From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News, 23 Jan 92 (from Haluk)
Date: 25 Jan 1993 03:51:48 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

 -Pipeline explosion cuts off gas supplies to Armenia
 -C.I.S. charter signed, but doubts linger over implementation
 -Germany probes Yugoslav embargo violations

 Subject: Pipeline explosion cuts off gas supplies to Armenia

        MOSCOW (UPI) -- Armenia was largely paralyzed Saturday after an
 explosion in neighboring Georgia damaged the pipeline that supplies the
 republic with natural gas, the Russian state news agency Itar-Tass said.
        In the Armenian capital Yerevan the metro was shut down, most
 telephone lines were dead, newspapers were not published, radio stations
 stopped broadcasting and residents shivered without heating in 14 degree
 F winter temperatures.
        The explosion, in the Marneouli region of southern Georgia, crippled
 the natural gas pipeline Friday night. Itar-Tass said the pipeline would
 take at least two weeks to repair.
        The main Yerevan electrical generating station shut down for lack of
 gas, and only a hydroelectric plant north east of the capitol was still
 supplying electricity for vital services such as the city's bread
 factories and hospitals.
        The Armenian economy is close to collapse with most industries shut
 down for lack of electricity and raw materials, and bread is rationed.
        It is the second year that Armenia has faced a severe energy crisis
 caused by a blockade by neighboring Azerbaijan, through which most of
 Armenia's energy supplies used to flow.
        The two Caucasian republics have been fighting an undeclared war over
 the disputed Nagorno Karabakh enclave for over four years, and both have
 blockaded parts of the other's territory.
        Armenia had been receiving steady supplies of Russian natural gas
 through a pipeline running through Georgia, but these have become
 sporadic in the past two years and have several times been cut off
 because of unrest in Georgia.
        Meanwhile efforts to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict were
 underway again.
        Mario Rafaelli, a mediator for the Conference of Security and
 Cooperation in Europe, was in the Azerbaijani capital Baku Saturday, the
 independent Interfax news agency said.
        There have been virtually no negotiations between the two republics
 since last summer when fighting intensified in the disputed territory.
 =========================================================================
 Subject: C.I.S. charter signed, but doubts linger over implementation

        MINSK, Belarus (UPI) -- For C.I.S. boosters, the elegant stone
 building with the brass plaque that proclaims, ``Commonwealth of
 Independent States'' is evidence that the young alliance has some
 tangible achievement under its belt.
        But awkwardly for C.I.S. leaders, who met Friday in the Belarus
 capital Minsk to discuss strengthening the grouping of nine ex-Soviet
 republics, there is little else the Commonwealth can show for its one-
 year existence apart from the fact that it now has its own headquarters.
        As the daily Izvestia noted on the eve of the summit, of the more
 than 200 accords, protocols and other sundry agreements signed since the
 C.I.S. was founded in December 1991, none have actually been
 implemented.
        Instead of the close political and economic cooperation envisaged by
 the original C.I.S. treaty, members states have been busily erecting
 trade and customs barriers, introducing their own currencies, and -- in
 the case of Russia and Ukraine -- endlessly squabbling over nuclear
 weapons, oil supplies and the Black Sea fleet.
        Nor has the alliance had any notable success in the area of security.
 The C.I.S. has stood by impotently as two of its members, Armenia and
 Azerbaijan, fought a bloody and debilitating war over disputed territory
 that has gone on for over four years.
        Even when several Commonwealth states decided late last year to send
 in peacekeeping forces to halt the civil war in Tadzhikistan, their own
 Parliaments blocked the move by refusing to ratify the decision -- and no
 troops were sent.
        In Minsk the leaders implicitly acknowledged the alliance'e lack of
 concrete achievements.
        ``The C.I.S. is faced with a choice between muddling along and going
 through the motions,'' said Russian President Boris Yeltsin, ``or
 becoming an influential, integrated entity in the world.''
        ``If the Commonwealth exists in an amorphous form and each country
 pursues its own interests, we will have to cooperate more efficiently by
 ourselves,'' said Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov, referring to his
 recent threat that if the alliance did not produce concrete results then
 the five Muslim republics of ex-Soviet Central Asia would ``go their own
 way.''
        Equally, many ordinary people throughout the ex-Soviet Union, who
 have seen their living standards plummet in recent years, have had cause
 to question the value of an alliance that seems to have brought no real
 benefits.
        Residents of Minsk, where the C.I.S. headquarters and a permanent
 staff of Commonwealth coordinators is based, have particular cause to
 gripe.
        Every time there is a C.I.S. gathering there the police block off
 parts of the downtown, paralysing traffic. And the Belarus government
 spent $44,000 hosting Friday's summit, according to a local paper, which
 included wining and dining C.I.S. delegations and putting them up in
 luxurious government residences. At a time of widespread belt-
 tightening, this does little to impress Ivan-in-the-street.
        Nonetheless, there is a clear need for the Commonwealth. The ex-
 Soviet republics remain so interdependent upon one another --
 particularly economically -- that none can realistically contemplate
 going it alone in the near future.
        In this light, the signing of the C.I.S. charter by seven republics --
 which will create a host of new central bodies to coordinate economic,
 military and foreign policies -- has the potential to restore the vital
 links shattered by the Soviet collapse.
        But significantly, the new C.I.S. bodies cannot make decisions on
 their own -- they can only ``coordinate,'' meaning their effectiveness
 will hang on the good faith and willingness of individual governments to
 cooperate.
        Still, looking on bright side, the C.I.S. has even surprised some of
 its own supporters by lasting as long as it has.
        During the Minsk summit Commonwealth press secretary Yevgeny Gorelik,
 speaking to a group of visiting foreign journalists, apologized for not
 having business cards to give out.
        ``We all thought the C.I.S. would collapse,'' he said, ``so I didn't
 bother ordering any.''
 =========================================================================
 Subject: Germany probes Yugoslav embargo violations

        BONN, Germany (UPI) -- German authorities are investigating 180
 possible violations of a U.N. embargo against Serbia and Montenegro,
 including an attempted sale of grenades and mines, the Spiegel magazine
 said Saturday.
        In an article released in advance of Sunday's publication, the news
 weekly said eight people allegedly involved in illegal trade with rump
 Yugoslavia were taken into police custody for interrogation.
        The Spiegel said that recent legislation allowing the tapping of
 telephones of companies and individuals thought to be involved in
 illegal trade helped investigators gain much of the evidence in the 180
 suspected embargo violations.
        It said in one case, the owner of a Munich trading firm was arrested
 after he placed a telephone order with a German firm for grenades and
 mines ``for a local group.''
        A few days earlier, the businessman had received orders from rump
 Yugoslavia for a large quantity of cigarettes, aluminium powder and
 sealing tape.
        The Spiegel said police also arrested the owner of a Frankfurt firm,
 which imported shoes valued at $850,000 from Serbia.
        In Hamburg, vehicles worth $10 million which a trader tried to export
 to Serbia, were confiscated, the magazine said.
        The weekly also claimed that an increasing number of German weapons,
 including MP-5 assault rifles and Armbrust anti-tank weapons were
 appearing in former Yugoslavia, as were German weapons catalogs offering
 ``swift delivery'' from a North Sea harbor.
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