Armenia, Iran sign accord for 20 years of gas deliveries
IranMania News, Iran
May 15 2004
YEREVAN, May 14 (AFP) – Armenian and Iranian energy ministers Thursday
signed an accord under which Iran will supply 36 billion cubic meters
of gas to Armenia, in exchange for electricity, over 20 years starting
in 2007.
The sides did not elaborate on the gas tariffs set for the deliveries.
Gas will flow into Armenia through a planned pipeline linking the two
neighbours on which construction is to begin at the end of the year.
“The construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline has political and
economic importance for our country and foresees economic benefits
for both of our nations,” Armenia’s Energy Minister Armen Movsysian
said after signing the accord with his Iranian counterpart Bijan
Namdar Zanganeh.
The two countries had already signed an accord over the 140-kilometer
gas pipeline’s construction, at an estimated cost of 220 million
dollars.
Russia, Ukraine, China and the United States had already voiced
interest in participating in the project, the Armenian minister said.
Movsysian also declared that Armenia was not ready to accept the
European Union’s offer of 100 million dollars to close down the
Metzamor nuclear power station, which Europeans consider dangerous.
Armenia is currently dependent on Russian gas, which is supplied via
a pipeline that crosses through Georgia.
For the annual 1.2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas, Armenia pays
55 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

EU: Concentrate on Implementation from Now on
Zaman, Turkey
May 15 2004
A document that outlines the European Union’s (EU) position for
next week’s Partnership Council meeting calls on Turkey to focus on
implementing its reforms.
Zaman acquired the document that states the stance of Europe for
the 43rd Partnership Council between Turkey and the E.U. that will
be held on May 18. The document points out serious interruptions
in the implementation phase of the reforms even though it expresses
pleasures about the reform process. “Implementations have a drawback,”
states the document as it acknowledges the progress Turkey has made
in many areas; however, first steps in harmonizing with the acquis
communitaire have yet to be taken.
Some of the positive points the document specifically mentions are
the abolishment of the State Security Courts, the removal of military
representatives from the Council of Higher Education, as well as the
latest Constitutional package that extends the freedom of the press.
The 19-page document emphasizes that ending the isolation of Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has already been determined;
however, Turkey is requested to end sanctions on Greek Cypriot ships.
The E.U. also devotes importance to improving the mutual relations
between Armenia and Turkey.
The meeting of the Partnership Council next Tuesday (May 18)
constitutes the most important juncture prior to the critical
progress report on Turkey that is expected to be released both at the
E.U. June summit and on September 29. The document states all E.U.
member countries have adopted the E.U. standpoint for the Partnership
Council, and it is unlikely to change.
“Thorough and effective implementation of the reforms is essential,”
states the document while heavily criticizing bureaucracy. It
points out in addition that despite the fact three schools have begun
education in Kurdish, significant difficulties in implementation still
remain. Local officials in some regions have not been satisfactorily
informed about the reforms.
While there are a few practical results of the reforms concerning
non-Muslims, Ankara is urged immediately to make a detailed law that
would solve several of these issues, especially non-Muslims’ rights
of property ownership.
The document states that ill treatment, torture, and other prohibitions
still go on in some prisons. It requests that the government increase
its efforts to punish those responsible for tortures.
The document also touches upon the profound disappointment about the
verdict handed down in the Leyla Zana case. It emphasizes that the
result violates the spirit of the reforms. It is also noted that the
case is already in the appeals phase.
05.15.2004 Selcuk Gultasli Brussels

Parliamentary Chairperson Visits Strasbourg
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi
May 15 2004
Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze left for Strasbourg on
May 15 to participate in the European Conference of Presidents of
Parliament to be held at the Council of Europe on May 17-19.
“A number of bilateral meetings with my counterparts will be held,”
Nino Burjanadze said before departure.
Trilateral talks between Armenian, Azeri and Georgian Parliamentary
Chairpersons are also scheduled.
The conference will bring together more than sixty Presidents and
Speakers of the Parliaments of 45 member states.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri MP Slams BBC
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
May 15 2004
A pro-government member of the Azerbaijani parliament on Friday
slammed British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC) for sending its
reporters to Nagorno-Karbakh (NK) without getting official permission
from Baku.
“I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must react to this,” said
Anar Mammadkhanli, adding that not only BBC, but also some other
foreign news agencies send their correspondents to NK without
receiving permission from the Azerbaijani authorities.
Nagorno-Karabakh – a former autonomous region of Azerbaijan – is
being occupied by Armenian troops since they took control over the
region in 1991-94 war.

Armenian lives come into focus
By Bob Strauss, Film Critic
Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA
Redlands Daily Facts, CA
San Bernardino Sun, CA
May 15 2004
Vahe Babaian’s serious, slightly autobiographical film “After
Freedom” comes well-packed with worthy intentions. Set in Glendale’s
Armenian-American community, it’s perceivably honest about the
day-to-day struggles of recent – and not-so-recent – immigrants. It
also tries to tell a kind of “Mean Streets” story of aimless, somewhat
criminal young men without resorting to cheap melodrama.
The film succeeds on those counts. But in his first feature, Babaian
is both too close to the material and not seasoned enough of a
writer-filmmaker to generate much audience involvement. Despite some
solid performances (and partly because of a few lousy ones), the film
is sabotaged by clunky dialogue and sequences that go on too long,
often to nowhere.
Although it isn’t made clear in the opening narration, the film’s
protagonist Michael Abcarian (Mic Tomasi in a controlled, soulful
performance) is probably an Iran-born Armenian, like Babaian. This
would explain his father’s good job back home with a British airline.
(I could be wrong, but I don’t believe there were many flights between
London and small Soviet republics during the Cold War.) Anyway, once
Dad moved the family to Glendale, the American dream proved elusive.
Now elderly, widowed and defeated by a series of demeaning jobs,
Michael’s father, Leon (Greg Satamian), worries about the employment
prospects of an old man who can’t drive. Michael, who does dead-end
supermarket work himself, feels both guilty for not doing better and
responsible for keeping what’s left of the family intact.
This doesn’t sit well with his ambitious girlfriend Ana (Sophie
Chahinan), who has an opportunity to open a store in San Francisco.
But she’s also a fairly patient type who puts up with Michael’s
endless hours of cruising and hanging out at the gun shop with his
dopey pals, blustery small-time crook Avo (Shant Bejanian, in the
film’s best performance) and trouble-prone Mato (Ioannis Bogris), who
is obsessed with smuggling his brother into the country through Mexico.
We get some of the usual immigrant movie moments; there’s a wedding
and a first-time walk on the beach by a character in his 20s. But for
the most part, Babaian displays a knack for immersing viewers in the
small distinctions and similarities of Armenian-American life without
overloading on the ethnic signifiers.
In tone and presentation, “After Freedom” is about as far away from the
“Big Fat Greek Weddings” of the world as it can be, and its realism in
that regard is only to be lauded. But next time, hopefully, Babaian
will display a better sense of what’s interesting and what’s not
about the world he knows and appreciates so well.

Thousands Protest In Yerevan Against Kocharian
Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
May 15 2004
15 May 2004 — Several thousand Armenian opposition supporters
protested in the streets of the capital Yerevan late on 14 May to
demand the resignation of President Robert Kocharian.
Interfax reported that police estimated no more than 4,000 people
participated in the peaceful demonstration, while organizers claim
30,000 people attended the rally.
The protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations since last
month. Opposition members says Kocharian rigged a presidential runoff
in March 2003 to secure a second term in office and is demanding that
he either organize a national referendum of confidence in his rule
or step down.
Kocharian was in Moscow for talks with Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov during the protest.

Krasnodar, Russia: New repressions against anarchists
Posted by Reverend Chuck
Infoshop News
May 15 2004
Lyosha Cherepanov, one of the most active militants of Autonomous
Action of Krasnodar got drugs planted on him on Wednesday. Lyosha does
not use drugs, not even grass which freely flourishes in every other
yard of Kuban. He is freed from army for health reasons, but got a
letter from draft commission to come to “re-register” in Wednesday. In
middle of the road, he was arrested by police. He was allowed to make
few phonecalls, so he was able to inform that he was planted drugs and
sentenced to “9 days of administrative arrest” for “a refusal to follow
orders of Gosnarkokontrol”, which is a new ATF-analogue in Russia.
Whole thing seems not to have a slightest legal pretext,
Gosnarkokontrol is a new structure, which does not even have any laws
regulating its powers yet . Cops often frame random people for drugs
in order to have their quotas fulfilled in Russia, but they do not do
that in middle of the road, and they do not send letters from call-up
commission in order to get victims. So this thing has a strong FSB
flavour in it. Seems like they decided to finish off at once with the
group of Autonomous Action in Krasnodar, which already has severely
suffered from repression, Dimitri Ryabinin from the same group was
sentenced for half years after another framed-up case 4 months ago.
Lyosha has now a lawyer, but it is difficult to do something during
week-end. We will try to have police phone numbers posted soon to make
pressure, I think they are now just trying ice, how far they may go,
and if not given red light they will make something more serious.
Also a bit more old news… Stanislav Markelov was assaulted
in Moscow metro 16th of April, beaten up, mugged and stolen many
documents, including lawyer’s license. Markelov is not an anarchist,
but has been a friend and close to anarchist scene for more than a
decade and given priceless legal help in many difficult situations.
Last year Markelov was a national celebrity when he was for a short
while working around gase of Yuri Budanov, a Russian colonel accused
of raping and murdering a teenage Chechen girl. He was defending
interests of the family of murdered Elza Kungaevo for a short while
before he got ousted from the process. I did not wrote before about
attack on Markelov since it was unclear to me if it was connected
to his professional activities, but currently Stas seems to suspect
that it might have been. Such intimidation tactics are quite often
used against lawyers, journalists and human rights activists in Russia.
I would also like to use opportunity to correct some details from
the last Moscow ABC bulletin (#2), after people protested them in
a Russian list… at first, attempt to burn Armenian children did
not happened in Kolomna but in Kostroma. Also, circumstances around
death of a punk in Minsk are unclear, but many believe that fascists
were not involved. I was also informed that punk killed by nazis in
Yekaterinburg was member of National Bolshevik Party.

RUSSIA-ARMENIA: FINE PROSPECTS FOR ECONOMIC TIES, SAYS PRESIDENT KOCHARYAN
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 14 2004
MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – President Robert Kocharyan of Armenia
is in Moscow on visit. Today, he held conference with the organising
committee of a nascent Russian-Armenian Business Partnership
Association.
Bilateral economic contacts have excellent opportunities, far exceeding
their present scope, which is impressive, too-suffice it to mention
close on 600 joint ventures and Armenian-based companies with Russian
participation, most of them prosperous, said the President.
Russian-Armenian economic partnership is making good progress,
especially in iron-and-steel and non-ferrous metal industries,
construction and banking. Chemical industrial contacts are very
promising, he added.
Mr. Kocharyan consented to become honoured association president. “If
this is to be my initial contribution, I say yes,” he replied to a
request by Nikolai Ryzhkov, organising committee chief and member of
the Federation Council, Russia’s upper parliamentary house.
The association is a fruitful idea, and President Kocharyan is
surprised just why no one has come on the idea before, what with both
countries’ ample attention to their economic links. Armenia will do
all it can to get the association going, he pledged.
Expected to be established next month, the association had its
organising committee maiden session in Moscow, April. It will promote
bilateral social, economic, research and technological contacts,
beneficial to either country. It has a solid tentative corporate
membership-more than a hundred Russian-based companies and seventy
Armenian have applied to join in for today.
A bilateral parliamentary commission for Russo-Armenian partnership,
which Senator Ryzhkov co-chairs for Russia, is having its nearest
session in Yerevan, June 2-3, he announced. The agenda is already
determined, and will concern economic contacts.
The commission has 22 members on either side. Representing Russia
are ten Senators and twelve members of the State Duma lower house.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NAGORNY KARABAKH HOPES FOR EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 15 2004
YEREVAN, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – A two-day seminar entitled “European
integration as a guarantee of peace and stable development” closed in
Stepanakert, the capital of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorny
Karabakh. The seminar was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the
armistice in the Armenian-Azeri conflict area in Nagorny Karabakh,
an enclave region with mainly Armenian population. The region claimed
its secession from Azerbaijan after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
The roundtable resulted in a number of proposals which will be
submitted to the Nagorny Karabakh government, the republican foreign
ministry said on Saturday.
Nagorny Karabakh Prime Minister Anushavan Daniyelyan and Speaker of
the National Assembly Oleg Yesayan met with seminar’s participants
and organizers. They welcome such forums and pointed out their
importance. Mr. Daniyelyan expressed readiness for the implementation
of seminar’s proposals.
“I believe the seminar will contribute into the research of nature
and prospects of regional and all-European political developments,
in particular, European integration and the role and tasks of Armenia
and Nagorny Karabakh in this process,” said Oleg Yesayan.
The seminar was organized by the Nagorny Karabakh committee “Helsinki
initiative-1992”, the European Integration public association,
Nagorny Karabakh and Armenian permanent commissions for foreign
relations and the Foreign Ministry of Nagorny Karabakh.
On May 9, Victory Day, President of the self-proclaimed republic Arkady
Gukasyan claimed Nagorny Karabakh armed forces’ readiness to rebuff
all Azerbaijan’s attempts to reclaim the enclave. This provocative
statement echoed in Baku and Nakhichevan, an Azeri enclave separated
from the country by Armenian territory. Azerbaijan’s President Ilkham
Aliyev told Nakhichevan residents that Baku would never put up with
the loss of Nagorny Karabakh. According to him, the Azeri army is now
strong enough to take Nagorny Karabakh back by force. However, Gukasyan
and Aliyev’s statements should not be taken seriously. No country,
first of all Russia and the USA, would stand the recurrence of the
1990s tragedy. Besides, one should not forget about the Baku-Ceyhan
pipeline, which is highly important for the economic development of
Azerbaijan and the South Caucasian region. The international consortium
allocated money on this project on the security of peaceful settlement
of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.

Azeri paper says USA gives Karabakh to Russia in return for Ajaria
Zerkalo, Baku
14 May 04
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers continued its work at
yesterday’s session in Strasbourg. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan was the first among the representatives of the 26 countries
of the Council of Europe to sign the supplementary 14th protocol to
the European Convention on Human Rights relating to the reform of
the European Court (Regnum [news agency]).
Yesterday also saw the second day of the negotiations on the resolution
of the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict within the framework of the OSCE
Minsk Group.
[Passage omitted: Minor details]
Also yesterday, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice announced
plans to discuss the prospects for settling the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict in Moscow, together with other regional issues. She made
this announcement during a briefing in the run-up to her visit to
the Russian Federation.
[Passage omitted: More about the briefing]
It is interesting to note that the day before yesterday, in an
interview with [Russia’s] Nezavisimaya Gazeta, First Deputy Foreign
Minister of Russia Vyacheslav Trubnikov noted that Russia does not
want non-regional powers to be present on the territory of the former
Soviet Union. He said that over the past few years America’s presence
in the former Soviet Union has increased. The diplomat said that the
talk is about the Caucasus and Central Asia. Trubnikov believes that
the Americans are hardly going to abandon the regions they have just
“discovered”.
[Passage omitted: Minor details]
As can be seen, everything is clear here. While Washington is calling
on Moscow to cooperate in resolving the Karabakh conflict, the latter
is trying to reduce “the American presence” in Karabakh.
Another thing is surprising as well. Condoleezza Rice, delighted
with the settlement of the Ajaria issue, obviously does not quite
realize that as a result of the Georgian president’s “raid”, Ajaria was
deprived of the notorious “right of nations to self-determination”. And
probably, the democratic Condoleezza Rice does not worry about Ajaria’s
future fate.
[Passage omitted: Similar ideas]
It seems that Washington intends to “give” Karabakh to Russia in return
for Ajaria. And as always, no-one is taking account of Baku’s view.
In numerous private conversations between our political experts
and influential Europeans whose statements made behind the scenes
reflect Europe’s real attitude towards the Karabakh problem, they have
repeatedly said: “You are the loser, therefore, sit and do not fidget
around” or “Go and take Karabakh by force if you can. The strong side
one is always right.”
Therefore, if we discard all the numerous politically correct
statements of the EU “for and against”, we have to admit that there
is no other way than to retake by force what belongs to us. Long live,
as the Americans said, “Mr Kalashnikov”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress