Author: Emil Lazarian

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
May 7 2004

PLANNED MONITORING

On May 6 the OSCE Mission held planned monitoring of the border
between the armed forces of Nagorni Karabakh and Azerbaijan to the
northwest of the settlement Seysulan. On the side of the NKR Defence
Army the monitoring group was headed by the personal representative of
the OSCE Chairman- in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk. The group involved also
field assistants of the personal representative Jurgen Schmidt
(Germany) and Miroslav Vitemal (Czech). During the monitoring no
violations of the cease-fire were reported. The mission was
accompanied by the representatives of the NKR ministries of defence
and foreign affairs. On the eve, on May 5 Andrzej Kasprzyk met with
the NKR foreign minister Ashot Ghulian and minister of defence Seyran
Ohanian. During the meeting they discussed the situation at the border
and questions referring the prospects of settlement of the Karabakh
conflict.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
May 7, 2004

NUMBERS SAY

According to the data provided by the Civilian Registry Office of
Stepanakert, 212 births, 74 marriages and 11 divorces were registered
from January 1 till May 1 of the current year. Against the same period
of the past year, the birthrate dropped by 14, the marriage rate by
3. Unfortunately, the divorce rate increased; last year in the same
period only 9 divorces were registered.

LAURA GRIGORIAN

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
May 7, 2004

GASIFYING OF STEPANAKERT COMPLETED SOON

In two or three months gasification of Stepanakert will be completed,
assured the director of “Artsakhgas” State CJSC Maxim Mirzoyan. In
this direction efficient work is carried out not only in the capital
but also the regions of the republic. Presently the company carries
out repairs of the old gas pipelines. Since May 1 the tariff of the
gas fee has been increased from 51 to 59 drams for each cubic meter.
Taking into account the fact that there are terms for payment of gas,
as well as electricity fees, which is from the first to the fifteenth
of each month, we tried to find out whether this would not arouse
problems among the population in relation to the increased tariff.
According to Maxim Mirzoyan, the employees of “Artsakhgas” carry out
corresponding explanation works among the population to pay in time
the fees for the gas used during the previous month. If the users do
mot make the payments within the mentioned term they will have to pay
by the new tariff. Maxim Mirzoyan says that all the problems in this
reference will be settled within a month.

LAURA GRIGORIAN

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CHAT
La Turquie face au génocide arménien
LEMONDE.FR | 07.05.04 | 17h24
A 12 h 15 par e-mail, découvrez toute l’actualité économique et financière.
Abonnez-vous au Monde.fr, 5 par mois

L’intégralité du débat avec Yves Ternon, historien, spécialiste des crimes
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DÉFINIR ET RECONNAÎTRE LE GÉNOCIDE

,1-0@2-3232,36-364044,0.html
—- ListProc NextPart 1083956063541978031–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Syrian Arab News Agency
May 6 2004

Syria and Armenian Agreement

Erivan , May 6 ( SANA )

Deputy Finance Minister Muhammad Khudre Assayed Ahmad and the Armenian
Deputy Economic and Finance Minister on Thursday signed an agreement
to prevent double taxation between the two countries .

The agreement comes after the two finance delegations concluded 3-day
talks in Armenian .

The agreement will contribute to activating the economic and
investment cooperation between both countries .

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 7 2004

Armenia satisfied with the crisis management in Adzharia

YEREVAN, May 6 (Itar-Tass) – The Armenian foreign ministry has
expressed satisfaction with the fact that `the tension between
Georgia’s autonomy of Adzharia and the center has ended peacefully
and without bloodshed,’ spokesman for the Armenian foreign ministry
Gamlet Gasparian said in a statement circulated on Thursday.

`The outcome of the face-off is yet another important step in the
consolidation of stability and peace in Georgia and in the entire
South Caucasus,’ the Ministry spokesman said.

