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Ahmadinejad Cuts Short Armenia
Visit
 YEREVAN (Combined Sources)—Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad cut short his two-day visit to Armenia on Oct.
23 and returned to neighboring Iran, an Armenian
presidential spokesman said.
The Armenian government had expected Ahmadinejad to address
parliament and, in what was likely to cause controversy,
plant a sapling at the Armenian Genocide Memorial (Dzidzernagapert).
He also had planned to visit the 18th-century Blue Mosque in
central Yerevan, which was rebuilt with Iranian funding
after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
But Ahmadinejad told Armenian President Robert Kocharian
late on Oct. 22 that he needed to skip the next day’s
planned events because of unexpected developments in Iran
that needed immediate attention, according to Armenian
presidential spokesman Viktor Sogomonian.
No unexpected developments have been reported in Iran that
could explain Ahmadinejad’s early departure.
The visit to the Genocide Memorial was the most sensitive
part of his agenda, and he may have wanted to avoid the
ceremony to avoid causing tensions in relations with Turkey.
YSU Condemned
Ahmadinejad avoided taking sides on the issue of the
Armenian genocide in a speech before Armenian university
students on Oct. 22, saying only that Iran condemns any
crimes against humanity. The Iranian president was presented
with an honorary doctorate at Yerevan State University,
along with a gold medal.
In an interview with the Rosbalt news agency, Eurasian
Jewish Congress representative Rima Varzhepetyan expressed
outrage at the decision to honor Ahmadinejad, who has
suggesting that the Holocaust is a myth invented by Jews.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) also condemned the
university.
“It is simply astonishing that a university, where the
search for truth and peaceful co-existence ought to be a
cherished ideal, would honor the head of a country who is a
leading denier of the Holocaust and calls for the
elimination of a UN member state, Israel,” said AJC
executive director David A. Harris.
“Moreover, as president of Iran, Ahmadinejad has trampled on
the rights of many Iranian citizens, including students on
university campuses who have protested his, in their words,
dictatorial and suffocating leadership,” said Harris. “Many
of those students have been imprisoned and reportedly
tortured.”
“Yerevan State University should have honored the students
and not those who clamp down on their right to speak out and
protest,” Harris said.
Cooperation
Also on Oct. 22, Ahmadinejad and Kocharian held talks and
struck several agreements to bolster economic ties between
the two countries. They discussed plans to build a railway
link and two hydroelectric power plants on the border river,
Arax.
The projects are important for landlocked Armenia, which has
struggled with power shortages and transport blockades since
the collapse of the Soviet Union. Neighboring Azerbaijan and
Turkey shut their borders with Armenia in the wake of the
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Kocharian’s spokesman said the president was not disturbed
by Ahmadinejad’s early departure because they had managed to
cover all the necessary issues during their talks.
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