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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 November 3, 2007 Armenian Reporter.
From Washington, in brief
by Emil Sanamyan
Members of Congress speak of Genocide affirmation;
Committee approves military aid to Turkey
Reps. Frank Pallone (D.-N.J.) and Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.), co-chairs of the 155-member Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, confirmed on October 29 their determination to bring the House resolution affirming the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide to a vote before the end of 2008. Last week, the resolution’s co-sponsors decided to ask the Speaker not to bring it up this month because of the erosion of support for the resolution as a result of strong opposition from the Bush Administration.
In a letter to fellow members of Congress, the co-chairs noted that “although the events of the resolution took place more than ninety years ago, denial of its historical fact remains. And until this denial is removed, we must stand up to injustice and refuse to allow another country to impede our efforts to speak out against inhumanity.”
During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on October 24, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) said that the committee’s approval of the resolution on October 10, strongly opposed by the administration, was “a human rights vote and recognition of a violation of human rights.” In response, Secretary Rice said that she “recognize[s] that it was a difficult vote for some who supported the administration’s position,” but that the administration would continue to oppose passage.
A day earlier, on October 23, the committee approved a transfer of decommissioned U.S. military ships worth nearly half a billion dollars to Turkey, Reuters reported same day. The legislators denied that the bill – drafted by committee chair Tom Lantos (D.-Calif.), who supported the Armenian Genocide resolution – was intended to placate Turkey.
Committee member Rep. Brad Sherman (D.-Calif.), who led the fight for the Genocide resolution’s passage in the committee, wondered how the vessels would help in Turkey’s fight against Kurdish rebels, which Ankara identifies as a top priority. “In dealing with the defense concerns on its Iraqi and Iranian border, where will Turkey deploy these naval vessels? The last time oceangoing ships were seen in Eastern Anatolia, it was Noah’s Ark,” Rep. Sherman was quoted as saying.
More talks held on Turkish-Kurdish conflict The U.S. military began providing “actionable intelligence” to help Turkish forces attack Kurdish rebel positions, BBC News and others reported this week.
While the Turkish military continued operations in the country’s southeast region and just across the border with Iraq, a major invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan appeared less likely, as Turkish media reported that no action would be taken before Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington for talks with President George W. Bush on November 5.
In a recent speech, Mr. Erdogan said that future U.S. steps on the Kurdish issue “will determine the nature of our relationship.” About 50 Turkish soldiers were killed and eight captured in clashes over the past month, and the Turkish public has pressured the government to retaliate. But Iraqi Kurdish leaders said they would fight a Turkish invasion, and U.S. and regional governments cautioned against it.
Secretary of State Rice, who was in Turkey on November 2, again promised a joint struggle against the forces of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). While Turkish leaders demanded immediate U.S. action against the PKK, Ms. Rice cautioned that the struggle against the PKK “is going to take persistence, it is going to take commitment. This is a very difficult problem.”
The Jamestown Foundation reported on October 31 that amid fears of intercommunal violence between Turks and Kurds, the liberal Democratic Society Party (DTP) represented in the Turkish parliament called for giving Kurdish-populated regions more autonomy as a way to end the conflict. Following that statement, DTP leaders were charged with “supporting a terrorist organization.”
U.S. interest in GUAM said to be reviving
Officials from Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova (GUAM) visited the U.S. earlier this week to discuss efforts to strengthen the grouping first established in 1997 on Azerbaijan’s initiative.
While GUAM is often perceived as an anti-Russia initiative in the former Soviet space, members’ interests have since diverged, with Azerbaijan and Russia enjoying warmer relations, just as Georgia appeared near an open confrontation with Moscow.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at a workshop on October 31, Tofig Musayev of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry recalled that the four countries were brought together by shared concerns over “aggressive separatism” and conflicts “accompanied by . . . genocide.”
