Author: Emil Lazarian

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
April 19 2004

FROST DAMAGED 5-7 PERCENT OF HARVEST

At the April 14 meeting of the National Assembly member of parliament
V. Balayan questioned the government whether the government is going
to take any actions to aid the farmers whose land was damaged of
frost, particularly postponing the term of repayment of loans.
Minister of agriculture Benik Bakhshiyan informed that the frost at
the beginning of April damaged 20-25 percent of the fruit orchards and
vineyards. According to the minister the 7 degrees of cold will affect
the harvest by 5-7 percent. According to Bakhshiyan, the minister has
already received applications from the farmers. The situation is
studied and after summing up the results necessary measures will be
taken.

NAIRA HAYRUMIAN

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

=================================================

Monday 19 April 2004
ARMENIA: COUNCIL OF EUROPE FAILS TO PUNISH COMMITMENT VIOLATIONS OVER
IMPRISONED CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

With 24 Jehovah’s Witnesses in prison for refusing military service on
grounds of conscience, another fined and a further three awaiting trial,
Council of Europe officials have been unable to explain to Forum 18 News
Service what punishment Armenia faces – if any – for violating its
commitments to the organisation. The commitments required Armenia to have
freed all imprisoned conscientious objectors and introduced alternative
service by January 2004, but it failed on both counts. One outsider
involved in the issue at the Council of Europe, who preferred not to be
identified, told Forum 18 that the Armenian government had deployed
“an especially successful lobbying campaign” to have the issue
buried. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, one of Armenia’s largest religious
minorities, appear no nearer to receiving state registration.

ARMENIA: COUNCIL OF EUROPE FAILS TO PUNISH COMMITMENT VIOLATIONS OVER
IMPRISONED CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Despite open defiance of its Council of Europe commitments by continuing to
arrest and imprison conscientious objectors to military service, Armenia
seems set to escape punishment from the international organisation. No
Council of Europe official reached by Forum 18 News Service was prepared or
able to say what punishment – if any – the country would face
for violating its pledge to the Council of Europe to free all imprisoned
conscientious objectors and have an alternative service system functioning
by January 2004, three years after it joined the organisation (see F18News
4 February 2004 ).
Armenia failed on both counts. March saw four Jehovah’s Witnesses sentenced
to prison terms of between one and two years for refusing military service,
bringing to 24 the number of imprisoned Jehovah’s Witnesses, the highest
number of imprisoned conscientious objectors of all the former Soviet
republics. Another was given a large fine.

Jerzy Jaskiernia, a Polish parliamentarian and one of the two Council of
Europe Parliamentary Assembly rapporteurs for Armenia, told Forum 18 on 15
April that the Council of Europe is “pursuing the issue and asking the
government to change the law”. But he declined to specify any
penalties the Armenian government might face over its violation of its
commitments and referred all further enquiries to Council of Europe
officials in Strasbourg. Forum 18’s enquiry to David Cupina of the
organisation’s Monitoring Committee went unanswered as of 18 April.

Another Council of Europe official who has been involved in tackling
Armenia’s violations of its commitments told Forum 18 on condition of
anonymity that its continuing imprisonment of conscientious objectors
“clearly violates” its commitments and rejected outright Armenian
government assertions that the failure to meet the deadline to free all
imprisoned conscientious objectors and introduce the alternative service
system had been agreed with the Council of Europe. But asked what
punishment Armenia would receive, the official laughed and declined to
comment.

But the official vehemently denied suggestions that the people of Europe
would lose confidence in the organisation that is supposed to promote human
rights when specific commitments individual countries undertake are flouted
with impunity. The official pointed out that Armenia abolished the death
penalty – another commitment it undertook on joining the organisation
– only after repeated pressure from the Council of Europe.

Others are more cynical. One outsider involved in the conscientious
objection issue with the Council of Europe, who preferred not to be
identified, told Forum 18 that the Armenian government had deployed
“an especially successful lobbying campaign” to have the issue
buried. But the Council of Europe official dismissed this as an explanation
for how the country had escaped censure. “That’s absolutely not true.
All ten member states under monitoring of their commitments lobby.”

