Author: Emil Lazarian

La Croix
1 juillet 2004

Marque-page. Histoire. ET L’ARMENIE DEVINT CHRETIENNE de Jean
Guréghian. Ed. de Paris (1), 90 p., 15 Euro.

LESEGRETAIN Claire

Histoire

ET L’ARMENIE DEVINT CHRETIENNE de Jean Guréghian. Ed. de Paris (1),
90 p., 15 Euro.

Les Arméniens furent le premier peuple entièrement converti au
christianisme, en l’an 301. Alors même que l’Eglise arménienne a fêté
voici peu le 1700e anniversaire de l’événement, on sait moins les
circonstances de cette conversion. Le petit livre de Jean Guréghian,
préfacé par Jean-Pierre Mahé et illustré par Gaguik Soghomonyan,
précise comment le roi arménien Tiridate embrassa la foi au Christ.
Après avoir persécuté des adeptes de cette nouvelle religion et tenté
de violer l’une d’elles (la belle Hripsimé), Tiridate tomba malade.
Saint Grégoire dit l’Illuminateur, qu’il avait fait enfermer et
supplicier, guérit alors le roi et le conduit au christianisme. Le
récit de cette conversion est ici inspiré, sans digressions
superflues, de l’oeuvre de l’historien antique Agathange.

P.-Y. L.P.

(1) 13, rue Saint-Honoré, 78000 Versailles.

Montreal Gazette, Quebec
June 30 2004

Ex-broker barred for life

Fined $305,000 for multiple infractions. Harry Migirdic’s penalties
among stiffest ever assessed by the IDA in Quebec

PAUL DELEAN
The Gazette
CREDIT: ALLEN MCINNIS, THE GAZETTE
Evidence entered at the IDA hearing showed Harry Migirdic was the
subject of several warnings and disciplinary measures. He was found
guilty of 24 transgressions during his time as a CIBC representative.

In a ruling that brought little solace to some of his victims, a
former broker with CIBC World Markets in Montreal has been barred for
life from the securities industry for a long list of infractions,
among them using the accounts of certain investors to guarantee the
trading losses of others they didn’t know.

Harry Migirdic, a prominent member of the local Armenian community
(from which he drew many clients), has also been assessed $305,000 in
fines and $55,000 in investigation costs by the Quebec district
council of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, though the
association admits it lacks the enforcement powers to collect that
money from people no longer employed in the industry.

“(Migirdic) getting the lifetime ban does not do justice to what
happened,” said Richard Papazian, 43, whose late mother, Kiganouchi
(Ketty) Papazian, had $299,275 withdrawn from her account by the CIBC
to make up for shortfalls in the trading account of two other
Migirdic clients.

“Harry did the paperwork, but who exercised the fraudulent guarantee?
CIBC went ahead and helped itself to the money (by exercising the
guarantee) after they found out what he was doing.

“He put it in the bag for them, but they decided to walk out of the
store with it.”

Another former client, Haroutioun Markarian, also can’t understand
how the CIBC can wash its hands of the actions of someone it employed
as a vice-president.

“While Mr. Migirdic was churning profits for them, CIBC was more than
willing to accept them. However, after being exposed for his
wrongdoings and even having been fired by CIBC for these actions,
they incredibly still shun any liability and responsibility. How
convenient.

“Simply put, CIBC is saying to the public that you are more than
welcome to bring your savings to them, but if someone within their
organization takes away your money, then that is too bad.”

Migirdic is the second former CIBC World Markets broker this week to
receive a lifetime ban from the IDA. Alex Gurion, who used to work
for the brokerage’s North York branch, also got a lifetime suspension
for cheating a 90-year-old customer out of $350,000 in 2001, the same
year Gurion moved to Moscow. The CIBC made full restitution to the
customer in 2002.

It also has settled with some of the more than 20 clients who
complained about Migirdic, but not all.

That’s a source of great frustration for Papazian, whose 78-year-old
mother died of cancer last year, and for Markarian, a retired
machine-shop owner who is 71.

Markarian and his wife had about $1 million extracted from their
investment accounts to guarantee the trading losses of Migirdic’s
73-year-old uncle in Turkey.

“CIBC’s strategy is a simple and ruthless one,” Markarian said. “Drag
out the lawsuits long enough to outlive the victims. In Ketty
Papazian’s case, this strategy worked to perfection.”

The CIBC declined to comment. “The cases are what they are,”
spokesperson Rob McLeod said from Toronto yesterday. “We aren’t
commenting on these cases.”

Its position in the Papazian case, outlined in documents filed in a
Quebec Superior Court suit, is that she was fully aware of the
guarantee and she and her son were “complicit in their own
misfortunes.” It also claims no legal responsibility for the actions
of the broker and any losses suffered by his former clients.

Lawsuits seeking about $5 million for losses and $55 million in
punitive damages from Migirdic and the CIBC are now making their way
through the Quebec legal system. The first is due to come to trial in
January.

Migirdic, also known as Harutyun Migirdicoglu, was a registered
investment representative in Quebec for more than two decades at
Merrill Lynch, Wood Gundy and CIBC World Markets before his
termination in 2001. Evidence entered at the IDA hearing showed he
was the subject of several warnings and disciplinary measures.

This year, he was found guilty by the IDA of 24 transgressions during
his time as a CIBC representative. They included multiple counts of
trading without the knowledge or authorization of a client, obtaining
account guarantees under false pretences, altering investment
objectives and risk tolerance on Know-Your-Client forms without
consent, knowingly accepting a forged power-of-attorney and offering
a client a $400,000 promissory note to compensate for trading losses
without the knowledge of the CIBC. Migirdic admitted to all the
infractions but did not plead guilty.

In its decision on an appropriate penalty, the IDA’s three-

member disciplinary committee said there’s no denying the extent of
the financial prejudice suffered by Migirdic’s clients and the firm
that employed him or the harm he did to the credibility of financial
markets.

“Some of the violations are clearly of a fraudulent nature,” the
committee said. “It’s the case with the guarantees that he (Migirdic)
had clients sign, on the pretext it was a formality for their file.
The reprehensibility (of this type of fault) is undoubted.”

Another aggravating factor was the vulnerability of many of his
clients, who trusted him blindly, the panel said.

A lifetime ban, severe as it may be, is the obvious response in a
case like this, since the person can no longer be trusted to act
honestly with the public, clients and the profession as a whole, it
said. “They weren’t isolated incidents.”

Migirdic’s lifetime ban and $360,000 in fines and costs are among the
stiffest penalties ever assessed by the IDA in Quebec. Last year,
Warren McCaffrey, a former investment representative at the Hudson
branch of Leduc et Associes Securities Canada Ltd., was fined
$585,000 and barred for life for a series of regulatory violations
and fund misappropriations that included falsifying a letter on which
he forged a client’s signature, depositing in his own bank account
cheques destined for or sent by clients, and depositing in his
spouse’s account a bank draft received from a client for the purchase
of securities.

Tehran Times, Iran
June 30 2004

Islam, Christianity Have Common View on Martyrdom: Archbishop

Tehran Times Social Desk
TEHRAN (MNA) — Sebu Sarkissian, Armenian prelacy archbishop in
Tehran said on Friday that according to Christianity, martyrs and
martyrdom are to be defined based on the Bible; they are here to be
witnesses for God.

Speaking at the first commemorative ceremony of Armenian ground
forces martyrs, Sebu Sarkissian stated that the martyr is also a
witness for his country and is devoted for the sake of it, adding
such a person will reach eternity.

The archbishop offered as evidence the Apostles and the Fathers of
churches who preached their faith.

Islam and Christianity have the same view on martyrdom, believing
faith and homeland are the most sacred objects, Sarkissian told the
Mehr News Agency, stressing that martyrdom is working and dedicating
oneself to these high objectives.

He went on to say that in Iran, religious minorities are free to
observe their religious ceremonies and live without any conflict with
Iranian clerics, adding this is always the first question asked by
foreign reporters who come to Iran.

`Iranians and Armenians live together, having the same objectives and
problems. We try hard to solve the problems of the country’,
Sarkissian said in conclusion.

Armenia, Canada sign accord on eliminating double taxation

Arminfo
30 Jun 04

YEREVAN

The governments of Armenia and Canada have signed an agreement on
eliminating double taxation on income and property.

The agreement was signed in Yerevan on 29 June, the Armenian Ministry
of Finance and Economy told Arminfo news agency today. The aim of the
agreement is to create a favourable taxation regime between the
countries and boost investment. Armenia has similar agreements with 25
countries, and 17 of them are effective.

We have to say that the trade turnover between Armenia and Canada is
so small that the Armenian National Statistics Service has not
included it in its annual report for 2003.

The Moscow Times

Armrosgazprom to bid for laying Iran-Armenia gas pipeline

RosBusinessConsulting. Tuesday, Jun. 29, 2004, 7:32 PM Moscow Time

The company Armrosgazprom is planning to take part in a tender on
constructing and maintaining an Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, the press service
of the company reported. The customer of the gas pipeline is the Armenian
government. A basic agreement on laying the pipeline was signed in Yerevan
(Armenia) on May 13, 2004. According to the document, the gas pipeline will
be put into operation by January 1, 2007. Armenia will get some 1.1bn cubic
meters of gas annually through this pipeline. Each country is to finance the
laying of a pipeline on its territory. Armenia is expected to spend about
$90m to $100m and Iran some $120m on constructing the pipeline.
Armrosgazprom was created in 1997 in compliance with a Russian-Armenian
government agreement and it is the exclusive wholesale buyer and supplier of
gas in Armenia. The Armenian government and Gazprom have a 45-percent stake
each in the company; Itera has a 10-percent block of shares. Armrosgazprom
owns the whole gas distributing network in the republic.

CORRECTING and REPLACING Joint Press Announcement by the Government of
the Republic of Armenia, Hellenic Telecommunications Organization and
Armenia Telephone Company – ARMENTEL

ATHENS, Greece–(BUSINESS WIRE)–06/28/2004–Please replace the
release with the following corrected version due to multiple
revisions.

The corrected release reads:

JOINT PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA,
HELLENIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS ORGANIZATION AND ARMENIA TELEPHONE COMPANY
– ARMENTEL

The Government of the Republic of Armenia, Hellenic Telecommunications
Organization SA (NYSE:_OTE_ (aol://4785:OTE/) ) (ASE:_HTO_
(aol://4785:HTO/) ) and Armenia Telephone Company (ARMENTEL), jointly
announce the commencement of negotiations with a view to settling all
outstanding disputes between the parties. The Government of the
Republic of Armenia has made a decision to suspend the amendment of
License No. 60 issued to Armentel, until 28 September 2004 to
facilitate the conduct of the negotiations. The amendment of License
No. 60 relates to the granting of a second mobile telephony license
in Armenia

About OTE

OTE is a provider of public, fixed switch domestic and international
telephony services in Greece. With local, long distance and
international communications services in addition to mobile telephony,
Internet services, and high-speed data communications, OTE provides
consumers and businesses the ability to communicate globally through
its extensive network infrastructure. In addition, OTE has a number of
International investments in the South East European region and
addresses a potential customer base of 60 million people.

Listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, the company trades under the
ticker HTO as well as on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker
OTE. In the U.S., OTE’s American Depository Receipts (ADR’s)
represents 1/2 ordinary share.

Additional Information is also available on

Forward-looking statement

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical
facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking
statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The
factors that could affect the Company’s future financial results are
discussed more fully in the Company’s filings with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the
Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2002 filed with the SEC on
June 30, 2003. OTE assumes no obligation to update information in this
release.

CONTACT:OTE Dimitris Tzelepis Head of Investor Relations, OTE Group
Tel: +30 210 611 1574 email: [email protected] or Kostas Bratsikas
Investor Relations Tel: +30 210 611 1428 email: [email protected] or
Taylor Rafferty London: +44 20 7936 0400 New York: +1 212-889-4350
email: [email protected]

SOURCE: OTE

06/28/2004 09:06 EASTERN

NATO Partners Agree to Train Iraqi Troops

washingtonpost.com
Jun 28, 2004

Mike Allen

ISTANBUL, June 27 — NATO countries will set aside their objections
and agree Monday to provide emergency military training for the
interim government of Iraq, White House officials said Sunday.

Two weeks ago, President Jacques Chirac of France warned against “any
meddling by NATO in this region.” But responding to a request from
Ayad Allawi, the prime minister of the interim Iraqi government that
will assume political authority Wednesday, negotiators for the 26 NATO
countries have agreed to give the alliance a direct role in providing
military training and said they would call on members to increase
their support for the new government.

Details of the agreement, including who will be trained, where and
when, still must be worked out by the governments, officials said. But
the White House described the move as giving President Bush the
international imprimatur he had long sought for post-invasion
operations.

Bush and the other leaders of NATO countries are scheduled to finalize
the tentative training agreement Monday at the start of a two-day
summit in the largest city in Turkey, which borders Iraq. Faced with a
wave of bombings and more than 40,000 anti-Bush demonstrators, Turkish
officials deployed warships outside waterfront hotels and 23,000
police and soldiers to protect the 3,000 government officials and more
than 20,000 journalists attending the summit.