GUAM members have tried to jointly lobby larger international organizations, including the United Nations, to adopt a more favorable attitude to the states’ interests. But the U.S. and the European Union have avoided taking a uniform approach to conflicts affecting GUAM states.
A former U.S. State Department official, Steven Pifer, said at CSIS that the U.S.’s interest in GUAM reached a low point five years ago, but has since revived, with former
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage playing a key role. (Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Mr. Armitage was on the board of the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying group.)
Amb. Thomas Adams, the State Department’s assistance coordinator for Europe and Eurasia, also recalled Mr. Armitage’s desire to make GUAM a successful organization and welcomed the organization’s focus on specific projects, funded in part by the United States.
While in Washington this week, the officials from GUAM countries met Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried and gave a briefing on Capitol Hill organized by the offices of the Azerbaijani Caucus co-chairs, Reps. Solomon Ortiz (D.-Tex.) and Bill Shuster (R.-Pa.).
In addition to Rep. Shuster, the briefing was attended by the Turkish Caucus co-chair Ed Whitfield (R.-Ky.); two Armenian Caucus members, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D.-Ohio) and Joe Wilson (R.-S.C.); and former House Speaker Bob Livingston – currently the main congressional lobbyist for the Turkish and Azerbaijani governments.
Western embassies reportedly threatened in Baku
The U.S. and British embassies in Azerbaijan limited their operations earlier this week after the Azerbaijani government claimed there was a “credible threat” that Islamic “radicals” planned to attack Western interests in Baku, the State Department’s spokesperson Sean McCormack confirmed on October 29.
According to official claims carried by Azerbaijani media, the “plotters” included about a dozen army officers who espouse radical Islamic beliefs. One suspect was killed and several dozen were detained. The crackdown reportedly included the police shaving and burning the beards of pious-looking individuals in rural areas.
As of November 2, police were still looking for more plotters, including an officer who is said to have left his unit weeks ago with a weapons cache. While mutinies in the Azerbaijani armed forces have occurred in the past, this is the first reported case of religiously motivated insubordination.
Meanwhile, on October 30, in what Human Rights Watch described as an “unrelenting crackdown on media,” dissident Azerbaijani editor Eynulla Fatullayev was sentenced to an additional eight and a half years in prison.
Earlier this year, Mr. Fatullayev was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for an article he wrote questioning the nationalist government narrative of the war in Karabakh. (See this page in the May 26 Armenian Reporter .) New charges stemmed from Mr. Fatullayev’s article about the potential impact of a U.S.-Iranian confrontation on Azerbaijan.
In comments reported by kavkaz.memo.ru, the imprisoned editor described the Azerbaijani court system as “worse than in Nazi Germany,” but also “thanked” the government for not murdering him outright. The March 2005 murder of Fatullayev’s colleague Elmar Huseynov remains unresolved.
Georgian railroad up for sale
The Georgian government has put the national railroad up for sale, after a long-term management deal with an anonymous offshore investment company fell through, www.civil.ge reported. The rail line is a key part of the transit infrastructure for goods transported to and from Armenia.
According to an ad in the October 28 Economist, the Georgian Economics Ministry is inviting investment proposals by January 25, 2008, for a general tender, but “reserves the right to withdraw from the purchasing procedures at any time; or suspend or change procedure, or exclude any interested party from the purchasing procedure.”
In the same issue, Georgia also invited bids for the construction of the highway between Tbilisi and Armenian-populated Javakheti, to be funded through a U.S. grant. A deal with offshore firm Parkfield Investment to manage the Georgian railway for 99 years, agreed in August (see this page in the August 25 Armenian Reporter ), has been reportedly annulled, with officials offering no explanation for the cancellation.
Georgian media speculated that businesspeople linked to Russian interests may have been behind the August deal. It also came shortly after Azerbaijan transferred the first tranche of a $220 million low-interest loan to Georgia to build a railroad to Turkey bypassing Armenia.
Nareg Seferian contributed to this week’s column.