Gasparian hailed `the consistent and decisive policy of the Georgian
top authorities, whose efforts made it possible to clear that serious
barrier.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
May 6 2004

CONFLICT MAY BE RESOLVED IN 1-2 YEARS, KARABAGH LEADER FORECASTS

YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS: Nagorno Karabagh leader Arkady
Ghukasian has revived today the recently floated idea that the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabagh cannot be resolved unless
Stepanakert joins the talks as a full party. “Sooner or later Azeri
leaders will have to agree to negotiating with Karabagh and I am
confident that the international community shares this very
viewpoint,” Ghukasian said, citing a resolution of the OSCE Budapest
summit which said that the conflicting sides are Azerbaijan, Armenia
and Nagorno Karabagh.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of Board of Trustees of
Hayastan pan-Armenian Fund, Ghukasian argued that the conflict cannot
be solved through application of the so-called step-by-step option
because of the “distrust, enmity and Azerbaijan’s war rhetoric.”
According to Karabagh leader’s forecasts, “we have enough
resources to resolve the conflict in 1-2 years, but we should also
realize that a resolution or peace contain some risks, which is also
realized by Azerbaijan’s leaders who are not ready today to take the
risk and shoulder the responsibility.”
In a reversal of previous opinion on the effectiveness of the
Minsk Group, which spearheads the Organization for Security and
Co-Operation in Europe’s (OSCE) efforts to find a political solution
to this conflict, Azeri president Ilham Aliyev said earlier this week
that the Group’s activity is apparent, and that “the co-chairmen are
determined to deal with the problem.”

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
May 5, 2004 Wednesday

New round of consultations with Armenia opposition fixed for Thur

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Speaker of Armenian parliament Artur Bagdasaryan on Wednesday
announced a new round of the talks with the opposition that were
disrupted a week ago.

In the statement circulated here on Wednesday, the speaker invited
the heads of parliamentary factions for political consultations on
Thursday “to discuss the political situation in the country”. He
assessed as highly important the proposal for a political dialogue
addressed to the Armenian authorities and opposition in the recent
resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The speaker made this invitation for the reason that the readiness to
continue the talks had been expressed by the parties in the
pro-presidential coalition and by the opposition.

Similar talks were held in parliament on April 26-27 and were
disrupted on the eve of another rally of the opposition. Bagdasaryan
then expressed the conviction that the intermission in the political
consultations would enable the political forces participating in the
talks to discuss numerous proposals made during these meetings.

At the rally on Tuesday the opposition announced that there would be
no rallies nor other mass actions till May 14 and expressed the
readiness for talks with the authorities. At the same time the
opposition repeated its demand that Robert Kocharyan resign as
Armenian president.

The Armenian authorities describe the actions of the opposition as
“manifestations of political extremism”. Police dispersed the rally
of the opposition in downtown Yerevan on the night to April 13. The
opposition’s demands include the release of its arrested activists,
live time on TV and unobstructed travel of residents of Armenian
regions to Yerevan to participate in antigovernment actions.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CENN – MAY 6, 2004 DAILY DIGEST
Table of Contents:
1. Review BTC Construction to be Held in June
2. Shah Deniz Schedule on Target
3. BP to Produce Over 6 million Tons of Crude in 2004
4. Controversial Disaster Film Casts Spotlight on Global Warming
5. Rating of Free Press
6. Tehran: Iran to Export Natural Gas to Azerbaijan, Armenia
7. World Bank Approves $35 mln in Loans for Armenia
8. Panel Discussion: Cauc/ Policy of the Major Powers and Future of ROA
9. Register Now Online for Bangkok Congress

1. REVIEW BTC CONSTRUCTION TO BE HELD IN JUNE

Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
May 4, 2004

A commission headed by Abid Sharifov, Vice-Premier of Azerbaijani
government, will depart for Turkey to carry out a regular review of
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline construction on its Turkish section in
early June, stated Mr. Sharifov on press conference with the
journalists. The vice-premier has observed that as per agreement with
the Turkish party such reviews on the BTC Turkish section with its
direct participation are carried out once each month on the level of
general contractor for construction – the Turkish company BOTAS.

Commenting on delays in the BTC Turkish section construction A. Sharifov
has stressed that in any even small project, for instance, when a house
is constructed, delays occur, tens of problems appear – when ditches are
dug, communications are laid etc. The BTC is a very large-scale project
and naturally the pipeline construction costing around $3 billion cannot
do without any problems at all. There are problems, but they are
resolved as soon as possible, both on the territory of Georgia and on
the territory of Turkey, – A. Sharifov believes.

The length of BTC pipeline is 1,762 km, of which – 443 km are in
Azerbaijan, in Georgia – 248 km, in Turkey – 1070 km. The pipeline
capacity is 50 million tons of oil per annum. The construction works
will be completed in the beginning of 2005.

A Greek Consolidated Contractors International Company is a contractor
for the construction of the Azeri part of BTC pipeline, a contractor for
Georgian part is Spie Capag/Petrofag, which is also a contractor for
works on the construction of pumping stations on the territory of both
countries. The Turkish company BOTAS is the contractor for the Turkish
part of BTC pipeline.

2. SHAH DENIZ SCHEDULE ON TARGET

CBN, May 6, 2004

The Shah Deniz gas and condensate development project has made
significant progress since Stage 1 sanctioning in February last year.
“The project is progressing according to schedule to meet the target of
delivering first gas to the market before winter 2006.

3. BP TO PRODUCE OVER 6 MILLION TONS OF CRUDE IN 2004

Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
May 4, 2004

BP-Azerbaijan plans to extract 125 thousand barrels of oil daily to
increase the production to 6,2 million tons by late 2004, stated
president of BP-Azerbaijan David Woodward.

According to him, 32,5 million tons of oil has been produced from Chirag
field since November 1997.

4. CONTROVERSIAL DISASTER FILM CASTS SPOTLIGHT ON GLOBAL WARMING

Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
May 6, 2004

The sci-fi thriller The Day After Tomorrow is sparking controversy for
its portrayal of climate disaster. NASA officials ordered their
scientists not to answer questions about the film (bosses backed off
after a New York Times story), while a Bush/Cheney campaign spokesman
quibbles with the New York Post over political fallout from the movie.
Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox promoters try to squelch the words “global
warming” altogether.

The $125 million motion picture opens with an Antarctic ice sheet
collapsing beneath a team of polar scientists. Tidal waves batter
Manhattan, before the city is frozen in ice. Tornadoes blast Los
Angeles, while blizzards sweep India. The paleoclimatologist hero played
by Dennis Quaid warns a dismissive vice president bearing uncanny
likeness to our current one “if we don’t act now, it will be too late.”

The over-the-top storyline far exceeds real-life climate scientists’
most extreme projections. But like any good fable, the movie taps a more
basic truth: Global warming is happening today. While research on the
problem is continuing, responsible experts say we need to act now to
start fixing the problem.

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) can help reporters, reviewers,
and editors writing about The Day After Tomorrow sort fact from fiction
on global warming, and discuss the sharp political reaction to the film.
We have climate experts on staff, and can also help you reach local
scientists in your area.

5. RATING OF FREE PRESS

Source: Caucasus-Press, May 4, 2004

Georgia has freest press among the CIS countries. That’s the opinion of
American Human Rights Organization `Freedom House’, which has published
its `Rating of Freedom of World Press – 2004′. The countries got marks
according to 100-point system in which 0 means the highest level of
freedom and 100 means the lowest level of freedom.

Georgian press has been recognized as partially free, it held 112th
place with 54 points. Press in the rest of the CIS has been deemed as
non-free – Moldova (the media in this country as well as in other
post-Soviet countries listed below have been deemed as non-free, 63
points 127th place), Armenia (64 points 134th place), Ukraine (68
points, 150th place), Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan (71 points, 156th
place), Tajikistan (73 points 160th place), Kazakhstan (74 points, 161st
place), Belarus and Uzbekistan (84 points, 182nd place), Turkmenistan
(95 points 190th place).

Danish, Icelandic and Swedish mass media are freest of all (8 points
each), the least free press exists in North Korea (98 points). For
example USA got 13 points and held 15th place, Germany got 16 points
(25th place), Japan got 18 points (33rd place), Great Britain, France
and Poland got 19 points (37th place), Israel got 28 points (64th place)
and China got 80 points (173rd place).

Data from 198 countries of the world have been processed for this
rating. 73 countries are evaluated as having free press, 49 countries
are deemed to have partially free press and 71 countries are thought to
have non-free mass media.

6. TEHRAN: IRAN TO EXPORT NATURAL GAS TO AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA

Source: IRNA, Iran, May 5, 2004

Iran is to export 200 to 350 million cubic meters of natural gas to
Azerbaijan per annum from the coming winter according to a contract that
is to be signed by the two sides after necessary negotiations and
agreements.

Deputy Minister of Petroleum for Caspian Oil and Gas Affairs Hamdollah
Mohammadnejad told IRNA here on Wednesday that Iran has been in talks
for more than one decade with the republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia on
export of its natural gas.