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agrees with
the Council of Europe that the practice of imprisoning conscientious
objectors should have ended long ago. “The practice of sentencing
conscientious objectors is contrary to the letter of the OSCE commitments
as well as commitments undertaken by Armenia to the Council of
Europe,” Maria Silvanyan, senior human rights legal assistant at the
OSCE Office in Yerevan, told Forum 18 on 15 April.

Silvanyan said the OSCE office “fully shares” the view expressed
in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly back in January that all
imprisoned conscientious objectors should be freed immediately by
presidential pardon pending the entry into force of the law on alternative
military service on 1 July “once necessary legal acts regulating
alternative civilian service are adopted”. Silvanyan added that OSCE
officials held several meetings last year with representatives of the
prosecutor’s office to urge it to end the practice of sentencing Jehovah’s
Witnesses for conscientious objection to military service.

All 24 imprisoned Jehovah’s Witnesses are serving sentences of between one
and two years’ imprisonment under Article 327 part 1 of the criminal code.
Ten of them have been sentenced since Armenia’s deadline for ending the
practice expired. A further Jehovah’s Witness, Stepan Yepremyan, was
sentenced on 29 March to a fine of 300,000 drams (3,598 Norwegian kroner,
435 Euros or 522 US dollars) under the same criminal code article.
“This is the first trial that has ended without a prison
sentence,” Hratch Keshishian, the leader of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in
Armenia, told Forum 18 from Yerevan on 8 April. Three other Jehovah’s
Witnesses are awaiting trial, two of them in pre-trial detention and one at
home, although he has had to sign a pledge to say he will not leave his
home.

Despite Armenia’s clear violation of its commitments, Aram Argaryan, head
of the Council of Europe division of the Armenian Foreign Ministry,
categorically denied that his government had failed to meet its
obligations. “We undertook these obligations,” he told Forum 18
on 7 April. “We have not failed to meet them.” Asked why, if
Armenia had met its commitments, 24 Jehovah’s Witnesses remained in prison,
with three more awaiting trial, he responded: “I can’t confirm that. I
don’t have that information.”

Maintaining that legal reform was a “long process”, Argaryan
claimed that the Armenian government had confirmed its timetable of
introducing alternative service with the Council of Europe, an assertion
specifically denied to Forum 18 by Council of Europe officials. He
maintained that Armenia had until the end of 2004 to introduce alternative
service, another claim specifically rejected by Council of Europe
officials. “We take our commitments seriously,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, one of Armenia’s largest religious
minorities, have still not achieved state registration after a decade of
trying. Keshishian told Forum 18 that they had most recently handed in a
registration application to the government on 16 March. On 30 March the
government handed back an “expert opinion” about whether the
group should be registered, which the Jehovah’s Witnesses are still
studying. “The expert opinion gave the government no recommendation as
to whether to register us or not,” Keshishian explained. “It said
we could apply to be entered in the register, but that what we preach is
against the law and that therefore we don’t meet the provisions of the
law.”

Keshishian complained of what he claimed were “active measures”
against the Jehovah’s Witnesses, including hostile media coverage and
leaflets, and an anti-Jehovah’s Witness demonstration in Yerevan on 18
April. “We are not optimistic about getting registration – the
mood doesn’t look promising.”

A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
;Rootmap=armeni
(END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.

You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian opposition keeps pressing for president’s resignation

17.04.2004, 03.40

YEREVAN, April 17 (Itar-Tass) – The Armenian opposition keeps pressing
for the resignation of President Robert Kocharian.

`The public’s demand may well be implemented by peaceful, political
means,’ the opposition bloc Justice and the National Unity party said
in a joint statement late Friday evening.

The opposition argues that the current authorities are the main
obstacle to democratization in the country.

`The solution of problems facing Armenia and its people has no
alternative and it can be achieved through the restoration of
constitutional order and formation of a legitimate government,’ the
statement runs.

The opposition is certain that `provocation and violence will fail to
stop the tide of the public movement for democracy.’ It hails
assistancefrom the international public and international
organizations to Armenia in complying with its commitments.

The opposition does not rule out `the possibility of an open, public
dialogue without reservations as a means to defuse tensions.

On the list of conditions for the beginning of a dialogue it mentions
an end to political persecution and violence, court action against
those responsible for election rigging and framed-up court sentences
and the release of all those arrested for political reasons.

`A referendum on confidence in the authorities may become a belatedbut
effective means to achieve civil accord,’ the Opposition said in the
statement.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Iran Negotiating Contracts to Construct Gas Pipelines to Azerbaijan, Armenia,
and Kuwait

17 April 04

TEHRAN (MNA) — Iran is prepared to supply natural gas to the
Azerbaijan Republic through a gas pipeline if the two countries agree
to a contract guaranteeing the purchases, a senior Oil Ministry
official said here Friday.

The managing director of the state-owned National Iran Gas Export Co.
(NIGEC), Roknoaddin Javadi, said that there is no formidable obstacle
in the way of the plan and Iran is only waiting for the Azeri side to
agree to the guarantees.

However, the guarantees must be acceptable for Iran, he stressed.

Iran has also reached preliminary agreements with Armenia and Kuwait
on the construction of gas pipelines to those countries.

It is expected that the deal with Armenia will be finalized soon, the
official added.

On Monday, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh announced that a
draft contract for gas exports to Armenia has been prepared, adding
that Iran’s exports to Armenia will start at 500 million cu. m. per
year and could be increased to 1.5 billion cu. m. per year.

The minister said that Armenian officials would be signing the
contract in the near future, according to PIN.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian president, World Bank official discuss reforms

Arminfo
15 Apr 04

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and the head of the World Bank’s
Yerevan office, Roger Robinson, discussed the implementation of World
Bank programmes in Armenia today.

The Armenian presidential press service has reported that they
discussed the possibility of expanding those programmes by involving
new spheres, in particular the social sphere and the production
infrastructure. The participants in the meeting noted with
satisfaction that cooperation between Armenia and the World Bank was
developing quite effectively and that the World Bank had played an
important role in conducting reforms in the republic.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INTERESTS OF ARMENIAN AND AZERI OPPOSITION COINCIDE

YEREVAN, APRIL 15. ARMINFO. First of all, the executive power should
make conclusions. We should watch our work in a new way, Armenia’s DM
Serzh Sargsyan says in an interview to Golos Armenii commenting on the
present internal political crisis in Armenia. You know, nobody neither
the president nor prime minister or any minister said that there is no
problem in their sphere and everything is OK. There are numerous
problems. Specifically in my sphere there are many problems but we are
stemming from a principle: everything becomes known in
comparison. Otherwise a question will undoubtedly rise: “But who are
the judges?” From this point of view if we compare 2004 and 2000,
progress is obvious. We should aspire the progress be more noticeable,
but at the same time we should and will tame those is trying to play
on the people’s emotions, who is trying to flatter the people.

Sargsyan quotes Armenian poet Paruyr Sevak’s words “to flatter the
people is a crime”, and Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli’s words “Every
person feels himself a strategist when he watches a battle from
aside.”

It seems to them that they can do something. But it is obvious: these
people do not even have an ability to organize a meeting. All their
activity is based on lie and falsification. They lie and are not shy
to look into the eyes of those who came to support them. I cannot
imagine how seeing 5-6 thousand people one can say: “My dear people,
thank you that 100,000 of you have come.” How may be assessed speeches
of the opposition leaders in foreign press, first of all in Russian?
They were assuring themselves that we are leading the people to
disaster and now they are trying to persuade other people in this, our
friends as well as enemies. What is this if not betrayal?It turns out
that they are aspiring to assure Azerbaijan: “Look, the authorities in
Armenia have neither basis nor army. Come and settle your problems!”

Sargsyan refutes the opinion that the opposition is acting in unison
with Azerbaijan. No, certainly there is no direct connection. Here
there may not be two opinions. Another question is if the interests
coincide. The problem is that people are unscrupulous. There is only
one slogan for them – the worse in Armenia the better for
them. Azerbaijan is certainly guided by the same slogan, and not only
Azerbaijan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE MINSK GROUP ON NAGORNY KARABAKH RESUMES WORK

BAKU/YEREVAN, April 16 (RIA Novosti) – Elmar Mamedyarov, Azerbaijan’s
foreign minister, and Vardan Oskanyan, Armenia’s foreign minister,
well meet within the framework of the Minsk Group of the OSCE
(Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on Nagorny
Karabakh in Prague on Friday, April 16.

