Yerevan-based Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC) with its partners “Caucasus Dialogue Foundation” (Georgia) and “3^rd View” informational-analytical news agency (Azerbaijan) published a book: “Cross-analysis of school textbooks of the South Caucasus”. The authors wrote articles on the issues: the images of “Self” and “Enemy” in the textbooks on history of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, representation of “Others” in the South Caucasus secondary school history textbooks, what should be changed in the history textbooks, how to teach tolerant history and the history which will foster mutual understanding and trust-building. The authors are well-known historians and civil society representatives fromArmenia,Azerbaijan andGeorgia.

The book is published with kind support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.

More information on: http://georgien.blogspot.com/2012/05/book-cross-analysis-of-school-textbooks.html

Yulia Tymoshenko wants the authorities to let German doctors treat her

Ukraine has postponed a summit of Central and East European leaders planned for this week after several of them said they would boycott it.

Europe-wide concern about the treatment of jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko prompted the boycott. Yalta was the 11-12 May summit venue.

Ms Tymoshenko has chronic back pain and is on hunger strike.

The presidents of Germany, Austria, Romania and the Czech Republic were among those who cancelled their trips.

Ukraine has not set a new date yet. There is also a threat that leaders may boycott Euro 2012 football matches in Ukraine next month.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Dykusarov said that “as a number of European heads of state cannot take part in the 18th summit of Central European states, Ukraine deems it necessary not to hold the summit on 11-12 May in Yalta”.

Ms Tymoshenko is in jail in the eastern city of Kharkiv and on Tuesday she refused to be moved to a local hospital.

She has alleged that prison guards beat her during a previous attempt to move her to hospital and her supporters released photographs showing bruises on her body.

Ukraine denies her allegations, including her claim that she is being punished as an act of political revenge by President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ms Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years in October 2011 for abuse of office during her time as prime minister. She is an arch-rival of Mr Yanukovych, whom she helped oust from power in the 2004 Orange Revolution.

He had been elected president in a rigged election. However, in 2010 he staged a political comeback, defeating Ms Tymoshenko in a new presidential election.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17991614?cid=nlc-dailybrief-daily_news_brief-link18-20120508

Armenia’s parliamentary elections on May 6 were plagued by numerous violations and glitches.

Over the past year, Armenia’s President Serzh Sarkisian repeatedly affirmed that he was intent on ensuring that the May 6 parliamentary ballot would be the most democratic in Armenia’s post-Soviet history.
Armenia’s foreign partners wholeheartedly supported that intention. U.S. Ambassador John Heffern told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last fall that Washington was working with Yerevan to ensure that the 2012 parliamentary ballot and the presidential election in 2013 would be “the best elections ever and fully consistent with international standards.”
The May 6 parliamentary ballot failed, however, to measure up to those expectations. Indeed, in two key respects it appears to have been more seriously flawed than the previous parliamentary election in 2007.
True, all eight parties and one bloc that sought to register succeeded in doing so, and were able to campaign freely.
But, as the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) noted in a press release on May 7, pressure on voters by local officials from Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and election commissions’ dismissal of many appeals and complaints “created an unequal playing field.”
There were numerous reports of vote-buying by the HHK.  Purportedly charitable activities by its coalition partner Prosperous Armenia (BH), including the distribution of some 500 tractors in rural areas by a company owned by BH chairman Gagik Tsarukian, were seen by international election monitors as incompatible with the new electoral code [...]

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/armenia_elections_step_backward/24574517.html

by Nicu Popescu

Brussels might have started to get used to the sharp-tongued former Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin, but Moldova is only in the early stages of doing so. After a stint in Brussels, Rogozin moved back to Moscow last December to be appointed deputy prime-minister in charge of the military-industrial complex. Rogozin is a Russian populist nationalist politician with huge  (rumour has it that presidential) ambitions. A couple of weeks ago he was also appointed special representative of the Russian president on Transnistria (rather than on conflict settlement in Transnistria) and co-chair of the Russian-Moldovan intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. The move was badly staged. The Moldovans learned about it from the media. The appointment came in the same package as the nomination of two Russian regional governors (of Krasnodar Krai and North Ossetia) as ‘special representatives’, read overseers, for the adjacent Abkhazia and South Ossetia. And Rogozin on the third day of his new appointment called Moldova a ‘hencoop’ on his twitter account.

The Moldovans are worried, the EU unimpressed and both irritated. Clearly the appointment of Rogozin shows a much higher Russian political interest in Transnistria. The trouble is that when Russia would rather put up a show instead of cooperating – Rogozin is the right person to (mis)handle dossiers. Given that in the last couple of months there have been some hopes regarding conflict settlement in Transnistria after the long-serving Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov lost power to the younger Evgeny Shevchuk and Moldova finally elected a president, the appointment of Rogozin is an ever bigger nuisance. Rogozin is likely to be more concerned with self-promotion than pursuing conflict-settlement. He is also likely to tighten Russia’s grip over Transnistria (Shevchuk recently spoke about adopting the Russian rouble as a currency). Rogozin’s double-hatting as co-chair of the intergovernmental commission with Moldova also give him plenty of economic levers (gas-prices negotiations and market access) into his hands that he is certain to apply to Moldova. His bulldozing style is also going to be much more intimidating for the Moldovans than to NATO member states. The EU itself is also going through a small transition as the former EU representative to the 5+2 talks on Transnistria, Miroslav Lajcak is moving from the External Action Service to the post of Foreign Minister of Slovakia [...]

More on

Source: http://blogs.euobserver.com/popescu/2012/04/02/rogozins-travails-in-moldova/