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This was originally published in February 2, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
Armenian groups endorse rival Democratic candidates
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) this week endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in the Democratic primaries. In a January 30 statement, ANCA chair Ken Hachikian said that “based on his strong record in office, his bold statements as a candidate, and our judgment as to the policies he will pursue as President, we believe that, among a strong field of Democratic candidates, Senator Obama will best reflect the views and values of Armenian American voters.”
A day earlier, ARMENPAC, a political action committee, endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.). “Out of all the candidates for President, it is my belief that Hillary Clinton will be the strongest advocate not only for the recognition of the genocide, but for all Armenian issues,” said ARMENPAC Co-Chair Annie Totah.
Senators Obama and Clinton are the main candidates for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination; former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) withdrew this week.
Turks discuss U.S. presidential candidates
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Sen. Barack Obama as a political amateur after the candidate for Democratic presidential nomination issued a statement in support of the Armenian-American agenda on January 19.
Mr. Erdogan counseled the U.S. senator to “outgrow his amateur period of his political career” and take note that Turkey was a much larger country than Armenia, local media quoted the Turkish leader as saying on January 22.
There was no immediate Turkish government reaction to a similar statement on Armenian issues made by Sen. Hillary Clinton on January 24, but speaking at a Washington think tank this week former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Mark Parris said both statements could start a Democratic presidency off “on a sour note” in terms of relations with Turkey.
Writing about the statements in the Turkish Daily News on January 26, its Washington correspondent Umit Enginsoy said that they reflected a close race between the two senators and their effort to court voters. He noted that neither President Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush upheld their pledges to affirm the Armenian Genocide after they were elected.
“Analysts say that although Clinton and probably Obama may also change their positions if elected president, their present statements favoring the Armenian cause are pretty strong,” he said.
The English-language Turkish newspaper wrote on January 17, “Turkish diplomats and other high level officials generally favor Senator Clinton over Senator Obama,” recalling that the Clinton presidency marked “arguably the highest point in U.S.-Turkish relations over the past four decades” and that they anticipated “no surprises” from Sen. Clinton.
“They tend to view Sen. Obama as an unpredictable and inexperienced politician on foreign policy, surrounded by some advisers hostile to Turkey,” the paper suggested and went on to add that since he “comes from a minority” Sen. Obama “may attempt to transform U.S. foreign policy in ways that may hurt Turkey, if he is elected president.”
While Turkish officials report no specific qualms about Republican presidential candidates, and would particularly welcome Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) as president, “many Turkish officials have reservations over a Republican victory in the face of the party’s hard-line policies in the Middle East.”
Watchdog: West puts other interests before democracy abroad
U.S., European, and other democracies are letting authoritarian states violate human rights while using pseudo-elections as a smokescreen to earn international legitimacy, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its annual World Report released on January 31.
“It’s now too easy for autocrats to get away with mounting a sham democracy,” HRW executive director Ken Roth said in a statement. “It seems Washington and European governments will accept even the most dubious election so long as the ‘victor’ is a strategic or commercial ally,” he said. The report argued further that human rights abuses as part of the U.S.-led “war on terror” have also undermined international standards.
In its review of Armenia, HRW acknowledged the improved conduct of elections in May 2007, but cited incidents of ill-treatment in police custody and harassment of political opposition supporters. It also claimed that media freedom was limited.
HRW also criticized European leaders for their reluctance to accept Turkey into the European Union (EU). As a result, the report argued, the EU “lost leverage itself and diminished the clout of those in Turkey who have cited the prospect of EU membership as a reason for reform.”
Sibel Edmonds case featured in British newspaper
The former translator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) added new details to her allegations of wrongdoing in U.S. government that may have damaged national security.
In feature articles on January 6 and 27, the Sunday Times (London) published the charges of Sibel Edmonds (covered by the Armenian Reporter last year and previously) that Turkish and other foreign governments successfully co-opted senior members of the U.S. government.
In particular, Ms. Edmonds, 37, alleged that in 2001 a senior State Department official exposed a covert Central Intelligence Agency counter-proliferation operation to the Turkish government, which in turn shared the information with other foreign governments seeking nuclear weapons.
The charges were previously heard in a closed session of the U.S. Congress, but the Justice Department has since barred Mrs. Edmonds from testifying, citing national security concerns.
The Times was able to confirm that the FBI in fact looked into the case in 2002, but no formal charges were apparently filed.
The State Department official told the newspaper last week that “It is impossible to find a strong enough way to deny these allegations which are both false and malicious.” See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3257725.ece
Russian intelligence officer was Azerbaijan’s UN envoy?
Eldar Kouliev, Azerbaijan’s ambassador at the United Nations from 1994 to 2001 was “a deep-cover [Russian] intelligence officer,” a former Russian spy, Col. Sergei Tretyakov, who defected to the U.S. in 2000, claims in a recently published book.
Ambassador Kouliev (Guliyev) was a veteran Soviet and then Russian diplomat, before joining the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry as ambassador to the UN. He is currently an executive director for a Russian-Azerbaijani community organization in Moscow.
In a comment to Azerbaijani media, Mr. Kouliev called the allegation a “stupidity,” but neither he nor a spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry denied it outright.
The former ambassador called Mr. Tretyakov a “traitor who destroyed hundreds of people.” According to a book review in the Washington Post on January 27, Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America after the End of the Cold War , written by Pete Early, was commissioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Alexa Millinger contributed to this week’s column.
This was originally published in February 2, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
22 states to hold primaries on Tuesday
WASHINGTON – As of January 31, none of the candidates seeking the Republican Party’s presidential nomination had promised to promote issues of particular concern to Armenian-American citizens. The leading candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination last week issued statements directed at Armenian-Americans.
Voters in 22 states will have an opportunity on Tuesday, February 5, to help choose the Republican and Democratic candidates for president. Veteran Arizona Senator John McCain, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas remain in the Republican race following the withdrawal of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani this week.
Mr. McCain, who has served in the Senate since 1986, has consistently opposed congressional resolutions on the Armenian Genocide and has a mixed record on other Armenian issues.
During a January 6, 2008, town hall meeting in Salem, N. H., Hofstra University student Roy Seter asked Mr. McCain about his position on the Armenian Genocide. Mr. McCain said he “didn’t support the measure” to affirm the Genocide, the Hofstra Chronicle reported on January 18. He added, however, “I will be glad to condemn genocide wherever it takes place.”
The Armenian National Committee of America cited Mr. McCain’s correspondence with Arizona constituents in October 2007, in which he said: “Condemning modern Turkey for the acts of the Ottoman Empire would serve only to harm relations with the Turkish people while injecting the Congress into the sensitive role of historian of a period clearly preceding the births of all but a very few congressmen. That is not a development I wish to help facilitate.”
Earlier in his career, Mr. McCain introduced legislation in 1989 supporting a peaceful and fair settlement of the Karabakh conflict and initially supported restrictions on U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan introduced in 1992; he reversed that position in 1999.
Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, does not have a clear record on Armenian-American issues.
Mr. Huckabee in 2001 issued a proclamation commemorating the Armenian Genocide. However, he followed that by a proclamation that obscured the genocide by commemorating victims of what he described as “Turkish and Armenian Tragedy.”
Mr. Paul opposes U.S. involvement in nearly all foreign crises, opposing any U.S. action to stop atrocities in Darfur or promote democracy abroad. He told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in November 2007 in reference to the Armenian Genocide resolution, “Getting ourselves involved in something that had been 100 years ago – it makes no sense at all. We should deal with our problems here.”
On the Democratic side, as reported in last week’s edition of the Armenian Reporter, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton both stated unequivocally, “as President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.” Mr. Obama pledged to support Armenia’s development, and to work toward “a lasting and durable settlement” in Karabakh “that is agreeable to all parties, and based upon America’s founding commitment to the principles of democracy and self determination.”
Ms. Clinton wrote that she would “work to expand and improve U.S.- Armenia relations” and support “a fair and democratic resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
“USAPAC, like other Armenian-American advocacy organizations and community activists, will continue to work with all of the presidential candidates throughout the primary campaign, into the general election and beyond,” said Executive Director Ross Vartian.
“We will continue to inform the candidates on issues important to the Armenian-American community, and to solicit their support. We will urge the candidates that have not yet spoken on Armenian issues to do so,” he added.
The two parties will hold primaries or caucuses on February 5 in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah.
The Democrats will hold a primary in Idaho, Kansas, and New Mexico on that day. The Republicans will hold contests in Montana and West Virginia on that day.
This was originally published in January 26, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
American nuclear energy official visits Armenia
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Lyons was in Armenia January 21–22 to discuss the Armenian government’s plans to build a new nuclear power plant to replace the existing one at Metsamor before 2016.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan reported that Mr. Lyons’ talks focused on how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission “can help Armenia to develop the regulatory infrastructure needed in order to license a new nuclear power plant.”
Last November, the United States agreed to fund a $2 million environmental impact and technical feasibility study that would help the Armenian government choose the best technical solutions and project logistics.
During a visit to Armenia last April, Russia’s chief nuclear energy regulator Sergei Kirienko offered assistance with both construction and funding for the new nuclear power plant. (See this page in the December 15, 2007, edition of the Armenian Reporter .) Russia has been the sole nuclear fuel supplier to Armenia and its electricity monopoly RAO UES currently manages Metsamor.
The Armenian energy minister, Armen Movsisian, has said that he anticipates involvement by several countries in what is variously estimated to be a $1 to $2 billion project.
