Author: Chmshkian Vicken

Azerbaijan says no compromising over Karabakh
By Sevindzh Abdullayeva and Viktor Shulman

ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 12, 2005

BAKU, March 12 — Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said there
could be no compromising over Nagorno-Karabakh.

“It was a wrong approach from the very beginning. It was proposed by
someone and used for some time. I believe there can be no compromises
on our side,” Aliyev told journalists on Saturday.

“Azerbaijan did not seize other countries’ territories to return them
now,” he added.

The president believes that the only step Azerbaijan could take is
“give security guarantees to Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeris
who return there”.

Aliyev thinks this may become a topic for negotiations. He said he
would no object to meeting Armenian President Robert Kocharyan but
said there would have to be a topic to discuss.

“We have already met several times, and we can say that all issues
have been discussed and all positions stated,” he said.

The president stressed, “There are no and can be no changes in the
position of Azerbaijan.”

In his view, the groundwork for his meeting with Kocharyan should
be laid by “the negotiations between the foreign ministers of the
two countries”.

“If these negotiations produce results, and the Armenian side assumes
a constructive position and understands that the problem can be
resolved only on the basis of international law, then a meeting of
the presidents may take place,” he said.

Aliyev said, “Azerbaijan can take part in the negotiations as long as
there is at least a 5 percent probability that the Karabakh conflict
can be resolved peacefully”.

“If there are no results, we will withdraw from the negotiations and
solve the problem in other ways,” the president warned.

He also said ceasefire violations in the conflict zone that have become
more frequent recently had a negative impact on the negotiations. “This
does not benefit us. This is a provocation from the Armenian side,”
Aliyev said, adding that Azerbaijan was “ready to give a proper
response to any attacks”.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 12 2005

Azerbaijan, Georgia in border delimitation dispute

AssA-Irada 12/03/2005 17:37

Azerbaijan is currently in a border delimitation dispute with Georgia
and only the division of 20% of the border has been agreed upon with
this country, says Garib Mammadov, Land and Mapping Committee chairman.

The 480-km-long Azeri-Georgian border is divided into 5 territories
and 24 sub-territories, and only 5 sub-teritories have been agreed
upon thus far, he said.

“We have a certain misunderstanding with Georgia and our positions
do not coincide due to their groundless claims.” Mammadov said that
the map, approved by the Georgian parliament in 1963 (Soviet Union
times), was prepared by not Azerbaijanis, but Georgians, Armenians
and Russians, and therefore, does not meet Azerbaijan’s interests.
Prior to this, a different map was used. An Azeri delegation will
leave for Tbilisi to continue talks late in March, he said. Mammadov
continued that Azerbaijan shares a 390.3-km border with Russia
and only a 55-km section (15%) has yet to be agreed upon with this
country. Only the territories bordering on the Balakan, Gusar and
Khachmaz Districts of Azerbaijan have yet to be agreed upon, he said.

Mammadov added that Azerbaijan faces no disputes with Iran and Turkey
over border delimitation.

Diaspora money transfers a way for Armenia’s survival
by Mariam Kharutyunyan

Agence France Presse — English
March 9, 2005 Wednesday 4:09 AM GMT

YEREVAN March 9 — Armenia’s economy, bled dry since the Soviet Union’s
fall and the war with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
now depends on fund transfers from its sprawling diaspora for survival.

“Foreign transfers allow our citizens to keep a good level of life
which in its turn allows for an increase in the output aggregate,”
the Central Bank’s president Tigran Sargsyan stressed.

Since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, nearly a million Armenians
left Armenia, a resource-poor Caucasian republic facing economic
blockade from neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan due to the conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s largely Armenian province which
had revolted in 1990s.

Most had flocked to Russia, the United States and Europe.

The transfers of expatriate Armenians have gone up by over a half
last year to reach 740 million dollars, topping the country’s
600-million-dollar budget — and were due to climb to a billion
this year.

According to the central bank, these transfers make up a quarter of
Armenia’s economic growth.

Transfers bloomed, Sargsyan explained, as Armenians abroad saw their
own fortunes improve, while the links between the diaspora and its
motherland became ever stronger.

“Economic growth makes Armenia more attractive for the diaspora,
which invests in real estate and goes back to live in the homeland
of their origins,” Sargsyan said.

Meanwhile, many of Armenia’s remaining 3.7-million population lives
on the money sent by their relatives or friends working abroad.

“Other countries can count on natural resources such as oil. For
Armenia, its important diaspora is such a resource,” along with
immigrant workers, economist Levon Barkhudaryan said, adding that
repatriated funds help ease social and political tensions within.

However, other experts warn against the transfers’ darker side, saying,
like Vagram Avanesyan, that they are a handicap on local production
and a boost to imports, not to mention downright dependence.

Either way, many Armenians are driven to work across the border even
though it may mean a long time away from home.

“For years, my husband has been searching in vain for a job in Armenia,
and he had to go abroad, even though it was very hard for him to
leave his family,” mourned Anna, a 36-year-old mother of two.

“Every time he calls, he asks if there is a job for him in our
country.”

Like many other Armenians who mostly work in service, trade or
construction, Anna’s husband had been working for five years at
construction sites in a small Russian town and sends his family some
400 dollars each month.

“My daughter Marina has been working for two years as a babysitter
though she has a diploma from Yerevan’s polytechnic institute,” said
Vardan, a 60-year-old living on the money his elder daughter sends
him from the United States.

“No one is surprised anymore to see a former professor as a street
peddler in Moscow or a scientist as a taxi driver in Madrid,” Vardan
added bitterly.

Death of a Patriot

COMMENTARY

The Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2005
Page A16

By THOMAS DE WAAL

Some nine years ago I interviewed Aslan Maskhadov, the Chechen
separatist leader who was killed on Tuesday, in the middle of a beech
forest in southern Chechnya. He was brimming with confidence and looking
forward to swapping the woods for the halls of the Kremlin. The volatile
rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev had been assassinated and now Maskhadov,
his natural successor, was being invited for talks in Moscow by
President Boris Yeltsin. In retrospect, that was the high watermark of
Maskhadov’s authority as both successful warrior and peacemaker. Those
talks in the Kremlin helped lead to a peace settlement that ended the
first Chechen war of 1994-96. Maskhadov then went on to be elected
president of Chechnya in 1997 in a vote that was recognized by Russia
and the world.

At that time there were hopes that Maskhadov could become a latter-day
Chechen Ataturk, a martial leader who had turned to politics and would
build up some kind of statehood in his unfortunate republic. Announcing
his death this week, the Russian authorities called him a “bandit” and
“terrorist.” Neither description was true. Maskhadov was a tragic
figure, a guerrilla leader who could not transcend his own limitations
as a politician and the appalling situation around him.

Everyone has failed in Chechnya. Maskhadov failed in his attempts to
lead his republic from 1997-99, not managing to confront a rising tide
of radical Islam and criminality. That anarchy was the prelude to the
Russian government’s second military intervention in Chechnya in 1999.
And although he repeatedly called for negotiations with Moscow over the
last five years, Maskhadov failed to rein in the radicals who have
turned from partisan war to acts of terrorism, like the one in Beslan
last September.

The most colossal failure in Chechnya has been that of the Russian
government. Its soldiers have done everything in their power to make
Chechens feel an alienated people and a conquered nation. No one knows
exactly how many civilians have died there since 1994 but the number
runs into the tens of thousands and is a catastrophe for this small
republic. The city of Grozny, its only urban and professional center,
still lies in ruins more than a decade after the fighting started.
President Putin’s latest policy of “Chechenization” — delegating
political and economic power to a loyal pro-Moscow government — has put
an end to full-scale fighting; but in practice it has empowered a brutal
and criminalized group that is implicated in daily abductions and
killings. Little wonder that terrorism still sprouts in the cracks left
by this cataclysm.

Killing Maskhadov risks being a Pyrrhic victory for Moscow. His standing
had declined in recent years, but his election still made him an
important political symbol for many ordinary Chechens. Now that that
symbol has been killed, a whole constituency will feel disenfranchised.
Maskhadov’s death will strengthen the radical Shamil Basayev, who has
claimed responsibility for the death of more than 330 people in Beslan,
half of them children.

The West has failed, too, in Chechnya and has never given it the
attention it deserves. All too often the subject has been pushed down
the list of topics under discussion. In 1994, a more forthright stand
against the bombing of Grozny might have made Boris Yeltsin think again,
but Western politicians hesitated to pick up their telephones. Other
Westerners have lectured Russia without taking into account its real
security concerns, or offering any practical assistance.

Much Western categorization of Chechnya has been misleading and
superficial. To call the conflict a front in the “international war on
terror” obscures more than it reveals. The number of international
jihadis in Chechnya is tiny and it remains essentially a homegrown
problem. Terror is now one part of the equation but simply killing
terrorists will not solve the problem. But nor is this “deliberate
genocide.” Moscow still promises the Chechens high levels of autonomy
and pours money into Chechnya. The problem is that the executors on the
ground of whatever policy there is — Russian soldiers and their Chechen
cronies — tend to be brutal, xenophobic or highly corrupt. It is not
even very helpful to think of this as a colonial war: Most Chechens now
probably reject independence and accept that they should be part of
Russia — if only Russia would respect their elementary rights.

Is there a way forward? Clearly the time for polemic is past and the
Western institutions making a difference on this issue are those that
seek to engage on as practical level as possible. The European Court of
Human Rights delivered an important verdict on Feb. 24, upholding the
claims of a group of Chechen civilians who had lost relatives to Russian
violence and demanding the Russian government pay damages. The money is
less important than the signal that sends to ordinary Chechens that the
outside world cares about their rights and to Russian soldiers that
their behavior is under scrutiny.

Above all, Chechnya needs reconstruction. President Putin himself
pronounced himself shocked when he flew over the ruins of Grozny last
year and saw himself that a Russian city in the early 21st century still
resembles the hulk of Stalingrad in 1945. Unemployment is nearly
universal. But, as ever, economic rehabilitation falls foul of the
perennial problem of systemic corruption, both in Moscow and Grozny.
Western governments have enormous experience of bringing reconstruction
and aid to war-shattered regions in the Balkans. To help rebuild Grozny
and its destroyed university, oil institute, factories and schools would
be to offer a real pledge in the future of Chechnya.

This, of course, needs the consent of the Russian authorities — and a
very real obstacle remains in the form of the pro-Moscow Chechen
government, which monopolizes power and rewards only its friends and
business-partners. Parliamentary elections are due later this year in
Chechnya and a positive step from Western governments would be to offer
support and recognition for them — on condition that they are as
democratic as the situation in Chechnya allows and include a wide range
of Chechens who have been hitherto shut out from the political process.

The Chechens are Europeans too, if very distant and alienated ones. The
death of Maskhadov should be a moment to try to lure these unfortunate
people with the promise of practical assistance, not push them further
into the embrace of revenge and terror.

Mr. de Waal is Caucasus Editor at the Institute for War and Peace
Reporting, in London. He is co-author, with Fiona Hill and Anatol
Lieven, of a recent Carnegie Endowment for Peace policy brief, “A
Spreading Danger: Time for a New Policy Toward Chechnya.”

URL for this article:
,,SB111042175020675491,00.html

cbsnews.com

Books

‘Journey from the Land of No’

NEW YORK, March 10, 2005 (CBS) – The year 1979 was a pivotal one in
the history of Iran and that country’s relationship with the United
States. The shah had abdicated and was replaced by the Ayatollah
Khomeini.

Angry demonstrators took control of the U.S. embassy and the whole
world watched as 52 Americans were taken hostage.

But as these events played out on the world stage, they also were
part of the daily life of a young Jewish girl growing up in Tehran.

“People are shocked to find out I’m a Jew, and I lived in Iran until
a few years ago,” Roya Hakakian tells The Early Show co-anchor
Harry Smith. “Isn’t it ironic that the Iranian Jewish community,
its history in Iran, precedes that of the Muslims in Iran, and hardly
anyone knows about it.”

Hakakian was a witness to the revolution and writes about it in
her new book, “Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in
Revolutionary Iran.” Click here to read an excerpt.

In the book, she describes her wonderful family life and how it turned
around after the revolution.

She says, “I think of the Iranian revolution, even until today with
all the criticisms we are making about it, it’s the greatest event
I have in my own personal life, something I would not switch with
anything else in the world. It was because it took place for all the
right reasons. The fact that it went wrong is a tragedy. But it took
place because people demanded more civil liberties, more democracy,
openness — all the kinds of things that all the Middle East is really
vying for these days.”

The burst of emotion that is going on in Lebanon now is very similar
to the feelings Iranians felt at the time, Hakakian says.