Mr. Mohammadnejad said that Iran is also to export 1.2 to 2.5 billion
cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia a year for a period of 20 years
through a 20-inch pipeline.

The gas, he added, would be transferred to Magri border region through a
120 kms pipeline.

The official said that feasibility studies on the pipeline project have
been completed and it would be implemented once Iranian and Armenian
sides sign related contract.

He said Iran gives the priority to transfer of gas to neighboring and
the Central Asian republics on the long run in a bid to upgrade mutual
economic cooperation.

7. WORLD BANK APPROVES $35 MLN IN LOANS FOR ARMENIA

Source: Interfax, May 5 2004

The World Bank board of directors on Tuesday approved three new credit
programs for Armenia totaling about $35 million, Roger Robinson,
director of the World Bank office in Yerevan, said at a press conference
Wednesday.

The World Bank will allocate $10.15 million for public sector
modernization, $23 million for water supply and sewage system
restoration in 300 municipalities, and $1.74 million on agriculture
reform and compensation for industry losses caused by bad weather, he
said.

The programs are planned to last four to five years. Loans will be
disbursed according to the standard easy terms offered by the
International Development Association (IDA) with repayment in 40 years
at 0.5% per year with a 10-year grace period, Robinson said.

8. PANEL DISCUSSION: CAUC/ POLICY OF THE MAJOR POWERS AND FUTURE OF ROA

Sunday, May 23, 2004
4:00 PM
Free admission

The Armenian Cultural Committee of Boston presents
A Panel Discussion:

“The Caucasian Policy of the Major Powers and Future of Armenia”

Panelists:
Dr. Murat Acemoglu
David B. Boyajian

Moderator: Dr. Armen Bagdoian

Location:
Church of the Good Shepherd
Corner of Mount Auburn Street and Russell Avenue
(1/2 mile from Watertown Square & one block from Common Street)
Watertown, Massachusetts

9. REGISTER NOW ONLINE FOR BANGKOK CONGRESS

IUCN, May 5, 2004

Online registration for the 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress is now
available! IUCN members and other invitees may register directly on the
registration page. This is the first time that IUCN is offering this
service through a carefully developed system that accommodates all the
many and varied delegates of the Bangkok Congress — members, commission
members, partners and other participants. The registration system
includes a series of explanations to assist with the overall process,
including a contact email and telephone number for specific enquiries
and assistance. The French and Spanish versions of the registration site
will be available at the:

—
*******************************************
CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)

Tel: ++995 32 92 39 46
Fax: ++995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
May 5, 2004

SITUATION “NEITHER PEACE, NOR WAR”

On April 27-29 a seminar was held in Stepanakert on “Coverage of
problems of ethnic minorities in the mass media”. The seminar was
organized by the representatives of the London institute of variety of
mass media together with the press clubs of Yerevan and
Stepanakert. In the seminar participated the director of the institute
Militsa Pestic, the editor of the news bulletin of the press club of
Yerevan Elina Poghosbekian, reporter of the newspaper “Republic of
Armenia” Galust Nanian, reporter of the newspaper “Iravunq” Argine
Harutyunian, as well as 15 journalists representing the mass media of
Karabakh, and the chairman of Stepanakert Press Club Gegham
Baghdassarian. The seminar lasted for three days during which problems
of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, as well as the disabled
and socially insecure classes of the society were
raised. Representatives of the above mentioned groups were also
invited to speak about their problems and express their own attitude
towards the mass media. In particular, the chairman of the Union of
Blind People S. Vardanian complained of lack of newspapers and books
for blinds and also of the fact that the only available mass medium
for blind people radio provides more information on international
events than the situation in Armenia and Karabakh. The chairman of the
Union of Russians and Russian Speaking Citizens of Karabakh Lyudmila
Petrossian expressed their wish to have the Russian version of the
news on Artsakh public television. During the seminar there was a
suggestion to teach the journalists to sell to the editor the article
or idea of interest for him. In the West this is a common practice. To
the seminar were invited the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Azat
Artsakh” Marcel Petrossian and the director of the public TV and radio
company Garik Grigorian. The journalists managed to sell 6 of the
presented 8 articles to them. The journalists who participated in the
seminar expressed the opinion that such undertakings are necessary
because along with raising the level of professional qualification
these allow to view differently certain questions which may be
considered unimportant in everyday work.

EVIKA BABAYAN

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress