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Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Volume 12 Number 57
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Transcaucasia And Central Asia
FORMER ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER CHARGEDOpposition Hanrapetutiun party leader Aram Sargsian, who served as Armenian prime minister from November 1999-May 2000, was summoned on March 25 to the Prosecutor-General's Office and formally charged with organizing mass unrest and seeking to seize power, Noyan Tapan and RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. He was not taken into custody, but signed an undertaking not to leave Armenia. He told RFE/RL that he refused to testify. Sargsian backed the presidential bid of former President Levon Ter-Petrossian and played a key role in organizing the protests by Ter-Petrossian's supporters against the perceived falsification of the results of the February 19 presidential ballot. The official results proclaimed Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian the winner with 52.8 percent of the vote, followed by Ter-Petrossian with 21.51 percent. Also on March 25, police arrested Arshak Banuchian, a deputy director of the Matenadaran institute of ancient manuscripts and likewise a committed Ter-Petrossian supporter, after searching his Yerevan apartment the previous evening, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. On March 24 and 25, residents of a village near the town of Hrazdan in central Armenia staged protest to demand the release from custody of local parliamentarian Sasun Mikaelian, a third prominent Ter-Petrossian supporter arrested in the wake of the March 1-2 violent clashes in Yerevan between police and Ter-Petrossian supporters, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Opposition journalists who sought to cover that protest were harassed by police who desisted only after the journalists telephoned the Yerevan office of human rights ombudsman Armen Harutiunian, whose staff came to their assistance. LF VOLUNTEERS RALLY TO PAY FINE IMPOSED ON INDEPENDENT ARMENIAN TV STATION The Giumri-based independent GALA television channel has succeeded over the past week in raising almost 27 million drams ($87,700) to pay a fine imposed on it on March 19 for alleged tax evasion, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Up to 10,000 residents of Giumri and the surrounding Shirak region donated money to enable the channel to avoid closure. One donor gave 5,000 drams, one-fifth of his monthly pension, while a second told RFE/RL: "GALA is the only Armenian TV station that had the courage to be independent of the government. I want my kids to grow up in a free country and to be able to freely express their views." GALA fell foul of the authorities last fall after it ignored instructions not to air footage of Ter-Petrossian's September 21 indictment of the Armenian leadership (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 23, November 1 and 13, and December 5 and 20, 2007). LF FLIGHTS RESUME BETWEEN GEORGIA, RUSSIA In line with an agreement reached during talks in Moscow in mid-February, flights between Moscow and Tbilisi resumed on March 25 after an 18-month break, Georgian and Russian media reported. Flights were suspended in the fall of 2006 when bilateral relations sharply deteriorated following the arrest in Tbilisi for espionage of four Russian Embassy employees (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 2 and 3, 2006). "Kommersant" on March 26 quoted unnamed Russian Foreign Ministry officials as saying that Russia is currently considering lifting all visa requirements for Georgian citizens and resuming postal communications between the two countries. LF GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ABANDONS HUNGER STRIKE In response to a personal appeal, the second in six days, by Georgian Patriarch Ilia II, representatives of the eight-party opposition National Council announced on March 25 the end of the hunger strike launched 17 days earlier, civil.ge reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," March 10, 11, 17, and 25, 2008). At the same time, People's Party leader Koba Davitashvili told several thousand opposition supporters gathered outside the parliament building in Tbilisi that "we shall continue our struggle." He termed the rejection several hours earlier of the opposition's demands by President Mikheil Saakashvili "a declaration of war," and warned that if the authorities seek to rig the outcome of the parliamentary ballot scheduled for May 21 in the same way that he claimed they falsified the outcome of the January 5 preterm presidential ballot, "the opposition will call for a new revolution. If Saakashvili wants a new revolution he will have it, but it won't be a velvet revolution," Davitashvili added. Speaking earlier on March 25 in the eastern region of Kakheti, Saakashvili complained that although he has offered "many things to various political parties in order to satisfy everybody and to hold elections in a normal atmosphere," the radical opposition remains intent on "thwarting the elections," civil.ge reported. Saakashvili affirmed that the May 21 ballot will be "very clear and transparent." Also on March 25, parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze, whose resignation some opposition parties were demanding, argued that the opposition should return to the negotiating table to try to "reach agreement on all those issues that will help us to hold democratic elections, which in turn would help us to make one more step toward NATO and toward the reunification of the country," civil.ge reported. LF JOINT KAZAKH-RUSSIAN OPERATION TARGETS ARMS-TRAFFICKING NETWORK... According to a press release issued in Astana, a joint Kazakh-Russian operation on March 25 targeted an arms-trafficking network, according to Interfax-Kazakhstan. The operation involved units from the West Kazakhstan Oblast branch of the Interior Ministry, the Kazakh National Security Committee, and the Russian Saratov Oblast branch of the Interior Ministry and "liquidated an underground workshop and international channel for the illicit production, smuggling, and trade of military weapons in Uralsk," the administrative capital of West Kazakhstan Oblast. The release added that the operation also resulted in the arrests of an unspecified number of suspects in both Uralsk and Saratov. In a separate operation the same day, Kazakh police launched a sweep aimed at rounding up illegal labor migrants, arresting 135 laborers without legal work permits, 60 of whom were Uzbek citizens, 40 were from Kyrgyzstan, and another 35 were from Turkey. Kazakh police have conducted regular sweeps of major urban centers aimed at stemming the influx of illegal laborers, resulting in the deportation of 476 foreign workers since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Kazakh border guards in the South Kazakhstan Oblast on March 24 seized a shipment of nearly 3 tons of nonferrous and 8 tons of ferrous metal being smuggled from Uzbekistan into Kazakhstan, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. Border guards also told reporters that the operation resulted in the arrest of two Kazakh citizens in the Maktaaral district of South Kazakhstan Oblast. RG KYRGYZ DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS REFORM GOALS FULFILLED At a press conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Defense Minister Ismail Isakov reported on March 25 on the course of defense reform, asserting that the Defense Ministry has fulfilled all reform goals initially set in 2005, AKIpress reported. Providing a detailed list of the most significant accomplishments over the past three years of defense reform, Isakov pointed to demonstrable progress in the "moral and patriotic feeling" of soldiers and noted that the army adopted a 12-month term of active military service and shortened the term of alternative service to two years. He added that the armed forces are continuing the transition from the Russian language to using the Kyrgyz language, and that a new air-defense force has been established, and is currently deployed in the Osh, Batken, and Jalal-Abad regions. Advanced training programs have also been introduced, with an emphasis on mountain-warfare exercises and combat reconnaissance. Responding to a journalist's question about conscription, Isakov replied that with 190,000 conscripts, there is "no shortage" facing Kyrgyzstan, Kabar reported. According to Isakov, there are roughly 60,000 Kyrgyz citizens currently serving as active-duty military personnel and another 17,000 in two-year alternative service. Commenting on the next stage of military reform, he said that the country will establish a contract-based semi-professional army by 2025 and, pending parliamentary approval of new draft legislation, will also adopt a new military doctrine. Isakov also suggested that a new proposal is now under consideration that would impose an undetermined tax on citizens who do not serve in the army and are not eligible for alternative service. RG KYRGYZ OPPOSITION LEADER WARNS OF ECONOMIC CRISIS, THREAT TO SOUTH At a press conference in Bishkek, opposition Ar-Namys (Dignity) party leader Feliks Kulov warned on March 25 that "there is a critical situation in the country," adding that there is an urgent need to find a "way out" of the economic crisis, AKIpress reported. Kulov, a former prime minister, accused government officials of failing to attribute adequate importance to what he asserted is a "deep economic crisis" and accused the leadership of not addressing serious environmental and energy concerns. Kulov further warned the government against "turning a blind eye" to developments in the south of the country, where he claimed they risk "losing control of the situation" in light of the systematic encroachment and assimilation of Kyrgyz territory, Interfax reported. He advocated relocating to the south such government agencies as the Emergency Situations and Economic Development and Trade ministries, the Border Protection Service, and the Agency for Religious Affairs. Kulov said that his party does not support other opposition parties' demands for an early presidential election, adding that "there are no legal grounds for President Kurmanbek Bakiev to resign," according to the 24.kg website. But he did support calls to reduce the president's excessive "personal power." RG/LF TRILATERAL MINISTERIAL SUMMIT ENDS IN TAJIKISTAN At the conclusion of a two-day summit in Dushanbe, the foreign ministers of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Iran signed on March 25 a joint 12-point communique pledging tripartite cooperation in the energy and transport sectors and vowing to expand economic cooperation, Avesta reported. The three hailed the meeting as an important step toward "economic integration" and greater regional cooperation, adding that they also agreed to establish a new Dushanbe-based Persian-language television channel to broadcast in each country. Addressing reporters following the signing, Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi added that they confirmed their readiness "to intensify economic and humanitarian cooperation," but stressed that the trilateral summit was not directed against any third party, according to ITAR-TASS. The trilateral summit was intended to bolster new efforts at "trilateral cooperation" and establishing a Tajik-Iranian-Afghan "economic council" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," March 25, 2008). Iran is actively engaged in developing several hydroelectric power plants in Tajikistan and is also working to complete construction of a planned Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran highway. A related project envisions the construction of a new railway link connecting Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China, aimed at boosting trade, increasing exports, and easing transit costs in the region, as well as expanding passenger traffic. RG
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