Top U.S. diplomat to retire “for personal reasons”
Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nick Burns intends to retire this March “to go back to family concerns,” the State Department announced on January 18. The administration intends to nominate the current ambassador to Russia, Bill Burns (not related), to replace him.
Since 2005 the outgoing undersecretary has been the U.S. diplomat in charge of negotiating international sanctions against Iran, the future status of Kosovo, mending of U.S.-Turkish relations, as well as a U.S.-India agreement on nuclear energy. Mr. Burns, 51, is due to continue to deal with the India issue after his retirement, when he intends “to pursue other ventures outside the government.”
The Los Angeles Times noted on January 19 that the move came “amid signs that U.S. efforts on key issues have been losing momentum.” As undersecretary, Mr. Burns was the public face of the department, frequently announcing and articulating U.S. foreign policy initiatives.
Last September, shortly before taking a trip to Ankara, he acknowledged difficulties in U.S.-Turkish relations since 2002 and spoke on the need to “restore” bilateral ties, particularly through “mechanisms” to clamp down on anti-Turkey Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.
He said at the time that while the Bush Administration has repeatedly acknowledged and condemned the “mass killings and forced deportations” in Ottoman Turkey, it opposes “the passage of the U.S. House of Representative’s Resolution 106, which would make a political determination that the tragedy of 1915 constituted genocide.”
That pronouncement was followed by aggressive administration lobbying against the Armenian Genocide resolution in October, a Turkish prime minister’s visit to Washington in November, and provision of U.S. intelligence to help Turkish military operations in northern Iraq since last December.
Members of Congress urge “Genocide prevention task force” to learn from Armenian experience
Four lead co-sponsors of the congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide wrote to the co-chairs of the recently launched anti-genocide initiative on January 17 “to ensure that the lessons of the Armenian Genocide are used to help prevent future genocides.”
The letter, co-signed by Reps. Frank Pallone (D.-N.J.), Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.), Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.), and George Radanovich (R.-Calif.), was made available to the Armenian Reporter by Mr. Pallone’s staff.
“When addressing U.S. policy on genocide,” the representatives argued, “no serious discussion can take place that does not cover the extensive U.S. record documenting the American response to the Armenian Genocide, as well as the modern-day impact of the ongoing denial of this crime,” it read.
The “Genocide prevention task force” is co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and Bill Cohen, former Clinton Administration secretaries of state and defense, respectively. They intend to issue a report on the subject by December of this year.
As former secretaries launched the “task force” last November, they repeatedly heard questions, including from this newspaper, about their credibility on the issue. (See this page in the November 17, 2007, edition of the Armenian Reporter .) Ms. Albright and Mr. Cohen have advocated against congressional affirmation of the Armenian Genocide while both in and out of government.
European Parliament wants “more effective” Caucasus policy
The European Union (EU) was urged to “develop a clear profile and stronger presence” in the Caucasus in a resolution passed by the European Parliament on January 17, the European Armenian Federation (EAF) reported.
The resolution expressed support for “an inbuilt differentiation in the application of the [EU] policy towards the countries concerned . . . according to their individual merits”. The resolution particularly welcomes “internal political and institutional reforms undertaken by Armenia” since 2005 and urges further progress; it is also generally supportive of Georgia, although expressing concern over its government’s crackdown on opposition last November; and it is critical “of the deterioration of the human rights situation and media freedom in Azerbaijan.”
The EAF criticized the resolution for avoiding a mention of the Armenian Genocide, instead referring to “past events,” and failing to clearly condemn Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policies and rhetoric. Moreover, the original text prepared by MEP from Luxemburg (and its former foreign minister) Lydie Polfer also included a line endorsing “internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.”
The final version retained that reference while also expressing support for “the right to self-determination, in accordance with UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act” and claiming “that the contradiction between the principles of self-determination and territorial integrity contributes to the perpetuation of the unresolved conflicts in the South Caucasus region,” Armenpress reported.
President inaugurated in Georgia as opposition protests
Mikhail Saakashvili was inaugurated for a second term as Georgian president on January 20, local media reported.
The inauguration was attended by presidents of the three Baltic States, Poland, and Romania, as well as ministerial delegations from the U.S., Russia, Armenia, and elsewhere. The inauguration went ahead while many thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Tbilisi to protest it as illegitimate.
In his inaugural address, Mr. Saakashvili pledged to focus on overcoming poverty in Georgia’s provinces and improving relations with Russia and the political opposition, which accuses him of rigging the vote to avoid a runoff. Mr. Saakashvili was certified the winner of January 5 election with over 53% of the vote, roughly 70,000 votes above the fifty percent plus one vote threshold.
In Washington, long-time Georgia analyst Dr. Charles Fairbanks of the Hudson Institute argued on January 16 that at least 80,000 votes were added to Mr. Saakashvili’s total and his re-election in the first round was therefore invalid. The opposition claimed days after the election that as many as 110,000 votes were stolen. (See this page in the January 12 edition of the Armenian Reporter .)
But Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza told RFE/RL earlier this week that the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi concluded that while “there were irregularities of concern, there was no systematic attempt we saw to use massive fraud to change the result of the election.”
President Bush called to congratulate Mr. Saakashvili on January 14. Mr. Bryza urged the opposition to “move forward . . . accept the results and prepare for parliamentary elections,” which he said should be conducted “better.”
This was originally published in January 26, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
Reach out ahead of Super Tuesday
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States, last weekend, issued a comprehensive statement in support of Armenian-American concerns. Fellow Democratic hopefuls Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina issued similar statements during the week.
This week in South Carolina and Florida, and on February 5 in 22 other states, voters will have an opportunity to help choose the candidates for president. Democrats looking to reach out to significant Armenian-American communities in several of the primary states have issued these timely statements to highlight their positions on issues of interest to Armenian-American voters.
Referring to “one and a half million Americans of Armenian heritage in the United States,” Mr. Obama pledged to support Armenia’s development, and to work toward “a lasting and durable settlement” in Karabakh “that is agreeable to all parties, and based upon America’s founding commitment to the principles of democracy and self determination.”
Although he has not officially signed on to the Armenian Genocide resolution in the Senate, he pledged to support its passage, adding, “as President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
In her statement, Ms. Clinton highlighted her past support of Armenian Genocide resolutions in Congress and, like Mr. Obama, promised, “as President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.” She also wrote that she would “work to expand and improve U.S.-Armenia relations” and support “a fair and democratic resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
Mr. Edwards wrote that he supports the Genocide resolution in Congress, noting, however, that it is not directed at “our friends in Turkey.” Referring, like Mr. Obama, to “our nation’s one and a half million Americans of Armenian heritage,” he wrote that as president he would “prioritize our special relationship with Armenia and the goal of a lasting peace to Nagorno Karabakh and the entire region.”
As a senator, Mr. Obama has repeatedly spoken out on the need to affirm the Armenian Genocide, including in letters to the president and secretary of state. He protested the firing of John Evans as ambassador to Armenia for using the word “genocide.” As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he voted, however, over Armenian-American objections, to affirm the president’s ultimately unsuccessful nominee to replace Mr. Evans.
Mr. Obama’s advisors include Harvard Professor Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide , who has repeatedly spoken out in favor of a congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide, most recently in a Time magazine article last October.
An opponent of the war in Iraq, Mr. Obama opposes a potential military confrontation with Armenia’s southern neighbor, Iran. He has called for a diplomatic solution there. Mr. Obama enjoys the support of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who has the largest Armenian-American constituency nationwide, as well as the Turkish caucus co-chair Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida.
Ms. Clinton is a co-sponsor of the Genocide resolution in the Senate. In mid-October she told the Boston Globe editorial board that in view of Turkey’s strong opposition, Congress should proceed with caution. But she did not withdraw her co-sponsorship.
Like Mr. Obama, she has repeatedly spoken out on the need to affirm the Armenian Genocide, including in letters to the president and secretary of state. Ms. Clinton’s range of supporters in Congress includes national campaign chair Sen. Bob Menendez, a strong supporter of Armenian- American issues, Rep. Brad Sherman of California, who has a significant Armenian-American constituency, and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., of New Jersey, who is co-chair of the Armenian issues caucus in the House.
As a senator, Mr. Edwards cosponsored the Armenian Genocide resolution. He also supported Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which restricted U.S. aid to Azerbaijan because of its blockade of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Democratic Party primaries will be held on February 5 in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah. Kansas will hold caucuses on that day.
Alexa Millinger contributed reporting for this story.
This was originally published in January 19, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
Early leader of Karabakh’s liberation movement passed away at 76
Known for his integrity and indefatigable spirit, but also at times controversial positions, former Karabakh Armenian leader Arkady Manucharov died on January 7 in Moscow, where he made his home for most of the last decade and a half.
Born in Karabakh in 1931, Mr. Manucharov was trained as an engineer in Moscow in the 1950s and upon graduation he returned to work in Karabakh’s construction sector. He excelled in that field earning a number of state medals and awards and official credits for 30 inventions.
Mr. Manucharov first came to prominence in 1965. In the year that also saw first-ever April 24 popular protests in Yerevan, the young engineer joined 12 other activists led by historian Bagrat Ulubabian to organize a petition by some 45,000 Karabakh Armenians requesting that the Soviet government reunite Karabakh with Armenia.
The resulting government crackdown saw Mr. Manucharov, among others, expelled from Karabakh. He went on to participate in the rebuilding of Uzbekistan’s capital of Tashkent following a devastating earthquake in 1966 and worked elsewhere in USSR.
Mr. Manucharov was finally able to return to Karabakh in 1977, becoming the director of the Stepanakert construction materials plant. It was no surprise then that as the movement for Karabakh’s freedom re-ignited in February 1988, Mr. Manucharov took the helm of the Krunk Committee established to advance the cause of re-unification. Its thirteen founding members included the current Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
Later in 1988, Mr. Manucharov secretly met with the then Soviet Azerbaijani leader Abdurrahman Vezirov to negotiate a higher status for Karabakh. That meeting – the first between de facto Karabakh Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders – was not coordinated with other Karabakh activists, who, when they learned of it, began to treat Mr. Manucharov with suspicion, resulting in lasting damage to his status as Karabakh’s leader.
Years later, in an interview with British journalist Tom de Waal an Azerbaijani official involved in the conflict took credit for splitting Karabakh’s leadership. In his book on Karabakh, de Waal quotes Seiran Mirzoyev as saying in April 2000 that “we did everything to split the separatists,” including by spreading rumors and false allegations about Mr. Manucharov.
In the end, failing to co-opt Karabakh leaders, Soviet officials gave a free rein to mobs that attacked Armenians in Azerbaijan and stood by as the entire community of more than 300,000 was expelled. Arrests of activists began in Stepanakert and Yerevan, with Mr. Manucharov one of the main targets.
The first attempt to detain Mr. Manucharov late one night in mid-November 1988 failed as his neighbors confronted the Soviet security forces that arrived in five armored vehicles. Ensuing fracas left seven civilians and one security forces member injured. But two weeks later, in Yerevan, Mr. Manucharov was lured into a meeting at the Interior Ministry building only to be arrested and transported to Azerbaijan.
For months Mr. Manucharov was tortured in the notorious Shusha prison, with the town then under Azerbaijani control, and his family threatened with reprisals and harassed. Under pressure from human rights activists from around the world he was transferred to a prison in Moscow.
Recognized as “prisoner of conscience” by the Amnesty International and Helsinki Watch (now known as the Human Rights Watch), Mr. Manucharov became a cause celebrity for activists fighting for democracy in the Soviet Union and was subject of appeals by, among others, then Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Sen. Claiborne Pell (D.-R.I.) and Rep. Charles Pashayan, Jr. (R.- Calif.).
Encouraged by Russian pro-democracy leaders Andrey Sakharov and Galina Starovoytova, St. Petersburg lawyer Yuri Schmidt, who rose to prominence in recent years as the legal defender for businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, at the time provided counsel to Mr. Manucharov.
In August 1989, while in prison pending trial, Mr. Manucharov was also selected as an honorary member of Artsakh’s National Council– a public organization set up to defend Karabakh Armenian interests as Moscow and Baku moved to disband Karabakh’s local government structures. That same month Mr. Manucharov was elected to the Supreme Council of Soviet Armenia from the town of Charentsavan; he was re-elected on May 20, 1990.
Days later, on May 29, 1990, after eighteen months in pre-trial imprisonment, Mr. Manucharov, then 59, was finally freed. With his health marred but spirit intact, he told Moscow-based daily at the time: “I do not link my release to the Soviet rulers’ goodwill. They just had no other choice.”
Soon after, Mr. Manucharov returned to Nagorno Karabakh and was elected to NKR’s first parliament at the end of 1991. At the time, Mr. Manucharov reportedly fell out with other Armenian leaders just as he advocated for Karabakh’s union with Russia.
Although living in Moscow for more than a decade, Mr. Manucharov would continue to visit Karabakh and was decorated with NKR’s Order of Mesrob Mashtots – the highest civilian award – for his contribution to the Karabakh cause.
In a message of condolences, NKR President Bako Sahakian noted that Mr. Manucharov was expected to be in Stepanakert to take part in the events marking the 20th anniversary of the Karabakh movement next month.
Prepared by Emil Sanamyan. Armenian Reporter correspondent Tatul Hakobian, who recently finished a book on the Karabakh conflict, contributed to this story.
This was originally published in January 19, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
Armenia’s Freedom House score unchanged
Two Washington think tanks, whose findings form part of the eligibility criteria for U.S. Millennium Challenge Assistance (MCA) programs issued their ratings this week. Implementation of a $235 million MCA program in Armenia began in December 2006.
Armenia’s economy is 28th freest worldwide, according to the annual Index of Economic Freedom released on January 15. (See story on page A1.) Meantime, a report issued by the Freedom House on January 16 again described both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh as partly free” and found no changes in levels of political rights and civil liberties there.
The think tank did not release country-by-country reports at press to explain its determinations. But overall, the “Freedom in the World 2008” report found “a notable setback for global freedom” in 2007. Among countries where the study registered such setbacks were Georgia (which remained “partly free”), Azerbaijan, and Russia (both “not free”). On the other hand, freedoms are said to have improved in Turkey (still rated “partly free”).
Senior U.S. senator, Azerbaijani Caucus co-chairs make trips to Baku
Senator Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.), ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, met with the Azerbaijani president and other officials on January 13 and 14, local media reported. The veteran U.S. senator reportedly predicted that there would be no resolution to the Karabakh conflict any time soon. He also encouraged continued U.S.–Azerbaijani security cooperation and warned of threats from Iran.
Sen. Lugar’s visit to Baku, his fifth there, was part of a regional tour that focused on promoting trans-Caspian routes for Central Asian energy exports to Europe. It also included stops in Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan.
Mr. Lugar said that he would urge President Bush to appoint a new special envoy on Caspian energy issues to promote non-Russian export routes. Russia recently signed agreements with Central Asian states on natural gas transportation to Europe.
In an October 4, 2007, letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Lugar together with Committee chair Joe Biden (D.- Del.) noted that the United States has a “long-term interest in preventing Russian domination of energy in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia.”
Co-chairs of Congressional Caucuses on Azerbaijan - Rep. Bill Shuster (R.-Penn.) and Turkey - Reps Robert Wexler (D.- Fla.) were in Azerbaijan on January 9–11. In addition to meeting the President, Defense Minister, and other officials, the two members of Congress also visited with the First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who combines duties of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation president, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, and chair of the U.S.–Azerbaijan Inter-Parliamentary Relations Committee.
In recent years, there has been a steady stream of congressional delegations to Azerbaijan, including two members of the House Intelligence Committee who visited in 2007. By contrast, no member of the U.S. Congress has visited Armenia since the November 2005 regional tour by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D.-Fla.), who chairs the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
Scholars highlight nationalist violence in Turkey
On the first anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder, scholars speaking in Washington this week noted lack of any tangible progress in the Turkish government’s policy toward dissidents and the continued threat of ultranationalist violence. Mr. Dink, editor of the Turkish Armenian newspaper Agos, was tried in a Turkish court and targeted for assassination for speaking out on the Armenian Genocide.
Dr. Taner Akçam of the University of Minnesota, who has also been a target of the Turkish government for speaking out on the Genocide, argued at the National Press Club (NPC) on January 17 that Mr. Dink’s case demonstrates that there exists an “unwritten code” between the Turkish media, justice officials, and government in which they work together to silence any public dissent.
“To prosecute intellectuals is considered a patriotic act in Turkey,” Mr. Akçam said. He also cited the need for an organized domestic civil rights movement as the necessary prerequisite for reform as Turkey continues to seek entry into the European Union (EU).
“Turkey cannot be a member of the EU as long as they criminalize the discussion of history,” Mr. Akçam said, referring to the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
Joining Prof. Akcam at NPC was Payam Akhavan, international law professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and former United Nations war crimes prosecutor. “It seems as if nothing has been learned from [Hrant Dink’s] murder and Article 301 is still being used to prosecute those who counter the government,” said Mr. Akhavan.
He acknowledged that in addition to 301 there are other provisions of the Turkish penal code that also prohibit free speech. However, he said that, “the symbolic importance of repealing Article 301 cannot be underestimated.” The Turkish government has considered revising 301, but refuses to repeal it outright.
Yektan Turkyilmaz, a doctoral student at Duke University who has researched Armenian-Turkish relations in both Yerevan and Istanbul, told the Armenian Reporter on January 14 that Mr. Dink’s case “was not just another ‘deep state’ murder,” of which there have been many in Turkish history.
He stressed that Mr. Dink’s assassination should be treated as part of a pattern that also included murders of a Catholic priest in Trabzon in 2006 and Christian missionaries in Malatya in 2007 and reflects “a new trend” and “scary” new face of Turkish nationalism. Two other priests were targeted in Izmir and Antalya last month.
While Mr. Turkyilmaz noted that “good things are also happening,” there are “even more reactionary currents” in Turkey today than at any time in recent past, and that there is “little cause to be optimistic” that things would improve in near future.
Turkey to host Sudanese leader accused of genocide
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is held responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in Darfur, will visit Ankara next week on invitation from Turkish President Abdullah Gül, Turkish media reported on January 16.
The United States and much of the international community have charged Sudan with genocide, but Turkish government sided with Mr. al-Bashir and when visiting Sudan in March 2006 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believed that “no assimilation or genocide was committed in Darfur.”
Mr. al-Bashir is due to be received with full honors at Turkey’s Presidential Palace on January 21. Sudan and Turkey signed a military cooperation agreement in July 2007, and a Turkish military delegation visited Khartoum earlier this month, reportedly to study ways to assist the Sudanese military.