The White House views the agreement on training for Iraq, which
follows NATO’s decision to take over an international security force
in Afghanistan, as a crucial step in its effort to guide the alliance
away from its historic emphasis on the defense of its own territory
and instead toward taking the offensive against terrorism around the
world.

Bush, appearing with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer,
said the United States was “hoping to change the mission of NATO so it
meets the threats of the 21st century, and we’re going to work
together to help make sure NATO is configured militarily to meet the
threats of the 21st century, as well.”

Bush plans to use the centerpiece address of his five-day overseas
trip to hold up the secular democracy in Turkey, NATO’s only
majority-Muslim member, as a model for Iraq and the greater Middle
East. Bush tried to make the same point by holding a meeting today
with Turkish religious leaders that included a rabbi, an Islamic
cleric and an Armenian Orthodox patriarch.

Before Allawi sent the letter, the White House received private
assurances from NATO members that his request would be granted,
according to aides traveling with Bush. The administration has had to
dramatically lower its sights, however. Earlier this month, Bush
sought foreign troops, NATO involvement and debt relief for Iraq at a
meeting of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations in Sea
Island, Ga., but was rebuffed at various times by France, Germany and
Turkey.

Diplomats said that to win the endorsement of Germany and France, the
agreement allows for the possibility that some of the training will
take place outside Iraq. At the insistence of the Bush administration,
the operation will be a formal NATO mission rather than a project of
individual countries.

James Appathurai, the NATO spokesman, said in a telephone interview
that alliance ambassadors reached the initial agreement “without any
sort of dramatic debate” because they “share a common view that we
should assist Iraq as much and as quickly as possible so that it can
provide for its own security and so that coalition forces will not be
required.”

Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said from the
Turkish capital Ankara on “Fox News Sunday” that “NATO will urge that
this all happen on a very urgent basis, that this isn’t a long
planning exercise, that really they’re in a phase of looking to quick
implementation of these plans.”

Bush said Saturday during a news conference in Ireland that a
functioning Iraqi police force and military was his most important
criterion for determining that the U.S. mission in Iraq was complete,
and he suggested that robust NATO support would mean U.S. troops could
come home sooner.

Bush, who had to change his deployment plans before the war when the
Turkish parliament voted against allowing the use of its bases for a
northern front, appeared Sunday with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and said he appreciated “so very much the example your country
has set on how to be a Muslim country and, at the same time, a country
which embraces democracy and rule of law and freedom.”

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, also in Istanbul, met Sunday
with the foreign and defense ministers of Iraq’s interim government.

Bush shook his head and replied “no” when asked whether the capture of
three Turkish hostages by militants in Iraq had cast a pall over the
summit. Bush did not speak at length about the hostage-taking, because
of what aides called a desire to avoid encouraging the kidnappers. But
a senior administration official who briefed reporters said Bush
expressed sympathy to Turkish officials and “made clear that this
episode demonstrates the kind of an enemy we are fighting, a
totalitarian enemy which terrorizes and seeks to export chaos to the
world, as well as chaos in Iraq.”

Rumsfeld compared the recent attacks in Iraq to the Tet offensive of
1968, a turning point in American public opinion about the Vietnam
War, when the Vietnamese communists seized cities throughout South
Vietnam. He told ABC that the insurgents had clearly studied “the idea
that if you go out and kill a lot of innocent people, even though
militarily you achieve nothing, the psychological effect through the
television, through newspapers is that they’re there, that they’re
noisy, that they’re achieving something big — which is what the
effect of Tet was.”

Washington Post Staff Writer

Catholic world news
June 24 2004

Turkish bishops in historic meeting with premier

Ankara, Jun. 24 (FIDES/CWNews.com) – In a historic first, Turkey’s
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met with the country’s
Catholic bishops, raising hopes for an eventual legal recognition of
the Catholic Church in that country, the Fides news service reports.

Erdogan met on June 21 with the bishops of the several Catholic
groups in Turkey, representing the Latin, Armenian, Chaldean, and
Syrian rites. The prelates asked the prime minister to consider
juridical recognition of the Catholic Church in Turkey.

The unprecedented meeting is a “milestone” for the life of the
Catholic Church in Turkey, Father George Marovich told Fides. Father
Marovich, a spokesman for the bishops’ conference, reported that
Prime Minister Erdogan sought the bishops’ help in securing Turkish
entry into the European Union, and expressed satisfaction when he was
reminded that the Turkish bishops have already joined with the
Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, a group bringing together
the Catholic bishops of the European Union nations.

Turkey has a population of 66 million, of whom 98 percent are Muslim.
Many Christians hide their faith, since Christians are not allowed to
sit in parliament or enter the military.

Among the country’s Christians, most are Orthodox, led by the
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople– who is acknowledged as the
leading prelate of the Orthodox world, although his own flock is
relatively small.

New York Times
June 25 2004

Separatist Revives Movement in Quebec
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

MONTREAL, June 24 – Until a few months ago, Gilles Duceppe was a shaky
leader of the fading separatist movement in Quebec, seemingly
destined to be an odd footnote in Canadian history.

But in an turn of fortunes that has more to do with the collapse of
the governing Liberal Party than his own skills, Mr. Duceppe is
emerging as the big winner of the parliamentary election campaign
that will choose a new prime minister on Monday.

Mr. Duceppe has no chance of replacing Prime Minister Paul Martin,
because his party is competing just in Quebec. Because of widespread
disgust in the second most populous Canadian province over Liberals’
scandals, Mr. Duceppe’s Bloc Québécois is poised to sweep Quebec and
carry a large delegation to the next House of Commons. If recent
polls hold, the bloc will emerge for the first time as a vital power
broker in Ottawa whose support may well be necessary for the next
federal Liberal or Conservative government to survive in power.

The son of a famous actor, Mr. Duceppe was a Maoist union organizer
in his youth and appears an unlikely politician to become a leading
national force. His generally stiff speaking style makes him anything
but an inspiring political leader. He was the laughingstock of a
campaign seven years ago, when he was photographed wearing a hygienic
hairnet at a cheese factory that made him look like he was coming out
of the bath wearing a shower cap.

For a rebel leader, Mr. Duceppe appears to be a portrait of caution
and paradox. At age 56, he campaigns without a tie in a charcoal-gray
suit held up over his slight frame by a belt and suspenders. On his
campaign bus, he relaxes with high-volume Janis Joplin and Maria
Callas.

A year ago, Mr. Duceppe’s Bloc Québécois and the entire separatist
movement were waning into the fringes of politics. The bloc’s
provincial cousins, the Parti Québécois, lost control of the
provincial legislature and government in a landslide defeat in April
2003 to the Liberal Party led by Jean Charest, a passionate advocate
for a united Canada.

Since that vote, Mr. Charest has fallen quickly in the polls after
unfulfilled promises to cut taxes and improve health care and day
care.

A government audit found that the federal government had furtively
passed out tens of millions of dollars to friendly advertising
companies involved in antiseparatist publicity efforts deeply
offended Quebecers.

“The Liberals tried to buy Quebecers, and there is a lot of
indignation about that,” Mr. Duceppe said in an interview. He
modestly noted that a recent poll by Leger Marketing showed that
roughly half the people who planned to vote for the bloc’s
parliamentary candidates were not trying to win sovereignty but
merely trying to punish Mr. Martin and the governing party.

“Duceppe is riding the biggest surfing wave of his life,” Michel C.
Auger, political columnist of the Journal de Montréal, said. “He
didn’t create the wave, but he saw it and knew what to do with it.”

Mr. Duceppe’s campaign is tightly controlled to avoid any more
hairnet incidents. A day of campaigning in and around Montreal this
week was carefully choreographed to make him appear as liberal and
unthreatening as possible to fence-sitting voters, especially ethnic
minorities who usually vote Liberal and oppose separation from
Canada.

While appearing on a youth music television station to discuss his
support for environmental protection and the need to clean up
politics, he spoke of the importance of Black History Month and
Jackie Robinson’s playing for a minor league team here as a sign that
he is receptive to minorities. At a news conference, he courted
minority votes by speaking of the Jewish Holocaust and Armenian
genocide.

He attended a barbecue here for an underdog bloc candidate, Maria
Mourani, who is of Lebanese descent, where he was filmed and
photographed surrounded by Muslim, Chinese and Russian voters.

“There’s no difference between Quebecers who are immigrants and
Québécois de souche,” he said sitting beside Ms. Mourani, referring
to Quebecers whose ancestors were French settlers before the
18th-century British conquest.

It was a pitch before the cameras with future elections in mind.

Although Liberal candidates in some Quebec districts have thrown in
the towel and halted campaigning, separatist leaders around the
province plan to build on the expected victory to retake the
provincial government in 2007. Mr. Duceppe may well use his campaign
this year to set up a campaign as leader of the Parti Québécois
against Mr. Charest, followed by a push for a referendum a year or
two after that.

The separatist forces lost two referendums, in 1980 and 1995, the
second defeat by an extremely narrow margin. Polls show support for
sovereignty at 40 to 45 percent.

Mr. Duceppe is careful to repeat at almost every campaign stop that
the election on Monday is not about sovereignty and that he is ready
to work in Ottawa to influence policies like opposing any missile
defense agreement with the United States and pressing for more
federal money for health care and unemployment insurance.

In two television debates, Mr. Duceppe projected the most poise of
the four major party leaders, surpassing expectations.

At the same time, he makes no effort to hide his long-term
intentions.

“Quebec is a nation that will someday be a country,” he said at a
press conference on Tuesday. “I want to create a new society with
social justice, without racism or sexism.”

Prime Minister Martin, who represents a Montreal district in the
House of Commons, had hoped to appeal to Quebec nationalists by
appointing Jean Lapierre, a former founder of the Bloc Québécois, to
be his chief Quebec spokesman. But Mr. Lapierre proved to be a clumsy
advocate, leading Mr. Martin in the last week to turn to Liberal
hard-line antiseparatists to shore up the traditional Liberal base.

“Let’s not play with fire,” Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew warned
this week. “By voting for the bloc, you give them momentum. You give
them the taste of victory that they had lost recently.”

Armenia set to expand cooperation with NATO – deputy minister

Hayots Ashkharh, Yerevan
25 Jun 04

Text of Vaan Vardanyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Hayots Ashkharh
on 25 June headlined “What took place in Baku should be regarded as an
incident”

An interview with [Armenian] Deputy Defence Minister Artur
Agabekyan. He comments on the events that have taken place in Baku.

[Hayots Ashkharh correspondent] How do you assess the events in Baku
when an attempt was made to lynch two Armenian officers who attended a
NATO conference within the framework of the Partnership for Peace
programme?

[Artur Agabekyan] I think it may be regarded as an incident. Our main
purpose has always been to use any invitation to cooperate with
NATO. Only by means of cooperation, can numerous regional problems be
settled.

[Correspondent] Even if Azerbaijan seems unable to ensure the security
of Armenian officers on its territory?

[Agabekyan] I would not like to give such assessments, as if there is
any bias here. I think that on the first day of the conference, they
simply could not predict such an incident. In the next few days,
security was already seriously ensured and our officers took an active
part in the subsequent work of the conference. We managed to reach
such a level that we shall participate in upcoming summits as a
fully-fledged party with five Armenian officers in attendance. We
shall have posts in a multi-national unit which is being formed.

[Correspondent] Does it mean that the participation of the rank and
file is ruled out?

[Agabekyan] We wanted the Armenian rank and file to participate in the
exercises together with officers. But the incident let it be known
that only the participation of officers is expedient. Because ensuring
the security of officers is much easier for Azerbaijan than of the
rank and file. The point is that the rank and file will live in
barracks together with representatives of other countries’ rank and
file. As for the officers, they live separately as is the case in our
country. So in September, we shall take part in those exercises and
expect support from the NATO member countries and the USA. We hope
that the Azerbaijani party will learn a lesson from the incident and
will seriously ensure the security not only of Armenian officers, but
also of the whole event. After the last incident, not only Gen Murad
Isakhanyan, but also all the other participants in the conference
think that what took place was an attempt not only on the life of
Armenian officers, but also of all the participants in the
conference. The Azerbaijani party seems to have drawn conclusions from
this.

[Correspondent] How will you explain the latest worsening of the
situation on the defence positions in the village of Berkaber? An
Armenian contract serviceman was killed. Against the background of the
conference, is the Azerbaijani party deliberately worsening the
situation?

[Agabekyan] I would not like to connect these two questions. Such
worsening sometimes takes place along the entire Armenian border
during the period of time between shifts and engineering work. What
took place near the village of Berkaber was due to engineering
works. The Azerbaijani party tried to take a more favourable position
and the heights that were controlled by our observation posts. Our
units took relevant steps. I think that this activity will be
temporary. In any case, we should understand that we do not guard an
ordinary border, we guard the border with Azerbaijan. Unfortunately,
in such a situation, we may have losses and wounded, this is the
difficulty of service. But we have to find the strength and resist
it. Our general staff is cooperating with international structures. We
always visit sectors of the border and try to reduce the intensity of
firefights there.