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| April 1-5 |
Seven Armenian priests and monks along
with dozens of other clergy and some two hundred local Palestinians
are reportedly trapped in the Church of the Holy Nativity amid a tense
standoff with the Israeli forces that moved into the West Bank cities,
including Bethlehem, this week. The church is one of the holiest shrines
in Christianity and is known as the birthplace of Jesus Christ. The
Armenian clergy were unharmed as of early Friday morning, but for
days they have been restricted to the Armenian portion of the church
compound, which is fully surrounded by the Israeli forces. Israeli
officials vowed not to harm the church building. |
| April 1-5 |
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit
this week accused Israel of conducting a "genocide" against the Palestinians.
Western and Israeli reports quoted him as saying that "the whole Palestinian
state is being destroyed step by step. A genocide against the Palestinian
people is being carried out before the eyes of the world." While referring
to the Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank area
as "genocide," the Turkish government is continuing to insist that
the forceful deportation of the Armenian population of the Ottoman
Empire and deaths of about one and a half million Armenians did not
constitute a genocide.
Also this week, the Turkish General Staff cancelled joint military
exercises with Israel. But it has so far refused to cancel the $668
million deal for Israel to upgrade the aging Turkish fleet of the
U.S.-made M-60 tanks. Meanwhile, several thousand people have been
holding daily anti-Israeli demonstrations in the Turkish capital.
In Parliament, a member of the ruling Democratic Left Party Ahmet
Tan accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and said Turkey should immediately
extend assistance to the Palestinians. Another parliamentarian Sevket
Bulent Yahnici, a member of another party represented in Turkey's
coalition government - the fascist National Movement Party - blamed
"Arabs' betrayals [of Turks] during World War I" for the current crisis
in Palestine. |
| April 1-5 |
Defense Minister Serge Sargsian and
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian reiterated this week Armenia's plans
to expand security links with the United States and NATO, and build
military-to-military relations with Georgia. The officials stressed
the urgency of these moves, amid a strengthening U.S. and weakening
Russian presence in the region. Sargsian and Oskanian spoke with journalists
after taking part in a three-hour closed session of the National Assembly
that discussed the potential impact of the changing regional situation
on security in the region.
The U.S. Government last week dropped its nine-year ban on weapon
exports to Armenia and Azerbaijan, citing "positive developments"
and national security interests in developing military ties with both
countries. The U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Mira Ricardel
was in Azerbaijan last week, where she signed an agreement to provide
Azerbaijan with $4.4 million in assistance to improve its maritime
defenses, air-traffic control and peace-keeping capability. The agreement
came just days after the Pentagon signed a similar document with Armenia
during Defense Minister Sargsian's visit to the United States.
Sargsian said this week that the United States will seek to balance
its military cooperation with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. U.S. military
aid to Azerbaijan is restricted by the U.S. legislation which states
that the aid cannot be used against Armenia or Armenian communities
in the South Caucasus. Sargsian added that Armenia remains concerned
about growing Turkish military influence in the Caucasus, as long
as Armenian-Turkish relations remain unsettled. He called a possible
Turkish military presence in Georgia "very undesirable." A senior
parliamentarian Hamayak Hovanisian suggested this week that the direct
U.S. presence in the region can limit Turkish influence.
Oskanian, in turn, recapped Armenia's efforts to activate a dialogue
with Turkey and improve bilateral relations with that country. Armenia,
he said, will also be seeking "closer contacts" with Georgia, which
is expected to host a large contingent of the U.S. Special Forces'
trainers later this year. Georgia's First Deputy Defense Minister
and Chief of Staff General Joni Pirtskhalaishvili arrived in Yerevan
on a three-day visit this week to discuss ways to expand bilateral
military cooperation. |
| April 1-5 |
Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Vilayat
Guliyev joined his colleagues from the countries of the Organization
of Islamic Conference (OIC) in opposing a U.S. attack "on any
Islamic country" as part of its ongoing anti-terrorist operation,
Azeri media reported. The vote took place at the OIC summit in Malaysia.
Commentators suggested that Azerbaijan is seeking to avoid isolation
in the Islamic world. |
| April 1-5 |
A Russian online publication has suggested
that Azerbaijan and Turkey have agreed to a deal according to which
Azerbaijan will supply Turkey with natural gas at below market prices
in exchange for weapons transfers. The two countries agreed to the
gas deal about a year ago, during President Heydar Aliyev's March
2001 visit to Turkey, but they did not make public the price of the
fuel. At the time, Turkish Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer claimed
that Azeri gas is priced considerably cheaper than Russian or Iranian
alternatives. But Azeri Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov denied
that Azerbaijan would be dumping gas at below market prices.
During that same visit, Aliyev asked Turkish leaders to step up their
military assistance to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani officials, including
Defense Minister Safar Abiyev and the President's top foreign policy
aid Novruz Mammadov, claimed that the Turks agreed to back Azerbaijan
in case of a new war over Nagorno Karabagh "with both personnel
and equipment." But Turkish-Azeri military cooperation appears
to have stumbled over President Aliyev's decision to grant Russia
basing rights at the Gabala strategic radar station. Ankara considered
the move to be "against Turkey" and "deviation from
[Azerbaijan's] policies, foreseeing an opening to the West."
The "weapons for gas" deal, if it was ever discussed, appears
to have run into trouble due to ongoing economic difficulties in Turkey,
which are delaying its own military modernization, and Azerbaijan's
recent turn to Russia for security assistance. |
| April 1-5 |
A decision by the National Commission
on TV and Radio to award a television frequency until now held by
the A1+ station to the Sharm entertainment company has caused a strong
public outcry in Armenia. Both companies are privately owned. A recently-adopted
Armenian law stipulates that television frequencies are awarded through
an open tender to a company that submits the best proposal for its
development. Critics described the process as arbitrary and virtually
all observers, including those from pro-government political parties,
criticized the commission's decision over A1+.
The A1+ owner and director Mesrop Movsesian claimed President Robert
Kocharian and other officials influenced the commission to deny an
opposition-leaning channel the right to broadcast. Kocharian denied
any interference, saying he would like the channel, which has been
on the air for more than five years, to continue working. Kocharian,
who just returned from a four-day trip to Central Asia (see below),
is expected to meet with Movsesian to discuss options for restarting
the regular A1+ broadcasts. Armenia's Public Television already offered
its airtime to broadcast news programs prepared by A1+, while government
officials suggested the company submit a bid for another available
frequency.
In a press conference this week, Movsesian said he does not want to
politicize the issue and will seek to nullify the commission's decision.
His lawyers have already begun legal action against the commission's
decision in an economic arbitration court. On Friday, several thousand
people attended a demonstration organized by over a dozen opposition
parties, which accused the government of trying to stifle the free
media in order to establish "a monopoly on influencing public opinion"
in the run-up to elections. Opposition leaders said that unless A1+
returns to the air within a week they will launch a campaign of "civil
disobedience" with the aim of ousting the authorities. The U.S. Embassy
in Armenia along with several local and international media watchdogs
expressed concern over these developments. Armenia has over sixty
national and local television channels, almost all of them privately
owned. |
| April 1-5 |
President Robert Kocharian paid official
visits to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan this week to discuss bilateral
cooperation with the leaders of the two former Soviet Central Asian
republics. In back-to-back meetings with President Emomali Rahmonov
of Tajikistan and President Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan, Kocharian
initialed the Armenian-Tajik and Armenian-Kyrgyz treaties on "Friendship
and Cooperation." They exchanged views on the current security situation
in the region and discussed ways to improve political and economic
ties within bilateral and international frameworks. Kocharian also
met with representatives of local Armenian communities.
All three countries are members of the Collective Security Treaty
(CST) of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a security
grouping that also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Through
CST, Armenia has provided both countries with security assistance
when they fought back incursions by Afghanistan-based Islamic militants.
Since the September 11 attacks, both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have
joined the U.S.-led anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan. Their
military bases now host U.S. and other NATO forces. |
| April 5-12 |
Armenian officials this week joined
international calls for a cease-fire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said Armenia was extremely worried
by the escalation in the Middle East. Over the weekend, His Holiness
Catholicos Karekin II sent letters to the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat expressing
dismay over the growing death toll from the conflict and offering
prayers for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Referring to
the tense standoff in the Church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem,
Karekin II urged both sides "to employ all means, so that the Holy
Sites remain free from defilement and destruction."
Earlier this week, one of seven members of the Armenian clergy who
for the past two weeks remained in the Armenian section of the Bethlehem
church, was mistakenly shot and seriously wounded by an Israeli sniper.
A native of Goris, Armenia, Armen Sinanian, 22 was a student at the
St. James Armenian Monastery in Jerusalem. Israeli forces subsequently
evacuated Sinanian to a Jerusalem hospital.
Some two hundred Palestinians, some of them armed, have taken refuge
in the church compound, which is shared by the Roman Catholic, Greek
Orthodox and Armenian churches. Israeli forces have refused the clergy's
request to grant Palestinians safe passage to Gaza. In a statement
this week, the Armenian Foreign Ministry urged Israel not to storm
the holy site and withdraw its forces.
It has also condemned terrorist attacks against Israel. |
| April 5-12 |
A senior U.S. official has termed
"outrageous" the Turkish treatment of eleven businessmen
from Arizona who tried to become the first foreign investors in the
province of Van. Initially encouraged by the Turkish officials to
invest, the group soon faced harassment by the country's security
forces after one of the investors was discovered to be of Armenian
origin. Victor Bedoian, a second generation Armenian-American born
in Queens, invested $700,000 to establish a hotel in Van only to be
stripped of an operating license and have his business confiscated
by the local authorities.
Turkey's fascist National Action Party (MHP), a member of the current
government coalition, accused Bedoian and his wife Kristy, who is
of Scottish descent, of having a "sinister agenda" of recreating
Greater Armenia by buying property in Van and supporting Kurdish rebels.
The confiscated hotel has been ransacked and its employees detained
and bullied for "working for Armenians." During his December
visit to Ankara, Secretary of State Collin Powell raised Bedoian's
case with the Turkish government, but to date there has been no action.
Kaan Soyak, co-chairman of the Turkish-Armenian Business Development
Council, said the Turkish government lost a "great propaganda
tool" by not allowing Bedoian to operate. |
| April 5-12 |
General Secretary of the European
Conference of Ministers of Transportation (ECMT) Jack Short agreed
this week to review the organization's accession mechanism. Because
ECMT accepts new members on the basis of consensus, Armenia's efforts
to join have been repeatedly blocked by Azerbaijan and Turkey, who
are already members. Armenia has had an observer status in the group
since 1995. ECMT works to integrate transportation systems of Western
and Eastern Europe. Officials from Armenia's Ministry of Transport
and Communications hope to finally join ECMT at its meeting next week
in Georgia. Head of the Azerbaijani transportation authority
said his actions were part of Azerbaijani
President Heydar Aliyev's effort to isolate Armenia. |
| April 5-12 |
A diverse group of Armenia's opposition
parties said they will hold another rally this Friday in an effort
to reinstate an opposition-leaning television stations that lost a
bid in a frequency tender last week. The group includes three of the
four splinters of the National Democratic Union, Party of the Republic,
Constitutional Rights and Socialist Armenia Unions and People's and
Communist Parties. The parties said they intentionally excluded the
former ruling Armenian National Movement and its allies from their
actions, because they violated media freedom while they were in power.
The stations in question, the A1+ TV, has launched a legal appeal
to invalidate the results of the National Commission on Television
and Radio's tender process. Meanwhile, one of the main authors of
the law that regulates the work of the Commission, Chairman of the
Parliamentary Commission on Education, Science and Culture and leader
of the opposition National Democratic Party Shavarsh Kocharian said
the Commission violated the law by not holding a simultaneous tender
for all available frequencies.
The opposition accused President Robert Kocharian of trying to muzzle
the media in the run-up to the 2003 presidential and parliamentary
elections. Kocharian denied these accusations and seventeen Armenian
media outlets, including most of the main news agencies, newspapers
and TV stations, issued a statement denying opposition claims that
freedom of expression is threatened in Armenia. They also accused
the opposition of trying to misrepresent the issue for electoral gains. |
| April 5-12 |
Armenia's First Foreign Minister Raffi
Hovannisian (1991-92) this week announced the launching of the National
Citizens Initiative, aimed at "development of all aspects of
public life." While Hovannisian said he would not participate
in next year's elections, his organization will work for greater public
involvement in the political process. He said the Initiative will
draw on the experience of the Armenian Center for National and International
Studies (ACNIS, www.acnis.am), a think tank which Hovannisian founded
in 1994, and will soon begin to publish a newspaper to be called Orran
(Haven). |
| April 5-12 |
Georgian officials this week attempted
to deny rumors that the United States has backed away from the multi-million
dollar "train-and-equip" program, which U.S. officials said
would help the Georgian government fight terrorist groups affiliated
with Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization. The U.S. plans were
announced in February, but the arrival of up to 200 U.S. Special Forces
in Georgia has been repeatedly postponed.
President Eduard Shevardnadze said this week that U.S. forces "may
come in 10 or 15 days, or a bit laterƯ but they will definitely come."
He explained the delay by the need for U.S. personnel to learn the
Georgian language. Shevardnadze's Defense Minister David Tevsadze
suggested that the Americans would arrive "by the end of the
year." Meanwhile, a spokesman for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff,
quoted by Russia's official news agency, said that neither the time
nor the size of the American deployment has yet been decided.
Some news reports suggested that the United States has reconsidered
its plans altogether, fearing that their presence might inadvertently
re-ignite regional conflicts. Statements by Georgian officials suggesting
the use of America's aid against the breakaway province of Abkhazia
instead of the Al Qaeda allies in the Pankisi gorge - the intended
U.S. target - may be raising this concern. In fact, tension in Abkhazia
has notably increased since the February announcement and visitors
to the area suggest that both sides are gearing up for renewed conflict.
At the same time, senior Georgian officials said they have no plans
to move Georgian forces into Pankisi. |
| April 5-12 |
Officers and soldiers of the British-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), deployed in Afghanistan
since the fall of the Taliban regime, are questioning Turkey's ability
to lead a peacekeeping force. Pointing to Turkey's continued occupation
of Northern Cyprus and the bloody suppression of the Kurdish rebellion,
the ISAF personnel said they fear that their months' long effort to
bring calm to the Afghan capital of Kabul may be undone by the Turks'
heavy-handed tactics. (In addition to British forces, ISAF includes
peacekeepers from Austria, France, Italy, Germany and Sweden.)
Following America's suggestion, Turkey was expected to replace Britain
as the leader of the Afghan peacekeeping mission, but Turkish leaders
have postponed the takeover, weary of the deployment's financial cost.
During his tour of the Middle East last month, Vice President Dick
Cheney said Turkey was "pretty close" to taking over the
peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. Any Turkish deployment in Afghanistan
is likely to be financed by the United States. Cheney said that the
Administration would propose a $228 million aid package to Turkey
to cover the expenses.
But peacekeepers on the ground in Afghanistan "can't see the
Turks having much success" leading the mission. "I just
hope that I'm gone before the Turks arrive. It will be a different
world," said one Austrian major. |
| April 12-19 |
Unknown assailants firebombed the
Armenian Genocide Memorial in the Alfortville suburbs of Paris, two
weeks after another such monument was defaced in Grenoble, in the
south-west of France. The attacks came just days before the annual
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on April 24. Alfortville's
United Committee of Armenian Institutions, Organizations and Associations
urged police to conduct a speedy and thorough investigation and likened
the acts of vandalism to other recent racist attacks in France. In
the first two weeks of this month, there have been over three hundred
attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions, which coincided with recent
escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The Alfortville monument was the target of a similar attack shortly
after it was inaugurated in 1984. At the time, the Turkish intelligence
service was charged with using nationalist and organized crime groups
to launch a series of terrorist attacks on Armenians in France. The
Turkish government's involvement in the attacks, including bombings
and assassinations, was confirmed in recent high-profile trials which
also exposed other ties to terrorism and drug trafficking.
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| April 12-19 |
Pro-government members of the Azerbaijani
Parliament have initiated a bill to ban contacts with Armenians in
international organizations and prevent their visits to Azerbaijan.
The move follows this week's visit by a group of Armenian environmentalists
who arrived in Baku to participate in a conference on regional ecology,
sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE). Earlier efforts by Azerbaijan's Ministry of National Security
(successor of the KGB) have effectively shut down similar contacts
between representatives of Armenian and Azerbaijani mass media. Azerbaijani
journalists and human rights activists who met with their Armenian
colleagues were accused of "immoral behavior" and pressured to stop
such contacts.
This week, Azerbaijani nationalists chanting "Armenians out of Azerbaijan!"
staged a protest outside the hotel where the OSCE-organized conference
was taking place. They also called on the government to suspend all
contacts and negotiations with Armenians. The Azerbaijani Parliament
responded by creating a working group tasked with introducing a legal
ban on Armenian-Azerbaijani contacts. Last week, Azerbaijani Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev used yet another media opportunity to threaten
war against Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. |
| April 12-19 |
The Armenian government and lawmakers
this week expressed serious concern over increased cases of discrimination
against ethnic Armenians in the southern Russian province of Krasnodar
involving harassment, vandalism and threats of expulsion. The area,
also known as Kuban, is located off the coast of the Black Sea and
north of Georgia. It is home to a large Armenian community, numbering
hundreds of thousands, many of whom are refugees from Azerbaijan and
Georgia, and labor migrants from Armenia proper.
Over the past decade of post-Soviet turmoil, Krasnodar province experienced
one of the largest waves of immigration in Russia. For years relations
between locals and new arrivals have been tense. But this week Krasnodar
officials said they began to deport all "illegal immigrants" from
the province to their countries of origin or other parts of Russia.
At midnight on Tuesday, in another indication of inter-ethnic tension,
a large group of youths vandalized Armenian graves at a cemetery in
Krasnodar. The local police have so far detained three suspects, aged
between 14 and 17. Local community leader Razmik Gevorgian said the
situation was "getting unbearable" for all minority groups in the
area. In an interview last week, an Armenian newspaper editor in Krasnodar
urged the Armenian government to pay greater attention to the plight
of local Armenians.
Presidential spokesman Vahe Gabrielian said the Armenian authorities
considered the situation to be "really alarming" and have conveyed
their concerns to Russian counterparts. Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
also condemned the anti-Armenian attacks and added that the Russian
government has pledged to prevent violence. The National Assembly
agreed to a proposal by a faction of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(HHD) to send a fact-finding delegation to the area. HHD's Armen Rustamian
said the status of Armenian citizens living in Russia is regulated
by a bilateral treaty and they could not be expelled by orders of
local authorities.
Meanwhile, in Moscow police and ethnic minorities from the Caucasus
and Central Asia braced for violent attacks by local skinheads anticipated
this Saturday, which marks the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Earlier this
week, embassies of the concerned countries, including Armenia and
Azerbaijan, issued a rare joint statement appealing to the Russian
Foreign Ministry to alert law-enforcement agencies to the threat.
|
| April 12-19 |
Armen Sinanian, the 22-year old student
at the St. James Armenian Seminary in Jerusalem who was last week
mistakenly shot by an Israeli sniper, is reported to be recovering.
Sinanian spoke with journalists from his bed in a Jerusalem hospital
on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the tense standoff between Israeli and Palestinian
forces continue around the Church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem.
Representatives of the Armenian, Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches,
who are joint custodians of the church, have so far failed in their
effort to broker a deal between Israelis and Palestinians to remove
the forces from the church compound. |
| April 12-19 |
President Robert Kocharian, Defense
Minister Serge Sargsian and Prime Minister Andranik Margarian continue
to top the list of Armenia's most influential politicians, according
to a quarterly opinion poll released this week. Russia's Panorama
Center for Information and Analysis and Armenian daily Azg conducted
the poll among Armenia's leading political experts. The list of the
ten most influential politicians and their rating scores for this
and an earlier polling in 2001 is below:
March 2002 December 2001
1. President Robert Kocharian 98.8 98.8
2. Defense Minister Serge Sargsian 90.8 90.3
3. Prime Minister Andranik Margarian (HHK) 70.3 58.0
4. Parliament Member Artashes Geghamian (AMK) 37.5 32.0
5. Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian 37.0 53.0
6. Parliament Member Artur Baghdasarian (OYeK) 17.0 10.0
7. Plant Director Stepan Demirchian (HZhK) 16.3 19.8
8. Parliament Member Vahan Hovanisian (HHD) 14.5 7.0
9. President's Chief of Staff Artashes Tumanian 14.3 14.0
10. Justice Minister David Harutiunian 11.0 9.5
Abbreviations: HHK - the ruling Republican Party; AMK - opposition
National Accord Party; OYeK - pro-government Country of Law Party;
HZhK - opposition People's Party; and HHD - pro-government Armenian
Revolutionary Federation. |
| April 12-19 |
A two-day conference in Yerevan, organized
by the European Union (EU) this week, brought together government
officials and information technology (IT) experts from throughout
the Newly Independent States and Europe. IT has become one of the
Armenian economy's fastest growing sectors, with its output increasing
by 30 percent last year and registered exports reaching $20 million.
There are now 200 privately-owned companies involved in the sector,
many of them with Western (mostly American) investments. Addressing
the conference via video, the EU Commissioner for External Affairs
Chris Patten offered Europe's support for the Armenian government's
efforts to develop the sector. The EU has already allocated $1.6 million
to create an IT training and information center in Armenia.
Meanwhile, the World Bank (WB) organized a U.S.-Armenia videoconference
aimed at fostering Armenia-Diaspora cooperation in the IT sector.
One of the participants, Berge Ayvazian, president of the Armenian
High Tech Council of America (AHTCA) - a group of businessmen involved
in the IT sector, many of whom have already invested in Armenia -
said the organization's goal was to help build wealth in Armenia by
helping Armenian high-tech companies improve their project management
and marketing techniques. The AHTCA has studied the experiences of
countries like Ireland and India, where the IT development has been
especially successful, and will present these findings and other proposals
at the Armenia-Diaspora Conference this May.
Another participant in the WB event, Professor of Entrepreneurship
at the University of Maryland James Sanders discussed the growing
international market demand for outside IT services and suggested
niches in which Armenia would have the greater likelihood of success.
Sanders, who has in the past served as CEO at several software firms,
stressed the important role played by NASSCOM, India's IT trade association,
in building its image and making that country a top supplier of outside
IT services to leading Western and Japanese companies. |
| April 19-26 |
Armenians in the Republic and in communities
around the world were joined by representatives of foreign governments
for the annual commemoration of the 1915 Genocide of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire. Eighty-seven years ago, on April 24, the Ottoman
Turkish government ordered the arrest and execution of hundreds of
Armenian leaders. Subsequent massacres and deportations resulted in
deaths of an estimated one and a half million out of some two million
Armenians then living within the borders of the Empire. Following
World War I, a war crimes tribunal in Istanbul determined that members
of the "Young Turks" government were, in fact, perpetrators of the
Genocide. To avoid responsibility for the crime, subsequent leaders
of the Republic of Turkey have denied the fact of genocide.
In Armenia, hundreds of thousands of people walked to the Genocide
Memorial at the Tsitsernakaberd hill outside of Yerevan to lay flowers
and wreaths in memory of the victims. The procession included all
senior officials from Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh, as well as foreign
diplomats and other dignitaries. In his annual address, President
Robert Kocharian called the Genocide "the most tragic page in Armenian
history" that put the future of the whole nation in jeopardy. He said
that Armenia pursues the international recognition of the Genocide
"not as a manifestation of revenge, but as a concern for ensuring
that a similar crime will never happen again."
Director of the Armenian Genocide Institute and Museum Lavrenti Barseghian
sounded a similar note, saying that only recognition of the Genocide,
particularly by Turkey, can lay solid foundations for friendship and
cooperation. He also called on the Armenian government to raise the
issue of compensation for the huge damages suffered by Armenians in
the Genocide.
Diaspora communities throughout the world and foreign governments
also held commemorative ceremonies to mark the anniversary. In a traditional
April 24 statement, President George W. Bush called on the world "to
reflect upon and draw lessons" from what he called "an appalling tragedy
of the 20th century, the massacre of as many as 1.5 million
Armenians through forced exile and
murder at the end of the Ottoman Empire." |
| April 19-26 |
In a statement to the Armenian-American
community this week, President George W. Bush expressed deep gratitude
"for Armenia's swift and decisive cooperation in the war against terrorism."
"Our two peoples stand together in this fight in support of values
that define civilization itself" he noted. The President said he was
"very proud of America's strong support for a free Armenian state."
He added that close cooperation between Armenia and the United States
will allow continued focus on Armenia's economic development and its
integration into the Euro-Atlantic community, and that bilateral security
cooperation will increase in the coming months.
Earlier this week, Ambassador William Taylor, who oversees U.S. assistance
to the countries of Europe and Eurasia, told members of the Armenian
Assembly of America in Washington, DC, that continued U.S. assistance
to Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh is in America's national interest.
He also noted that U.S. assistance to Nagorno Karabagh has been very
effective and will continue. Taylor said the assistance programs have
born fruit, because the Armenian government has taken concrete steps
to improve the business environment and combat corruption.
|
| April 19-26 |
In its continued effort to deny the
Armenian Genocide and relegate the issue to historical oblivion, the
Turkish government facilitated last weekend an unprecedented conference
on the "Armenian issue." The gathering of over 100 Turkish scholars,
retired diplomats, journalists and writers was hosted by the Ankara-based
Institute for Armenian Research. The Institute, headed by a former
senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official, was established last June
in response to the wave of official recognition of the Armenian Genocide
in Europe.
Last year, one of the better-known Genocide deniers Professor Justin
McCarthy urged Turkey to launch a "comprehensive propaganda" campaign
to deny the Armenian Genocide. "In order to prevent incorrect propaganda
Turkey should open the Ottoman archives," he was quoted as saying
at the time. Heeding this request, Turkish President Ahmet Sezer in
a letter to the Ankara conference announced the Ottoman archives to
be "open." Turkey has made similar assurances in the past, but access
to the archives has been highly selective. In addition, there is reported
to be evidence that any documents compromising Turkish denial have
been removed.
Meanwhile, the Turkish press noted this week increased bilateral contacts
between Armenia and Turkey, primarily through the organizations affiliated
with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Following last
year's terrorist attacks on the United States, both countries have
been actively participating in the U.S.-led anti-terrorist operation.
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian confirmed reports that he will be
meeting Turkey's Foreign Minister Ismail Cem at the NATO summit next
month, the second such meeting this year. Armenia has been ready to
establish diplomatic relations with Turkey for years, but Ankara has
tied normalization to Armenian concessions in Nagorno Karabagh and
has blockaded Armenia.
Over the weekend, Turkish media quoted Dr. Ayla Gul of the Ankara
University Faculty of Political Science, the alma mater for most of
the Turkish diplomats, as urging the government to drop its pro-Azerbaijani
policy. She pointed to increased security cooperation between Armenia
and the United States and emphasized the need for an open dialogue
between Armenia and Turkey. Gul joined a growing number of Turkish
scholars calling for normalization of relations between Armenia and
Turkey. She also praised the efforts of the Turkish-Armenian Business
Development Council (TABDC) which has fostered professional and cultural
exchanges between the two countries. |
| April 19-26 |
The Armenian government sent a group
of doctors, seismologists and emergency workers together with a batch
of medicines and equipment, to neighboring Georgia following last
night's earthquake in its capital Tbilisi. The tremors, measuring
between 5 and 6 on the Richter scale, were the worst for Georgia in
the last forty years. Reports on Friday put the death toll at five
people and dozens hospitalized. There was considerable damage in the
historical center of Tbilisi, including the Armenian quarter in Havlabar.
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| April 19-26 |
Officials at Armenian Airlines (AAL)
announced this week plans to inaugurate a first-ever direct flight
to the United States. The airline signed an agreement this week to
rent an Airbus A330 from a Belgian carrier, which is to begin flights
from Yerevan to Los Angeles with a stopover in Brussels. The officials
said they would scrap flights to Frankfurt and Amsterdam, where most
of the AAL's passengers now connect to flights to the United States,
should the new flight prove profitable.
Last month, President Robert Kocharian vowed to make drastic changes
to the way the financially troubled carrier operates. He said that
"in a way, the aviation sector as a whole is becoming an obstacle
to the country's economic development." AAL was forced to suspend
flights to major European cities earlier this year after its Airbus
A310, leased in France, was grounded due to engine problems in January.
Due to technical restrictions introduced at all European airports
last year, AAL's fleet of Soviet-made aircraft could no longer make
these flights.
In addition to AAL, British Airways, as well as Austrian, Czech and
several Russian airlines have flights to Armenia. |
| April 19-26 |
President Robert Kocharian visited
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar earlier this week in an effort
to foster trade links with the two Persian Gulf countries. In meetings
and presentations in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Doha, Kocharian pointed
to growing economic opportunities in Armenia and its liberal trade
regime; he urged local businessmen to invest in Armenia. During the
visits, Kocharian and UAE and Qatar leaders signed agreements on multi-faceted
cooperation, drawing up a legal basis for economic cooperation and
scrapping double taxation. The agreements focused in particular on
agribusiness, banking and healthcare. Kocharian also met with members
of the local Armenian community. |
| April 19-26 |
Armenia's economic growth continues,
strengthened by strong expansion in exports and some progress in revenue
collection, according to the economic statistics for the first quarter
of the year released by the government this and last week. The main
economic index, gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 7.4 percent
compared to the first three months of 2001. Industry expanded by over
twenty percent and construction by over ten percent, while a drop
in electricity generation continued. The jewelry sector rebounded
from last year's stagnation helping to fuel a more than fifty percent
growth in exports and 2.4-fold increase in trade with Israel. Russia
and Belgium remained Armenia's largest economic partners, accounting
for about one-fifth and one-sixth of all trade turnover. They were
followed by Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
Also in the first quarter, the government succeeded in improving its
revenue index, collecting $37.4 million, which is $3.5 million higher
than in the first quarter of 2001. |
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