This was originally published in January 12, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
WASHINGTON – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili received 52 percent of the January 5 vote, according to official preliminary results from Georgia’s Central Election Commission, just enough to avoid a second round contest with opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze, who came second with 25 percent.
Mr. Gachechiladze, as well as seven other candidates, including exiled billionaire businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who came in third with 7 percent of the vote, claimed the election was fixed to avoid a second round and promised new street protests unless the results are overturned by courts.
Western observers offered divergent interpretations of the conduct of the vote and its possible consequences. The presidential election came two months after Mr. Saakashvili used force to disperse thousands of demonstrators who called on him to resign, introducing a week-long state of emergency.
Mr. Saakashvili, 40, was swept to power after November 2003 street protests against his predecessor and Georgia’s Soviet-era leader Eduard Shevardnadze, in what was dubbed a democratic “Rose Revolution.” Mr. Saakashvili went on to win more than 96 percent of the vote in early 2004 election, running virtually unopposed. He has since been credited with bringing order and economic improvements to Georgia, but also accused of increased authoritarianism and not doing enough to address poverty.
Democratic triumph vs. deliberate falsification
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D.-Fla.), who led the short-term Western observers, called the election a “triumphant step” for democracy in a press conference on January 6. And on January 7 the State Department endorsed the observers’ preliminary findings that “the election in Georgia was in essence consistent with most [international] commitments and standards.”
The State Department statement also noted that “international monitors identified significant problems that must be corrected” and urged the Georgian government to investigate reports of fraud.
NATO, which Georgia seeks to join, issued a statement on January 8 describing the vote as “an important step in Georgia’s democratic development” and added that “NATO will continue to deepen its Intensified Dialogue with Georgia, and support further efforts to meet Euro-Atlantic standards.”
Meantime, veteran German diplomat Dieter Boden who led the long-term observer mission (and previously served as the United Nations Special Representative for Georgia) appeared to be much more critical in his assessment. According to Deutsche Welle, the German public radio, on January 10 Frankfurter Runschau newspaper cited Mr. Boden as saying that “there was crass, negligent and deliberate falsification during the vote counting.” According to Prime News report on the same day, a spokesperson for the OSCE did not question the accuracy of the quote but said that the interview was not published completely.
The official results diverged widely throughout Georgia. While official results showed
Mr. Saakashvili trailing Mr. Gachechiladze in most of the capital Tbilisi, the incumbent won more than 90 percent of votes in Armenian-populated Samtkhe-Javakheti and Azerbaijani-populated Kvemo Kartli provinces.
Tina Khidasheli with Mr. Gachechiladze campaign said on January 8 that returns in those two provinces showed an usually high turnout of more than 90 percent “and in some cases turnout was even 100%,” according to Civil.ge. She claimed that nationwide some 110,000 votes, six percent of all that were reportedly cast, were falsified in favor of the incumbent.
What’s next?
In interviews with the Armenian Reporter this week, long-time Georgia watchers also disagreed on possible consequences of the vote. “I have a sense of deja-vu recalling the Armenian presidential election of 1996,” said Liz Fuller, the Caucasus Manager at Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Prague.
“As Vano Siradeghian told RFE/RL two years later, that vote was indeed rigged to preclude a runoff between Levon Ter-Petrossian and Vazgen Manukian, as many of us suspected at the time,” she recalled. Mr. Ter-Petrossian was forced to resign 16 months after that vote.
“I don’t see Georgia as more stable in the wake of the vote,” said Ms. Fuller, “On the contrary: instability and tension will be the order of the day in the run-up to the parliamentary elections.”
Cory Welt of Georgetown University’s Eurasia Strategy Project in Washington suggested that concerns over Georgia’s stability forced the U.S. and others to quickly approve the election before reports of possible fraud could be investigated.
“Both the government and the opposition suffer from a deficit of trust,” Dr. Welt went on to say. “Many Georgians do not view Saakashvili’s government as an especially democratic one, but neither do they trust that the opposition is playing an entirely fair game.”
He argued that upcoming parliamentary elections, which may take place as soon as this spring would “at last provide the opposition with a legitimate political station.” “This election was principally a referendum on [President] Saakashvili’s rule,” Dr. Welt said. “He passed, if just barely.”
This was originally published in January 12, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
Bush and Gül tout “strategic partnership”
President George W. Bush described Turkey as “great strategic partner” with which the United States shares a “common enemy” – the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK – during a brief joint appearance with Turkish President Abdullah Gül at the White House Rose Garden on January 8.
According to Turkish media, meeting with Mr. Bush and senior administration officials, Mr. Gül secured pledges of continued U.S. intelligence support for Turkey’s operations against rebel Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, heralding a “new era” in U.S.-Turkish ties.
Mr. Gul then travelled to New York for a January 9 dinner meeting with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, whom he urged to launch a new initiative that would help lift international sanctions against Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.
Mr. Gül also met with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former U.S. ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke, two key foreign policy advisors in the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.).
While in New York, Mr. Gül was also due to meet with leaders of Jewish American organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), as well as Turkish groups, including Meskhetian Turks who have received asylum in the U.S. following their expulsion from Central Asia.
Throughout the visit, Mr. Gül spoke only with Turkish journalists at his hotel. There were no opportunities for media questions during a lecture he gave at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, moderated by its president Lee Hamilton, and a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York was reportedly off the record.
At the Wilson Center, Mr. Gül spoke of Turkey’s achievements and importance in arious matters. While he did not address any Armenian issues directly, he did broadly refer to unresolved conflicts in the Caucasus and Central Asia that needed to be addressed through regional cooperation.” He listed oil and gas pipelines, as well as the ongoing construction of the Akhalkalaki-Kars Armenia rail bypass as examples of such cooperation.
Kosovo promises to declare independence next month
Hashim Thaci, the newly elected prime minister of United Nations-controlled Kosovo, promised to formally declare independence from Serbia next month, news agencies reported on January 9.
The ethnic Albanian province has been out of Serbia’s control since its 1999 occupation by U.S.-led NATO forces which accused the former Serbian government of ethnic cleansing.
“I assure you that within a few weeks we will declare independence,” Mr. Thaci said. “Kosovo’s independence is a done deal. We just need to declare it.”
United States and some European countries support Kosovo’s independence, which Serbia opposes. But they have reportedly urged Kosovars to postpone its formal declaration as part of their bargaining with Russia, which promised to block any formal recognition by the UN or transfer of its mandate to the European Union.
EU officials have said that under a new, transition arrangement Kosovo would not have total independence” but be under EU supervision, while NATO forces would continue a peacekeeping mission.
Reports coming up…
Over the next week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch and Washington-based Freedom House are due to release their annual reports on the global state of human rights in 2007.
The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal are also due to release their annual Index of Economic Freedom. The last two reports count toward eligibility for U.S. Millennium Challenge Assistance.
In Other News: Azerbaijan plans to install world’s tallest flag
But North Korea may already have a taller flagpole
WASHINGTON – The Azerbaijani government hired U.S. Trident Support Corp. to build the world’s tallest flag to be visible through much of the capital Baku, the official Azertag news agency reported on December 30. The “national project,” as it has been called, is due to be completed by May 2008.
President Ilham Aliyev and Defense Minister Safar Abiyev formally launched the construction at the newly established National Flag square in Bayilovo. According to the news agency report, the flagpole rising 150 meters (493 ft) and weighing 220 metric tons will support a 35-by-70 meter (115 x 230 ft) blue-red-and-green Azerbaijani flag that will weigh 350 kilograms.
Mr. Aliyev said that this “huge” and “very heavy” flag was meant to symbolize Azerbaijan’s independence and freedom. The Azerbaijani president said that he decreed
the flag’s construction also to mark the fact that “our great leader [official speak for his father and predecessor Heydar Aliyev]… was first to raise the Azerbaijani flag in November 1990 in Nakhichevan.”
To be able to hoist the flag, Azerbaijan imported a special crane with a lift capability of 600 tons and operational at 188-meter heights. No cost estimates were reported.
According to Trident Support, the San Diego, Calif. company built the current record-holders for the tallest free-standing flagpoles: the 127 meter-tall flagpole in Amman
and 131 meter-tall flagpole in Aqaba, both in Jordan, but also visible from nearby Israel. But, according to CNN, it is North Korea that boasts the highest flagpole in the world, rising to 160 meters (525 feet) near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) with South Korea.
But North Korea’s flag weighs 20 percent less than Azerbaijan’s. f —E.S.
This was originally published in January 5, 2008 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
Congressman Lantos announces retirement
Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Tom Lantos (D.-Calif.) said on January 2 that he will retire from Congress at the end of 2008. “Routine medical tests have revealed that I have cancer of the esophagus,” Rep. Lantos said in a statement. “In view of this development and the treatment it will require, I will not seek re-election.”
Rep. Lantos, together with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, played a key role in assuring the passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution in the Foreign Affairs Committee last October. Rep. Lantos described that vote to PBS as “a significant step in restoring the moral authority of U.S. foreign policy.”
Until 2005, Mr. Lantos – the only Holocaust survivor in Congress – opposed similar resolutions, citing Turkey’s importance to the U.S. and Israel. Rep. Lantos, who will turn 80 next month, has represented a San Francisco-area congressional district since 1980 and for over a decade has been one of the most influential congressional voices on foreign affairs.