“I’m willing to argue that it all began in Iran,” she explains. “Iran
is really where the center of this earthquake was in ’78, and the
reverberations are still being felt, since ’78.”

Back in the ’70s, her family lived harmoniously in a very diverse
society. She says, “We lived on an alley that I called, The Alley of
the Distinguished, in the book. We had Armenian Christian neighbors,
and Zoroastrians. And all kinds of people, along with my kind, Jewish,
and we had a fabulous time.”

But it all changed for the worst. The revolution did not bring about
the positive changes her family thought it would bring.

She says, “Transformation from those moments of ecstasy and euphoria,
and the complete conviction that things were going to be a lot better
than they had been, to a dark history we experienced two or three years
later are very important, not just for us as Iranians, but for the
rest of the world. Because Iran in ’78 and ’79 was one of the most
modern countries in the Middle East. And it became a fundamentalist
nation. How? Why? Why was it that religion become so powerful? In a
country that had that modern experience in a matter of two or three
years. I think those lessons are important for all of us.”

She notes that today Iran is a hopeful place, “not because of what
the headlines say, but because I think the general public recognizes
the fact that religion and the affairs of the state need to be
separated. And I think that is a huge leap forward.”

So who is to end the religious oppression?

“That’s the million dollar question,” she says. “But the important
thing is that as far as a cultural and sociological perspective is
concerned, people have come to the conclusion that we don’t want
theocracy any more; we have to separate the two institutions.”

The book has been getting rave reviews. It was named “best non-fiction
of the year” by Elle magazine.

latimes.com
March 9, 2005

Hundreds of Students in Brawl at Grant High

>>From Times Staff and Wire Reports

A brawl involving nearly 500 students erupted Tuesday at Grant High
School, officials said.

One school police officer and five students were treated for minor
injuries. “They’ve had Hispanic and Armenian strife going on for
a while now, and this is possibly related,” said school police
Sgt. Hector Rodriguez.

Officers arrived on campus during the melee about 11:45 a.m. and
restored order in about 15 minutes, he said.

Armenian Cooperation Centre of Georgia

[email protected]

Friday, March 04, 2005

Armenian action in Tbilisi

Peaceful procession was held in Tbilisi in March 3, 2005 with the
participation of Georgian and Armenian Youth representatives.
The action was organized by Association of Armenians -`Nor Serund’ and NCYOG
(National Council of Youth Organizations of Georgia).
The Union of Armenian Youth of Georgia and Armenian Cooperation Centre of
Georgia also took part in this action. The main cause of the action was the
raised excitement around the Armenian Church Norashen.
By this procession the youth showed its unity and the fact that there is no
problem between them, in spite of the existed moot point between Georgian
and Armenian churches. The participants of the action called the churches to
enter into negotiation for solving the existed problem. The procession was
held in the district of the old Tbilisi. The youth gathered at the Cathedral
Sioni, lit candles, then the procession moved towards the church Nor Ashen.
The procession ended in the Armenian church St.Gevorg, where the youth was
met by the representatives of Armenian Apostolic Eparchy in Georgia. Father
Abgar in his speech expressed his hope in quick solving of the problem, and
blessed the participants of the action.
Georgian mass media vividly covered this action.

UN NEWS CENTRE

5 March 2005

UN and regional bodies can aid each other in curbing conflict, says OSCE
chief

Chairman-in-Office of OSCE, Dimitrij Rupel
4 March 2005 – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) told the United Nations Security Council today that both
organizations could complement each other in the search for stability and
peace in many of the world’s crisis flash points.

“It is difficult for inter-state organizations to deal with non-state
actors, even if – as in some cases – they are de facto authorities,” OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said in an
open briefing, in which he mentioned separatist conflicts in Kosovo,
Georgia, Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“There are times when the leverage of powerful states – including Permanent
Members of this Council – can be crucial. I urge you to exert that pressure
in the context of OSCE mediation efforts to help resolve these long-standing
conflicts,” he added.

Conversely, Mr. Rupel noted the report of the High-level Panel on Threats,
Challenges and Change in drawing up a strategy suitable for the 21st
century.

“Through the implementation of this strategy, I believe that the OSCE can
take on some of the UN’s burden in the OSCE area. As the UN Panel noted, the
Security Council’s ability to more proactively prevent and respond to
threats could be strengthened by making fuller and more productive use of
regional organizations. The OSCE is well positioned and well-equipped to do
so,” he declared.

There are areas, such as preventing ethnic conflict and regulating the
marking and tracing, as well as the brokering and transfer of small arms and
light weapons, where the OSCE is even more progressive than the UN, he said.

The OSCE, for example, has considerable expertise in national minority
issues, policing and building the effective public institutions that were so
essential for Kosovo’s peaceful and sustainable development. In many tense
situations, effective policing is needed rather than UN blue helmets
military units, he said.

In Moldova, Georgia and in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the
OSCE is actively trying to resolve conflicts that are sometimes referred to
as frozen but which lately have started to thaw, he added. The slow but
steady progress in the dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan on
Nagorno-Karabakh is encouraging, and it is to be hoped that recent changes
in Ukraine and a new post-election environment in Moldova will enable a new
attempt to resolve the Transdniestrian conflict.

The OSCE is also working with parties to reduce tensions in South Ossetia,
Georgia, and to promote demilitarization, build confidence and achieve a
lasting settlement there.

Regarding the clash between the concept of “responsibility to protect” and
the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state, Mr.
Rupel stressed that the OSCE was very clear and progressive when it came to
human rights. Commitments undertaken in the organization’s human rights
dimension are of direct and legitimate concern to all participating states
and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the state
concerned, he said.

That legitimate intrusiveness is the basis on which participating states
hold each other accountable for the implementation of their commonly agreed
commitments, he added. He also stressed that the battle against terrorism
must not violate human rights.

The Statesman (India)
March 4, 2005

DIVERSITY MATTERS: ARMENIAN: WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Love has nothing to do with religion is the motto the Armenians,
small in numbers as they may be, live by. And live, they do.

MATHURES PAUL reports

An Armenian rugby team no longer exists and the few enthusiasts today
play for other teams. Of the many thousand Armenian merchants who
began arriving in India 16th century onward, only a handful remain.
When the English arrived, these people lent East India Company money
to purchase zamindari rights in Bengal and together pioneered the
jute trade. Kolkata’s Armenian community consists of about 200
members and is best symbolised by their church and college. The
latter – the Armenian Philanthropic Academy – was founded in 1821 and
later moved to Free School Street.

Few know that William Makepeace Thackeray was born here. “The very
existence of these two institutions says we are here to stay. There
was an inflow after the 1914-15 genocide that saw two million people
dead. My grandfather settled here because Kolkata was considered the
land of opportunities; Bengal was a thriving trading centre. But for
a community to survive, a friendly environment is a must and Kolkata
gave us that,” says Zaven Stephen, a young filmmaker. Though staunch
followers of the church, the Armenians are not conservative, at least
when it comes to inter-community marriage.

Victoria Stephen, employed with a private firm says: “How can I plan
beforehand who I should fall in love with? My mother is a Hindu and
she follows her customs. The community does not look down upon her;
love has nothing to do with religion. Yes, the question of retaining
one’s lineage is important, but is it more important than being able
to freely choose one’s partner?”

The understanding is echoed by rugby player Henrik Terchoonian: “I
married a Punjabi girl but will that make my children less Armenian?”
His love for the city is undying: “I came here at the age of nine.
Students from Iran often come here for school education. Hopefully
some would make the city their home.” Living in Bengal for more than
400 years has wrought some changes. “I love Indian food; my favourite
is biryani. In fact, only on special occasions do we prepare strictly
Armenian fare. Moreover, since some of the spices are not available
here we have to settle for variations,” says Victoria.

But how does an old-timer feel? “I arrived here in December 1934.
Then there were at least 3,600 Armenians. Most of them were into coal
mining, jute trade and construction. After 1947, they left for the
USA, the UK and Australia as they thought things would change for the
worse.

They were wrong; India as a business destination is looking up. But
those who left are dead. In fact, there are no marriages or
engagements now, only funerals to attend,” rues Mr Charles Sarkies,
superintendent of Sir Catchick Paul Chater Home. The Armenians have
been great architects. Some of the city’s prided buildings are ample
proof of this. TM Thaddeus built Park Mansions, JC Galstaun will be
remembered for Queen’s (earlier Galstaun) Mansions, Galstaun Park,
Harington Mansions and his own palatial residence, the palace of
Nizam of Hyderabad. Another famous landmark is Stephen Court, built
by Arratoon Stephen. He is also credited for Stephen House in BBD Bag
and the main edifice of Grand Hotel. It is said that at his residence
hung a watercolour of Akbar and his Armenian wife, Mariam Zamani.
“The community was undoubtedly very well off. Now women have to work.
This may sound old fashioned but women were then not allowed to
work,” says Mr Sarkies, the pukka gentleman.

But would women – good-looking as they are – take up professions such
as modelling? Victoria disapproves of the idea: “Armenian women
generally are good-looking but they prefer to use their brains. We
are a bit conservative and pick professions that are ‘noble’.” The
Armenians are born champs when it comes to rugby and boxing. None can
forget names like Emil Vartazarian, Daniel Janoyan, Hovsep Hovsepian
and Haik Sookias in rugby and Baby Arathoon in boxing (he was a rugby
hero too). However, the enthusiasts’ only consolation now is that
Emil coaches the Tamil Nadu Police.

The Armenian Club, earlier a major hot spot, now bustles once in a
blue moon. There are only 22 members and they play bingo instead of
bridge, which used to be a passion earlier. “There are more Armenians
in Kolkata than in Mumbai or Delhi,” smiles Peter Hyrapiet. “Chennai,
where we had a big settlement, does not have a single Armenian today.
Yet, the Armenian Association is the trustee of St Mary’s Church in
Chennai.”

In West Bengal, the situation is much better than it was a decade
back – the church has helped in establishing an Armenian trauma care
centre and the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute for
Cardiac Sciences in Mukundapur.

One should also mention the name of Sir Catchick Paul Chater, the
benevolent man of means who bequeathed much of his fortune to the
church and the people at Paul Chater Home. For most, memories are all
they have. Mr Sarkies’ eyes glow when he recalls how JC Galstaun’s
racehorses ran amuck inside the office of Little Sisters of the Poor.
“And when he apologised, they said we’ve been praying for a horse
driven carriage! On another occasion, he went to London and placed
‘10,000’ on a horse. When the bookie reminded him that England’s
currency was the pound, he doubled the bet and won.”

Reality, however, is different. The church lacks a priest and the
community a rugby team. But the Armenians are optimistic. As Zaven
says: “Much of my life has been spent with the church choir – it has
become an important part of my being. So has India which is my
motherland while Armenia is my fatherland. I’ve never been to
Armenia, but the church and the school have made up for that. If ever
I get an opportunity to go abroad I will, but only to return and
serve my community. After all, India is one of the fastest growing
economies.”

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 2 2005

US Department of State issues report on Azerbaijan

Baku, March 1, AssA-Irada
The US Department of State in its 2004 report on Azerbaijan, said
that the 2003 presidential elections in this country fell short of
international standards and were marred with serious violations of
law.
The Azeri government is implementing a program on transition to
market economy, however, reforms are lagging behind and 2 million out
of 8 million of Azeris presently live and work abroad, the report
says.
`Armenia continues occupying Azerbaijan’s lands, including Upper
Garabagh. About 800,000 people were displaced during the war from
1988 to 1993. Armenia occupies 18% of Azerbaijan’s territory, which
greatly impedes the political, economic and democratic development in
the region.’
The report also says that although ceasefire was reached by
Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1994, civilians are still being killed in
ceasefire breaches.
`Six Azerbaijanis were killed as a result of ceasefire violations
over the last year. Moreover, 4,850 Azerbaijanis are currently in
Armenian captivity,’ it said.
The report, which also provided analysis of the human rights
situation in Azerbaijan, termed as an important step the release of
810 prisoners, including 55 political prisoners, on presidential
amnesty acts.
The US Department of State also said it is concerned over the current
situation with socio-economic, health, judicial and legal areas and
claims that epidemic diseases have taken hold among prisoners,
children and orphans.
`774 prisoners were infected with tuberculosis in 2004 and this is
related to their imprisonment conditions,’ the report reads.
The US Department of State highly assessed the commencement of combat
against corruption in Azerbaijan. It said, however, that no tangible
progress has been achieved in this area yet. `Bribery is particularly
widespread in law-enforcement bodies, which is a violation of civil
rights,’ the report said.*