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  • ASBAREZ Online [03-18-2004]

    ASBAREZ ONLINE
    TOP STORIES
    03/18/2004
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    1) Kocharian Asks for Resoluteness, Appoints New Prosecutor-General
    2) Javakhk Armenians Concur with CE Secretary General, Request Meeting
    3) Ajaria Blockade Ends, Stability Restored
    4) Armenia At Last Formally Protests British Envoy's Genocide Denial

    1)  Kocharian Asks for Resoluteness, Appoints New Prosecutor-General

    YEREVAN (Armenpress/RFE/RL)--President Robert Kocharian expressed on Thursday
    his dissatisfaction with the performance of Armenia's Office of Prosecutor as
    he introduced the country's newly appointed Prosecutor-General.
    Kocharian said the role of the law-enforcement agency has diminished somewhat
    under the previous Prosecutor-General Aram Tamazian who was relieved of his
    post on Wednesday. "Compared to other law-enforcement bodies, the prosecutor's
    office has experienced a certain decline in terms of its place and
    significance," he was quoted by his press office as telling senior
    prosecutors.
    Calling on prosecutors to be more active and resolute in combating crime and
    government corruption, he asked them to keep in mind the interests of the
    nation, and spare no efforts to preserve investment activity in Armenia, that
    has already produced solid economic results.
    In introducing the new Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian, Kocharian
    described
    him as "professional, firm, and principled."
    Hovsepian, who served as prosecutor-general from 1998-99, was forced to resign
    along with the ministers of interior and national security in the wake of the
    October 1999 killings in the Armenian parliament.
    Kocharian explained that Hovsepian had been forced to resign for purely
    political reasons. "I think that [his appointment] is also a restoration of
    justice," he said.
    In conclusion, the President emphasized that the Prosecutor's Office is a body
    approved by the Constitution and should assume its responsibilities
    thoroughly.  "I expect more decisive work from the newly appointed Prosecutor
    and you," the leader of the country underscored. "There is a [anti-corruption]
    program approved by the government, that features a quite important role to
    the
    office. We expect more resolute work from the new prosecutor."


    2) Javakhk Armenians Concur with CE Secretary General, Request Meeting

    AKHALKALAKI--Representatives of Javakhk Armenian Non-Governmental
    Organizations
    (NGO), have expressed full agreement with Council of Europe (CE) Secretary
    General Walter Schwimmer's calls for a decentralized structure in Georgia, and
    increased authority to regional and local authorities.
    "In recent months, we have appealed to the highest authorities of Georgia,
    fully supporting certain constitutional reforms that ensure Georgia's
    sovereignty and integrity, while establishing a confederate structure," the
    NGOs stated in a March 11 letter to the Secretary General, which was presented
    to the CE Information Office in Tbilisi on Wednesday.
    During his most recent formal talks with President Saakashvili and other
    Georgian authorities in late February, Schwimmer advocating a decentralized
    structure for Georgia, said. "Of course, this means that Council of Europe
    standards with respect to the rule of law, human rights and pluralist
    democracy
    have to be implemented at all levels."
    Javakhk's NGOs, pointing to violations of the Georgia's constitution, said
    that
    the region has been deprived of fundamental human and ethnic minority rights
    that are not only guaranteed by the Constitution and affirmed by international
    standards, but also necessary for establishing a democratic and civil society.
    "In fact, the process of fulfilling the country's commitments to the
    Council of
    Europe has failed. Rejection of the constitutionally-guaranteed principle of
    self-governance has left many regions of the country to their fate, resulting
    in current dangerous developments," the NGOs stressed.
    In closing, the NGOs request a meeting with Schwimmer, and state that only a
    "civilized resolution" to the deep crisis will clarify the region's
    administrative borders, and grant autonomy by way of the constitution.