Should Democrats retain their congressional majority next year, Rep. Lantos is likely to be replaced as committee chair by Rep. Howard Berman (D.-Calif.), a member of the Armenian Caucus and a supporter of Armenian-American issues.
On January 3, Rep. Lantos’ hometown newspaper, the San Mateo Daily News, reported that former California State Senator Jackie Speier (D.-San Mateo), who is of Armenian descent, had been planning a run for Rep. Lantos’ seat even before his retirement announcement. At this time, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D.-Calif.) is the only member of Congress of Armenian descent.
Turkish president to visit United States
President Abdullah Gül of Turkey has been invited to visit the United States next week. He will meet President George W. Bush at the White House on January 8 and will then travel to New York for a meeting with the United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Turkish media report that talks in Washington will focus on Turkey’s concerns over Kurds and in New York – over Cyprus. Gül’s will be the first visit by Turkish president to the United States since 1996.
“Obviously President Gül’s visit to the White House will reconfirm the importance attached to our bilateral ties,” the Turkish Daily News cited an anonymous Turkish diplomat as saying on January 2. “We are satisfied with the new intelligence sharing system and looking forward to deepening our cooperation,” he said in reference to assistance the U.S. has begun to provide Turkey since an early November meeting between President Bush and visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The visit also comes shortly after Iraqi Kurdish leaders said they would postpone by six months a referendum on the status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Turkey has long objected to making that majority Kurdish-populated (and de facto controlled) city part of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Russia resumes nuclear fuel shipments to Iran
With international pressure at least temporarily off Iran over its nuclear program, following the publication of the most recent U.S. intelligence assessment (see this page in the Dec. 8, 2007 Armenian Reporter), Russia at the end of December resumed supplying nuclear fuel to an Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr.
Senior officials in Tehran also suggested that Russia would supply the Iranian armed forces advanced air defense systems, news agencies reported. But Russian officials would not confirm that the deal to supply the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems was currently on the agenda.
Last fall, Russia suspended the fuel supplies, as the U.S. prodded the international community to take a tougher stand against the Tehran government, which it accuses of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. But the U.S.’s own intelligence estimate released a month ago determined that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Time names Putin “Person of the Year”
In its annual selection, Time picked Russian President Vladimir Putin as its “Person of the Year 2007.” The magazine said that the Russian president was chosen because he performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power.”
Mr. Putin, who was chosen over former U.S. vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore, became the fourth Russian leader to be selected since Time began the selections in 1927. The others chosen included Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Nikita Khrushchev (1957), and Mikhail Gorbachev (1989).
This was originally published in December 22, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan and Nareg Seferian
Iraq condemns attack, Europeans issue warning
WASHINGTON – Dozens of Turkish aircraft dropped bombs and hundreds of ground soldiers pushed more than 11 miles into Iraqi Kurdish territory early on December 18 before pulling back 15 hours later, international news agencies reported.
The raid was on a larger scale than previous incursions and was intended to target the infrastructure of anti-Turkey Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Turkish officials said their military was aided by U.S. intelligence on the forces of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
President George W. Bush pledged to provide such information to Turkey in talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington in early November (see the front page story in the November 10 Armenian Reporter).
Iraqi officials in Baghdad condemned the Turkish raid, claiming that it targeted civilian infrastructure. Turkey has been threatening action against Kurdish rebels for many months and in recent weeks has also stepped up pressure on pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, which has more than 20 seats in the Turkish parliament.
To allay tensions Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unscheduled visit to northern Iraq late on December 18, where Iraqi Kurdish leaders refused to meet with her. The BBC quoted Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani calling U.S. permission for the attack “unacceptable,” the BBC reported.
Deadlock with EU continues
The European Union (EU) issued a statement calling on “Turkish authorities [to] refrain from taking any military action that could undermine regional peace and stability,” Reuters reported. But Turkish officials said the country reserved the right to conduct more attacks within Iraq.
This week’s incursion came just days after EU renamed its upcoming annual talks with Turkey an “intergovernmental conference” instead of “accession conference” as in the past. The move reportedly came on behest of French President Nicolas Sarkozy who remains opposed to Turkey’s membership in the EU, the Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor reported on December 17.
EU-Turkey membership talks have deadlocked over Turkey’s refusal to establish relations with Cyprus, an EU member, and lack of progress in democratic reforms, accompanied by a rise of xenophobic attacks with Turkey.
On December 16 yet another priest was stabbed and wounded in an apparently nationalist-motivated attack in the city of Izmir, Reuters reported.
This was originally published in December 22, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
Congressional appropriators agree on aid levels below Armenian-American recommendations
Appropriators from the Senate and House of Representatives this week agreed on a $555 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2008, which provides for continued funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about a dozen other spending bills, including foreign assistance.
According to the finalized amended budget document published on the web site of the House Rules Committee on December 17, allocations have fallen largely short of recommendations made by Armenian-American organizations nine months ago.
In separate testimonies submitted to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations on March 29, the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), and the U.S.–Armenia Public Affairs Committee (USAPAC) recommended $75 million in economic and $5.3 million in military aid to Armenia, $10 million in aid to Karabakh, as well as constraints on military aid to Azerbaijan. (See this page in the April 7 Armenian Reporter.)
The recommendations came following the February 3 Bush Administration request for just $35 million in economic aid to Armenia, down from $69 million spent in fiscal 2006, and more military assistance to Azerbaijan than Armenia.
As a result of the compromise, the United States will provide just under $400 million in assistance to former Soviet republics, down from $452 million approved for fiscal 2007. The largest allocations are set aside for Ukraine ($73 million) and Russia ($72.2 million). Armenia is the next largest recipient by volume at $58.5 million; Georgia is to get $50.5 million, and Azerbaijan, $19 million.
The spending bill also approved more than $1.5 billion in performance-based Millennium
Challenge programs worldwide, down from $1.75 billion approved the previous year. Armenia is currently completing the first year of its five-year $235 million program.
Congress also approved $4.5 billion in military aid under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, the amount largely unchanged from 2007. Most of these funds are set aside for Israel ($2.4 billion), Egypt ($1.3 billion), Jordan ($300 million) and Pakistan ($300 million). Armenia and Azerbaijan are due to get $3 million in FMF assistance each, with no funds specifically allocated to Georgia.
The spending bill did not make a specific allocation for aid to Karabakh, although the House Appropriations Committee recommended that “up to $6,000,000 should be made available to address ongoing humanitarian needs in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The appropriators further supported funding to address the needs of Christian minorities in Iraq and also recommended that U.S. State Department consider a proposal by the “Armenian Youth Federation for support of exchanges with Armenia.”
Top Swiss court upholds Genocide denial conviction
Switzerland’s highest court ruled on December 19 to uphold an earlier judgment by a lower court that convicted a Turkish politician for denying the Armenian Genocide.
Last March, Dogu Perincek was first convicted of “moral injury” and given a suspended 90-day jail term and an additional fine of $2,600, under a 1995 Swiss law that bans denying, belittling, or justifying genocide. In that conviction Judge Pierre-Henri Winzap described Mr. Perincek, who publicly denied the Armenian Genocide at events in Switzerland, an “arrogant instigator” and “racist.”
That ruling was held on appeal in June (see this page in the June 20 Armenian Reporter) and again in the latest ruling by Switzerland’s Federal Tribunal, which confirmed that there is a historical consensus on the veracity of the Armenian Genocide.
In a statement, the Swiss-Armenia Association noted that for the first time since the Genocide “a supreme court of criminal law hand[ed] down a conviction for denying the genocide of the Armenians.”
Mr. Perincek will now appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Agence France Presse reported.
Russia seals Turkmenistan gas deal
Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan agreed on December 19 to build a new pipeline that will transport Turkmen natural gas to Russia for further export to Europe, news agencies reported. The agreement is a setback for the United States and many in the European Union, who seek to channel Turkmenistan’s gas resources to Europe while skirting Russia.
Russia, which has the biggest natural gas supplies in the world, already dominates Europe’s market for natural gas. Americans and Europeans hope that some of Turkmenistan’s gas resources, believed to be fourth-largest in the world behind Iran and Qatar, could be transported under the Caspian Sea and through the Caucasus to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russia.
According to the BBC, “prospects for pipelines under the Caspian have been clouded by high costs, environmental concerns and disputes over ownership of the sea resources.”
Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have yet to demarcate their maritime border in the Caspian.
Georgia faces tight presidential contest
The January 5 presidential elections in Georgia will be the most closely-fought since its independence in 1991, according to nonpartisan www.civil.ge. The previous elections were all dominated by a single front-runner – Zviad Gamsakhurdia won 86.5 percent in 1991, Eduard Shevardnadze won 70 and 80 percent in 1995 and 2000, respectively, and Mikhail Saakashvili won with 96 percent in 2004.
In response to public discontent over the economy, Mr. Saakashvili is campaigning with a program pledging to focus on social needs. The Georgian government said this week it will increase social allocations while reducing military spending to about $300 million out of $3.6 billion in total projected expenditure in 2008. Georgia’s military spending this year amounted to about $783 million.
While according to the Eurasinet.org, Mr. Saakashvili leads the field of eight candidates, it is unclear if he will be able to collect more than half of all votes to avoid a second round. In polls, Mr. Saakashvili is followed by the joint opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze, who pledged to turn Georgia into a parliamentary republic if elected. They are trailed by billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili and populist politician Shalva Natelashvili.
This week, the New York–based Human Rights Watch and Brussels-based International Crisis Group issued reports criticizing Mr. Saakashvili’s crackdown on the opposition last month. Faced with international criticism the Georgian government has since eased restrictions.
The U.S. News Corp.–owned Imedi TV, previously co-owned by Mr. Patarkatsishvili, has resumed broadcasting last week (although the billionaire himself has not returned to Georgia fearing arrest and is running his campaign from Israel).
This was originally published in December 15, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan and Nareg Seferian
WASHINGTON – Russia’s president ended months of speculation about his likely successor when he approved the choice of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the ruling party’s candidate for president in the elections set for March 2008.
President Vladimir Putin said on December 10 that he “fully and completely” supports the choice of United Russia and three smaller pro-presidential parties of the 42-year-old Mr. Medvedev as a candidate for president, news agencies reported. Another deputy-Prime Minister, Sergei Ivanov, who oversees security agencies, was believed to be the other top contender.
Mr. Putin remains overwhelmingly popular in Russia and his endorsement is seen as decisive for Mr. Medvedev’s election. On December 2, the Putin-led United Russia and other pro-presidential parties won an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament.
Russian stock markets have rallied on the news. Mr. Medvedev said on December 11 that, if elected, he will invite Mr. Putin to serve as prime minister.
Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent member of the outgoing parliament, said that Mr. Medvedev was picked as successor because he would “without a doubt give up the path” for Putin, if he should choose to return to the Kremlin at some future time, The AP reported.
Like Mr. Putin, the would-be successor is a native of Saint Petersburg, where he was trained as a lawyer. Mr. Medvedev began his professional career in 1994 as an aide to Mr. Putin, then a mid-level official in the city government of Russia’s second-largest city, and then followed him to Moscow in 1999.
There Mr. Medvedev rose to become Mr. Putin’s chief of staff in 2003 and then deputy- Prime Minister in 2005. Mr. Medvedev has also served as the chair of the board of Gazprom, the state-owned oil and gas conglomerate, which also co-owns Armenia’s natural gas monopoly.
In addition to other duties, Mr. Medvedev coordinated the Year of Armenia in Russia in 2006. In May 2005, while working as Mr. Putin’s chief of staff, he visited Yerevan to discuss bilateral cooperation.
This was originally published in December 15, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
Russia displeased with U.S. role in Armenia’s nuclear energy plans
Russia’s former minister of nuclear energy Viktor Mikhailov expressed hope that “Armenia would accept Russia’s proposal and decline U.S. assistance” in the effort to build a new nuclear power plant, the Regnum news agency reported on December 6.
On November 21, the United States agreed to fund a $2 million feasibility study that would help determine the best technical solutions to replacing the aging reactor at the Metsamor power plant with a new nuclear energy-generating capacity. (See the story on page A1 of the November 24 Armenian Reporter.)
Armenia’s government has made building a new nuclear energy plant in the next several years a top priority and has reached out to the United States as well as Russia and other states for potential assistance.
Russia was first to react positively. During a visit to Armenia last April, Russian nuclear energy director Sergei Kirienko offered assistance with both construction and funding for the new plant, which is estimated to cost up to $2 billion. Since then U.S. officials have also expressed interest, resulting in the feasibility agreement.
Speaking on November 29, Armenia’s energy minister, Armen Movsisian, expressed confidence that several countries would be ultimately involved in the project.
Mr. Mikhailov, who currently holds a senior position at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, was the nuclear energy minister at the time when Russia assisted Armenia in reactivating the Metsamor plant in the mid-1990s.
“When someone is playing a double game, it is difficult to make predictions,” Mr. Mikhailov said, but expressed hope that Armenia would stick with Russia on nuclear energy. He agreed with a suggestion that U.S. assistance was part of an effort to “strengthen political influence in Armenia.”
Senior U.S. diplomat takes issue with Azerbaijani policies, urges deal on Karabakh
“It is time to wrap up agreement on the Basic Principles of a Nagorno Karabakh settlement,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried speaking at an Azerbaijani-government organized conference in Washington on December 10.
Mr. Fried was referring to the joint proposal made by U.S., Russian, and French diplomats during the November 28 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Madrid. (See this page in the December 1 and 8 Armenian Reporter.)
Speaking at that meeting, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, broadly welcomed the proposal. Azerbaijani officials did not react immediately with President Ilham Aliyev taking a two-week vacation. On December 10, they requested additional time to study it, local media reported.
“The South Caucasus cannot achieve its full potential in the absence of a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement,” Mr. Fried said, according to a transcript released by the State Department. “As long as Armenia remains isolated in its region, a common vision of prosperity and freedom, and therefore stability, will not be attainable.”
Speaking with regional journalists last April, Mr. Fried addressed Azerbaijani military threats against Armenians, warning that “war will destroy everything Azerbaijan is trying to do.”
This week, the State Department official was also blunt about the continued crackdown on dissent in Azerbaijan, saying that the United States was “deeply disturbed” by it. Mr. Fried referred to Azerbaijan’s growing oil revenues and urged democratization, arguing that “sudden wealth unchecked by strong, honest institutions to handle it can fatten a small group of well-placed leaders rather than strengthen a nation.”
The conference on “The Azerbaijan-Turkey-U.S. Relationship,” which Mr. Fried addressed, continued in Los Angeles on December 13. According to the Azerbaijani consulate there, in addition to Azerbaijani and Turkish speakers, it also featured Beverly Hills, Calif., mayor Jimmy Jamshid Delshad.
GUAM states introduce a new UN draft resolution on post-Soviet conflicts
The governments of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova (GUAM) have again requested that the United National General Assembly express support for Soviet-era administrative borders as the basis for their territorial integrity.
The four-state grouping formally introduced the draft on December 4. The draft resolution’s text refers to Nagorno-Karabakh as a “region of the Republic of Azerbaijan” and calls for “support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Republic of Moldova and the inviolability of their internationally recognized borders.”
It is so far unclear when and if the UN General Assembly may consider the draft resolution. GUAM states had introduced a similar resolution last year, but then withdrew it prior to a vote being scheduled. (See this page in September 8 and November 3 Armenian Reporter.)
Unlike UN Security Council resolutions, those by the UN General Assembly are nonbinding, but they carry symbolic and political significance.
Armenia has already expressed its opposition to the most recent proposal. Speaking on November 28, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian noted Azerbaijan’s “active and aggressive search for alternative international forums in which to present their case” among the factors that undermine the peace process.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vladimir Karapetian told Regnum news agency on December 10 that Armenia will work to prevent the proposal’s passage.
Late Hrant Dink recognized as “World Press Freedom Hero”
The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) – a network of journalists, editors, and others who work in the media – this week honored Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian editor who was killed in Istanbul last January, as one of its World Press Freedom Heroes.
The award was presented to Mrs. Rakel Dink on December 10. Mr. Dink worked to improve Turkish-Armenian relations and opposed the Turkish government’s censorship of topics such as the Armenian Genocide and continued discrimination against the remaining members of the Armenian community. (http://www.freemedia.at)
Minority Rights Group issues new report on Turkey
Also this week, the Minority Rights Group International, a Britain-based charity, issued a report that highlighted the Turkish government’s continued repression of minority groups.
The report “A Quest for Equality: Minorities in Turkey” noted that “instead of celebrating diversity, the history of the Republic of Turkey is one of severe and sometimes violent repression of minorities in the name of nationalism.”
(www.minorityrights.org)
Nareg Seferian contributed to this week’s column.
This was originally published in December 15, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
Azerbaijan accused of obstructing the confidence-building measure
WASHINGTON – International diplomats have stopped their regular monitoring of the cease-fire in Karabakh, after Azerbaijan refused to issue routine permission, it has emerged in recent weeks. Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, a Polish diplomat who heads the monitoring effort on behalf of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), confirmed that “no monitoring on the Line of Contact (LOC) has taken
place” since last summer.
In an e-mail response to the Armenian Reporter on December 13, Ambassador Kasprzyk said that “in summer 2007, the Azerbaijani [Foreign Ministry] objected to the OSCE receiving official written correspondence from the NK [Nagorno Karabakh] authorities. “Since our monitoring on the LOC require security guarantees from both sides in written form, and the NK authorities insist on official correspondence as was the case until now,” the effort has been suspended, said the diplomat.
The cease-fire has held in Karabakh since May 1994. Amb. Kasprzyk and his staff have been in charge of its monitoring since July 1996.
Cease-fire threatened?
The Economist first reported on November 28 that the regular monthly or fortnightly visits have stopped “after a diplomatic dispute.” The last such visit was reported by Nagorno Karabakh’s Foreign Ministry to have taken place on July 10 of this year and in two-week intervals in preceding months.
Incidentally, the Azerbaijani démarche, which is part of its overall policy to exclude NKR from the peace process, coincided with the presidential election in Nagorno Karabakh and subsequent personnel changes in the NKR government.
During the OSCE ministerial meeting in Madrid on November 29, diplomats from France, Russia, and the United States who co-lead mediation in the Karabakh peace process issued a statement that said, “the parties have been asked not to obstruct the resumption of OSCE monitoring on the Line of Contact.”
While the co-chairs, as is their custom, did not blame either party for the suspension, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian of Armenia, also speaking in Madrid, noted that it is “Azerbaijan’s willful obstruction of international envoys entrusted with monitoring the conflict and the region [that] is threatening to upset the fine balance that we have sustained.”
While at least one serious skirmish was reported since the suspension of the monitoring, similar incidents have occurred in the past as well. During the more than 13 years of the cease-fire, several hundred soldiers are believed to have been killed on each side in ceasefire violations. (Editor’s note: An article in last week’s Reporter incorrectly estimated that total such deaths since the 1994 cease-fire have surpassed 4,000. We regret that error.)
“The general situation on the LOC remains relatively calm and stable,” said Amb. Kasprzyk, “although cease-fire violations continue and casualties have been reported on both sides, several on each side so far this year.” He expressed regret that “so far it has not been possible to remove the obstacles for the monitoring which might have saved peoples’ lives.”
Sides return captured civilians
In a positive development this week, a Karabakh Armenian civilian who was captured and held in Azerbaijan for eight months was finally released, news agencies reported.
Two Azerbaijani civilians captured in Karabakh and Armenia’s Tavush province, in August and November respectively, were turned over to Azerbaijan in an exchange organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Azerbaijani government previously claimed that Valeri Suleimanian, 49, who together with his wife and children lives in Martuni, did not want to be repatriated. That claim came months after three Azerbaijani soldiers defected to the Armenian side. While two of them were since returned and subsequently imprisoned on “treason” charges in Azerbaijan, one applied for political asylum and remains in Yerevan.
Mr. Suleimanian’s release became possible after Azerbaijan captured a 23-year-old Armenian army conscript, Hambartsum Asatrian, last August. Azerbaijani officials now claim that Mr. Asatrian does not want to return to Armenia.
This was originally published in December 8, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
U.S. intelligence: Iran suspended nuclear weapons program
A report issued by U.S. intelligence agencies on December 3 appears to have drastically reduced the likelihood of a U.S.-Iranian military confrontation in the near term.
The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), representing the combined findings of sixteen intelligence agencies, indicated that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003. According to the secret report’s unclassified summary “Tehran’s decision to halt its
nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.”
As recently as six weeks ago both President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney painted a grim picture of the potential consequences of Iran’s nuclear program.
(See this page in the October 20 and 27 editions of the Armenian Reporter .) At that time, the United States introduced additional sanctions against Iran and has continued to lobby for more stringent international sanctions.
Reacting to the report, Mr. Bush said that the United States would not change its policy toward Iran unless it suspends its efforts to enrich uranium – a technology that can be used for both civilian and military needs. “If Iran were to develop the knowledge that they could transfer to a clandestine program, it would create a danger for the world,” Mr. Bush told the press on December 4.
He also claimed that he only became aware of the NIE days before its release. But others suggested that the key intelligence findings have been deliberately suppressed by the White House for over a year.
Writing in Time magazine on December 4, former CIA operative Robert Baer argued that the report must have been “green-lighted by the president” before its release. Back in August Mr. Baer wrote that his sources predicted that a limited military strike against Iran in the next six months was very likely. (See this page in the August 27 Armenian Reporter .)
The report, Mr. Baer now concludes, will be taken as president’s “betrayal” of the cause of Iran hawks in the U.S. government and elsewhere. “The real story behind this NIE is that the Bush Administration has finally concluded Iran is a bridge too far,” he wrote.
Democratic opponents and others in the United States said the report further damaged President Bush’s credibility on foreign policy issues.
In Washington, the Congressional Progressive Caucus organized a briefing chaired by the first and only Muslim member of Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison (D.- Minn.). In it Iran experts, including Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations, argued that the United States should stop threatening and instead begin to cooperate with Iran in stabilizing the Middle East.
The report was welcomed internationally. Senior officials from Russia and China, whose support is necessary for a new United Nations action against Iran, have questioned the need for further sanctions. Mohammad El Baradei, head of the international nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), commented that the NIE “vindicated” Iran to an extent, BBC News reported.
Iran has claimed all along that its nuclear program was peaceful. Its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the findings as a “victory” for his country.
Israel voiced the lone voice of dissent, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak publicly disagreeing with the key findings of the U.S. report. With Mr. Ahmadinejad having suggested Israel could be “wiped off the map,” Israeli officials argue that Tehran poses an existential threat to their state.
Deadline for Kosovo independence declaration looming
Following the latest failure of international mediators to find a mutually agreeable solution to the contested status of Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo, its officials have promised to unilaterally declare independence as early as next week, international media report.
The United States and European Union agree that further talks on Kosovo are meaningless and support an internationally supervised independence for the Albanian-majority entity, which both Serbia and its ally Russia reject.
For more than eight years Kosovo has been controlled by a NATO-led peacekeeping force (which since 2004 includes a small Armenian contingent). NATO officials this week agreed to send reinforcements to Kosovo to preclude any clashes that may follow the declaration.
But the declaration itself may be postponed until after the European Union (EU) and United Nations (UN) discussions on Kosovo slated for December 14 and 19 respectively. The EU is now due to take over international supervision from the UN.
In Washington, Azerbaijanis, Turks, others to discuss “problems related to Armenia”
The Azerbaijan-Turkey Business Association (ATIB) will sponsor an all-day international conference, “The Azerbaijan-Turkey-U.S. Relationship and its Importance for Eurasia,” to take place in Washington on December 10, announced Zeyno Baran of the Hudson Institute, which together with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute (CACI) at Johns Hopkins University will serve as the event’s co-organizers.
ATIB was established in 2004 and is currently co-chaired by Azerbaijani economics minister Heydar Babayev and Mrs. Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, president of TUSIAD, Turkey’s biggest business association. In 2006, ATIB co-founded the Azerbaijani-Turkish Research Fund that involves official historians from the two countries, including Yusuf Halacoğlu.
The December 10 conference will feature video addresses from the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan, speeches by former Turkish and current Azerbaijani officials, as well as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried and his deputy Matt Bryza.
While, according to the Hudson announcement, the event, which is closed to the media, will focus on “ways to further enhance US-Turkey-Azerbaijan relations,” one of the participants, Azerbaijani parliament member Asim Mollazade told news media. He also said that as a part of the conference “the situation in the sphere of problems related to Armenia” will also be addressed.
Thirteen nominated in Georgian presidential elections
Mikhail Saakashvili, who resigned as president at the end of November, and 12 others are currently in the race to contest the Georgian presidency in an early election planned for January 5, www.civil.ge reported on December 6.
The list of opposition contenders includes billionaire businessperson Badri Patarkatsishvili, as well as opposition politicians Levan Gachechiladze, Davit Gamkrelidze, and Shalva Natelashvili.
In a conciliatory gesture, the Georgian government this week lifted a ban on the Imedi TV station, coowned by U.S. News Corp. and Mr. Patarkatsishvili; it is so far unclear if the station, which was raided and ransacked by government security forces on November 7, will be able to begin broadcasting before the election. (See this page in the November
10 and 17 Armenian Reporter .)
In Washington, Georgian government supporters organized a briefing at the Central Asia and Caucasus Institute (CACI) of Johns Hopkins University, in which CACI’s Svante Cornell and Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation defended Mr. Saakashvili’s crackdown on the opposition.
Mr. Socor said the Georgian opposition offers only a “recipe of liquidation” of the Georgian state. He predicted a strong victory by Mr. Saakashvili in the upcoming election.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Lado Gurgenidze, said opposition protests are rooted in poverty and unemployment, which are still widespread in Georgia, RFE/RL reported on December 5. “We are hearing the social message loud and clear,” he said and pledged to redirect some of Georgia’s skyrocketing military spending to social needs.
Nareg Seferian contributed to this week’s column.
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Pro-Putin party cruises to victory in Russian elections
WASHINGTON – The United Russia party list led by President Vladimir Putin won nearly two-thirds of votes cast in the December 2 parliamentary elections. The outcome is seen as giving Mr. Putin carte blanche to retain a major role in Russian politics after he completes his second four-year term next March.
Western observers described the election as “not fair” and President George Bush placed a call to Mr. Putin in which he said that the U.S. was “sincere in our expressions of concern about the elections.” Prior to the vote, the Russian president accused the U.S. of seeking to undermine the international legitimacy of the election. (See this page in last week’s Armenian Reporter.)
The preliminary results, published by Russia’s Central Electoral Commission, closely mirrored exit polls and public opinion studies that showed strong public support for President Putin’s record, which has been marked both by rising standards of living as well as curtailment of democratic freedoms. United Russia will have 315 of 450 seats in the new State Duma (parliament) instead of 297 seats it controlled in the outgoing legislature.
Other parties to win seats include the Communists (57 seats), as well as two other pro-Putin groups: Liberal Democrats (40 seats) and A Just Russia (38 seats). Seven other parties received less than three percent of the vote each and will not be represented in the Duma.
Four ethnic Armenians in new parliament
Four seats in the new Duma are likely to be held by Russian citizens of Armenian descent. A Duma vice speaker, Saint Petersburg–native Artur Chilingarov, and another incumbent, Rostov-born Stepan Shorshorov, ran in the election on the United Russia ticket.
Multimillionaire Moscow businessperson and Liberal Democrat Ashot Yeghiazarian is also likely to retain his seat. Finally, Arkadiy Sarkisian, a Sevastopol-
born retired naval officer and former member of the Federation Council (the Russian Senate) is likely to join the Duma as a Liberal Democrat.
Also re-elected are Armenia native Mikhail Musatov with the Liberal Democrats and United Russia member Konstantin Zatulin, a strong proponent of Russian Armenian ties.