This is the first time the Armenian foreign minister will meet his
recently appointed Azerbaijani counterpart.

Moreover, Mr. Mamedyarov and Mr. Oskanyan’s meeting in Prague within
the framework of OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorny Karabakh will be held
after more than a year long interval.

The work of the Minsk Group on settlement of the Azerbaijani-Armenian
conflict over Nagorny Karabakh (an enclave with the predominantly
Armenian population in Azerbaijan) was officially suspended in
connection with the presidential and parliamentarian elections in
Armenia last year (February-March) and the presidential elections in
Azerbaijan last October.

The upcoming meeting was originally scheduled to be held in Prague on
March 29, however it was postponed because of an official request from
Baku.

The meeting was organized through the mediation of the Russian,
American, and French co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorny
Karabakh. Yury Merzlyakov, the Russian co-chairman of OSCE Minsk
Group, told to the Baku-based ATV TV channel that the Prague meeting
would essentially be “consultations of the heads of the foreign
ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan with the co-chairmen of the Minsk
Group.”

The press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported that
the meeting will be held for information purposes in connection with
the appointment of Azerbaijan’s new foreign minister and the upcoming
replacement of the American co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group.

This opinion is shared by the Armenian Foreign Ministry, whose
information and press department said that the meeting of the two
countries’ foreign ministers would be held within the framework of the
consultations organized by the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Gourp on
the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia Sees Russian Diamond Supplies Resuming Soon

TASS
April 16, 2004 Friday

Russia is expected to resume rough diamond supplies to Armenia in the
near future, First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister,
Ashot Shakhnazaryan, said.

Since December 2003, there haven been no supplies from Russia, but
corresponding agreements to resume imports have already been signed by
Armenia’s four major diamond-cutting companies.

Only 130,000 carats were imported into Armenia in 2003 out of the
planned 400,000 carats, he said.

Analysts said the decrease in diamond imports from Russia was caused
by liberalization of the Russian market, which made Russia’s rough
diamond monopoly ALROSA hike prices.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian rebel found dead in jail cell

AFP
YEREVAN, April 16

One of the men who attacked Armenia’s parliament, killing eight people
including the prime minister in 1999, was found dead in his jail cell
Friday after apparently committing suicide, the justice ministry said.

“This morning around 11, Vram Galstian, who was convicted in the
attack, committed suicide in his jail cell. He was found hanging from
a sheet,” justice ministry spokesman Ara Sagatelian told AFP.

Galstian is the uncle of former Armenian journalist Nairi Unanyan, who
led a group of rebels into parliament on October 27, 1999 in a
dramatic siege broadcast on national television and later aired across
the globe.

They shot dead prime minister Vezguen Sarkissian and the parliament
speaker, along with six deputies in parliament, before giving up after
an extended siege.

Their demands were never clearly spelled out, but analysts at the time
believed that they opposed Armenian efforts to strike a peace deal
with its neighbor and arch-foe Azerbaijan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia working to upgrade n-plant safety level-Kocharyan

By Tigran Liloyan

TASS YEREVAN, April 16

Work is in progress to enhance safety at the Armenian nuclear power
plant, which the European Union wants to be closed down, Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan said at a meeting of the Council on Safe
Nuclear Power.

He said nuclear power specialists had recently taken a number of steps
to raise the safety level at the plant in accordance with the
recommendations issued by the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry and the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Armenia used its own funds to implement the program of upgrading the
plant safety level, while technical assistance came from the United
States, Great Britain, the European Union and the IAEA.

In 2003, an IAEA mission conducted an independent expert assessment of
the safety level at the Armenian nuclear plant at which work related
to the introduction of IAEA design standards has since been completed
or nearing completion, the president said.

The Armenian nuclear power plant, which became operational in 1979,
now meets 40 percent of the country’s demand for electric power.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress