am too old
to change my profession and start again from scratch, but I am too
young to retire,” said 51-year-old pilot Genrikh Pogosian.
According to Arsen Avetisian, general director of AA, the company
owes its staff ten months’ wages – around 250,000 US dollars in all.
“The court has decided that debts will mainly be repaid after the
company property is sold,” he told IWPR, adding that the exact scale
of the firm’s debts would only be made clear when the liquidation
process begins, but it is estimated to be between 12 and 30 million
dollars. Some opposition figures are alleging that the bankruptcy
has been deliberately planned. “Since 1998 the authorities have
been carrying out a policy of artificial bankruptcy for AA,” claimed
parliamentary deputy Tatul Manaserian.
“Debts have mounted up so as to artificially lower the price of this
company, which many people want to get their hands on,” he added.
Justice minister David Harutiunian rejected this charge, but
did concede that there had been “serious mistakes in the company
management”.
Armenian Airlines was founded in 1993 and given the status of national
carrier. The company inherited highly qualified staff, a mass of
equipment and 23 planes.
Former director Adbashian said he had drawn up plans to make the
airline, as well as Zvartnots airport and the state-run refuelling
company GSM, commercially competitive. But he was sacked and his
programme was not implemented, something which he said “pushed civil
aviation towards collapse”.
The company has been in financial crisis since 1998. AA lost out both
to competitors and to other state companies, and the fuel supplied by
GSM was expensive. Opposition parliamentary deputy Agasi Arshakian said
that GSM used its monopoly “to sell one tonne of aviation kerosene
at a price which was 100 dollars higher than the average price in
the region.”
Trade union leader Garik Mkrtchian says that a heavy blow came with
the transfer of Zvartnots airport to the management of Argentinian
businessman Eduardo Ernekian.
According to an agreement signed at the beginning of 2003, Ernekian
pledged to invest up to 100 million dollars in reconstruction and
development of the airport over 15 years. But in practice, almost
immediately after it took over the management, Ernekian’s company
increased prices on fuel, plane parking and ground service.
AA has also suffered from having 15 general directors over the course
of a decade, most of whom were not industry specialists.
“General directors who presided over mounting company debts were
replaced one after another, but no one was sacked or made to answer
for this,” AA manager Ashot Berberian told IWPR.
In March last year, the Armenian government took a decision to transfer
ownership of AA to the private Russian airline company Armavia. After
nearly 70 per cent of Armavia’s shares were sold to another Russian
company, Sibir-Avia, that company then took a controlling stake in AA.
Opposition politicians are outraged. “Armavia cannot be the national
carrier, as the controlling shareholding belongs to Russian business,
and the rest of the shares belong to a Russian citizen,” said
Manaserian.
Another deputy, Grant Khachatrian, believes that the takeover threatens
the sovereignty of landlocked Armenia, which has two closed borders
because of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.
But the government maintains that the sell-off makes commercial
sense. Justice minister David Harutiunian said, “The state is a bad
businessman – only privatisation can guarantee the profitability
of aviation.”
Rita Karapetian is a correspondent for Noyan Tapan news agency
in Yerevan.

FIVE ARMENIAN ENTERPRISES MIGHT GO TO RUSSIA AS STATE DEBT REPAYMENT
RIA Novosti, Russia
June 2 2004
YEREVAN, June 2 (RIA Novosti) – The seventh session of the
Armenian-Russian interparliamentary commission for co-operation
considered the passing of five Armenian enterprises to Russia within
the state agreement “property in exchange for debt.”
According to Russian co-chairman of the commission and Federation
Council member Nikolai Ryzhkov, the implementation of this agreement
involves some problems.
“The first and the main problem is the incompatibility between the
two countries’ legislations. The enterprises are already the Russian
property but are operating in the Armenian legislative field. Besides,
there are technological problems,” noted Ryzhkov.
The Russian co-chairman expressed the hope that a special
intergovernmental commission would soon gather for a session to
address these problems.
The intergovernmental agreement signed on July 17, 2002 on transferring
the property as part of Armenia’s state debt to Russia to the sum of
$93 million provides for passing 100% of shares in the Mars plant,
three Yerevan research institutes of computers, automated control
systems, materials science, and also the property complex of the
Razdan thermo power station, to the Russian side.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT BELIEVES THERE IS NO POLITICAL CRISIS IN HIS COUNTRY
RIA Novosti, Russia
June 2 2004
YEREVAN, June 2 (RIA Novosti). There is no political crisis in the
country as government bodies are duly performing their functions,
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said at a news conference in
Gyumri, the former Leninakan.
“There is a conflict between the government and the opposition
and the latter has refrained from a civilized form of fight,” the
president said.
According to the Armenian head of state, if the Armenian parliament
were unable to make decisions “there would be a crisis indeed a way
out of which is fixed in the country’s Constitution.”
“Such a situation is not available. There is a clash between the
opposition and the government indeed – but is any other country devoid
of it? The question is whether conflicts take a civilized shape. And
since the performance of the parliament and the government is quite
productive – the budget is being executed, debts haven’t grown and
the country is reporting a steady economic growth this means that the
opposition may or may not return to the parliament, yet life will go
on,” Kocharyan stated.
Commenting on opposition rallies, the president labelled them as
“Brazilian series”. “They are so much alike that the events could
well be canned,” he said.
The opposition has been staging unauthorised protests gathering
thousands of people in Yerevan to demand that the Armenian president
resign since April 9.

Book Review: Learn to speak fenugreek
New York Daily News
June 2 2004
Armenian cuisine – which combines the flavors of the Mediterranean with
Persian and Russian cooking – is the subject of an intriguing new book
by Victoria Jenanyan Wise, “The Armenian Table” (St. Martin’s Press,
$29.95). The signature ingredients for this style of cooking are herbs
such as fenu­greek and tarragon, and such seasonings as orange flower
water. To get to know them, the author takes us on a comprehensive
tour of the typical Armenian pantry. First, though, there’s an
interesting chapter on the homelands of the Armenian people, maps and
all, followed by shopping hints and descriptions of frequently used
foods. Wise discusses the assorted extracts, spices, herbs and fresh
produce she uses in her kitchen to turn out such dishes as mussels
in tomato-onion broth, spicy meatballs in tomato-cilantro sauce and
bulgur pilaf with chickpeas and spring onions. A chapter on yogurt
includes instructions on how to make yogurt, called madzoon, and a
variety of drinks such as jajik (yogurt with cucumber), yogurt cheese,
yogurt bechamel and tanabour, a yogurt and barley soup with mint and
parsley. There are some fine recipes here that you’re not likely to
find elsewhere, including a fresh fava bean salad with string cheese
and chive oil, Armenian moussaka with lamb, potatoes and a yogurt
bechamel, and an Armenian rata­touille that’s generously seasoned
with fresh marjoram and paprika. If you’re looking for a new cuisine
to explore, this is very satisfying.

Quick Guide: The OSCE
BBC News
June 2 2004
Flags of member nations at the OSCE HQ (Picture: OSCE)
Membership: 55 nations
Headquarters: Vienna, Austria
Budget: 185.7m euros (2003)
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE,
aims to prevent conflict and manage crises in Europe, the Caucasus
and central Asia.
The organisation is based in Vienna, Austria, but many of its 3,500
staff work in the field. The OSCE is particularly active in the
countries of the former Yugoslavia and in the republics of the
Caucasus.
The organisation’s mandate is broad. It aims to promote democracy and
human rights and to resolve regional conflicts. To this end it
encourages political, social and media reforms.
The OSCE has no peacekeeping contingents, but may call on the
resources of other international bodies, including the UN and Nato.
Background
The OSCE’s forerunner, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe (CSCE), was set up in 1972 as a forum for dialogue between
nations. It brought Nato and Warsaw Pact countries to the meeting
table.
Moldova: OSCE monitors removal of Russian arms (OSCE/Neil Brennan)
In 1975 the CSCE produced the Helsinki Final Act. The signatories –
from East and West – promised to respect basic freedoms and human
rights and to recognise Europe’s post-war borders.
At the end of the Cold War, the CSCE became a fully-fledged
organisation and provided the framework for reducing conventional
armed forces in Europe.
The organisation adopted its present name in 1994 to reflect its more
permanent structure.
Members, decision-making
The OSCE has 55 member states. These are drawn mainly from Europe,
the Caucasus and Central Asia. The United States and Canada are
members of the OSCE.
All OSCE members have equal status within the body. Decisions are
reached by consensus, except in the case of “clear, gross and
uncorrected violations” of OSCE commitments by a member country.
Member states fund the running of the organisation and its missions.
Structure
Summit Conference: Leaders of member states meet once every two or
three years to map out the OSCE’s priorities
Ministerial Council: The OSCE’s main governing body meets annually,
except in a Summit Conference year; it comprises foreign affairs
ministers of member countries
Permanent Council: Undertakes the day-to-day running of OSCE
activities; comprises permanent representatives of member states who
meet once a week
Leaders
Chairman-in-office: The position is held by the foreign affairs
minister of a member state for a one-year term. The incumbent has
overall responsibility for the organisation.
Secretary-general: Responsible for managing OSCE operations, the
secretary-general is the representative of the chairman-in-office.
OSCE on the ground
Albania: A substantial OSCE presence aims to promote democracy, human
rights and media freedom.
Monitors on Georgia-Chechnya border (OSCE/Alexander Nitzsche) Armenia
and Azerbaijan: The OSCE is working for a political settlement between
Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region. It
has monitored elections in both states and maintains offices in their
capital cities.
Belarus: The OSCE has repeatedly clashed with President Alexander
Lukashenko after it condemned as fraudulent elections which he won in
2001. The OSCE office in Minsk undertakes projects related to the
body’s principles.
Bosnia: An OSCE mission aims to strengthen the legal system and
de-segregate the education system.
Central Asia: The OSCE maintains offices in the capitals of Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. The OSCE monitors
elections in the region. It has warned that a failure to develop
democracy will make Central Asia more vulnerable to extremism. The
OSCE has criticised human rights standards in Turkmenistan.
Chechnya: The organisation has urged a political solution to the
conflict and has expressed concerns about the climate of violence and
the lack of independent media in the republic. In 2002 Russia refused
to renew the mandate of the OSCE’s mission.
Elections in Kosovo: OSCE is committed to democracy-building
Croatia: An OSCE mission advises on democratisation and human rights.
Georgia: The OSCE urges a political resolution to the status of the
breakway Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. OSCE
monitors are in place on the Georgia-Chechnya border.
Kosovo: As part of the UN Mission in Kosovo, a large OSCE presence is
involved in democracy-building and human rights monitoring. The OSCE
police school trained more than 6,000 officers for Kosovo’s new,
multi-ethnic police force.
Macedonia: Originally set up in 1992 to prevent the Balkan conflict
from spreading, the OSCE mission expanded following the 2001 conflict
between ethnic Albanian rebels and government forces. The
organisation has trained a new multi-ethnic police force.
Moldova: The OSCE is working for a political settlement between
Moldova and the breakaway Trans-Dniestr region.
Macedonia: 2001 conflict prompted the OSCE to boost its presence
Serbia and Montenegro: The federation was admitted to the OSCE in
2000, eight years after the old Yugoslavia was suspended during the
war in Bosnia. An OSCE mission based in Belgrade has set the
promotion of democratisation, human rights and media freedom as its
priorities.
Ukraine: The OSCE runs projects on media freedom, military and legal
reform.

Built to Last: A Georgian Armenian’s house plans for eternity
By Vahan Ishkhanyan ArmeniaNow reporter
ArmeniaNow.com
28 May, 2004
(from Akhalkalak, Georgia) In the Georgian town of Akhalkalak,
Serozh Hakobyan is one of those rare people who have apartments in
two worlds. The one for this life is on Rustaveli St. The one for
the next life is in the Akhalkalak cemetery.
He tells a visitor: “I am both in this world and in the other one.” And
he takes every guest to show them his grave.
Serozh says he’s ready to go … Next to his family, his grandmother,
grandfather, mother and father, he has built his and his wife’s graves,
a polished stone with a portrait of the couple and their birth dates,
Hakobyan Serozh 1932 and Hakobyan Manushak 1933. All that remains
are death dates, a carving task assigned to their only child,
their daughter.
“Since I didn’t have a boy, I thought I myself would make my grave,
so that it’s not hard for my daughter,” Serozh says. “Since I could
afford it, I made one for me and my wife. My wife agreed with me,
saying it’s better this way, so that we don’t have to bother our
child. Why should she be troubled because of us later?”
Making a grave is a man’s job. He has to go find a stone, give it
to a master, follow how they’re polishing it, find a painter to
carve from photos properly and he has to bargain with everyone. In
1994, when he had some money saved, Serozh did all that’s required
for a grave. And, allowed the privilege of choosing how he will be
eternally remembered, he carefully chose a painter from Yerevan to
do the tombstone portraits.
In his town, plenty of others know their final resting places. But
the others are next to graves that have already been filled, most
with the remains of a spouse, before the survivor’s name was carved
next to the deceased.
But Serozh’s grave is totally empty, ready for a house warming.
“This is my permanent apartment, we are guests here, our main apartment
is here, buddy,” says Serozh looking at the black gravestone.
The 72-year old former taxi driver isn’t in any hurry to take up
residence, but says when that time comes, well, so be it.
“Whatever’s there it’s there, whatever’s not, it’s not,” Serozh
says. “I can only say if you’re an honest man, your soul will be
in peace.”
Serozh says he believes in God and follows all the church ceremonies
like Easter, baptism, sacrifice and etc. He always keeps icons in
his pocket.
“Icons of Mother Mary, of my Lord the Christ have always been in my
pocket and thank God that after driving a taxi for 45 years I haven’t
had any trouble. I’ve met all kinds of people in my car but haven’t
seen harm from any of them.”
Since retiring from the taxi business, Serozh has been a pensioner. He
get 15 lari (about $7.50) a month, which of course is not enough
for survival. So now he trades at the Akhalkalak market selling
sieves and other little things.
Doesn’t he get closer to the death by building himself a grave and
isn’t he afraid of dying?
“Of course not, buddy,” laughs Serozh. “Whether it gets you closer
or not, whether you’re afraid or not, when the time comes for you
to die, you’ll die. The main thing is to live as long as you can,
humanly, decently, with respect. If you like people, people will like
you. Otherwise, if you’re born, you have to die. If you live for 100
years you have to die, if you live for one year, you have to die … ”
On Easter and All Saints Day and other church holidays, all the family
visits the graves of Serozh’s parents to eat, drink and honor the dead.
One day when his grandchildren visit his “eternal apartment”,
they’ll see an inscription saying that Serozh’s tombstone is “from
grandchildren”.
It’s ok if grandchildren didn’t make it, they were too small, how could
they,” Serozh says. “But those who pass by will know that this man
had respect and honor, since his grandchildren had built his grave.”

Azeri ANS TV suspends BBC broadcasts, but ready to continue cooperation
ANS TV, Baku
1 Jun 04
[Presenter in studio] The news bulletins of the BBC Russian service
will no longer be rebroadcast by ANS CM. Both companies have kept
their word.
[Correspondent over video of ANS office] As of today, the BBC
Russian broadcasts through ANS CM radio have been suspended on
Azerbaijani territory. The ANS independent broadcasting and media
company has taken this step in connection with the position of the
BBC’s morning programmes on Azerbaijan. We should remind you that
the ANS CM radio station had repeatedly sent letters of warning to
the BBC that the morning programmes of this service of the BBC and
the programmes by producer Mark Grigoryan are distorting the truth
about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. It was said that if Mark
Grigoryan is not taken off the air by 31 May, the transmission of
the Russian service will be suspended on 1 June. So it was suspended.
The BBC also regrets this decision. But at the same time, Hamid
Ismayilov, head of the BBC’s South Caucasus and Central Asia Service,
stressed that ANS is a democratic and independent channel.
Vahid Mustafayev, head of the ANS group of companies, made the
following comment on the decision: ANS had played a great role
in setting up the BBC’s Azerbaijani service. For this reason, we
will continue our cooperation. We suspended the transmission of the
Russian-language programmes because these programmes are run by an
Armenian producer which seriously worried Azerbaijani listeners.
I should note that the BBC leaders have accepted this step with
understanding, end of quote.
Ayaz Mirzayev, ANS.