In addition to the Duma, two ethnic Armenians currently sit in the 178-member Russian Senate, whose members are selected by provincial governments. These are Yerevan-born Oganes Oganian and Baku-born Aleksandr Ter-Avanesov.
The Russian Armenian community is estimated to number up to two million people out of Russia’s total population of some 150 million.
E.S.
This was originally published in December 1, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
U.S., Russia, and France offer “joint proposal” on basic principles of Karabakh settlement
On November 29, the three countries that have for over a decade jointly led the international efforts to address the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict made what amounts to a new proposal on its settlement.
The office of the State Department spokesperson in Washington reported on the same day that during the annual ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held this week in Madrid, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nick Burns along with the Russian and French foreign ministers met foreign ministers from Armenia and Azerbaijan “to demonstrate political-level support for the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries’ effort to forge a just and lasting settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
In that meeting, the three co-chairs transmitted a “joint proposal” that “offered just and constructive solutions” to address the existing disagreements over basic principles of settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani governments with the help of the co-chairs have been engaged in what has been termed as the Prague process for the past three years, but have not fully agreed on basic principles of settlement that would precede a development of the full-scale peace agreement.
The most recent proposal is the fifth settlement option proposed by international mediators since 1996. The three proposals made up to 1998 sought to put Karabakh inside Azerbaijani borders or did not address its status. The two latest proposals focused on ways to formalize Karabakh’s 1991 secession.
Speaking in Madrid, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian broadly welcomed the proposal “as a working document that can serve as the basis for a preliminary agreement.” He said that the “document addresses the core issue – the security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, through self-determination.”
But Mr. Oskanian also noted the continued efforts by Azerbaijan to undermine the peace process, most recently by obstructing OSCE’s monthly monitoring of the ceasefire along the Line of Contact.
Azerbaijan’s reaction to the proposal was not immediately available.
U.S., Russia clash on security policies, elections
Talks between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov here this week again highlighted the long list of disagreements between the two countries. Mr. Lavrov was in the U.S. to participate in the Middle East peace conference held in Annapolis, MD.
In addition to now long-standing Russian opposition to a new U.S. missile defense system in central Europe, as well as tougher sanctions against Iran and support for Kosovo independence, Moscow this week accused the U.S. of seeking to undermine the international legitimacy of Russia’s parliamentary elections on December 2.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) decided not to send observers to a vote in which Russia’s pro-government party is expected to win an overwhelming majority. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the decision on the U.S. But U.S. and OSCE officials said the decision was a result of the Russian government’s efforts to restrict the size and the mandate of the observers.
On November 26, the State Department went on to describe the Russian government’s efforts to “impede freedom of speech and peaceful assembly” ahead of the elections as “troubling.” Days before, the Russian police detained the former world chess champion turned political activist Garry Kasparov on charges of conducting an “unlawful march” through Moscow; he has since been released.
Studies by one of Russia’s main polling groups (www.wciom.ru ) put support for the pro-Putin “United Russia” party at over 55 percent of the voters. The next most popular party, the Communists, polled less than six percent. The Kasparov-led coalition, “The Other Russia,” which has so far enjoyed marginal public support, has been refused official registration and is not running for parliament.
Retired Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde dies
A former senior Republican member of Congress who in 2005 came around to support a resolution affirming the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide passed away on November 29, U.S. media reported the same day.
Rep. Henry Hyde (R.-Ill.) served in Congress for 32 years. He chaired the House International Relations Committee (2001–6 ) and prior to that the House Judiciary Committee (1995–2001). He retired early this year.
Family members told the New York Times that Mr. Hyde, 83, died from complications following heart surgery.
During the September 2005 committee deliberations over the Genocide resolution, then-chairman Hyde, despite opposition from the Bush Administration and the House Republican majority, decided to vote in favor; the resolution subsequently passed overwhelmingly.
“I have thought long and hard about these resolutions and have decided to vote in favor,” Mr. Hyde said following the committee debate. “The overriding purpose in all of my work in Congress has been to promote the interests of the United States.
“I believe it is in the interests of the United States and of Turkey and Armenia both that we take the lead in dealing with this paralyzing legacy,” he went on to say. “And we must start with a recognition of the truth. For there is no possibility that this problem can ever be overcome if we seek to ground any solution on silence and forgetting.”
Hyde’s successor at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Tom Lantos (D.-Calif.), who also voted for the resolution in 2005 and again this past October, called Rep. Hyde a “giant,” who “transcended partisan political considerations.”
UN study: Armenia tops neighbors in “human development”
An annual United Nations study of the world’s development released on November 27 placed Armenia ahead of its neighbors and in the middle of the 175 countries ranked. The Human Development Index, which takes into account life expectancy, education levels, and per capita economic activity, ranked Armenia 83rd worldwide, followed by Turkey (84), Iran (94), Georgia (96), and Azerbaijan (98).
In the former Soviet territory, the three Baltic republics were ranked most developed, occupying places from 43rd to 45th; Belarus was ranked 64th, and Russia 67th. The HDI list was topped by Iceland, Norway, and Australia, while Yemen, Uganda, and Gambia were ranked at bottom.
The HDI report focused on the dangers of worldwide climate change, which it said was threatening “unprecedented human development reversals.” The UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis (a career World Bank economist who was Turkish economics minister in
2001–2) said that “fighting climate change is about our commitment to human development today and about creating a world that will provide ecological security for our children and their grandchildren.”
Connect at http://hdr.undp.org.
Nareg Seferian contributed to this week’s column.
This was originally published in November 24, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
by Emil Sanamyan
South American states call for international affirmation of Armenian Genocide
The recently established parliament of a regional South American organization, Mercosur, issued a resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of South America reported on November 21.
Mercosur, which is a Spanish and Portuguese acronym for the Common Market of the South, was established in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay to promote regional cooperation in a manner similar to the process of European integration. The 90-member Mercosur Parliament was launched at the end of last year with an equal number of delegates from each of the member states and is based in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital.
Uruguay was the first state whose legislature formally commemorated the Armenian Genocide in a resolution passed in 1965. Parliaments of Argentina, Mercosur membership candidate Venezuela, and associated member state Chile have also passed formal resolutions on the issue.
According to the ANC of South America, the Mercosur parliament condemned the “Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, which took 1.5 million lives from 1915 to 1923,” expressed its support for the Armenian cause, and called on all countries to recognize the Genocide.
Turkey, Azerbaijan pull Central Asian states into Genocide denial
Officials from several Central Asian states backed Turkey’s Genocide denial during the 11th Turkish State and Communities’ Friendship, Solidarity and Cooperation Congress, held in Baku earlier this week.
The event, held on the initiative of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and attended by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also included the Turkmen Deputy-prime Minister, the Kyrgyz Education Minister, and the Kazakh Deputy-culture Minister. In all, more than 500 delegates from 30 countries were expected to take part in the annual congress of Turkic languages-speaking nations.
“Adoption of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915 in various parliaments have caused outrage and sorrow among Turkic republics” (sic), the congress participants reportedly said in a joint declaration, as mentioned in the Turkish Press on November 19.
The declaration also offered support for Azerbaijan’s position on the Karabakh conflict and support for Turkic communities in Georgia and Iraq, and called for a lifting of the international embargo against the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Unlike Turkey, however, all the other Turkic states recognize the Greek-majority Republic of Cyprus rather than TRNC.
In Washington, coinciding with the pan-Turkic congress in Baku, the Central Asia and Caucasus Institute (CACI) at Johns Hopkins University held a discussion on Turkey’s role in the two regions on November 19.
The speakers, Zeyno Baran of the Hudson Institute and Svante Cornell of CACI, agreed that while the focus of Turkey’s foreign policy has for years been on the West and Middle East, Turkey’s leaders have recently again begun to pay more attention to that part of the world.
Mrs. Baran noted that in the 1990s U.S. and Turkish interests to a large degree coincided in the Caucasus and Central Asia. This, she said, may no longer be the case now, considering Ankara’s diminished partnership with Washington and Brussels.
Mr. Cornell suggested that it was “pointless” for the U.S. and Europe to continue to call on Turkey to establish relations with Armenia, since without Armenian concessions in Karabakh this would amount to “betrayal” of Azerbaijan, and that “geopolitically speaking Armenia is expendable.”
Ms. Baran added that support that Armenia receives from the West “does not make sense” and that here is a feeling among Turks and Azerbaijanis that this is a “Christian versus Muslim thing.”
Construction of Armenia rail bypass launched in Georgia
The Azerbaijani president and Turkish prime minister joined Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili on November 21 in inaugurating the construction of the $420 million Akhalkalaki-Kars railroad, that would connect Georgia and Turkey.
Azerbaijan has lobbied for the project in an effort to remove economic arguments in favor of opening the Turkish-Armenian border, because of the existing railroad connecting Turkey and Georgia via Armenia. After failing to secure international funding for the project, Azerbaijan itself will pay for the construction on Georgian territory, amounting to $220 million.
While in Georgia, President Aliyev also inaugurated the Kulevi oil terminal on the Black Sea coast. Last year, the Azerbaijani state oil company bought the terminal from Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili, who has since fallen out with the Saakashvili government.
This was Mr. Aliyev’s third visit to Georgia this year. In February he attended the inauguration of the Tbilisi airport renovated by a Turkish company, and in May he was in Tbilisi again, to attend the unveiling of a statue of his father and predecessor as president, Heydar Aliyev.
Nareg Seferian contributed to this week’s column.