    3) Ajaria Blockade Ends, Stability Restored

    BATUMI (Eurasianet)--Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on March 18
    ordered
    the lifting of an economic blockade against the renegade region of Ajaria. The
    announcement followed direct talks between the president and Ajarian leader
    that resolved "all the questions" that had prompted an armed standoff over the
    past four days, according to Saakashvili.
    Saakashvili's face-to-face meeting with Abashidze in Batumi lasted over three
    hours. Saakashvili seemed to be in a buoyant mood following the
    discussions. "I
    believe we have achieved full mutual understanding," he said. A terse
    Abashidze, meanwhile, concurred that "all the disputable issues have been
    settled."
    Georgia imposed measures that sought to economically isolate Ajaria following
    an incident March 14, in which Ajarian border guards prevented Saakashvili's
    motorcade from entering the region. Georgian security forces retaliated by
    sealing the port at the Ajarian capital of Batumi. In addition, Tbilisi had
    brought a halt to all banking activity in the region.
    Saakashvili's chief demands for ending the blockade were: unimpeded access by
    central government officials to the territory, central government oversight
    over tax and customs revenue collection in the region, and a guarantee of a
    free and fair parliamentary campaign and election on March 28.
    Ajarian leader Aslan Abashidze has doggedly tried to preserve broad autonomous
    powers, specifically control over locally generated revenue. Abashidze has
    likewise attempted to maintain tight control over Ajaria's political
    environment, fearful that free elections would break his tight grip on power.
    In recent weeks, opposition political activists have endured physical attacks
    and other forms of harassment at the hands of Abashidze loyalists.
    According to a Rustavi-2 television report, in return for the lifting of the
    economic blockade, Abashidze acknowledged the central government's right to
    "impose control over customs, the port and all strategic offices." The Ajarian
    leader also pledged to allow competitive elections and "provide freedom of
    speech on the territory of the Ajarian autonomous republic." In addition,
    Abashidze is to be held personally responsible for disarming armed bands of
    Ajarian citizens that had been mobilized in recent days.
    While clearly happy with the results, Saakashvili cautioned that Abashidze
    would be judged on the implementation of the points of agreement. Initial
    indicators showed that the March 28 parliamentary could prove a source of
    ongoing tension. After his meeting with Abashidze, Saakashvili went to the
    headquarters of a major regional opposition movement, Our Ajaria. Abashidze
    supporters reportedly restricted access to the meeting, preventing some
    opposition activists from attending, Rustavi-2 reported. In addition, regional
    television, which is controlled by Abashidze, did not report on the meeting.
    Pressure on Abashidze to hold a fair election is not coming solely from
    Tbilisi. Prior to the announced ending of the economic blockade, Georgian
    officials revealed that Council of Europe Secretary-General Walter Schwimmer
    had telephoned Abashidze, urging the Ajarian leader to provide for an open
    campaign environment.
    For the moment, Saakashvili seemed sufficiently satisfied that the Ajaria
    crisis has been defused that he left the country, flying directly from Batumi
    to Slovakia to attend an international conference on European Union
    enlargement.
    One of the main goals of Saakashvili's presidency is the reestablishment of
    Tbilisi's authority over all of Georgia's territory. Indeed, prior to his
    arrival in Batumi for the talks with Abashidze, Saakashvili stated that his
    "responsibility before the history of Georgia means that I must unify
    Georgia."
    The apparent outcome of the Ajaria crisis marks a quantum leap by
    Saakashvili's
    administration towards fulfillment of the unity goal. Of course, the two most
    difficult stumbling blocks to reestablishing the territorial integrity of
    Georgia--political settlements to the Abkhazia and South Ossetia
    conflicts--are
    likely to prove far more difficult to resolve than did the Ajaria question.


    4) Armenia At Last Formally Protests British Envoy's Genocide Denial

    YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--Armenia has sent a diplomatic note to Britain protesting its
    ambassador to Armenia's inflammatory remark that the 1915 slaughter of more
    than one million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey was not a genocide, a spokesman
    said on Thursday.
    Ambassador Thorda Abbott-Watt's explicit denial of the genocide, voiced at a
    meeting with students last month and reiterated afterwards, has caused an
    uproar in Armenia and especially the Diaspora. She has been bombarded with
    angry letters over the past two weeks, condemning her and demanding an
    apology.
    Abbott-Watt argues that her comments reflect the position of the British
    government which does not recognize the mass killings as genocide. "I am sorry
    that my Government's position on how we refer to the events of 1915-16 causes
    you personal distress," she replied to an Armenian-American critic by e-mail
    last week.
    There have also been calls for the Armenian government to seek the envoy's
    expulsion from Armenia. But both President Robert Kocharian and the Foreign
    Ministry have ruled out that option. The ministry spokesman Hamlet Gasparian,
    said Yerevan can only "regret such a position."
    "Such issues are better dealt with through diplomatic channels, not publicly,"
    Gasparian said in a statement. "As in the past, this time, too, the
    authorities
    expressed their position to the UK government with a diplomatic note."
    "Of course each country has its position on this matter, based on its own
    strategic interests. However, the ambassadors of those countries to Armenia
    should approach such a sensitive issue with great caution and sensitivity."
    In February 2002, the Foreign Ministry protested to Israel over its Ambassador
    Rivka Kohen's similar denial of the genocide. Kohen had told reporters in
    Yerevan earlier that what happened to the Armenians was just a "tragedy" that
    should not be compared to the Jewish Holocaust. Yerevan's reaction was more
    strongly-worded at the time.
    It is not the first time that the current British government's handling of the
    sensitive issue comes into question. Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet faced
    domestic protests in January 2001 when it attempted to exclude Armenians from
    official ceremonies marking Britain's Holocaust Memorial Day. It caved in
    under
    pressure from prominent public figures and media.
    "The Daily Telegraph," the UK's best-selling broadsheet newspaper, referred to
    the events of 1915 as "the first genocide of the modern era." "Britain stands
    firm among a dwindling band of nations that fail to acknowledge the massacres
    were genocide," another leading London daily, "The Guardian," wrote in a
    lengthy article on the subject.
    Ironically, the British statesmen's First World War-era accounts have been a
    major source of reference for the Armenians in their campaign for
    international
    recognition of the genocide. The Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan, for
    example, has a plaque dedicated to Lord James Bryce, whose 700-page Blue Book,
    a collection of evidence of the massacres, was published by the British
    Foreign
    Office in 1916.


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